The Fire Emblem Three Houses Review-athon Part 3: Crimson Flower

Welcome one and all to the final blog in a trilogy of Fire Emblem: Three Houses posts! Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is but one single Friday away as of the day of this post’s publication and I wanted to take one more chance to reflect on the good, the bad, and a humble hope for the imminent Warriors-themed spin-off. As such, expect MAJOR SPOILERS and subjective perspectives ahead!

In the first blog, I talked about Azure Moon, declaring it my favorite of Three Houses’s stories for its stellar focus on the development of its characters (albeit at the expense of some loose plot threads and unanswered questions from White Clouds). The following week, I talked about Verdant Wind and how I enjoyed Claude and the Leicester students in spite of borrowed plot beats from the admittedly more Fire Emblem-feeling Silver Snow. Now, we explore Crimson Flower, placing the player down the path of the last remaining lord character, emperor Edelgard von Hresvelg. Is hers able to hold a candle next to all the other game’s fun stories?

the story path that places the player alongside the third of the game’s Lord characters, Emperor Edelgard von Hresvelg. Is hers able to hold a candle next to all the other game’s fun stories?

Well…

She Who Slithers With The Dark (Can’t find the source for this one, but I’d appreciate help finding it!)

The Plot (and Lord)

Unfortunately, if I had to describe Crimson Flower with a single word, it would be “ungratifying.” Without a doubt, I consider it my least favorite of Three Houses’s plots for a share of different reasons.

The premise itself is nothing offensive, at least by Fire Emblem standards: after the player character decides to protect Edelgard after she reveals herself to be the mysterious Flame Emperor who has had a hand in the series of unfortunate events surrounding Garreg Mach, a mad-driven Rhea brands you an enemy of the Church of Seiros, Allying yourself with Edelgard, you team up and scorch your way across Fódlan in order to liberate it from the influence of the Children of the Goddess (Rhea) and free the people—and herself—from dependence on Crests and blind devotion to false, corrupt gods and traditions.

the little Emperor of Adrestia scorches her way through Fódlan to liberate it from the Children of the Goddess and free the people—and herself—from dependence on Crests and blind devotion to false, corrupt gods.

But there’s a catch beyond your classic “take down the gods and give humanity its freedom from them” story thanks to the presence of Those Who Slither in the Dark (whom you have and will continue to hear me refer to by their more proper name, the Agarthans). Just like all other routes, they serve as behind-the-scenes troublemakers and the cause of virtually everything that goes wrong in Fódlan throughout the story, but in Crimson Flower, their cooperation with the Empire also makes them unlikely allies against the Church. Edelgard’s confidant, Hubert, pulls you aside before the beginning of the first post-timeskip battle to inform you of this and assure you that this alliance is temporary and that Edelgard, who counts among the most tormented by their schemes, plans to deal with them once their usefulness comes to an end.

Honestly, that’s a really compelling plot point. Being forced into situations where you have to ally with and account for the villainy polluting your faction is quite the conundrum, and the moment in the story where you can finally sever and abolish those necessary evils is almost always satisfying. But therein lies my biggest problem with Crimson Flower: that moment never comes (or, at least, is put into the player’s hands to resolve).

Whereas the other routes have between twenty-two and twenty-three chapters to playthrough, Crimson Flower only gets eighteen (only six of which are post-timeskip). Two deal with the Leicester Alliance, one involves a Knights of Seiros counter-offensive, and a two-chapter finale that sees the end of the Kingdom and the Children of the Goddess. Only a single chapter placed right before the finale chapters has you dealing with the Agarthans directly, and it results in little else but eye-for-eye retribution as they launch a magic missile at the fort you captured in the process. The remainder of the story from that point on is about defeating the Church. After Rhea is slain, the final cutscene plays and presents us with the new Fódlan Edelgard fought to usher forth and the beginning of the shadow war with Those Who Slither in the Dark…and then, the end. There is no resolution to the other antagonist that are emphasized as being a problem their own right beyond a few character ending cards that say literal seconds before the credits roll that they were ultimately dealt with.

Azure Moon has a similar problem with plot points being unaddressed, but at least they are mostly player character-related revelations left over from White Clouds that end up getting addressed well enough in other routes where they get more focus. Crimson Flower’s unresolved plot points, meanwhile, are set up BY the Crimson Flower story itself, and get the equivalent of a sticky note tagged on saying “trust me, bro: they lived happily ever after.”

If we had at least one more chapter that definitively dealt with the Agarthans, either as an added chapter before the current final chapter or as the story’s new conclusion, I would be happy to shrug off my other problems with Crimson Flower and declare it to be a story that just makes me feel slimy in light of all the other routes I played first but nonetheless does what it set out to do. Alas, the lack of any proper conclusion to the Agarthan problem makes Crimson Flower’s ending completely unsatisfying, not to mention completely counterproductive to the character development of the route’s main star, Edelgard.

From start to finish, Edelgard is framed as a tragic victim of circumstance. Her family’s power was stripped by corrupt nobility, and in the aftermath, she and her siblings were subjected to grueling blood experiments run by her own “uncle” Arundel. As the sole survivor of their heinous tests and surgeries, she is forced to become a tool for Those Who Slither in the Dark and an instrument in their vengeance against the Goddess and her Children. Her dispute with the Children of the Goddess is separate from theirs’, but nonetheless means she is forced to work alongside them to see her own dreams achieved. Only through the player character and the realization that she need not walk her chosen path alone does she receive any sort of solace.

In my opinion, the ultimate theme of Edelgard’s story. In the grand, political sense, she works to liberate Fódlan from the clutches of ancient beasts, outdated policies, old grudges, and a history filled with falsehoods (which leads to irony as she covers up the ballistic missile attack to suit her own agenda without any pushback, thus briefly making her no better than her enemies) and the story very much sees this goal to its fruition. However, Edelgard also craves freedom in the deeply personal sense as well; beneath her lofty ambitions are a lot of personal baggage and a hardened heart that knows no sacrifice is too great if it means achieving her dreams and, to that end, securing her own freedom along the way.

Without any offering by the story for a satisfying confrontation and conclusion to her conflict with the Agarthans, however, that freedom never feels fully achieved, and her personal journey doesn’t just feel underdeveloped: it feels disturbingly inconclusive.

Vanquishing the Children of the Goddess accomplishes the former of her schemes, but without so much as a direct conclusion to her quarrel with the Agarthans, her personal journey doesn’t just feel undercooked—it feels disturbingly and depressingly inconclusive and paints her character more in light of what the Agarthans intended for her rather than what she planned to accomplish for herself.

The Cast

Despite my gripes with the larger aspects of the plot, I do want to give credit where its due to Crimson Flower for its cast, who strike a moderate middle ground between the good things I had to say about the Golden Deer and Blue Lions. Not counting Edelgard, five of the seven Black Eagles are associated with the Adrestian Empire’s leading noble houses. You can cheat and say its actually six if you count Petra in the place of Duke Gerth, the Empire’s minister of foreign affairs, due to her status as a foreign royal to establish the contemporary situation with Adrestia’s western island neighbors. The only odd one out is token commoner Dorothea, who more than makes up for her lack of status with classy characterization and a magnifying glass on both the Empire’s commoner situation and a bit of world-building via her ties to the Mittlefrank Opera Company.

While Crimson Flower is the foremost victim of Three Houses’s tendency of making important characters who never show up during the story, their heirs do a good job at being mascots of the Empire—and its problems—in their stead, showcasing the inherent weaknesses of Fódlan’s nobility- and Crest-focused social structure. Caspar and Bernadetta are the foremost victims of the system as per the former getting nothing due to being a second born child to his father, the Count, while Bernadetta’s anxieties stem from years of cruelty and abuse from her father’s attempt to make her “marriageable.” On the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got Ferdinand, whose status as the heir of House Aegir leads to pompousness and taking things for granted. The rest serve in various capacities, such as Linhardt’s Crest Research and Hubert’s more questionable approach to problem-solving.

Ultimately, the Black Eagles are a fair mix of personality and lore, positioned in a way that doesn’t obstruct the greater narrative while still remaining relevant to making Fódlan feel fresh and alive. However, their positive contributions aren’t exclusive to the route where Edelgard is your ally…

Silver Snow & Edelgard the Tragic Villain

For just a moment, I want to bring up Silver Snow one more time, this time as the antithesis to Crimson Flower.

As the “alternate” story for players who choose the Black Eagle House, Silver Snow is the story for those who either choose against siding with Edelgard or fail to meet the prerequisites to be able to do so. As a result, Edelgard becomes the story’s premier antagonist (and takes Hubert with her) as your mission becomes ending the war as leader of a resistance army and finding Rhea.

Silver Snow ends up offering the personal connection to Edelgard with you having been her teacher while adding a tragic twist by putting you both at odds with each other, culminating in a sad cutscene where she demands that you strike her down to bring an end to the bloodshed while lamenting that all she wanted was “to walk with you.” In the wake of her death, she entrusts you with resolving matters with Those Who Slither in the Dark and bring their days of meddling in Fódlan’s affairs to a screeching halt and, in a way, the finale where you must put down a crazed Rhea means you technically helped her accomplish her mission to give the world back to humanity through a reformed Church of Seiros and a united Fódlan.

Honestly, I consider Edelgard as a tragic villain in Silver Snow and other routes a better character than Edelgard as presented in Crimson Flower. Azure Moon gives us a unique look at an Edelgard who is able to separate herself from the Agarthans and show what she is willing to do of her own volition, while Verdant Wind, while not exactly establishing a strong connection to Edelgard, still presents her as not so far flung from Claude’s own ideals and ambitions.

Silver Snow, Azure Moon, and Verdant Wind deserve props for pulling that off, but just like Pokémon Legends: Arceus made me sad because of how worse it makes Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl feel in retrospect, so too does it make me sad that Edelgard’s story is done more satisfyingly in every route other than her own.

Conclusion

Crimson Flower suffers from a lot of issues, from being way too short to not having a satisfying enough ending in light of the fact that you essentially have to work for the bad guys. I said it before, but it bears repeating: if the game offered just one more chapter to actually deal with Those Who Slither in the dark, then it would have made everything Edelgard and the player character have to endure feel at least a little more worthwhile. Unfortunately, Crimson Flower just never delivered.

I know people who play Azure Moon first and/or like it the most are more inclined to not like Edelgard, but make no mistake: I like Edelgard. I understand her motivations and recognize her intentions (even if I still consider myself more of a pro-Dimitri kind of guy). My problem is more with Crimson Flower and its failure to give her the ending that I feel she really deserved.

A Three Hopes Hope

Despite all the things I’ve said about Crimson Flower—or rather, in light of them—my plan is to play through Scarlett Blaze as my first route when Three Hopes comes out.

Make no mistake: I’m a Blue Lions boy through and through (for now), but if Azure Gleam turns out to be a disappointment, I’ll always have what we got from Three Houses and be able to enjoy that instead. The same goes for Verdant Wind to an extent, but Crimson Flower sorely lacks that luxury.

A new, divergent story from the one we got in Three Houses provides the perfect opportunity to address and resolve the things that weren’t in Edelgard’s original story, especially her dealings with Those Who Slither in the Dark. I would never expect her to give up her grudge against the Church nor her plans to demolish Fódlan’s social structure and rebuild it from the ground up, but confronting the darkness that plagues Adrestia and pulls her strings from the shadows is something I am desperate to see.

Of course, the demo came out two weeks ago, so I can’t talk like I haven’t gotten a taste of what’s to come. All I’ll say for now is that in just three prologue chapters, Scarlett Blaze Edelgard has blown Crimson Flower Edelgard WAY out of the water for me. Still, all we’ve gotten from Three Hopes so far is exactly that: prologues. There’s still an entire rest of the game to play, and a whole lot that can change or deviate thoughts and opinions in the meantime.

I’d prefer we steer clear of any kind of “golden ending” and I am deathly afraid of an ending that pulls a “reset button” approach that just takes us right back to the events of Three Houses. They don’t need to be better or worse than how Three Houses’s stories ended; what matters is that they end up being sufficient, fulfilling conclusions in their own right.

Thus, my third, final, and most desperate Three Hopes hope is that the game provides fulfilling conclusions for all of its story paths.

Thanks for Reading!

Just in case you couldn’t pick up on it, Three Houses is a pretty important game to me. It released during a relatively contentious time in my life and it’s ended up influencing the way I like video games and media storytelling in more ways than one. As (surprisingly) excited as I am for Three Hopes, I wouldn’t even be thinking about it if the game that inspired it wasn’t amazing in the first place.

One last thank you for putting time aside for these silly little blogs. I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I did writing them, and I’ll see you next week when I finally have something to talk about other than Fire Emblem!

…Oh! I almost forgot:

The Fire Emblem: Three Houses Review-athon Part ???: Cindered Shadows

The story’s neat but a bit of a hustle, the Ashen Wolves are a really fun quartet of characters, and Chapter 4 can take its crazy gates and shove it.

Fin!