One of the interesting things to me about Three Houses is that Crimson Flower feels somewhere between a villain route and a true route. How does a route feel like both?
Although there are differences, the other three routes follow roughly the same template. You start out as an underdog in the war and go through a trajectory of victories until you finally defeat the Empire. In Verdant Wind / Silver Snow, you end up fighting Thales as well.
Crimson Flower, however, has a significantly different framing and has you fighting a different enemy: you fight Rhea and the Church of Seiros instead of fighting against the Empire, and one of the major antagonists of the other routes is instead the main character.
One of my random favourite lines in the game:
I think this line perfectly encapsulates what I aim to talk about today. There is a bit of cheekiness to this exchange that I find quite amusing – the game winking at its own duality. So let’s talk a bit more about the lady of deceit and her sinister servant.
Edelgard and Hubert both embrace sort of a villain chic post-timeskip that symbolizes a bit of a commitment to upending the world order at any cost. Edelgard, with her silver hair, devil horned crown, and red dress. Hubert, with his all-black attire, popped collar, and menacing smile.
Edelgard starts a war against the Church, a conflict that spans the entire continent, and while she is humanized on her own route, she also seems to believe in her heart that her path is a villainous one, even if she personally sees her cause as righteous. She sees herself as a person willing to drive change, even if it involves starting a continent-spanning conflict and has accepted that she will be seen as a villain by history. In the other routes, she has embraced this role as the catalyst willing to cause change; she regrets that she has to fight Byleth, but she thinks that her sacrifice is necessary to steer the course of history.
For his part, Hubert has willingly taken on the mantle of the emperor’s grand vizier. In his appearances in Part 2 as an enemy, he is relentless and cold, and in this antagonist’s role, he shows not only his loyalty to Edelgard but his commitment to the cause of humanity at large, as shown in Verdant Wind and Silver Snow with the letter (despite some misunderstandings on the letter and why it is not sent on Azure Moon, the reason is simply because he was not able to pinpoint the base of the slitherers, not because of some secret grudge he has against Dimitri).
When the route splits, you are immediately hit with a different set of circumstances. I love that Chapter 12 is called “The Outset of a Power Struggle” rather than “To War”, which is what non-CF versions of C12 are called. It really frames the conflict in a different light – Edelgard sees it as trying to upend Rhea’s rule and the route is always framed in that way. Characters like Ashe, Lysithea, Lorenz, and Marianne all show different sides of themselves that are not necessarily present on the other routes during the Chapter 12 camp scenes, and Hubert actually opens up to you and is relieved to have your support, despite being suspicious of you before.
(Side note: I’m not sure exactly how exactly to read into this, but I always thought Hubert’s B support with Byleth imply that he thinks that Byleth might be a slitherer. Evidence:
Hubert: I see something of Lord Arundel in you... When I look at you, I feel I can almost see a second self, lurking beneath the surface. It is as if you are in constant dialogue with something inside your heart—something with desires very different from your own. Does that description feel familiar to you at all?
At first I thought he was being a weirdo, but having seen it a few times, I think that Hubert is trying to decide if he thinks Byleth is one of the body-swapped.)
Anyway...
Post-timeskip, you learn that the Death Knight and Those Who Slither in the Dark (framed as unambiguous enemies in the first half of the game) are now both your allies, although in the case of TWSITD that is an extremely uncomfortable alliance. I’m not super interested in getting into the nitty-gritty of why she does it, but the point stands that she has an alliance with people who are unquestionably evil. This gives extra credence to the ‘feeling’ of a villain route, even though Hubert explains exactly what is going on and what his plans are for eliminating them in the future. This is a fairly common conceit for villains; the more sympathetic faction ends up working with a faction that is more unambiguously evil. But in the case of Crimson Flower, you are playing as the more sympathetic faction rather than the traditional good guys.
“As more blood wets my feet, they grow heavier with each step. Remorse, resentment, despair... I have dispensed with all such things to come this far.”
The weight of having started this war clearly weighs heavy on her as you continue through the story. But she is resolute and determined to see her future through, regardless of the cost. After all, it’s too late to give up now, and a lot of the damage has already been done. One misconception that is bandied about around Edelgard is that she doesn’t care about what she’s done and that she is callous to the will of others. I disagree. She may not deem those things as important as her goals, but she certainly does grapple with the weight of her actions.
You end up fighting against Claude, Dimitri, and Rhea, which are the other three major characters in the story, whereas in the other routes, you mostly concentrate your fighting on just the Empire and their objectively evil allies. So this makes it feel a bit more like a ‘villain’ route. So why do I say that Crimson Flower feels like a true route, then?
-Edelgard toppled the social order, which was toxic and eugenicist. The world can begin to change for the better now that these immortal, godlike beings are permanently out of the picture. None of the other routes truly address the inconvenient problem of godlike creatures being in charge of large institutions.
-Byleth, who up until Chapter 12 of CF was considered a tool/vessel for Rhea’s mommy, is allowed to make their own decisions and their endings reflect that. On all of the other routes, Byleth’s endings always end with them either as the archbishop (AM) or the immortal ruler of Fodlan (VW/SS). In CF, Byleth can instead do whatever they want – help Edelgard’s new dawn, fight the slitherers, or just open a bakery in the Alliance with Lysithea. The freedom of choice. The freedom to do whatever they like with their life, which is a luxury they have never had before.
-The ending cutscene feels so… epic! Dramatic! “When humanity stands strong, and people reach out for each other… there’s no need for gods.” The transformation back into ‘human’ Byleth is really sweet too – I feel like it is Sothis letting go and realizing that humanity needs to stand on its own.
I remember after playing the other routes I felt dissatisfied because I felt like the status quo, aka immortal dragon people having reins on the world, was preserved. I don’t really think that rule via godlike beings who are distant from the people they rule is a good thing at all. I know that Byleth seems like they might be better than Rhea, but I am skeptical that having someone rule for an indefinite length of time is a good thing, and the structure of nobility and the institutions were preserved as well. (The game isn’t clear on exactly what Byleth does in the far future, so I will just leave that up to interpretations. The point is that an all-powerful theocratic institution is allowed to exist in perpetuity.)
Am I trying to argue that Crimson Flower is the ‘canon’ route? No, I think the concept of a ‘canon’ route in a multi-path story without an obvious go-to answer to that question is a fruitless and silly endeavour. But do I think it feels like a route where you side with a morally ambiguous character and yet you feel like the world is at a more satisfying juncture as a result of that? Yes.