bones

The worst thing Edelgard does is start a five-year-war that leaves two countries in ruins. She gets no credit for canonically ending a five-year-long war “more quickly” when she started it. After declaring said war, she immediately assassinates or otherwise removes her political opponents and consolidates power into herself, a dictator, and invades two other countries. I think from some perspectives she can certainly be seen as a tyrant. When comparing Dimitri to Edelgard, Edelgard already starts with a massive body count because she started the war. I don’t agree the war was inevitable, or that it was Edelgard’s only or best choice, so IMO it’s not even useful to compare the suffering they’ve each caused as they’re on totally different scales. The idea that Edelgard expresses empathy for victims while Dimitri does not is just not true and ignores his entire arc. Even before that, in his very first post-timeskip battle, he is taking out the bandits because he is infuriated that they are preying on innocents: “Someone must end this cycle of the strong preying on the weak.” The bandits had nothing to do with the imperial soldiers or Edelgard. Then after his arc, his whole deal is atoning for what he has done and accepting that some can never forgive him for the atrocities he’s committed.