This idea started with me watching "Can You Beat Fire Emblem Three Houses With Only Bernadetta!?" on YouTube. I thought that Edelgard and Bernadetta would have some pretty big reactions to being shown such a recording (using magic projectors presumably) by Byleth (presumably gifted by Sothis).
Then I got to thinking how to get almost everyone through the setting alive:
- Edelgard would not want to stalemate while at war with everyone else.
- She wants meritocracy, but has a simplistic view of things.
- Student era Edelgard would be deeply horrified by the Hegemon Husk, at least at first sight. She'd understand it might be due to desperation but she'd never want to go there.
Once she's convinced the recordings Sothis gave Byleth of a possible future are honest...
- Edelgard could really use some Chinese history (Sothis wandered a lot in spirit after she "died") to learn about priorities. Her problems are fundamentally domestic problems, not that hard to solve by commando missions and purges (i.e. Thales getting assassinated by parties unknown).
- She'd be a total Zhu Yuanzhang fangirl--beggar to Emperor, while crushing the Yuan armies which vastly outnumbered the early Ming armies, enforced public education, paused imperial exams for a decade to let ordinary kids learn and catch up.
- She is going to have to crib a lot of notes from Zhu Yuanzhang.
- She'd learn of how the Song and Ming empires were sold out by the literati classes who'd largely replaced the aristocracy, and she'd be bright enough to come to understand that classes would never fully go away, but she can still vastly increase class mobility.
- Eventually she'll realize that a successor she didn't give birth to isn't nearly so honor bound to stay the course of the reforms she wants, and could bend with the wind of reactionary forces. This realization kind of goes full circle on her own beliefs, but can't be helped.
- No emperor with real authority can survive stepping down unless it's abdicating their own child, and even then it's not completely guaranteed.
- Increasing literacy among the commoners is unlikely to push Rhea into going nuts, especially if there is enough attention paid to the heroic deeds of Seiros and her allies. And she isn't going to complain that people are living better lives without damaging her own reputation.
- The commoners do migrate, so if the Empire gets much better in living conditions, they WILL draw off manpower from the colder and less-populated Kingdom (food production is lower in colder environments, since we know the Empire isn't tropical from their fashions, the Kingdom must be much colder on average), and the internally divided Alliance.
- Making progress toward a Culture or Influence Victory, or at least pressing the others to keep up in reforms, becomes possible without the expenses of a war.
Now, as for what Bernie's role in this is? Other than the initial introduction recordings which get Edelgard to crack open her disbelief, Bernie's probably going to end up a Bow Knight who's the punching-back bag of the enemy armies when loaded up with (by choosing to prioritize these instincts by meditation AKA skill selection) Persecution Complex, Vengeance, Vantage, Wrath, and Close Counter (for bows) or Lance Prowess 5 (for hit/avoid) depending on the weapon she wants, with a guard adjutant and Blessing gambit on her all the time. So... mowing through enemies, great for covert missions especially (Being shot/speared to death by someone yelling "go away!" counts as having gone away, forever, and everyone knows that if no enemy survived the mission was covert).
And that's if we don't go "For some reason Bernie pre-timeskip strongly reminds me of Morgan, so maybe we can get her to eventually learn Ignis."
However, Edelgard should eventually learn to use Hegemon Form (from the lack of apparent harm she could see in the recording even after the Husk was defeated, this should be safe... and then it turns out this merging of her crests and nature might fix her life expectancy problem), so Bernie becomes technically the second strongest fighter in the Empire. Edelgard may end up using Hegemon Form in public if she has to fight Nemesis because of his actions post-revival... Assuming Bernie doesn't accidentally qudaruple-crit Nemesis with a Brave Bow when he tries to swat her aside or something.
Sothis will have to tell Rhea that she's not coming back to the mortal world until Rhea gets better at living for the future instead of the past (though Sothis is willing to chat occasionally). So Rhea has no chance of despair here.
As for personal relationships?
- Edelgard would not possibly let Byleth, provider of such immensely valuable information, marry anyone else.
- Considering Bernadetta is with them from the beginning of these revelations, well, emperors who can have many consorts tend to be diverse, so polyamory it is!
- One way to get Rhea to look more toward the future is to get her to raise some babies of her own. Byleth, please attend to that problem. Ask Sothis for advice if you're not sure how.
That last line is the key part that recommends male Byleth here.
So there's no need to fight here... except that Edelgard and Rhea should occasionally spar, in human form normally, but sometimes going out to deserted areas and having Hegemon Form (not as changed as the Husk) vs Immaculate One, only fighting to the first health bar. Byleth appreciates this because they tend to indulge in each other after spars, and even with his power, keeping up with three partners is tough. Sometimes Seteth and Flayn join the contests to keep their draconic forms well trained (I hear Seteth can't use his anymore, but I'm sure Sothis can figure out something to help him).
Bernie is banned from these spars unless they really want to go harder (as in fighting to the depletion of the second health bar), because if Bernie gets hit to below half health she tends to just melt off a health bar by accident, no matter who it is she's counter-attacking.
There is also no timeskip due to lack of major violence.
...
There, it looks like all that's needed for a Best Ending is Edelgard studying Chinese history, preferably with a suitable hook that convinces her the information (or at least its source) is reliable enough. Then she can easily decide that since they are at peace for now, she needs to take care of (assassinate or persecute) internal problems first. Eventually Nemesis can return, which convinces her that the Church is a bit less pure evil than she thought and can be worked with, at least vastly better than the Agarthans (and her hatred of those who experimented on her would find a correct target).
All she has to do after dealing with the Agarthans is to make Rhea capitulate. Byleth with Sothis directly chiming in... can do that relatively easily. Once Rhea is persuaded, then as long as the Empire doesn't start a war, the other powers cannot resist for very long before an influence victory looms.
...
What do you think?
Originally posted over at https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemThreeHouses/s/sEGT1FsOCR
