#Adrestia might have ruled over the world the Emperor had never been the peerless strongest evah figure Supreme Leader wants to be

[randomnameless]

I had this thought regarding what you said about Edelgard's relationship to strength, and how it applies to Rhea. Edelgard views Byleth as strong and for that reason seeks to sway them to her side. But at the end of WC, Rhea swats Byleth away leaving them presumed dead. Rhea also escapes despite Edelgard's partnership with TWSITD. With this in mind, Edelgard wanting to destroy Rhea in CF makes sense. She knows Rhea is strong, perhaps seeing her as too strong to allow to live unlike in Hopes (where Rhea doesn't transform and instead flees) or the other routes in Houses (where Rhea is captured. Therefore, Edelgard wanting Rhea dead in CF may be because of Byleth.

This also works with her decision to go Hegemon. Dimitri crushed TWSITD by complete accident, people whose strength Edelgard thought she needed. Dimitri has made himself out to be someone strong, hence Edelgard resorting to desperate measures to fight him while at the same time making him the priority target.

Even her comment about feeling weak facing Byleth, it's not meant to be romantic. It's her feeling Byleth is stronger than her, making her feel like the inferior. Byleth can only be with Edelgard if they lose their powers, if they become weak which is very, very fucked up.

She doesn't respect Claude enough to view him as a threat, yet this would crate implications for SB's ending. Claude is strengthening the Alliance, Claude is gaining strength. Edelgard wouldn't like that, because it means he could potentially challenge her. Chances are, once the Kingdom is finished they turn on each other.

Pretty much,

After Supreme Bullshit - where she didn't lose anyone in the war, and won with a spectacular clean sheet - Rhea and Thales are "dead"! - Claude baring his fingers, or even existing, is a joke.

Isn't SB the only route where Claude can die? Supreme Leader will erase him if he becomes a nuisance, and if he wants to strengthen the Alliance/Federation/not bow his head to Adrestia anymore, she'll take it as defiance, and flatten it.

And I don't see the Kingdom rushing to his aid - after all he betrayed everything to side with her - so yep, post GW or post SB, Claude is fucked.

About the strength argument...

Rhea is a subhuman, thus has to die, but also, bar being a subhuman, she is also "strong" and someone who can potentially oppose her, or someone Supreme Leader can't rule over.

She cannot be Rhea's superior, and refuses to consider anyone else as her equal (only Billy is, and you guessed it, Billy humbles themselves to her "level", but we know they actually become her inferior).

In Hopes, iirc she has a line where she wants to make GM Rhea's tomb, so despite her PR here and there to look good compared to Claude and whoever else, Rhea's still on her death wishlist - not because she can become a pair of shiny daggers - but because she is a subhuman and an obstacle to her main goal : ruling over Fodlan.

In the paths where Rhea is captured, Supreme Leader only keeps her alive as an insurance against Uncle'n'pals - if she could she would erase her, like the remaining nabateans who cannot "rule over teh people" because they are nabateans - but she needs Uncle's help against whoever is preventing her from totally conquering Faerghus (Rodrigue'n'co?), part of the Alliance, the remnants of the Church and later on, Billy + the side they choose.

What she thinks of Billy though is fascinating - and imo factors on their "undisturbed sleep" during 5 years.

Sure we can throw idiot plot balls everywhere - but you won't make me believe that Supreme Leader (+Uncle), who spent more than say, 3 years, devising a plan to overthrow Faerghus and inflitrate the Monastery didn't know where to look for Sothis's unconscious host + the strongest relic around.

But if Supreme Leader was disappointed in Billy, it'd be another story. Billy who was supposed to be super strong and the Goddess reborn is swatted away by Rhea - who's only a child of the goddess - or Uncle himself - Uncle who apparently needed her to fight against the goddess can actually get rid of her vessel by snapping his fingers?? - so then what, is Billy super strong, or just a dud, and actually useless?

It'd be a cold reading of her character, but when Billy revealed to be useless (or not the strongest alive), she stopped caring about their potential abilities as a unit, let them be an ally, or an enemy. Rhea and Uncle are still more dangerous.

Which would be fit with her "facing you i grow weak uwu", she was mistaken on Billy's abilities - they are actually strong, and in SS/VW, stronger than her.

But I wouldn't erase the "uwu in luf with u" factor, because that's one of the most "human" points about Supreme Leader - she loves Billy, but does she love them as their own person, as a super strong unit who can support and help her, or as a cruel joke, because they're the goddess's vessel and she hates the goddess?

(idk if you know the katanagatari anime, but you have a similar white haired girl who uses a person - who thought he was a sword - and at the end of the anime, while she confesses she had been using him since day 1, she wonders, as she is dying, if she can now love him ? It made me think about Supreme Leader and Billy, what if she had been using them, later fell in love with them, but her goal was more important, and if she had to chose she'd always pick Billy's utility over her feelings for them?)

As for Dimitri, he not only crushed Uncle by parking his horse, but also got rid of Cornelia and managed to snag Faerghus, a land she was supposed to have control over!

Dimitri is "too strong" and she cannot rely on Uncle and his shinies anymore (tfw he didn't give her the password for getting Nemesis out of the freezer) so she uses Uncle's last present, and turns into Hegemon!gard.