#and also that I see come up in EdeI//eth meta often without people seeming to realize it

[butwhatifidothis]

"This is my reservation about redemption arcs explicitly tied to romance stories: if you redeem someone with your love I guess that's cute, but if that person tells you - in no uncertain terms - that you are his one tenuous link to redemption, and that if anything happens to you he's going to go out into the galaxy on an indiscriminate murder spree, that kinda sounds like you failed to redeem him, and that's not a happy story." - Jenny Nicholson

While it's gendered to pertain to the Bad Boy trope of YA/YA-esque novels, this is the exact problem with not only Cap'n's fic, but with the general Edelstan idea of EdeI//eth. See guys, it's cute that only Byleth can have EdeIgard grow to be the good person she is deep down! It's a sign of their special love! And it's cute that only EdeIgard, in the same vein, can have Byleth be the human "she" is meant to be! It's not a worrying sign of the quality of their characters, or a telling sign of just how important other people are to them that this person and this person alone gives them the conviction to "be better," nope, it's true love at work!

Like, this is the just your typical "Good Girl fixes Bad Boy" trope that plagues your bargain-bin YA novel wrapped in up a *~special~* foil because the Bad Boy is a Bad Girl, complete with Byleth unreasonably looking over the genuinely horrible shit the Bad Girl does in order to "fix" her because goshdarnit, Byleth loves her so so much (for Reasons). I swear, so much of the EdeI//eth meta I've seen is so keen on saying how amazing it is that Byleth "saves" EdeIgard from succumbing to having a heart of ice, as if having only one link to any sort of redeemability as a person - with that one link being romantic in nature - isn't the most basic of toxic teenage girl fantasies.

And the funniest thing is that they turn around and bemoan Dimitri for supposedly falling into this "Fix the Bad Boy" trope, as if Dimitri doesn't have Dedue, Felix, and Rodrigue at minimum as very noticeable positive influences as well as Byleth, unlike EdeIgard who by their own admission only has Byleth. Hubert's literally always described as some kind of iteration of "he's there for EdeIgard, but not emotionally like Byleth is, and that's just not enough so he doesn't really count." 

But functionally, the relationship between EdeIgard and Byleth and EdeIgard and Hubert are basically the same. Never meaningfully challenging EdeIgard to her face about things, even when they disagree with her? Check. Reminding EdeIgard that she's right to do what she does to others? Check. Doing morally questionable things for her, at her command? Check. (On CF) Not really having much of a personality outside of EdeIgard? Check. Having Edelgard pull rank on them? Check. The only real difference between the two of them is that Byleth doesn't call EdeIgard "Lady EdeIgard/Your Highness/Your Majesty/etc.," but I guess that's enough to make EdeIgard a better person. Even though the more likely explanation is the same one for why Dedue and Felix can die and Rodrigue always dies in the case of Dimitri: 3H just wants Byleth to be the most important person ever to ever and having the attractive lords kiss their ass is a good way to give off that impression, nothing about how particularly special EdeIgard's relationship with them is.

Because, just like with most of the "Good Girl fixes Bad Boy" YA novels, EdeIgard and Byleth don't actually have that much chemistry together. It's just Byleth playing bobblehead nodding along with pretty much everything EdeIgard says while EdeIgard "finally feels love" from this yes-(wo)man instead of her other yes-men. Byleth can't joke around with EdeIgard, they aren't allowed to mourn the deaths of people close to them without EdeIgard tapping her wrist at them to hurry it along, everything EdeIgard knows about Byleth isn't from Byleth themself but because she had to go out and find it herself, Byleth reverses back on their emotional growth when being around EdeIgard on CF - other than EdeIgard arbitrarily acting uwu cyute around Byleth sometimes there's nothing that really indicates... anything, really, between the two of them.

With that being the case, it's why I find so many fan iterations of EdeI//eth to be so lackluster, because it's usually under the assumption that the game built them up as this natural, deep love story of the ages and not just either 1) a play on the darker themes of CF concerning manipulation and ignorance and/or 2) player pandering. 

Cap'n's fic is a prime example of this, how he literally builds up nothing between the two of them and then says that they're the greatest lovebirds to ever love each other - he thinks randomly having EdeIgard uwu at Byleth and having Byleth drown EdeIgard with praises over how innocent and good and great and brave and amazing she is and having them talk a few times more than others is enough to proudly show off that this is the pinnacle of love, while not realizing that he's having Byleth forgive a lot of really really really shitty things in the name of love.

EdeIgard feels a connection to Byleth and vice versa - why? Destiny. And now Cap'n no longer needs to write them growing to love each other, because they are destined to always do so no matter what.

So when Byleth's ambitions to become a bigger person than she is conflicts with EdeIgard's want to have her by her side, the solution isn't to come to a compromise, accepting the differences between the two of them's wants while still working out a way for both of their dreams to come true in some way that satisfies the both of them - just have Byleth throw away her ambitions entirely! They were bad for her anyway!

So when Byleth's morals regarding never forgiving the ones involved with the massacre at Remire conflict with EdeIgard being involved in the massacre at Remire, the result isn't that there's a very large fallout between the two of them that threatens to break them apart, causing EdeIgard to do her best to try and redeem herself from this terrible decision she made - just ignore it entirely! It wasn't EdeIgard's fault anyway, because she was outmaneuvered and also she had no choice!

So when SS!EdeIgard is killed by SS!Byleth - explicitly due to her not giving up outside of death itself - Byleth can’t mourn the death of EdeIgard but eventually learn to move on, accept all that happened, help the other Black Eagles move on as well, and ultimately grow as a better person independent from EdeIgard, using the experience of humanity she (supposedly) gained from being with EdeIgard to become a happy, fulfilled person who helps others - she becomes an inhuman monster! How can she possibly be expected to care about others now that her one link to humanity is cut?

So when EdeIgard's not only revealed to be the Flame Emperor but also just gets finished trying to kill Byleth, the Black Eagles, Rhea, Seteth, Shamir, and others, the reaction isn't devastation from Byleth over not only the revelation of her budding lover's betrayal that, again, fundamentally rocks the foundation of their relationship, but also the revelation that she's willing to also kill close friends to get what she wants - she joins her! Because she's breaking destiny and making her own choice against the stinky Rhea who crazily wanted to execute the innocent little flower that is EdeIgard, so brave, such love!

All because Byleth knows deep deep down in her heart that she can fix the Bad Boy Girl with the power of her love. Yeah, never heard that one before guys, Cap'n and the other Edelstans who parrot this are really the pioneers of our time