Fire Emblem: Three Houses/YMMV

Fire Emblem is no stranger to controversy, but Fire Emblem: Three Houses is one of few games in the series where opinions really get heated. Fitting, since it's a game about three conflicting factions.

Base Breaker: Thanks to the very nature of the game's main conflict being a divisive one, the same goes for a lot of its characters.
- Edelgard is probably the biggest magnet for controversy ever seen in a Fire Emblem game to date. Merely mentioning her name is enough for ugly flame wars to erupt. Why? Let's go over a few key talking points...
  - Her morality, and how it ties into her master plan. If you talk to her fans, they view her as a revolutionary hero tearing down a corrupt and oppressive system where commoners are at the mercy of tyrannical nobles and the Church's overzealous doctrine. However, those who hate her view her as a narcissistic conqueror at best and a sociopathic tyrant at worst. The unifying thread for these criticisms stem from her surface-level understanding of how Rhea runs the church as well as its doctrine. There's also the matter of her genuinely unsavory traits, such as allowing commoners to suffer from food shortages, using Enbarr's civilians as human shields to protect herself with, and her tendency to oppress followers of the Church of Seiros despite her claims to the contrary, among other nasty crimes. While a lot of her fans ignore the fact that she is a villain (a Red Emperor/Rudolf archetype villain, at that) despite their claims to the contrary, though there is a third faction who like her because she's evil, and damn cool to boot.
  - Her intelligence. Supporters view her as a pragmatic genius who does what she has to do in order to usher in an age of enlightenment, while critics feel that she's a complete idiot who runs Fódlan into the ground due to her stubbornness and ignorance while giving the Agarthans exactly what they want. It doesn't help that Edelgard herself really blurs the lines between being a Magnificent Bastard and a high-functioning Smug Snake.
  - Her effectiveness as a character. No matter if you view her as a villain or misunderstood good guy, if you're a fan chances are you think she's a very engaging and likeable lord due to her tragic backstory and effectiveness as a fighter and planner, not to mention someone whose criticisms of the church and the nobility aren't entirely without merit. She also has appeal stemming from being a powerful female character who's allowed to have a girly and vulnerable side. Of course, her detractors view her as an obnoxious hypocrite that the narrative bends over backwards to make look competent and sympathetic, with the added bonus of her alliance with the Agarthans robbing her of any moral high ground she may have. There's also a lot of criticism directed to her girlier side which unfortunately runs afoul of the Real Women Don't Wear Dresses mentality.
  - And while this part is no fault of Edelgard herself, her loud and obnoxious Fan Dumb drives a huge wedge between those who hate her and those who like her but are more reasonable about it. Though that is an other matter entirely...
- Dimitri's fans hail him as a wonderfully tragic and multifaceted character whose descent into batshit insanity and subsequent redemption arc in Azure Moon make for one of the game's most compelling character arcs. Detractors, however, are completely put off by his violent insanity and say that his self-destructive attitude, cruelty, and disregard for his friends and subjects while suffering from it make him completely unlikeable and likewise view his redemption in Azure Moon as unearned and rushed. Much like Edelgard, he also has rabid fans who put off people who would be otherwise neutral towards him.
- Among the three lords, Claude presents a neutral ground where he's a lot more level-headed than Edelgard and Dimitri, and despite being hyped up as a sneaky schemer, is actually a Nice Guy who is for the most part fairly morally sound. While he gets a lot of positive fandom attention due to these traits, he's also singled out as the most boring lord for the exact same reasons. Both sides do agree though that his Hidden Depths are underexplored and would have made for a much more engaging character arc had they been given the focus they deserved.
- Byleth, whose controversies are threefold.
  - In general, whether you love or hate Byleth comes down to how you feel about their Heroic Mime status. Fans generally don't mind and view their minimalistic characterization as a way to immerse themselves in the world of Fódlan (as well as ship themselves with any of their love interests). Those who don't self-insert simply like that it reflects on their status as The Stoic. But Byleth's lack of emotions and dialogue also attract complaints from disgruntled players who feel that it makes for a boring character, one whose potentially interesting character arc of slowly gaining the capacity to feel emotion and opening up to others falls flat because of it.
  - Male Byleth is viewed by many as a cool-looking protagonist whose design oozes practicality and professionalism, and better reflects on his personality as a fearsome emotionless mercenary viewed as a demon by others in-universe. But thanks to being the latest in a long line of blue-haired sword lords in the vein of Marth he also gets a lot of criticism for being boring and samey.
  - Female Byleth gets a lot of vocal flack from certain circles in the western fandom for being too cute and overly sexualized, with her appearance banking more on waifuability and fanservice than making her a believable emotionless mercenary. But she's also a huge sex symbol whose fans see her design as nothing worth complaining about, due to thinking it's hot, cool, or simply more fun than her male counterpart's more conservative and "boring" appearance. It helps that it really sells her as a Cool Teacher.
- Thanks to being presented in a sinister Ambiguously Evil light and due to the stereotype of churches in Japanese games, Rhea left a bad first impression on many players. Routes where her Hidden Depths are explored and her good traits are more apparent won over a lot of fans, but she still has a fairly sizeable hatedom that takes umbrage with her for other reasons. Bring her up anywhere, and expect flame wars to start over if she was right to act as ruthlessly towards those who attack her as she does, if she's enabling crest abuse and bigotry, and if holding humanity's technological advances and complicated web of lies covering her identity and the true natures of Sothis and Fodlan were justified given the circumstances.
- Sylvain. Fans can't decide if his womanizing antics and the trouble they cause are funny or obnoxious, and his tragic backstory only widens the divide since he's still Unintentionally Unsympathetic to some.
- To his very loud fandom, Felix is the Only Sane Man among the Blue Lions who is willing to call out the uglier aspects of Faerghus' chivalric culture and is completely right about Dimitri's mental instability. But his overly abrasive attitude is known to alienate players who instead think he's a whiny little brat overdue for a punch in the face, and that his criticisms of not just Dimitri but his own father and friends cross the line into being genuinely nasty.
Catharsis Factor:
- Kronya's death is this on two fronts. There's the satisfaction that comes from attacking her with the son/daughter of Jeralt, the man she murdered. Then, there's Solon finishing her off by sacrificing her in a slow, painful ritual. Seeing her turn into a blubbering, terrified wreck begging for help is bound to put a smile on your face.
- If there's a character who annoys the hell out of you (namely scrappies like Leonie and Gilbert, or Base Breakers like Felix or Sylvain), chances are you'll be fighting them after the timeskip if you play a certain route. Have fun killing them!
  - Considering how much of a Base Breaker she is, those who hate Edelgard will absolutely delight in getting to kill her. Recruiting her friends before the timeskip (especially political hostage Petra, or Bernadetta who she tries to sacrifice for a tactical advantage) and setting them against her, killing her with either of the playable Nabateans who she wants to commit genocide against, having characters who don't care about her anti-crest creed beat her down... when it comes to poetic deaths, the sky is truly the limit!
- Acheron is a smug, obnoxious little worm of a man who is unapologetic about how much of a backstabbing opportunist he is. He's also a total weakling, even on Maddening Mode. Squashing this simpering coward into paste is satisfying as hell, and you can potentially do it twice: during Lorenz's paralogue where he immediately goes from overly confident and smug to desperately begging for mercy, and after the timeskip where you can kill him after he stupidly spawns in the middle of a cluster of your units. Should they be the ones facing him, Lorenz and Claude are always happy to humiliate the slimy bastard.
Demonic Spiders: War Masters are easily the most terrifying enemies you'll face. They're Lightning Bruisers in a series where every unit has clear strengths and weaknesses, boasting monstrous attack and HP, incredible speed and defense, and a tendency to double opponents and hit them up to four times in one go as well as a dangerously high critical hit ratio. While they're weak to magic, you have to hope that your mage A: hits them, which can be tough to do because of how evasive they are, B: hits hard enough to kill them, and C: can rely on another unit to finish off a War Master they weaken or miss entirely. Since just about every spellcasting class is a Squishy Wizard of some kind, you can kiss their ass goodbye if a War Master is able to get their hands on them. On the bright side, this makes any units you class into War Master a bonafide Game Breaker, especially ones with stats built for it like Raphael and Dedue.
Designated Villain: Even in routes where it isn't outright villainized, the narrative really wants us to accept that the Church of Seiros is a deeply flawed religious institution in desperate need of reform due to prejudiced, xenophobic doctrine as well as supposedly encouraging a "Crest system". But some players feel that the Church is demonized in order to look worse than it actually is. While there are claims that it's bigoted and xenophobic, Rhea allows people from all sorts of different countries and belief systems live in and even work in her monastery, and while individual knights and clergy are shown to be prejudiced, this certainly isn't indicative of the church as a whole. As for the glorification of Crests, doctrine explicitly forbids using Crests as tools to oppress and hurt people with. Ultimately, people who defend the church feel that its nastier doctrine and aspects are Offscreen Villainy that should be shown, not told.
Ensemble Darkhorse: Kronya's popularity exploded overnight when she was revealed in the pre-release days due to being a hot, sadistic villainous with a clownish flair to her. After the game dropped her popularity endured (especially on /v/), and her death the very next chapter after she finally becomes relevant left a bad taste in a lot of her fans' mouths due to it being such a waste of a character.
Most Annoying Sound: When you're exploring the monastery between missions, get ready to hear wandering NPC's make inane, often bafflingly hostile comments every single time you pass them.
- "Iiiiiis that the one? Thanks a bunch!" "Iiiiiis that the one? Thanks a bunch!" "Iiiiiis that the one? Thanks a bunch!" Anna says his every time you buy something from her. Every. Single. Time. Karen Strassman's voice acting is as good as usual, but the oddly grating way she says this line in particular combined with the repetition will make you want to mute the TV anytime you do business with her.
- One of the reasons why Bernadetta is such a Base Breaker is her tendency to break into loud, screaming hysterics over every single little thing. It's even worse in the original Japanese where her voice is ear-piercing levels of squeaky and obnoxious.
The Scrappy: Leonie. Her refusal to finish a sentence without obsessing over Jeralt is annoying, as is her generally entitled attitude about him during her support conversations with Byleth. To many fans, her claiming that Byleth didn't care about Jeralt in the wake of his death was a bad enough moment to justify letting her die in combat.
That One Boss: No matter which route you play, you're bound to run into at least one of these guys.
- The Death Knight is this before the timeskip, albeit an intentional one that you're encouraged to skip. He's got the strength, durability, and movement range you'd expect from a cavalry unit, which is to say a ton. If he's able to initiate combat with any of your units, they're dead. This even goes for ranged attackers, since his counterattack ability lets him immediately retaliate against their attacks from a distance. Your only safe bets are a Mage with the Dark Spikes spell (Lysithea) or a dedicated cavalry-killer (Sylvain, usually), otherwise beating him without casualties is going to be a real pain in the ass. And if you want to get your hands on the Dark Seals he drops upon being defeated you'll have to fight him. And in Maddening, that's not even an option since he'll chase you own the second he sees you.
- Fought on all routes aside from Crimson Flower, Edelgard is way more dangerous than you'd expect a boss with an Armored Knight-adjacent Class to be. Along with the hard-hitting attack power and ironclad defenses you'd expect, both her Armored Lord and Emperor classes ensure that she's also packing some respectable resistance meaning that she isn't easy pickings for your mages, and is so fast that many of your units will struggle to double her. But the scariest tools in her toolbox are her ability and special Combat Art. The ability, Counterattack, does Exactly What It Says on the Tin and has her immediately retaliate against any unit that hits her for massive damage. And her Combat Art, Raging Storm? It cranks up her attack power and can give her multiple chances to move per turn. If RNGesus is feeling spiteful, Edelgard can slaughter several of your units in a row before her turn is finally over.
- If you're playing through Azure Moon or Verdant Wind, do yourself a favor and recruit Petra before the timeskip. Because if you don't, you've got several obnoxious fights against a terrifying Glass Cannon of an Assasssin to look forward to. While one or two good, solid hits are all it takes to lay her out, good luck actually hitting her because she's got a ridiculous Avoid stat that gets boosted even further thanks to the boosts provided by her Alert Stance and Keen Intuition abilities, as well as her battalion! And while you're struggling to hit her, she's cutting your units into ribbons with powerful attacks that are prone to turning into critical hits, especially on Verdant Wind where she's armed with a Wo Dao (a sword boasting a high critical hit ratio).
- Pallardó is an infamous example among Maddening players due to his chapter, the normally fair and amazingly fun Hunting by Daybreak, being a horrendously unbalanced example of That One Level. He or rather, his body double is surrounded by stat-bloated enemies that make approaching him extremely dangerous. Get past them, and you technically have to kill Pallardó twice since the real Pallardó appears after the double dies. He does not make this easy, since his abilities include Pass (which lets him phase right through any units in his way and potentially kill weaker units) and Avoid 10 to make him naturally dodgy as your units succumb to a brutal assault from him and the gaggle of goons that are backing him up. And while you're trying to kill him he's also trying to escape the map, and if he's able to do so you automatically lose.
- He's only a miniboss, but Myson is easily the most dangerous enemy on the final map of Azure Moon. Yep, even worse than Hegemon Edelgard. He has exclusive access to Bohr X, an HP to One spell with massive range, and his Infinite Magic trait ensures that he can cast it as much as he wants. He's a Squishy Wizard, yeah, but you have to hope your mage-killing units can get to him and initiate an attack that kills him in the same turn because he's backed up by several Demonic Beasts while Hegemon Edelgard is shooting fireballs all over the map. Unsurprisingly, many veteran players don't even bother fighting him and go around the long way to bypass him altogether.

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