#and how so often when we say something remotely cross about Edelgard we stop being women/have internalized misogyny/are stupid/etc.

[butwhatifidothis]

It's just so genuinely frustrating to me that almost every single other female character always gets pushed aside in this discourse. Doesn't matter what you think of or how you treat any of the other women, some of whose morals could be discussed just as extensively, the only opinion that matters to judge you is Ed3lgard and Ed3lgard only.

You really just gotta look at how they treat Rhea to see how shallow their care for misogyny is.

Rhea is someone who went through unimaginable suffering and due to that suffering did things that were indeed morally questionable, but (other than Fhirdiad) never cruel. She did everything she did because she wanted to make sure that everyone in Fodlan was safe, and mostly left the humans to their own devices (save for when either the Church was directly threatened or they asked for her assistance). She is someone who puts her own life and safety on the line to protect her people, up to sacrificing her own life to do so.

She gets called an abuser. A tyrant. Crazy. Because when her trauma is not simply left untreated but actively attacked and she reacts poorly to that, that is when her "true" character comes out to Edelstans. Everything she ever does, ever, in any context, gets deliberately misrepresented into being villainous.

Edelgard is someone who went through unimaginable suffering and due to that suffering did things that were not just morally questionable, but undeniably cruel. She did everything she did because she wanted power and wanted Fodlan to go back to how it once was (completely under Imperial control), up to attacking people who went out of their way to stay out of her way (the Alliance). She is someone who won't just endanger the lives of her citizens, but will outright have them killed if it means she can gain more power, by her own admission and as shown in her actions.

She gets called a liberator. A hero - the hero. A victim of a world who hates progress. Because when Edelgard says that she's doing it for "the weak" (ignore that she will sacrifice them as soon as it would help her), because she says that she wants to get rid of the importance of Crests (ignore that Plain Jane inheritance-based systems, which are arguably even more unfair, are still around in her endings), she must be telling the truth! Because Edelgard would never lie!

Even if we were to do a No No and fight in their pit wrt Rhea's characterization, the way that they portray Edelgard is literally no better than how they portray Rhea. She also sacrifices people "for the greater good," she also lies to keep up a certain image to her people, she also colludes with murderers because it suits her wants, and she also rules Fodlan tyrannically - everything that they accuse Rhea of doing, they portray Edelgard as doing, only with hoards and hoards of excuses and Fine Print and Um Ackchually's tagged on.

And that's their main like, way to say that they totes fr fr care about misogyny; villainizing Rhea as a devil while uplifting Edelgard as a pinnacle of morality and heroism, and "debunking" any defense of Rhea/criticism of Edelgard. It's not out of a genuine care about sexism against women, but just a tried-n'-true Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card to pull out for their fave.

So it's like, I'm sorry, but at this point unless a non-bot, non-troll, actual person comes out and vomits shit about Edelgard needing to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen or some garbage, whenever anyone says that they found a misogynist talking about Edelgard? I'm just gonna assume that the "misogynist" said something like "oh they must have said that genocide is bad," because that is how wrung out and insincere they're made their usage of the term out to be. Especially when they can't be bothered to treat actual breathing women with any kind of decency the second we say something Mean About Edelgard, which is its own conversation by itself