#and I don't see how this is not serious - especially considering who's enacting the censorship and what all else we know she's willing to do

[butwhatifidothis]

Except it ISN'T about the war in general. It's described as "a war drama depicting the journey and sacrifice of the emperor and her companions." Dorothea even mentions that it'll be an opera about Edelgard in their support.

It's not as deep as "Edelgard doesn't want information about the war in the form of a musical getting out". It's just her going "Yeah no I don't want a play about me with me as the main character because it's embarrassing."

As I said, Edelgard does plenty of fucked shit, but that isn't an example of one of them. There's no secondary motivation about not wanting the play outside of "I don't WANT a play about me it's embarrassing".

Theres a huge difference in "Rhea censors things and holds back technology" and "Edelgard bans her friend's musical about her because it embarrases her but ultimately relents and lets Dorothea preform the play."

One is serious, the other very much isn't. The ending doesn't even say she banned all plays about the war, just that SPECIFIC play by her friend which was ABOUT her.

I'm sure you could find evidence of Edelgard ACTUALLY censoring shit, but this just isn't it.

(assuming it’s the same anon, if it’s not then sorry!)

Alright. Let’s go with this. It’s not Edelgard hiding information about the war from the public - even though we already know there are some aspects of the war she doesn’t want anyone knowing, let alone the general public, such as Arianrhod, and even though we already know that things such as the war against TWS was explicitly hidden from the public. 

This is still censorship. You even say it’s her banning the play - that’s literally censorship. 

And you’re right - this isn’t the same as Rhea. Rhea hid knowledge from humans that they’ve already shown to use for malicious purposes, up to and including genocide and nearly ruining Fodlan, respectively. Edelgard is throwing around her power as Emperor to ban art because she’s, in your own words, “embarrassed” over it. You are describing her as someone who’s so childish she can’t stand people depicting her in a way she doesn’t like for literally no other reason than she’s embarrassed. This is abuse of power, full stop. 

Because yes, I can point to instances where Edelgard hides things/lies about things to make herself look better than she is or to otherwise benefit herself. I can point to when she takes Byleth’s credit at the Battle of Garreg Mach, to the missiles dropped on Arianrhod, to the shadow war against TWS, to her lying about “allowing” the people of Garreg Mach to escape when she attacks pre ts, so why, then, is it so unacceptable to believe that this is another instance of her doing what she’s already been shown to be capable of doing multiple times?

Or, alternatively, why does that suddenly make it not serious? It’s serious that Seteth is willing to censor anything about romance from the library, because it’s suppression of art. That is Seteth abusing his power as a high-ranking official of the Church to ban things he personally doesn’t like, not because they’re an inherent threat, but because he’s an overprotective father who’s too scared of his daughter getting with anyone and getting any ideas about romance (or is too grossed out by his sister gettin’ funky with Wilheim). He’s letting his own personal feelings get in the way of the spreading of harmless art and that is a bad thing.

If Edelgard didn’t initially allow this play that was (implicitly) written by someone close to her, what would stop her from banning any play about her she doesn’t like? If she already has multiple details about the war she doesn’t want the people knowing, what would stop her from censoring any play about the war? This one only got a pass because a friend of hers wrote it, and it still got banned and it still needed that friend to convince her to unban it - not everyone in the Empire is her friend. And also, this is only after she herself watched the play, so does every play about her need her to personally vet it (or in general vet it) for approval before being allowed to be shown to the public? Is that how art of her is going to be treated in her society? All because she’s too embarrassed?

And I’m sorry!! I don’t want to sound rude, but “I'm sure you could find evidence of Edelgard ACTUALLY censoring shit, but this just isn't it” except it... is? An example of her actually censoring shit? This is an example of her using her position as Emperor to disallow the production of art due to the contents of said art being considered unfit for public consumption as decreed by solely Edelgard? Because she personally doesn’t like what’s in it - by your explanation, not even for objective reasons that could actually disadvantage her? How is this not censorship, and why is this not serious? 

Because, again, this is not her going up to her friend and saying “Hey, I’d really appreciate if you don’t do this” like their supports, which I have literally no issues with. It’s her demanding the entire Mittelfrank Opera Company not produce this play they wanted to perform. There’s a difference between a huge political leader going to their personal friends and asking them as friends to not do a certain thing, and that same leader forbidding the general public from doing that same thing under law. 

So either Edelgard is banning this play because it’s about the war and she doesn’t want the possibility of it revealing any information she doesn’t want the public to know about and is willing to abuse her power to ban it and is only appeased once she knows a close friend of hers wrote it and even then only after she’s seen the performance for herself... or she is banning this play because she’s embarrassed about any possible haha details coming out about her and she’s willing to abuse her power to ban it and is only appeased once she knows a close friend of hers wrote it and even then only after she’s seen the performance for herself. 

Both are bad. They may not be equally bad, but they are both very bad. Censorship is so rarely good that 3H had to come with a literal impossible scenario for it to be even possible to justify (”this nearly genocided race of dragon people with magic blood needed to hide the history of their magic blood from people that wanted to kill them for it”), and it’s definitely not good for as petty a reason as “nooo, don’t talk about me like that //>~<//”