#Seteth was outraged for different reasons

[butwhatifidothis]

You know, as shallow and cheesy as Awakening's writing can get at times, the way it handles Mustafa vs 3H's handling of Edelgard are kind of interesting when compared.

Mustafa is someome that we as players know for exactly one, singular chapter. He is a commander of a troops of soldiers, and he dies the same map he is introduced in. And yet, he has become one of Awakening's most beloved NPC's - if nothing else, he is certainly rarely hated outright. And that is because in his one, singular chapter, he manages to showcase to the player how much of a genuinely good person he is; he is helpless to outright defy his orders, but inspired by Emmeryn's sacrifice he nonetheless tries to plea for Chrom to surrender and avoid bloodshed. He takes their outrage not with anger, or defensiveness, but understanding and sympathy - he knows he is in no place to ask them to surrender, but he does so for the slightest chance of avoiding a fight ultimately he had no power to stop. And after the battle begins and his men start becoming despondent, he loudly tells them that should they want to flee the battle he will take any blame off of their shoulders for doing so. But his men stand by him regardless because they don't want to abandon him, and when Mustafa is killed his dying words are to please spare his men.

In just one chapter, Awakening managed to pull at the players' hearts by going out of its way to show us the kind heart of Mustafa, before forcing our hand in killing him, all while one of the most melancholic tracks of the game plays in the background, further cementing how tragic the situation at hand is for all involved. Most players recall it as one of the most impactful and emotional moments of the entire game.

In contrast to that - and let's assume that we're talking about strictly SS - you have half of the entire route's length having Edelgard by your side directly. As Byleth, you the player can directly speak to and support with her, and you see her perspective on the events of the story. And throughout this time, Edelgard shows herself again and again to be someone of poor character; she admits to being willing to sacrifice her men right after Lonato, Byleth eventually finds out that she helped kidnap Flayn, and that she was somehow complicit with Remire, she graverobbed a holy site and tried to kill Byleth and her "friends" with an army and Demonic Beasts.

And this only includes stuff that Byleth, as a character, finds out throughout the story. They don't know that Edelgard only let them talk with her (aka the player only gains her supports) once they gain the Sword of the Creator, for the explicit reason that she wanted to use them. They don't know that Edelgard didn't just waltz in after Remire randomly, but that she knew it was going to happen and did nothing to stop it. And this only includes stuff in pre-timeskip; they don't see her continue to use Demonic Beasts, or hide behind her citizens, or keep Rhea as a hostage so that she can keep using TWS's help.

And I look at these two characters and am kinda lowkey astonished at how different their writing is. When Mustafa's men grow angry at the soldiers who are shaking in their resolve to fight for Mustafa, I'm on the verge of tears because I know that Mustafa does not deserve death. When Seteth talks about how Edelgard can't be that bad of a ruler because her men follow her, I can't help but roll my eyes. When Henry mentions Mustafa off-handedly in a support chain, I get so sad because the only way to speak about Mustafa at that point is in the past tense. When I talk to characters in the explore sections and I hear them talk about feeling bad about Edelgard dying, I just mash through their babbling.

Because I am given ample reason to understand why characters would like, respect, and mourn for Mustafa. He is kind-hearted, self-sacrificial should it possibly save the lives of others, and does everything he can to make the lives of those around him better. In the collective fuckin' 10 minutes of screentime he has, he shows a quality of character that does nothing but suggest that he was a damn fine person thrown into an impossibly unfortunate circumstance.

But with Edelgard, everything I see of her only tells me that she is selfish, self-centered, and uncaring for the lives around her should they inconvenience her. Why would any character like, respect, or mourn for her, after seeing everything she's done? Even going under the assumption that the players gets all of her supports to the max as they are available in pre-timeskip; nothing, in any support chain, could ever dream of usurping her actions towards everyone. In both a "all of her friends" sense, and especially in a "all of Fodlan" sense. So when I see characters go out of their way to make sure the player knows how swell Edelgard is, I am simply unable to believe that anyone would ever genuinely believe that about her. Not when themselves, their loved ones, and their homelands (for Kingdom/Alliance students) are all being endangered by Edelgard's active, willful actions that she chose to make.

Which itself is another huge thing that makes it so hard to believe anyone in-game would believe in her outside of contrived writing. She's not someone forced to do what she does against all of her wishes, like Mustafa; she is the one with all of the power of 1/3 of Fodlan's political landscape and half of its territorial one. She is the one to spearhead and instigate the war - that is one of explicit conquest anyway, not for any altruistic purpose. Why would anyone cry and snivel and piss themselves over the fact that the person who had the power to make them suffer and did make them suffer lost? Why are they pretending that she's just some poor damsel whose path was so lonely, and not the conquering Emperor that she is and admits to being?

Soooo... yeah lmao. I just found that pretty interesting

[randomnameless]

Any headcanons about Mark the Monk?

Oh boy

Mark the Monk was an orphan who ended up in Garreg Mach, from a family who had too many children to feed -

His parents were technically alive, but since they couldn't provide, they put him on a random church's door (in a basket).

The random priest in charge of this church pestered again, because it was the 10th child he "received" this year, due to bad recolts and apparently the Lord of Bergliez not giving his grain to feed everyone, but prefering to sell it to Enbarr. Random Priest then petitionned Garreg Mach to get more grain, Rhea answered the petition but while she deplored the state of things, bar giving them bags of flour, she couldn't really do anything else because she has no power in Adrestia, and at best could only write a petition to Emperor Karl VII (Ionius IX's dad), to please feed his people.

Of course, those bags were heavily taxed as soon as they entered imperial territory, so on 5 bags of flour provided by the Central Church, only 3 ended up in the random church.

Mark thus grew up in Adrestia, but had to leave for another church in Leicester when it became apparent that the random church he was residing in, located in Hevring territory, was not going to see the next winter - because a local baron wanted more lands and Minister Hevring thought this church here was useless, so it could be offered to this baron if said baron promised to pay triple taxes.

After a few years in the Leicester Church (in the Ordelia domain) Mark decided to become a clergyman too, so he left for Garreg Mach to pursue his study, leaving before the Hrym Rebellion and Chilon's visit to the Ordelia estate.

In Garreg Mach, he witnessed the Central Church officials running all around trying to answer to petitions, but also, some of them imagining creative scams to gain more money "for the Goddess, of course".

Among those scams was one Priestess who thought selling yellow painted weapons as relics would work - but then she was found out by the Archbishop and exiled, after receiving complains of several buyers who said the blessing of the goddess sucked, since it disappears with the first rain.

Another scam - one he, sadly, bought - was organised by a Cardinal, who convinced people that rubbing their hands against the statue of St Cichol would grant them "unbridled vigor" and a "boost to their fertility".

After long discussions, where the Cardinal's main defense was to levy funds for the Church and "who cares about St Cichol, we're the Church of Seiros!", he was also excommunicated, not before being condemned of repairing, stone by stone, the statues (it was a tedious work, but then Billy poured money so the Cardinal could repair the statues with something else than mud and sticks).

After graduating from his theological studies, with a thesis on "Zanado fruits and transubstantation", he was to be originally sent to the Kingdom as a new deacon, but Mark preferred to travel to Faerghus to see more Holy Sites, and work on his theological studies, remaining a Monk.

(rumour said Lady Rhea enjoyed those disgusting fruits, but he knew better than to try to buy her with one of those things, last month an Adrestian noble tried to bribe her with 10k gold to look away while he would "seduce" students during the Heron Cup, and she expelled him from the monastery).

Thus, Mark has a solid 10 years of participation in Central Church and walked around the world, going from Adrestia to Leicester to Faerghus before Barney comes, and Supreme Leaders supremely ousts them from Garreg Mach.

[sarenhale]

My LITTEL Silver Snow review! Some thoughts and comments about this route.

I finished Silver Snow a couple of days ago, and I have both good things and bad things to say about it (like with every route, honestly).

Overall, I felt like this was an okay route, with the best part of it being the possibility to finally get the whole picture of Byleth’s existence and birth. FINALLY you get the final answers about Jeralt, Byleth’s mom Sitri, Byleth, and Rhea’s plan. It felt good to know the truth, and finally have all the final pieces of the puzzle. 

I also liked getting more snippets of the Church ‘behind the scenes’, like discovering some more details about the organization, the Seiros cult and history, and especially discovering that Rhea binds all the members of the church with her blood... basically having the possibility to control them, giving what happens in the last fight. YIKESSS. Bad but interesting. 

It’s also cool that Rhea losing control at the end makes some of Byleth’s lines, such as ‘Promise me you’ll end me if I ever lose control of my humanity’, make sense! That CAN happen to people with the goddess blood inside of them, it seems.

Rhea is basically confirmed as a villain character, in my opinion, with the whole experiments with the crest stone on Sitri and Byleth (and... a dozen of other more experiments) and her controlling of the whole church with her blood. 

That said, I kinda like it! I like that Rhea is basically... given more history and explanation behind her reasoning, and that they went ‘there’ with her being basically a villain at this point. It kinda felt like the story went brutally honest in showing her in her true light, losing a bit of her ‘holy character’ protection we were shown before.

It’s really ironic how she’s confirmed as a villain in the CHURCH ROUTE, and I feel like this say a lot about her intentions as a character. It also feels fucked up that she calls Byleth ‘mother’ when she wakes up. Keep that shit to yourself Ma’am. (And this makes me really wonder what the fuck is up with her romance... you’re supposed to romance a lady that experimented on you and your mom, and only sees you as the contentitor of her mother? Really? Great... )

Aside from getting some insight on Rhea and Byleth’s past + Church shenanigans, I don’t really see anything else special about this route. 

I went into this thinking that maybe it would be less cruent than Crimson Flower, but in the end, Seteth makes even shittier decisions than Edelgard does, so at this point, I’m riding with CF at 100%. 

I’m referring especially to the nonchalant way Seteth basically decides to sacrifice both the Kingdom and Dimitri, and the Alliance as well. I get more into my outrage for that choice here if you’re interested in hearing the whole thing.

But basically, Seteth’s stupidity, or, more probably, interest in using Dimitri as a shield and bait for Edelgard to get him to weaken the Empire for him and do his dirty job for him (despite probably knowing the Kingdom and Alliance couldn’t win the whole fight on their own, since they BEGGED for the Church’s help) is really proof to me that he’s exactly the same as Rhea. So, willing to use others for their own gain, and let the Church have its ass covered by others, to avoid damage and danger. It really feels like they all need to protect the Church at all costs, but for what reason really? 

The Church has clearly shown to care about people, peace and things only if it benefits them, and things are done on their very peculiar terms. It doesn’t make sense to me why Seteth is willing to protect the Church with all his might, even sacrificing nonchalantly others, when the Church doesn’t do that much anyway. (And actually is shown to do more bad than good in some parts...) 

It really feels like Rhea and Seteth are really going on their own path that makes sense only to them. (But are still constantly trying to convince everyone that it’s the best path to take for everyone, mind you!)

From this point on, I was basically despising Seteth with all my being so it felt difficult to look at him in a different way the whole route. He’s supposed to be the ‘better alternative’ to Rhea but he’s pretty much the same as her, same debatable morals from the church, egoism, and some of the good old ‘holier than thou’ attitude I so much missed. 

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh with him, but since his choice before the battle of Gronder, as you can see, my opinion on him basically changed radically for the worse.

Another thing is also that, despite my critiques on Edelgard’s methods and all... it really feels bad to go against her and Hubert with the Black Eagle kids.

At first, again, I was convinced that this route would be less bloody and maybe make the lives of the Black Eagles kids better, but it the end, especially seeing how the elimination of the Empire, Edelgard and Hubert really takes a toll on them, I’m not convinced Silver Snow is the better choice for them anymore.

Probably the only one I can see having more freedom in this route is Petra, because of Brigid being able to get rid forever of the shadow of the Empire and not having to keep the ‘careful good relationship’ with them anymore. 

But even Ferdinand, Caspar and Bernadetta, characters I thought would fare better in Silver Snow, actually feel way happier and ‘developed’ in Crimson Flower. Not to mention that the way they comment on how bad it feels to kill Edelgard and Hubert literally broke my heart. After all, this really reminds me that these characters used to be kids, and close friends with eachother.

As much as I critique Edelgard’s methods, it’s clear that having the whole House together until the end it’s the best decision for everyone, and really feels right.

I probably appreciate Crimson Flower more, now that I see how the alternative, Silver Snow, is.

Especially because imagining a Fòdlan ruled by the Church.... is really a big no for me. The game has showed us countless times how secretive and shady the Church is, and given us MANY motives to not trust its intentions, so I don’t see why I should see the Church ruling Fòdlan as a good result.

I never liked the Church from the start tbh, so I was aware that me doing this route was basically only for completion and curiosity’s sake. (So my opinion might be a little bit biased) I’m glad I got to discover the whole puzzle behind Byleth’s birth and more about the Church/Rhea, but that’s basically it.

I don’t see Silver Snow as a good alternative to CF, on the contrary, it makes me appreciate the ‘extreme’ of Crimson Flower more. That route sure has its faults, but at least the message and intentions behind are way better and more honest than the Church’s will ever be. 

[fire-emblem-heroes-supports]

Reyson/Seteth C-A Support

Written by @sharyrazade

A/n: Possible content warning for Reyson’s backstory, but at this point in time, it’s probably not necessary.

C SUPPORT

[Seteth is taking a walk along one of the paths in the castle when he notices a man’s voice vocalizing- save for being a man’s voice, he’s sure he’s heard this exact melody before]

Seteth: [surprised] That’s not possible- can it be-?

[Seteth turns a corner to see that it is in fact, a man’s voice]

Seteth: Excuse me. Might I trouble you with a question, young man?

Reyson: [finally notices Seteth’s presence] Oh, my apologies! I did not notice you there! One might say my people are rather…musically inclined and just as inclined to lose ourselves in song. What did you need, sir?

Seteth: Your vocalizing- I am certain that I have heard that precise melody before, but cannot put a name to it.

Reyson: That is not surprising. You…are not from Tellius, are you?

Seteth: That is correct. And it therefore irks me a great deal that I cannot place the melody- I have heard my…sister vocalize that very one many times before.

Reyson: [expression perks up] I suppose it is not uncommon to have a sister skilled at singing, but to have one from another world be such- with galdrar, no less? Will wonders never cease? Might I ask your name, sir?

Seteth: You may call me Seteth.

Reyson: I am Reyson, third prince of Serenes. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

Seteth: I should say the same, Reyson.

[Reyson and Seteth have reached support rank C.]

B SUPPORT

[Amid a noticeable commotion in the distance of Anna and the Summoner yelling at several none-too-happy heroes, Reyson storms away from the great hall out into the gardens in a rage, wings singed and sporting a number of bruises.]

Seteth: [shocked] My goodness! Are you alright, Reyson?! What happened?!

Reyson: [seething] Truthfully, I’m not certain myself. One moment there was calm, the next Elincia had tackled this other beorc woman and began pummeling her before Lethe joined in. Soren, Mordecai and some of the others pulled them apart, but needless to say, they had…some more words.

Seteth: Oh, dear.

[Reyson looks down in anger and shame]

Reyson: Then, the other beorc woman began to taunt Elincia about her father and the “subhumans” and I…I must have just taken leave of my senses- I started raining blows on the white-haired beorc woman from behind. The next thing I remember, I was on the floor being choked and beaten by this gaunt, waxy, corpse-like man before Tibarn clawed him in the face to free me.

Seteth: [surprised] That’s what that horrible commotion was about? I suppose I should have expected something was amiss when Anna seemed genuinely angry and unwilling to speak casually.

Reyson: Yes. It was not one of my…prouder moments, to say the least. My brother certainly gave me an earful about how my conduct was “unbecoming,” but he was not there- he did not have to listen to that vile beorc woman with the white hair goading Elincia about us “subhumans.”

Seteth: [shuts his eyes in contemplation] I see. Even so, that is a dreadful thing to call someone. It is little surprise that one would react badly to being called such.

Reyson: [knuckles clenching] Even so, knowing how arrogant that these humans can be knowing- forgive me, I have said too much.

[Reyson abruptly leaves]

Seteth: What in the world was that about?

[Still cooling off, Reyson storms into the gardens and runs into Leanne as he turns into a hedge maze.]

Reyson: [surprised] Oh, Leanne! Fancy seeing you here.

Leanne: [concerned expression] (Of course I’m here, Brother!  Naesala went off to see what that horrible disturbance in the dining hall was and still hasn’t returned. I was worried about you!)

Reyson: Really, it was nothing to be concerned about. A beorc acquaintance of mine prevented me from getting into any more trouble.

Leanne: [confused] (The man in green? With green hair?)

Reyson: Yes, him.

Leanne: (Brother, has living with Tibarn and the hawks for so long dulled your senses too? That man isn’t a beorc!)

Reyson: [even more surprised] Truly?!

Leanne: (Yes. Rafiel says the gentleman reminds him of Kurthnaga more than anyone else.)

Reyson: You managed to pull him away from Queen Naliah’s bed long enough to get that out of him? Hmm, that could explain why he kept calling me “young man,” after all…

[Reyson and Seteth have reached support rank B.]

A SUPPORT

[Just outside of the library, Seteth is conversing with Tibarn, looking both concerned and rather contrite.]

Seteth: [nods] I see. This was an enlightening- and sobering- conversation.

Tibarn: You’ve probably already noticed, but Reyson’s disposition…isn’t exactly common among Herons.

Seteth: [closes his eyes briefly] I cannot honestly fault him for it, truth be told.

Tibarn: Well, I’ll not pry, as it’s none of my business. Just take care when discussing these matters with Reyson. He’s rather- er- animated, as you know. Perhaps too much so for his own good.

Seteth: Understood.

[Seteth emerges into the garden and wanders a bit before running into Reyson, somewhat more composed than their last conversation.]

Reyson: [Still somewhat subdued] Ah, Seteth. I apologize for how abruptly our conversation ended. It was rather rude of me. And of course, how I came to insult what I assumed to be your people.

Seteth: [crosses his arms] I assure you, there’s no need for you to concern yourself with offense on my behalf- or on behalf of “my” people, I assure you.

Reyson: [inhales] I suppose I owe you an explanation for my rudeness, after all.

Seteth: If you feel it necessary, I’ll not stop you.

Reyson: As you may have gathered, my country, Serenes, is not…in the best of ways. I won’t bore you with the minutiae of how exactly it happened, but the people of Bengion somehow got it into their heads that my people were responsible for the assassination of the previous apostle, Misaha.

Seteth: [nods] And this was false, as your people do not fight.

Reyson: [slightly surprised at him having this knowledge] Precisely. Outraged, the people of descended upon Serenes with their torches and pitchforks and- all of them. Not just the men, but the women and the children too! After three days, my father, my sisters, my brother and myself…we were the only survivors.

Seteth: [visibly taken aback by the detail into which he goes] Goddess, that is ghastly!

Reyson: Tibarn and the hawks took father and I in afterwards, but my brother had been missing for sometime and we had assumed my sisters had both perished- been murdered with the rest of our clan.

Seteth: I…apologize, Reyson. That must have been torturous for you.

Reyson: Oh, it was, I assure you. In Phoenicis, I did not merely envy the hawks for their vitality and strength, but…I hated myself. For being so powerless to do anything to protect my people when they most needed me most. I have no intention of justifying it, but to explain my behavior; that beorc woman with the arrogant voice and hateful eyes must have just sent me back to that first night.

Seteth: [shuts eyes in contemplation] I see. Do you hate them, these beorc?

Reyson: There was a time when I would have answered “yes,” with no hesitation whatsoever. However-

Seteth: However?

Reyson: In the course of my journeys, I met many wonderful beorc. Misaha’s successor literally knelt before my sister and I to beg forgiveness and another exposed and personally ended the life of the man- one of Bengion’s senators- responsible for my clan’s slaughter, even after I spurned his earlier attempts to aid me. But even still…there will always be a part of me that hates them, yes. If you think less of me for it, I’ll not blame you.

Seteth: [rubs his chin] Why would I think less of you? I should think that is only natural that you would have some ill-feeling towards them.

Reyson: You have my thanks for your understanding, my friend. But I will battle these feelings of hatred for them for the rest of my very long life. A fact that sits poorly with me for one reason; a promise I made to someone very important to me.

Seteth: A promise? What sort of promise?

Reyson: To my sister, Leanne. Now we treasure her, but it cannot be denied that she is a little…childish and somewhat naive. When we reunited, she told me that she could not bear to see me with this sort of hatred inside of me and that I should accept the Apostle’s apology. I…did not handle that especially well either, but I did give her my solemn word that I would at least make an effort.

Seteth: [closes his eyes as he reminisces] I understand that very well also, Reyson. Yes, we are quite alike, indeed. But may I offer one bit of advice?

Reyson: Hm? Of course.

Seteth: I assure you, I also struggled and do struggle greatly with the dictates of my instinct towards survival and the protection of those closest to me versus my conscious intellect and moral code. However, for ages- ever since my wife’s passing- I wrestled with these dilemmas nearly in solitude. I…have very few people in whom I can truly confide. That is one way in which we differ, Reyson.

Reyson: What way would that be?

Seteth: From what you have told me, you have, both here and in your own world, a great many friends who would move heaven and earth for you. Be they from your race or not.

Reyson: That is true, I suppose.

Seteth: Indeed. You are a fine young man with loyal, devoted friends, Reyson. Do not hesitate to share your burdens with them when they weigh too heavily on your shoulders. Know that I will, as long as I am here, be one of those in whom you can confide as well.

Reyson: ...I will do that. Thank you, my friend.

[Reyson and Seteth have reached support rank A.]

[iturbide]

I think I remember seeing somewhere that Edwlgard was the smartest of the three lords for a) wanting to tear down the Crest system and b) taking out TWSITD, and to that I say: the ends do not justify the mand because holy F uck man this route is hHHHHH-

HA

HAHAHA

HA HA

yeah no sorry I do not buy that Edelgard is the smartest of the Lords.  Not by a long shot.  She does the stupidest thing possible in the stupidest way possible -- throwing her own personal forces into the conquest of Fodlan, substantially weakening her armies in the process of these hard fights and effectively leaving the now subjugated nation as easy pickings for the Twisted.  If she expects that she’s going to have forces from the Kingdom and Alliance to bolster her weakened forces, let’s not forget that she subjugated those nations: they’re not going to fight out of loyalty to her, and I wouldn’t be surprised if forced drafts lead to mass desertions.  I honestly think it’s outrageous to think she managed to take out the Twisted at all, considering how little forethought she seemed to put into the long game (and the fact that it’s just a footnote in end cards instead of actually showing how she did it is highly suspect to me personally).

[[MORE]]

Also, who in their right mind thinks that Edelgard is the ONLY one that wants to tear down the Crest system?  It might not be Dimitri’s top stated priority, but he very clearly wants system reform, and the system is based on Crests.  Changing the system requires dismantling the Crest bias -- and not only that, he himself and more than a few of his childhood friends have been negatively impacted by that bias (Sylvain and Ingrid in particular, but it’s not hard to see how Mercedes has been harmed by it), so he knows intimately how harmful it is.  The only reason Claude doesn’t have Crests on his top priority list is because the Alliance doesn’t operate the same way the Empire and the Kingdom do, and their reliance on Crests is different -- on top of that, the Eastern Church is considered the weakest branch with the least authority in its embedded region.  The system might be uncomfortable in the Alliance, but it doesn’t have the same stranglehold on governmental operations.

Also, who takes down the Twisted?  Black Eagles end cards make only the briefest mentions of it, but we never see her do the thing: the game literally ends after she murders Rhea.  Meanwhile, Claude not only infiltrates the Twisted home base and forces them to destroy it, he also helps murder Nemesis, who even Seiros couldn’t kill.  And this is a man who was completely in the dark about them, unlike Edelgard, who’s been intimately aware of them and their operations for most of her life: Claude takes the new information that Hubert’s note provides, generates a cautious plan, and then completely uproots them.  That’s incredibly badass and I feel goes to show just how effective he is as a tactician (and while Silver Snow goes the same route, don’t forget that Seteth is there, and he had first-hand experience with them -- Claude is flying blind, so his success is notable. 

Also, just taking a step back to get a broad view of Edelgard’s plan and the long-term consequences shows how unfeasible it really is.  Besides how ill-advised it was to take her own forces to war with only Twisted ‘support’ against the Church, the Alliance, and the Kingdom, her entire plan seemed to rely on bolstering her numbers through conquest, since she doesn’t hesitate to send her own people through the meat grinder known as war and would likely be hurting for soldiers and support when the whole campaign is done.  Beyond unrest in her own nation after five years of war they never asked for and that has likely left the Empire in a rough spot, conquered peoples generally aren’t all that willing to line up and fight for the people who subjugated them: she will likely be dealing with rebellions and unrest for years if not decades to come from that move alone, both within the Empire’s original borders and without in the territories she claimed by the sword.  Not only that, she kills the King of Faerghus, effectively making him a martyr for the Kingdom loyalists; add onto that the cryptic and completely unexplained line from one of his talks with Rhea before the Tailtean battle -- something about how ‘the Blaiddyd bloodline lives on’ -- and either he has a child on the way himself or possibly young relative with a Crest who’s been sent off into hiding.  So that’s probably gonna come back to bite her if that kid starts rallying Kingdom forces. 

And then there’s Almyra.  Whether you kill Claude or not (and let’s be real, Edelgard probably would prefer to kill him and it’s only Byleth that can potentially stay her hand), Almyra’s probably going to become a major threat in the not so distant future.  Spare him and he goes home, but his father is still king and could easily mount an invasion whenever he so desired; kill him and now the Almyrans have a blood vendetta because she murdered their prince.  Add to that the fact that Hilda very likely died in the battle, meaning the Gonerils have lost family to the Empire’s invasion and aren’t terribly likely to play nice, and they might even be willing to ally with the Almyrans and let them in through the Locket, perhaps even rallying scattered Alliance resistances and rebellions to swell the Almyran forces as they go.  On top of that, there’s even the fact that the Twisted city is literally in Goneril territory: even if Almyra took their sweet time preparing for an invasion force, what’s to stop the Twisted from reaching out to Holst -- the man who has been leading Fodlan’s whole defense against Almyra -- and trying to draw him to their side with the promise of revenge against Edelgard?  They make frequent use of pawns, so there’s nothing stopping them from finding a new one even before Edelgard turns on them (since she very unwisely telegraphed her intent at Arianrhod when she took out Cornelia: the fortress’ destruction was meant as a warning, but the Twisted group isn’t the type to sit idle either). 

Beyond all that, let’s not forget exactly how Edelgard intended to do away with the Crest system: tear it down completely.  But she had no plan in place for what to replace it with, which is painfully obvious from her A support with Ferdinand where she hadn’t considered the option of public schooling as a place to foster growth.  Her plan is literally ‘I want to make a world where merit is rewarded,’ but she has no plan for how to do that, and what counts as merit is a vague and intangible thing...until it’s taken in the context of her wider words and actions.  She praises Miklan as a man who could have been a great asset to the world had the Crest system not undermined him -- and remember, this is a man who tried to kill his younger brother and eventually rebelled against his family by taking charge of a bandit group that murdered and pillaged its way through the Kingdom.  Is the Crest system fair?  No, not in the least -- but the system didn’t make Miklan commit assault and murder: he made that choice for himself.  Edelgard seems to value combat prowess and potential military application far more than anything else -- even in her supports with Linhardt she berates him as wasting his talent by doing things for his own personal enjoyment, rather than to further magic theory -- so her ‘meritocracy’ is likely going to favor scientists working on combat magic and technology...and soldiers: obedient and unquestioningly loyal.  Which, in all likelihood, she’ll need given the environment she cultivates for herself in CF.

So no, I don’t think that Edelgard is the smartest lord.  I think she’s the most stubborn and bullheaded of them, instead.