I was kind of split on how to handle the FE7 lords, honestly. I think there'd be a point about halfway through the game (maybe a bit later to reverse the usual SMT thing of 'shit happens near the beginning') where the Conception DOES happen in the FE world and things become really drastic. That's when party members on both sides would start filtering out because suddenly there has to be a new world formed (or the old world restored) and it's not just a possibility anymore.

My original idea was that even if they had differing viewpoints (Hector would obviously lean Chaos, etc) they'd stick together, but I actually like the idea of them getting in an argument and leaving the main party? Like you'd always have Lyn regardless, then later when you inevitably have to fight them the only person who can rerecruit them is Lyn, otherwise they get killed. You probably wouldn't be able to bring Lilina or Roy in just due to "we don't want to fight our parents" otherwise that would add in another layer of how to recruit, which is a FE thing but not so much a SMT thing.

that makes sense. at first i sort of figured that the three would stay together regardless, and that while they have differing beliefs, basically nothing overly serious happened in elibe in their time so unlike other fe lords they sort of have the luxury of not really needing to be too emphatic about or defensive of their ideals. this would probably change later on when shit hits the fan, but before that, the fe7 trio could have the potential of being a decent way to introduce the alignment concepts in a relatively low-key way into the narrative, or something like that

Not that it really matters, since we're never getting lords debating philosophies though because the idol game crashed and burned, but oh well :(

i call bullshit because obviously the game has itsuki debate the real ultimate philosophical question: do i join the horrible idol mill industry now, or do i join the horrible idol mill industry later?