Three Houses VII [MAJOR Spoilers][Silver Snow]

[alaterdate]

To hardly any surprise I find Silver Snow to be the weakest of the routes.

It's a reskin of Verdant Wind. However, I did think it was interesting to see Byleth without a lord to which he obeyed. I know I read too much into it, but it seemed that this Byleth was finally dead set on having his cake and eating it too. In the other routes Byleth stands by passively as these lords vie for power over Fodlan (whether they mean to or not) and ends up in a role of authority simply by fact of being present. Okay, they're the "tactician" and the pope's stand-in for a while, but I maintain that Byleth doesn't actually do anything. Byleth never had a great idea and acted on it. Byleth is a stone rolling down a hill with less sense (— Sothis).
I got through this route by roleplaying my male Byleth as someone who realizes that he is in a fantastic position to set him up for the rest of his life at the top. Seteth still made all the decisions. Even the one thing Byleth supposedly came up with the game gives you a ridiculous dialogue path that makes him seem as though he's forgotten his own damn plan. I also make-believed this Byleth to be devout to the religion, a convert to whatever charm it holds. And a Rhea fucker.
And yet still the game made him "say" things that didn't comply with that vision, but whatever.

The scene where Byleth kills Edelgard (while the exact same scene from Verdant Wind) held so much more weight in this route and I gasped at the fall of the sword because I love Edelgard. Once again Edelgard was the best thing to happen to a route of Three Houses.

I had a lot of fun meta-gaming the unit system too. It was pretty much a set up for my next playthrough (you read that right). Blue Lions again, but this time as a woman so I can S-Support Dimitri and see what that's all about. I'm convinced S-Supporting him will make that route a lot better than it was as a man.

Back to Silver Snow though. I have always thought Rhea was beautiful and I loved in Crimson Flower when she wanted to rip Byleth's heart out. I also yearned to hear her call Byleth "mother." Specifically male Byleth. And it was as good a moment as I thought it was going to be. The eeriness of it all is just so compelling. I didn't know she's kind of Byleth's double grandma though that was surprising. I still S-supported her though and boy she is a piece of work. She spent the whole confession baiting Byleth pretty much.

Now I gotta do the boss battle a bajillion more times to get the other S-Supports I worked up to. Also I thought Yuri was going to be interesting, but I ended up liking Balthus a lot more lol.

Also also. Was anyone going to tell me that Sothis was an alien or did I have to find that out in "Three Houses Lore Explained (in six minutes)" myself?