it’s no surprise that edelgard is touch - starved & i have a strong feeling that it influences a lot of her personal relationships/disposition/etc. i won’t be talking about anything se/xual here, this cogitation is purely sfw.
there’s something very interesting & sad about the way edelgard is treated throughout her life & she says it well herself:
❝ until now, no has been able to surpass me--- much less command me. i have always been as an untouchable princess or emperor. no one spoke to me as an equal or met my gaze without flinching. ❞
i know that, in context, she’s talking about power & most likely not social standing, but that doesn’t mean what she told byleth can’t apply to other aspects of her life. think about it: she’s the imperial princess & clearly a little spoiled as a child. she’s intimidating & she knows it. this would lead people to assume she wanted nothing to do with them, regardless of their title. edelgard was the kid that no one played with because they thought she was too mature for that, when she wasn’t. the court ladies simply bowed to her & went off in their little groups, gossiping about her & even their small talk was bland. apart from hubert, she’s lonely. this caused her to cling to the vestra heir & isolate herself from everyone else, clearly as a coping tactic.
the effects of this on her adult life are big. she finds it hard to be genuine at times, if it’s a calm & serene conversation. she’s also eerily aggressive at a moment’s notice, saying things with an almost straight face like:
❝ if you stand in my way, i will cut you down until you have no blood left to bleed . . . what ? i was just trying to rally your spirits. now, to victory ! ❞
she is incredibly intense in the most inappropriate times & don’t get me wrong, she knows how to carry on a conversation----- it’s just that you’d never know the real edelgard from just small talk. the only people she’s really genuine to are ( canonly byleth ) dimitri, hubert, & ferdinand ( from the dynamics i’ve developed with my amazing writing partners <3 ). another person that seems to canonly nudge a real reaction from her is claude, it seems his teasing hits all the right spots, & that just says more about his ability to really catch onto her well. regardless, most other people will only see a strong leader with a polite smile, that’s it. it’s the mask she accepted, a mask made by other people’s opinion of her.
when it comes to physical touch, i think edelgard shies away from it. in certain conditions & with certain people, she’ll free up a little, but i know some people say that touch - starved persons allow themselves to enjoy even the smallest gesture such as their knees touching another’s----- that’s not edelgard. she does not let just anyone touch her. this has a great deal to do with her trauma, as you might have guessed. despite this, i personally headcanon that she frequently falls asleep on both hubert & ferdinand, even going as far as to call them into her room just for company, among other small things. when she DOES trust someone enough, she is very affectionate in the most subtle ways. edelgard pays attention & she does it well; she’ll tuck another’s hair behind their ears, trace their fingers with her own----- it’s almost like she’s trying to communicate through her fingertips. maybe that’s an obscure to put it all, but there is no doubt in my mind that edelgard’s affections comes strong IF it comes at all.
she might be known as the untouchable emperor, & she’s definitely a little intense in the most awkwardest of times, but i think that can be very endearing. forcing isolation on an impressionable child has detrimental effects to their psyche & i definitely think it takes longer for edelgard to form meaningful relationships---- getting there will be quite painful, even. putting her on a pedestal that she begrudgingly accepts only after years of learning to live with it had made her a mask that she clearly dons well, & i think it’s very interesting to see how the player, as byleth, breaks her facade down. all in all, edelgard is very touch - evasive to most people, but once they’ve earned her trust---- her care shows itself in the little gestures.
