#excellus

Excellus: Your majesty. The siege has been long and hard. For five months now, your army has battered these walls and starved the inhabitants.

Walhart: We have never faced such a fearsome, valiant foe. Let us offer them terms. YOU THERE! NOBLE ENEMY!

Morgan pokes his head over the castle wall

Morgan: Who is it?

Walhart: It is I, Emperor Walhart, your foe in this siege!

Morgan: Oh? Is there a siege on? I hadn’t noticed.

Walhart: Alright! Cut it out now, princeling! There is no shame in surrender! Open the gates to the castle and you and your people will leave without harm!

Morgan: Thanks for the offer but I don’t think I’ll bother.

Walhart: I admire your spirit, princeling, but your mother and father are away in Smash Bros! I mean, look at what my catapults have done to your wall!

Morgan: Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to speak to you about that. It’s making it awful dusty up here. Fredrick! You missed a spot!

Fredrick comes running with a feather duster

Excellus: The crazy boy’s dusting the walls now.

Walhart: I don’t think you’ve quite got a handle on how badly you’re loosing! We cut off your food supply five months ago! You must be starving!

Fredrick then reappears to give Morgan a roast chicken and a huge cake

Morgan: Did I not mention the secret entrance? We’ve been getting fresh food in here all the time. There’s plenty to go around if you want some.

Walhart: I’ve had enough of this. Send in the battering ram!

Some soldiers charge towards the castle entrance with a battering ram, but Morgan simply pushes a few loose stones from the wall directly onto the charging men.

Morgan: Thanks for the big stones!

Walhart: This has gone on long enough! It ends now!

Walhart suddenly produced Validar, who is in chains.

Walhart: I have your grandfather! Ha ha! Oh yes! Surrender the castle and kingdom, or I will kill him at dawn!

Morgan: Could you do it right now? I’m sure Mother would be thrilled to inherit the throne of Plegia. Much appreciated!

Walhart: Right! That’s it! We’re going home! A full army besieging a virtually defenseless little boy...

Morgan: *waves at them*

Hmm, I don't know about that to be honest.

I have played Awakening recently, so unless you're talking about the Japanese script specifically it's nowhere near as extreme as you're making it sound like, with Walhart wanting to conquer the world and end the gods' reign because he can't stand someone being above him (a twisted version of Alm and Celica's motives when you think about it) , and Chrom absolutely does not condone his methods.

And Aversa only reveals Walhart was trying to prevent the rise of Grima in a throwaway line after his death (granted, while the idea of Walhart trying to pick a fight with Grima and getting curbstomped is hilarious, without Falchion and considering his usual MO it doesn't take much to realize that yeah, Walhart would have pulled a Chrom's father upon Plegia once more).

Also iirc Excellus isn't even Grimleal himself, he's just working with them for power or money or something like that, and even then most of the blame still resides with Walhart (who claimed he was mostly letting him do his thing because it was funny). I do remember that bit about transphobia in the Japanese script, I think you or some other anon mentioned it a few months ago?

What I do agree with, however, is that the game tries to make Walhart look way more morally gray than he actually is, peaking with this comparison to Emmeryn:

Canonically?  Walhart did know.  This is the pre-battle dialogue in Chapter 20, before facing Excellus:

Excellus: Th-they... There must be several hundred thousand soldiers out there! Would they dare...?! Is it... Is it possible... Is it possible it was Yen'fay they feared all along, and not me?! Walhart: Without him to back it up, your threat was only the grand shadow of a tiny spider. Excellus: Tiny spider, is it? Well this spider has woven other webs in secret you could not even— Walhart: You mean how you blackmailed Yen'fay to keep his loyalty? Or perhaps your correspondence with the Plegian woman...Aversa, was it? Yes, I know you have designs on the Fire Emblem... You have no secrets from me, worm. Excellus: B-b-b-but... I... I don't... If you...knew all of that...w-why... Walhart: Why haven't I killed you? ...I've asked myself the same thing, several times... But you're no threat to me. And I admit, you have your uses. Besides, I'm not one for court jesters, but you do...amuse me. Excellus: Amuse you? I AMUSE you, like I'm a jester?! Are you AMUSED now? With a million swords at your door, come for your head?! You've lost! Lost, and you are going to DIE! All of you, ALL OF YOU! But not me! I want no part of this suicide! Walhart: ...Why, Excellus, did you just volunteer to lead my personal guard against the rebels? Excellus: ...What?! No, that's— Walhart: Unless you'd rather fight me. Right here. RIGHT NOW. Excellus: Mercy! Mercy! F-forgive me, my master! A moment's madness only—it will not return! Walhart: Then it's settled: we have our new captain of the guard. Congratulations, Captain. You'll be right at my side until the fray is upon us.

Submitted by ultimafangirl