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"Dedue I fucking fumbled it, where is Sylvain, I need to kill him and then myself."

I love the scene after the map where Hubert tells Edelgard and they both just pretty much go "Yeah, no clue how that happened but fuck it, we take those."

Sidequesting in the Alliance and accidentally killing the big bad on the side is such a Dimitri classic.

Perhaps the Tolkien approach of "They just walk from beginning to end and meet interesting people on the way" could work for you?

I am imagining Hol Don as a big mafia guy who comes in to clear the name of his subordinate, Heinz Mann.

Felix could have carried it there no problem but nah, Dedue said that he is Dimitri's retainer and by Sothis, he will be the one to give that spear to him.

Oh no way, that outfit is your work? I will forever fondly remember the Yui that saved my poor survivor ass in the most insane Dredge endgame ever wearing that, thank you for the memories by proxy!

Switch the two Felixes around and they are both going to have a mental breakdown

And then there is Hopes which kinda gives everyone a third, Edelgard gets Monica, Dimitri gets Felix (I think in Hopes he fits that role, when in Houses I wouldn't say so), and I guess Claude has the Nader, Judith, Hilda trio?

Ah true, Nader slipped my mind since he is from outside of the Fodlan nobility system, but he definitely fits better. And honestly, Hilda is such an unusual non-retainer retainer case that I'd almost accept saying Judith and Nader are Claudes two.

Also, I'd argue that Jeritza, Gilbert and Judith count as the second retainers for Three Houses lords, always have to have two.

I suppose it is an easy way to make characters have an established relationship, and it does make sense for royals and all. But yeah, Engage has like five playable characters that are not royals or retainers, and of them, two are former retainers.

Only benefit of it being future instead of past is that they could just have Yuri still hanging around, given that he is basically immortal. Then again they probably wouldn't do that because he would definitely tell you what route is canon.

Prequel most likely, people think big Sothis might mean future but it is good to remember that the few depictions of the goddess we had in 3H were of big Sothis as well (most significantly, the mural). Small form was probably just a side effect of death and stuff, and big is the default.

Yeah placing my bet now, whatever the midgame twist is, be it Nemesis or something else, I don't think this guy is making it out in one piece.

Yeah, they are more rivals than anything, better dynamic than them being retainers tbh. And I mean every lord kinda already has a secondary retainer anyways, Gilbert, Jeritza and Nader.

Time for Mystletainnn

They don't call him a butt-ler for nothing!

Ah, you're in for a ride (positive and negative at the same time)

Tharja and Libra are such a fun pairing, you just know that however Noire came to be, be the method biological or not, there was some real occult stuff involved. I headcanon that is why she looks like Libra, whatever hex Tharja did broke the looks inheritance barrier.

*Nina looking at the camera, motioning to Louis behind her* "Get a load of this guy"

Louis in Engage having his ability basically be "Yeah, he likes yuri" and his intro cutscene immediately confirming that that is what it is by showing that yes, he ships his coworker and his boss.

Sometimes you just have to horse around (positive), lest you horse around (also positive).

Oooh that veil looks so good, amazing!

Despite her eccentricities, she does have standards.

L'arachel wants him to open a few doors, and that's about it.

Not sure if I'm just making it up in my memory, but I do seem to recall Claude having a line about that when he finds out with MByleth, basically asking "Sooo, how does that work?", so yep, definitely points for that.

Oh man, she is either going for a gold medal or Fomortiis will tackle her at the finish line, I bet.

Uh oh, starting to look real bad for Vanessa here

L'arachel is just Lyon with ten times the confidence, and now I want to see that personality swap. Gloomy L'arachel and happy go lucky Lyon (their roles in the story stay the same and Dozla is still the exact same hype man).