Hey hi hello. Where do I begin? I'm back from my hiatus! You might be asking yourself: "wait, didn't she already make a video on this topic?" The answer is yes - and no! This is a completely rewritten, much more detailed analysis of FE3H's soundtrack. This project took me several months of transcription, writing and editing, but I very much enjoyed the process. I am already working on an essay analysing the soundtrack of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, so expect that sometime in the future! Anyway - it’s good to be back! Thank you for watching!
I’m still sad Three Hopes never got DLC. Shez still needs a backstory, there are still characters that are yet to be playable, classes that have yet to be learned, and Byleth was severely underused as an ally.
Yes, me too! It’s such a shame there was no DLC. there is a lot in the “alternate universe” of Hopes that I really think they could have expanded on… Shez’s origins, the unfinished endings, all the Almyran stuff that Golden Wildfire just sort of dropped lol. Overall I think Hopes was a nice expansion of Houses’ lore, but it definitely feels like there’s pieces “missing” that would have made it truly great, you know
Total disrespect to the story, it was already written. Also we could've a Shez DLC in Three Houses with more playable units even if they are only usable in New Game+ ANYTHING PLEASE. Ah but Fates had like 15 DLCs.
They could have given more screentime for the Church of Seiros. Remember Silver Snow ? Remember that time Byleth was the lord you sided with instead of Dimitri, Edelgard and Claude/Khalid. Byleth barely appeared during the second half of Three Hopes and we didn't get all the playable characters from Three Houses. The silver lining is that another crossover between Nintendo and the Warriors franchise, Hyrule Warriors, was re-released with an extra storyline and more characters, so we can hope that we might see a new version of Three Hopes someday.
One tiny piece of irony: as "Descent" wraps up and Byleth falls we have the leitmotifs for Rhea -> Agartha -> Change (Edelgard), as the video points out. And yeah, that describes what's happening in the cut-scene pretty well (the Immaculate One, Thales' magic, Byleth takes a nap in a ditch), but because Edelgard's motif is also "The Edge of Dawn", the lyric "reach for my hand--" plays right as Byleth goes off the cliff
This was a fantastic video and I learned so much more from it about the game. It also really made me like Edelgard and Rhea even more than I already do. It also helped me understand a lot more about music (and musical terms) itself! I'm actually surprised you didn't cover the heartbeat motif in the Sothis section, and its relation to the Byleth/Sothis/Edelgard story (feat. Rhea and Sitri). I can kind of understand Dimitri not having a very solid motif since his routes are more reactionary and others do the actual world building, and Claude using some of Edelgard's theme for reasons you stated, but it's still a bit of a surprise they don't have their own at all.
So sorry I missed this comment!! I’m so glad you enjoyed the video ❤ Yeah, I agree that the heartbeat motif is also super important from the perspective of musical storytelling - I suppose I didn’t think to include it because I was quite focused on “multiple appearances” of certain musical ideas while I was preparing/researching/transcribing. Thanks for highlighting it here though!! I think with OSTs like this there’s always more to analyse 🤩
I was complaining in my minds that youtube didn’t recommanded me 3H content for a few times, looks like they listened to me It was an amazing video that makes me love this game even more (I should try 3 hopes though), I even swapped to regular youtube instead of revanced so thank you for your great analysis 😁
I am the biggest Fire Emblem fan I know, and 3 houses was one of the first games in the series I played, and it left me in awe. It was beautiful, fun, engaging, tense, and all kinds of amazing emotions. I chose Golden Deer for my first time playing, and I'll never regret it. What an amazing experience it was. Fear the Deer!
@@legomaster2538 yeah both would’ve been awesome. I really don’t think it would’ve worked together though bc the only one who could maybe even potentially care about joining the church would be Yuri
I remember that one game called tales of arise that had dlc for one year and never touched until 2024 and called beyond the dawn i believe we going to have that situation in 2025, or 2026
Thanks for watching!! Yeah, while I find many of the criticisms of Hopes to be valid (and agree with some of them), the game also has its strengths. I think that - overall - it was a valuable expansion of 3H’s world. And the one thing that unquestionably stayed very consistent in quality was the music hehe
I’m still sad it never got DLC. Shez still needs a backstory, there are still characters that are yet to be playable, classes that have yet to be learned, and Byleth was severely underused as an ally.
Fantastic video! I don't know anything about music terms or just the vocabulary, but I loved this video! I knew about Edelgard's leitmotif spread basically everywhere, but never had even thought of a Dimitri or Claude one (in addition to Rhea). One extra thing about Nemesis' stuff is that God Shattering Star's vocals are (to my knowledge) complete nonsense, which really helps to sell the idea of this rustic, ancient barbarian. Not even the historians or people of Fodlan understand what this geezer is going on about. This video was great, thank you!
Thank you so much for watching! Indeed, there’s so much to dig into with this OST, everything feels so intentional and thoughtful in how it’s executed! God Shattering Star is absolutely Nemesis’s “I am” song, the lyrics certainly reflect his fractured - or perhaps warped? state of mind
This was awesome thank you for making this! I wanted to add that In Wailing I love how broken and unstable it sounds as if a new piano played was the one who played it, it fits the scene perfectly
i’m so glad you talked abt the final scene of crimson flower! it’s SO GOOD and the score for it is incredibly fitting and symbolic, and it’s a bummer not many people talk abt it!
Sorry I missed this, oops! Yes, it’s honestly suuuuch a good scene, I know a lot of people think that CF was rushed in its writing/development, but genuinely its ending has one of the best scenes/most powerful messages in the game. The music really enhances it!
Fantastic video. I love this game and the music in it, so seeing someone go fully in-depth on it is awesome. One super tiny nit pick, the excerpt of The Leader's Path you used is in 5/4, not 4/4.
Thanks for the comment and for watching! Yeah as mentioned in the description, all transcriptions were done by ear, so there was always the possibility that I missed something, or made a small mistake like this.
Indeed. This game gave us a set of stories, characters, a world, and ultimately - a dilemma, that lingered for so long after completing it. The music was truly the glue that held it all together and you did an incredible job at analysing it
holy smokes! as someone who loves FE and played FE3H on release day it’s amazing to see the amount of love and care put into this video. as someone who enjoys music (but isn’t smart with musical terminology) you did a fantastical job explaining everything. I hope many FE and non FE fans see this video ❤
The King of Lions is one of my favorites on the track because it really makes me feel like one of those Marching songs, like you can visualize Dimitri leading his army at the head of it as he so normally does (because he doesnt care for his own safty)
Yes, I think it’s definitely a very evocative piece of music. Combined with some of the battle themes (especially Chasing Daybreak), it really “sets the mood” for post-timeskip Azure Moon!!
An absolute gem of a video I sat through every single minute of it and didn't even feel that it was an hour long. Probably the most in depth discussion about FE3H's music I've ever come across
Oooooh i'm so happy to see you posted a new video on the same topic but with improvements and including 3Hopes! i enjoyed your previous video so much i kept thinking about it, and now i try to find themes and leitmotiv in all the games I play! I can see all the hard work and passion you put into it and again, i learned a lot and really enjoyed it, you make me want to play 3 Houses again once i finish Totk, or i might play xenoblade chronicle 3 so i can enjoy yur next video! thank you !
wowow I’m so glad to hear that my original video inspired you to listen for leitmotifs and themes, that’s amazing! Thank you so much for your kind words, so happy you to hear you enjoyed this new video!!
Revisiting this video since I was going through my subscriptions and saw your stuff again, and I just want to say it honestly is absolutely amazing! And it makes me even more tempted to replay 3 Houses again but I really want to finish 3 Hopes first lol
Thank you for this. This is one of the most intriguing and informed reviews of Three house music that I've ever seen. The music is one of the reasons why three houses ranks as one of my favorite fire emblem games of all time, even after 4 years. It also shows how care and repect can shape a game and how this level of care was lost on certain games like Engage. I hope you continue making great content.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment!! Yes, I really appreciate it when you can see that everyone involved in a game went above and beyond. even with its flaws, 3H was clearly made with a lot of love and care. Engage is… well, it is what it is hehe. Hopefully the next FE will blow us all away like 3H did 😉😅
!!! Im so excited to watch this video! I loved the last musical video so very hyped (will maybe update after im done) Edit: After finishing it I loved this essay a lot, it really opened my eyes on how many of the leitmotifs show up throughout the game and how many I've missed lol. I think I've said this once on the older vid but I really wanna like Edlegard cause of her intentions and her music hecking slaps but there's just something about her that puts me off 🤷 (also it's a crime that Dimitri doesn't have a leitmotif lol)
Ahhh thank you for the kind words, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, I do think one of my criticisms of the OST is that Claude and Dimitri don’t have leitmotifs and/or that their themes (in King of Lions and Golden Deer and the Crescent Moon) don’t feature in their story moments - I adore Edelgard, but considering that Dimitri and Claude are also main characters, they deserved the same treatment!!
This was fascinating. Despite me not having much deep knowledege on music, I surely noticed the OST was telling you the story and was amazed at it. On other note, I never played 3 hopes but I'm happy they maintained the motif.... Thank you for doing this. It was very interesting.
Really enjoyed this! For suggestions on future games, I figure something super easy like FFXIV would work. That was a joke. Honestly, I see so much P5 on your channel that I'd be really interested in your analysis of its music.
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it!! I actually do have a short, 10 minute video on P5’s OST on my channel already - it’s pretty old though, and it was also the first video essay I ever made sdfsdghsl, so it’s a bit rough around the edges. It also doesn’t really have the same depth of music theory analysis as this one, so I definitely would like to remake/revisit it one day - as well as this I feel like my opinions on the OST have developed and changed over the years too. All to say, thank you for the recommendation! I’ll definitely add it to my list hehe.
Welcome, thank you for watching and for your kind words! I am glad you enjoyed it. I am not a musicologist, but I've been a musician for most of my life and have spent many years studying music theory, while dabbling in composition. It's a passion of mine!
@@theflightofarobyn I see. Thats very cool. I watch multiple videogame music analysis/breakdown channels and its always interesting to see the different approaches different people take.
man, this video deserves more views. it is such an excellent analysis!!! i really need to finish hopes, this video reminds me of how much of a banger the soundtrack is.
Thanks for watching!! Yeah, when Hopes was announced my first thought was “omg I can’t wait to hear the soundtrack” since I loved the Houses OST so much. It definitely didn’t disappoint lol!
I never said I liked her… I just wish that didn't mean her routes are the only ones that matter. I played them last in both games and after doing it, it felt as if the time I spent on every other routes meant nothing. Or, actually I do, because that means Dimitri and I are in the way of actual progress and us both need to die.
@@YesmanForNamsey I don’t think her route invalidates any of the other routes. That was not what I was trying to say in my reply to you (nor in this video). In my above reply I was just agreeing that her existence in the narrative does not invalidate the other lords or their stories. She is vital to what happens as the character who acts as an important catalyst in how she influences the actions and arcs of other characters. I think it’s important to remember that each route is trying to tell a different kind of story, one isn’t necessarily more “right” than another. They’re all different thematically. Azure Moon has themes of mental health, mental resilience and overcoming trauma (it’s very focused on Dimitri as a character/the “self”, and less on society as a whole). Conversely, Crimson Flower instead has themes of revolution and the reclamation of agency (which is a “bigger picture”). One is not better than the other. A major theme in 3H is the idea of perspective, and it applies to us as the players too. Each route is trying to teach us something different.
@@theflightofarobyn I guess it's that I want to love her, because it feels like she's everything Claude and especially Dimitri is, but better. But I can't because she feels like two different characters. But because I still recognize what' supposed to make her the best, I can't go back to loving Dimitri because Edelgard's route is basically all against what Dimitri's is about, so now I have lost my love for the characters, my love for the game, and my will to live (and I'm not joking, you don't need to feel bad).
@@theflightofarobyn Sorry for what I said if it was harsh. The discourse has soured me so much on the story as a whole, and I end up saying stuff like what I said because of insecurities.
Thank you so much for making this video. It was so fun to watch and very informative. As someone who loves music but doesn't play it or understand it on a technical level, I really appreciated your explanations and putting words to why I love these two soundtracks.
I'm a bit late to the party but this video is incredible!! I have a couple thought of my own after hearing your analysis. 1) now I'm mad that Verdant Wind ends with The Edge of Dawn. They really didn't give Claude anything, huh? Not in Houses nor in Hopes. It's almost as if his ambitions are overshadowed by Edelgard's. 2) However, hearing The Edge of Dawn in the Zaharas bonus chapter in Hopes is really awesome. It's weird that we only get Edelgard's motif in a chapter with all 3 lords, but it makes sense in all three routes. In Scarlet Blaze, Edelgard is the protagonist and leader who is soon to triumph. In Azure Gleam, it is a reintroduction to the Edelgard we used to know, before she was mind controlled by Thales. This chapter is her Last Hurrah before the ending, and I even interpret the use of The Edge of Dawn in this chapter in Azure Gleam to be her send-off, a goodbye from the game to Edelgard. Finally, in Golden Wildfire... look YOU'RE not saying Claude is Edelgard, but in Golden Wildfire of 3 Hopes, I will ABSOLUTELY make that claim. His ambitions are completely subservient to hers in this route. 3) Funeral of Flowers is my favorite song in this entire game. And I agree with you that we needed to hear it and the Song of the Nabateans more in Hopes.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment!! 1. Yes, I will never stop being salty about Claude being sidelined/overshadowed by the narrative. I honestly adore all three lords equally with my whole heart, but I truly feel like VW wasn’t really “Claude’s story” - I’d even go so far as to say that it is actually more “Byleth’s story.” Like you could remove Claude from the narrative and it wouldn’t change much (SS being a case in point haha!!) Like I can imagine a version of Claude’s arc that instead focuses on relations between the Alliance/Fodlan and Almyra, and him having to confront the resistance of the Alliance to toppling the literal wall that separates Fodlan from the east. We also never really got to hear what the Almyrans want. Like who is to say they would want a leader allied with Fodlan in Claude? I’m not convinced it’s as easy as his end cards from VW make it seem lol. Even if he is an heir, there’s tensions there that deserved unpacking that are very tied to Claude and his identity struggles. And in Hopes… I had such high hopes for GW with regards to Claude’s story, but alas… I do really like his characterisation in Hopes, he’s a little more grey in his decisions and i think that’s cool to see (e.g. we get told a lot in Houses that he’s a schemer but we never really see him scheme, I think we got more of a glimpse at that side of him in Hopes). I also think it’s great that he forms an alliance with Edelgard, but it’s unfortunate that his story in pt 2 just sort of follows CF in a lot of ways. 2. Wowowow you make some really interesting points here about El’s leitmotif appearing in Zaharas and how it’s tied to each route. I hadn’t even thought of these, awesome!! But indeed, it does make sense in all three routes, it’s kind of like how Unfulfilled makes sense in all three routes. I think there may also be something to be said about Edelgard’s much more intimate experiences with the Agarthans? 3. Big agree, it’s such a beautiful theme and I just wish we got a church route, mostly for the sake of the music haha!!!
@@theflightofarobyn I've been listening to the three hopes soundtrack and I have other random thoughts that I'm going to post here because you might appreciate them. Melody of Clarity is so good, like it;'s honestly amazing... but I keep hearing the Edge of Dawn in it and it takes me out of it. Nemesis gets a full final battle song unimpeded by other characters' leitmotifs, why not Rhea? If I was more musically talented I'd try to rearrange it myself and extract the edge of dawn, perhaps replacing it with the Ashen Demon's theme or Sothis's chant or Indomitable Will. That said... I think the version that exists, as is, would have been perfect for Crimson Flower. The other Houses final battle songs are all about the antagonist. Apex of the World has heavy use of Edge of Dawn to represent Edelgard's desperation and descent into inhumanity. Funeral of Flowers is about the tragedy of Rhea. God Shattering Star is Nemesis's "I Am/I Want" song. But Crimson Flower ends with a song about... its protagonist, Edelgard. It still... works... but Melody of Clarity would fit the theme of a final boss theme about the antagonist, and having Edge of Dawn in there works way better for Crimson Flower than for Golden Wildfire. Hopes' use of Apex of the World and Funeral of Flowers is... weird. Neither song fully fits the fight anymore. But then I listened to Hopes' Apex of the World again and I heard an EDM-style beat play at the very beginning of the song. It doesn't show up more, but it does provide the faintest hint of what's actually happening -- you're fighting Edelgard, but she's been superseded by the Agarthans. If the entire song had that EDM beat to it, it would work even better, with Edelgard's theme and the Agarthan beat as a united front. I also think having a techno interlude in Hopes' funeral of flowers would have worked better to represent the melee a trois that's going on. Your enemies are twofold: Rhea, and Thales. And only the former is represented in the soundtrack. But you can also find the Agarthan beat laced throughout certain other songs in Hopes too. Listen to 3 Hopes' version of Chasing Daybreak compared to Houses and tell me you don't feel the heavier hand the Agarthans play in Hopes. Also, you mentioned Edelgard's much more intimate experiences with the Agarthans, and I think that absolutely does play a role in Edge of Dawn showing up in Zaharas. She was their ultimate creation... and will be their downfall in one manner or another. Finally, you make a lot of really good points about Claude and Verdant Wind. I actually have a draft of a summary of a Verdant Wind rewrite I've been working on, if you're on discord or something I'd love to share it with you!
I wouldn’t say Claude is subservient to Edelgard at all, his ambitions just line up with hers, that’s really it! 🤙🏼 He just wanted to do it his own way, so that’s why he’s not always with her
I always pictured the Edge of Dawn Verse section/motif to represent a collective "togetherness" of sorts. So whenever that part makes its way into a piece it's there to signify either the happy days of the Monastery or the ever present theme in JRPGs and especially Fire Emblem of "working together/teamwork". I had thought this up when you first talked about it but I'm only typing it now because I'm at around 41:00 and it's brought back with Abyss, but you're yet to say it. And this entire section of the game is all about teamwork and a sort of reminiscing moment of what could have been
Ooh, I like that interpretation! Indeed, I think that it is more associated with a certain idea that applies generally to many situations - “togetherness” really fits!
This is such high quality content, I'm amazed. Thank you for your amazing analysis and breakdown of the complexities of the musical motifs in a way that even a layman like me can understand and appreciate.
This deserves soooo many more views omg we need more people talking about how much the OSTs do for Edelgard’s character and just for the enjoyment of the games overall!! I can’t believe I saw your video so lateeeee 😫💔
I disagree a bit on 18:14 its not about what she change brings to the world that varies but what the change brings to her and maybe the empire that varies depending on which side hero/villain Edelgard is .... as for the world the result is always a cleansing .... The Church is transformed and the Chains Rhea imposed on Fondland are shattered the same for the Tendrils of Those Who Slither in the Dark choking it are destroyed as well .... regardless of what role she plays ... at least after the addition of the Ashen Wolfs .... before ... Azure Moon ... the worlds long term prospects were not as good. Its Her and the empire whose fate changes on the role .... she starts the fire but does the fire consume her scorching the empire with her... or purify her cleansing the empire in the process
Thank you for your comment! I was more speaking about framing as a storytelling device (in a more meta sense), not the actual/literal results of her actions. My point was that there were certain representational choices made to re-contextualise her role from hero to villain, especially from the perspective of other characters - I would argue that the most important storytelling device used in 3H is unreliable, or at the very least, limited narration from the perspective of each of the three lords. The metaphor around a wildfire helps to demonstrate this contextualisation. Each route produces a certain narrative discourse that symbolically frames Edelgard through the eyes of other characters. So through Dimitri, she is seen as destructive (the scorching fire), and Dimitri is framed as someone who “rebuilds” the world in the wake of the war she instigated. whereas in Crimson Flower we see her as a cleansing fire, as the “builder” of a new world.
hehe as a fellow music theory lover your dissection on leitmotifs was really awesome to watch, I managed to watch Das Rheingold's premiere in my country and the wagenerian use of leitmotifs in the piece (and fe3h now that I watched your video) was really interesting! Also, isn't timbre pronounced tim-ber or tom-ber? correct me if I'm wrong
Glad you enjoyed!! Perhaps the pronunciation of timbre varies depending on dialect (in my case, I’m South African), though maybe I am just mispronouncing it. I tend to be a better writer than a speaker hehe, my tongue gets twisted around words quite a bit (there were many, many outtakes in the making of this video…😂)
@@graye_2843 So I checked with a musician friend from my country, and it is pronounced “taambre” in my region (I thought so, since all of my music teachers said it that way growing up. so my pronunciation is correct in my dialect, but not in yours I suppose) ☺️
An interesting point to note about the flipping perspective of the Apex of the World: all other finale pieces center the antagonist. Be it Funeral of Flowers, God-Shattering Star, At What Cost, or even Melody of Clarity, they are all villain (or at least enemy) songs, which makes the use of Apex of the World in Crimson Flower stand out. Like much of the symbolism of that final mission (is Byleth being renewed from the stagnation of immortality, or losing Nirvana through being misled?), it is in itself something that can be interpreted diffirently: are we still getting a villain song because we are the villains, or do we stand in defiance of convention, blasting out our own piece where our enemies would normally have theirs?
Thanks for sharing your ideas around this, I really appreciate it! I think there are so many ways to interpret it. To me, because CF seeks to break down the conventions of not only the story/other routes, but the world itself, the presence of Apex of the World always felt like a reclamation of sorts, especially if one is to play CF after AM.
@@theflightofarobyn Having played CF before AM, and at the risk of triggering "the discourse", to me the "reclamation" aspect didn't come through mostly because it wasn't necessary per se. Another thing that ties a lot of the finale songs (with the exception of FoF and AWC) is their generally heroic tone, one that transfers to their subjects. Apex of the World doesn't need reclaiming from the Hegemon because the Hegemon is still heroic in her own way, standing to the bitter end and giving of herself as much as she would ask of others, all to see a brighter future (yes, I do find AM's protagonists rather detestable when not forcing myself to be "unbiased").
@@illusive-mike no I certainly wasn’t meaning to imply a reclamation of the song from the Hegemon or Edelgard herself, not at all. I was thinking more along the lines of reclaiming what I’ve always believed to be a heroic song from its antagonistic framing in AM. It felt satisfying to me, like a kind of catharsis… Since in CF Edelgard is finally being narratively framed as the heroine that she is. This may be because I became invested in the idea that Crimson Flower would result in the best outcome for Fodlan while playing her route, and I am sure that others have different opinions from my own. Which is okay! It’s a game all about perspective, after all.
@@theflightofarobyn I wasn't necessarily implying that I read "reclamation" as a reclamation from the Hegemon in any other way than "the Hegemon is a very negative framing" either, so that's all fine. It's more so that to me it felt like the use of AotW in the AM finale (and the general trend of the final themes being heroic in tone despite using the antagonist motifs) already contradicted the story "framing". Which is also fitting for 3H as a game about perspective, to have the characters say one thing while the music says another.
Realistically, they just didn't have time to write a song for CF. There's a lot that route didn't get that the others did (less cutscenes, shorter route, Edelgard's paralogue is Hilda's, etc.)
Hey hi hello. Where do I begin? I'm back from my hiatus! You might be asking yourself: "wait, didn't she already make a video on this topic?" The answer is yes - and no! This is a completely rewritten, much more detailed analysis of FE3H's soundtrack. This project took me several months of transcription, writing and editing, but I very much enjoyed the process. I am already working on an essay analysing the soundtrack of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, so expect that sometime in the future! Anyway - it’s good to be back! Thank you for watching!
I’m still sad Three Hopes never got DLC. Shez still needs a backstory, there are still characters that are yet to be playable, classes that have yet to be learned, and Byleth was severely underused as an ally.
Yes, me too! It’s such a shame there was no DLC. there is a lot in the “alternate universe” of Hopes that I really think they could have expanded on… Shez’s origins, the unfinished endings, all the Almyran stuff that Golden Wildfire just sort of dropped lol. Overall I think Hopes was a nice expansion of Houses’ lore, but it definitely feels like there’s pieces “missing” that would have made it truly great, you know
I'm with you guys
Total disrespect to the story, it was already written. Also we could've a Shez DLC in Three Houses with more playable units even if they are only usable in New Game+ ANYTHING PLEASE. Ah but Fates had like 15 DLCs.
They could have given more screentime for the Church of Seiros. Remember Silver Snow ? Remember that time Byleth was the lord you sided with instead of Dimitri, Edelgard and Claude/Khalid. Byleth barely appeared during the second half of Three Hopes and we didn't get all the playable characters from Three Houses. The silver lining is that another crossover between Nintendo and the Warriors franchise, Hyrule Warriors, was re-released with an extra storyline and more characters, so we can hope that we might see a new version of Three Hopes someday.
(Sees 955 hours of Three Houses)
*Finally, a worthy opponent!* 😅
Bahaha same I’m at like 1300 and then i have like 400 in Hopes
One tiny piece of irony: as "Descent" wraps up and Byleth falls we have the leitmotifs for Rhea -> Agartha -> Change (Edelgard), as the video points out. And yeah, that describes what's happening in the cut-scene pretty well (the Immaculate One, Thales' magic, Byleth takes a nap in a ditch), but because Edelgard's motif is also "The Edge of Dawn", the lyric "reach for my hand--" plays right as Byleth goes off the cliff
Indeed! Nice catch!
This was a fantastic video and I learned so much more from it about the game. It also really made me like Edelgard and Rhea even more than I already do. It also helped me understand a lot more about music (and musical terms) itself!
I'm actually surprised you didn't cover the heartbeat motif in the Sothis section, and its relation to the Byleth/Sothis/Edelgard story (feat. Rhea and Sitri).
I can kind of understand Dimitri not having a very solid motif since his routes are more reactionary and others do the actual world building, and Claude using some of Edelgard's theme for reasons you stated, but it's still a bit of a surprise they don't have their own at all.
So sorry I missed this comment!! I’m so glad you enjoyed the video ❤ Yeah, I agree that the heartbeat motif is also super important from the perspective of musical storytelling - I suppose I didn’t think to include it because I was quite focused on “multiple appearances” of certain musical ideas while I was preparing/researching/transcribing. Thanks for highlighting it here though!! I think with OSTs like this there’s always more to analyse 🤩
I was complaining in my minds that youtube didn’t recommanded me 3H content for a few times, looks like they listened to me
It was an amazing video that makes me love this game even more (I should try 3 hopes though), I even swapped to regular youtube instead of revanced so thank you for your great analysis 😁
Thank you so much for watching!! Glad the TH-cam algorithm read your mind, haha!❤️❤️
This is a super awesome video! Very eloquently put. FE3H’s soundtrack is truly something special. Thanks for highlighting it! :)
thank you for your kind words, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!!
I am the biggest Fire Emblem fan I know, and 3 houses was one of the first games in the series I played, and it left me in awe. It was beautiful, fun, engaging, tense, and all kinds of amazing emotions. I chose Golden Deer for my first time playing, and I'll never regret it. What an amazing experience it was. Fear the Deer!
Yes, Hopes needed a Church route
Or an Ashen Wolves route.
@@legomaster2538 yeah both would’ve been awesome. I really don’t think it would’ve worked together though bc the only one who could maybe even potentially care about joining the church would be Yuri
I remember that one game called tales of arise that had dlc for one year and never touched until 2024 and called beyond the dawn i believe we going to have that situation in 2025, or 2026
I hope we'll have a DLC too.
This is super cool! And thank you for including Hopes, I feel like people bag on that game way too much
Thanks for watching!! Yeah, while I find many of the criticisms of Hopes to be valid (and agree with some of them), the game also has its strengths. I think that - overall - it was a valuable expansion of 3H’s world. And the one thing that unquestionably stayed very consistent in quality was the music hehe
I’m still sad it never got DLC. Shez still needs a backstory, there are still characters that are yet to be playable, classes that have yet to be learned, and Byleth was severely underused as an ally.
I am willing to pay the sentence I deserve for hating Hopes.
Fantastic video! I don't know anything about music terms or just the vocabulary, but I loved this video! I knew about Edelgard's leitmotif spread basically everywhere, but never had even thought of a Dimitri or Claude one (in addition to Rhea). One extra thing about Nemesis' stuff is that God Shattering Star's vocals are (to my knowledge) complete nonsense, which really helps to sell the idea of this rustic, ancient barbarian. Not even the historians or people of Fodlan understand what this geezer is going on about.
This video was great, thank you!
Thank you so much for watching! Indeed, there’s so much to dig into with this OST, everything feels so intentional and thoughtful in how it’s executed! God Shattering Star is absolutely Nemesis’s “I am” song, the lyrics certainly reflect his fractured - or perhaps warped? state of mind
This was awesome thank you for making this! I wanted to add that In Wailing I love how broken and unstable it sounds as if a new piano played was the one who played it, it fits the scene perfectly
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it. Lovely point about Wailing, too - indeed, it’s such a heart-wrenching variation 😭❤️
i’m so glad you talked abt the final scene of crimson flower! it’s SO GOOD and the score for it is incredibly fitting and symbolic, and it’s a bummer not many people talk abt it!
Sorry I missed this, oops! Yes, it’s honestly suuuuch a good scene, I know a lot of people think that CF was rushed in its writing/development, but genuinely its ending has one of the best scenes/most powerful messages in the game. The music really enhances it!
A funeral with flowers gives me goosebumps everytime the chorus hits❤
Fantastic video. I love this game and the music in it, so seeing someone go fully in-depth on it is awesome. One super tiny nit pick, the excerpt of The Leader's Path you used is in 5/4, not 4/4.
Thanks for the comment and for watching! Yeah as mentioned in the description, all transcriptions were done by ear, so there was always the possibility that I missed something, or made a small mistake like this.
Indeed. This game gave us a set of stories, characters, a world, and ultimately - a dilemma, that lingered for so long after completing it. The music was truly the glue that held it all together and you did an incredible job at analysing it
Ah, it’s always nice meeting a fellow South African in the wild! Thank you so much for your kind words, I’m so happy you enjoyed the video! 💕
holy smokes! as someone who loves FE and played FE3H on release day it’s amazing to see the amount of love and care put into this video. as someone who enjoys music (but isn’t smart with musical terminology) you did a fantastical job explaining everything. I hope many FE and non FE fans see this video ❤
The King of Lions is one of my favorites on the track because it really makes me feel like one of those Marching songs, like you can visualize Dimitri leading his army at the head of it as he so normally does (because he doesnt care for his own safty)
Yes, I think it’s definitely a very evocative piece of music. Combined with some of the battle themes (especially Chasing Daybreak), it really “sets the mood” for post-timeskip Azure Moon!!
An absolute gem of a video I sat through every single minute of it and didn't even feel that it was an hour long. Probably the most in depth discussion about FE3H's music I've ever come across
Oooooh i'm so happy to see you posted a new video on the same topic but with improvements and including 3Hopes! i enjoyed your previous video so much i kept thinking about it, and now i try to find themes and leitmotiv in all the games I play! I can see all the hard work and passion you put into it and again, i learned a lot and really enjoyed it, you make me want to play 3 Houses again once i finish Totk, or i might play xenoblade chronicle 3 so i can enjoy yur next video! thank you !
wowow I’m so glad to hear that my original video inspired you to listen for leitmotifs and themes, that’s amazing! Thank you so much for your kind words, so happy you to hear you enjoyed this new video!!
Revisiting this video since I was going through my subscriptions and saw your stuff again, and I just want to say it honestly is absolutely amazing! And it makes me even more tempted to replay 3 Houses again but I really want to finish 3 Hopes first lol
I loved three houses, obsessed and hence I went to awakening. Couldn't get behind hopes in the first 10hrs. Worth trying again?
Fascinating stuff.
Only 900 hours? Those are rookie numbers. You gotta get those up.
lol!! It’s now uh… like 1000 and something hours. I can’t put this game down 🤣
Thank you for this. This is one of the most intriguing and informed reviews of Three house music that I've ever seen. The music is one of the reasons why three houses ranks as one of my favorite fire emblem games of all time, even after 4 years. It also shows how care and repect can shape a game and how this level of care was lost on certain games like Engage. I hope you continue making great content.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment!! Yes, I really appreciate it when you can see that everyone involved in a game went above and beyond. even with its flaws, 3H was clearly made with a lot of love and care. Engage is… well, it is what it is hehe. Hopefully the next FE will blow us all away like 3H did 😉😅
!!! Im so excited to watch this video! I loved the last musical video so very hyped (will maybe update after im done)
Edit:
After finishing it I loved this essay a lot, it really opened my eyes on how many of the leitmotifs show up throughout the game and how many I've missed lol. I think I've said this once on the older vid but I really wanna like Edlegard cause of her intentions and her music hecking slaps but there's just something about her that puts me off 🤷 (also it's a crime that Dimitri doesn't have a leitmotif lol)
Ahhh thank you for the kind words, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, I do think one of my criticisms of the OST is that Claude and Dimitri don’t have leitmotifs and/or that their themes (in King of Lions and Golden Deer and the Crescent Moon) don’t feature in their story moments - I adore Edelgard, but considering that Dimitri and Claude are also main characters, they deserved the same treatment!!
This is amazingly detailed
This was fascinating. Despite me not having much deep knowledege on music, I surely noticed the OST was telling you the story and was amazed at it.
On other note, I never played 3 hopes but I'm happy they maintained the motif....
Thank you for doing this. It was very interesting.
Thank you so much for watching! So glad you enjoyed it!! ❤
Really enjoyed this! For suggestions on future games, I figure something super easy like FFXIV would work.
That was a joke.
Honestly, I see so much P5 on your channel that I'd be really interested in your analysis of its music.
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it!! I actually do have a short, 10 minute video on P5’s OST on my channel already - it’s pretty old though, and it was also the first video essay I ever made sdfsdghsl, so it’s a bit rough around the edges. It also doesn’t really have the same depth of music theory analysis as this one, so I definitely would like to remake/revisit it one day - as well as this I feel like my opinions on the OST have developed and changed over the years too. All to say, thank you for the recommendation! I’ll definitely add it to my list hehe.
@@theflightofarobyn Totally missed it and your intertextuality video, which was also great. Looking forward to more!
waitttt a minute... Robyn upload???? Do my eyes deceive me???
Lmao yesss I am still alive!
@@theflightofarobyn YIPEE GOOD TO HAVE YA BACK
New viewer here. This is a great video and a fascinating breakdown. You have a degree in musicology I assume?
Welcome, thank you for watching and for your kind words! I am glad you enjoyed it. I am not a musicologist, but I've been a musician for most of my life and have spent many years studying music theory, while dabbling in composition. It's a passion of mine!
@@theflightofarobyn I see. Thats very cool. I watch multiple videogame music analysis/breakdown channels and its always interesting to see the different approaches different people take.
man, this video deserves more views. it is such an excellent analysis!!! i really need to finish hopes, this video reminds me of how much of a banger the soundtrack is.
Thanks for watching!! Yeah, when Hopes was announced my first thought was “omg I can’t wait to hear the soundtrack” since I loved the Houses OST so much. It definitely didn’t disappoint lol!
Incredible work!
Thanks a lot!
I don't think I will ever be convinced that Edelgard and Crimson Flowers invalidates all the other routes and lords for the worse.
Indeed. The story would not exist without her!! She’s vital to so much that happens
I never said I liked her…
I just wish that didn't mean her routes are the only ones that matter. I played them last in both games and after doing it, it felt as if the time I spent on every other routes meant nothing. Or, actually I do, because that means Dimitri and I are in the way of actual progress and us both need to die.
@@YesmanForNamsey I don’t think her route invalidates any of the other routes. That was not what I was trying to say in my reply to you (nor in this video). In my above reply I was just agreeing that her existence in the narrative does not invalidate the other lords or their stories. She is vital to what happens as the character who acts as an important catalyst in how she influences the actions and arcs of other characters. I think it’s important to remember that each route is trying to tell a different kind of story, one isn’t necessarily more “right” than another. They’re all different thematically. Azure Moon has themes of mental health, mental resilience and overcoming trauma (it’s very focused on Dimitri as a character/the “self”, and less on society as a whole). Conversely, Crimson Flower instead has themes of revolution and the reclamation of agency (which is a “bigger picture”). One is not better than the other. A major theme in 3H is the idea of perspective, and it applies to us as the players too. Each route is trying to teach us something different.
@@theflightofarobyn I guess it's that I want to love her, because it feels like she's everything Claude and especially Dimitri is, but better. But I can't because she feels like two different characters.
But because I still recognize what' supposed to make her the best, I can't go back to loving Dimitri because Edelgard's route is basically all against what Dimitri's is about, so now I have lost my love for the characters, my love for the game, and my will to live (and I'm not joking, you don't need to feel bad).
@@theflightofarobyn Sorry for what I said if it was harsh. The discourse has soured me so much on the story as a whole, and I end up saying stuff like what I said because of insecurities.
Thank you so much for making this video. It was so fun to watch and very informative. As someone who loves music but doesn't play it or understand it on a technical level, I really appreciated your explanations and putting words to why I love these two soundtracks.
Thank you for watching!! So glad you found it informative 🩷🩷
I'm a bit late to the party but this video is incredible!! I have a couple thought of my own after hearing your analysis.
1) now I'm mad that Verdant Wind ends with The Edge of Dawn. They really didn't give Claude anything, huh? Not in Houses nor in Hopes. It's almost as if his ambitions are overshadowed by Edelgard's.
2) However, hearing The Edge of Dawn in the Zaharas bonus chapter in Hopes is really awesome. It's weird that we only get Edelgard's motif in a chapter with all 3 lords, but it makes sense in all three routes. In Scarlet Blaze, Edelgard is the protagonist and leader who is soon to triumph. In Azure Gleam, it is a reintroduction to the Edelgard we used to know, before she was mind controlled by Thales. This chapter is her Last Hurrah before the ending, and I even interpret the use of The Edge of Dawn in this chapter in Azure Gleam to be her send-off, a goodbye from the game to Edelgard. Finally, in Golden Wildfire... look YOU'RE not saying Claude is Edelgard, but in Golden Wildfire of 3 Hopes, I will ABSOLUTELY make that claim. His ambitions are completely subservient to hers in this route.
3) Funeral of Flowers is my favorite song in this entire game. And I agree with you that we needed to hear it and the Song of the Nabateans more in Hopes.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment!!
1. Yes, I will never stop being salty about Claude being sidelined/overshadowed by the narrative. I honestly adore all three lords equally with my whole heart, but I truly feel like VW wasn’t really “Claude’s story” - I’d even go so far as to say that it is actually more “Byleth’s story.” Like you could remove Claude from the narrative and it wouldn’t change much (SS being a case in point haha!!) Like I can imagine a version of Claude’s arc that instead focuses on relations between the Alliance/Fodlan and Almyra, and him having to confront the resistance of the Alliance to toppling the literal wall that separates Fodlan from the east. We also never really got to hear what the Almyrans want. Like who is to say they would want a leader allied with Fodlan in Claude? I’m not convinced it’s as easy as his end cards from VW make it seem lol. Even if he is an heir, there’s tensions there that deserved unpacking that are very tied to Claude and his identity struggles. And in Hopes… I had such high hopes for GW with regards to Claude’s story, but alas… I do really like his characterisation in Hopes, he’s a little more grey in his decisions and i think that’s cool to see (e.g. we get told a lot in Houses that he’s a schemer but we never really see him scheme, I think we got more of a glimpse at that side of him in Hopes). I also think it’s great that he forms an alliance with Edelgard, but it’s unfortunate that his story in pt 2 just sort of follows CF in a lot of ways.
2. Wowowow you make some really interesting points here about El’s leitmotif appearing in Zaharas and how it’s tied to each route. I hadn’t even thought of these, awesome!! But indeed, it does make sense in all three routes, it’s kind of like how Unfulfilled makes sense in all three routes. I think there may also be something to be said about Edelgard’s much more intimate experiences with the Agarthans?
3. Big agree, it’s such a beautiful theme and I just wish we got a church route, mostly for the sake of the music haha!!!
@@theflightofarobyn I've been listening to the three hopes soundtrack and I have other random thoughts that I'm going to post here because you might appreciate them.
Melody of Clarity is so good, like it;'s honestly amazing... but I keep hearing the Edge of Dawn in it and it takes me out of it. Nemesis gets a full final battle song unimpeded by other characters' leitmotifs, why not Rhea? If I was more musically talented I'd try to rearrange it myself and extract the edge of dawn, perhaps replacing it with the Ashen Demon's theme or Sothis's chant or Indomitable Will. That said... I think the version that exists, as is, would have been perfect for Crimson Flower. The other Houses final battle songs are all about the antagonist. Apex of the World has heavy use of Edge of Dawn to represent Edelgard's desperation and descent into inhumanity. Funeral of Flowers is about the tragedy of Rhea. God Shattering Star is Nemesis's "I Am/I Want" song. But Crimson Flower ends with a song about... its protagonist, Edelgard. It still... works... but Melody of Clarity would fit the theme of a final boss theme about the antagonist, and having Edge of Dawn in there works way better for Crimson Flower than for Golden Wildfire.
Hopes' use of Apex of the World and Funeral of Flowers is... weird. Neither song fully fits the fight anymore. But then I listened to Hopes' Apex of the World again and I heard an EDM-style beat play at the very beginning of the song. It doesn't show up more, but it does provide the faintest hint of what's actually happening -- you're fighting Edelgard, but she's been superseded by the Agarthans. If the entire song had that EDM beat to it, it would work even better, with Edelgard's theme and the Agarthan beat as a united front. I also think having a techno interlude in Hopes' funeral of flowers would have worked better to represent the melee a trois that's going on. Your enemies are twofold: Rhea, and Thales. And only the former is represented in the soundtrack.
But you can also find the Agarthan beat laced throughout certain other songs in Hopes too. Listen to 3 Hopes' version of Chasing Daybreak compared to Houses and tell me you don't feel the heavier hand the Agarthans play in Hopes.
Also, you mentioned Edelgard's much more intimate experiences with the Agarthans, and I think that absolutely does play a role in Edge of Dawn showing up in Zaharas. She was their ultimate creation... and will be their downfall in one manner or another.
Finally, you make a lot of really good points about Claude and Verdant Wind. I actually have a draft of a summary of a Verdant Wind rewrite I've been working on, if you're on discord or something I'd love to share it with you!
I wouldn’t say Claude is subservient to Edelgard at all, his ambitions just line up with hers, that’s really it! 🤙🏼 He just wanted to do it his own way, so that’s why he’s not always with her
This was a delightful watch!! Thank you!!!
Thank YOU so much for watching!! So glad to hear you enjoyed it ❤️❤️
I’ve been waiting for a video like this for years, this is everything i could have hoped for!
Ah thank you!! Glad you enjoyed it 🫶
In your opinion, what do you think is your favorite track from each of the two games? Or even final map theme. (Remixes from Hopes can count too)
Ahh this is so interesting I can’t wait to watch this!! Thank you for making this! ^^
Thank you!! I hope you enjoy it ❤️
And here I thought my 295 hours were unbeatable...💀
Great video ps can I ask you a question
That is a really cool looking thumbnail
I always pictured the Edge of Dawn Verse section/motif to represent a collective "togetherness" of sorts. So whenever that part makes its way into a piece it's there to signify either the happy days of the Monastery or the ever present theme in JRPGs and especially Fire Emblem of "working together/teamwork".
I had thought this up when you first talked about it but I'm only typing it now because I'm at around 41:00 and it's brought back with Abyss, but you're yet to say it. And this entire section of the game is all about teamwork and a sort of reminiscing moment of what could have been
Ooh, I like that interpretation! Indeed, I think that it is more associated with a certain idea that applies generally to many situations - “togetherness” really fits!
This is such high quality content, I'm amazed. Thank you for your amazing analysis and breakdown of the complexities of the musical motifs in a way that even a layman like me can understand and appreciate.
Thank you! So happy you enjoyed it (and that I struck the right balance in my descriptions for a non-musician audience!)
This deserves soooo many more views omg we need more people talking about how much the OSTs do for Edelgard’s character and just for the enjoyment of the games overall!! I can’t believe I saw your video so lateeeee 😫💔
Ahh thank you so much for watching!! So glad you enjoyed it
Damn I miss the old video tho! 😩
I disagree a bit on 18:14 its not about what she change brings to the world that varies but what the change brings to her and maybe the empire that varies depending on which side hero/villain Edelgard is .... as for the world the result is always a cleansing .... The Church is transformed and the Chains Rhea imposed on Fondland are shattered the same for the Tendrils of Those Who Slither in the Dark choking it are destroyed as well .... regardless of what role she plays ... at least after the addition of the Ashen Wolfs .... before ... Azure Moon ... the worlds long term prospects were not as good.
Its Her and the empire whose fate changes on the role .... she starts the fire but does the fire consume her scorching the empire with her... or purify her cleansing the empire in the process
Thank you for your comment! I was more speaking about framing as a storytelling device (in a more meta sense), not the actual/literal results of her actions. My point was that there were certain representational choices made to re-contextualise her role from hero to villain, especially from the perspective of other characters - I would argue that the most important storytelling device used in 3H is unreliable, or at the very least, limited narration from the perspective of each of the three lords. The metaphor around a wildfire helps to demonstrate this contextualisation. Each route produces a certain narrative discourse that symbolically frames Edelgard through the eyes of other characters. So through Dimitri, she is seen as destructive (the scorching fire), and Dimitri is framed as someone who “rebuilds” the world in the wake of the war she instigated. whereas in Crimson Flower we see her as a cleansing fire, as the “builder” of a new world.
(I definitely could have made this a bit more clear in the video, though!)
This is amazing, I love Three Houses, thank you for this video !
welcome, fellow 3H enjoyer!! So happy you enjoyed the video🥰
:0 subbed!
Thank you!!
Thanks for making this incredible video!
Thank you for watching!!
This was a great analysis! I really enjoyed the video, hope to see more of you in the future :)
Thank you so much!! So glad you enjoyed ❤️
hehe as a fellow music theory lover your dissection on leitmotifs was really awesome to watch, I managed to watch Das Rheingold's premiere in my country and the wagenerian use of leitmotifs in the piece (and fe3h now that I watched your video) was really interesting!
Also, isn't timbre pronounced tim-ber or tom-ber? correct me if I'm wrong
Glad you enjoyed!! Perhaps the pronunciation of timbre varies depending on dialect (in my case, I’m South African), though maybe I am just mispronouncing it. I tend to be a better writer than a speaker hehe, my tongue gets twisted around words quite a bit (there were many, many outtakes in the making of this video…😂)
@@theflightofarobyn Haha that's fine, my teacher used to correct me to say tim-ber so I suppose that's the 'proper' way, not that it matters though
@@graye_2843 So I checked with a musician friend from my country, and it is pronounced “taambre” in my region (I thought so, since all of my music teachers said it that way growing up. so my pronunciation is correct in my dialect, but not in yours I suppose) ☺️
@@theflightofarobyn haha that's interesting! english is so different everywhere
An interesting point to note about the flipping perspective of the Apex of the World: all other finale pieces center the antagonist. Be it Funeral of Flowers, God-Shattering Star, At What Cost, or even Melody of Clarity, they are all villain (or at least enemy) songs, which makes the use of Apex of the World in Crimson Flower stand out. Like much of the symbolism of that final mission (is Byleth being renewed from the stagnation of immortality, or losing Nirvana through being misled?), it is in itself something that can be interpreted diffirently: are we still getting a villain song because we are the villains, or do we stand in defiance of convention, blasting out our own piece where our enemies would normally have theirs?
Thanks for sharing your ideas around this, I really appreciate it! I think there are so many ways to interpret it. To me, because CF seeks to break down the conventions of not only the story/other routes, but the world itself, the presence of Apex of the World always felt like a reclamation of sorts, especially if one is to play CF after AM.
@@theflightofarobyn Having played CF before AM, and at the risk of triggering "the discourse", to me the "reclamation" aspect didn't come through mostly because it wasn't necessary per se. Another thing that ties a lot of the finale songs (with the exception of FoF and AWC) is their generally heroic tone, one that transfers to their subjects. Apex of the World doesn't need reclaiming from the Hegemon because the Hegemon is still heroic in her own way, standing to the bitter end and giving of herself as much as she would ask of others, all to see a brighter future (yes, I do find AM's protagonists rather detestable when not forcing myself to be "unbiased").
@@illusive-mike no I certainly wasn’t meaning to imply a reclamation of the song from the Hegemon or Edelgard herself, not at all. I was thinking more along the lines of reclaiming what I’ve always believed to be a heroic song from its antagonistic framing in AM. It felt satisfying to me, like a kind of catharsis… Since in CF Edelgard is finally being narratively framed as the heroine that she is. This may be because I became invested in the idea that Crimson Flower would result in the best outcome for Fodlan while playing her route, and I am sure that others have different opinions from my own. Which is okay! It’s a game all about perspective, after all.
@@theflightofarobyn I wasn't necessarily implying that I read "reclamation" as a reclamation from the Hegemon in any other way than "the Hegemon is a very negative framing" either, so that's all fine. It's more so that to me it felt like the use of AotW in the AM finale (and the general trend of the final themes being heroic in tone despite using the antagonist motifs) already contradicted the story "framing". Which is also fitting for 3H as a game about perspective, to have the characters say one thing while the music says another.
Realistically, they just didn't have time to write a song for CF. There's a lot that route didn't get that the others did (less cutscenes, shorter route, Edelgard's paralogue is Hilda's, etc.)
"PromoSM"