During the first trailer, Roland is introduced for morality (those who value virtuous morality), Frederica for liberty (those who respect the liberty of all), and Benedict for utility (those who pursue pragmatic utility). In the same demo, when the conviction system is introduced, utility is introduced first, before morality, then finally liberty. This may have foreshadowed the alignment of the characters as Roland opts for the utility ending, Frederica pleads for the morality ending, and Benedict insists on the liberty ending.
Maxwell has a skill that allows him to revive once per battle if he falls. Fittingly, he survived Avlora's killing shot and is possible to be recruited.
Medina's character story shows Hyzante prioritizing the life of a believer before a Rosellan, leading to her Defector from Decadence and joining House Wolffort. She regrets having to save one life over another. Perhaps because of this, she has a skill where she can use two items on the same turn, potentially allowing her to heal two allies at the same time.
Roland is very eager to take revenge against Gustadolph and General Avlora. He shares most of his skillset with his teacher Ser Maxwell, but gains an unique armor-piercing single target attack that is very effective against boss enemies as his ultimate skill.
Benedict's role as a Status Buff character makes complete sense when you step back and look at his ultimate goal—to empower Serenoa to become an even better lord than King Regna and Lord Symon.
Some of Benedict's suggestions during the game (surrendering Roland to Aesfrost and destroying the dam to flood the capital) are anchored on the motive of placing Serenoa on the throne. With Roland gone, the only obstacle for Serenoa's legitimacy is Cordelia. By destroying the dam, the people would be less likely to accept Roland as their king.
Earlier on, Benedict's suggestion to go to Hyzante. He makes it clear he wanted to visit Hyzante solely for the Ministry of Medicine... and it's mostly because of Symon's failing health. And when talking to Symon and Destra's graves, Benedict reveals he initially wanted to place Symon on the throne, only to turn to Serenoa due to Serenoa having Regna's blood.
Aesfrost controls the continent's iron. Hyzante controls its salt. And Glenbrook controls the waterways that flow through the continent. Iron, salt and water are three of the crucial components of blood.
Why is Roland's path the only one widely hated by players, despite all routes but the Golden Ending being shown to be bad? It's because some of the requirements for the Golden Ending being in direct opposition to Roland's path. Those requirements? Revealing to Svarog that Roland's been just Faking the Dead and defending the Roselle on the Wolffort demense from Hyzante. Choosing Roland's route after fulfilling those two requirements effectively means you're having Serenoa deliberately betray them. At least for the other two endings, while you do abandon one between Svarog and the Roselle, the betrayal is never intentional on Serenoa's part, and only intentional on the player's part with the "benefit" of hindsight.
There is also the fact that Hyzante is effectively the bigger bad compared to the Duchy. His ending has you face people who don't deserve to die, especially in the final battle, which isn't against Gustadolph, the Duchy's leader, but Svarog, a broken man who basically gets intentionally betrayed by Roland (and by proxy Serenoa, for going with the plan to begin with). Even Gustadolph, who genuinely is an evil bastard, points out in genuine rage that you betrayed Frederica, his sister and the one Serenoa loved. He genuinely cared for her, and Roland's plan effectively spits on that. If there's anything to show that this was the wrong call. The other endings at least gave you the satisfaction of killing genuine monsters who aren't A Lighter Shade of Black or at least pretend to be. This route has no monsters as the bosses, except maybe Gustadolph, and even then he is A Lighter Shade of Black who makes good points.
Even worse? Roland himself defaults to vote for revealing his identity to Svarog and defending the Roselle. While the game tries to make you sympathize with Roland's belief siding with Hyzante is for The Needs of the Many by showing him being forced beyond the Despair Event Horizon by Pattriate, Roland's previous choices make his sudden change in his worldview comes across as a betrayal to Frederica (who is against Roland's plan either way), Serenoa (who, as implied in the Morality and Conviction Endings, would have preferred walking down Frederica's path) and Svarog (who is implied in Roland's ending to know that Hyzante's "equality" is a blatant lie and a hypocrisy).
Another factor that led to Gustadolph's downfall, aside from the fact he's a Control Freak and a Horrible Judge of Character, is lack of patience. He already declared war to Hyzante when he had Frederica betrothed to Serenoa, as this action gave the Roselle representation among Glenbrook's High Houses. Now, you'd not expect that Hyzante, with the Goddess' Teachings dictating that the Roselle are subhuman and do not have the right to normal lives, let alone political representation, to stand for that, right? Now, Hyzante probably thinks that Frederica is to Serenoa a concubine or a plaything or something like that, but that merely delayed the inevitable event of the birth of a Rosellan heir to House Wolffort. Meaning that if Gustadolph was a good enough judge of character to wait until Frederica birthed an heir (and give Dragan what he wanted, but that's an unrelated matter), he would have been unstoppable.
In the final fight on the Morality route, there's a case of Artificial Stupidity at play: half of the enemy units, Idore included, just stay on the side of the bridge they start on and never think about trying to cross the bridge, nevermind that Idore claims the Roselle already were blasphemers for trying to cross it and believing Centralia exists. At least it makes sense why Idore doesn't cross the bridge: if he does something that goes against his own preachings that Centralia does not exist, he loses his control over the Hyzantian soldiers.
In Hyzante, it is shown that Rosellan lives are not valued, and that if a choice is to be made whether a Rosellan or a Hyzante citizen, the Rosellan will be left to die. It is eventually revealed that this mentality goes beyond just Fantastic Racism, and that it also serves a sinister, pragmatic purpose, as Aelfric crystals are made from Rosellan corpses.
If one believes that Triangle Strategy shares its setting with Octopath Traveler, the fact that Aelfric releases dark purple flames, very similar to the corrupted Flame in Ophilia's final chapter, has all sorts of disturbing implications.
Even if one were to believe that Orsterra's gods also preside over Norzelia, Hyzante's religion is still a sham since none of the gods preside over salt.
Another horrifying implication stemming from Triangle Strategy sharing its setting with Octopath Traveler. The premise is corroborated by the latter's prequel... which also implies Octopath shares its setting with Live A Live. What is the horrifying implication? That the Utility Ending ends up worse than the game makes it out to be due to Idore's victory incurring the wrath of Odio.
All of the automatons Idore controls in his boss battles are female/feminine in appearance such as the Hierophant who looks like a young girl and the other pink-haired automatons who both play Barbie Doll Anatomy literally straight and are more obviously "developed". Nobody says anything, but it's possible that, as if Idore wasn't vile enough, he is also a rapist. What's more, the pink-haired automatons are obviously reminiscent of Rosellans, so if Idore really is a rapist, then the female Roselle would be prime targets for sexual abuse, on top of all the other abuse they receive as a Slave Race.
Another implication that makes the Utility Ending bleaker. A lot of party members hate Hyzante, whether from decadence (Corentin, Medina, Archibald), for revenge (Narve, Ezana, implied with Milo), or both (Quahaug who hates Hyzante because Idore's control forced Quahaug's mother, Lyla, to abandon him, Decimal who is a prototype of The Hierophant). Choosing the Utility Ending makes all of their efforts be for nothing.
