#there's just this giant disconnect between what the consequences of Edelgard's actions should be and what actually happens to her

[butwhatifidothis]

Just something I wanted to focus on here, since they'd be too long for the notes.

Throughout the fic, Edelgard has recruited a good few units - Sylvain, Ingrid, Marianne, and Lysithea - mostly through the idea of her viewing them as more than their Crests. A major problem with that, however, is something that’s been noted a couple times before but frankly is far more fatal to the fic than I might have made it seem.

Recall, again, Claude’s words to Edelgard in Chapter 29:

““I have to admit, grabbing Lysithea and Marianne really caught me off guard…the sole heirs to two of the six ruling houses of the Alliance. (<- wow just caught that lmao there's only five major houses of thee Roundtables) It’s a nice haul. And I’ve seen how chummy you’ve gotten with the Gautier and Galatea kids as well. ...  Oh, I’m not implying anything, Princess. I’m just, let’s say…impressed that you happened to forge such deep friendships with Ingrid and Marianne…instead of, oh…Leonie and Ashe? For someone who’s always talking about how they hate Crests and nobles, you seem to spend a lot of time-“”

Now, I’ve noted before that Claude is in fact fully in line with throwing this in Edelgard’s face - it’s her being blatantly hypocritical in her supposed beliefs and does heavily imply that her words are all just for show. At no point in the fic has she ever even attempted to even talk with commoners, let alone befriend them - the one sole exception is Dorothea, although even she has influence through being a diva and it should be noted that she was already in Edelgard's house beforehand. Like Claude said, no one like Leonie, who has absolutely no connections with anyone whatsoever.

The fic, of course, wants us to treat Claude’s words as uncalled for, incorrect, a view of Edelgard that he has that is warped, because we should know that Edelgard does in fact care for her friends as friends, not political tools.

But... why should we think that?

Why should we believe Edelgard’s words when she says that she sees Ingrid, Sylvain, Marianne, and Lysithea as more than their Crests? When the only people she’s ever talked to are the most vulnerable of the Crested nobles? Why doesn’t Edelgard try to befriend Felix? Lorenz? Annette? Mercedes? Hilda? Why doesn’t she talk with the commoners? Ashe, Leonie, Raphael, Ignatz? No, she befriends (as they have been depicted in this fic) the suicidal knight wanna-be, the self-hating conditionally-loved son, the suicidal religious outcast, and the dying candle. All heirs, all Crested, all emotionally unsteady, all ripe to be swept up by Edelgard’s words.

Not her actions. Her words. Because Edelgard has done nothing to prove that she didn’t pick them out because of their cool neat strong Crests and their cool neat powerful noble titles. She doesn’t personally console Ashe during Lonato - it was enough for her to distantly make sure he was kept away from Rhea, but she has absolutely nothing to do with the commoner afterwards, unlike Sylvain. She doesn’t help the commonfolk Remire survivors - Petra had to do that for her. She doesn’t mourn for Miklan’s victims for more than a couple lines - Miklan, the poor noble, is the true victim that should be given more attention than those victimized by him. She doesn’t get to know the four of them as people - she’s had no conversation with them that was just about them bonding and learning more about each other, all they do is trauma dump at each other. The commonfolk mean nothing to her, and her “friends” just seem like convenient check-boxes in her “have a foothold in [x] nation of Fodlan” checklist.

This is further emphasized by the fact that Sylvain and Ingrid, when they’re fighting, never use anything other than the Lance of Ruin and Luin. This completely fine in most other fics, but in one trying to say that “Crests don’t make anyone better!!” it sure is strange that these two always use a weapon that only they can use because they have Crests. No no no, Crests totally don’t make anyone better than anyone else, they just let you use incredibly powerful weapons and let you have heightened strength on top of being able to wield already powerful weapons - weapons whose power are often emphasized in this fic when used, mind. Same for the Sword of the Creator, really - Byleth totally isn’t better than her students just cuz she has the Crests of Flames, it’s just that her having that lets her use the single most powerful sword in all of Fodlan’s history. But Crests don’t make anyone better though, I promise.

So with all that in mind - the fact that Edelgard never talks with commoners, the fact that her only commoner friend is one of the most famous divas in Fodlan (or at minimum personally knows the most famous diva), the fact that all of the people outside of her house that she’s befriended are Crested nobles who are all heirs to their respective houses, the fact that all of these Crested nobles (in this fic) are incredibly emotionally vulnerable - it’s hard to overlook that maybe the four recruited Black Eagles... were emotionally manipulated into following Edelgard, their personal stories used to make them mindless loyal followers to the “only person” who can make their lives better, with her violent war (that she chose to declare as her first option without trying anything else beforehand) being the “only way” their lives can get better. That Claude is 100% right and Edelgard did specifically choose these four to “befriend” so that she can have fingers in the pies of Faerghus and Leicester.

Like, fuckin’ duh this wasn’t the intent of Cap’n, not by a long shot. But this is what happens when you completely ignore your story-building, your characters, and when you just carelessly write anything. Cap’n didn’t think about what it means that Edelgard only befriended 1) nobles 2) with Crests 3) with severe emotional instability 4) while completely ignoring commoners who (according to this fic) similarly have been negatively affected by the system she wants to destroy (Ashe only got fucked over, according to this fic, because the Church is so eeeeevil and forced Lonato to be a shitbag, but Ashe is barely present despite that). He just wanted Edelgard to hang out with his faves/make the Church look bad - who cares what he’s actually writing Edelgard do, the author says that Edelgard isn’t using them, and so she isn’t.

This is supposed to be a crucial component of the fic - that people with Crests are more than their Crests and are just like anyone else - but that’s starkly contrasted with Edelgard giving unique attention to people with Crests. Nobility going away is also something present in the fic, but again, Edelgard only personally talks to and helps nobles barring Dorothea, so that message is also obscured. Because of that, it’s really impossible to take what this fic is trying to say seriously when all that resounds in the back of my head is “Claude - and Dimitri, with Miklan - were completely right”