mikogalatea | stop being wrong, dangit (Reply)

I've seen some posts on forums and Twitter and such to the effect of "now I see why Edelgard left Monica to die in the Houses timeline", or other things that suggest Edie did it out of any kind of dislike for the other girl, and I hate it.

This isn't even about these people's opinions of Monica as an individual character; this is about these people being grotesquely wrong about other characters to back up their dislike.

There is nothing to suggest that Edelgard hates or dislikes Monica in any way! Does she find her weird and think she can come on a bit too strong sometimes? Sure, but it's hardly the first or last time Edie's been annoyed by her friends; she has friends and allies she gets far more annoyed with than she ever gets with Monica, but they're still her friends and allies all the same.

Edie also vouches for Monica's perfect memory and other qualities, which she knows well because they're old friends. She wouldn't do that if she didn't like her at all.

While there is a good bit of unevenness in their affections for one another, just because Edie doesn't reciprocate Monica's intense crush on her now doesn't mean she could never do so further down the line, and it's not like Monica has no chance at all of having her feelings returned. (For a start, Edie is bi.) Let's put it this way: if Hopes had paired endings like Houses did, Edie and Monica would almost certainly have gotten one.

As for Edie's initial plan to leave Monica for dead, I'm sure those people making those posts about it weren't paying proper attention to their supports, be it out of bias against one or both characters or otherwise -- because if they did pay proper attention, they would've seen that Edie was clearly wracked with guilt over her initial plan! In fact, I'm pretty sure it was largely that guilt that motivated her to tell Monica about it in the first place!

Edie says it herself: she'd treated Monica's death as a given -- which could potentially mean she'd assumed Monica was already dead -- and was willing to make herself turn a blind eye to what Those Who Slither were doing because she felt she had no choice but to work with them in order to achieve her goals. As she also says, it's a miracle that she got the opportunity to save Monica at all, and it's very telling that when she did get the chance to save her in this version of events, she bloody well took it.

And if she did leave Monica for dead, as in Houses? It would not have been free of regret on her part in the slightest. If Edie seems colder in the academy phase of Houses than in Hopes, that could well be partly because she's feeling the weight of sacrificing her friend -- and that's long before we get to Kronya posing as Monica and going out of her way to hang out with Edie. I'm sure that was Kronya's way of tormenting Edie -- wearing the skin of the friend she allowed to die, playing an exaggerated imitation of her personality that isn't like who Monica really was, and generally constantly reminding her at every turn before Hubert steps in. That couldn't have done any favours for Edie's mental health at all... that part of the game is going to hit so differently when I next come back to it.

All that is the total opposite of "meh, Monica was an annoying bitch, who cares if I throw her under a cart" or whatever the haters believe!

Finally, let's not forget Edie/Monica's A-rank conversation, where Monica says she wouldn't have hated Edie even if she did sacrifice her, which was clearly her way of saying "nothing could ever make me hate you, so please don't hate yourself". As obsessive and over-the-top as her crush on Edie can be, Monica does genuinely care about her, and there's no way Edie doesn't recognise or appreciate that even a little, especially at this stage.

In conclusion, any insinuation that Edelgard hates or dislikes Monica is dumb.