#or even him just manipulating them WITHOUT the SotC being the reason at first!! even giving him no benefit of the doubt doesn't explain thi

[butwhatifidothis]

You know lowykey I always wondered who first said that Claude's C support only opens after Byleth gets the Sword of the Creator since like. That's not true. Like not only is that not true Claude is quite literally the only one of the three lords to NOT have his C support locked behind a chapter. You can get it immediately so like. wuh happened

[butwhatifidothis]

I just saw someone unironically claim Claude is the most guilty of imperialism. How?

Follow up on my previous ask. I came across this comment "Claude wanted to nab the Sword of the Creator for himself so he could BLOW UP FODLAN'S THROAT HIMSELF AND LET ALMYRAN FORCES INTO FODLAN. He ABSOLUTELY would've started a war if Edelgard hadn't beaten him to the punch." They really have zero understanding of what Claude wanted to achieve.

If you want my sister’s answer: “Foreign brown man with power coming over to White People Land, he must be Bad according to EdeIgard’s fans” 

But like, Edelstans have shown that they are completely willing to look over obvious metaphors - and conversely read too much into benign comments - when it suits what they believe (which is Edelgard being the heroic good guy of 3H). 

They ignore the fact that Byleth having the SotC gives them a lot of soft power with it being proof of their revered lineage, and Claude having that proof would have helped immeasurably in having his voice and ideas be heard in Fodlan - Claude said twice, early pre ts, that he wanted to cleave a mountain with it, so obviously that was part of his plan all along. 

They ignore - or maybe even flat out don’t know - that Claude literally doesn’t view Byleth as an ambitionless husk by the time of the Goddess Tower event in the timeline and he is actually very firm in the belief that they have some sort of goal in life, even if they’re not aware of it yet - they view Byleth as ambitionless without Edel-chan to ~give them the choice~ to join her Claude admits to wanting to use Byleth for his goals during some portion of their relationship (in a bad way, unlike Edelgard), therefore that never changes and he keeps that view of Byleth throughout the entire game

They ignore the fact that Claude says, on multiple occasions, during both pre and post ts, that he believes Edelgard’s methods are too violent, that no one would genuinely change their minds under her methods, and that it would only lead to more conflict, with her starting the war by his own admission nearly destroying his dreams - Almyra attacks Fodlan a lot, he was born and raised in Almyra, so obviously he’d think invading Fodlan is the way to go

They ignore the fact that Claude goes out of his way to mitigate violence whenever possible, even at the risk of his own life, in order to keep as many people safe as possible - He said Edelgard and him aren’t that different, and Edelgard uses violence (for the right reasons, of course, unlike Claude), therefore Claude is A Okay with using violent means to achieve his goals as a first resort if he’s able

They ignore the fact that Claude introduces Almyran reinforcements only after he’s gained Holst’s approval and how afterwards he reveals his dreams to his friends, something which is very personal to him - he hid things from them (unjustly, unlike Edelgard), so he can’t ever be trusted when he says anything because he will always try to manipulate people

All of that and more culminates into looking at Claude’s usage of sending Almyran forces to help out in skirmishes and battles Fodlan still has to deal with after the war, and giving Byleth leadership of Fodlan, and seeing this as “clear cut” imperialism. But hey, Edelgard admits to her imperialism! That makes 1) violently and forcibly conquering centuries old independent nations 2) with the usage of mutated innocents 3) caused by a group of people willing to murder innocents - including children - to further their goals 4) while persecuting any religious person that doesn’t bow to her whims and 5) conscripting and starving her citizens to have the men and resources necessary for her army to do her bidding... hunky dory! Claude’s stinky so he’s a villain, but Edelgard feels bad doing all of that so she’s no longer the bad guy guys - she was really lonely, don’cha know