Three Houses: Factions First Impressions Poll

[Stroud]

8 minutes ago, TheGoodHoms said:

Regardless of the true nature of the church, I do think the Blue Lions have a pretty decent chance of being the twist villains since the advertising is clearly building up Edelgard as the protagonist of the story beyond the avatar character. Or they just rewrite the story 3 times in which the twist villain changes depending which faction you joined so that there are no wrong choices. Not that I'd want a story like that, but I do think it's possible that might be where it's heading.

That really could happening, I mean we should at least have 2 other teachers? And maybe one of them has some evil motives. And depending on your choice the other students should get a different teacher. 

Edited February 14, 2019 by Stroud

[The Roger The Paladin]

2 minutes ago, Stroud said:

That really could happening, I mean we should at least have 2 other teachers? And maybe one of them has some evil motives. And depending on your choice the other students should get a different teacher. 

This'd be a way for it to work without being too contrived. After all, a snake in a trusted position poisoning the other kingdom's students with venomous lies would be a way to have them side against you without actually making them evil.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Mad-manakete

[Fabulously Olivier]

Golden Deer. 

 

While I was initially going to pick Blue Lions based off of Dmitri's design, as an atheist, a Holy Empire isn't conducive to my beliefs, whereas a split but allied series of city states might allow for more personal liberty. And Claude looks so expressive.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Etheus

[PeaceRibbon]

18 minutes ago, TheGoodHoms said:

I swear if the church turns out to be evil I'm going to lose my freaking mind. I'm tired of secular media portraying religion as a negative influence on the world which is completely unfair. Plenty of religions have contributed a lot to the common good of society over the centuries, so having churches(both fictional and real) villainized in entertainment so often just gets really tiring.

I mean, you can see the player army fighting "West Church Soldiers" in the overview trailer so the signs are already there, but on the bright side perhaps it's too early to tell. Maybe one of the factions has an objective that necessitates fighting through a church-restricted area, or perhaps the specification of "west" implies an eventual schism between members within the church of Seiros (this idea sounds like it could be really interesting when I say it out loud!).

[Fabulously Olivier]

I for one hope that the Church of Seiros is evil. I'm sick of the near universally and overwhelmingly positive portrayal of conventional religion in the FE series, which is lacking in both nuance and accuracy.

 

Even when the series does attempt to show some level of corruption in religion, it's either a straight up dark cult or, in Ashera's case, counter-balanced by a benevolent goddess that aids you.

 

It would be nice to have a secular message for once in at least one of the three paths for this one game.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Etheus

[zuibangde]

1 hour ago, Book Bro said:

I'm hoping Edelgard's story will be less conventional and maybe something like what Conquest was supposed to be, since she's from the Empire and the heir apparent, and Empires tend to be not so good.

 

Low key hoping/suspecting that Edelgard is the true antagonist since her house is the only that uses 'Black' in the name instead of the 'official' colour Red.

It would be cool if IS kinda persuades you to side with Edelgard in the first playthrough only to find out that we've been manipulated by her to overthrow the church so they can rule the continent by putting the crests to blame and having us help her destroy them. Then subsequent playthroughs with Dimitri/Claude reveals the timeline on how they're fighting against true antagonist - Edelgard and the Empire. 

This will also fulfil what Conquest failed to do which is to side with the morally questionable team.

Knowing IS, this scenario probably won't happen though lol.

Edited February 14, 2019 by zuibangde

[TheWildestCat]

I'm going with the blue lions. I don't like the leader's design, but I feel like that might be the most fun. Also at least we get all three in one unlike fates where you had to buy each path. Also there better be an emulator when the game comes out. Or I Won't be able to play this game.

[Stroud]

50 minutes ago, Mad-manakete said:

This'd be a way for it to work without being too contrived. After all, a snake in a trusted position poisoning the other kingdom's students with venomous lies would be a way to have them side against you without actually making them evil.

Yeah, that just sounds to be a plausible option. My only feeling would be that it would be compared more to harry potter as it is already. But otherwise its ok, it will be hard to come up with a very unique school setting anyway. 

15 minutes ago, Etheus said:

I for one hope that the Church of Seiros is evil. I'm sick of the near universally and overwhelmingly positive portrayal of conventional religion in the FE series, which is lacking in both nuance and accuracy.

They could also go for some corrupted Zealot who made the church evil. And Dimitri tries to overtake him. Evil Churches are pretty common in JRPGs, not in Fire Emblem but in countless others. I mean they also could go the route that each country has its own problems and the leader of the corresponding class has to deal with it. Or an Organisation which acts in each country and wants to brake any peace treaty. There are just so much things they could do now D=.

Hmm, damn xD Its difficult now that I think about it we had some things in Fates already. At least something like a corrupted ruler.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Stroud

[Othin]

Black Eagles looks fun, I'll probably go with it for my first playthrough.

[Fabulously Olivier]

21 minutes ago, Stroud said:

Yeah, that just sounds to be a plausible option. My only feeling would be that it would be compared more to harry potter as it is already. But otherwise its ok, it will be hard to come up with a very unique school setting anyway. 

They could also go for some corrupted Zealot who made the church evil. And Dimitri tries to overtake him. Evil Churches are pretty common in JRPGs, not in Fire Emblem but in countless others. I mean they also could go the route that each country has its own problems and the leader of the corresponding class has to deal with it. Or an Organisation which acts in each country and wants to brake any peace treaty. There are just so much things they could do now D=.

Hmm, damn xD Its difficult now that I think about it we had some things in Fates already. At least something like a corrupted ruler.

As long as their version of nuance/conflict isn't another doomsday cult for a completely different deity. 

A balanced schism within the church that causes zealots, worshipping the same goddess, to threaten the peace, while the rest of the church is neutral/good would be fine. That is more accurate of both historical and modern life.

 

However, either way, the implications that a private religious academy is a good place to send one's children for education are unsettling. We shouldn't even allow religious schools for those too young to form their own world views, let alone encourage them as an ideal educational system.

[Othin]

There's also the weirdness of seemingly all the characters being nobles. Are the only non-noble characters you get to command the generic troops that show up for formations and stuff?

[Fabulously Olivier]

2 minutes ago, Othin said:

There's also the weirdness of seemingly all the characters being nobles. Are the only non-noble characters you get to command the generic troops that show up for formations and stuff?

I have been wondering at that.

 

Are the students the only characters in your army or are they the equivalent of villagers in Echoes - versatile and powerful early game units with close ties to the main character?

 

I think that is worthy of a poll in itself.

[Azure the Scale Tipper]

11 minutes ago, Etheus said:

As long as their version of nuance/conflict isn't another doomsday cult for a completely different deity. 

A balanced schism within the church that causes zealots, worshipping the same goddess, to threaten the peace, while the rest of the church is neutral/good would be fine. That is more accurate of both historical and modern life.

 

However, either way, the implications that a private religious academy is a good place to send one's children for education are unsettling. We shouldn't even allow religious schools for those too young to form their own world views, let alone encourage them as an ideal educational system.

 

5 minutes ago, Othin said:

There's also the weirdness of seemingly all the characters being nobles. Are the only non-noble characters you get to command the generic troops that show up for formations and stuff?

Now that I think about it, this stuff is getting interesting. I hope that this does not get squandered on uneeded things, even if there are less signs.

[Flere210]

1 hour ago, TheGoodHoms said:

I swear if the church turns out to be evil I'm going to lose my freaking mind. I'm tired of secular media portraying religion as a negative influence on the world which is completely unfair. Plenty of religions have contributed a lot to the common good of society over the centuries, so having churches(both fictional and real) villainized in entertainment so often just gets really tiring.

Screw secular media, JRPG in particular just spam evil churches like there is no tomorrow. I am hard pressed to think of a single JRPG where the church is important to the plot and is NOT evil(there are plenty in wich the church is just there to revive characters tho). And i findly mildly disturbing the obsession of Japan to villainize christianity or christianity expies after i found out about Amakusa and the persecution of christians in Japan. Even Legend of Galactic Heroes, despite being the greatest anime ever made, is guilty of this.

 

[Rose482]

The Black Eagles, so Edelgard, I don't really have much of a reason for it really, I just want to learn more about Edelgard.

[Onestep]

1 hour ago, Etheus said:

I for one hope that the Church of Seiros is evil. I'm sick of the near universally and overwhelmingly positive portrayal of conventional religion in the FE series, which is lacking in both nuance and accuracy.

 

Even when the series does attempt to show some level of corruption in religion, it's either a straight up dark cult or, in Ashera's case, counter-balanced by a benevolent goddess that aids you.

 

It would be nice to have a secular message for once in at least one of the three paths for this one game.

I mean, this is opposed by the near universal 'Benevolent world-spanning church is actually EVIL!!!' trope used in every other JRPG. The thing about most churches in FE is that their gods/saints normally categorically DID exist. Or even still do. It's easy to stick to a dogma when your god is a literal dragon and give you a nasty glare every time you think about creatively reinterpreting their words.

On a side not, Bernadette looks like Morgan, if Morgan was possessed by Noire or something.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I am also of the opinion that I hope the church isn't "lol evil haha." It's honestly gotten really grating and annoying how often RPGs in general spam that idea, it isn't original anymore and it's one of the most bland and predictable things in gaming now.

[TheGoodHoms]

2 minutes ago, Flere210 said:

Screw secular media, JRPG in particular just spam evil churches like there is no tomorrow. I am hard pressed to think of a single JRPG where the church is important to the plot and is NOT evil(there are plenty in wich the church is just there to revive characters tho). And i findly mildly disturbing the obsession of Japan to villainize christianity or christianity expies after i found out about Amakusa and the persecution of christians in Japan. Even Legend of Galactic Heroes, despite being the greatest anime ever made, is guilty of this.

I think Japan's obsession with villanizing Christianity in particular comes from the fact Christendom was one of the western world's defining traits for a long time so essentially it's a metaphor for the rejection western culture and preserving Japan's own cultural identity. But in the age of a globalized society constantly ostracizing religious groups like this should not be acceptable, but somehow it is. It's all just so backwards.

[PrincessAlyson]

Black Eagles! But I will end up playing all three. Decisions decisions...I may go with the Blue Lions second.

[Fabulously Olivier]

13 minutes ago, TheGoodHoms said:

I think Japan's obsession with villanizing Christianity in particular comes from the fact Christendom was one of the western world's defining traits for a long time so essentially it's a metaphor for the rejection western culture and preserving Japan's own cultural identity. But in the age of a globalized society constantly ostracizing religious groups like this should not be acceptable, but somehow it is. It's all just so backwards.

And how is that any different or any less acceptable than the constant demonization of atheists/agnostics, particularly in the western world and religious propoganda?

 

If anything, that is far worse, as it ostracizes a group of people with little political power, little means of defending themselves, and no substantial history of wars/crusades/purges/witch trials/inquisitions/etc. to provide even a flimsy justification for their overwhelmingly negative portrayal. 

Edited February 14, 2019 by Etheus

[TheGoodHoms]

2 minutes ago, Etheus said:

And how is that any different or any less acceptable than the constant demonization of atheists/agnostics, particularly in the western world and religious propoganda?

 

If anything, that is far worse, as it ostracizes a group of people with little political power and no substantial history of wars/crusades/purges/witch trials/inquisitions/etc. to provide even a flimsy justification for their overwhelmingly negative portrayal. 

I'm a Catholic who attends mass every week and I have never sat through a single Homily that suggested I demonize atheists. Maybe some small but vocal radical protestant schism somewhere does it, but I have never seen any Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists, or any other large influential christian church participate in this described propaganda.

However I see anti-religious(not just Christian religions, ALL religions) agendas hidden through all kinds of media. Everything from the daily news to big budget Hollywood summer blockbusters, you can easily find bias against religion in all of them if you're paying attention. Atheists clearly hold more political power then you let on.

And you can't compare the culture of the time of the crusades or the inquisition to the culture we have now because it's just too different. What is considered the social norm can change drastically with in the span of even a single generation so how is it fair to compare societies separated by hundreds of years and say they're exactly the same? Yes, in hindsight the Crusades are brutal wars that got way too out of hand, but the church has come a long way since then and should not be beholden to the sins of their forefathers. At the end of the day, people aren't perfect, they make mistakes and become corrupted, but you can't judge an entire group of people based on the actions of select individuals who made the wrong decisions, especially ones who have been dead for hundreds of years now and that's true of all religious, racial, ethnic, social, and economic groups.

I've said my piece and will now drop this discussion because this is not the place for it. If you wish for our dialogue to persist I recommend creating a new topic elsewhere.

[Sentinel07]

1 hour ago, Flere210 said:

Screw secular media, JRPG in particular just spam evil churches like there is no tomorrow. I am hard pressed to think of a single JRPG where the church is important to the plot and is NOT evil(there are plenty in wich the church is just there to revive characters tho). And i findly mildly disturbing the obsession of Japan to villainize christianity or christianity expies after i found out about Amakusa and the persecution of christians in Japan. Even Legend of Galactic Heroes, despite being the greatest anime ever made, is guilty of this.

 

Honestly, I don't think they're out to demonize religion.

I think one of the producers on Luminous Arc 2 said something about this, but it was basically that it's more of a storytelling gimmick, used to symbolize how one spends most of their early life just doing whatever everyone tells them to do and are told to believe what they should believe, before growing up and going out to discover the truth for yourself.

[NegativeExponents-]

Maybe I’m just not well versed in the jrpg genre but the only jrpgs I can think of with an evil church is Tales of Symphonia, Breath of Fire II, and I think one Dragon Quest game and a Final Fantasy game do it too but those are the only ones I can think of that do that. While the evil church plot definitely isn’t new it doesn’t seem like it’s as overused as it’s made out to be and I wouldn’t really mind if Three Houses ends up doing it.

[Book Bro]

I will just point out that Seiros is a made up religion and doesn't really seem similar to any real religion with what we know. It may be criticizing religion as a whole and you can dislike that obviously, but it doesn't seem like it's based on any one specific religion. Also worth pointing out that, until we know more, it could be a critique of religious institutions (which are just as prone to corruption as any other kind) and not the religions themselves.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Book Bro

[PrincessAlyson]

7 minutes ago, Book Bro said:

It may be criticizing religion as a whole and you can dislike that obviously, but it doesn't seem like it's based on any one specific religion. Also worth pointing out that, until we know more, it could be a critique of religious institutions (which are just as prone to corruption as any other kind) and not the religions themselves.

Fair point. I myself criticize certain institutions but not religion itself. On another note, I may go with the Blue Lions because Sylvain is gorgeous.