Hmm maybe I’ll do a more coherent write up of this later since its a pretty hashtag hottake but I feel like what 3H was trying to accomplish with Dimitri vs Edelgard in the AM route was already done with Ike vs Zelgius in a much better way in RD

Ike is an incredibly kind hearted person who has trouble conforming to the social system of his world, has a strong sense of moral justice>legal justice and well, fights primarily for his friends and found family. Except he can’t help but seek revenge for the death of his father

Ike was urged not to by Greil but he does drop everything to be able to fight BK multiple times and has a “once I defeat this one person, I’ll be satisfied” mentality. Bc Ike isn’t really connected emotionally to taking down Ashnard nor Begnion. That’s Elincia and Skirmir’s arcs

Ike fights BK in PoR and gets his ass beat. He admits in RD that he got so stonks bc of the goal of beating BK. So Ike finally beating Zelgius and realizing he wasn’t happy is more? emotionally resonant imho. Ike was at his worse when his strength wasnt for his family but himself

Ike wasn’t really fighting Zelgius to avenge his father, it was to connect with his father. Zelgius was his only living link to Greil’s fighting style which is how we’re introduced to both of them at the start of PoR. Ike killing Zelgius meant he had to kill his new mentor

I don’t feel like Ike’s epilogue was bad at all but I also don’t feel like he would’ve left Tellius if Zelgius lived. He found happiness in his life w Soren/Ranulf. But he wasn’t magically over the whole left by his father’s death by avenging it. It just created another hole.

Ike feels like a more successful version of Dimitri. You can clearly see how kind and just he is. How caring he is about the plight of the oppressed. But there is some unresolved vengence that eats at him and he has to learn that killing that person in return won’t make him happy

In return, this is also why I feel like Edelgard is a p bad antagonist in AM and a much better flawed protagonist. First of all, she actually didn’t cause Dimitri’s problems that she blamed him for. Zelgius actually did kill Greil. He wasn’t possessed or framed. He did it

Second, she isn’t a threat by herself. If Dimitri had fought Edelgard 1v1 in the Holy Tomb and lost horribly, it would’ve made his “i cant seem to kill that women but I will” thing make more sense. She would’ve been an obstacle. But no you can kick her ass 3 times in Part I

Third, Greil does beg Ike to not seek vengence and live a better life. Dimitri’s last memory of his father is him begging Dimitri to avenge him. Whilst many have theorized that was Dimitri’s remembering it how he wants it to be, its too vague to say either way.

Greil explicitly begging Ike to not seek out BK makes a better point for Ike deliberately going against his better judgement for the sake of unwanted vengeance. Ike just did it because he wanted to, not that he felt the social or personal responsibility to

Also uhh Zelgius wasn’t written to turn into a monster for him to be a threat to Ike. And we don’t have the weird they used to be osananajimi/siblings with crushes on each other plot thats uncomfortable

Altho we do see Zelgius meet Ike as a child and care for him! Cute!

Anyways this isn’t a dig at anyone in particular and I do like parts of AM, particularly the political corruption subplot. Very “there is something wrong in the state of Faergus”. Also Tellius is two whole games and not a subplot of 2?/4 routes of a single game

Also not to mention stuff like gender/sexuality coded issues don’t come up when both warring parties are lgbt men

tdlr I’ve never been impressed by the Dimitri vs Edelgard subplot of FE3H and I figured out that it just seems like a less successful version of Ike vs Zelgius