#cuz for all canon does try to downplay Edelgard's actions she fuckin' dies in three out of four routes. the girly gets fuckin' got

[butwhatifidothis]

If you ask me, yes, it's incredibly annoying to have a POV character constantly bring up their sad and tragic past, because after the 5th time I stop feeling anything. If anything, Edelgard DOES feel sorry for herself a lot for sympathy, but it has more to do with her being sad about been seen as the bad guy (because people have the nerve to defend themselves in her shitty war instead of rolling over and dying) and her friends leaving her and the game wants you to feel bad for her instead of her victims because of THAT. Her backstory only comes up once. (which is why I forget it exists sometimes tbh since I feel at times like it was a slapped-together last-minute addition to make her an extra woobie villain and you can't have players sympathize more with fellow survivors of tragedy like Dimitri and Rhea)

Yeah! It’s like, it’s not like Edelgard doesn’t make herself out to be this poor figure, right? But she doesn’t hate herself. She doesn’t actually feel guilt or regret (her own words). She certainly doesn’t think she’s weak and she definitely is prideful and arrogant. She’s just also kinda sad that people will see her as a villain (because she is) and that she’ll “have” to walk her path alone, but if anything she thinks she’s strong and brave for being willing to do so. She doesn’t think she’s this evil creature - of course she doesn’t! She’s self-righteous! She’s self-centered! And you’re supposed to notice that! You’re supposed to notice how she makes things about herself when actively ruining lives and killing innocents (lmao bottom text)! Especially when compared to Dimitri, Claude, and Rhea, who always try to save as many people as possible (save for when Dimitri and Rhea are literally pushed past the brink by Edelgard!)! These are faults in Edelgard! I’ve talked about them enough times to know that!

Woobiegard, however, is constant and neverending about how guilty she feels about planning to ruin everyone’s lives, she such a horrible and weak and ugly monster. Nearly every move she makes is “desperate,” she always feels fearful or uncomfortable or unsettled around every single person who is her opponent. She’s able to understand every single one of the people she wants to get close to because her trauma is just so vast and all-encompassing that she knows exactly how others feel when going through suffering, because she’s just suffered so so much. Suddenly Edelgard making everything about herself is her “being empathetic” and her sadness at having to walk her path alone and being seen as the villain are both overblown to shit as well as no longer flaws. 

We’re supposed to actually feel sad that Edelgard feels this way. We’re supposed to actually think that she is as big a victim as she thinks she is (which, mind you, is an even bigger one than what canon says!). We’re supposed to find her constantly making everyone’s trauma about her her her a showcasing of how big her heart is or some shit, not her being a self-centered bitch who can’t possibly relate to anyone without it being about her in some way. Her trauma is fuckin’ shoved in the reader’s face just in case we forget how poor and tragic and helpless and scared and self-hating and guilty and desperate Edelgard is, because god for-fuckin’-bid Edelgard actually being confident and sure of herself literally ever.

It’s like I said: that’s probably why Edelgard has so many of Dimitri’s traits slapped onto her in this fic, since Dimitri is a genuinely sympathetic character that the player actually feels bad for. He feels guilty for all he’s done, he’s empathetic (and related Byleth’s losing their father to his own loss of his own father, something that can be directly compared and not the fuckin’ six degrees of separation game Woobiegard plays), he is almost always fighting against his trauma and how it affects him - and his trauma actually negatively affects him in significant ways and have a sizable impact on nearly all aspects of his life. Edelgard isn’t Dimitri, but this fic wants to pretend that she is, so the author just slaps on Dimitri’s traits on her and hopes nobody’ll notice.

Woobiegard is like Edelgard only in the most superficial ways possible, and it’s baffling to think that this version of “Edelgard” is what’s in the most popular Edelgard-POV fic (by hits) on AO3.