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got a reply on a post where I said I viewed Edelgard as a lesbian that said "she's canon bi"
okay then lets talk about representation of different lgbt sexuality in Fire Emblem games
okay then lets talk about representation of different lgbt sexuality in Fire Emblem games
There's two types of protagonists in fe games: regular stand alone characters and audience surrogates. Most Fire Emblem games have stand alone characters as the main characters but three games have audience surrogates as the main characters: Awakening Fates and Three Houses
This isn't automatically a bad thing (I think theres pros and cons) but it sets one dangerous standard: every member of the cast needs to be S Supportable. That means every single unit is straight unless proven otherwise. This is deeply upsetting to me.
Let's look at a canon lesbian and a canon bi man in Radiant Dawn, a game with two standalone protags. Heather is a lesbian. When the writers received a question asking why she'd be attracted to women and if she had a history of abuse, they just said she was born that way
Sephiran is a canon bisexual man. He used to be married to a woman who passed away and is now in a relationship with Zelgius. He uses pronouns to refer to him that married couples do in Japanese and spoke about him on the same level as affection as his dead wife
If Radiant Dawn had an avatar protagonist, this would not be possible. Heather would be assumed to be bisexual despite the only man she'd be into being the one she HAS to be into. Sephiran's bisexuality would be explained by his wife and the male avatar (assuming he'd be able to)
In Edelgard's case, the moment she became a character in a game with an avatar protagonist, she was doomed to be romanced by men. She doesn't get to be like Ike where she can only have gay endings or Lyn where she can have endings with men and woman.
Never mind the fact that Edelgard gets uncomfortable when men flirt with her and her paired endings with men come out of nowhere (Caspar?? Hanneman??)
Let us not forget Edelgard is the woman with the most amount of paired endings with women in the entire series
Let us not forget Edelgard is the woman with the most amount of paired endings with women in the entire series
So I do view her as a lesbian. Even as a hardcore edeleth shipper, I know that the sole reason people view her as even gay is bc fByleth can marry her (Petra has a paired ending w Dorothea that uses the word love and people still neglect her when talking about lgbt 3H characters)
I'm not saying you can't see Edelgard as a bisexual woman. If that's what makes you happy and empowers you, go ahead. But I think its missing the point to claim she's bisexual just because the avatar character can marry her regardless of what gender they present as
addendum;
- Edelgard is still attracted to women because if you take away Byleth and she has romantic paired endings with 4 (5 incl. Constance) that don't include them.
- If bi folks are allowed to be empowered by what they perceive to be bi rep, lesbians should as well
- Edelgard is still attracted to women because if you take away Byleth and she has romantic paired endings with 4 (5 incl. Constance) that don't include them.
- If bi folks are allowed to be empowered by what they perceive to be bi rep, lesbians should as well
- This isn't necessarily a damning of the avatar system bc theres a lot of greatness ab it as well. There's pros+cons to both protag systems
- Edeleth is an amazing ship and I'm happy that not only you have the option of making it gay af, its the most popular interpretation of it
- Edeleth is an amazing ship and I'm happy that not only you have the option of making it gay af, its the most popular interpretation of it
