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You can repeat any map you've completed except the first two prologue ones. Even the shorter side chapters you do on the war map; those are under the header of whatever chapter they were in.McTimmy posted:They don't seem to know that the SotC is in the tomb, it seems more like they were trying to do something regarding Seiros or her bones. There's a whole stash of crest stone shards down there, which can be used to make Black/White Beasts. That's not a shabby haul, though IIRC, they were searching for Sothis' crest stone and assumed it would be in the SotC. I think they probably knew where Seiros' bones were, and the Slitherers' ultimate scheme hinged on grafting the Crest of Flames onto Edelgard. Don't think we're ever explicitly told what their original plan for her was, but I think the fair assumption is that they wanted to turn her into another Nemesis, especially given the clone lab that was shoehorned into the end of Verdant Wind.
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Jul 7, 2022 18:08
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:You can repeat any map you've completed except the first two prologue ones. Even the shorter side chapters you do on the war map; those are under the header of whatever chapter they were in. I blame the game for making both a Holy Mausoleum where the Saints are supposed to be and a Holy Tomb which is hidden beneath all that where Sothis was and totally not myself for typing the wrong word. McTimmy fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Jul 7, 2022 |
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Jul 7, 2022 18:13
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Also I just wanna note that I'm really enjoying AG and the blue lions cast with different circumstances. They've always been pretty strong characters, but I like that we see them in pretty drastically different lights. Sylvain taking his 'unapplied genius' and actually working on military and social reform to try and change the situation on the Gautier border (along with trying to reach out and use diplomacy with Sreng) Felix having to take actual responsibility and not be able to just run off and practice his sword. Ingrid confronting the fact that Galatea kinda just sucks, and that she needs to work hard not to be a knight but to be a good ruler who can make her land suck less. They're all good and easy to see how you get to them rather than their 3 houses characters, by having them placed in situations where their worst traits don't have time to fester. . Overall I'd say the biggest difference Azure Gleam vs Azure Moon is that Moon is a story of a bunch of characters overcoming character flaws, and Gleam is a story about a bunch of characters overcoming societal struggles. I'm still not a huge fan of Ashe, though I think saying he's changed the most from 3Houses is... very wrong, I dunno why anyone would say that. He's basically identical to the point where it stands out even more compared to everyone else.
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Jul 7, 2022 19:03
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The weird thing is that the Western Church in the original was being tricked by the slithers but wasn’t run by them. Houses makes clear that while the western church thought they were stealing Seiros’ bones, Thales was knew it was the Sword and is clearly using the church as a patsy. Seteth and Flayns paralogue likewise has them as ignorant dupes who are sincere believers and think Seteths wife’s grave is it’s official stated purpose as a saint shrine. Ashe even uncovers the Bishops big secret stash of incriminating documents and never finds anything about mole people.
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Jul 7, 2022 19:42
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I think Dimitri and the Kingdom in general are good characters for giving more depth to the conflict, and having Dimitri not be consumed with bloodlust is important in a more geopolitically-focused story in order to keep the focus on the contrasting visions and beliefs of the three leaders. This Dimitri's able to articulate his genuine belief in the status quo and being a "good king" within the established system, which puts more of a human face on the forces resisting Edelgard's social revolution than Rhea ranting about heretics does. The ending of Golden Wildfire where the implicit agreement of the three leaders is that Dimitri retreats westward, away from the church, so that Edelgard can pin him down while Claud takes out Rhea is such a great political moment. Even to save the kingdom, Dimitri can't bring himself to publicly or even privately admit to abandoning the institution to which he feels indebted, his beliefs demand that he couch it in a geopolitical stalemate that is still clearly costing lives. He claims abandoning the church will collapse the kingdom, but he's clearly just as afraid of change as the rest of his people. When Claude presses him on how he would also benefit from ending the crest-based system of aristocratic rule by removing the burden of responsibility that's crushing him, he instinctively rejects it, saying he agrees as a person but cannot as a king. He's fully a miserable subject and product of the system, and can only be carefully backed out of it by force.
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Jul 7, 2022 20:09
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See now that is actually a pretty interesting look for Demtri. He’s still the bad guy but you get what he’s on about
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Jul 7, 2022 20:23
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It’s not like Dimitri’s happy with the status quo, he agrees with Claude and the changes Edelgard is implementing. But as a King he understands that his people won’t respond well to societal upheavals that Edelgard is doing and believes that change can come, and more importantly be sustained, from a place of stability in their lives. And it’s not hard to understand where he’s coming from: the Kingdom just recently had a succession crisis and the culprits of the regicide that took the previous king’s life was due to their own lords, not the people of a neighboring kingdom who were killed in retaliation and displaced, and who those same people will now be given back their home. And you expect them to accept an end to the Crest system, which Faerghus relies on more than the Empire and Alliance since the Kingdom is a lot more harsher and crests and relics are kind of necessary at the moment to defend it, and government on top of all of that? It’d lead to more bloodshed, which Dimitri doesn’t want.
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Jul 7, 2022 20:28
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It’s going to lead to bloodshed no matter what. He doesn’t get a choice in that
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Jul 7, 2022 20:29
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Petra - Hubert C rank  Hubert is simply so genuinely happy when Petra threatens him and the Empire because she has political leverage and she's not afraid to use it.
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Jul 7, 2022 20:31
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CharlestheHammer posted:It’s going to lead to bloodshed no matter what. He doesn’t get a choice in that I mean, that’s the whole tragedy of Three Houses/Hopes: Dimitri, Edelgard, and Claude all want the same thing but while Dimitri wants to change the status quo peacefully and through gradual improvements, that runs in opposition to what Edelgard and Claude want to go about changing things
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Jul 7, 2022 20:36
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Omobono posted:Petra - Hubert C rank Hubert and Petra are easily the most improved Eagles by Hopes and they rule so loving hard.
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Jul 7, 2022 20:37
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SgtSteel91 posted:I mean, that’s the whole tragedy of Three Houses/Hopes: Dimitri, Edelgard, and Claude all want the same thing but while Dimitri wants to change the status quo peacefully and through gradual improvements, that runs in opposition to what Edelgard and Claude want to go about changing things I feel like the latter two recognise that the former is impossible as long as there's an evil sexy dragon pope making sure that the status quo does not change.
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Jul 7, 2022 20:40
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SgtSteel91 posted:I mean, that’s the whole tragedy of Three Houses/Hopes: Dimitri, Edelgard, and Claude all want the same thing but while Dimitri wants to change the status quo peacefully and through gradual improvements, that runs in opposition to what Edelgard and Claude want to go about changing things I mean I’m not talking about the other kingdoms. Does he think the old system is just gonna give up just because he does it slowly? They will fight back regardless. He can make it less painful I guess but if he thinks he can just change things slowly and no one will care he might be less delusional as the boar
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Jul 7, 2022 20:45
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Also Dimitri doesn't have anything he really wants to change in particular. Sure, when someone brings something up he says "Oh, I'm not opposed to that." but in general he is incredibly conservative and unwilling to actually advance anything new or meaningful on his own. 3 Hopes even further undercuts his big revelation from 3 Houses and makes Azure Moon even more of a farce than it already was "The people will rise up against a bad king!!" rings even more hollow with our expanded understanding of the politics because as long as they have the crest of Blaidyyd literally nothing else matters
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Jul 7, 2022 20:47
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Zore posted:Also Dimitri doesn't have anything he really wants to change in particular. Sure, when someone brings something up he says "Oh, I'm not opposed to that." but in general he is incredibly conservative and unwilling to actually advance anything new or meaningful on his own. It’s actually interesting that you can say he’s a perfectly fine king in times of tranquility but in times of upheaval he’s just bad. Which is something that people talk about in real life.
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Jul 7, 2022 20:52
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galagazombie posted:The weird thing is that the Western Church in the original was being tricked by the slithers but wasn’t run by them. Houses makes clear that while the western church thought they were stealing Seiros’ bones, Thales was knew it was the Sword and is clearly using the church as a patsy. Seteth and Flayns paralogue likewise has them as ignorant dupes who are sincere believers and think Seteths wife’s grave is it’s official stated purpose as a saint shrine. Ashe even uncovers the Bishops big secret stash of incriminating documents and never finds anything about mole people. My favourite thing about the western church is that they're the comically racist extremist branch which makes a lot of elements of the story much funnier
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Jul 7, 2022 20:53
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Ultimately Dimitri is just not particularly cerebral and isn't really qualified to sit at the table with the heavily-armed poli-sci majors and discuss the ideal social structure.
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Jul 7, 2022 20:56
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Yeah and I kind of wished the game leaned into that
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Jul 7, 2022 20:58
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Eimi posted:Hubert and Petra are easily the most improved Eagles by Hopes and they rule so loving hard. Uh, no, that is patently false. You're implying that Hubert wasn't already perfect. Zore posted:3 Hopes even further undercuts his big revelation from 3 Houses and makes Azure Moon even more of a farce than it already was "The people will rise up against a bad king!!" rings even more hollow with our expanded understanding of the politics because as long as they have the crest of Blaidyyd literally nothing else matters Ehh, I'm not sure it's worse in that regard. Fearghus spent half of Azure Moon as a literal death cult tethered to Dimitri as he kept leaping into the jaws of death and barely failing to get himself killed. Azure Gleam's undercurrent of his potential death sparking another civil war seems kind of tame compared to that.
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Jul 7, 2022 21:00
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Huh interesting, since none of the dialogue between the lords changes between the routes in the secret chapter, on SB it's implied that Dimitri rooted out and killed Cornelia on his own even without Shez around.
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Jul 7, 2022 21:03
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:Uh, no, that is patently false. You're implying that Hubert wasn't already perfect. I mostly mean in Moon you could write a lot of that off as a situation specific to Dimitri who has a lot of sympathy and relationships with other powerful people. Gleam confirms the real politik of it wasn't relying on people being specifically sympathetic or attached to Dimitri but instead the stability of his crest which makes it a lot darker imo. And means the calculation likely would have been the same even if he was worse which isn't something AM outright says.
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Jul 7, 2022 21:06
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Sydin posted:Huh interesting, since none of the dialogue between the lords changes between the routes in the secret chapter, on SB it's implied that Dimitri rooted out and killed Cornelia on his own even without Shez around. The secret chapter is frustrating. On SB the Empire Alliance pact is in a quantum state of existence since it's gone on the bad route. Just weirdly lazy writing. Also at first I didn't know you skipped those chapters on the bad route, so I thought the reason that Shez was the one who carved their way out of Zahras was in reflection of that. But nope, you only go there if you saved Byleth. Byleth should've been the one to save everyone. She's already merged with Sothis, it's one of the most badass scenes from Houses, and it would actually highlight how important keeping her alive is.  Just like how underbaked Arval is it's a really missed opportunity to not have Byleth matter more in the good ending. Zulily Zoetrope posted:Uh, no, that is patently false. You're implying that Hubert wasn't already perfect. He went from a 10/10 to an 11/10 still an improvement.
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Jul 7, 2022 21:08
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Rand Brittain posted:Ultimately Dimitri is just not particularly cerebral and isn't really qualified to sit at the table with the heavily-armed poli-sci majors and discuss the ideal social structure. Even if he's less insane this time, Dimitri is still full of self-loathing - he readily admits he's unworthy to be king and only really good for war. The ideals of chivalry and duty he's raised to believe in have essentially led him to believing he ought to lose, and in both of his routes it's up to his close friends and followers to snap him out of it. This doesn't really change his politics, though, it just makes him more functional within them. Since this is a game and not an actual politics simulator, I totally get the appeal of siding with this tragic figure and prioritizing his and his friends' journey of personal growth and self-actualization over what's actually best for Fodlan in the long-term. Some folks just like fixing up a sadboy. It's kind of telling how hard the story has to twist this time around to accommodate that (the Edelgard stuff is just embarrassing), and in a game that's more focused on Fodlan as a place of politics and war instead of deep lore mysteries, I think he works best as an antagonist in the other routes.
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Jul 7, 2022 21:18
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Eimi posted:The secret chapter is frustrating. On SB the Empire Alliance pact is in a quantum state of existence since it's gone on the bad route. Just weirdly lazy writing. Also at first I didn't know you skipped those chapters on the bad route, so I thought the reason that Shez was the one who carved their way out of Zahras was in reflection of that. But nope, you only go there if you saved Byleth. Byleth should've been the one to save everyone. She's already merged with Sothis, it's one of the most badass scenes from Houses, and it would actually highlight how important keeping her alive is. Yeah that particular choice wrt Byleth is really dumb and it would have been really easy to use your suggestion to make them matter a bit more and explain why saving them = good ending. It's also weird that after Sothis takes over Byleth once, they never do it again except on the bad routes, even in the extra chapter when Shez goes nuts and starts wailing on Byleth. You'd think Sothis would have something to say about that!
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Jul 7, 2022 21:30
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I think people take some of Dimitris lines out of context a lot, like the popular one currently is the one about “not needing new freedoms” which if you just see the screenshot that people always post looks bad, but he’s actually talking about how his country is in the middle of like eight civil wars and telling his retainers he wants them all out of a job will start eight more. Think Shez’s convo with Edelgard where they tell her “Yeah you say that in ten years everything will be wonderful but my children are dying because of your war today”.
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Jul 7, 2022 21:38
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What’s the context that makes it better then
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Jul 7, 2022 21:43
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The only new context Hopes brings to Dimitri's incremental progress shtick is that his father was trying to implement big sweeping reforms which pissed off a bunch of western nobles enough that they partnered up with the western church and slithers to kick off the tragedy of Duscar which got a bunch of people Dimitri knew and loved killed and by proxy got Duscar decimated in false reprisal. So from Dimitri's perspective the last time somebody tried to bring sweeping change to the Kingdom it just resulted in a shitload of death and suffering and all the reforms ended up being rolled back by reactionaries, and he doesn't see why things would be any different if he rolled over for Edelgard to give it a crack. It doesn't make things "better" per say, but it explains why Dimitri personally really has hangups over taking a sledgehammer to the existing structures of power even if he admits to Claude in the secret chapter that on a personal level he agrees the central church kinda sucks.
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Jul 7, 2022 21:49
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CharlestheHammer posted:What’s the context that makes it better then Even if you agree that the end result is worth it (And I do support Edelgard actually) civil wars tend to result in a lot of dead commoners, pillaged land/towns, and often result in the “winners” being so depleted they’re in no position to implement whatever high minded ideals they went in with at the start. And good luck implementing reform when a civil war has left you so depleted you can’t resist any kind of foreign invasion, which to Fargeus is a very real and constant threat in a way it isn’t for the Empire.
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Jul 7, 2022 22:06
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Dimitri: turning a big dial taht says "Socialism" on it and constantly looking back at the lords for approval like a contestant on the price is right
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Jul 7, 2022 22:07
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galagazombie posted:Even if you agree that the end result is worth it (And I do support Edelgard actually) civil wars tend to result in a lot of dead commoners, pillaged land/towns, and often result in the “winners” being so depleted they’re in no position to implement whatever high minded ideals they went in with at the start. And good luck implementing reform when a civil war has left you so depleted you can’t resist any kind of foreign invasion, which to Fargeus is a very real and constant threat in a way it isn’t for the Empire. But he’s for reforms in theory. So if he starts any reform he’s going to get backlash from the lords, because doing it slowly isn’t going to trick them into not realizing it was happening. Maybe someone who is extremely savy could pull that off with is lot of politicking but our boy ain’t that. Even then it’s pretty unlikely
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Jul 7, 2022 22:15
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The line where Dimitri says 'Sweeping change isn't what Faerghus needs right now' is followed by him saying 'What we need before we can inflict change is stability. We cannot create a more just society when people still struggle to eat'. Unlike Edelgard and Claude who... mostly don't have that much trouble during the timeskip, Dimitri has been fighting civil war after civil war that only kicks into a more violent war as the empire demands they kowtow or die. A lot of people say it's obvious that if people are starving and struggling that he should bow to Edelgard since the empire has the richest most abundant food sources on Fodlan. But how often does a conquering empire spend time and resources helping who they conquered?
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Jul 7, 2022 22:15
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I mean at least half the chapters of Scarlet Blaze is Edelgard having to halt her plans to devote time and resources to bail out the nobles who bent the knee. It's happened at least once.
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Jul 7, 2022 22:25
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KittyEmpress posted:The line where Dimitri says 'Sweeping change isn't what Faerghus needs right now' is followed by him saying 'What we need before we can inflict change is stability. We cannot create a more just society when people still struggle to eat'. Unlike Edelgard and Claude who... mostly don't have that much trouble during the timeskip, Dimitri has been fighting civil war after civil war that only kicks into a more violent war as the empire demands they kowtow or die. Yeah the big thing here is trust, and in Hopes with its cancellation of school there is zero of it between the lords. None of them know each other or how they think, and none of them have any reason to take anything the others say at face value. We the player know Edelgard is sincere because we’ve spent two games getting to know her and having support convos with her. To Dimitri she’s just the umpteenth invading foreign monarch in as many years, and every previous one probably said something about how they were the good guy too.
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Jul 7, 2022 22:26
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At the end of the day Edelgard is just impossibly nice for a realistic emperor on a war of aggressive conquest.
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Jul 7, 2022 22:36
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galagazombie posted:I think people take some of Dimitris lines out of context a lot, like the popular one currently is the one about “not needing new freedoms” which if you just see the screenshot that people always post looks bad, but he’s actually talking about how his country is in the middle of like eight civil wars and telling his retainers he wants them all out of a job will start eight more. Think Shez’s convo with Edelgard where they tell her “Yeah you say that in ten years everything will be wonderful but my children are dying because of your war today”. It's easy to overread some of his comments, but there's still a lot of important implications in there. In the secret chapter he fully says one reason he's against abolishing the church is it would remove the divine right of kings - which isn't to say he loves the idea that he's in charge because he's the goddess's chosen and most favored, but it does mean that he's worried about the consequences of weakening the legitimacy of his government that's already had a succession crisis or two in his lifetime. To be fair, all three lords are the product of their upbringing and experiences. Edelgard in particular got her insight into the true nature of power in Fodlan and iron resolve to change it from the same place she got her belief that only she can be trusted to execute that change, and that any price is worth paying for it. A lot of people understandably wish she could've taken a more collaborative approach, but a less disciplined and committed Edelgard wouldn't have made it this far in the first place, at least as anything but a puppet.
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Jul 7, 2022 22:41
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Also regarding Edelgard specifically, Dimitri has some kind of weird obsession with her. He can kill his own uncle and confront the alien mole people and keep his cool, even after being told to his face that they conspired to murder his family and half his subjects, but the second he suspects Edelgard maybe was involved he snaps and goes full boar. Even on Azure Gleam we get to see a second of him suppressing the Boar the first time he entertains the thought. It's never resolved past Edelgard telling him to gently caress all the way off when he tries to treat her as a little sister in the secret bonus chapter. E: And yeah, much as everyone hates it, I'm pretty sure that the intended message of Azure Gleam's empire storyline was to show what happens when Edelgard lets her guard down for a second, rather than the comedy discourse answer of giving us a plausible way to let her subscribe to Dimitri's worldview. Zulily Zoetrope fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Jul 7, 2022 |
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Jul 7, 2022 22:43
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Rand Brittain posted:At the end of the day Edelgard is just impossibly nice for a realistic emperor on a war of aggressive conquest. Eh Julius Cesar was notoriously nice and forgiving and he killed a lot of people. A lot
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Jul 7, 2022 22:52
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:Also regarding Edelgard specifically, Dimitri has some kind of weird obsession with her. He can kill his own uncle and confront the alien mole people and keep his cool, even after being told to his face that they conspired to murder his family and half his townspeople, but the second he suspects Edelgard maybe was involved he snaps and goes full boar. Even on Azure Gleam we get to see a second of him suppressing the Boar the first time he entertains the thought. It's never resolved past Edelgard telling him to gently caress all the way off when he tries to treat her as a little sister in the secret bonus chapter. Dimitri's family all got murdered and is very hosed up by that so he values his one remaining family member very highly even if she doesn't know they're secret family so her being involved in his family's death hits harder for him. I guess he has an offscreen Uncle as well (until Hopes) but that dude seems like an rear end in a top hat. Anyway Dimitri's just a Camus. A man that personally aligns with the protag's morality and seems like a cool dude but due to their duties and obligations opposes the party as the sympathetic enemy general. I think he's a pretty good character of that archetype in GW at least tbh. He and Claude are used as solid foils to each other at times and it works pretty well. One of my favourite things about Hopes is how the relationship between the house leaders is a bigger deal in this game when before it only really got major focus between Edie and Dimitri in AM. They're all cool guys and I like when they're interacting even if it's just them quipping at each other in the middle of a battlefield. SyntheticPolygon fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Jul 7, 2022 |
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Jul 7, 2022 22:56
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Rand Brittain posted:At the end of the day Edelgard is just impossibly nice for a realistic emperor on a war of aggressive conquest. I mean if anything this game makes her much more cold and brutal. She tells Monica to her face that she knew where Monica was the whole time and knew she was going to be tortured and killed and that she was fulling willing to sacrifice Monica if doing so brought her closer to achieving her goals.
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Jul 7, 2022 23:10
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But she's working less closely with the Slithers so it evens out.
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Jul 7, 2022 23:12
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