Addressing Edelgardās āracistā rhetoric.
Calling Edelgard a vicious genocidal racist is an old standby for her haters both here on Tumblr and elsewhere. Most of it comes down to hyper-focusing on the things she calls the Nabateans, Rhea particularly, but also with a side-order of how she treats Claude and Flayn in pieces of dialogue that people seem quite upset with. Letās get to it!
First and foremost is the way Edelgard refers to the Nabateans as creatures that āmerely masquerade as a human at willā.
Iāve always been baffled that this is treated as a gotcha given thatāsā¦ precisely what the Nabateans did for nearly a thousand years, but the issue at hand is more that Edelgard ādehumanizesā them.
But you have to understand that words have meaning, particularly in Fire Emblem. In the games which deal with enmity between humanity and dragons (mostly the games revolving around Archanea and Valentia, Elibe, Fates, and Three Houses itself) the descriptor āhumanā means something, and it means the bipedal sentient creatures that arenāt dragons. Itās not like in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 whereĀ āhumanā is a catch-all term for the various sentient races that arenāt Blades, animals, or monsters.
When Xane consistently refers to the human race as āyou humans,ā is he dehumanizing himself? When Seiros in Heroes says āyour kind are frail, ignorant creatures,ā is she dehumanizing herself through making a clear distinction between humanity and her own species? Is Indech dehumanizing himself and Seteth (note his use of the word āhumanā, rather than something less vague and more descriptive such as āpeopleā or a softer variation of āintruderā) when he refers to humans as separate from him (really them both)?
What do we call them anyways?
Another issue often hit upon is how frequently Edelgard uses harsh terms like ābeastā,Ā āmonsterā, or ācreatureā to describe the Nabateans, without addressing the fact that sheās following common parlance in Fodlan used to refer to the non-animal giant beasts you fight throughout the game. Nearly every instance of transformed dragons, be they demonic beasts, the black beast, or the white beasts at the end of Silver Snow are usually called ābeastsā and sometimes āmonstersā.
The word ādragonā doesnāt exist in the script of the game, only in the names of certain weapons and in descriptors of effects, and thus is most likely not a word that the people of Fodlan use, and Edelgard wouldnāt know the word ānabateanā. What other words, other than the ones people are already accustomed to using when describing giant monsters, does she have to describe beings she knows can turn into giant monsters themselves? Do you expect her to call them āChildren of the Goddessā every time she refers to them? Take a look at how often people use the full, āThose Who Slither in the Darkā and try to picture how messy that would get.
What she says to Claude and Flayn
Two pieces of dialogue that are often picked upon both involve Edelgardās battle dialogue at the imperial palace.
Claudeās is a particular sore spot among Edelgardās detractors, even though Claude acknowledges that Edelgard might have a point in how she doubts him. Trust is an issue between these two, and Claude has given her no reason to trust him. In White Clouds, she even offers an exchange of secrets, only for him to rebuff her, forcing her into a more aggressive approach.
Flaynās dialogue mostly seems to take flack because it involves Edelgard being a big āol meanie to Flayn without addressing what sheās even trying to say. From Edelgardās perspective, the Nabateans in charge of the church have abused their mandate to guide mankind by warping history, suppressing the development of the people, and forcing upon them a cruel social caste by deifying Crests. And of course, Edelgard is right; the Church of Seiros is a false religion worshiping a goddess that its founder knows is dead. That Rhea is trying to amend that issue is irrelevant; sheās given people an object of faith that has no power to alleviate their burdens or cast judgement on the wicked.
Edelgard and her string board
Small final note, Iāve always seen her compared to conspiracy theorists by saying that the Nabateans control Fodlan in secret. If you donāt think that the Church of Seiros has enormous power of Fodlan, I again invite you to read Volossyaās post on the subject, because itās explained better there than I could here. Regurgitating Edelgardās claims in a facetious manner doesnāt suddenly falsify them.
