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Too many men on the field
May. 12th, 2022 09:28 pm(The following post contains minor unmarked spoilers for Fire Emblem: Three Houses.)
Gronder Field is one of those scenarios in Three Houses where it's difficult to effectively replicate what happens in the game. On one hand, it's a scaled-up version of the mock battle from Chapter 1, where all of the students get to participate. On the other hand, you've also got handfuls of soldiers hired by each of the three countries who weren't allowed to participate in the first battle on account of not being Officers Academy students. And then you've got to add personal battalions into the mix, which would turn the whole thing into a battle of numbers. How would you determine a winner from all that? Does the Imperial side have more soldiers? Are the Kingdom soldiers better equipped and trained? Will the Alliance soldiers defeat the other two sides with a clever gambit?
It's little wonder why in stories that cover the Gronder battle, mine included (one of the unavoidable stops on what fan writers refer to as the "stations of the canon"*, or plot points from a story's source material that get repeated endlessly in fan fiction**), greatly reduce the scope to just the students involved, as it allows for a tighter focus on the characters instead of just being all about the battle itself. Without that level of focus in the game, you wouldn't get gems like Claude trying to throw Edelgard off her game by pulling the old "look, a mouse!" trick.
* - I don't know whether or not this term is just a TV Tropes thing, but it's named after the "Stations of the Cross", a series of images depicting the sequence of events leading up to Jesus' crucifixion and burial.
** - To use Three Houses as an example again, a typical "stations of the canon" sequence for the first half of Part I would include Byleth meeting the lords in Remire, followed by the first mock battle, the bandit attack in Zanado, suppressing Lord Lonato's rebellion, the Rite of Rebirth intrusion, the battle against Miklan at Conand Tower, and Flayn's kidnapping and the subsequent battle against the Death Knight and Flame Emperor's army.
Gronder Field is one of those scenarios in Three Houses where it's difficult to effectively replicate what happens in the game. On one hand, it's a scaled-up version of the mock battle from Chapter 1, where all of the students get to participate. On the other hand, you've also got handfuls of soldiers hired by each of the three countries who weren't allowed to participate in the first battle on account of not being Officers Academy students. And then you've got to add personal battalions into the mix, which would turn the whole thing into a battle of numbers. How would you determine a winner from all that? Does the Imperial side have more soldiers? Are the Kingdom soldiers better equipped and trained? Will the Alliance soldiers defeat the other two sides with a clever gambit?
It's little wonder why in stories that cover the Gronder battle, mine included (one of the unavoidable stops on what fan writers refer to as the "stations of the canon"*, or plot points from a story's source material that get repeated endlessly in fan fiction**), greatly reduce the scope to just the students involved, as it allows for a tighter focus on the characters instead of just being all about the battle itself. Without that level of focus in the game, you wouldn't get gems like Claude trying to throw Edelgard off her game by pulling the old "look, a mouse!" trick.
* - I don't know whether or not this term is just a TV Tropes thing, but it's named after the "Stations of the Cross", a series of images depicting the sequence of events leading up to Jesus' crucifixion and burial.
** - To use Three Houses as an example again, a typical "stations of the canon" sequence for the first half of Part I would include Byleth meeting the lords in Remire, followed by the first mock battle, the bandit attack in Zanado, suppressing Lord Lonato's rebellion, the Rite of Rebirth intrusion, the battle against Miklan at Conand Tower, and Flayn's kidnapping and the subsequent battle against the Death Knight and Flame Emperor's army.
