An Immaculate Analysis of Rhea: Fire Emblem
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- A video analyzing Rhea, Saint Seiros, etc. from Fire Emblem Three Houses. I hope you guys enjoy it and feel free to let me know what you think and which points you agree or disagree with. And if you liked it feel free to like or subscribe.
Rhea: sees her entire race and family murdered.
Players: why is Rhea so evil?
lol
"You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
-Someone, someplace, sometime, probably
I would not call her evil. She went crazy in Edelgards timeline but after her race was killed and after so many years to make the world a better place a edge lord ruins everything.
Nabateans were probably evil, ngl. Think about it, why would the humans, for no reason, want to get rid of the dragons that were controlling everything?
Also they never got slaughtered until AFTER Sothis nearly wiped humans out for daring to oppose their authority. "Rhea", Seiros was disgusting from minute one. She didn't belong in Fódlan any longer than she was there. Naga knew she would degenerate and made the Falchions. Mila and Duma tell you to kill them. The dragons know they stop being needed in the world. The Nabateans didn't.
@@hypotheticaltapeworm yeah well by that logic Edelgard and her siblings probably deserved to have life-threatening experiments done on them. After all they were the children of a puppet-king over an oppressive regime, killing her siblings probably saved Fodlan from further oppression.
Wrt the technological bans -
Manuela performs an autopsy on Jeralt and there is an anatomical model in Manuela's quarters.
The Garrec Mach library is fairly indifferent to people borrowing books to the point where Hilda can sit on them for weeks as well as getting coffee rings on them. Edelgard is able to distribute her manifesto, indicating a printing press of some type.
Oil barrels are used in battalion attacks.
While it's true these were restricted at some point, they have progressed since those edicts were placed. Technology did indeed march on.
Funnily enough, the most banned thing seems to be... saucy sexy smutty books of Seiros and Wilheim. Seteth does not like pornography of his sister one bit!!
I think a lot of those banned technologies were banned because of environmental issues. The printing press eventually led to steam power and steam power led to fossile fuels. When magical alternatives are found, those bans become obsolete. Why would you drive a car when you can just Warp everywhere? Why would you use a printing press when you can copy a book with magic?
@@IchHassePasswoerter The devs said technology bans existed to pump the brakes a little on humanity being "ready." Which sounds suspect but well, considering Rhea and company witnessed a continental war complete with nukes dropping, at least makes more theoretical sense. Even printing presses ended up being used to spread manifestos and "information campaigns" in the original JP text.
But that's more a commentary on how the game openly contradicts itself and that makes it very difficult to talk about.
In all honesty, the game's content has always favored Edelgard. Hence, why the intro cinematic is literally Edelgard's song and why she gets a unique ending song. Even the devs have openly admitted to being partial to her. Knowing such, and taking into account the release of Cindered Shadows after the base games' content (and also, the reaction to it in particular) it can easily be theorized that the Shadow Library's catalog of "technological bans" were added to yet further convince players that Edelgard's path is "right" and "just." Hell, you might even consider them straight up retcons. Considering how they are contradicted by events, info and items in the base game.
@@laurenzollamas2324 Ah yes, the vaunted "JP text" that was oh so tragically and woefully mistranslated and thus is used to justify everything Edelgard did. Conveniently forgetting the fact that most of Edelgard's actions in the JP text actually make her out to be *MORE* of a raging tyrant, not less. Hell, it's even called the "Military Conquest" route in JP.
@@azatheeverchosen7615 can you describe some more changes from the JP text? Purely for scientific reasons.
Totally not because I know a massive Edelgard Stan that has been making a lot of Rhea related hot takes as of late.
I think the reason why Rhea is hated on is less because of her Character (she is pretty sympathetic and actually a good person, except in the end of CF), but more with the myth that the Pope or rather the Church was this all powerful institution that controlled the Kings and everything within Europe, which has been passed on by many enlightenment scholars and Protestants, who often slandered and exaggerated the evils of the Catholic Church, which is why we have mostly this overtly negative view on it(the Church is still corrupt, but not to the level people think it is). However in reality, Popes were nothing more than rulers of their own Papal state and have less authority over the Continent than the Kings of Europe, who often than not deposed Popes they didn't like and created many Antipopes( why didn't 3H Made Byleth in Edelgard's Evil route him an Anti-archbischop as new Class) to replace them with their own Popes and even Bischops, because the Kings have more influence on the laws than some guy in Italy. This would lead to the Popes being more of an ruler of their own Theocracy than shadow rulers of the Continent, which many people think it was, as the people were more loyal to their local Bischops and priest than the Pope, who lives far off land and might be the reason why the Western Church in the game was able to make Lords turn against Rhea. So in short it's more a stereotype that caused Rhea to be hated and less the things she does, heck how can people call her creepy for building a Mausoleum for Sitri, that goes too far for me.
Back to the game, Rhea is actually very well written and a very good person, who wants to help the disenfranchised and protect the Innocent people, hence why she takes them within Garreg March and even allowed Outsiders to her Monastery to study and work in there. However her problem is the fact, that despite her best efforts, she is flawed and her attempts to quell Human Cruelty with Religion fails, because the power they received from Nemesis and the lie she created, not to rule Humanity, but to ensure peace as the devs revealed, allowed to use it inappropriately and this caused many problems within the Continent along with the Agarthan scemes that caused the mess in the first place. This is even seen in the where the Goddess left the world in disgust as she saw how Humans abused her powers, which is a very indirect way of Rhea to say that she doesn't approve of the way Humans have abused Crests and even if she stood up against it, the Nobility would Ignore her as they did, when the Church was kicked out and when they refused to believe that Nemesis was evil, as the devs revealed to us in their interview.
While I do see the parellels with Edelgard and I do think that Edelgard would make the same mistakes Rhea made, Edelgard had fewer justifications for her actions, because Rhea never did anything to her nor is she the root for all of Fódlan's bloody history. Also I do believe Dimitri and Claude represent also many aspects of her Character, because like Dimitri, she also is haunted by the loss of her Kinsmen and devoted her life to save them and for their loss, which Dimitri later rejected, as he begins to learn to life for himself rather than for the Death. Claude also is in many ways like her, both want peace between all nations and give the people without status a place in society and seek to break the boundaries between the people, hence why she built the officers Academy in the first place. But where they diverge is that Claude believes the people should know the truth and that the people should break boundaries and not create them, like the abyss. Ultimately he would even begin to question,if the Church really is against the Outside world, when he sarcastically remarks to Lorenz, if this is truly against the Seiros teachings.
Rhea is more a victim of Humanity than anything and that's what most of her dialogue and the game shows us
Thanks for the thoughtful response. I agree that she gets a bad reputation too often when people view the story through the lens of modern sensibilities because I think most will view any church figure of worldly authority as intrinsically bad. And I definitely agree that the children of the goddess were victimized initially by the early agarthans.
While I like your comparison of Rhea to the other lords, I think that her similarities with edelgard are more salient and provide for some irony within the context of the story. This view kind of comes from Dimitri after Lanoto's death when he notes that most of history is comprised of individuals fighting in the name of just actions, which creates a sort of cycle. A power exists, the power is challenged in the name of justice, and a new power is born until its inevitably challenged as well. And so both Rhea and edelgard fit within this framework which fundamentally criticizes their own beliefs in their own righteousness. Rhea tries to perpetuate her system forever, but history proves that to be impossible, and Edelgard sees her goal as a destruction of historical oppression. The irony is that they both view themselves as beyond the cyclical nature of history, but they are both not only subject to it but direct agents of the cycle, one static the other destabilizing. Also Edelgard harshly criticizes Rhea which builds some irony in how similar their dispositions are as well.
Frankly, my thoughts are that she's kind of idiot tho it's kind of sad that that only lord this time around that got the idea that absolute power corrupts absolutely Rhea action are understandable but at the same time it feels like she's been keeping bubble to how fuck up Foland had become ignoring it or adding to it while trying to change it for her own befit she's kind of the anti-Tiki while she was the daughter of people's goddess she chose to live by herself helping when it was needed rather than trying to take control herself thought after the events of shadow dragon I guess she has an example why immortal being shouldn't rule people with shorter lives
Wow, that was really well put. I don't really have anything to add, except bravo.
i so badly wish rhea was the lord of silver snow because it would’ve made her nuances so much more clear to people, many of which just see her as a one-note villain. while i think rhea is “worse” than edelgard in terms of the effect of her actions, she’s an incredibly compelling character in her own right and her depth isn’t explored nearly enough
Definitely, Rhea is a deeply compelling character who is at the heart of three houses narrative and lore. She seems to be a sort of victim that responded very poorly to the circumstances she endured turning her into a villainous and controlling figure.
Rhea and Edelgard are both at fault but at least Rhea has moments in most of the routes to reflect on her mistakes.
Rhea is interesting in that way, but funnily enough she seems to lose the most in all of the routes. She really is a tragic character.
@@ordinaryunits4341 Let's see: CF: Dies and her bretheren are villified... for dying.
SS: Dies (at least peacefully... after going insane)
VW: Implied to die and looses authority
AM: Follows her brothers' path into seclusion.
@@NapaCat Rhea lives in silver snow if you reach A or S rank with her.
I realized just how easily Rhea could have became like other beings who wanted to rule over humans out of disgust and pity for them due to trauma or a belief of superiority.
Just realized this videos barely got any comments, views and ratings. Must be because it's not demonizing Rhea as Satan Spawn and praising our glorious messiah Edelgard. The transparency in this fandom really is suckish.
Love the F.B.I moment in your intro.
I love character analysis vids like these. Just makes me appreciate three houses even more.
That's awesome I'm glad that videos like this one can enhance your experience of this great game!
I don’t usually comment on videos, but these are great analyses of the Three Houses characters. Keep up the great work!
Thanks! And I will, which character would you be interested in me analyzing?
OrdinaryUnits I definitely have a bias towards the Blue Lions so I’m really hoping you’ll do a Sylvain or Felix analysis. No pressure though, I’m sure you’d do well with any character analysis.
@@weeniehutjr.jr.4526 Felix, sylvain, and ingrid would be pretty dope. Escpecially on hearing your thoughts on their crismon flower persona's.
I just did a video focusing on sylvain so check that out if you guys haven't seen it already, but I can definitely do a video on how their characters are changed in crimson flower. Its a cool idea even though I think that some characters make more sense than others in the route. Either way thanks for the support guys
@@ordinaryunits4341 no worries. I only suggested anaylizing their crismon flower personalities because of how much they deviate from every other route. Escpecially Ignatz, dudes a fucking imperial fanatic on El's route😂
I really enjoyed your video and I think it was a great analysis, however I feel like some of the information in abyss’s library is outdated. One example is that although the library in abyss claims that autopsies are banned in Fódlan Manuela actually performs an autopsy on Jeralt’s body after his death and compares his wounds to her own from that time she was attacked by the death knight and discovers the knife used in their attacks was unique. She also has a Mannequin in her office that that shows a very detailed anatomy particularly their is a knife sticking out of the head. Another thing that is said to be banned are scopes but hanneman has a microscope in his office and actually describes using it to investigate your blood when looking into your crest. On the topic of of scopes astrology also exists in universe and the fact that the moon revolves around earth and earth revolves around the sun seems to be common knowledge implying that some people are studying space. Now this does not prove that telescopes exist but keep in mind that historically humans use to think the earth was flat before telescope and an Annette supports show she understands trigonometry when she calculates the curvature of the world to pull off an aerial magic attack the likes of which requires a vast knowledge of air resistance, where you standing while the earth is moving around the sun, gravity, and time. The printing press is also said to be banned and while newspapers aren’t a thing in Fódlan in a Hilda/Seteth support it implied that there is method of making books extremely quickly and passing and getting them out to the public. This further back up by the fact that in another Hilda support where she loses a ton of books and only gets a minor scolding for it which if books where really rare then she probably would have had to pay at least a small fortune for them. Lastly the oil there’s no implication that oil is something that is used in Fódlan but for some reason gunpowder seems to be okay because we see gun powder in battalions as well canons which are also describe to exist on Fódlan’s naval force. On that note I honestly could just be reading to much into this and or the developers could have added this information without realizing that they had supports/background information that contradicted it.
I'm glad you liked the video and thank you for pointing this out. I think its interesting considering how abyss is just kind of tacked on to the rest of the story and its likely that the developers didn't consider the incongruity that the information had with established supports. But it could also be policy that Rhea had held in the past that she had lightened up on over time. Either way what technology is censored is interesting to talk about seeing as the game's world seems to be almost a composite of the reformation period/ Napoleonic wars, almost as if a reformation would have happened if an ancient dragon wasn't shepherding the church standards.
@@ordinaryunits4341 That's another thing makes the abyss's library weird though because there's a weird report that's notes that leader of the Alliance Duke Oswald Riegan's successor died under suspicion circumstances and its believed to be Count Gloucester fault and how a war can start because of this. Which is interesting and all but even more interesting is where this report is place its in the middle of a mixture of reports detailing conflicts that have all been confirmed in game to be caused by those who slither in the dark, like the tragedy of Duschur, the western church slandering the central churches name and rallying people to attack it, Ashe's older brother getting ready to attempt the assassination of Rhea and so on. Now anyone who played Golden deer and also did Ignatz/Raphael knows that the reason that everyone was suspicion of count Gloucester was because not only did he set up a meeting with the Alliance leader son before his death but also because Riegan's son wanted to set up a reform that would have elevated commoners status and given them much more in power to participate in how the alliance was governed basically giving them the right to vote on decisions made by the nobility. Now if those those who slither in the dark are responsible as this reports placement implies then that would mean Rhea herself supported Oswald's son reform otherwise there would be no reason to kill him as Rhea would have put a stop the reform if she disagree. This also lines up with the tragedy of Duschur as King Lambert similarly wanted to create a treaty of sorts that would have solidified peaceful relations between Duschur and the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus likewise King Lambert would have had to have the Archbishop blessing to do this as well, because if she didn't agree then she would have stop it from happening. This to me implies that Rhea isn't holding Fodlan back on a social level as these to incidents imply she isn't against elevating the status of commoners and those oppressed like the people Duschur instead its those who slither in the dark that have been holding Fodlan back on a social level at least. The holding back of technology and not wanting to reform the church are on Rhea though still I feel like if Edelgard had gone up to Rhea and said she wanted to implant a system that allowed commoners to join the ranks of nobility through merit. Then a don't think she would have said no. Then again I really could be over thinking this whole thing. This was originally meant to be a short comment saying I thought abyss library was weird and I really liked your video so I gave you a sub sorry it devolved into an essay about a piece of paper in abyss's library and what it meant for Rhea character.
I love fire emblem character analysis like this. Keep it up.
Thanks, will do!
Hey, just came across this and overall, it's a pretty entertaining analysis, good job! Not many of those regarding Rhea tbh...
However, I think I disagree with you on two things. First is the whole Rhea getting mad at Byleth's betrayal cause it's like her mother betrayed her. I don't really think that's the case. I mean, maybe it could be, but I imagine that if Rhea's line of thought was that her mother was betraying her, she would've instead been devastated and broken down crying, rather than just getting excessively angry.
I think it's more that the whole thing just gave her a severe PTSD sort of attack. We know that it was Nemesis and his gang (all humans) who made her family's corpses into weapons. Here we had another bunch of humans attempting to steal the hearts of her brethren for their own gain, that must've been reactivating her trauma by a lot. Byleth betraying her was the stroke that broke the camel's back because they're literally siding with the person who just tried to ransack her brethren's tomb, and like it was shown in the video, she has some deep seated trauma with humanity betraying her, which is precisely what Byleth siding with Edelgard triggered in her and is in turn what caused her to get so angry at them (especially if we go by the narrative that they reached A-support before the Holy Tomb, which would imply that their bond was starting to be a pretty deep one and Byleth was starting to become a close friend to her).
The other thing I don't agree with is the whole "weird incestous implications of marrying your dragon grandmother" because the game never actually said that, and I don't think that's the way it's meant to be seen. Not once did it frame Rhea as Byleth's "grandma", and neither did it ever say that they're related to one another. Yes, she created Sitri, but artificial/magical creation is not the same as conceiving, plus if it was truly "incest" then the game would've at least addressed it in the support, these are not the kind of things that IS just brushes off (and if it truly had been incest on *that* level, then I believe it wouldn't have even been an option in the first place. I mean, say what you will about Fates, but none of the Nohrian and Hoshidan siblings has S-supports with their respective half-siblings).
Now, I don't want you to take this as me saying that your analysis is bad or poorly constructed, just saying that I didn't agree with some of your sentiments, but that's still just my personal opinion that I'm trying to express. Again, your analysis was good and I thank you for making it.
Don't worry about it at all! I appreciate the discourse surrounding the game so I won't take any offense to some disagreements. In fact I'm really glad that you decided to leave this thoughtful comment. I totally get where you're coming from with both your critiques and I think that they're valuable. It's definitely possible that I was reading far too much into rhea's anger when she's betrayed in the crimson flower route and honestly your read has just as much evidence as mine. I simply felt that my reading fit within the general narrative surrounding rhea's character that I was trying to convey within the video. And the incest comment was more of a joke than a serious statement surrounding her character and I think that you're right when you say that 'incest' doesn't properly explain the relationship between byleth and rhea, even though it's definitely an odd one.
Anyway thank you again for the comment, I really appreciate it!
I also chose Flayn as my waifu and all I have to say is...yeah, that intro felt appropriate.
Why is he so underrated I like this
Thanks! I'm glad that you do.
Dang! this channel is so underrated. Great Vid!
Thank you! Comments like this make it all worth it!
I WAS NOT EXPECTING THE MANGS JUMPSCARE! XD
I've been watching ur fire emblem discussion videos. I like them. Looking forward to the next one
Great content
Thank you very much! Its great to know that you enjoy my content.
good stuff
Thanks! I appreciate the encouragement
Bro after Edelgard she is the most important character why is she not playable
Ong, I was crazy disappointed getting to that point in silver snow.
That bit with Mangs aged well. Can't stand the guy at all.
I just started playing Three Houses again. What happened with him? Did he get caught with photos or something with minors?
@@GreenWolf2k a lot of people in the community have come forward with accusations of sexual harassment. Dudes a grade A creep
@@FireofGia111 This year man, holy shit. Year of pedophiles, sexual assault, and shitty politics.
@@GreenWolf2k And Corona.
@@GreenWolf2k Icing on the cake, gals and gents! It's gonna get worse!
Edit: It got worse.
is this a hit piece against mangs? i'm not entirely sure...
Nah, just a meme that was unfortunately timed lol
@@ordinaryunits4341 ah good
After all this time, I’ve always viewed Rhea in a negative light and I just can’t sympathize with her because of the way she does things. This is my personal opinion ofc, but I see her as sort of an egomaniac that loses it when she’s challenged/“victim”-villain. Inserting her long dead mom into Byleth never sat well with me and then seeing the way her system hurt some of my favorite characters made me sympathize more for the other Lords’ ideals than hers. But this is because I don’t have the full context on the Agarthans-why did they do the stuff that they did at the start of the game? I’ve sided with Claude twice in a row because I’m avoiding her like there’s no tomorrow. But after this (unbiased) analysis, I might give her another shot next time I start a new game. The fact that we can agree, disagree, and still have discussions up to this day really speaks of how well the game was written. Truly, there is no winning side here.
Agreed the game does an excellent job of conveying its themes of perspectivism and create lively debate because each perspective is well represented where people can actually relate with them.
@@ordinaryunits4341 Couldn’t agree more with you!
There’s just one moment in the story that (I think) exists in all the routes that truly bothers me with her character and I think gives a really good reason why Byleth shouldn’t follow her anymore after that point.
The moment when he/she becomes one with Sothis, and is told to sit on the throne inside the holy tomb. My first playthrough I didn’t think anything of it, but my second time if you pay attention to her words, she was hoping you became Sothis. She ultimately never saw you as an actual person, but just a vessel to hold Sothis. In my opinion that’s really gross lol
And yeah, the crimson flower route shows this more, but with evidence that it’s in every route, makes you question if she honestly ever cared for you as an actual person.
Exactly I think that what you pointed out is one of Rhea's largest character flaws, she fails to appreciate the present because of how she clings to the past and her trauma. However, its worth noting that if the player romances rhea in the silver snow route she realizes the error of her ways and comes to appreciate byleth for who they are as a unique individual, and works to move beyond her fixation on the past and her mother.
@@ordinaryunits4341 that’s good to hear honestly, because after experiencing that and knowing I could marry her, made me question if we are just gonna have this creepy incestial relationship haha, geez 😅 But I might have to see how that relationship would work on my own. I haven’t played silver snow yet. Thank you for the reply!
@@lordpineapples8896 to be fair, Byleth isn't a person. Or a character. They're just a tool that bogs down the narrative.
I'd rather have Corrin.
@@Tenebrio-Morio lmao tbh they could have done Byleth so much better if they wanted this story to work. They had so much potential and they rather went with a dull character. I get it for people to interpret themselves in the story, but hell, Robin was a good example to do that with. He had his personality but it was easy enough to imagine you are them, too.