#dimitri learns to accept the empire and edel and doesn't want to destroy her on sight

[randomnameless]

There was a “joke” post that circulated about lords siding with a certain person (the result is... no one picks her path), and I didn’t want to reblog it with serious thoughts - and I was like, the second any Lord hears about certain ideas regarding another race, they’d bail out immediately.

While fantastic racism is still racism, the main issue depicted in the game (but hidden or not picked upon because framing is a thing) is coexistence.

... Right ?

Each time Edel harps about “creatures” it is because she thinks they are controlling Fodlan, or are just living here with humans :

“You are a child of the goddess. You must not be allowed power over the people”

“Should the one leading the people of the world be someone with humanity or a creature that can merely masquerade as a human at will?”

A redditer once put it in simple terms, but it feels like the “Separate but Equals” doctrine, with all its implications - creatures should not have power over humans, but humans are allowed to have power over them.

Creatures are not allowed to live near human settlments and are allowed to “retire” from the world, but banned from interacting with it.

So while I do not think CF!Edel is going to destroy Macuil, who is living in Sreng (unless she uses him as a pretense, she will send troops to free her Sreng allies from his evil yoke and forget to pull them back when the bird’s dead?), CF!Edel still has the ominous

“You could have had a peaceful life... Why did you have to come to Garreg Mach?”

when pitted against... Flayn.

If Flayn never came to Garreg Mach, she would have been allowed to live a peaceful life, but far from... humans? Humanity? Civilisation?

But this? This is what we are supposed to think!

Bar the, um, ludicrousness of thinking Flayn rules over humans, especially since the person thinking this is the leader of the country who gave the biggest middle finger to the Church, there is the Indech paralogue.

No matter how many twists or paperwork involved, the fact is the BE knows Edel will terminate Indech. Euphemisms like “It will be troublesome” cannot shake the feeling that since day 1, Edelgard, who said she wishes to obliterate Children of the Goddess because they are controlling the world, obliterates many things to get control of various countries, but not Children of the Goddess.

Dimitri and Claude must disappear for Fodlan to be united, thus to gain control over the world, but Rhea? Why is she on the hit-list, especially after having been driven away from Garreg Mach and not having any power over “the people” anymore?

Again, CF is very revealing about her views on Children of the Goddess, even if the lolcalisation team tried to smooth the angles :

In the localised version, against Rhea, during their final fight, she says :

So it's true. You don't value human life at all. Isn't that right, Immaculate One? 

But in the original, jp, version, she says this instead :

やはり、貴方が大事なのは人ではないのね。 “白きもの”……女神の眷属よ !

After the “Immaculate One”, Edel pauses and adds... Child/ren of the Goddess.

So it isn’t Rhea, the IO, who doesn’t “value human life at all”, nope. It’s something inherent to all “children of the goddess” (or other reading, Edel thinks CoG is an insult, which... doesn’t help her case.at.all.).

From a doylist POV, I can see why this only comes late in the game, and was hidden, in CF at least, because Billy has to be misguided, starting with “I hate children of the goddess because they abuse power”.

Then it becomes “I hate children of the Goddess because they have power over humans”.

The ultimate CF golden nugget, is “I hate children of the Goddess because they do not value human life”. Indech’s paralogue (meaning you recruited someone else from the usual BE member, hinting at a second PT?) heavily suggests “I hate children of the Goddess, even if they don’t have power over humans”.

So, both to fit with the theme Billy’s lied to in CF and because finding justifications to hide why you hate a different race/species is what is commonly done to hide your most hideous opinions, Edel couldn’t have started CF saying, overtly, “I hate Children of the Goddess, they’re not like us, look they don’t value human lives!” - Watsonian wise... if the game didn’t have big issues with framing, it would sound weird because, hm, Flayn was a member of their House and apparently managed to get along with several people, you do not bother to get along with people you don’t care about and/or value.

But in a way, isn’t it, just the same thing?

By hiding behind “I don’t mind them, just hidden from my eyes and without influence over the world”, it doesn’t remove the main issue, coexistence with Nabateans is impossible.

Let it be their physical or spiritual presence, their existence is outright rejected - as I pointed out in an earlier post, wanting to get rid of “crests” effectively means, wanting to get rid of Nabateans.

“They” are not like “us”. They do not value our lives (or being called a “Child of the Goddess” is an insult).

This is where the most beautiful redshit takes grow, from the “it isn’t racist to call them beast because they technically are “beasts”” - I am sure if I call you an evolved paramecia, even if it might be technically true, you will not feel honored - to the emmy worthy takes “Nabateans are responsibles for what happened to them, it’s their fault because they flaunted their superpowers”.

As an evil person said :

Everyone has something that is unacceptable within them. I certainly do, and I'd wager you do as well.

I wonder which is best, Professor... To cut away that which is unacceptable, or to find a way to accept it anyway...

Post CF, Nabateans are effectively cut away, since their existence was unacceptable. Let it be physically or condamned to a life in hiding.

For someone who cannot accept Nabateans, the most suitable ending is to remove her love interest’s nabatean blood, Billy can reject their blood, their life support and even their tacky hair!

i forgot the point i wanted to make  In the FE series, coexistence is always sought after, let it be between two different species, or two different nations, or even two different people and their visions. In FE16? No one gives a frick about this issue, even when it is the leitmotiv of the primary force in the game (save for the aforementionned evil person).

We can even say this game, with its hard-on for unification, gives a negative answer - there is no need to accept the unacceptable or to try to get along or to coexist with others, if others are part of you.

CF at least had the balls to drop the mic and go full “you should cut away the things you cannot accept”, while it can be foggy at first, it hits hard when the “things you cannot accept” are... a group of people.

Tl; Dr : When usual lords pick the “find a way to accept and get along with everyone”, Edel fully embraces the “cut away and destroy it”, even if this mindset leads to finishing Nemesis’s party and removing Nabateans from Fodlan. The game doesn’t challenge it though, and it’s a pity.