In the first half of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, it is the job of Byleth, the professor, to teach and guide their students down the right path. In addition to helping them master their skills for combat, Byleth also has the opportunity to get to know each student at the Officers Academy regardless of which class they come from.
After the time-skip, however, a war has broken out in all of Fodlan. Because the students come from all different parts of the continent, it’s inevitable that some of their allegiances will lie elsewhere and bonds will need to break. Needless to say, not every student reunion is a happy one. These are the 10 most heartbreaking encounters with students following the Fire Emblem: Three Houses time-skip.
10 Ferdinand
In the Verdant Wind and Azure Moon routes, Ferdinand will be one of the first students that Byleth’s team encounters after the time-skip. While it is initially very shocking to see a former student become the enemy, Ferdinand remains loyal to the Adrestian Empire by defending the Great Bridge of Myrddin.
Unlike many other students whose lives can be spared while completing a chapter, Ferdinand is a commander of the map who will inevitably fall with the bridge he wishes to protect. After his death, Dorothea is the most heartbroken despite the grudge she held against him.
9 Claude
Claude was arguably one of the most well-liked guys around the monastery with few enemies aside from Lorenz. Therefore, seeing him as the enemy in the Crimson Flower route is hard to imagine.
When Claude meets the Black Eagle Strike Force at the Leicester Alliance’s capital, Derdriu, he sadly tells Byleth that they should’ve chosen him over Edelgard. Nonetheless, Claude fights to protect his capital until he’s forced to surrender.
8 Bernadetta
Bernadetta is an introverted character who doesn’t like fighting and would rather stay out of the war. However, she somehow found herself right smack in the center of Gronder Field between three opposing troops.
Because of her default positioning on the map, it is much more difficult to work around Bernadetta to spare her life. Even if you make an effort to not engage in combat with her, it is very possible that the other troop will kill her before the battle ends.
7 Ashe
In the Academy Phase of the game, Ashe is bewildered when he finds out that his adoptive father, Lonato, had turned on the Church. Rather than feeling completely betrayed, Ashe wonders why Lonato would do such a thing when he knows how good of a man he was.
After Lonato’s death and the time-skip, Ashe decides to make it his own duty to fulfill his adoptive father’s wishes of taking down the Church. Thankfully, his life can be spared if he was previously recruited in the Verdant Wind or Silver Snow routes.
6 Felix & Sylvain
If either Felix or Sylvain is recruited into the Black Eagles and the other stays with the Blue Lions, they will meet again as enemies at either Arianrhod or Tailtean Plains, depending on who was recruited.
Either way, they will be forced to break their childhood friendship and promise. Despite promising to die together long ago, one will die while the other lives on.
5 Mercedes & Annette
Similar to Felix and Sylvain, Mercedes and Annette share a very close bond that seems unbreakable. However, not even their wholesome friendship can last through the gruesome battles of the war.
If Mercedes and Annette meet as enemies in Fhirdiad, they won’t refuse to fight one another, but they are visibly heartbroken. As two of the most kindhearted characters, they both bore no hard feelings against one another despite being on opposite sides of the battle.
4 Dedue
Dedue is willing to do just about anything if it meant helping Dimitri out. In the Azure Moon route, he was prepared to die in order to ensure the Prince’s escape from execution. Thankfully he was able to safely rejoin the Blue Lions later on.
However, his fate in the Crimson Rose route is much worse. As a last-ditch effort to protect Dimitri and Faerghus, Dedue will attempt to transform into a Demonic Beast as the ultimate sacrifice. If the player can prevent Dedue from transforming, he will at least be able to keep his sanity until the bitter end.
3 Edelgard
Even though Edelgard is an enemy on most of the routes, it doesn’t make it any easier to face her and wonder how things could have been different if you had chosen to side with her and the Black Eagles.
In the Azure Moon route, Dimitri attempts to talk to Edelgard before the final battle, but when they fail to see eye to eye, the latter turns herself into a powerful monster. After losing, Edelgard refuses Dimitri’s mercy and throws his special dagger back at him before he finally kills her.
2 Leonie
Ever since she became Jeralt’s apprentice, Leonie has had nothing but the highest of respect for the original Blade Breaker. Naturally, she was the student who took Jeralt’s death the hardest.
If the player decides to side with the Black Eagles, Leonie will understandably feel angered and betrayed due to the Black Eagles’ association with Kronya, who had killed Jeralt. She shames the player for going against what their own father would have wanted.
1 Dimitri
As everyone’s favorite angsty boy, Dimitri’s first encounter is pretty heartbreaking on all routes, including his own. When Byleth first reunites with him in Azure Moon after the time-skip, Dimitri is clearly in a much darker place than where they had left off five years ago. He’s no longer the kindhearted Prince everyone knew and loved, which greatly worries his professor.
In contrast, the Crimson Flower route seals Dimitri’s fate at the hands of his former friend, Edelgard. Despite their unwillingness to see eye to eye, Edelgard mourned his death along with everyone else playing the game.
NEXT: Fire Emblem: 10 Reasons Dimitri Is Three Houses’s Best House Leader
