People are complex, sometimes they get ugly, and when they endure a lot of shit, they get even uglier.
Going back to my opinion that queer folks don’t need to be palatable, I think Ellie is the perfect example of a multi-faceted queer person who goes through an entire journey. I say this even while Claude is my favorite of the three lords. But ultimately, Edelgard really is just That Bitch. Is it a shame that the series’ most groundbreaking queer character is also its most polarizing? Yes, I suppose. Fire Emblem is a Japanese series, and mainstream Japanese games rarely lean into queerness in a way that feels open and genuine, yet here is a revolutionary empress proudly declaring her love for Byleth regardless of gender. But one of the specific things I find that separates Western from Eastern RPGs (and hence the need to differentiate between the two) is the respective willingness and unwillingness to include things that we might consider “progressive,” such as queer love-a thing that Eastern nations are still uncomfortably navigating (and which Westerners generally have no real right to comment on).Īll of that to say…this makes Edelgard even more of a badass than she already is.
People seem to think that Eastern people belong solely in the East, and vice versa. A lot of people got on my case when I said we need more Asian characters in Western RPGs.
