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This Inconsistently Heinous was Headlined on April 2025. | ||
| “ | Halt. You're having a bit too much fun. | „ |
| ~ The Flame Emperor stopping Death Knight, and her most famous quote. |
| “ | People believe that Crests are blessings from the Goddess, that they're necessary to maintain order in Fodlan. But the people are wrong. Crests are to blame for this brutal, irrational world we live in. | „ |
| ~ Edelgard von Hresvelg speaking with Byleth. |
| “ | Must you continue to reconquer? Continue to kill in retaliation? | „ |
| ~ Edelgard rebuking Dimitri and his grudge against her, probably her most infamous quote. |
| “ | These fools are caught up in the sacrifices that are at hand and can't see the future ramifications at stake. We must bury them! We must trample the past underfoot and move on to a brighter tomorrow! | „ |
| ~ Hegemon Edelgard. |
Edelgard von Hresvelg, also known as the Flame Emperor, is the secondary antagonist of the Fódlan Saga within Nintendo's Fire Emblem franchise.
She is the princess and heir to the Adrestian Empire, a Kingdom in the southern half of the continent of Fódlan, the house leader of the Black Eagles, and the leader of the Flame Emperor Army. Her goal is to conquer Fódlan and put an end to the Crest system, and she is even willing to work with Those Who Slither in the Dark anf commit terrible acts to achieve her goals (even if she does have remorse for them). She is also the step-sister and arch-rival of Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, as well as the arch-rival of Seiros/Rhea.
In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, she is the main antagonist in the Azure Moon route and the secondary antagonist in both the Verdant Wind and Silver Snow routes. In Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, she is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Thales) in the Azure Gleam route and the secondary antagonist of the first half of the Golden Wildfire route.
In Japanese, she is voiced by Ai Kakuma. In English, she was voiced by Cristina Valenzuela in the E3 2018 trailer and Tara Platt in the released game and all other appearances.
Her Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Her Heinous?[]
In General[]
- Even though she has good intentions and makes some valid points, she is extremely ruthless in her efforts to bring peace to Fódlan and end the Crest system, and will stop at nothing to accomplish her objectives, regardless of how remorseful she is. Furthermore, although she has good reason to despise the Church of Seiros and the Crest system, her actions are too extreme to be entirely justified.
- She conspired with Those Who Slither In The Dark (a genocidal terrorist organization) to bring down the Church of Seiros. While she expresses her disgust at them, she still became an accomplice to their crimes.
- And despite her brief hesitation, she will not be willing to spare those whom she genuinely viewed as friends should they turn against her.
- And even when called out for her actions and the flaws in her methods, Edelgard still refuses to change her ways and believe that her path is necessary to achieve a better Fódlan.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses[]
Part I: While Clouds/The Academy Phase[]
- She hired Kostas to kill Claude and Dimitri in Remire Forest. While she helps them defeat the thug, she did it only when the plan backfired and Kostas attempted to kill her as well and to hide her tracks.
- She ordered the Death Knight to kidnap Flayn and take her blood. This almost resulted in Flayn's death and caused Seteth a lot of emotional pain, and Manuela an injury by the hands of the Death Knight.
- She raided the Holy Tomb with the Adrestian Empire's army to steal the crests. While she told Byleth and other students not to interfere, she was still willing to kill them (except Byleth) if they attempted to stop her.
- She launched an assault on Garreg Mach, which caused Rhea's imprisonment, Byleth's five-year long disappearance and Fódlan being plunged in a war.
- While ridding the Adrestia's government of corrupt officials such as Duke Ludwig von Aegir, she still let Thales (disguised as Lord Arundel) have power in Adrestia, leading to the war being more brutal.
The Azure Moon Route[]
- She didn't interfere when Cornelia framed Dimitri for murdering his uncle and presumably executed him.
- She caused Faerghus to fall down into anarchy and orchestrated the conflict in Leicester.
- She refused to back down even after Dimitri pointed out the flaws of her logic, and still insisted to fight so she could achive her ambitions.
- She mutated into a demonic form to fight the forces of Faerghus, led by Byleth and Dimitri.
- Even when Dimitri wanted to spare and reconcile with her afterwards, she attempted to kill him with a dagger. Even if it was to make Dimitri kill her and an act to avoid dying from the double Crest effects it left a scar on Dimitri's psyche (due to being forced to kill one of his last family members).
The Verdant Wind Route[]
- She tries to eliminate Byleth and Claude of the Leichester Alliance and Dimitri of Faerghus in Gronder Field, succeeding with the latter.
- She orders Hubert and the Death Knight to fight off against Byleth, Claude, and the Leichester Alliance on Enbarr.
- She tries to defeat Byleth, Claude, and the Leichester Alliance one last time before she is defeated.
The Silver Snow Route[]
- When Byleth refuses to join Edelgard, she tries to kill them. After a brief clash, she then leaves, noting that the next time they cross paths, it would be the end for one of them.
- She and her Imperial Forces would battle and later defeated Dimitri and the Kingdom forces and Claude and the Leichester Alliance in Gronder Field, causing the death of Dimitri (although it is ambiguous since we do see him later on) and Claude disappearing from the battle, leaving his fate uncertain.
- She then fights Byleth and the Church of Seiros one last time, before she is eventually defeated.
The Crimson Flower Route[]
- Although she is more heroic, she still uses extreme methods to defeat the Church of Seiros, such as:
- Lying to her comrades and friends about the destruction of Ariahnrod, framing the Church of Seiros for the incident.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes[]
Prologue[]
- Following the two-year timeskip, Edelgard declares war on the Central Church, launching an invasion on Garreg Mach Monastery.
What Makes Her Inconsistent?[]
- She is extremely tragic. At the age of 9, she was forced to flee to Faerghus with her mother. When she became friends with Dimitri, she was forced to return to Adrestia where she and her siblings were subjected to horrific experiments by Those Who Slither In The Dark. This led to the deaths of her siblings and her lifespan being shortened. This also left a huge toll on her psyche which influenced her mindset and was the reason behind her extreme actions.
- She even has PTSD and nightmares about her dark past, with rats being among her biggest fears due to witnessing a large nest of rats when she was being experimented on.
- She is incredibly affable to Byleth and (to a lesser but genuine extent) other people. She genuinely wants him/her to be on her side and feels bad about fighting him/her and her former classmates, showing how genuinely nice and thoughtful she can be. Besides Byleth, there's also:
- Hubert. Hubert has been her loyal friend since childhood and the two have a strong relationship with each other. He was the only one to support her methods (if Byleth and the Black Eagles didn't side with her) and is willing to commit any atrocities, as long as they help secure Edelgard's path.
- Lysithea. Edelgard is arguably close with her (Besides Byleth and Hubert), since the two were victims of Crest experiments, and thus, the two heavily relate to each other. Lysithea even has no qualms on helping Edelgard to accomplish her goals if she joins the Black Eagles, but does have a condition that Edelgard must not stray from her noble path.
- Ferdinand. Although the two do have a rocky relationship at first (mainly because Ferdinand's desire to surpass her), Edelgard does respect him to a degree. Eventually, the two do become more friendly with each other. In Three Hopes she shows enough care and respect for him to not only let him be her retainer but also allowed his father to be judged properly in spite of Ludwig's crimes. After Ludwig's rebellion and death, Edelgard allows Ferdinand to judge his father's followers to honor her friend's feelings.
- Bernadetta. Edelgard acts very kindly to her and tries her best to not make her feel anxious around her, even revealing her weaknesses (like thalassophobia) in order to comfort her.
- Dorothea. Dorothea is one of Edelgard's best friends and the latter straight up tells Dorothea about her plan to declare war before doing so in Three Hopes, as revealed in the Azure Gleam route (the route where Edelgard is the final boss). Edelgard even plans to bring back Dorothea to the Empire after defeating the latter in Azure Gleam.
- Yuri. Edelgard shows genuine respects towards him for his skills and recruits him in two routes of Three Hopes.
- Claude. Edelgard and Claude deeply respect each other and even decide to fulfill the other's wish if one kills the other. Claude swears to reform Fódlan for Edelgard in Verdant Wind and Edelgard does the same for him in Scarlet Blaze.
- Dimitri. Despite two of them being mortal enemies, she shows pity towards his crazened state and laments his fall due to his thirst for revenge. In the Crimson Flower route if Dedue is killed (and therefore Dimitri's sanity is completely shattered) she acknowledges his potential to be a great ruler and mourns her death. Before the final battle in the Azure Moon route, they talk about their beliefs in a polite manner, showing mutual respect to each other. Even her attempted murder of Dimitri can be interpreted as goading him to kill her and accepting Dimitri's rule over Fodlan.
- She is a well-intentioned extremist. The continent of Fódlan was stuck in an outdated system due to the Church's influence. Due to this, many people suffered at the hands of corrupt nobles and caused the decline of all three kingdoms. Her plan, while extreme, was ultimately for the good of Fódlan.
- She has showed heroic moments:
- Despite cooperating with Those Who Slither In The Dark, she openly condemns their immoral actions and occasionally tries to hinder them and planned on destroying them eventually.
- During the assault on Garreg Mach, she allows the citizens to escape and leaves the town mostly unscathed.
- On the Verdant Wind route, she left clues about Those Who Slither In The Dark after her death, allowing Leicester to defeat the terrorists.
- On the Crimson Flower and Scarlet Blaze routes, she is far more heroic. Not only does she not commit most of her heinous acts in the War Phase, but she is genuinely affable to her friends and soldiers, and is even sometimes openly honest with them. Due to Byleth's and Shez's actions respectively, she was able to let go of her extremist tendencies and led Fódlan to a better future.
- On the Crimson Flower route, she even rebukes Rhea for setting Fhirdiad on fire.
- In the ending of her routes, she defeats Thales and the slithers, and ends their reign of terror forever.
- She goes out her way to save her allies (like Lonato in Three Hopes) and sometimes spare her foes (like the Leicester soldiers defending Myrddin).
- Her death on all routes (other than the Crimson Flower route, where she is the protagonist and survives) are played for sympathy.
- There's also her fate in the Azure Gleam route, where she is brainwashed by Thales and used as a puppet by Ludwig, using her to control the empire. Even after their deaths, Edelgard is reduced to a child-like state, making her fate heavily sympathetic and pitiful.
- She shows to have standards, as shown by her disgust towards the slithers. And while she isn't above trying to kill or capture Rhea in order to get rid of her or use her, she would rather strip her of her powers and shows genuine shock when Claude reveals that he would rather kill her in Three Hopes.
- She's much less heinous than Thales or Ludwig von Aegir. It's even a major plot point that the Adrestian Empire becomes a dictatorship because of the two after Edelgard's defeat because she was far more moral than them in the Azure Gleam route.
External Links[]
- Edelgard von Hresvelg on the Villains Wiki
- Edelgard von Hresvelg on the Heroes Wiki
- Edelgard von Hresvelg on the Fire Emblem Wiki
- Edelgard von Hresvelg on the Nintendo Wiki
[]
 Inconsistently Heinous
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Donkey Kong Films Dragalia Lost Fire Emblem Kid Icarus Fanon Miitopia Pikmin Rare Xenoblade Chronicles See Also | ||
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