ARVAL: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS into Fodlan's NEW Character. Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.

Upon seeing Arval for the first time and hearing his first spoken lines in the trailers, intrigue immediately came over enthusiastic Fodlan fans as this being, clad in white, was meant to be the counterpart to Sothis. Upon realizing his garments looked very similar to Kronya, the possibility that Arval was Agarthan spurred curiosity even more.
This is an in depth look into Arval and Epimenides. This video contains spoilers for Scarlet Blaze, Azure Gleam and Golden Wildfire.

Script Writers:
Faerghast
Moltz23

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Fire Emblem (Warriors 2): Three Hopes is a spin-off title based on Fire Emblem Three Houses. Its an alternate universe that also introduces new characters into the world of Fodlan. This analysis contains story spoilers for Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Streaming:
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Join Fire Emblem™: Three Houses characters as you engage in massive battles across Fódlan
Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, and other Fire Emblem: Three Houses characters return to put their combat expertise on display as you revisit a war-torn Fódlan.
Cut through hordes of enemies as characters from the Fire Emblem: Three Houses game. Take down dozens of foes with Edelgard’s axe or Dimitri’s lance, or blast enemies from a distance with Claude’s bow. Slash, swing, and spear your way to a brighter future for Fódlan.
Step into the shoes of Shez, as they meet Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, and other Fire Emblem™: Three Houses characters as you fight for the future of Fódlan. Align with a leader to build and command an army in 1 vs. 1,000-style battles and deep strategy. The house you choose will bring you through one of three compelling stories, each with a different outcome. Coming to Nintendo Switch June 24, 2022.
#fireemblemwarriors, #FireEmblem, #threehopes

[Faerghast]

Hey all! Thanks so much for watching this. I've been so busy with IRL stuff I couldn't be as consistent this week as I usually am. But we are back! The channel is less than 300 subscribers to 98 000! It's so close now it's crazy. If you haven't subscribed yet but you like my scripted content, please consider subscribing to support the channel! Have a good weekend

[Dakress]

I love how Arval introduces themselves to Shez talking similar to Sothis in an "all mighty" style before getting tired to the stick and choosing to talk normally from that point onwards. To me, that says a ton of their character.

[TheGamersState]

I know many people will have already realized this but I love how Sothis and Arval basically represent time and space.

[eternalflame]

I really like Epimentides as an new antagonist for Three House's lore but I really wished he gotten a little more backstory on who he was before he became a part of Arval and how Arval came to be. Hopefully there will be a DLC that'll explain more of Epimentides and Arval in the future as I think they're the most interesting characters that came out of Three Hopes.

[GasGrass]

It’s mentioned throughout the game and I believe in Shez and Ashe’s supports that Shez was born in Ordelia territory, suspiciously close to wouldn’t you guess it—Shambhala. I’m pretty certain it’s no coincidence that they chose southeastern Leicester of all the places they could have picked for Shez’s origin.

[chaoticcranium]

It's astounding to me that, after 2 several hundred hour long games, 7 different paths (10 if you want to count ally or fight Byleth), encyclopedias worth of dialogue, support convos, cutscenes, etc. and still we know next to nothing concrete about the origins and backstories of Sothis, the Nabateans, Arval/Epimenides, the Agarthans/Slitherers, etc.

I mean, we know practically everything about basically every square mile of territory in Fodlan (and it's foreign neighbors), dozens of noble names and legacies, crests and their storied history, wars and revolutions, some of the most fleshed out and fulfilling worldbuilding in any video game universe ever, and even Hapi's eating habits. Yet here we are, left mostly on our own to devices to speculate WTF is an Arval.

I know they want to keep some things purposely vague for the sake of lending an air of mystery to these grand players of Fodlan's fate and to give people things to speculate and theorize about, but it's really bordering on the absurd at this point, haha.

[paladinslash]

Arval screams main antagonist for the next Fire Emblem game. Everything about that secret route felt like a Kingdom Hearts bonus boss.

[gabcard]

I really like Arval. I felt much more connection between them and Shez then I ever did between Sothis and Byleth.

[azurastar]

Arval is a dork, a very cute and lovable dork. This video helped me put into words everything I feel about him.

[legomaster]

25:53 I was SO upset we never got proper interactions between Sothis and Arval/Epimenides.

[Xfm]

I wish epimenides’s had a unique class that used the sword shez can summon, like that’s why they use it. Being a dark mage was kidna lame. Plus would have been cool to give the sword a name

[murkrow]

I really hope we get more information about Shez's mom. I feel like she is a very interesting character that could explain a lot about Shez, Arval and how they became partners in destiny. Let's hope we can get more information through DLC or dialogue in Heroes.

[brightlight]

It's funny but the fact that Arval is actually the one who comes to with the strategies that makes Shez actually useful to the 3 lords makes me wonder about the implications of Arval dying in the end. Shez on their own is dumb and a far cry from the tactican that help the lord of choice get as far as they did. So what would happen if that brilliant mind was suddenly lost to them? It's a rather eerie picture when you also consider that Shez isn't all that attached to whatever side they choose and does leave at the end before the war ends no matter what side you choose and even if Byleth survives they also have no attachment to any side either so it's not as the as though they'll pick up the slack.

[sunbox]

Arval is great. They're like your genius little sibling that gets jealous when you spend too much time with Byleth.

Jokes aside, a really charming but bittersweet inclusion to the cast. They couldn't escape from a deeply programmed purpose though, no matter how much they cared.

[codename]

A neat detail I noticed is that Epimenides's voice is slightly deeper than Arval's. And when they fall and are saying how much Shez has grown, it's Arval's voice, not Epimenides.

[dazz]

Grima was created by experimenting with Dragon blood to defy life and create an artificial god, which led to the destruction of Thabes by Duma for their hubris. Makes me wonder if its the same deal with Epimenides, maybe the reason Sothis razed the Agarthans and drove them underground is because he used Nabatean corpses to create immortal life for his people.

[aaronhinds]

For me I want to be able to save Arval since they feel that Shez more important then their mission.

[avatarwarmech]

I'm just upset that we had to kill him like why do we have to kill him he was one of the best characters in the game

[Katie-hbiq]

If this game does get DLC, I have high hopes they will add a 4th route split right at the point Alois asks you to come to the monastery. Curiously, there is a menu of choices to go to the Monastery, but the list only has 1 option. I find this menu to be very weird because it's really the only place in the entire game where the game asks you something and it only presents one choice - the rest present 2 or 3 choices instead. It's ripe for adding a second option at a later time.

Considering DLC for Warriors games add new characters, it's hard to imagine new characters for the other 3 houses. They pretty much added everyone in the base game already - Alois, Judith and maybe one or two others excluded. It would make more sense for them to add Thales, Kronya, Solon, Nemesis, etc. instead. What I find most plausible about this is that they have already added all of the pref weapons for these characters in the game already.

I'm not sure what kind of dlc they could add otherwise. Epilogues and a better post-game perhaps? Maybe, but that would be awkward given how the route structure works with the save files. I think adding a 4th Agarthan route would be a nice mirror to Three Houses church route, given who the main character is and their connection to Arval.

[toddsaskatchewan]

Super intriguing stuff. Hope you do one about Shez in general, or maybe about Byleth and Shez's relationship.