Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

[Rodin]

I think Paralogues might be semi randomized because they had paralogues that I don't, and mine have always involved units that I don't have (but at least one that I do).

From what I understand for the paralogues, you need to have the appropriate support points with at least one of the characters to get the paralogue. I'm not sure what rank this is though.

I also don't know if they are date limited. I suspect not, as some of the paralogues I had "crossed" the time-skip month. I didn't wait around on them to see whether they would still be available 5 years later, although I did have at least 1 paralogue that became available after the time-skip. They do expire eventually once you get them, which is actually kind of a problem in a way - since you can get a bunch of supports all at once, you can have all the paralogues pile up on you. I think I did 4 of them in two months. That meant no more paralogues for the end of the game.

@RisingPhoenix - which NPCs in particular? As far as I can tell you can recruit almost all of them. Rhea wasn't recruitable that I could see, and I don't think Gilbert was either? Other than those, the list from the Golden Deer side is pretty darn small. There's Judith and Nardel, and that's about it. There are definitely restrictions based on what path you choose (for example, me being Golden Deer might be why Gilbert wasn't recruitable since he has close ties to the Kingdom).

[LaZodiac]

From my own experience I can say Cyril and The Thunderbrand lady aren't recruitable in Black Eagles, and Duscue and Hilda just refuse to let me give them any attention. So yeah, pretty sure each house just limits who you can get based on Things.

If my theories about said things are correct... ho boy, I can see why.

[Maryring]

Man, my Bernie just really isn't up to snuff at all. She's nearing level 20, and only once has she had a level up that gave her more than 2 stat-ups. And most of her stat-ups are dex and a random defense too. She's got the lowest strength and speed of everyone. I'll have to redouble my effort to poach an archer from one of the other houses.

[Zevox]

Man, my Bernie just really isn't up to snuff at all. She's nearing level 20, and only once has she had a level up that gave her more than 2 stat-ups. And most of her stat-ups are dex and a random defense too. She's got the lowest strength and speed of everyone. I'll have to redouble my effort to poach an archer from one of the other houses.

I feel you there, I had a similar problem (though mine's defense sucks and her speed was at least still better than Edelgard's - but that's because I had Edelgard in Armored Knight). Hence why I made her my Dancer, saved her from being useless by removing her from the need to actually fight, which is kind of appropriate for her.

Also, for an easy to get and very strong archer, look no further than Shamir.

[Maryring]

I've not had any opportunities to hire any faculty yet, nor acquire any dancers. Just about to start the chapter 7 storyline battle.

[Zevox]

I've not had any opportunities to hire any faculty yet, nor acquire any dancers. Just about to start the chapter 7 storyline battle.

You will, on both counts. I'm not sure exactly when hiring Shamir opens up, though I think I had her by the point you're at. Just try finding her in the monastery and see if it's an option. And for Dancer, that event is impossible to miss, you'll see it when it happens.

[MCerberus]

You will, on both counts. I'm not sure exactly when hiring Shamir opens up, though I think I had her by the point you're at. Just try finding her in the monastery and see if it's an option. And for Dancer, that event is impossible to miss, you'll see it when it happens.

I'd just like to add it's possible to not end up having access to dancer, so make sure to have a couple of tea parties with your preferred character (charm stat)

[Rodin]

From my own experience I can say Cyril and The Thunderbrand lady aren't recruitable in Black Eagles, and Duscue and Hilda just refuse to let me give them any attention. So yeah, pretty sure each house just limits who you can get based on Things.

If my theories about said things are correct... ho boy, I can see why.

Duscue, Hilda, and Hubert are all the "executive officer" of their respective Houses. It's not even really story based, their loyalty is just unshakable and you can't draw them away. I suspect this was to save dialogue and voice acting further down the line, as it locks in the "narrative exposition" role to particular characters and prevents you from recruiting an entire House out from under one of the leaders.

I feel you there, I had a similar problem (though mine's defense sucks and her speed was at least still better than Edelgard's - but that's because I had Edelgard in Armored Knight). Hence why I made her my Dancer, saved her from being useless by removing her from the need to actually fight, which is kind of appropriate for her.

Also, for an easy to get and very strong archer, look no further than Shamir.

My Black Eagles run is off to a "good" start, with the first few levels being Opposite Day. All my melee characters gained no strength at all and picked up Magic, Charm, and Resistance, while my Mages picked up Strength and defense.

Fortunately, things seem to be settling down around level 5-6 so hopefully I can salvage this group. The only one who has proved reliable so far is Petra. Caspar, meanwhile, seems determined to never pick up a Strength upgrade ever.

I'd just like to add it's possible to not end up having access to dancer, so make sure to have a couple of tea parties with your preferred character (charm stat)

Even that's not really necessary. Just pick someone with a reasonable charm stat and then take the time to give them dancing lessons for +5 Charm. I think you only need around 15 Charm to win, so unless you're picking someone who chose Charm as their dump stat you should be fine.

Also note that Dancer is not gender restricted. You could pick Raphael or Hubert for it if you really wanted, although my mind recoils in horror at the thought.

[GloatingSwine]

Even that's not really necessary. Just pick someone with a reasonable charm stat and then take the time to give them dancing lessons for +5 Charm. I think you only need around 15 Charm to win, so unless you're picking someone who chose Charm as their dump stat you should be fine.

Also note that Dancer is not gender restricted. You could pick Raphael or Hubert for it if you really wanted, although my mind recoils in horror at the thought.

It's 13 charm to get Dancer.

Flayn starts with 9, so it's super easy to use her to get it and she's one of the best people to have as the Dancer because you've probably already got better casters for both types of magic when you get her. (eg. if you're on Golden Deer she's basically Worse Lysithea).

[LaZodiac]

I've made Flayn into a Pegasus Knight and ramped her up to C swords so she could use that massive mag with Levin Swords. Turning her into Dancer, intending to make her a Mortal Savant.

I will have the ultimate Flayn. Flayn? More like, flayin' people alive.

[MCerberus]

Also note that Dancer is not gender restricted. You could pick Raphael or Hubert for it if you really wanted, although my mind recoils in horror at the thought.

It could be residual from playing Octopath recently, but I'm more concerned that they're advertising teaching children the art.


Anyway: spoiler for earliesh part-2 on the Deer path

Spoiler

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Ashe, I DID YOUR PARALOGUE, you didn't want to get recruited after, and now you're a pawn of the empire and wouldn't talk to either the MC or Claude. At this point, you sort of deserve it for rushing forward to take 2 0-damage shots at a fortress knight

[Maryring]

Flayn starts with 9, so it's super easy to use her to get it and she's one of the best people to have as the Dancer because you've probably already got better casters for both types of magic when you get her. (eg. if you're on Golden Deer she's basically Worse Lysithea).

Really? I figured Flayn was this game's version of Nino. Low level character with absurbly great growth rates, and also green hair. Besides a single 2 point level up, Flayn's been drawing in at least 5 points every level.

Also note that Dancer is not gender restricted. You could pick Raphael or Hubert for it if you really wanted, although my mind recoils in horror at the thought.

Now to be fair, Hubert needs all the humble pie his overgrown ego can get, and as for Raphael, it's not just guys who like their eye-candy.

[tonberrian]

Really? I figured Flayn was this game's version of Nino. Low level character with absurbly great growth rates, and also green hair. Besides a single 2 point level up, Flayn's been drawing in at least 5 points every level.



Now to be fair, Hubert needs all the humble pie his overgrown ego can get, and as for Raphael, it's not just guys who like their eye-candy.

*Flex* "Are my muscles bulging?"

[Rising Phoenix]

From what I understand for the paralogues, you need to have the appropriate support points with at least one of the characters to get the paralogue. I'm not sure what rank this is though.

I also don't know if they are date limited. I suspect not, as some of the paralogues I had "crossed" the time-skip month. I didn't wait around on them to see whether they would still be available 5 years later, although I did have at least 1 paralogue that became available after the time-skip. They do expire eventually once you get them, which is actually kind of a problem in a way - since you can get a bunch of supports all at once, you can have all the paralogues pile up on you. I think I did 4 of them in two months. That meant no more paralogues for the end of the game.

@RisingPhoenix - which NPCs in particular? As far as I can tell you can recruit almost all of them. Rhea wasn't recruitable that I could see, and I don't think Gilbert was either? Other than those, the list from the Golden Deer side is pretty darn small. There's Judith and Nardel, and that's about it. There are definitely restrictions based on what path you choose (for example, me being Golden Deer might be why Gilbert wasn't recruitable since he has close ties to the Kingdom).

On the blue lions path

Spoiler

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Fleche and her brother Randolph- I'd love an option of taking them captive and use them as proper catalysts for Dimitri's redemption.

Rodrigue- he died for plot reasons but these were executed poorly. Again would love to get to know him better

And I got Gilbert. He's a fantastically well written character. Highly recommend using him.

TL;DR there are some characters who could have been treated a bit better by the plot.

Edit: regarding Flayn. Mine had 15. yes 15 speed at level 40. She was slooooow...Well she only has 35 growth in it. I can see why she'd get rng screwed in it.

[Laughing Dog]

Duscue, Hilda, and Hubert are all the "executive officer" of their respective Houses. It's not even really story based, their loyalty is just unshakable and you can't draw them away. I suspect this was to save dialogue and voice acting further down the line, as it locks in the "narrative exposition" role to particular characters and prevents you from recruiting an entire House out from under one of the leaders.

Um... I recruited Hilda in the Blue Lions path.

[Rising Phoenix]

Um... I recruited Hilda in the Blue Lions path.

I've been reading that hilda is quite difficult to recruit...

[Laughing Dog]

She wasn't for me. I forget how high my charm was, but I recall Axe skill sitting around C when I recruited her. Looking at Serenes Forest, there might be a story requirement for her.

[Rising Phoenix]

She wasn't for me. I forget how high my charm was, but I recall Axe skill sitting around C when I recruited her. Looking at Serenes Forest, there might be a story requirement for her.

Fair enough. Though I have been reading she may be unrecruitable on some paths.

Anyway. Started a NG+ were you can use your renown to buy support levels. Can confirm that people with b level sups with you will want to join your class immediately.

[tonberrian]

Fair enough. Though I have been reading she may be unrecruitable on some paths.

Anyway. Started a NG+ were you can use your renown to buy support levels. Can confirm that people with b level sups with you will want to join your class immediately.

B-rank support, no ranks in the skill they want?

[LaZodiac]

Now to be fair, Hubert needs all the humble pie his overgrown ego can get, and as for Raphael, it's not just guys who like their eye-candy.

My Hubert is the first person to pass 30 in his attack stat.

One time he crit an enemy twice and his voice clips flowed really well with it and I realized that, man, I really love this horrifying wormwood looking mother****er.

[Zevox]

Really? I figured Flayn was this game's version of Nino. Low level character with absurbly great growth rates, and also green hair. Besides a single 2 point level up, Flayn's been drawing in at least 5 points every level.

Even if she were, in Black Eagle at least she's pretty redundant, since you start with three Mages already. Plus...

Spoiler: Part 2 spoiler

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You lose her if you side against the Church anyway.

Now to be fair, Hubert needs all the humble pie his overgrown ego can get,

That, and someone to explain to him how not to act like an evil vizier. Because seriously, you'd think he deliberately modeled his entire demeanor on Jaffar.

Fair enough. Though I have been reading she may be unrecruitable on some paths.

Pretty sure Hilda is unrecruitable if you're leading the Black Eagles. I was never even able to so much as give her gifts or lost items.

Edit: By the way, does anyone by any chance know how to get some Zanado Fruit? I've had a quest that requires a couple of them for months now, and none of the seeds I'm planting are yielding any. Google search hasn't helped, either.

[Rising Phoenix]

B-rank support, no ranks in the skill they want?

Yes, I was male Blyeth, on the first opportunity I spent renown to get Sylvain's sup to b level. With no investment in reason he joined a few days later. Likewise for Ashe.

Interesting managed to bag Mercie and Lysithea at C support with C rank in bows and reason. Trying to see if I can recruit Marianne now with minimal investment in riding.

[GloatingSwine]

Yes, I was male Blyeth, on the first opportunity I spent renown to get Sylvain's sup to b level. With no investment in reason he joined a few days later. Likewise for Ashe.

Interesting managed to bag Mercie and Lysithea at C support with C rank in bows and reason. Trying to see if I can recruit Marianne now with minimal investment in riding.

AFAIK the base requirement for a recruitment is C rank in the skill they want, 15-20 in the stat they want, but the more support points you have with them the lower those requirements are.

I've been reading that hilda is quite difficult to recruit...

She can only be recruited at certain times. It's possible you're not supposed to be able to.

[Rodin]

I think Hilda must be House dependent. I never had any opportunity to recruit Hubert when I was Golden Deer, from what I can recall. As Black Eagles this time, I can't even give Hilda her lost items back.

On recruiting in general, the requirement for them to ask to join is just a B-ranked support - no other stat requirements needed. If you ask in person even after getting B, you will still need the stat requirement. Once you get B support, there's something like a 25% chance each day (or maybe week?) for them to request to join. I got Marianne to B rank and it took her a whole month before she asked.

Sylvain is the exception to all this for a female Byleth, as he's hot for teacher and will immediately be recruitable the instant you get it as an option.

@Zevox - Zanado Fruit is tough to get. You have to plant Mixed Fruit Seeds in the Greenhouse and then praise RNJesus a bunch in the hopes that you randomly get it in your fruit selection that week. Silverfish are similar, but for fishing - you have to catch low-grade Glimmering Fish in the pond. There's a few other random fruits and vegetables they will ask for as well, and you just have to know which seed has a possibly of sprouting it and then get lucky.

I eventually just gave up on the supply missions - if I had it, I had it. They're randomly generated each month, I believe.

[Rising Phoenix]

On the recruitment front: I pumped my authority all the way to b rank. Ignaz joined right away with no support investment.

[Rodin]

Just completed chapter 6 on my Black Eagles playthrough. Things are moving along a lot more briskly since I know what I'm doing.

And boy, am I glad that I picked Golden Deer for my first playthrough! It was close run thing between me picking Black Eagles, but ultimately the decision came down to wanting to play with archers and generally being contrary since I (correctly) predicted that everybody would go for the house with the beautiful badass leading it.

After experiencing the Black Eagles though...I don't actually like many of them. Dorothea is great, and Linhardt has his moments. The rest though? Hubert is moustache twirlingly evil, Bernadette is a parody of persecution taken up to irritating levels, and the rest of the class are just...dull. Ferdinand has been incredibly bland as the obligatory rival, Caspar is generic anime hot-blooded fighty guy, and Petra is a rather one-note "funny foreigner". Edelgard is the only one with any depth, and I just plain don't like her. Maybe you get to see more depth at the B and A support levels, but they haven't enchanted me the way the entire Golden Deer class did.

The rest of the reasons why I'm glad I started with Golden Deer falls firmly under spoiler territory.

Spoiler: No, seriously, major spoilers for both Golden Deer and Black Eagles

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When playing as Golden Deer, Claude is almost as much an outsider as you are. He was raised in Almyra and while he has a firm grasp of Alliance politics he really isn't privy to the deep dark secrets of the Church or the Empire. As such, when you play through the game you are discovering the plot along with him, and the joy is working out the mysteries as he digs deep into the conspiracies. You have almost no sight into the workings of the Empire, and as such it is a total shock when Edelgard reveals herself as the Flame Emperor. You also don't see enough of Hubert to realize how creepy he is - he's just this cold aloof dude.

When playing through as Black Eagles, it's a totally different dynamic. Edelgard clearly knows a lot more than she's letting on from very early in the story, and we get the reveal that she's working with the villains as early as chapter 5. The story hits you over the head with the idea that she's the Flame Emperor - when you get her second C support, she reveals that she has a Crest of Flames and plans to be Emperor of the whole world. Then she makes sure she isn't present for the mission to rescue Flayn, and the Flame Emperor appears. Gee, I wonder who that could be? Claude rushes off on his path too, but without the other hints I was never suspicious of him.

When looking in from the outside as the Golden Deer, the plot is just...better. Black Eagles uses foreshadowing like a sledgehammer, where in the other path there's just this growing feel of unease as things grow steadily worse. And I feel like playing Golden Deer as your second path would be frustrating, as you already know the little tidbits that they dole out.

Hopefully, picking Edelgard's path will cause things to diverge sufficiently that the story gets good again. It seems like there's a lot of information that the Golden Deer path never reveals at all, and joining the bad guys should hopefully let me pick up that knowledge.

Oh, one non-spoiler note - Hard difficulty is a lot more fun. I had to use Dragon Pulse a fair bit early on (and for the non-lethal fights accept students dropping), and now that my team has coalesced the difficulty is just right. I'm mostly using Dragon Pulse to help with farming Class skills. I give people either a training weapon or a broken weapon and sling them into a crowd of enemies. If I mis-judge how survivable they are, I Dragon Pulse it back and kill an extra enemy. I got all the Beginner class skills at between level 12-14, and am now continuing to use training weapons judiciously to try and farm the intermediate classes. My plan is to never promote unless they have the class skill and see where that gets me.

[Zevox]

After experiencing the Black Eagles though...I don't actually like many of them. Dorothea is great, and Linhardt has his moments. The rest though? Hubert is moustache twirlingly evil, Bernadette is a parody of persecution taken up to irritating levels, and the rest of the class are just...dull. Ferdinand has been incredibly bland as the obligatory rival, Caspar is generic anime hot-blooded fighty guy, and Petra is a rather one-note "funny foreigner". Edelgard is the only one with any depth, and I just plain don't like her. Maybe you get to see more depth at the B and A support levels, but they haven't enchanted me the way the entire Golden Deer class did.

"Persecution complex?" Bernadetta suffers from crippling levels of anxiety, and there are reasons for that, which you'll learn in some of her supports. I find that relatable, and the degree to which they comically amp it just entertaining enough, personally. Plus most of the other characters try in various ways to help her with it in their supports.

Ferdinand's rivalry with Edelgard is such a minor part of his character that I often forget about it, because it only really comes up extremely early in the game, and in his supports with her. Much more defining for him is his belief that nobles have a responsibility to actually act, well, noble - he's perhaps the only character in a house full of nobles whose identity and beliefs are heavily centered around the fact that he's a noble. And he has some pretty interesting supports with other characters too, particularly Dorothea. Really, that's kind of a thing with all of them: see their supports. They're good.

Well, aside from Hubert, anyway. Whether he's actually evil may be arguable (I'm still a bit conflicted on it myself), but he's at best ruthlessly practical to seriously questionable levels, and definitely has no idea how not to come across as evil.

The rest of the reasons why I'm glad I started with Golden Deer falls firmly under spoiler territory.

Spoiler: No, seriously, major spoilers for both Golden Deer and Black Eagles

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When playing as Golden Deer, Claude is almost as much an outsider as you are. He was raised in Almyra and while he has a firm grasp of Alliance politics he really isn't privy to the deep dark secrets of the Church or the Empire. As such, when you play through the game you are discovering the plot along with him, and the joy is working out the mysteries as he digs deep into the conspiracies. You have almost no sight into the workings of the Empire, and as such it is a total shock when Edelgard reveals herself as the Flame Emperor. You also don't see enough of Hubert to realize how creepy he is - he's just this cold aloof dude.

When playing through as Black Eagles, it's a totally different dynamic. Edelgard clearly knows a lot more than she's letting on from very early in the story, and we get the reveal that she's working with the villains as early as chapter 5. The story hits you over the head with the idea that she's the Flame Emperor - when you get her second C support, she reveals that she has a Crest of Flames and plans to be Emperor of the whole world. Then she makes sure she isn't present for the mission to rescue Flayn, and the Flame Emperor appears. Gee, I wonder who that could be? Claude rushes off on his path too, but without the other hints I was never suspicious of him.

When looking in from the outside as the Golden Deer, the plot is just...better. Black Eagles uses foreshadowing like a sledgehammer, where in the other path there's just this growing feel of unease as things grow steadily worse. And I feel like playing Golden Deer as your second path would be frustrating, as you already know the little tidbits that they dole out.

Hopefully, picking Edelgard's path will cause things to diverge sufficiently that the story gets good again. It seems like there's a lot of information that the Golden Deer path never reveals at all, and joining the bad guys should hopefully let me pick up that knowledge.

Spoiler

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I feel like the notion that the Black Eagles side "hits you over the head" with the idea that Edelgard is the Flame Emperor is something you're only getting because you already know it. I definitely did not see it coming - and she does not indicate that she plans to be "Emperor of the whole world" in her C support, just that she intends to significantly reform Fodlan so that Noble status and whether someone has a Crest or not doesn't define peoples' lives, but rather merit does. And what you described, the growing sense of unease as things steadily get worse, was very much present for me throughout part 1 with the Black Eagles.

Spoiler: Part 2 Black Eagles spoilers.

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She actually doesn't want to be "Emperor of the world" at all - she wants to throw down the Church and implement the above-mentioned reforms, and knows that the Church has such a hold on all three nations of Fodlan that she won't be able to do that without also fighting the Kingdom and Alliance, both because of general knowledge of how influential the Church is and because knowledge of the Church's secret inner workings has actually been passed down through the Imperial family since its founding. There's actually a paralogue late in the Black Eagles path where you defend a pass into the Alliance from an attack from an eastern nation, and she expresses a strong hope that diplomatic ties can be established with them and there will be no need for further conflict, since unlike the three nations of Fodlan they aren't under the Church's control.

Oh, and Edelgard and the Empire come across the "bad guys" on the other paths, huh? I suppose that's fairly predictable. You might feel a little differently about it after seeing their path, though. There's a few clear bad guys in the game, but Edelgard isn't one of them.

Oh, one non-spoiler note - Hard difficulty is a lot more fun. I had to use Dragon Pulse a fair bit early on (and for the non-lethal fights accept students dropping), and now that my team has coalesced the difficulty is just right. I'm mostly using Dragon Pulse to help with farming Class skills. I give people either a training weapon or a broken weapon and sling them into a crowd of enemies. If I mis-judge how survivable they are, I Dragon Pulse it back and kill an extra enemy. I got all the Beginner class skills at between level 12-14, and am now continuing to use training weapons judiciously to try and farm the intermediate classes. My plan is to never promote unless they have the class skill and see where that gets me.

Cool, sounds good, I will look forward to seeing that when I get to my second run.

[Maryring]

Bernie does have a persecution complex. It's even the name of her unique ability. But it's a very understandable case of a persecution complex. And more importantly, you do see growth in her throughout the school year now that she's been placed in a safe area where she doesn't have to deal with [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS].

Actually, it seems like a lot of the complaints about the Black Eagles being one-note stems from just not interacting enough with them. Yes, Petra struggles with the language, Ferdie wants to steal the throne and Caspar is hot-blooded fighter dude. But there's also a whole lot more to them. That's just the first brush with the character. And like all the characters in the game, you can't judge them by first brush.

Except Hubert. Hubert is evil.

[Rising Phoenix]

Ok I've now I've recruited all the students that I can bar raphael on my Black Eagles playthrough. That will be rectified today and then it's back to grabbing staff members.

With regards to NG I just pumped my professor level to A+ right of the bat. This kinda broke the game making it too easy at first...But already I am seeing enemy stat inflation catching up which is good.

[Zevox]

So, to my moderate surprise, I seem to have finished the Black Eagles Route. Thoughts:

Spoiler: All of the spoilers. You have been warned.

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So, as implied, I'm rather surprised that was the end, as there's some rather blatant unresolved plot points. I was expecting at least a couple of chapters of fighting, as Hubert and Edelgard call them, Those Who Slither in the Dark (aka Edelgard's uncle and whoever he still has working for him, or whoever he works for if there's more there that Edelgard and Hubert don't know about - they're the ones who were behind Solon and what's-her-name from Part 1, in case other paths didn't tell you), if not a whole Part 3 about it. Especially after the reveal, right before the final mission, that they have some way to control a power not heard of since the ancient war between Seiros and the King of Liberation, which can rain pillars of light down on an area and utterly destroy it, which they used on a fortress you captured because they were ticked that you killed one of their own when capturing it. They made a rather big deal about that, and then it just gets brushed aside in the epilogue as something that you assume gets addressed in another war? What?

There are only two explanations I can think of: it's sequel bait, or it's a part of the story being withheld for DLC. I'm not sure which bothers me more, because as-is, the story feels genuinely incomplete.

Other than that though, yeah, pretty satisfying. I want to see the other paths too to get a more complete picture of the story, but this feels like what I wish Fates could have been. The conflict between the three leads is much more morally grey than the blatant "Hoshido is good, Nohr is evil (aside from your siblings)" of Fates, which makes for a fantastic and compelling plotline, and really makes you feel it when you have to kill people in part 2 who were friends, or at least friendly acquaintances, in part 1, and unlike King Garron the actual "we're just evil" of the Church and TWSitD doesn't really detract from that, since they work so much in the background, unknown to most, and the Church in particular has such a strong hold on the continent, that it makes sense that people don't just fight them because they're Obviously Evil. I can't even blame most of the Church loyalists for taking their side, since they don't completely understand what's going on, and likely wouldn't believe it even if they were told, since, well, it's a religion for them. The only questionable one is Setheth, who seemed to be having a falling out with Rhea towards the end of part 1 after reading Jeralt's journal, but then stuck with her for unknown reasons after Edelgard started the war. There is some lingering question of how exactly the Children of the Goddess work, whether Sothis was actually a Goddess, and why she was inhabiting you (and why her power vanished after Rhea's death), but there's enough there to infer many the answers, and the rest, well, I assume will be answered whenever they get around to doing the remaining plot around TWSitD.

The big one I want to know at this point is, what was Jeralt's deal? The many remarks about him not seeming to have aged in 20 years seems to imply something was special about him too, but if he was one of the Children of the Goddess, I would think he would know more about Rhea, as well as what was going on with you, than he seemed to.

Regarding some of the paired endings, I was a bit disappointed that Caspar and Lindhart's was not explicitly romantic, just implicitly in the manner of older Fire Emblem paired same-sex endings like Lyn/Florina or Lucius/Raven. Actually, pretty much all of them were - Dorothea/Petra was closer to explicit given how obvious their A support was about it and the reference in the ending to Dorothea being the person that Petra "loved the most," and Byleth/Edelgard kind of has to be since it's an S support (actually, Edelgard was pretty blatantly infatuated with you at a lot of points before the actual S support...), but the ending summary still left it vague and indicated the nature of their relationship was at least hidden from the public. Which is a far cry from the two straight pairings I had, Hubert/Shamir and Ferdinand/Bernadetta, which were explicitly marriages. Odd that they're still holding back on that despite adding more such pairings than before, and having a couple of explicit marriages in Fates.

Spoiler: Minor part 2 spoilers, pertaining to saving characters and recruitment.

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So, an update on that topic. During the final mission I had the opportunity to test whether Lysithea's recruitment would work again on another character who supposedly has the same recruitment requirements as her, Annette. It did not, but I'm not sure if that's because I didn't have a C support with her from part 1 like I did with Lysithea or not. I would think that a B Faith skill and magic stat in the 20s should be plenty even with no support, but maybe it requires an A in the skill with no support I guess.

As far as the Blue Lions characters go, it turns out that unlike the Golden Deer, you do run into all of them in part 2 as the Black Eagles - or at least so I assume, there were two unoccupied Heal Tiles identical to the ones that some other Blue Lions characters were on in the final mission, which I assume is where Ingrid and Felix would have been had I not recruited them already. However, for that mission I was able to avoid killing three of the named characters: Ashe and Gilbert were locked in place the way bosses often are, and while Annette wasn't locked in place she was off in a corner I didn't need to go to (I used Divine Pulse after testing whether I could recruit her), and the win condition was just killing the final boss. They did all start to come at me after I started attacking the final boss, but I was able to kill it before they became a problem. I did have to kill Cyril, who was hanging out right next to the final boss, and wound up killing Catherine too, but maybe could have avoided her corner if I'd really wanted to, not sure if she'd have been more aggressive coming after me than Annette. And in the previous mission I had to kill the other Blue Lions, with of course Dmitri and Dedue in particular being wholly unavoidable.

You also have to kill Setheth and, unfortunately, Flayn on the Black Eagles path. Unless something special happens if your support rank is higher than the C I had with them, I don't think there's any way around that. They're Church loyalists, and the win condition on their mission is to defeat all of the enemy generals, plural, and Flayn sadly has a general marker on her the same way Setheth does.

Leaving spoilers behind, yeah, all in all, very pleased with it, like the new gameplay elements and look forward to seeing them on a harder difficulty, really liked the plot and look forward to seeing the other iterations of it*. Probably the strongest overall entry in the franchise at this point, I'd say.

Now I need to decide whether to start my next file as New Game+ or not... I never am entirely sure whether I want to the kind of benefits that confers. Also, might go back tomorrow and read some other people's spoiler posts that I've been avoiding, though ones that are specific to the late-game of non-Black Eagles paths I might still wait on.

Spoiler: *Actually, about that... (Black Eagle spoilers from around the time-skip point)

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I'm very curious what impact choosing to accompany Edelgard to the capital when she was crowned Emperor has, since that was called out as something that would influence the plot, but I don't actually see what it would change. Choosing whether to defy Rhea's order to (try to) kill Edelgard after the battle in the tomb obviously splits things between siding with or against the Church, but that one's unclear. Anyone have any idea?