#I'm going to admit I'm biased against BlkE

[msbluebell]

I was sitting here thinking about the three lords and how they act post timeskip depending on routes. As a Dimileth AU following said timeskip: how do u think things would play out if Byleth, who chose Edelgard's path, realizes it isn't as just as she had hoped and made a choice to leave after seeing the extremes to which Edelgard would go and turns to Dimitri, deciding to help him stop Edelgard before she can do further harm?

A Byleth who sided with Edelgard and came to regret it is an interesting concept, because WHY Byleth would ever side with Edelgard is very up in the air and depends heavily on character interpretation.

When roleplaying in the game, I try not to project myself on the character avatar and just try to develop a personality based around information given, so I’ve developed a certain characterization for Byleth. I think, on some level, we’ve all done that. But the way I’VE, personalty, characterized Byleth it doesn’t really make sense that they’d join Edelgard. That’s not to say that other people don’t have characterization for Byleth where joining Edelgard makes sense, but is also the most logical path, but that’s not my interpretation of their character. (Also, a note, I fundamental disagree with Edelgard’s path. This is not a decision I came to because I adore Claude and Dimitri, or I like their paths better. Black Eagles was my first play through, and I developed my disagreement and dislike of her philosophy long before I knew I would like either of them. So, yeah, I’m pretty uncomfortable siding with Black Eagles, so this might not be my best).

So the first thing we need to tackle is why Byleth, as I understand them, would side with Edelgard.

The long and short of it? They didn’t.

Byleth has a lot of complex emotions going on during the first half of the game. Not only are they an emotionally numb person being exposed to their emotions for the first time, but they’re also experiencing a lot of tragedy while going through this process. What makes Byleth’s interactions with the various house leaders so interesting is that those very house leaders are the ones who are, intentionally or not, the ones helping Byleth through the emotional process. Not only that, but each house leader has a different way of helping Byleth through the emotional development. I think, in a sense, this also affect who Byleth develops as a person.

That said, it’s not the only thing.

Byleth is also affect by interactions with characters. Like their students and faculty. But the key characters in their development, as in the ones that affect it the most, are Rhea, Seteth, Jeralt, (maybe) Flyan, and the house leaders.

So, in a situation where Byleth is in the tomb, and Edelgard is revealed to be the Flame Emperor, I think based on my interpretation of them, siding with her would have been an accident.

Byleth does care about Edelgard, but they’re moral enough that they simply can’t overlook what happened at Rumire Village, and that, intentional or not, Edelgard’s allies were the ones responsible. And they’re emotional enough to be the slightest bit resentful that she is working with the people she knows killed Jeralt.

But, all the same, Rhea is acting very fanatic. She’s blinded by anger, and wants Edelgard to die. A part of it is genuine care, and a part of it is pure pragmatism, because they can get far more out of Edelgard arresting her and trying to get information than outright killing her. It was a pragmatic move. A merciful one. One that would help them more in the long run.

They didn’t know they were going to be marked as a traitor.

Before they can even begin to explain their logic, and what they were doing, Rhea loses her mind. Now Byleth is being run out of Garreg Mach, and straight into the Empire.

They hadn’t meant to burn all their bridges.

They can’t forget Flayn’s face, or Rhea’s rage. Jeralt always warned them there was something...off...about Rhea, to be weary, but they didn’t think something like this would happen.

Staying with Edelgard is more of pragmatic move than anything. They still care for her, and try to guide her down the least violent path, but...they can’t help but regret how things turn out.

They think over what Edelgard wants, how she plans to do it. It seems impossible to them that her plan will work, tearing down the whole system isn’t something that can happen without violence, it isn’t something that’s realistic. Crest are breed into the system, and it needs to be bred out. Crests won’t just go away, after all, and even if Edelgard wins and destroys the Church, there’s no way all the Crest bearing nobles won’t rebel against her ideals not that the church is out of the way. It’s likely Edelgard will face untold numbers of assassination attempts for the rest of her life at best.

That and...Edelgard’s methods are pretty brutal at times.

They’ve mostly put their foot down and decided to act as an adviser more than anything, but they still get drafted at times. For the most part they just hope for the best, trying to keep things as uncompleted and diplomatic as possible. Edelgard listens to them, mostly, so things are...better...they suppose, but they can’t help but regret that they didn’t just...

They don’t let the thought finish.

It’s not until they’re standing in the rain, Dimitri on his knees and Edelgard raising an axe, that they draw the line.

They step in front of the axe just as she’s about to bring it down. Edelgard barely stops the axe swing in time, hitting the ground instead. She glares, asking them what they’re doing.

The same thing they did in the tombs, stopping someone from going too far, like Rhea has. They tell Edelgard that this is the moment that seems too far, that her whole goal seems like it’s too far.

It’s an argument, a bad one, and Dimitri can only watch, his eye bleeding out. There’s words said, cruel ones, and Byleth is trying to stop all of this because they’re clearly going too far. Byelth doesn’t want to feel like the bad guy anymore.

Edelgard asks them why the saved her, then, when she’s the invading force.

They tell her the truth.

They didn’t, they wanted to capture and question her, if Rhea hadn’t lost her mind when they saved her, they wouldn’t be here right now.