So even though i do genuinely believe there is room for a 'golden route' in Three Hopes if they ever add a Nemesis/Shambhala dlc I really love how Azure Gleam is almost a complete deconstruction of the golden route trope.
Rodrigue and Jeralt die senseless deaths and it directly leads to the death of Byleth and Sothis
Rhea never finds out about this so she just stays in her seat of power and never steps down
Claude remains ignorant and never learns the truth so he makes it clear to Dimitri that he is going to oppose the church which will lead to more war and bloodshed in the future
Dimitri never finds peace, he remains suicidal and never learns to live for himself. When Thales is dead he genuinely has no plan for what to do next because he never planned to live that long anyway and then of course
Edelgard. She's turned into a monster, her closest friends and allies are assassinated while she's in this state, and she's robbed of her identity and her ideals and her virtue. In the end Dimitri lacks the strength to kill her here unlike in Azure Moon, he turns his back on her and just leaves her, completely unable to handle it.
The main 3 lords are all alive at the end of the story, and yet somehow its the worst possible outcome each of them could have possibly recieved. There is no end to the war, there is no peace for Fodlan, there is no peace for anyone















