“Into the Dawn”: The Message of Fire Emblem Three Houses And How the Fanbase Misunderstands It’s Characters and Why There Are No Happy Endings

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the nineteenth game in the Fire Emblem series. While the game was originally met with positive reviews, many fans seemed to be missing the point of the game's message entirely, with many unfairly criticizing characters, brushing aside the morals of the game to the point where many gamers outside the Nintendo circle viewed it as just another Japanese anime game. One of the most beautiful parts of the game is how each story shows the players that there are truly no good or evil individuals, just people fighting for the things they believe in. While I do believe the game misses its own message sometimes when it comes to a few story decisions, I think half the players missed the message more by arguing over which house leader was more in the right or more in the wrong. I plan on discussing the issue further by addressing most of the controversy the fans point out, as well as take a deeper look into each route to explore what they have to offer.

Basic Information

Fire Emblem: Three Houses follows a mercenary named Byleth, a character who's name and gender can be picked by the player, who lives in the nation of Fodlan. Byleth then comes across a trio of students, Edelgard Von Hvresvelg, Claude Von Reigen and Dimitri Alexandra Bladdiyid; who attend The Officer’s Academy at Garreg Mach Monastery, soon to discover the three are fated to be the next leaders of the three continents of Fodlan. The player then takes up a teaching position at the academy and must choose which of the three houses they want to instruct. Things soon become complicated when a mysterious threat called Those Who Slither In The Dark along with their “ally” The Flame Emperor, start to threaten the peace in Fodlan, as well as showing signs of threatening to destroy the Church of Seiros, the center of Fodlan run by the archbishop Rhea. This conflict soon leads to a war where Byleth allies themselves with the house they picked at the start, weighing what the world will look like by the end and who is really someone you can trust. 

The game is similar to a typical Fire Emblem game, with a strategy RPG play style but with the added gameplay element of teaching your students combat skills and magic. In an interview with the director of Intelligent Systems Toshiyuki Kusakihara and Nintendo’s Genki Yokota, Yokota said this was added because, 

“We wanted everyone to be attentive to the flow of events in Three Houses: meeting new people and becoming friends in the Officers Academy, being allies in the beginning, then having this unfortunate reunion as enemies during the war. This game has long-form character drama like that.”

The game was meant to be a step up from Fates, and expectation was high considering the long gap between this game and the last game on a home console, that being Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance released on the Nintendo Wii in 2007. The game was released July 26th 2019 on the Nintendo Switch.

The Crimson Flower

Walking back to when Nintendo advertised the game, one of the main lords was heavily featured compared to the other two. The teaser trailer for the game featured a woman saying very sinister things over gameplay footage. She was later revealed to be called Edelgard Von Hresvelg. Game demonstrations and how to videos on the game always used her house as an example. She was also the first house leader who spoke in the main trailer. While Nintendo didn’t actively have a bias towards Edelgard and her house, it seemed as if Nintendo predicted her story would be the most popular amongst the players. 

And when the game came out July 26th 2019, it seemed like Nintendo had the right idea, as fan polls determined that the Black Eagle House, the house Edelgard is the leader of, was the most popular choice among players. 

Edelgard’s character is a deeply tortured one. When she was a child she was banished from her home in the Adrestain Empire into The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus alongside her uncle Lord Arundel. Soon, she and her siblings became the victims of Those Who Slither In The Dark’s crest experiments. Half of her siblings died, while others went crazy before they passed away. Edelgard was the only survivor, and given the most powerful crest, the Crest of Flames. This experience gave her a deep hate for crests and, under the belt of Slither, she was set to destroy the Church of Serios and bring down the Crest system. She enrolls in the officer’s academy for that very purpose, mapping out the church’s route’s gaining their trust, while also getting Empire lords allied with her in order to take over her dying father’s throne, releasing her family from the control of Duke Aeigr of the Empire. 

The theme song of the game entitled Seasons of Warfare is centered around Edelgard, including the main theme song. The lyrics are symboled around how nervous she is to start the war but knows it’s something she must do, not only to eventually free herself from Slither’s control, but also Fodlan from control of the church. On explain of these lyrics are, 

“As joy surrounds, comfort abounds

And I can feel I’m breaking free

For just this moment lost in time

I am finally me

Yet still I hide

Behind this mask that I have become

My blackened heart scorched by flames

A force I can’t run from.”

The lyrics reference how happy she quickly became at the academy, how she was quickly growing bonds with members of the Black Eagle House as well as closely trusting the main character Byleth. However, she knows her persona is false, referencing the mask she wears as The Flame Emperor to hide her true identity and wage conflict in Fodlan. She knows what she is doing may be evil in some eyes, but she can’t escape Slither, they have her under control with her crest. 

Edelgard’s personality is very cut and dry, she’s a get it done kind of woman, always seeking the best direction and committing everything she has to her cause. While she is passionate, she is also very strict. She evaluates those around her, watching their every action. When she has a thought on her mind she comes out and says it without worrying about the harsh reality of her words. While many people see this as her being the least sympathetic, knowing her background is an important part of understanding her behaviors. Compassion was never something she was taught to learn, she spent the majority of her childhood locked in a basement, and when she escaped, she was controlled by the same people who kidnapped her. She lost the ability to trust others, yet she still finds a friend, or at least in her mind an ally when she meets Byleth. The theme of reaching for someone's hand is used a lot in the game, and in the game's main theme song, the lyrics, “Reach for my hand.” is the first line. Edelgard fears the day she must conquer the land, and wonders in one of her chapters if this is the right path, asking herself, “Is it so wrong to reach out my hand?” Implying she wants the guidance of someone, someone who she can truly trust.

Underneath her stoic war persona, is a fragile girl with her younger self trapped inside. Playing through the game and watching some of her conversations with the other characters, you see the inside into her personality. She likes to impersonate her friends, she likes to spar, she enjoys drawing, making art and is embarrassed and a little bashful when people look at it. Edelgard is contstably overshadowed by her actions during the war, and while not always making the best decisions every time, she is, above all else, a woman who cares for what little family she can hold onto. 

She may be hesitant to let them all into her heart, but her Black Eagles are all she has left, and time and time again throughout the game's story, she has proven she is willing to make their lives as comfortable as possible. Such as when she created a new potion for Linhardt in crest research with his own operating hours since she noticed his passion for research and his lack of motivation, and when she became enraged over how Dorothea was mistreated by nobles in Adrestia because she was born with no crest. We also can’t forget how sympathetic she is to a woman like Bernadetta, who’s abusive father works close in the Empire and Edelgard sympathizes with Bernadetta’s wants to see him out. 

She wages war on the church, and depending on whether or not you pick her house, you or either with her, or against her. She is the main antagonist in Dimitri’s story, and a side boss in both Claude and Rhea’s stories. When you pick her house, you play the more unique story as you are now standing beside her. 

Edelgard quickly became a hot topic among the players, as many pointed out her controversial actions and her often violent actions throughout the games narrative. As such, her story route and character as a whole sparked much debate in the fanbase. While most players enjoyed the different direction her story took compared to the house leaders Dimitri and Claude, the majority of the fans called her route the evil story, due to the fact that it kills the most characters and the focus of the story is on a character who started a war within the mostly peaceful nation of Fodlan all to the destroy The Church of Seiros, the main religious element in the game. 

The issue most Edelgard supporters have when it comes to the controversy around her route, is the fact most of the evidence the fans seem to point out is either inaccurate or unimportant. The argument surrounding why she is in the right is that she is trying to destroy what she believes to be a corrupt system. The Church of Seiros supports the system of Crests, magical elements a person can be born with that determine your station of birth. Those who do not have crests are seen as lesser in Fodlan society. Those who support Edelgard argue that her decision to wage war on the church in order to demolish the system was the correct move in bringing Fodlan into what she describes as a new dawn. 

The flip side argues that while her motives are reasonable, she carved a bloody path to get there, harming many of her classmates and keeping secrets from them. Many do not like how she was so protective of her hidden persona “The Flame Emperor” and refused to enlighten her classmates on what she was planning behind the scenes. Gamers also take issue with how she treated former allies such as Dimtiri, leader of the Blue Lion house and prince of The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. It’s revealed in his story the two used to be childhood friends, and at one point step siblings. Some players took issue with how Edelgard could cut ties with him so easily and forget the friendship that she built up with him, killing him in cold blood easily in her route. 

That part of the story was a problem to fans of the Blue Lion route. Despite Dimitri’s story focusing on him brutally murdering innocent people for the sake of revenge, many fans cannot bring themselves to forgive Edelgard’s actions. They cannot fathom how she can easily forget her past friendship with him, and murder him for the sake of her war. 

The problem with the argument comes from the evidence placed in the game. The story even before the route split is laser focused on Those Who Slither In The Dark, who kidnapped Edgelgard and her siblings and performed experiments on them in order to give them more powerful crests. Edelgard was the only survivor, and her hair turned white as a result. Her lifespan was shortened as a result. This past trauma and the experiments was likely the result of her forgetting Dimitri. There is even a line in the game's DLC, where Dimitri asks Edelgard, “Your hair, was it always that color?” Edelgard responds with, “It was a different color when I was a child. How could you know that? Is it possible we met before the academy?” Implying she knows almost next to nothing about Dimitri. 

While most people took issue with Edelgard carving a bloody path in order to bring Fodlan to the future she wants, many people forget that a core feature in Edelgard’s story is the fact that Those Who Slither In The Dark still have attachment to her, and are the ones forcing her to destroy the church and conquer Fodlan. While Edelgard has motives of her own, Slither’s complicated history with the church and the fact they killed her siblings and hold control over her father’s throne is one of the main reasons she stuck to the war. In her route, her squire Hubert tells the player character Byleth that Edelgard holds hate in her heart towards Slither and wants to destroy them after she conquers the church and Fodlan. Many of Edelgard’s critics tend to pick and choose parts of the story to criticize. 

The major problem with the debate surrounding Edelgard’s character is how her actions are being compared to the other main lords. While Edelgard carved a bloody path in order to see her dreams realized, she felt it was the only option and while also being trapped in her situation with Slither. She is constantly compared to Dimitri as both take violent actions throughout their stories, however the fans tend to forgive Dimitri’s actions, though it is arguable that Dimitri’s actions in his route were much worse then Edelgard’s. 

The controversy comes from the fact that Edelgard’s actions are being limited compared to Dimitri’s, with people making the argument that since Dimitri tried to make amends for his killings, Edelgard never did. Edelgard is constantly being shut down by players and her stories' major elements tend to get ignored by those players. Her decisions and actions throughout the story are not reflected on in the same way as Dimitri, and she is not as celebrated despite her route being the most unique and offering a whole new perspective compared to Dimitri’s, Claude’s. As the only female house leader, many fans take issue with how her character is the one with the most debates and arguments, with some blaming the issue on sexist fans. Most of the Edelgard haters tend to be mostly male fans, claiming she isn’t as well written compared to her male counterparts. Most were not even bothered to finish her story, immediately criticizing her saying they didn’t want to play as the antagonist. 

The Verdant Wind

If you were around any fan of the game when it was first released, audiences would always say the same thing about one of its main protagonist Claude Von Reigen, that he was the only character that was in the right, that he was the silly option, that compared to the other two, his motives were the least selfish. 

Where fans get this from is the fact that Claude’s motives in the war aren't exactly the same as Edelgard and Dimitri. While those two fight for the sake of revenge and justice, Claude fights to end segregation in Fodlan; he wants to open up Fodlan’s walls and make the land a place for people of all nations. 

While Claude’s childhood wasn’t as tough as his counterparts, he never had an easy life either. His father was the king from the neighboring nation Almyra, and his mother was born in Fodlan. While Claude lived in Almrya, he was ostracized for having half Fodlan blood in him, and when he finally came to Fodlan, he was ridiculed for having Almarya blood. His past is kept a secret from the majority of his allies with the only thing being mentioned is that the previous duke of the Leicester Alliance passed away, and his nephew, Claude took over to become his successor. He spends most of his academy days plotting schemes and trying to figure out all the Church of Seiros’s Secrets. 

Due to both Almyra and Fodlan not being able to see eye to eye with each other, Claude wants to open the borders that Fodlan has towards the outside, and establish a land where he can feel he finally belongs. Claude as a character is one who uses manipulation and schemes to get further ahead in his objectives, hiding away the more logical persona to have a higher chance in seeing his dreams realized, and throughout his story, he drops the childish schemer act in order to have real deep conversations about his dreams to the player. 

Claude is wearing a mask at the start, hiding the pain from his friends and trying to get what he wants through secrets. There is even a line made by Byleth after they first meet Claude saying that Claude has a nice smile, but it’s not one that reaches his eyes. This isn’t the only time where a character points out how Clause is hiding his true feelings away, as his closet companion Hilda, mentions that she can tell when Claude fakes a smile or a sigh. 

He comes to see that taking over Fodlan isn’t what’s best for the lands, in order to try and carve a better future, he leaves to return to his home in Almyra, fixing any holes he left behind there. He hopes maybe someday, he will be able to unite the two lands, but he learns he can’t rush any of it. It has to happen when the time is right. 

The issue with Claude’s story is how it jumps all over the place. For the first half of the story, Claude is someone who is clearly interested in the Church of Seiros, despite not believing in any of the things they teach. He wants to unlock their secrets, and constantly eavesdrops on conversations between Byleth, Rhea and her right hand man Seteth. 

He is especially interested in Byleth after they unlocked the powers of the goddess Sothis, wondering how this power will benefit him in the future. Claude sees Byleth as an opportunity to further achieve his mission of opening up Fodlan. 

With all that setup, it’s interesting how the second half of Claude’s story is barely about Claude. It’s mostly about him, Byleth and his army stopping Edelgard. Then after she’s taken care of, taking out Nemesis, who suddenly comes back from the dead, (and before you ask, no they never explained why he is back to life.) This issue is why Claude as a character and his story, lacks depth compared to his companions. 

That is honestly the biggest problem with Claude’s story, how nothing in it ever aligns with what Claude as a character wants. Fighting a battle with Nemesis, while entertaining for fans of the character’s one liners, has nothing to do with his goals. While the battle manages to get the best quote of the whole game, “Yet we have the strength to scale the walls between us. To reach our hands in friendship, and open our true hearts to one another.” It all comes from nothing. Claude didn’t accomplish anything, or at least nothing really related to what he wanted this whole time. He did manage to get Almyran soldiers to aid him in a battle, but they immediately returned home after. So what was the point?

I’m not making the argument that everything about Claude’s route is awful, it’s only that it doesn’t do much for a character that had so much more potential, and he is expertly written when you start to see the moment his character learns to trust his allies and let the mask he wears slip away. Moments like that are special. 

The large issue is how the fans reacted to Claude. Like I mentioned before, the fans turned Claude into a meme character, mostly because his lines are the funniest, he has the route with what they describe as the least violent, he and the Golden Deer House make constant jokes During the war, he makes many friendship speeches. While those moments are well written, the fans seem to be taking them out of context. 

Claude is the product of love between two nations, he believes in the power of love because of it. When you take that into consideration, it makes most of his friendship speeches more meaningful because he was raised to believe in that stuff. 

Fans also ignore any development Claude has because they want to continue seeing him as the funny lord. Many complaints have been made about how western audiences now completely miss the point of the character because they are too busy making jokes about how he is the “CEO of ending racism.” Claude is not the lord that had the correct argument as most people like to debate. Fans constantly address how out of all three main lords, Claude had the best outcome, and he never wanted to start violence, he is the chillest lord in their minds. But the majority of those statements fall flat because they aren’t accurate. 

To start, Claude constantly puts aside his own ideals for stability. Many people have compared him and Edelgard when it comes to both their goals of uniting Fodlan and their beliefs. He puts aside the things he wants for the sake of his people, which on paper doesn't seem terrible, but he isn’t achieving anything really. 

It also doesn't help how he betrays his closest ally, that being the neighboring Holy Kingdom of Faerghus during the war with the Empire. In Azure Moon, he leaves Dimitri to fend for himself against Edelgard for no reason and takes them out in proxy during Verdant Wind. It also didn’t help how he was essentially fighting Dimitri for no reason during the battle at Gronder field when his true enemy was Edelgard and her army. Given Dimitri’s mental state at that point in the story, it makes sense why he would be fighting Claude, but the other way around doesn’t make much sense. Claude’s excuse is that it’s hard to tell which army is which when caught up in the fight, but the cutscene beforehand shows the armies wearing color coded armor so there isn’t much of an excuse Claude has in that case. 

He is also willing to risk innocent lives for the sake of an easier battle, when he schemes to set Garreg Mach Monastery on fire in order to fend off Empire soldiers. 

It’s upsetting to see how the fans have turned Claude into nothing more than a silly character and emphasizes how little they paid attention to his arc and story. 

The Azure Moon 

It’s no secret that Dimitri Alexandra Blaiddyd is the most popular lord in Three Houses. Despite fans being intentionally unsure of his seemingly good boy persona, the hidden beauty behind the story is one of the many reasons players walked away loving not only this route, but the character. 

Going back to the origins of Dimitri, when he was not even old enough to speak, his birth mother passed away. His father, King Lambert, married Ansemla of the Adrestain Empire, who was also Edelgard’s birth mother when she visited the Kingdom. Dimitri describes constantly watching his stepmother staring at the window, seemingly longing for something he couldn’t figure out at his age. He eventually met a young Edelgard when she was exiled to the Kingdom with her uncle Arundel. Having no idea that she was actually his step sister, Dimtiri developed a somewhat obsession with her, even giving her a dagger as a parting gift when she returned to the Empire. 

A few years later, while on a visit to the neighboring nation Duscar, the royal family and their guards were attacked. The plot was set up by Ansemla in order to get out of the kingdom so she could see her real family again with the help of Cornelia, a mage in the kingdom who was taken over by Slither, Arundel and even Lambert’s own brother Rufus. Cornelia essentially set the whole thing up in order to take control of the kingdom and play with Ansemla’s mind. Still, Dimitri was the sole survivor, watching his father lose his head and his step mother “vanished” into the flames. Dimitri was only able to save one person, a young boy named Dedue, and ever since then Dedue pledged to serve Dimitri for the rest of his days. 

After the events of the tragedy, Dimitri focused all his days of training to one day get revenge on the people who killed his family. His fighting is described by his classmate and childhood friend Felix to resemble a wild animal, specifically a boar. In one of their support conversations, Felix tells Dimitri, “The way you suppressed that rebellion… It was a ruthless slaughter and you loved every second. I remember the way you killed your victims. How you watched them suffer. And your face… that expression. All the world’s evil packed into it.” Dimtri never denies the claims Felix makes against him, but for the first half of the game, it seems that side of Dimitri is either gone, or was never real. 

That is until the mysterious Flame Emperor is revealed to be Edelgard, and Dimitri lets everything inside him snap. He vows to kill Edelgard, believing her responsible for the murder of his family, which she denies, and she is correct about. After Byleth vanishes for five years, he spends those days murdering all Empire soldiers he can get his hands on, becoming the violent wild animal Felix called him. The second half of his story is spent getting him back on the right track, as he not only learns to forgive others, but forgive himself. 

The beautiful thing about Dimitri’s story is how he learns to move past the burdens of his past. He acknowledges in the end how even though he knows he will never be able to stop hearing the voices of his dead family members calling his name, he has brighter things to help drown them out. Ever since his family died, he heard the voices of his father and step mother calling out to him telling him to get revenge, and then after he learned the truth about Edelgard, the voices told him to kill her and bring them her head, and in order to please them he spent this life trying to do what they told, following a sick path of revenge. 

He lived everyday trying to please the dead, and no matter what his allies said to him, he wouldn’t snap from his delusions until Byleth returned to him five years later. 

Dimitri’s path is arguably the bloodiest, the reunion cutscene with Dimitri open with him surrounded by corpses of his victims. Back when he was a student, Dimitri was attempting to hide the dark side of his heart, he was aware of it, never tried to help get rid of it, but he didn’t want others exposed to it. He would have continued down his bloody path if not for two things, Byleth’s return and Rodrigue. I will talk more about Byleth in their own section but to shorten it here. Byleth was the connecting thread between Dimitri and the light. They were the ones who stayed by his side, never giving up on him. And then there’s Rodrigue. Rodrigue is the father of Felix but became a second father to Dimitri after his biological father passed on. Rodriuge cared for Dimitri like his own son, and like everyone else, was saddened watching Dimitri attempting to throw his life away on revenge. 

When Dimitri is attacked later in the game, Rodrigue throws himself into the enemy’s weapon, taking the stab that leads to his death. Dimitri panics, thinking that he will now hear the voice of Rodrigue along with the others, Rodriuge then tells him that none of the voices in his head died for him, but for what they believed in. This inspires Dimitri to move forward and continue the fighting the war effort for his own pursuits. The symbolism in Dimitri's story is written so well. It's a tragic story about losing yourself to the voices in your head and what happens when you live each day in the struggle to seek revenge. 

Since Dimitri was a fan favorite, it’s no surprise his more diehard ones would do anything to defend him. As someone who’s favorite house leader is Dimitri, I was even shocked by some of the things fans tried to help him get away with. 

Like all the house leaders, Dimitri isn’t perfect, and that’s not at all shocking considering the actions he does throughout not just his story, but all of them. Constantly killing innocent lives for the sake of revenge, he not only puts his army in jeopardy majority of the time just to kill Edelgard quicker, he puts his own life at risk by charging into battle recklessly, not thinking about how his allies might have to recover him. 

He taunts his allies in messed up ways, slowly killing them and taunting them as they reach their end. He even gets mad at Byleth when they quickly kill one of the soldiers Dimitri was torturing so he could just be put out of the misery Dimitri was putting him through. Aftwards Dimitri said he would just continue using Byleth and his allies until they eventually died out. 

But isn’t the point of the story that Dimitri learns his lesson? He’s going through mental illness problems, so it’s not his fault. Those are common things fans say about Dimitri in order to justify his behavior. Both statements are right and wrong.

Yes, it is the point of the story that Dimitri learns that his behavior was wrong, and he later makes up for his sins and does the right thing in the end and shockingly tries to spare Edelgard’s life. However, that doesn’t mean the fans should excuse his actions just because it’s the point of the story. Yes it needs to be there, yes he learned his lesson, he still screwed up in a really horrible way. 

Yes, Dimitri is clearly suffering from some forms of PTSD, survivor’s guilt, depression and all sorts of other things, but that’s also not a reason for fans of his character to excuse the actions. It’s okay for a character to be messed up in the head and do some messed up things because of it, but when fans try to argue that makes the behavior okay, it misses the point entirely. 

There have also been claims by some people that Dimtiri’s story was the one with the best ending. I plan on addressing the best ending argument at the end of this essay, but suffice to say, there are no good endings, and this one especially. 

Dimitri never really had the best outlook on the world, he never truly saved the world either. Even though his allies hate the crest system the church supports, Dimitri is actively aiding the church during the war, and even though Dimitri never said he would continue to support Crests, he never said he would try to abolish them either. There isn’t any denying that the crest system is a dangerous, greedy one and Dimitri continues to keep Rhea on a pedestal, regardless of whether or not she aided them just means he is still supporting a corrupt system, knowing he has allies against it. (There is a chance I’m incorrect about this point).

There is a second half to these debates, people who think Dimitri shouldn’t be forgiven at all. There have been many tweets, blog posts and reddit essays that list all the wrong actions Dimitri made in his route. It mirrors some of the things the fans defend him for, that he was a crazed murder and shouldn’t be forgiven, that he pushed his loved ones away and that was selfish of him, that he didn’t care for the lives of humans or himself. These kinds of arguments are a weak way to pick apart Dimitri’s character. He pushed away his friends and closest comrades because he not only didn’t believe they would understand what he was dealing with, which was true, but also because he didn’t see himself worthy enough for their attention and love. He considered himself a burden on all their lives, and would have been fine with fighting in the war all alone. He never asked the blue lions to stay with him during the war, that was something they all chose to do because they’re loyal to him, 

There have also been complaints with how much Dimtiri pushes himself, and how much he tries to please the dead. But when people are fighting for a cause, they will often never rest until they achieve it. Taking Dimitri’s murders out of the picture for a second, the ghosts in his head always pushed him to fight for them. While the murder was wrong, you can understand why he became so obsessed with fighting until the end even if it led to his death, because he was trying to find his own messed up inner peace. 

All and all, Dimitris' arc is a lovely one, one of my personal favorites. It was my first go at the game and I sure picked a good one to start with. There isn’t anything I would change about it, except of course how the fans continue to baby Dimitri and treat him like he’s just a precious one who could do no harm ever. 

The Silver Snow

While the three house leaders don’t have much in common, they all do one thing similar in all three of their stories, they all form a personal connection to Byleth. 

Byleth is the self insert avatar character, who doesn’t have much of their own personality unless the player either picks the comedic dialogue options or uses their imagination. I was one of many that were unsure of the use of a silent protagonist over one that can actively interact with the other characters, but I didn’t find it to be as lazy as I thought it would end up being. 

All Byleth’s interactions with the house leaders shows the deeper side into their characters, without Byleth’s influence, a lot of these characters would have gone down the wrong path. While Byleth has writing flaws of their own, they are essential to further the stories of Dimitri, Claude and Edelgard, which isn’t a bad thing, as it was the direction the writers wanted to take the characters. 

Byleth is also a perfect way to see the pros and cons of the leaders choices, showing their brighter and intelligent sides, but also the mistakes they make along their journey. Through Byleth’s interactions, we start to see their vulnerability, something the fans seem to lose sight of when they play the game. It’s important for a player to see all aspects of a character in order to understand the full story. 

The most popular connection Byleth made in the game is unsurprisingly Dimitri since he was the most popular house leader, and the connection is something to take notice of, as a lot of the games best symbolism, as well as evidence to a character's flaws and arc are present in the bond between Byleth and Dimitri. 

Dimitri is someone who spent his whole life in the darkness, waiting for the day he will enact revenge on those who have wronged him. He always believed he needed somebody to aid him in getting to that point, if he couldn’t, he would stand alone. But what he found was someone to pull him from his delusions. 

When the two first met, Dimitri is fascinated by the young mercenary, expressing that he must continue training if he hopes to be as strong as them. Throughout Dimitri’s story, he and Byleth become close allies, and Dimitri begins to drop his stoic persona to reveal some of his more dark sides, but he suppresses the best he can. He begins to open up to Byleth about his family's murder, his past history with Edelgard and even his doubts about the goddess of Fodlan being real. He tells Byleth that the goddess would never reach out their hand to someone in need. He feels a connection to Byleth, and even tells them that when he first met them, they were someone that unnerved him, but now they see them as someone to rely on. 

When Edelgard starts the war, and Byleth goes missing for five years after Slither throws them off a cliff, Dimitri falls completely over the edge, becoming a wild animal of sorts that feeds off revenge for the dead. One who swears to kill Edelgard at all costs. When Byleth returns to him, he is hidden in shadows, and Byleth, who is the reincarnated goddess, stands in the light facing him. They offer their hand to Dimitri but he turns his head, believing them to be another ghost taunting him. 

Throughout the second half, we see Dimitri tackle his violent tendencies while Byleth tries to get through to him, but we see he is completely drowned in his head. Then, Rodrigue dies, and Dimitri is left with his last words, “Live for what you believe in.” Dimitri doesn’t understand how to live for himself, since he has spent the majority of his life fighting for vengeance of those who don’t walk the earth anymore. Only when Byleth reaches their hand a second time to him, does he take it this time, finding warmth in the touch. 

The symbolism is the true thing that brings Dimitri back to life, and the words of his comrades inspire him to become the king his kingdom truly needs during the war. 

Through Byleth, we see how he finds his sense of peace, even coming down to the final battle with Edelgard where he offers to spare her life to try and find a common ground. (I’ll talk more about what Edelgard does next in a later section and why it’s the reason a golden ending can never exist.) Regardless, after Edelgard is dealt with Dimitri and Edelgard walk from the dark throne room and open the door to the outside world, brightly lit. Dimitri looks back towards his step-sister and Byleth stops him by grabbing his hand, leading him from the darkness, his past, and into the light. 

The interactions between Dimitri and Byleth are key to understanding his mental state throughout the game. The interactions are easily misrepresented as tools for shipping. While it’s completely fine to ship two characters, the discussions were never written as romantic, and thus should not be perceived in that context. 

Moving onto Edelgard. Although I prefer Byleth’s bond with Dimitri, I cannot argue when people say Byleth and Edelgard share the deepest connection. Right from the start Edelgard was captivated by Byleth’s strength, and if the player chooses her, Edelgard will start to open up to Byleth more and more, seeking their guidance and appreciating the strength they begin to lend her. She doesn’t know if she can fully trust them, considering how later in the game when Byleth unlocks the powers of Sothis, she begins to worry that Byleth will betray her when she wages war. But still she continues to seek solace in them, as the lyrics of the theme song say, “I look to you, like a red rose. Seeking the sun no matter where it goes.” Edelgard yearns to reach out her hand to Byleth and seek their companionship, and eventually it does seem to happen.

The more the game progresses, the more Edelgard gives subtle hints about her secret to Byleth. When they discuss the actions of the Flame Emperor, Edelgard asks Byleth if they will be able to look into the eyes of whoever is under their mask and forgive them for what they’ve done. Keep in mind that this happens after the death of Byleth’s father. Edelgard is worried that even though she had nothing to do with the death, her involvement in the war with those who did might persuade Byleth to one day leave her side. 

Edelgard is shocked to say the least when Byleth joins her side. She even asks them when they have a private conversation if this is something they truly want, and Edelgard becomes silent when Byleth insists they made their choice to stand with her. This is key to understanding Edelgard the correct way. She never had someone growing up who she could easily talk to, share burdens, be vulnerable with. She had Hubert but he was just someone who served her, he wasn’t a real friend to her despite everything he may have done for her. 

Her more goofy and childlike side comes out the more she interacts with Byleth, it demonstrates how she isn’t the unmerciful war leader the fans always make her out to be. She’s just a woman who likes to doodle and eat sweets. It’s important to remember the character behind the actions. She is someone who believes in her cause, and won’t give it up no matter what happens, but that doesn’t mean she never lives with the pain of some of her actions. 

She was forced to kill Dimtiri after he refused to stand down, and when Byleth asks her if she’s crying, she tells them that the Edelgard who shed tears died many years ago. Yet she still feels a loss for the man that could have been a proud king. Edelgard was meant to carry the church’s most powerful artifact, The Sword of the Creator, a sword crafted by Slither using the heart and bones of the goddess Sothis and wielded by the bandit king Nemesis. Only a person with the Crests of Flames can wield it, and yet the weapon fell into the hands of Byleth instead. My sibling Xander connected the dots on this symbolism to me, texting me this. “They gave Edelgard the crest of flames so she could wield the sword of the creator. But you know how hero’s relics (the weapons made by Slither using the children of the goddess bones and hearts) drain your life force a little? What if another reason Edelgard is so attached to Byleth is because Byleth unknowingly saved her from having more of her life stolen from her.”  This further proves why Edelgard becomes so attached to Byleth, seeking the protection and guidance from the one person who can save her. Byleth is the only person Edelgard is able to open up to on this level. She couldn’t even do that with Dimitiri or her squire Hubert.

Then comes the ending, which many people have problems with because it ends with Edelgard fighting Rhea and not Slither. While Edelgard fighting them would have been nice, I think fighting Rhea is a perfect way to end things because it symbolizes Edelgard finally ending what she sees as the enemy of Fodlan, that form being Rhea who transforms into her immaculate beast form. But the reason why I think the ending is so important, is because of one of Edelgard’s key character moments. 

After defeating Rhea, Byleth collapses, the crest stone in her heart not being able to stay alive anymore because of Rhea’s death. Edelgard panics and when she doesn't hear a heartbeat (which is something Byleth already never had because of the mentioned crest stone.) she begins to cry. This comes directly after Edelgard killed Dimitri and said she never cried since her childhood in that basement. This not only demonstrates how important Byleth was to her, but also the real human emotion underneath her, something the fanbase seems to forget about when talking about her and her ending. 

Now, there isn’t too much to say about the relationship between Claude and Byleth. It is however noticeable how different it is compared to Byleth’s relationship with the other two. To Claude, Byleth was an asset, someone he could use in order to bring himself ahead. With Byleth’s ability to wield the sword of the creator, Claude saw it as a way to not only get ahead in the upcoming war, but also to get some answers from the church about what they’re really up to. 

Claude’s persona is that of a mischievous schemer, someone who makes questionable quick decisions in order to get closer to his goals. He creates poisons in his academy days just in case, spies on private conversations and rarely has meaningful conversations with his peers. 

That is all until the war starts, the more Byleth aids Claude in his goals and stays by his side, the more he allows his persona to slip away. He has the most underrated conversations with Byleth, because again the fans only chose to accept him as a meme. Once you pay attention to these conversations, the layers of Claude start to come into the light. He’s a dreamer who wants a place to call home. He even admits to Byleth later that he feels shameful for trying to use them in the war. 

In the end, the two are on level with each other, and Claude hands control of Fodlan to Byleth, believing he isn’t the one who can truly unite the lands together. Spending time with Byleth has caused him to reflect on what he truly wants and what he’s ready for. He knows now he isn’t what’s best for Fodlan, not yet anyway. 

It’s interesting to point out that Claude never needed someone to bring him from darkness and put him on a path that leads into the light. What he truly wanted was a partner and a friend who understood and believed in his crazy ideas. Unlike the other reunion cutscenes, Claude opens with him already standing in the light of the goddess tower, and Byleth comes to meet him. Byleth is the one in the dark side because at this point, Claude is the one who knows everything and what to do next. But in the final cutscene, Byleth offers a hand to Claude who is on the floor after getting knocked down in battle. He takes it and the two stand together in the light. 

Byleth is the best way to understand the real heart behind all the characters, because that’s where most of the meaningful conversations these characters have are. It’s easy to see the house leaders as caricatures, but paying attention to their interactions with Byleth helps you see what truly lies inside each of them. Who they really are, their real flaws and bright sides and what they want from life.  That is why it’s beneficial to play every story, because you wouldn’t understand the three house leaders unless you fight the battles with them. Much of the fanbase doesn’t do that, but rather judge the characters they haven’t even gotten a chance to know because they either don’t see a reason to play again, or have grown too attached to the character they played with. Fine enough reasons, but then they shouldn’t participate in the debates. 

Flower, Moon, Wind and Snow: There Is No “Happy” Ending 

As shown in the above paragraphs, the fans have managed to misinterpret every character and what they stand for in their stories. Taking a deeper dive into each route, we can see very clearly that each one of the house leaders had both wrong and right ideas, and all had good intentions that shouldn’t be ignored by the players. They all had a moment where they were morally in the wrong however, and the fans instead pick and choose which parts of a character to see, which goes against the main message of the game. 

The fans are too busy trying to find a hero in the story, while forgetting the story has no hero. There are protagonists and antagonists depending on the route you end up playing, but none of the house leaders are heroes by textbook definition. They all have their immoral moments and screw ups. This doesn’t make them bad characters, it just means they aren’t flawless. 

Doing research into the game, I haven’t been able to find many people who talk about the beauty of all the endings to the game, and the deeper meaning it has. When it comes to the game's multiple endings, the fans try to debate on which ending is the “good ending” The one that they can feel safe ending on and the one with the best outcomes. While they argue over the pros and cons of each ending, the answer is the simple one and that, none of them are the good ending. 

Azure Moon ends with Edelgard killing herself by forcing her stepbrother to stab her and Those Who Slither In The Dark still running on the loose in Fodlan. Verdant Wind fails to solve the border issues between Fodlan and Almyra meaning another war is inevitable (Side note, if the player receives Byleth and Claude’s paired ending the text confirms that is what canonically ends up happening.)  Crimson Flower ends with again, Slither being on the loose and an entire religious system being destroyed in one night with the death of its pope. Finally, the bizarre ending in Silver Snows not only ends in the deaths of both Dimitri and Edelgard and the disappearance of Claude, but Rhea passes away too. So no one is in charge to rule Fodlan but an experienced mercenary with barely any memories and no heartbeat. There isn’t much good to be found in most of these circumstances, so it’s hard to label any of them as the true “good ending.” 

There lies the main issue with the fanbase, ignoring the message that when it comes to characters such as these, and circumstances such as the ones found in the game, there isn’t a true happy ending. Unless you consider how the war effort turned out for the main lords, but that is only for just that, one of three main characters, four if you count Rhea, the game doesn’t. 

So players have tried to figure out their own possible golden ending, and hope someday Nintendo will create a story where all three characters can live in peace within Fodlan, but they fail to understand that given the context of each character, that isn’t entirely possible unless Nintendo writes each lord out of character. When you consider how the fans reacted to Claude’s actions in the game’s sequel, It’s hard to believe that solution would blow over well with the fans. 

The key to a golden ending is for all three characters to accept each other’s worlds and dreams, something that has been canonically proven to be a difficult task in the games sequel Fire Emblem: Three Hopes, where the game seems to taunt it’s players by trapping the three house leaders under the earth and have them partake in conversations stating how they would never agree with the other person, and perhaps in a different life they could have joined forces and become best friends and allies. It’s not only a slap in the face to hopeful fans who still wished for a golden route, but a key point in evidence that makes the games message stronger.  

Dimitri and his kingdom have a perfect relationship with the Church, something that both Edelgard and Claude seek to destroy, if for different reasons. It’s stated in Three Hopes that Dimtiri can’t break his alliance with the church because of the aid the church gave them during the reign of his uncle Rufus. Dimiri tells Claude “Abolishing the church would deny the king’s right to rule Faerghus. Without one, the people will descend into chaos and war. Would you be able to take responsibility for such a thing, once it came to pass?” Dimitri cannot allow Claude to destroy the church, and Claude cannot stand the policies that Rhea and her higher ups believe. Edelgard has already proven time and time again that she will never accept the church, so her and Dimtri forming an alliance is out of the question, when Dimtiri cannot abolish the church because of the chaos it will cause his kingdom, and Edelgard cannot live in the same world as them. 

The best case scenario would be an alliance between Edelgard and Claude, but that still wouldn’t give the fans the happy golden ending they desire since Dimitri would be out of the question. Even then the game has shown his alliance might not be long lasting, since in the original game, Edelgard had to battle Alymran forced back into their territory, showing how she wanted to keep the borders closed for the time being. Claude has always embraced the idea of opening the Fodlan’s walls, so given the option where Claude and Edelgard teamed up, it wouldn’t have been long lasting given what has been shown from these characters. 

A golden ending isn’t a possibility, and neither is the idea of a true happy ending. So then, what is the point in getting to these endings? 

The message of Fire Emblem: Three Houses has always thrived on the idea that the player can’t have everything. You can’t have every support in a single route, you can’t level up to one hundred without new game plus the game's cheat method, and you can’t be friends with everyone at once. The stories told inside the game are meant to show that no matter what you do, there will always be a consequence and that something is always going to be lost. Even when you go back and make the opposite decision hoping for a better outcome, you will still lose the things you once had, whether it’s allies or enemies that will then become your friends. 

Each of the house leaders was influenced by the player character, stepping into the field of battle before they reach the age of twenty five. Without the support of Byleth, we see the horrible path they each fall on, it often will lead to their deaths, and it’s heartbreaking to see when the player previously played their route and got to know them and care for them. It isn’t a good feeling to watch a character you once were allied with become someone you must kill, and then you have to watch them die in a cutscene. It’s tragic, but there lies the hidden beauty.

In life, you are always unaware of the right choice, and once you make it, you will always wonder what could have been if you made the other one. There might have been a right choice, there might have been a wrong choice, or there is simply a choice. Consequences might occur because of what you have chosen, there might be moments you end up regretting. When the ending comes though, despite all you might have lost, you achieved what you set out to do, and you stuck to it through the end. There isn’t enough time in life to wonder about what could have been, or all the things you lost. What a person must do is consider instead, would it have been any better if I had made the other choice? It would be different, but you will lose something either way depending on the situation. 

When it comes to the game's characters, I mentioned earlier that there isn’t necessarily a hero or a villain, just characters that feel like real people trying to reach their goals, isn’t that how it is in the real world? The fans shouldn’t be trying to compare each chargers trauma and try and decide who had it worse, or keep score of which character killed the most people. They all killed people at some point, they are in a war after all. What the game tells us through each ending narration, is a happy or good ending is written by the ones who tell the story. The ending of Azure Moon seems good in Dimitri’s eyes like Crimson Flower seems good in Edelgard’s eyes. Through the minds of the opposite character, and their armies, it isn’t a peaceful happy ending. It’s a tragic one. The history book in Fodlan was shaped by whoever won the war, showing only the good parts in their story. 

In our society, life isn’t something to be sliced into a good or bad ending. No matter what a person does, it’s going to offend or disappoint somebody. We cannot fight for an ending that will please everybody, because that ending simply does not exist. What Three Houses teaches players is that not only should we stop and look at how our actions affect others, but also how they can make us feel also. We should not try to please everyone, because we cannot achieve something so impossible, but we shouldn’t go out of our way to make the people around us miserable just because we have different views. 

A person should write the type of ending they want rather than the ending for someone else. An ending where we can be satisfied in the closing chapter, and we didn’t have to tear out someones’ pages to achieve it. It’s all about balance. So when that rare dawn comes someday, we can soar into it, knowing we created the ending for ourselves.