#bar some instances it has no effects on paralogues or whatever

[randomnameless]

I apologise in advance if this is going to bring you clowns on your inbox,

Her motives are pretty... all around, and that's why some people earlier theorised that her support chains, unlocking at several key moments, are basically Edel trying to manipulate Billy into siding with her.

Like you noted, there's a lack of Church mention when, if you go through her own route, it's basically the alpha and omega why the world has to be changed.

And about her dad(dy dearest?) her intel straights up counters what Hubert says about what happened regarding the experiments, and later on, connecting several dots makes her version of the story "the PM did it!" even more shaky, but in general, she (and her dad) has something against the PM who dared to rebel against the Emperor (when the Emperor was doing shit, like erase Hrym, sending mages to Ordelia and, in Hubert and Hanneman's support, trying to concentrate power on himself and remove certain privileges they had) so, in a game filled with unreliable narrators, Supreme Leader herself is one of the most biased ones out there.

Granted, her line about "the future of the empire" and of "everything" comes from her dad, who also mentions he leaves "the country, no, Fodlan" to her in her coronation scene!

Don't worry about the artificial beasts, the topic will never be brought up ever again! Which is definitely a let down from previous FE titles when similar "units" were fought, but let's say the Fodlan verse is really averse to point out, hm, things that might make her look bad.

Crestless people can indeed use Relics as weapons, but iirc Rhea mentions they cannot unleash their power or something? Anyways, the Miklan transformation issue is sort of more developed through Marianne's ancestor (in VW) or through Catherine and Linhardt's supports, revealing, more or less, that they aren't safe to use even for crested units -

- Which makes total sense considering what Relics truly are, in a way...

I was always flabbergasted by the Imperial line - you want to make me believe Ionius was the only Emperor who got 11 siblings, so with them all dead Edel is the only one left? No cousins? Uncles? There's also the general "we don't give a fuck" about the imperial line being nearly wiped out - FE had this problem already but here in Adrestia it's even more jarring, at least in FE10 Tibarn asked Naesala about how he made such a jump in the inheritence line and was picked as the next King, but for her?

As for why Billy was near her room in that support, iirc people noticed in the jp version we have a yobai joke - and the game tries to hamfist the "luf story" between Billy and Edel, so...

Finally past the Eagle Lion Battle, so we're going into the escalation slope toward White Clouds endgame.

Oof, it took me a long while to keep playing... What can I say, I do not care much about the Eagles or Edelgard. Though I will admit, her B support did make me more interested. It was very juicy.

Moving my liveblogging notes here, since otherwise Tumblr was giving me limit errors.

Edelgard B happens after the Lion-Eagle Battle, after she talks about wanting your guidance even after becoming Emperor, and how she's experienced fighting alongside others thanks to you.

Lots of interesting details here. Edelgard was born with a minor crest of Seiros, but "most" of her siblings didn't have any crest at all. They were imprisoned underground, beneath the palace, so now Edelgard sometimes longs for the feeling of the sun and the wind.

She states that the goal of the experiments was to create a "peerless emperor to rule Fodlan" which... is not likely to be what the Agarthans actually wanted and sure isn't what the prime minister and his gang would have have wanted, but it does provide some insight into Edelgard's belief she is destined to be Emperor, to reshape Fodlan, and just in general that she knows exactly what is the correct way forward, regardless of the cost.

The experiments involved "cutting open their very flesh." There were other subjects involved as well, who were "innocents" different from the siblings. Presumably, they didn't have crests at all? Or were they just not nobles? Or...?

Edelgard blames the prime minister and his "gaggle of nobles." They had the empire under their thumb and her father (heroically) tried to stop them but was ultimately powerless. This is not entirely accurate, since the start of the Insurrection was Hrym trying to LEAVE the empire, which is quite different from the implied noble cabal controlling the empire ruinously. Additionally, since Lysithea was experimented on due to Ordelia trying to help Hrym, which wouldn't align with this nobles vs emperor setup... yup, this stuff doesn't add up if you know the lore already, but it does present a certain image if you're going in blind.

Edelgard also has a second crest, a crest of flames. She again shows it via a glowing sigil in her hand, which makes me wonder what the crest analyzer is for.

Edelgard somewhat makes it sound like she has some survivor's guilt about her family and others having their lives traded for her existence (as the peerless emperor) and that she wants to make their deaths have meaning by fulfilling this purpose and then changing the world so this kind of atrocity will never happen again... but this will not align with her later actions. What she does is attack the church, which is notably absent in this entire discussion.

Note also how she continues to use artificial beasts the entire war through, which are created through human experimentation. All of them are people sacrificed in the same way her siblings were, but Edelgard keeps using them anyway.

Next section is Remire, where I'm curious to see what Flame Emperor says specifically. Like, did Edelgard not know they were going to be making artificial beasts out of people? What did she think the Agarthans were going to be doing with Flayn's blood when she "loaned" Jeritza to them? What kind of support was she expecting from them, given that they are absolutely key to giving her the power to conquer the continent?

Other live blogging notes:

Rhea directly says that the Crestless can still use Relics as weapons, so this point is not a secret.

A lot of Knights are away still dealing with the Western Church, which is why we have to go help with Miklan.

Edelgard plays up that Byleth can now take on the most elite forces of the Empire and the Church, including other Relics.

Edelgard C: We randomly hear her having a nightmare. Why are we walking around the second floor where the student rooms are in the middle of the night? AND if the walls and doors are so thin, that's... gonna be real funny, given how many people have nightmares around here. I wonder if Hilda, who is on one side of Edelgard, polite keeps her mouth shut about the moaning and shouting?

Edelgard being fully dressed here is funny.

tbh I will give them this: I do not recall what Claude's C was about. This is probably more memorable.

Edelgard says she had 10 siblings, eight older and two younger. They all became crippled by disease or lost their minds and died. Now they're all dead.

Edelgard says the nightmares are a reminder to never allow such things to happen again. But note that she specifically continues to use monsters made out of humans all through the war. "Never allow sure terrible things to happen again" but only after you've made all the sacrifices you need to change the world.

Edelgard feels the future of the empire, of "everything," depends on her.

As noted, this is gated to getting the Sword of the Creator despite not having any mention of it (or Arundel/Thales) in the support itself. So Edelgard will only open up to you after you demonstrate your potential as a world-changing powerhouse.

Hubert C: He thinks Byleth would be intimidated? By him?? lol

During Month 8 exploration, one of the knights mentioned that after being dispatched to the Western Church, they're now being dispatched to the Eastern Church in Leicester. But why? He doesn't say. I'm trying to remember, is this the month when Judith shows up to drag Claude off for a bit?

Caspar: "You know what your problem is, Edelgard? You always have to make everything about you." L M A O

Ashe was adopted by Lonato when he was 9 years old. He's 16 now. So this was seven years ago. But from what I recall, this would put it before Tragedy of Duscur, and before Christophe was executed. Hum, I hadn't realized that...

iirc, there was less emphasis on "Crests shouldn't dictate anyone's destiny, forsaken by the Goddess who now demands his execution" on VW.

Miklan has two sets of reinforcements come in, which I guess should indicate that he's smarter than he looks.

I need to psyche myself up to say no to Rhea. I don't even want the stupid lance, but I wanna see the dialogue.

Huh. The dialogue wasn't very interesting, since I have Sylvain. He just steps in immediately.

"Crests are to blame for this brutal, irrational world we live in." Hm. In what sense? It sucked for Miklan, but the only other things we've seen are related to Lonato (no Crests) and the Western Church (Relics, maybe, but no Crests).

"Their power is only granted to a select few, whom we elevate and allow to rule the world." Big hm. Brigit and Dagda attacked the Empire and they have no crests. How do we interpret that?

If we remove Crests, people will "have no choice but to rise and fall by their own merits," but hum, this seems a very isolated issue. I don't think Crest-related shenanigans even came up during VW at all. We're blaming the Church on both sides, but for very different things.

Edelgard says her power alone is insufficient, that's why she's borrowing power from the Agarthans. But if she can get Byleth instead... She wants to reach out her hand :( Still, it's very hard to take her seriously, given that there isn't really a solid foundation underneath all this vague talk.

Hubert directly says he doesn't care so much about obeying Edelgard and will just directly take care of things himself lol. Tsk, tsk, a bad retainer.

Dimitri says he searched the entire monastery already on the first week of explore. He's so diligent...

Battle with the Death Knight after Flayn's kidnapping is where the Flame Emperor first appears to the team and introduces herself. Byleth smiles for the first time after rescuing Flayn.

Jeralt mentions that strange groups have been seen around the monastery and elsewhere since the Rite of Rebirth and that knights investigating them turned up dead. These could have been Agarthans, but I don't get the impression that they travel in groups, and it seems unlikely to be Western Church remnants, since those are talked about more directly. So by elimination, it should be Edelgard's forces?

Jeralt is dispatched to the Kingdom during month 10

There's no direct path between the Empire and the monastery. The only way there is via the Alliance, over the Airmid River, and only then into the Empire. Which makes it even more puzzling what Edelgard spends two weeks doing during the invasion. Does Gloucester let her through...? Believable, given what he's like.

Sylvain's paralogue: His father ordered him to come put down the remains of Miklan's band of thieves, who have been causing trouble in Gautier territory. He was specifically told to go alone with no backup. It's interesting because it's always a bit hard to tell what the in-universe power levels are supposed to be like, separate from the game mechanics where you can do the entire game on solo.

His "hopefully things in Faerghus will get better once we get Dimitri on the throne" reads a bit weird when he's changed houses and isn't even with Dimitri anymore.

Ingrid's paralogue... feels really weird because I have literally never seen Dorothea and Ingrid interact. If they were going to lean into the yuri vibes this much, they should have gated it behind a support rank.

Gronder Field is in Caspar's family territory, and they grow a lot of grain there.

Lorenz charges off to take the central fort, with the archery installation, and the rest of the Golden Deer move to support him. Blue Lions stay put until you approach.

Edelgard jokes about the Empire and the Kingdom going to war, but Dimitri is troubled by the idea. Her overall casual tone about all this is... interesting, given that she's in the middle of arranging the outbreak of war and already tried to have the other two house leaders killed.

After the feast, Edelgard starts buttering up to Byleth, about how she enjoys and desires their guidance.

She sees becoming Emperor as her destiny and is certain that she will fulfill it.

The villagers started acting strangely already in this month, immediately after Flayn's kidnapping.

Thinking of it, the next month being called "red wolf moon" with the description that the setting sun colors the coats of the prowling wolves a foreboding red... sure is evocative. I wish the month names and the calendar in general were better integrated.