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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.
I couldn't have put it any better myself, the only thing I could add is that people probably only like Daenerys and Edelgard because they're women and in today's day and age the "strong independent woman who don't need no man" archetype is basically what's "in" right now. If the exact same characters were guys, they would hate the living daylights out of them. I disliked Daenerys ever since she executed every noble back in season 3, and as soon as Edelgard's true character was revealed I instantly saw the link between the two characters. The truth is, neither Daenerys nor Edelgard are strong women, they're both just authoritative greedy pigs who will kill everything and anything until they gain the power they so desperately need, all under the false pretense that they're actually helping the poor underprivileged who are so mistreated by everything. It's all plastic nonsense that anyone who has ever studied history for more than 5 minutes can see through.
What are your thoughts on Edelgard? *SPOILERS*
in Fire Emblem: Three Houses
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