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What are your thoughts on Edelgard? *SPOILERS*


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25 minutes ago, Brimney said:

, but I have no desire to play Black Eagle ever again, especially after that final map

Yeah that final map is an absolute bitch. Especially if you're an idiot like me and forgot that dismounting exists.

For those who don't know, this is the final map for BE in a nutshell.

 

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I like her, I think she's doing the right thing, you could argue that you end up kind of in the same way in other routes, and probably with less bloodshed, but the difference is that she takes action. Imagine two men that want to get rich, one works his ass off, the other does nothing and one day wins the lottery. Sure, same result and with less sweat, but it could've gone any other way, he could've remained poor the whole life. The first man took his fate into his own hand.

It's the same if we look at this world, maybe the bad doings of the Church/nobilty would come out anyways, but they don't know that, so I appreciate even more someone who actively works for a better place.

Though even the biggest Edelgard fan on this world should see her (big) mistakes, associating with the dark boyz is definitely not a move you should ever make if you want to be on the "good side", she could've guessed the consequences before jumping into it (let's not forget that by doing so she basically killed Jeralt and almost killed Byleth himself). I think she's just very young and very tired of the way the world works, add in a lot of arrogance and you get some very rushed, sometimes dumb decisions. But at least she made those decisions, everyone else seems to be fine just watching, that's why I like her.

Then again I'm pretty sure it's not just a matter of point of views. We're forgetting that different routes mean different circumstances, if you side with her, Byleth stays with her, keeps her sane, works as an advisor. If you side against her she's got just Hubert, everyone else against her, she obviously cares deeply about Byleth (wheter it's romantic or not) so seeing him trying to kill her doesn't help. It's the same way for Rhea btw, if you go with the Church you can keep her sane, if you go against her she goes full berserker.

tl;dr: I like her a lot, but don't forget that the Edelgard of the Empire route is not the same person as the Edelgard of the other routes.

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I'm not sure if we have to use tags, so just in case. 

Spoiler

Honestly, I don't see how she could be anything but a villain. Now I only did the BL route cause I refuse to go against them in any way, and frankly I wouldn't do Els route if you put a gun to my head, but I've seen the other routes and the BE route makes me less sympathetic, not more. She talks about a false goddess and yet seems to want to be exactly that. She says the power will be in the hands of the people, and yet that's clearly not the case as the ending makes note of her supreme power multiple times. I'll also point out it's the one ending that doesn't mention Byleth helping or guiding her. Which is fair, as he just enables her on her route.

She calls Rhea a villain for not evacuating the citizens and yet does the exact same thing, minus the fire on the GD and maybe the BL routes. But again, Rhea has gone insane and is corrupting everyone else, she does need to be stopped. Rheas bad, the church isn't. If Seteh and Falyn were in charge, it would all be fine. However as she steps down on the other routes, I cannot say she is as villainous as Edelgard. Not to mention, El is like oh we can't let innocents be hurt. Who does she think started this damn war in the first place? It just makes her a hypocrite rather then make me empathize with her. Honestly by the end of just watching her route, I was so ready to have Byleth shoot an arrow through her on the BL route. I can't imagine actually choosing her route myself. 

And the thing about it being a different Edelgard on the other routes, I'm sorry but that is incorrect. On all routes, there is the main conflict, with the lords doing their things. That doesn't change. What does change is who Byleth decides to guide and who makes it out without giving in to the worst of themselves.  So no matter what- She starts the war, leaves the entire Kingdom in shambles under a horrible traitorous ruler, there are looters and thieves everywhere, she tries to destroy both the Kingdom, Alliance, and their allies, will kill anyone who is against her, Acts with TWSITD which makes her an accomplice to their deeds as she makes no attempt to stop them or warn the others. She also may not directly experiment on the people but she has no problem using them. Tries to steal the crest stones and kill anyone who gets in her way.  Works with bandits to try and assassinate any opposition early on, allows the death knight to do as he pleases which means she is in fact partially responsible for what happens to Flayn and likely the death of Jeralt. All this could have been avoided had Byleth just been a bit slower protecting her at the start. And um, are we forgetting it's the only route you can directly kill all opposing factions?

And yet you want me to see her as a hero? She never once attempts to reach out to anyone and make peace on any route whereas all other routes at least try to reason with her. Especially the BLs. That's the thing. There's no backed into a corner, no exhausting other ideas. No lords who refuse to accept her. It's all her refusing to accept them, refusing to consider another way. You know what they say about good intentions. She doesn't want to coexist, she wants to destroy the current world. She's even bothered if you choose to spare Claude. 

She's basically like Danny of GOT, and it baffles me that people think Danny as good. If Micaiah destroyed Ikes faction and brought peace to Tellius, I bet people would call her evil. And yet. In fact, that was Walharts plan, and it would have worked. However as even he admitted, he was wrong and would not have done so had be met Robin first. 

Again, she's sympathetic, she's tragic. I don't see her as pure evil, but I don't like her as a person at all and she's definitely a villain.  

But I do have a question. Exactly what did Byleth stop her from doing on her own route? How did he help her in anyway? She wipes out all opposing forces and he just lets her. The only difference is that she wins. 

 

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There's a lot of different view points in this thread and they all bring up valid points tbh. But what bothers me is people calling her evil. I think its a rather childish way of describing her intentions and character.

In comparing all three solo lord endings, Claude makes some trade routes, stops some loyalists and gets rid of racism for the most part. Dimitri helped some orphans, improved foreign relations and reformed the government. The reformation part is pretty vague, so its up to anyone's interpretation really, to me it kinda sounds like a democracy? Edelgard reshaped the political structure, reformed the class system and got rid of the crests. Currently doing BL route so I'm not sure if Dimitri mentions any plans for the crests, have yet to start GD as well. 

Strictly speaking of the changes brought to Fodlan from the lords' endings, personally I think Edelgard achieved more than the other two. People saying they don't agree with her methods, or saying she should've done them differently are valid to think so. However, in a real world application you think the whole "I'm going to change the world and save everybody at the same time" cliche actually works? There has to be sacrifices if there is going to be any change

To put it simply, I think Edelgard has the most realistic ideals and actions of the three, Claude and Dimitri while strong  and well developed characters in their own right, kinda fall into the typical FE lord archetype. On the flip side, BE post time skip is very rushed and detached, it hurt Edelgard's character quite a bit IMO. So I can see people playing her route and not feeling very sympathetic to her

 

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That's the thing though. I don't feel she has any right to start a war to do that. And honestly, triggering a war seems pretty evil to me. Good has come from wars. That doesn't make em right. I disagree with calling it childish, she commits atrocities over and over and never owns up to it.

And I personally see it the opposite, it says freedom from crests and status. But, considering Fodlan is one small part of the world, I'd say foreign relations are much more important then status and ones own power. She also has a war on her hands and who knows how long that lasted or how many died. Not that she'd care. 

Here's how I feel about the perspective shift. Cause people always say it makes her seem more good or heroic. But a shift is just that, it doesn't change the story, it only changes the pov.

For example I feel it's completely justified  to completely hate her on the BL route.This is what she did to the Kingdom. That doesn't change on any route. You hate her because the Blue lions do. She took everything from them and plunged their home into chaos.  The story makes it pretty clear that the kingdom is the worst off in terms of the war.  As Ashe says on her route at the capital battle something like "You took our people, our king, our kingdom! What else is there for you to take?!" She completely ruined them. Of course they want her dead.

She also sides with people who manipulate the western church into fighting the central so quite frankly she's allied with the people who actually do all those awful crest experiments yet blames Rhea for them when there's no indication it's her or the church's fault. 

Whereas on the GD and ironically the church route, she's more sympathetic. Because they see her that way. Claude understands her and would like to reason with her as he frankly cares more about Almyra then Fodlan. But he knows she won't surrender and so they do as they must. Same with the church route. They don't hate her nearly as much so it's only natural you don't.

And then on her route, all her followers praise her, and she confides in Byleth and oh isn't that nice. She's so sympathetic and is truly trying to do the right thing. None of that changes what she does to the others. You just don't fully see it. You get small glimpses but it's easy to ignore when everyone's praising their beloved emperor. And quite frankly I don't see how what she does on that route is better then the others. She doesn't spare people who disagree. She marches right in and destroys the kingdom, can kill Claude which I'm sure Almyra wouldn't be mad about at all, and everyone feeds her ego, reinforcing her belief as this savior of the people. 

She really is very much like Walhart, except you had to stop him. Why? Oh yeah because while everyone fully acknowledged his plan would work, it didn't justify what? Oh right, starting a war to unite the continent and defeat the evil, no matter who had to die. Even he admitted that. 

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Edelgard in Three Houses is a great example of the real life historical debates over someone like Napoleon. To his enemies he was a hated monstrous tyrant that sought to destroy the nobility in Europe. To his own supporters, he was a hero that brought liberty and order to his countrymen. Napoleon has also been accused of committing various atrocities, some part of record and many others disputed. Does this make him a monster? Does this tarnish what he was able to accomplish?

Edelgard is viewed by us fans in much the same way. She has strong supporters and vehement haters. And for that achievement in storytelling, Three Houses has the best story in the FE series to date in my eyes. After all, the worst sin a fictional character can commit is engendering apathy in the audience. And Edelgard is one character that I see very few not having some type of strong feeling towards.

For me personally, I'll admit I'm totally biased. I find her design very attractive so I've had a big soft spot for her since her first reveal. Shes my favorite character in the game. I love that she both has an air of authority around her but can also have sweet personal moments. She both a strong leader without losing a feminine touch, ergo Perfect Waifu. That said, I think in my own head canon route I prefer the church route. The reason is.......well, I want my avatar to be the hero that saves the world rather then playing second fiddle to any of the lords. I know, thats entirely selfish meta reasoning for my favorite route. *shrug.

Edited by wissenschaft
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@wissenschaft put it far better than I could.

Ultimately, the light that you view Edelgard in, like with historical figures like Napoleon or Caesar, will depend on your own ideals that you hold true to, and from whose perspective you view the events of Fódlan’s Great War from.

Regrettably, I feel like we only saw one half of El’s story on her own route, and I am not talking about the perspective given from doing the church route. The game could have easily gone on for several more chapters detailing the early part of her reign as well as dealing with TWSITD. That would perhaps have provided the ultimate judgement for her character, rather than a piece of art and a text blurb. 

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On 8/4/2019 at 2:43 PM, Humanoid said:

Only know what I read from spoilers but I don't mind what I've seen at all. Hell, even if her motivations were pure conquest, I still would be supportive if I was on her route. FE is too often bound by modern morality and ignores the reality of the era it purports to depict. In a dog-eat-dog world, survival depends on being the biggest dog.

Hahahahhahaha. I couldn't have said that better. Who doesn't want to conquer the world with a hot and badass waifu? *cue Hubert's evil laugh

Edited by wissenschaft
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1 hour ago, warchiefwilliams said:

@wissenschaft put it far better than I could.

Ultimately, the light that you view Edelgard in, like with historical figures like Napoleon or Caesar, will depend on your own ideals that you hold true to, and from whose perspective you view the events of Fódlan’s Great War from.

Regrettably, I feel like we only saw one half of El’s story on her own route, and I am not talking about the perspective given from doing the church route. The game could have easily gone on for several more chapters detailing the early part of her reign as well as dealing with TWSITD. That would perhaps have provided the ultimate judgement for her character, rather than a piece of art and a text blurb. 

Honestly, can we just leave it at that? This thread is debating the same points over and over again. 

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Edelgard did nothing wrong and she is a good girl.

But seriously, History, as Mr. Williams, alluded to is filled with morally gray leaders; It's the fact that Edelgard is trying to change the world into one that is less dependent on the church, crests and status that I agree with her though I havent played the other houses yet, so maybe I'm terribly wrong or FE does one of those things that makes the enemies more evil than in their own campaign. 

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I agree that she was a force that brought about change in all the routes and was a morally gray character - who at best can be considered an anti-hero. 

My main argument was more whether the means she went about doing it was that noble, as so many fans try to portray her as. There was little to suggest that during her conquest, she reformed her conquered nations for the better (compared to Napoleon). All routes eventually led to a peaceful Fodlan because her actions inspired reaction. However, the means she used to get there were often just as selfish and emotionally driven as those of the people she so fights against, but she acts as if she was better than them. 

At the end of the day, she was a girl who was naive, arrogant, and endured a lot of suffering, and as a result, made a lot of questionable choices. It was undeniable that she did change the world though, but whether the ends justified the means in her case is left to the interpretation of the individual, especially since the aftermath of the game is left ambiguous, versus being able to retroactively assess real world conquerers such as Napoleon. 

Edited by MessengerIris
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@Armagon Other thread got locked, so I will put answer here:

That wasn't point. Eldegard was like that before she met Byleth and Byleth can change for better. from that point Thus psychopath Edelgard is default Edelgard. If Rhea never met Byleth or if Byleth joined Dimtri or Claude she wouldn't change a lot, it required painful betrayal trip her over edge. Thus default Rhea isn't city burning Rhea.

Basically default personality for both is without Byleth in equation regardless whether he is ally or enemy. Canon-ity is not really something I took in consideration

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So thats why my reply to the other topic wasn't going through. Anyway, incase people from the other thread show up:

 

I mean, she's as much of a Hero as Walhart was in Awakening. Or Lelouche/Light/various other edgelords/etc.

This isn't a knock, I really enjoyed Edelgard's route. But she's practically beat for beat the Lelouche/Zero mold. Hellbent on fixing the world by conquering it and forcefully purging all of the corruption, at any cost. There's also the fact that as far as public perception goes, nobody knows that the church/Rhea are secretly lizard people, so for all intents and purposes, everyone outside the inner circle of the Black Eagle Strike Squad is going to just see someone turning into a maniac and starting a blood revolution to overturn a status quo that they weren't aware of. Anyone who's not close enough to be looped in is only going to see a bloodthirsty revolutionary, and she's fine with that, as long as she reaches her end goal. Every single obstacle is just a reason to double down on her resolve.

The only thing I would change is having the post-takeover part where she turns around and purges TWSITD be part of the playable story. Cement Edelgard route as basically the "Revelations" of FE3H, but better and more coherent, where you basically consign to going through and taking on the whole world piece by piece.

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Please allow me to copy and paste my post. I need to add that my analysis is more based on diplomacy and politics than morality. I have completed both GD and BE route and I am aware what she does (and becomes) in BL route. So yes, this analysis is based on the war effort going as expected and Edelgard doesn't need to resort to more desperate measures (we see that Dimitri and Rhea also resort to such measures in a tragic way, Claude is just too cool to care). The GD route is absolutely sympathetic in its writing (even thought El loses the war) which gives me this idea.

To the contrary of many players' views, I think Edelgard is perhaps too matured, too composed, and too machiavellian for her age, but ultimately the (anti) heroin of the game and an amazing character for JRPGs. It is extraordinary that she chose to side (and put up) with TWSITD, the hideous group that is responsible for her own misfortune and misery and various atrocities (at least from the perspective of the status quo), in order to uproot the church/crest system and ultimately defeat TWSITD. She recognizes correctly between the church and TWSITD, the church the is correct enemy to target first, which is not obvious if you think about it (TWSITD has nukes, laser, and even robots). Let me explain.

From the little cutscene after Byleth decides to join with Edelgard as the witness of her secret coronation, we can see clearly that Edelgard's power within the Empire is rather precarious: her father is weak and powerless (who confessed his powerless to her in a touching little conversation), the prime minister seems surprised and abhored at the coronation, suggesting administrative power within the empire belongs to the opposition (and possibly more since coronation is done in secrecy). What better way to consolidate her power within the empire than by waging an epic war to reunify and reclaim all of Fodlan, the territory that are historically ruled by the empire but carved up by the church in a conspiracy which eventually covering up the whole history? And of course,  to completely eliminate the crest system that has festered the nobles and commonfolks alike?

If she choose to side with church in order to battle TWSITD, her position within the empire would almost certainly be jeopardized by her uncle Arundel (suggested as the other major power within the empire) since it is heavily suggested that Arundel=Thales. In fact, Arundel even 'backstabbed' her as a retaliation move in the BE route after her went out to take the fortress in the Kingdom. Hubert's paralogue also shows that El operates under the shadow of Lord Arundel/TWSITD (to do their dirty work and under their constant scrutiny) but El is also trying to sabotage TWSITD from within. Considering her status as the heir of the Empire, the Empire is the single greatest source of political and military power to El. Therefore, she simply cannot cooperate the church first before she gain a foothold within the Empire.

Moreover, by closely working with TWSITD, El is able to gather important intels that would ultimately contribute to toppling the mighty TWSITD either by force (In Hubert's paralogue he obtain a secret weapon with advanced tech) or espionage (In GD route Hubert gave Claude the biggest tip of the game - the location of TWSITD's secret base) or politcal purge (possible since TWSITD has long infiltrated the empire's ruling class as suggested by Arundel=Thales). So if you really think upon it, it is not crazy to imagine that without El somehow working as an undercover, the ultimate villain with advanced technology will not be defeated by the other house leaders (clearly the church has not been effective dealing with them).

Finally, the possibility of a peaceful gradual reform of the church seems unlikely, given how the game portraits the church. The church has been brutally cracking down other factions (heretics/dissident) within the church and essentially controls the knowledge/thought by censoring history and books (suggested by Linhardt, Hanneman, Setech's support). There is essentially no internal political opposition within the church that can challenge Rhea, who, despite appearing benevolent, is overly sensitive about power and is obsessed with ressurecting Sothis. Therefore, it is unlikely that without El shaking up the situation , Claude would have any opportunity to peacefullly transition Fodlan into a multicultural open society governed by a republic/democratic system.

Now if you buy any of this, then you realize how amazing El really is as a leader/conqueror (within the context of the setting of course), who is not only unwavering in her determination but also has the wits and guts to work with those she fundamentally hate with aplomb, and to do necessary evil and sacrifice her own conscience for a clear, lofty political goal (which can be bad but seems good enough according to the game's ending narration). Especially if you rewatch how she interacts with members of TWSITD and how she kept cool in the early half of the game. El also handles her relation with in particular Byleth in a stunning way. It is suggested in a scenes (prior to the naming of Black Eagle Strike Group) that Hubert and El knows that the professor is an important allied to win over but she kept being direct and engaging with the Byleth without ever appearing insincere or manipulative. She opens up to Byleth as an internally troubled girl (not surprising given her childhood) as well as a lonesome ruler/conqueror but always keep enough distance to retain authority (that is, until the war is won and you S ranked her, but before that creepy art ). 

As for her underhanded and treacherous deeds, I think they are mostly justified for the following reasons. 1. you need to take into account that she was preparing to fight a war against a theocracy that has governed almost a thousand years, a secret cult that has nukes and robots in a medieval period, and the kingdom and alliance. Conspiracy is perhaps the least costly (let's be realists, I know that human life cannot be measured) way to achieve the objective of her war. 2. it is unlikely that the idea of universal human rights exist in Fodlan (certainly not international conventions). 3. they are tame by historical standard, by which i mean the one that I am farmiliar with: various East Asian histories such as the three kingdom period and sengoku period, history of roman republic and roman empire, and WWII and the Cold War period etc. 4. It is tricky to a moralist when it comes to relations between big political powers and I think we overestimate ourselves by thinking we can be do better than historical figures in their circumstances. I admit that some of her acts (assassinating Claude/Dimitri, kidnapping Flayn) are definitely questionable by today's moral standard but I have read enough history to give her a pass.

Please don't hate me 😛.

Quote

So thats why my reply to the other topic wasn't going through. Anyway, incase people from the other thread show up:

 

I mean, she's as much of a Hero as Walhart was in Awakening. Or Lelouche/Light/various other edgelords/etc.

This isn't a knock, I really enjoyed Edelgard's route. But she's practically beat for beat the Lelouche/Zero mold. Hellbent on fixing the world by conquering it and forcefully purging all of the corruption, at any cost. There's also the fact that as far as public perception goes, nobody knows that the church/Rhea are secretly lizard people, so for all intents and purposes, everyone outside the inner circle of the Black Eagle Strike Squad is going to just see someone turning into a maniac and starting a blood revolution to overturn a status quo that they weren't aware of. Anyone who's not close enough to be looped in is only going to see a bloodthirsty revolutionary, and she's fine with that, as long as she reaches her end goal. Every single obstacle is just a reason to double down on her resolve.

The only thing I would change is having the post-takeover part where she turns around and purges TWSITD be part of the playable story. Cement Edelgard route as basically the "Revelations" of FE3H, but better and more coherent, where you basically consign to going through and taking on the whole world piece by piece.

 

I don't think the comparison with Walhart is fair because Walhart is as thin as a piece of paper as a character. He is depicted as some comic version of say, Genghis Khan. We don't get to know his circumstances and the politic situation in Awakening is simplistic.  As a leader Walhart also lacks charisma (not because that he is not a beautiful man but because he does not engage with his followers in the same way El does) and comes off as a brute.

Also your statement that "everyone outside the inner circle of the Black Eagle Strike Squad is going to just see someone turning into a maniac" is not true in the BE route.

Spoiler

In one cutscene after they post their manifesto, Hubert explicitly states that nobles houses supporting downing the church are joining force and oppositions are being purged.

It is also unreasonable to assume that under years of stagnation (implied by Claude's altitude towards the church) and cracking down there is no political opposition to the Church within Fodlan. Again, we have to look at what El does politically, she is representing everyone in Fodlan who hates (or becomes victim of) church's rule.

Spoiler

The ending note on El more or less confirmed that she (and Byleth) have dealt with TWSITD and two of them went off enjoy private life. This is, however, not so convincing but at the same time a plausible outcome given various foreshadowings in the game.

Quote

So, question. What exactly do you do on her route that causes the crests to disappear? My impression is that on her route the crests disappear the instant you kill Seiros/Rhea, but Seiros/Rhea dies on other routes (like Church) without the crests going away, and you find out on Golden Deer that ..

Spoiler

My theory: crests are features of the descendant of god (manakete) because both Seteth and Flayn have major crests. TWSITD transfered them to human.  The seal/crest broke to resurrect Byleth, but that may not be a systemic event. The crest system was uprooted after defeating Rhea/Seiros according to the ending narration ("after her newfound power, ...").

 

Edited by matchalatte
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So, question. What exactly do you even do on her route that causes the crests to disappear? My impression is that on her route the crests disappear the instant you kill Seiros/Rhea, but Seiros/Rhea dies on other routes (like Church) without the crests going away, and you find out on Golden Deer that 

Spoiler

Seiros didn’t even create the crests in the first place, so why would they be connected to her death?

 

Edited by Moonlit Knight
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On August 4, 2019 at 9:35 AM, Moonstone said:

I haven't played the game yet but from what I've seen and read she seems a lot like Daenerys Targaryen.  Her time skip outfit reminds me of Albedo from Overlord.  I'm on the fence whether I like her or not due to these similarities. 

She is Daenerys with the serial numbers filed off. No question. Just more intelligent and more willing to get her hands dirty. Really dirty. And i really cant blame her. I went Golden Deer first and still found myself wanting to punch Rhea in the face. I do like Edelgard (and i like Dany too, there it is. Yes, even after that. ) and on other routes, shes a good antagonist. This is the sort of character i wanted in FE as a main playable lord for a long time. 

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On 8/4/2019 at 6:02 PM, semolinaro said:

Edelgard is definitely a controversial character, and while a lot of players downright HATE her, I’ve seen some who believe she is one of the best written lords/antagonists in the series.

It’s definitely hard to stomach her methods (she’s rather snakey and calculated), but her reasons for doing so are what interest me. The Church of Seiros certainly isn’t sunshine and rainbows and hides a dark past itself. I see her as a misguided youth who eagerly awaits the day she can use her power to rid the world of a broken system that has caused harm to herself and others. Ironically, these ambitions cause Fodlan even greater harm in the long run. 

What were your feelings towards Edie?

i absolutely hate her, but that's probably because she's meant to be this way, so in a sense she's well written, and i really think she is

btw as far as i've seen, both edelgard and rhea are characters who people either downright hate or love, no one is immune to this

Edited by Yexin
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As far as I could see Rhea get hated only by association. She only get flak when people defend Edie as they are on opposite side of conflict. 

In threads that are about Rhea alone she get much warmer reaction. 

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Edelgard's right in her ideals, but wrong in the way she goes about them. To a degree (I still think that the war would have eventually come to a head, what with there being other noble houses in the Adrestian Empire that were against the church.)

I absolutely love her as a character, but she's not really someone who needs the position of Emperor thrust upon her in any capacity. She's far too deep in her own issues for her to make rational decisions, and it's not helped by the people who originally caused those issues essentially having as much power over her as they want. There's certainly a chance for her ideals to work out in her favor, especially with a level-headed person on her side (seriously, if Hubert were a little more perceptive, he could have easily played the Byleth role and not encouraged her to what she eventually did on the non-Eagles routes), but she's, well, walking trauma and arrogance bundled together, and we've seen how far that takes you in FE. 

I think her ending is the most satisfying out of all the routes, personally, but that's probably just my personal preference for her ideals and enjoyment of her character speaking. Claude's route overall is my favorite, having come back here after playing them all. I do like that she steps down from being Emperor when she could easily have kept the position, though. 

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after playing the Black Eagles church route (my favorite currently ). i dont really like her that much. you dont even get to deal  with those who slither in the dark do you?

Edited by DivineLion
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I wonder if there are any philosophers among us, or those who are at least well read in the matters who can make the arguments in the different schools of philosophical thought for whether what Edelgard did was right or wrong in morally in each. I'd been reading a bit on Utilitarianism/John Stuart Mill because that seems like the natural 'go to' because the biggest question for Edelgard was if the "ends justified the means" but John Stuart Mill's Harm Principle seems to directly contradict that her actions could be right even under this assumption if one were to apply a Utilitarian lens to what she did. But I'm also no expert on the matter which is why I hope someone who knows more may elaborate further.

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