Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a game split into three narratives based on which house the player joins at the beginning of the story. These narratives are split between the Blue Lions, Golden Deer, and Black Eagles, which are lead by three young nobles named Dimitri, Claude, and Edelgard.

Among the three nobles, though, Edelgard caused the greatest division of options in players. Some claimed Edelgard's house to be the evil route in the game because it kills the most characters, while others believed her cause to start a war was just because it opposed a corrupt system lead by the church. Her controversy has lead to a lot of fandom drama, and it reveals how strongly perspective matters in whether a character can be deemed good or evil in a story.

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The Argument That Fire Emblem's Edelgard Is A Hero

Edelgard hugging male Byleth.

At the beginning of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, when the player chooses a house they will teach, they are also choosing which house will win in the future war. Not choosing the Black Eagles house ultimately dooms Edelgard to be a tragic character that does not have a teacher to help guide her towards her goals. Edelgard fans have often noticed that she becomes far more monstrous without Byleth at her side, as she forms an alliance with the evil organization, Those Who Slither in the Dark.

If Edelgard does have Byleth as a teacher, though, her ties with Those Who Slither in the Dark are slowly broken. In fact, she decides to go to war with them after the Church of Seiros because they are also a corrupt system. So, even if a corrupt system benefits her, her bottom line is that they need to be dismantled.

Those that see Edelgard as a hero do not see her as evil in other narratives, but more like a victim. She was a victim of unethical experiments by both the church and Those Who Slither in the Dark, seeing all her siblings die due to the Crest experiments. She was held in a dungeon for so long that she even got an irrational fear of rats, and grew up with Those Who Slither in the Dark grooming her to be a tool to use against the church.

Another argument Edelgard fans make is that she is in the right about the Church of Seiros being corrupt. Not only did they do unethical experiments on children, but they forced out any other religion with military action, kept secrets about Those Who Slither in the Dark, are prejudiced about other nations, and adhere to the Crest system which oppresses people and raises others up depending on how they were bred. With all that in mind, Edelgards' defenders feel it is right to go to war with the church and to put it on herself to set the nation on a more free and just path.

The Argument That Fire Emblem's Edelgard Is A Villain

Edelgard about to kill Dimitri in the rain.

The argument that Edelgard is a villain stems from Fire Emblem fans disagreeing with her "ends justify the means" ideology. Despite dismantling the church, she carved a road of blood to get there, and violence will only beget more violence in the future. Edelgard is revenge-seeking, and she will create more revenge-seeking individuals through her actions.

Of course, this does not mean the Church of Seiros has not also lead with an "ends justify the means" ideology. This was proven by how the church responded to Lanato's rebellion with pure military action. Having this commonality between Edelgard and the church does show that it is possible that Edelgard's rule will just be another Church of Seiros in different clothes, and that Edelgard could be just another tyrant like Rhea.

Players who are attached to the Golden Deer and Blue Lion route are set up to see Edelgard as a villain because her brutal nature makes it so that she cannot live while playing nice with Claude and Dimitri. In Dimitri's route, he offers her mercy only for her to stab him with a dagger, and in all routes, she decides to attack Claude's neutral nation, the Leicester Alliance. Due to her trust issues, Edelgard had a brutal "you are with us or you are against us" attitude in war, no matter which path Byleth is on.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is available now on the Nintendo Switch.

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