Hey, Gamers. I didn’t want to properly talk about this game until after I had finished my first playthrough. I never really like talking about games until I finish them because I’m well aware things can change in the plot and I don’t want to look like an idiot. But, alas, this is all I can really think of right now, so let’s get into it.
DISCLAIMER: I have not finished my first playthrough. I am on Chapter 18 of the Blue Lions route. I did plan on doing all three, but I am very mad at the Alliance right now, so I might not do a Golden Deer route.
SPOILER WARNING: I know this game was made in 2019, but I mean, I’m only playing it now so I feel like it’s only right for me to say that this post will contain major plot spoilers.
Lastly, if you’re playing the “drink a shot each time El mentions her mother died” game, you’re not going to survive this post. Sorry.
Anyway, in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, you are the child of a renowned captain and mercenary called Jeralt Eisner. You grow up out of the loop of all the politics of the land, as a mercenary fighting by your father’s side. You eventually end up saving some kids from the officers academy, and they insist on you both coming back to the monastery with them. One of the knights from said monastery – Alois – immediately recognises your father as his old captain. Alois is a part of the Knights of Seiros, which you quickly learn is what your father did before you were born. You go to the monastery, meet people your father used to know, and become a teacher very quickly because the archbishop just trusts you.
From there, you pick a house of students from the officers academy. The decision is between the Black Eagles, the Blue Lions and the Golden Deer (although I don’t recommend these guys, since they’re too stupid to understand that a person who is avoiding attacking you is not the enemy). I picked the Blue Lions because they had more likable characters and I didn’t want to just pick a house based on the leader. Also, imperialism is bad (Editor’s Note: but Edelgard makes imperialism good so don’t listen to Eleanor, pick the Black Eagles every time.) and my attitude is “eat the rich” so the best thing was the monarchy. I haven’t explained that at all, have I? Each house is based on where on the continent the students are from. So, the Empire is the Black Eagles; the Kingdom is the Blue Lions; the Alliance (just a bunch of rich guys holding power, really) is the Golden Deer. Nobility is all over this game, though, so I can’t get away with ignoring stuck up rich people just because I picked a different house. Anyway –
You are tasked with training your students in whatever way they want to fight. You have to raise things like their lance skills, their faith skills, their riding skills, etc. Each month, you have an assignment which basically means you’re going to have a big fight. Throughout the month, you get the chance to fight in smaller fights to level up the students. Each chapter is one month, and the assignment typically takes place on the last few days of the month.
In Chapter 9, your house teams up with your father for a big, important fight. Everything goes well. The fail conditions are if your character or Jeralt die, which makes sense because Jeralt made a big deal about how the people of this place you’re fighting helped you guys out and you owe your lives to them. So, we’re 9 months into the school year, everything is chill and the fight goes well. Then, your father gets stabbed by a student you previously saved. Despite having Divine Pulse – a rewind power – you cannot save him. Nothing can save him. He is gone.
I have played a lot of games where a lot of people died, but I think this is the first game I’ve played with the loss of a parent since going through it myself. And it was so accurate. The heavy feeling, the hopelessness, the way people talk to you, the way your life seems to just… change. It’s been over 7 months since my mother died now, and I still remember how it felt like it was yesterday. But I don’t cry every day anymore. The mention of her doesn’t make me break down. But this game did. Because although I remember the feeling every single day, I don’t feel it every day. But this game made me go through it all over again. Man, I’ve tried so hard to keep what happens in this game from Josh because it’s the first time in forever – genuinely maybe ever – that I’m playing something first, but he was there when my mum died and he knew how hard I was crying and I was so scared I was giving it away and eventually I did. But I don’t think knowing about it beforehand would make it any less painful.
When a parent dies, no one knows what to say to you. You get told how much they loved you, how proud they were of you, how great they were… but nothing changes. Words don’t change that they’re dead, and you already knew how great they were and how proud they were of you and how much they loved you. You already knew. But people feel like they have to say these things, because they have to say something and they know “sorry” isn’t going to make things better, either. At the end of the day, it can feel like you’ve just been going around to help other people with their grief rather than dealing with your own.
And that’s why I wanted to talk about one of the best inclusions: Sothis. When you talk to her before leaving your room, she reminds you that it’s okay to cry, and you actually have the option to take some time for your character to cry (the screen fades, things like that). I think this is so important, and so accurate. Because so much of a child’s grief is done alone, because they know that everyone else is grieving too.
I’ve never played a game where it physically hurt me after a character died, until this one. I don’t know if that’s because the game did an amazing job, or because I’ve been through losing a parent now, or maybe a bit of both. The game just does such a good job in chapter 10, where all the students are so focused on you and helping you and the way each character treats you. It’s not like every character reacts the same way, either; there’s literally one who’s like “I’ve never been one for condolences” and it makes sense because of who he is. There’s a character who says “oh you’re fine, but Leonie isn’t and I’m worried about her”, which – again – makes sense with her character (man, I really did not like the Golden Deer house). Even Leonie, who questioned whether you’re really Jeralt’s kid and is rude to you because she’s jealous that you’re his kid, reacts so in tune with her character.
Lastly, let’s talk about Alois. Alois, as I said before, is a Knight of Seiros that worked with Jeralt before he left the monastery to become a mercenary. From their interactions, you can tell he really looked up to Jeralt. He was the one who insisted that you both came back to the monastery in the first place (so you basically have him to thank for a stable job, but no biggie). He is the one who clears out Jeralt’s office. Now, from my own experience in clearing out someone’s place when they died, it’s awful. The worst thing about it is finding things that they hadn’t gotten a chance to use yet – the things they were planning on using or doing. It’s the worst because… they expected to live longer than they did. But it wasn’t really like that with Jeralt. He had a feeling that something was going on, so he left something hidden for you. But I wanted to talk about Alois because the fact that it’s him clearing out the space says a lot about him as a character. He knew how difficult it can be to do it, so he took it upon himself to do it instead of waiting for you to do it or just leaving it there until the next captain got the office. It shows how much he respected Jeralt. Annoyingly, it seems like this is the one part of the game that I didn’t take a screenshot of (I swear, the whole game has been screenshotted apart from the bits I wanted to double check), but if I remember correctly, Alois comments on how he didn’t expect to be doing this so soon. He says that the death was shocking and unexpected. And you wanna know something? It might be obvious, but this is probably one of the most comforting things you could say. It makes people realise that they’re not alone. They weren’t delusional in thinking that their parent was going to live longer than they did. It’s kind of like popping the bubble that they’re in; it’s reminding them that this is real, other people are as shocked as you and you can get through it all together.
So, that’s it for this post, Gamers! I apologise for the lack of posting this week. My mental health has been awful, and I’m trying to prepare myself for a big event next week so… my life is a mess. Shout out to Josh for editing this post despite not playing the game, and also for comforting me when I was sobbing my little heart out and eventually spoiled the game for him. If you liked this post, give it a ‘like’ and hit follow for more gaming (and probably grieving) content. Check out my socials, where I post fairly regularly (on my Instagram story, and basically only over my Instagram story). Leave a comment if you have something to comment on. See you next post, Gamers! (EN: By my count, that should be five shots, six if you count her mentioning it in the title of the drinking game. Personally I think a funnier drinking game would be to take a shot every time she disses the Golden Deer house, although if I were to play that I think I might actually end up in hospital.)
Eleanor Rees Gaming 