Dark Kain

In DQ2 (published January 1987) actually you have a party of three characters, you can't choose them since they are story based. Every other mainline DQ afterwards had a party FF was published December 1987, for comparison. I don't think single character jRPGs were that common in the late '80s, the genre was popolarized somewhat by the first Mystery Dungeon (1993). In Japan the single character adventure was more commonly an arcade adventure (zelda and zelda inspired games) trope. However things get more interesting if we extend this search to western RPGs. Rogue is from 1980, while the Ultima series started in 1981, both had a decent number of clones in the following years. That said, in my humble opinion, all the meta-commentary interpretations of sombron/zero emblem are just overthinking.

The route names are direct reference to the japanese title: 風花雪月 - Fuuka Setsugetsu It's a reference to a chinese poem that represents the beauty of nature and of the four seasons, that became ingrained in japanese culture (you can usually find it translated as "Four beautiful seasons"). The Snow/Moon/Wind/Flower are the "seasonal beauties" that represents the four seasons. This ties thematically to all the worldbuilding during the Acadamy Phase of the game, all those intros that describe how the people of Fodlan live in every month of the calendar.

Of course archetype characters are always a matter of definition, but variations on the classic theme are possible. For example we are pretty much accepting the fact that The Cain and the Abel of the game aren't always cavaliers. I agree that it's definitely unusual for a Jeigan character being an optional recruit and not join at the very beginning of the game, but that said they hit the other checkboxes. They are the earliest Prepromotes in paladin-tier class, Manuela and Hanneman joins later and are one promotion tier lower than them. They do work as crutch characters, after all you have them as early as the "rescue Flayn" chapter, they have plenty of value at that point. They have the earliest and easiest acces to A rank weapon skill and the game incidentally toss you a free silver weapon of those weapon types. They check even the military officier/mentor role for the rest of the cast, though this is pretty much true for most of the church characters.

I think that Shamir and Catherine are also supposed to fit in the Jeigan archetype. While they are definitely late recruit by this game standard, they are advanced class characters (paladin-tier) that became recuitable around the time your other characters should promote to intermediate class (cavalier-tier). They also start with Jeigans' trademark A-level weapon skill in their own speciality granting them the ability to equip silver weapons before anybody else, and you also obtain an early silver weapon for one of the two with their own monastery quest shortly after you could recruit both (given the amount of FE4 homages, seems a play on Sigurd not starting with a silver weapon, but getting it from Arvis).

I had no big problem in doing so in a normal run (no NG+). You have to train her in liking ponies since her joining time anyway and you'll make to the reason requirement before the horse requirement anyway. Given that her faith rank is in not a problem making her a dark knight does not require a real increase in effort. If you use Flayn only for 1-turn and ditch her on other maps then ok, you're right holy knight is just as good and if it is easier then it's better for you; but rescue is such an incredible asset on every big map, even for a casual player, and I occasionally enjoy her player turn damage potential. Her reason spell list sucks, but her MAG is good enough.

Mercedes - Bishop is probably better than gremory here (she will mostly heal at range anyway due to physic) Ignatz - His personal works well with inaccurate weapons (bows at long range and/or axes). Has STR problem so he sort of likes axes more at endgame. Sadly his weakness in flying makes Wyvern Lord a pain to train. As a bow knight I really find him unimpressive at best. I'm really n the fence with him Flayn - Rescue is her most valuable and defining asset. Early access at B rank (and she starts at C+ witha boon in faith), even. Rescue is super rare in this game, the only other character i know of that can learn rescue is Bernadetta (at A Rank!) and making Bernie into a wizard is a big nope. So her end class should plan on this strenght. Gremory is the easiest pick, that one extra movement over bishop is important from a rescue standpoint. Dark Knight is a royal pain to train due to her weakness in riding (at least she joins with the lance requirement already fulfilled) but the extra movement is super useful. Holy Knight is worse than Dark Knight and it's not actually easier to train since the bottleneck is still Riding. Whatever you pick DO NOT make her a Dancer. Your dancer should be your least impressive unit with no unique assets: Flayn is unique enough; if you make her into a dancer you are killing your ability to recue twice in a turn whenever you wish so! Nor you will able to rescue and dance during the same turn!

Caspar - Wyvern Lord for all the obvious reasons, can be a decent warmaster if you dislike mobility for some reason Lysithea - Both (Gremory AND Dark Knight) is the best answer. First: if you are aiming to DK you are going to hit Gremory requirements anyway before unlocking dark knight, just by playing normally due to Lysithea's personal skill effect + her inability with lances and overall problems in raising Riding to near-A rank without any intermediate/advanced horse class she could work in. Second: she has enough skill experience margin to unlock both classes and no real reason NOT to do so: she ALSO has no problem with autority so where else would you funnel her excess skill xps? Third: both class are good and have their use in different maps, just swap beetween them as required. Are you playing a standard plain or city map with a standard deployment of your unit? DK is overall great for mobility and overkill potential. But when the map is filled to brim with stairs/swamp/fire or lava that makes horses useless or an internal map with annoying walls that your flyiers cannon fly over or a big map that has an annoying deployment that splits up your units on opposite edges? You could bring Gremory Lysithea plus Flayne and with the help of your dancer (and maybe a dancer battallion too if you are really at the endgame) do some teleport chain shenaningans to redeploy your troops anywere on the map as you like. And I'm not talking about LTC-ing here, just general utility for a casual gamer. Leonie - Bow Knight, the real question is how to get there.

I confirm, Enbarr is stated several times in-game as being more ancient than the Empire itself. The simple fact that Flayne is born in pre-imperial Enbarr should be enough.

I'd say play Edelgard route AFTER Dimitri's and ONE of your choice between Curch and Claude. This because Edelgard route explains basically nothing about lore-related things and also nothing about Edelgard and Dimitri relationship. Due to the rushed nature of this route (and the total lack of movies/severe draught of CGs) the player is basically expected to know already what the characters are taking about when black screen syndromes strikes, and this produces several jarring moments, most prominent among all: the scene where the characters are discussing the "javelins of light" and the ending movie. Like others have pointed the Church route and Claude's route are basically the same story, and the Church route is considered by far the worst version (and anyway Claude's has an unique final boss you don't fight in other routes, Curch Route final boss instead is shared with another route) so you could play only one of those two and... don't play them one after another or you'll get bored.

Whatever happened is probably very grim. Bad enough to keep her in weakened state for 5 years straight.

We know that TWITD attempted to capture Flayn alive 5 years prior and Rhea value as "raw material" is probably even higher.

Rhea is an useful source of information and her existence can be enough to keep Thales and all the TWSITD in check after the war is over (You say you have nukes? I could free the fucking dragon I've been keeping in the cellar!). I suppose that Edelgard is pragmatical enough to recognise her value as an hostage in the routes in which she manages to capture her in weakened state. Crimson Flower Rhea is different because is free, and didn't suffer 5 years of imprisonment so she is back to full power, killing her here is far easier than capturing and also is still good propaganda for the empire. Not to mention she ends up way too crazy and dangerous due to Byleth's actions.

Aren't STR and MAG of the Enlightened One perfectly balanced? I think any fault here lies in Byleth's natural bases and growths (he starts with 13 STR and 6 MAG!). S rank Sothis x Byleth claims that Sothis crest stone is now little more than an ornament in ALL the routes, so it is probably going to lose power in all the routes, and not only in the Crimson Flower ending? In the same S rank Sothis also expects Byleth to eventually die in the future so he is definitely not immortal. I think the supposed implication is that Sothis power was already fading and a whole bunch of it was expended to save Byleth from the dark dimension.

The Mercedes/Caspar paralogue has several minor effects. Beyond the forementioned extra CG on Blue Lions route, a few of Mercedes Support (anyone where She mentions her Brother) are also affected. It seems these supports are not added in the 'extras' section and can be seen only directly in game. Lastly, if Caspar receives the schyte, in any following appaerance of the death knight as a boss he has a different weapon equipped.

I did play the Ingrid/Dorothea paralogue in a deer playtrough while having recruited both characters, I can confirm that I goth both items (the relic lance + the goddes ring).