You know, Edelgard reminds me a lot of another character from another franchise: Maki Harukawa from Danganronpa V3. There just a certain point where you just. "They have to be doing this on purpose. There's no way they would write such an unrepentant, morally repugnant character while not acknowledging it in-story without being aware..." and then you get the idea that they waifuized the imperialist/assassin ON PURPOSE, and ur brain just explodes.......
Yea, my primary problem with Edelgard is that the moral issues with her actions are not properly addressed in the game. Everyone forgets her time as Flame Emperor. Only NPCs seem to address the religious persecution. Byleth is forced to defend Edelgard.Seteth, of all people, defends Edelgard. Etc.Waifuizing her seems quite intentional. There’s several indications why: from the sexy bedroom Edelgard card to the interview where they admit that it “makes sense” that Black Eagles is the most chosen route because Edelgard is female.I’m not even against waifu characters. It’s only expected to happen. The problem comes from wanting to make Edelgard a waifu so badly that the game doesn’t really do a good job at acknowledging her faults. The game and other characters criticize Dimitri for being revenge-obsessed and being brutal against enemy soldiers. Felix doesn’t even forget about what happened with Dimitri before the game even started.
But then the game lets Edelgard get away with everything she does on her obsessive campaign to conquer Fodlan. It’s not just Dimitri who gets his faults addressed - pretty much everyone BUT Edelgard does. One of the reasons why Azure Moon is the best route is because it’s by far the route that treats Edelgard in a more balanced and critical manner. But even in that route, it falls short of truly doing it well.
So for that reason, I have an issue with waifuizing Edelgard but not with the other characters. Why? Because those other characters were treated like actual characters in the universe first.
