my favorite thing about the golden deer (and vw by extension) is their group dynamic and how much more informal their relationship with claude is. i would say the main theme of verdant wind is unity, because of how important it is.
right off the bat claude introduces his class as less difficult as the others. and while theyโre certainly chaotic, he has good reason for saying that. their relationships with claude feel much more like regular friendships than with edelgard and dimitri. even sylvain and ingrid, whoโve been friends with dimitri for years, still use his title when talking to him. so do most of the other blions. felix still calls him a prince, even if it's the boar prince. they all treat dimitri very respectfully as well, obviously keeping in mind his position. obviously felix is the exception. here but that's not super important. in the beagles, none of them use edelgards title (except hubert) but she very clearly has authority over the rest of them. this is especially prominent in cf post-timeskip where the only person who actively questions what sheโs doing to her face is ferdinand (that i can remember). and thatโs ferdinand so of course heโs going to.
compare that to the deer. if memory serves, i donโt think thereโs a single time in the game where claude is referred to with his title by someone. you would never know he was leading the alliance if the game didnโt explicitly tell you. unlike edelgard and dimitri, people are also willing to question him. of course lorenz does it throughout the entire game, but so do hilda and judith. judith is especially notable considering sheโs a noble very much under claude.
through cf and am, almost everything is done by edelgard and hubert and dimitri respectively. dedue, gilbert, and rodrigue all have some plot importance but not an extreme amount. everyone else is just kinda there. vw on the other hand gives some of them actually important roles. hilda comes up with the idea for getting into fort merceus. ignatz is the one who tells the guards reinforcements are coming, which is what gets them in. and while less important, shamir is apparently the one who made all the disguises for fort merceus. nader casually brings in the almyran army because claude decided to be safe and ask for help. lysithea later on tells claude and byleth stuff about twsitd. the other houses do not get this kind of involvement from people other than the leaders. now you could say thats just bad writing but i think it makes sense.
even the names of each house leaders' theme goes into this. edelgard's is the leader's path. the only person mentioned is her. she's their leader. dimitri's is the king of lions. of course he's the king, and while the blions are there too, it's more to establish his power over them. claude's on the other hand, is golden deer and crescent moon. crescent moon is a pretty indirect way of referring to claude, and it's not even put first. just another way how the unity of the golden deer is proven to be more important than just claude on his own. the music itself is very different as well. golden deer and crescent moon is significantly more relaxed than the other two.
i just think the contrast between vw and the other routes in this regard is neat and all :)
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