Supports are the heart and soul of new Fire Emblem games, as they help flesh out the world and characters we get to know so dearly. As such, unlocking a new support is always exciting—especially in the case of Three Hopes, where we get all-new supports between characters who’ve never had supports before!
Yes, some characters who already had dialogue between each other are getting even juicier content (see: Felix and Sylvain), but I’m here to focus on the new stuff. Call me the biggest nerd on the planet, but I literally got giddy when I saw certain supports were finally happening. These characters are very dear to me, and I’m happy to have this chance to talk about some supports that particularly stood out to me.
Marianne: Queen of Hearts
Ahh! Sweet Marianne. She easily wins the player’s heart, so it’s only natural that she wins everyone else’s.
Most notably, she finally got what seemed like an obvious support in Three Houses, but never came to be. Marianne, the Queen of Shyness, finally got a chance to cozy up to Bernadetta, the Queen of Agoraphobia. Admittedly, I was worried that a support between the two of them would be needlessly uncomfortable (like most of Bernie’s), but it ended up being so sweet it gave me a toothache. Y’all…they practice socializing with one another. It’s so, so sweet, to the point where I even had to ask myself, “Oh my God, do I ship it?”
Bernie has competition, though, because Yuri ended up being a worthy candidate for Marianne’s heart as well. He and Marianne have a misunderstanding, wherein his allergies give him a serious case of RBF, which Marianne thinks is directed at her. And to be honest, I’ve always thought Yuri was just okay, but he puts in so much effort to make Marianne feel better in this support, it made my heart swell. He sees how she’s a good soul burdened by her own insecurities, and he uncharacteristically goes out of his way to help her see that. It’s genuinely lovely, and his voice acting is on par, too.
But the last worthy newcomer for Marianne is Ingrid, who I’ve always been painfully ambivalent about. Ingrid always struck me as the sort of character who’d do better as a dating sim protagonist than an NPC: she’s got a lot going for her in theory, but the execution leaves her incredibly bland. Where the writers really killed it with this support, however, was hinging on their shared interest of horses. In doing so, they were able to highlight and focus on some of Ingrid’s more positive traits, like her insightfulness and openness with pretty much everyone. (Except people from Duscur. But, thankfully, she grows past that.)
In any case, Marianne deserved all the love she got in this game, and I’m glad she’s got all these new friends, too.
Sylvain and Yuri
On today’s episode of “Who Should Have Been Bi in this JRPG?,” we have Sylvain Jose Gautier: my favorite manwhore and second-favorite male character in the game. Sylvain radiates the same energy as Yusuke from Persona 5: So, you KNOW they probably have intense attractions to men, as well as women, but the JRPG industry just isn’t ready to unleash those feelings yet.
Well, Three Hopes really just went and said “Gotcha,” because they gave us a YuriVain support. Yuri, one of the two canon MLM characters in the game, calls out Sylvain for mistaking him as a woman and hitting on him when they first meet. But then he goes the extra step with, “Hey man, I woulda been down.” And Sylvain is all for it! And it’s great!
Obviously, this isn’t the only reason why this support is good, they both get to flex their more serious chops and it’s cool to see Sylvain being taken seriously by someone. But hey. Love is love.
Petra and Dedue
Sometimes I side-eye the Black Eagles, as a whole, for forgetting that Petra is, technically, a prisoner of war. And sometimes I side-eye the Blue Lions for how they react to Dedue, a man from Duscur. Something that games tend to do is forget that the alienation of people from foreign cultures isn’t an issue that’s easily remedied, and Three Houses really didn’t do anything to fix this.
But in Three Hopes, they do something very cool: they create a sense of solidarity between two fish out of water. Petra and Dedue get to be real with one another, in a way that nobody else can do for them. They compare notes about learning a new language, as well as the culture shock of being Fodlan, and it’s a really heartening bond to see develop.
Linhardt Continues to be Secretly Suave
Linny was a delight to witness in Three Houses, because while he seemed like a one-note jackass, he ended up being one of the most perceptive and smooth guys in the roster. He’d drop one-liners like they were nothing and always left his girls wondering what the hell just happened.
Well, he continues to do so in Three Hopes, and it’s fantastic. Not only does he do it to Shez, the protagonist, he also gets a word in with the women of the Golden Deer.
In one corner, we have Leonie, whom he shared a paralogue with in Three Houses but no support. Their dialogue is all about how they’re different, yet similar, and it’s pretty adorable to see them come to this conclusion as they shop around a flea market.
And then, in the other corner, we have Hilda, who I always wanted to see interact with Linhardt on the basis that they’re both lazy bitches. Which we love, gotta stan. Ironically, their support stems from the fact that they both have to pretend to be productive around each other because if they both slack off, they’ll get even more flack from everyone else. But it ends up being pretty sweet, with Linhardt again laying down the moves on Hilda and completely subverting her expectations.
You go, you funky little bisexual.
Lysithea and Hubert
Three Hopes Lysithea really leans into her insecurities about seeming like a child. It’s almost a little too much—I mean, her special move is accompanied by her catchphrase, “I’m not a child.” To the point where, no matter where you are in her periphery, you can hear her say it over, and over, and over again.
But Hubert really took one look at her and said, “Eh, that’s just a baby.” Turns out the Von Vestra family consists of a little sister, a little brother, and Hubert at the helm. It’s an adorable support that makes Hubert even more interesting (and endearing), and honestly, of course only Hubert could pacify as caustic a person as Lysithea.
Dimitri and Bernie
It’s a combo I never saw coming, but I’m so here for it. In Three Houses, we saw Noodle Dimitri, Boar Dimitri, and King Dimitri, but we only ever saw Exasperated Dad Dimitri when you picked him as a dancer for the White Heron Cup. Otherwise, he really bent over backward to accommodate his friends.
In this support, however, Bernie proves that she alone is capable of pushing him past the point of patience. Dimitri tries, over and over, to get her to calm down around him, but she’s Bernie, it takes more than that. And while some might find the repetition of her gimmick tiresome, I thought it really worked in this scenario. Ultimately, Dimitri is too nice to just up and bail on her, but it’s amusing to know that even he has his limits.
Byleth Speaks!
To cap it off, as one of twelve Byleth fans, I was super excited that she finally got some speaking roles. Her supports are only between her father and Shez (even though she technically can get A levels with everyone, very cheeky Koei Tecmo), but they manage to bridge nearly every gap she was missing in Three Houses.
With her father, we get so much sweetness and tenderness, even though it’s clear that Jeralt maybe wasn’t the “best” dad. Byleth shows that she does have the capacity to grow and be more “normal”…it’s just that her life has been all over the place thus far. There’s a point where they ruminate on how she would have fared at the Officer’s Academy, and it succeeded in tugging at my heartstrings.
And then her support with Shez is just incredibly lovely, all sparring sessions notwithstanding. I’d say more, but in this particular case, you’ll just have to play the game yourself.
Did I leave out your faves? Let us know in the comments, and tell us why you loved them!
(Featured Image: Koei Tecmo)
