I'm thinking about it again and it is so funny that Crimson Flower has no older advisor figure to help us. No one like Judith or Rodrigue, or Seteth, or Gilbert. We can recruit Shamir and Alois and Manuela and Hanneman, but none of those guys are helping steer the ship. We will cut our own path to the future, guided exclusively by the plans and tactics of a couple of 20-somethings. We have Edelgard and Byleth and Hubert as the only people fully in-the-know about what's really going on. We have Lord Arundel, but he's like an anti-advisor in that we don't want to do what he recommends. He hates us and we hate him and he is trying to make us stay in line by blowing up cities as a threat and we are are actively counting down the days until we can kill him. And we have Jeritza, but like. He's Jeritza. He's not helping.
Nice write up and it something that I feel is interesting.
I think character like Manuela and Hanneman are there less to showcase to Edelgard how to steer the ship, but more to reinforce that Edelgard is going down the right path.
Both character always join Edelgard when not recruited in AM, SS and VW. They are also a part of Scarlett Blaze since the start of the war.
Hanneman sides with Edelgard to reinforce to her that the nobility are shitty. That crest by their existence are horrid and should either be removed from society or has their existence become obsolete through them being the norm.
Hanneman doesn't need to guide Edelgard about what to do with crest, when she is already putting in effort to make sure no one ever lives a life his sister did ever again. He is making sure to save the future women who could end up becoming victim like his sister, Edelgard, Lysithea and much more,
Manuela joins Edelgard, partly because she sent her the join offer (in Scarlett Blaze) but also because of who Edelgard is. How Edelgard uplift and fights for those around her. How she pushes people forwards to the future.
Manuela doesn't need to teach Edelgard, how to be a ruler or a decent person. Edelgard is a good and selfless person who care for those around her, who is burden by trauma and loss and who needed to make toughest and hardest choice to make the place a better place.
Edelgard still learns from Hanneman and especially Manuela as 3House and 3Hopes implies she is a Apostate.
Edelgard had her religion belief torn apart in the worst way possible, she saw the worst the religious organisation and saw the flaws in being religious.
Her criticism on the devote is a criticism on how she used to be, on what happened during the experiments and it aftermath. Edelgard conversation with Byleth after Jeralt implies that for a time, Edelgard was struggle to live, couldn't stand on her own until someone challenge her on how she was living.
Edelgard needed the conversation with Manuela to realise that there are those are devoted that are able to stand up by themselves. That even if she win her war, the devote will still believe in their faith.
Hanneman and Manuela role in retrospect are interesting in the context of Crimson Flower and Scarlet Blaze because Edelgard doesn't need a older advisor figure to teach her. Doesn't need to be cuddle.
Instead, what Edelgard needs are people to share the path she is walking down. People like Hubert and Ferdinand who comes up out of norm idea and who are willing to challenge people perspective. People with outside perspective like Petra, Shez and Dorothea. People who are willing to fight and believe in her like Byleth, Caspar and Monica and much more.
A good future is not based one person ambition but instead collective effort made by everyone working together to enable the best out of each other.
