Okay, I’m gonna ask a question and this is only gonna make sense if you’ve chosen the Black Eagles and went to Enbarr with Edelgard in chapter 10: Why is there a heartbeat playing in the background of the choice menu?
Like, I know why in terms of a thematic reason. These two instances are supposed to convey to the player the weight and risk in making these choices. The heartbeat intensifies that atmosphere because it is the only sound playing in the background. It isolates the player and essentially tells them to focus. Playing the heartbeat, subconsciously communicates a rise in stakes, because the game hasn’t done this before until this moment. It catches the player off guard.
But that’s not why I’m confused: I want to know whose heartbeat it is. Because it can’t be Byleth’s: Canonically we know that her heart doesn’t beat as a result of Sothis’s creststone being placed inside her, but at this point in the story we are told that, from birth, her heart didn’t beat. It freaks out Jeralt enough to fake the child’s death and leave the monastery. Her heart only starts to beat at the end of the Crimson Flower route. So if it’s not Byleth’s heart beating, whose is it?
You can argue it can symbolically be the player’s; like how the sudden drastic decision might raise their anxiety and quicken their heartbeat as they are forced to make a decision. Which makes some sense but neglects the fact that that reaction is not isolated to only these two moments. Why would it only play in these two instances? There are several moments throughout the entirety of the game and the four major routes that illicit this reaction. So why only here?
My guess: It’s Edelgard’s heartbeat. In both instances that the menu appears, there are only a select amount of characters present: Byleth, Edelgard, and Rhea. It can’t be Rhea as she is not present the first time the menu appears and as we’ve discussed before it can’t be Byleth because her heart doesn’t beat. So it only leaves Edelgard.
Why would this matter? Because this choice determines her future. If you don’t go with her to Enbarr you, as the player, have to kill her to end the war. If you choose to go with her, but side with Rhea in the Holy Tomb the same thing happens. But if you choose to go with her the player is rewarded with the Crimson Flower route: the only route where Edelgard survives.
This does create a nice thematic bow because the player hearing her heartbeat and deciding her fate parallel the ending of Crimson Flower; as Edelgard not only hears Byleth’s heartbeat, but is the first person to hear it at all.
But, this is just my take on this. Playing the game over and getting to this point made my brain go crazy because of its potential implications. Plus I thought the idea of hearing Edelgard’s heartbeat conveys her anxiety and worry at the reality of her path and that only when Byleth is present does she reach her full potential.
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