Characters / Fire Emblem: Three Houses – Edelgard

Fire Emblem: Three Houses characters index
Main Characters: Byleth | Edelgard | Dimitri | Claude | Rhea | Other Main Characters
Houses: The Black Eagles (Part One, Part Two) | The Blue Lions (Part One, Part Two) | The Golden Deer (Part One, Part Two)
Garreg Mach Factions: The Ashen Wolves | The Church of Seiros | Officers Academy Instructors and Staff
The Three Nations of Fódlan: The Adrestian Empire | The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus | The Leicester Alliance
Other: Historical Figures | The Flame Emperor Army | Those who slither in the dark | Other Characters

Edelgard von Hresvelg

Nationality: Adrestian Empire

House: Black Eagles

Class: Noble → Lord → Fortress Knight/Warrior → Armored Lord → Emperor (Three Houses), Fighter → Armored Lord → Emperor (Three Hopes)

Age: 17 (6/22)

Crest: Seiros (Minor)

Height: 158 cm

Voiced by: Ai Kakuma (Japanese), Tara Platt (English) ^note Cristina Valenzuela originally voiced Edelgard for the E3 2018 debut trailer, but was recast for the games' proper release.

^{Post-Timeskip}

^{Click here to see Edelgard in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes}

^{Click here to see Edelgard in Fire Emblem Heroes}

^{Click here to see Post-Timeskip Edelgard in Fire Emblem Heroes}

^{MASSIVE spoilers for Azure Moon} Hegemon Edelgard Hegemon Edelgard in Fire Emblem Heroes

Flame Emperor/The Future

"People believe Crests are blessings from the Goddess, that they are necessary to maintain order in Fódlan. But the people are wrong. Crests are to blame for this brutal, irrational world we live in."

Edelgard von Hresvelg is the imperial princess, heir to the throne of the Adrestian Empire, and house leader of the Black Eagles. She has a dignified, high-minded, solemn air about her, and she coolly evaluates her surroundings and those around her before she acts. Her favored weapon is the axe.

Her personal ability, Imperial Lineage, grants her twenty percent more Experience. Post-timeskip it is upgraded to Imperial Lineage+, raising her Resistance if she ends the turn by Waiting. She bears the Minor Crest of Seiros, which has a chance to increase her Might when using Combat Arts.

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# — D

• Actually, I Am Him: In Chapter 11 of Black Eagles, Bernadetta asks if she knew that the Flame Emperor was working with Adrestia. Edelgard responds that of course she knew, because she is the Flame Emperor.
• Adaptational Weapon Swap: In Three Houses, her post-timeskip weapon is the Aymr. In Warriors: Three Hopes, it's Labraunda. It's implied that the reason for the swap is the Agarthans made Aymr for her during the timeskip in Three Houses, but they are driven out of the Empire long beforehand in Warriors: Three Hopes due to the changes Shez unwittingly causes. Furthering this, during the final battle of Azure Gleam, where Edelgard is brainwashed by Thales, she wields Aymr unlike anywhere else in the game. That said, she can optionally acquire Aymr even in Scarlet Blaze in the secret chapter.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In Warriors: Three Hopes, much of Edelgard and Dimitri's relationship during the War Phase lacks the hostilities they had in Three Houses. Due to various factors, including learning Cornelia and Rufus were conspirators in the Tragedy of Duscur, Dimitri does not believe she had any part in the tragedy, and the conflict between them is mostly due to Edelgard declaring war on the Central Church, even believing her reforms have substantial merit and potential for the future. Likewise, Edelgard is also willing to mend bridges with Dimitri, during their talk in the secret route where Jeralt is spared by Shez.
• Affectionate Nickname: "El." She's referred to this by her father and potentially by Byleth if she S-supports with them. She was also called this by Dimitri when they were young, and ends up calling her by it again just moments before she kills him on the Crimson Flower route and conversely before he kills her on the Azure Moon route. Alternatively, Dorothea affectionately calls Edelgard “Edie,” and Hapi calls her "Eddy."
• Age-Gap Romance: Despite their 34 year age difference by the end of the game, Edelgard can be A-supported by and end up in a romantic relationship with Hanneman in their epilogue. It is stated that their relationship was affectionate and fulfilling.
• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • Towards Dimitri after she kills him on the Crimson Flower route, lamenting the fact that her uncle's machinations twisted him into a person obsessed with revenge on her, as he believed that she was complicit in the deaths of his parents and several friends.
  • Edelgard herself is on the receiving end of this on the Verdant Wind/Silver Snow routes, lamenting she wanted to walk together with Byleth on the same path before being executed by them. Even more so once the party reads Hubert's letter, as it becomes clear that those who slither in the dark successfully played her like a fiddle, if only due to meeting her demise before getting the chance to dispose of said group after conquering Fódlan.
• Animal Motifs: Eagles. They're often a sign of royalty and are a symbol of Christ's resurrection. This could refer to Edelgard's status as the Imperial princess (later Emperor) and her desire to bring about a better age for Fódlan.
• Ancestral Weapon:
  • Interestingly Averted, despite House Hresvelg's ancestral ties to the Divine Seiros herself. While her Crest of Seiros has both a Sacred Weapon and shield tied to it (the Sword of Seiros and Seiros Shield), they're both in possession of the church. Meanwhile, her Relic axe, Aymr, is an artificial custom piece Relic crafted by those who slither in the dark, specifically made for her. She steals the Sword of Seiros for personal use on all routes outside of Crimson Flower, but it's very unlikely for her to actually wield it in battle.^noteIf her Aymr runs out of uses during the Gronder Field rematch on Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, she'll switch to the sword, but this rarely happens. The only time it's seen on Silver Snow, meanwhile, is when she briefly clashes with Byleth during their reunion cutscene, as you don't go to Gronder on that route. Stranger still, she ditches the sword entirely on routes where you fight her at Enbarr.
  • Played straight by her axe in Three Hopes, Labraunda, which is another Sacred Weapon linked to the Crest of Seiros. A conversation with a scholar NPC on Ch 9 of Scarlet Blaze reveals that while most of the Sacred Weapons are controlled by the Central Church, several were lost over the ages with their whereabouts unknown and Labraunda was found as part of a concentrated search by the Empire before the war for such weapons. Given Edelgard lost out on Aymr due to severing ties with those who slither in the dark and the Church clearly wouldn't be interested in giving her the Sword or Shield of Seiros given her plans for them, it makes sense she would want a viable replacement in order to go toe-to-toe with the Heroes' Relics and Sacred Weapons of her opponents without a handicap.
• Anti-Hero: In Three Houses, she can be seen as an Unscrupulous Hero or Pragmatic Hero as an ally. As an enemy, she's a full-on villain. Regardless, she's always a Well-Intentioned Extremist determined to bring about what she sees as a better world in Fódlan, no matter what means are used to achieve those ends. In Three Hopes, she is much more traditionally heroic, while Claude is the more unscrupulous and pragmatic one.
• Anti-Magic: In Three Hopes, her Innate Ability "Nullify Magic", obtained from mastering the Gremory class, allows her to No-Sell all magic attacks. Considering her personal classes classify as armored units that tend to take additional class damage from magic-based attacks along with slightly lower Resistance in general, this provides both a powerful defense and makes her a prime Mage Killer able to fully leverage her physical power on them. Considering what Thales magically does to her in Azure Gleam, she'd probably wish she had that ability on hand at all times.
• Anti-Nepotism: Part of her issues with Fódlan's nobility system. She also says that when the time comes to choose her successor as emperor, she'll select them based on their worth as a leader rather than by blood.
• Apologetic Attacker: She is shown apologizing to Byleth before deciding to clash swords with them at some point following the timeskip.
• Arch-Enemy: After Three Houses' Wham Episode, she becomes Dimitri's most personal enemy. He incorrectly believes she was complicit in the Tragedy of Duscur, and will stop at nothing to tear her head off in revenge.
• Armor and Magic Don't Mix: Despite her budding talent for Reason, her Armored Lord and Emperor classes do not have access to magic, requiring a reclass to a less armored class to let her make use of it.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: She can learn Luna, a dark spell that ignores the enemy's resistance, when specializing on Reason.
• Babies Ever After: She is confirmed to have children in her paired ending with Ferdinand. This the only character ending she has to explicitly state that she becomes a mother.
• Badass Adorable: Edelgard is a beautiful young woman who is also a powerful fighter with her axes, and also sports quite the dorky side in some of her side interactions and Supports.
• Badass Cape: In her academy uniform, she wears an asymmetrical, red cape. Her Lord class and post-timeskip outfit gives her a more traditional cape.
• Battle Ballgown: Her wardrobe post-timeskip is a regal red gown with armored elements and a Badass Cape.
• Battle Trophy: On the Silver Snow route, Edelgard uses Rhea’s sword to duel Byleth at one point. Seeing as her preferred weapon is an axe, it’s probably meant to put Byleth off-guard by reminding them of the weapon's history.
• Benevolent Mage Ruler: She's the heir of the Adestrian Empire, a progressive reformer, and her budding talent is in Reason, meaning she can potentially become a magically-inclined Emperor devoted to her nation's well-being post-timeskip.
• Best Friend: A part of her character development and hangups are how much actually close bonds mean to her, due to the traumas she faced growing up.
  • In Three Houses, on her route, she sees Byleth this way, platonic and potentially romantic. Hubert attempts to foster this bond between Edelgard and Byleth, noting Byleth can be Edelgard's emotional support where he cannot.
  • She notably does not have this level of friendship with Hubert, though they are friends, his insistence on professionalism in his official roles for her, and his personality, limit their connection.
  • In both Three Houses and Three Hopes, she has a close (platonic and potentially romantic) bond with Dorothea, even calling each other "dearest friends" in the latter. She and Petra also wish to share a lifelong friendship. In their death quotes when on the same side as her in Three Houses, Dorothea and Petra even use their last words to apologize to Edelgard. The two of them even join her in the background of the Garreg Mach stage in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, whereas the other Lords have at least one retainer.
• Big Bad: She is the main antagonist and last opponent on the Azure Moon route, being the leader of the forces trying to conquer the continent and Dimitri's most personal foe. While Thales is responsible for turning her into what she is today and for several tragedies in the backstory, his true role in the plot is never revealed and his early death cements Edelgard's spot as the main threat.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: It's ultimately revealed that she's the Flame Emperor and one of the biggest threats to peace in Fódlan alongside Thales in Part I. If you don't side with her, stopping her efforts to conquer Fódlan with the assistance of her Imperial forces and TWSITD's resources is your primary objective through most of Part II, while Thales himself is either taken care of in Azure Moon during the war (as Arundel), or after Edelgard's downfall in Verdant Wind and Silver Snow.
• Big Bad Friend: On the Silver Snow route, she spends a little under a year acting as your student and orchestrating attacks on the Church before sticking a knife in your back to wage war against the continent. While she does genuinely value the bonds she made with you, her ambitions come first even if they bring you into conflict with her.
• Big Bad Wannabe: On the Azure Gleam route in Three Hopes. She's set up to be the main antagonist once the war begins, only for Cornelia to start rebellions within Faerghus and become the bigger threat in Part I. While Edelgard still gets to be the last boss of Part I after Cornelia is killed, she is then enslaved by Thales, who becomes the true Big Bad of the route and reduces Edelgard to a mindless puppet for him and Duke Aegir.
• Big Red Devil: Post-timeskip in Three Houses, she wears all red with noticeable ram horns as hair ornaments. Seeing as how her aim is to completely destroy the church, it's probably intentional. In Three Hopes, this is dropped for more silver armor, a different crown, and more of a "queen of hearts" aesthetic.
• Big Sister Instinct: She shows this towards Lysithea should the latter be recruited into the Black Eagles. Edelgard frets over Lysithea's well-being, especially with the knowledge that she too bears two Crests as a result of cruel experimentation, brings her cake, and treats her like a child. Lysithea herself has mixed feelings about this, as she dislikes how patronizing it is, but understands that Edelgard is only trying to help her. Her concern is especially notable given that Lysithea was experimented on as a test run for Edelgard's implantation. This is also notable in that, prior to the Cindered Shadows expansion, Lysithea was the only non-Black Eagle student who Edelgard had a support with.^note Constance was added as a support after the DLC update, but her relationship with Edelgard is remarkably different, with Constance instead trying to win Edelgard's trust.
• Black Comedy: Edelgard displays a rather dark sense of humor at times. The biggest example is during Chapter 7, where she jokes about the Empire and Kingdom going to war while plotting behind the scenes to actually trigger a war between their nations.
• Blade Lock: On the Silver Snow route, Emperor Edelgard manages to perform one against Byleth and their Sword of the Creator using the Sword of Seiros. Both then attempt to transition into a strike against the other's throat.
• Breaking Old Trends: While most of the previous emperor characters are all males and unquestioned antagonists, she is a female and playable, just like the only other character that broke this trend Sanaki ^note despite being known as an Empress she is actually the highest authority in the Begnion Empire, and the game pretty much treats her like an Emperor , but also playing a protagonist role as one of the Lords.
• Brief Accent Imitation: In Three Houses, she performs one of Hubert (during her B support with Byleth) and another one of Ferdinand (during her C support with... Ferdinand). In Three Hopes, she performs one of Jeritza during her C support with Jeritza.
• The Brute: In Three Houses, Edelgard's alliance with those who slither in the dark is a mutual distrusting one where both sides openly plot to kill the other when they feel they are no longer of use. To that end, this is how TWSITD view Edelgard, as their muscle openly causing dissent throughout Fódlan, with their goal being to make a power grab once Edelgard has conquered the Resistance forces. Tellingly, Edelgard actually dies before them in the Verdant Wind and Silver Snow routes.
• Byronic Hero: To the point where she rivals Arvis as far as this characterization goes. She is incredibly beautiful and charismatic, haunted by her own horrific and traumatized past, and spends a significant chunk of time in her supports and after the timeskip reflecting philosophically on her tortured life. She is absolutely committed to her cause and will stop at nothing to make it a reality, believing it to be the only way. These are the very traits that bring her into conflict with, well, the rest of the continent.
• The Cameo:
  • Appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a spectator on the Garreg Mach Monastery DLC stage alongside Petra and Dorothea, watching fights inside the Reception Hall.
  • She appears in the background in the Tetris 99 theme of this game.
  • She appears in the teatime mini-game of WarioWare: Get It Together!.
• Cain and Abel: Plays both Cain and Abel with her stepbrother, Dimitri. Upon discovering her identity as the Flame Emperor, he turns murderous, screaming that he'll have her head, and remains as such for the rest of the game... except on the Azure Moon route. There, he overcomes his hate and tries to reconcile with her, only to get a dagger in the shoulder... and a melancholic smile.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: Edelgard's sense of humor... leaves much to be desired. To wit, she fails to make any joke sound funny with the way she says it; people often mistakenly think she's serious about everything she says, often making her look confused as to why no one saw the humor. This also extends to how often she likes to mention the idea of her Empire going up against the other factions in a real battle to the death, which makes both Dimitri and Claude think she's doing a bad joke in poor taste that she rarely ever feels apologetic about. Except she was totally advocating to make that happen, plunging all of Fódlan into chaos for years.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You:
  • When she's an enemy, Edelgard captures Rhea and imprisons her for five years, despite knowing she is one of her most powerful and dangerous enemies. This is eventually revealed (via DLC exclusive dialogue in Abyss) to have been because she intended to use Rhea in some way against the Agarthans in Shambala◊ after the war to conquer/unify Fódlan was over.
  • She loathes the Agarthans/those who slither in the dark, but avoids killing them as much as she can for as long as she believes she needs their power in the war.
  • In Cindered Shadows, if she defeats Metodey, she lets him escape via the excuse that he's not worth her time, with the real reason being that he's been hired to help her raid the Holy Tomb.
• Casting a Shadow: She learns some high-tier dark spells like Luna and Hades upon specializing in Reason, and she's one of three characters to pick up Dark Magic Range +1 and Dark Tomefaire instead of their black magic equivalents.
• Character Death: She will always die in non-Crimson Flower paths as a result of being one of your chosen faction's main antagonists, either by choosing to die for what she believes in rather than surrendering once she is finally defeated, or by demanding her execution as a means to bring an end to the war and stop any future bloodshed coming from the Empire following her defeat.
• Character Development
  • On the Crimson Flower route, she starts off as a cold and ruthless lord with her own ambitions, but softens up thanks to Byleth, even to the point of serving as a big sister/motherly type figure to other characters. Notably, in spite of openly being a non-believer, she adopts a more tolerant and respectful stance towards Seiros' faith and lets her subjects keep practicing the religion despite being at war with the very same Church that founded it. Also, while she never truly abandons her beliefs that sacrifice is sometimes necessary for the greater good, she begins showing hesitance towards losing unnecessary lives, specifically those closer to her. This extends to ordering both the Black Eagle Strike Force right before the final battle and Lysithea in her supports to not throw their lives away if it can be avoided. She finally finds the strength to trust in others because Byleth beats some sense into her before actively siding with her The culmination of her character arc comes in the final chapter, where she actually offers Lady Rhea the chance to stand down and surrender; she never does a move like this on the default routes. Here, it is Rhea who escalates matters by burning Fhirdiad to the ground, forcing Edelgard and Byleth to take her out by force.
  • Another way she develops is that she grows less reliant on TWSITD if the player chooses her side after Chapter 11. This is seen as early as Chapter 12, where there is no indication that TWSITD are present, unlike on the default roles where Thales is explicitly shown. This results in a dramatically changed status quo on Crimson Flower compared to the other routes, where Rhea was able to escape and seek refuge in Fhirdiad, where Dimitri was also crowned as king of Faerghus due to the bloody coup not being enacted here. Demonic beasts are never seen fighting alongside the Black Eagle Strike Force after the Holy Tomb incident, and in Chapter 16, they attack and take Arianrhod, under the control of Lady Cornelia, as a pre-emptive strike against TWSITD before they resume their plans to defeat Lady Rhea once and for all.
• Character Tics: When wielding an axe without a shield, Edelgard sticks her hand out, fingers spread as if grasping for something. Some of her cipher and official art depict a similar gesture. Presumably symbolizing her reaching for the future she seeks, or possibly the hand of an ally to stand by her.
• Climax Boss:
  • If Byleth isn't on her side, she is the final boss of Part I. The battle is a major turning point in the story, coming right after the reveal that she's the Flame Emperor and right before the time skip, and the battle also has unique music and pretty much every major protagonist and antagonist take part.
  • This is particularly the case in the Verdant Wind and Silver Snow routes where the raid on the Empire Capital serves as the turning point of both routes. It's after Edelgard's death that the player learns of the true forces, those who slither in the dark, who have been pulling the strings of the conflicts in the game, setting the stage for the endgame.
  • In Azure Gleam, she and Ferdinand are the last bosses fought before the second timeskip.
• Combat Stilettos: All three of her outfits feature her wearing high heels in combat.
• Condescending Compassion: Her support with Caspar sees the latter lightly call Edelgard out on it, as she spends much of the early conversation trying to convince Caspar that he should be upset that his older brother is inheriting a title he doesn't deserve. Caspar bites back that despite the fact that she's framing the conversation about his feelings, she's really making it all about herself and her feelings on the Empire's inheritance system.
• Conflict Ball: Deconstructed in Three Houses. Edelgard ultimately being the instigator of events leading to the War Phase makes her being seen as a straight case of the trope, given that, outside of the Black Eagle route, there isn't much to go on that would suggest such sudden and extreme action. Her proclamation comes so out of left field that in-universe, anyone who didn't side with her is utterly perplexed by it. The tragedy of the war is that while on paper, Edelgard's goals are almost fully aligned with Claude's and she likely could have shared her grievances with the Church to Dimitri, in practice, a combination of trust issues, knowledge and bias towards Rhea's race, previously established alliances with Agarthans and Adrestian nobility used to reclaim House Hresvelg's seat of power, fuzzy memories of her time in the Kingdom, and sheer stubborness from her part render this an impossibility. Not helping matters is that unforseen circumstances end up convincing Dimitri that the Tragedy of Duscur was started on her orders, driving him into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Plus, late into Azure Moon, a parley between both showcases they're far too ideologically different to reach a common ground. Meanwhile, Claude comes off as incredibly shady, and, in-universe, is not willing to talk about what he wants for the future. A scene in Verdant Wind even comes this close to Claude and Edelgard talking about what their goals are during the school phase, but it's always Claude who holds out on information.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Unlike previous main Lords in the franchise, who all in some form or another take after either Marth or Hector, Edelgard takes more inspiration from antagonists such as Rudolf, Hardin, Arvis, and Walhart. To highlight this, she's the future emperor of Adrestia and is primarily associated with the color red like them as well. She's also much more unscrupulous when it comes to achieving her goals. Notably, she is a major antagonist in all default routes, being the final boss of one, and will have to be fought at least once even in her own route, not something either of the other house leaders accomplish.
• Cool Crown: Picks one up after the time-skip and becoming Emperor of Adrestia; it's a jeweled tiara with golden, curled ram's horns. The horns may also be intended to invoke the image of the dragon that has been shown in flashbacks of the founding of the Church of Seiros, and by extension the Adrestian Empire.
• Crush Blush: While it’s clear that Edelgard is intrigued by Byleth in all routes, it’s apparent that she develops a very obvious crush on them in her own route, prompting her to have several moments like this with Byleth. This is especially true in part two of her route. For example, the moment where Caspar talks about how Edelgard was the most worried about Byleth after they disappeared.
• Crutch Character: She becomes this in Three Houses' Silver Snow route. Edelgard has solid base stats to carry you for most of Part I's battles. However, come Chapter 11, she'll leave your party permanently and become an enemy. Better hope you didn't rely too much on her and under-level your other units too badly, especially on higher difficulties.
• Cutscene Boss: Unlike Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, Silver Snow's first post-timeskip battle against Edelgard is handled early into Part II through a cinematic clash of blades which ends in a stalemate.
• Dare to Be Badass:
  • In Three Houses she gives one to the Black Eagles themselves after they decide to join her in her crusade to take down the Church during the Crimson Flower route.
    Edelgard: If you dare walk this path with me, take your first step. It's now or never!
  • In her C-Support with Petra, this is her response to Petra saying that Edelgard can't afford to distract herself by worrying about Petra's well-being.
    Edelgard: I am Edelgard von Hresvelg. And yes, I'm attempting to do what no one else can. I'm prepared to shoot two birds, or even three, with a single arrow. That is the least of the impossible things I will accomplish. If you don't need my patronage, then prove it. Show me your power. Never settle for being the bird. Be the arrow instead.
• Dark and Troubled Past: During one of her supports with Byleth, she reveals to them that she didn't become her father's heir simply because of her capabilities. She once had ten siblings. Eight older and two younger, all of whom were either crippled by disease, went insane, or died thanks to Crest experimentation. Edelgard herself was no exception, with her white hair being a sign of what she went through.
• Dark Messiah: Edelgard is convinced that she’s the only person (outside the Agarthans and the Saints) who knows the truth about Fódlan, so she’s the only one who can save it (she's wrong on both points). While she does care about the common people and truly wants a better world for them, in order to achieve that, she’ll stop at nothing and is willing to murder, lie, experiment on innocent lives, ally with the true monsters, and even sacrifice her friends as long as it helps her. She gets a lot better if Byleth sides with her, but if they don’t, she becomes the Big Bad/The Heavy that needs to be put down by the heroes. As a little curious detail, Edelgard is self-aware, at least partially, of her own position as a "Dark Hero", one that either wins as a revolutionary hero or dies as a tyrant.
• Dark Is Not Evil: On Crimson Flower, she and the Adrestian army retain their red and black asthetic, but as Byleth has sided with them, their worst tendencies are reined in and they become genuinely heroic. This in turn contrasts with Rhea's Light Is Not Good, as this is also the route where she descends into murderous insanity. Those who slither in the dark remain an aversion, however, as they're just as evil despite being temporary allies.
• Death Seeker: Her final act during the Azure Moon route could be interpreted as this, considering that she could have easily aimed the dagger at a more lethal spot than Dimitri's shoulder. The relieved smile she shows prior to Dimitri finishing her off shows she wanted that outcome. Given that she also advocated for her death in the Silver Snow/Verdant Wind routes, it would make sense for her to have the same attitude at the end of the Azure Moon route.
• Deceptive Disciple: Downplayed in Three Houses. If you lead the Black Eagles, she spends the entire year studying under Byleth and the Officers Academy with the intention of betraying them and the Church, which will probably (but not certainly) lead to Byleth coming to blows with her. However, she does develop genuine bonds with them, and despite Hubert's warnings not to reveal too much, hopes (but doesn't believe) that they will side with her.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the series' "action lord" archetype popularized by Hector, Ephraim, and Ike. Like many such lords in the past, she has no qualms about using military force to get her way. Unlike previous lords, she is actually willing to incite a war to achieve her aims, and her actions turn her into the unquestioned Big Bad of the Azure Moon route and a major antagonist on the Verdant Wind and Silver Snow routes.
• Decoy Protagonist: On Three Houses' Silver Snow route, she is one of the two main protagonists of the first half of the game, but she betrays you at the midpoint and becomes The Heavy from that point forward.
• Defeat Means Friendship: In Three Houses, it can either be played straight or subverted depending on the player's choices in the penultimate chapter of White Clouds on the Black Eagles path. If Byleth has made an effort to connect with Edelgard (achieved at least both C-rank supports with her, went to see her coronation), and chooses to spare her life when told by Rhea to kill her, it is played straight, as this is the point where Byleth firmly asserts themselves as Edelgard's closest ally. If none of the above steps are met or Byleth chooses to kill Edelgard at the end of the penultimate chapter of White Clouds, Hubert steps in to save Edelgard and the trope is utterly subverted as Edelgard declares war on the Church... which Byleth has just proven they are loyal to.
• Defiant to the End: When the post-timeskip rolls around, surrender is not an option Edelgard is willing to consider. On the Azure Moon route, despite Dimitri having the complete upper hand and offering her a chance to end the war peacefully, Edelgard decides to fight him to the bitter and bloody end. On Verdant Wind, if you injure Edelgard during the final battle, Claude tries to convince her to lay down her arms, to no avail.
• Developers' Desired Date: For Byleth and vice versa on the Black Eagles route of Three Houses, with several scenes outside of her Support conversations heavily implying that she is quite enamored with them regardless of gender.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She's cool and distant from her peers due to being singularly focused on achieving her ambitions, but she holds the people who do get to know her dear. On the Crimson Flower route, she even softens up thanks to Byleth.
• Didn't See That Coming: In Three Houses, she gets thrown a couple of curveballs on her route, although fortunately they are both favorable to her.
  • At the end of Chapter 11, she is pretty much resigned to the belief that once she makes her move against the Church of Seiros, she will have to become enemies with Byleth. She is utterly flabbergasted if they choose to defect to her side.
  • She is surprised when Hanneman and Manuela side with her (and they default to siding with her on the Azure Moon route). In their supports, she asks them why they chose to side with her, given it would seem Manuela's faith and Hanneman's goals run directly contrary to her ideals. They both have to assure her that their actual motivations are quite heavily aligned with hers: Manuela identifies with Edelgard's goal of rewarding hard workers regardless of background, and Hanneman identifies with wanting to make Crests no longer a valuable and exploitable tool of the nobility. She's notably the only house leader they can support with.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • In the prologue of Three Houses, she hires a group of bandits to attack and kill the nobles at Remire (Claude and Dimitri, as well as herself ironically), but does so in her guise as the Flame Emperor, and is vague enough in her instructions to prevent the whole thing from being traced back to her. Unfortunately for her, she never anticipates the complications that arise simply by virtue of Claude running away, or that she herself would wind up in their crosshairs and actually come the closest to getting killed. Thanks to Byleth's intervention, though, she survives and then cuts her losses by leaving her erstwhile employees out to dry, and all her later schemes are far more successful in triggering an upheaval against the Church and giving her the opening to move forward with her planned revolution.
  • Downplayed in Crimson Flower. She didn't expect Byleth to betray Rhea and join her side. This ends up working in her favor big time. It means she can rely on Byleth and her classmates more and depend less on those who slither in the dark. It also results in a shorter war, resulting not only in Fódlan being unified under one rule at a quicker rate, but it also allows Edelgard to eliminate those who slither in the dark following Rhea's death.
  • While she has good intentions with her desire to break the crest and nobility system of Fódlan, she hasn't fully thought through how to do so, or what needs to be done to create the meritocracy that she dreams of. When Ferdinand mentions that a free universal education system would need to be created for the common people (because otherwise the vast majority of them would never be able to acquire the knowledge or training they need to compete with the entrenched elites), Edelgard's reaction hints that she hadn't considered this. This may be because she believes that her days are numbered and has put all her focus into overthrowing the established order, so she hasn't completely thought about how to best replace it or the lengthy process of reforms that she may not even live to see.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Edelgard's moveset in Three Hopes as the Armored Lord/Emperor is rather slow and awkward to use, with her lack of mobility as an armored unit not helping things. Mastering her moveset however, grants you an exceptional juggernaut who can blow up everything in her way, and tank hits like a total badass.
• Dirty Business: Her overall stance towards most of her questionable actions, in particular after the Time Skip. Edelgard is fully aware that what she's doing is morally wrong and does feel remorseful about it (which she conceals in public). At the same time, she's fully convinced that her war is the quickest and only way to reform all of Fódlan with the fewest casualties in the long run, meaning that she will keep on pressing regardless of her own feelings on the matter or the well-being of the enemies she must destroy to accomplish her goal.
• Disc-One Final Boss:
  • On default routes, she is the final boss of the final chapter before the Time Skip as she leads the Empire army to take over Garreg Mach. On the Azure Moon route, she is always the final boss, and in the Silver Snow and Verdant Wind routes, she is a Climax Boss post-timeskip.
  • On the Golden Wildfire route of Warriors: Three Hopes, she is the main antagonist of Part I due to being Leicester's enemy in the war. However, the conflict ends in a ceasefire after Shahid rears his ugly head again and Rhea becomes Claude's primary foe for the rest of the game.
  • On Azure Gleam, she is the primary antagonist up to her defeat at Arianrhod halfway through the story, at which point Thales makes his move and becomes the main villain from then on. Edelgard herself ends up Thales's mindless puppet for the remainder of the story (if Byleth is recruited, during the extra chapters, Edelgard is unable to remember the last 6 months since the battle at Arianrhod), and once Thales is defeated, Edelgard has apparently mentally regressed to her younger self before she was experimented on by those who slither in the dark due to the mind control.
• Disease Bleach: Her white hair is a result of Crest experimentation, possibly Marie Antoinette syndrome. Dimitri's flashback reveals that she was originally a light brunette.
• Dissonant Serenity: Post-timeskip, she retains her calm politeness but turns the Adrestian Empire into, well, The Empire.
• Distaff Counterpart: Visually at least, after the time-skip, Edelgard's predominately red armor, horned crown, white hair, penchant for using axes in battle, and being Emperor of a large nation make her seem an awful lot like a female version of Walhart. Heroes coincidentally gives her a weapon and statline very similar to Walhart's. In fact, the events of the game prove that their similarities go beyond mere appearance; both believe in bringing peace to their respective worlds by conquering them, and both have a major anti-divinity slant to their belief systems.
• Double Agent: In Three Houses, she is conspiring to destroy the Church of Seiros as the Flame Emperor, but occasionally acts against her own interests to protect her cover or rein in those who slither in the dark when they go too far.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Broadly serves as this to Thales and those who slither in the dark on the Verdant Wind and Silver Snow routes. Her ambitions, military, and powers all germinate from the machinations of those who slither in the dark, and Thales refers to her as their "greatest weapon" in their battle against Sothis's legacy. That said, she actively plans to destroy them once she wins the war, doing so in her own route.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: On the Azure Moon route, Dimitri recounts how she was a very strict dance teacher during their childhood friendship.
• Dude Magnet: She was Dimitri’s first love, Hubert is totally devoted to and secretly in love with her, and Ferdinand is also hinted to have interest in her and, like Hubert, is jealous of her obsession with Byleth. And of course, depending on who you support her with, other people can show interest in her.
• Dying Declaration of Love: While not said word for word, her final lines in the Silver Snow/Verdant Wind route, before Byleth kills her, reads very similar to this.

E — I

• Earn Your Happy Ending: She eventually abolishes Fódlan's class system to create a free and independent society where people can rise by their own merits. If she has an S-Support, it's also mentioned that she's happy with her companion and spends a lot of private and personal moments with them.
• Easily Forgiven: On the Crimson Flower route, the other playable characters don't give her much grief for lying to them the whole year about being the Flame Emperor and being an accomplice to nearly every bad thing to happen in Part I, culminating in a direct attack against them.
• Emotional Regression: In Three Hopes' Azure Gleam, it's eventually revealed near the end of Part II that Thales mentally regressed her back into her 12-year-old self via mind control, and ends up in that state by the end of the story. It's also suggested it's entirely magic based, as Zahras on this route interferes with the spell Edelgard was put in and briefly brings back her current self with no memories of what had transpired during her time under Thales' control.
• The Emperor: Post-timeskip, she's officially ascended to become Emperor of Adrestia. It's even the name of her final, exclusive class.
• Et Tu, Brute?: In Three Hopes, Edelgard mentions in Scarlet Blaze she suffered a lot her uncle and Duke Aegir's betrayal as it led to the experimentation and death of her siblings. She even makes clear Duke Aegir's backstabbing hurt her the most, as she realized much later that her uncle at least had the "excuse" of having been literally replaced by an impostor.
• Even the Girls Want Her: For as much male attention as Edelgard attracts, she's also popular with the ladies. She can marry a female Byleth, Dorothea expresses romantic interest in her, and Three Hopes shows that Monica is openly in love with her.
• Everyone Can See It: Both in Three Houses:
  • When Byleth is reunited with Edelgard and other members of the Black Eagle Strike Force, Caspar is quick to point out that Edelgard was the one who took Byleth's disappearance the hardest, and is probably happier than all of them combined to see their teacher return to them, causing Edelgard to quietly blush and avoid eye contact with Byleth. Dorothea also says that after Byleth's disappearance, it became apparent to all of them that Byleth was Edelgard's emotional anchor.
  • If what Dorothea says is true, the implication is all of Imperial Fódlan can see it, even if it isn't there. Dorothea blithely states it's almost guaranteed that once an opera is made of Edelgard's war, Byleth will be set as a major love interest for Edelgard, if for no other reason than to add romantic tension to the opera.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • In Three Houses, even as the Flame Emperor, she utterly loathes those who slither in the dark, and is openly furious if Solon kills the villagers in Remire Village, swearing he will not escape retribution.
  • On Crimson Flower, Edelgard is willing to accept her enemies' surrender. If she fights and defeats Claude, the player can choose to spare him. She can ask a hypothetical question about what would happen if Archishop Rhea would surrender, and is most amenable to stripping the individual in question of power, and disapproves of launching a surprise attack. Just before the Final Battle, she offers the aforementioned Rhea a chance to surrender, but the latter fights to the bitter end, as does Dimitri.
  • In Three Hopes, Edelgard appoints Count Varley as the bishop of the Southern Church. The timeskip however, reveals that his position is one that is open to censure and assassination attempts, all but outright stating that this was Edelgard's true intention. She even tells Bernadetta that she "unfortunately" did not arrest Count Varley, heavily implying that she hates him for how he treated his daughter.
• Evil All Along: In Three Houses whether or not she can truly be called "evil" is debatable, but she eventually reveals herself to have been the Flame Emperor the entire time and promptly betrays you. Unless you turn over to her side, she becomes one of the main antagonists from that point forward.
• Evil Former Friend: Azure Moon reveals that she and Dimitri were once good friends in their childhood. By the time they reunite during the events of the game, she's become a warlord who plans to conquer the entire continent to rid it of the Church and the Crest System.
• Experience Booster: Her personal skill, Imperial Lineage, grants her an additional 20% experience gained after combat.
• Extra Turn:
  • Her Aymr's Combat Art Raging Storm allows her to take another turn when it is used, even if the attack landed or not, despite what the description says otherwise, at the cost of 3 durability (and 1 more if the attack lands), and can be even used over and over again in the same turn, which means with Aymr at full durability, she can perform up to 6 attacks in one turn (8 if she hits 2 or less Raging Storms).
  • Edelgard as the Final Boss in the Azure Moon route has Twin Crest as one of her Hegemon Husk class skills, where she will take two actions in one turn. Considering that her Crest of Flames Power has a very large attack range and Twin-Crest Power has high Might and a good Crit rate, this makes her especially dangerous.
• The Extremist Was Right: Edelgard is correct that Fódlan needs to change, and removing the existing status quo allows for a new and better world. Unfortunately, the new and better world only comes after five years of bloodshed that she knowingly began.
• Face Death with Dignity: On the Silver Snow and Verdant Wind, she accepts her defeat gracefully and doesn't resist when Byleth ultimately finishes her off; indeed, she emphatically argues that they should do it when Byleth hesitates.
• Face–Heel Turn: If you're a Black Eagle, she betrays you and the Church in Chapter 11 and actually fights you and her classmates. If you stay loyal to the Church afterwards, this becomes permanent.
• Failure Gambit: The combined events of Three Houses and Three Hopes' first chapters suggest Kostas' orders of "kill as many noble pipsqueaks as possible" was in likelyhood an elaborate scheme to scare away the teacher the Church intended to hire for the sake of Jeritza claiming his spot instead, and that Kostas wasn't intended to succeed at all (it's even noted in Three Houses that Edelgard deliberately neglected to tell Kostas that the Church's Knights of Seiros were going to get involved on his attack). The fact the latter's death in Three Hopes gave Edelgard the opportunity to save Monica from the Agarthans was also another side effect in her favor.
• Faith–Heel Turn: Her parley with Dimitri at the end of the Azure Moon route heavily implies the experiments she underwent below the Imperial Palace as a child killed her trust towards the Church of Seiros and their titular goddess. Said event, plus the Hresvelg family's exclusive knowledge of the War of Heroes, convinced her that those in charge of the institution (the Children of the Goddess) are willingly turning a blind eye to the people's suffering as long as they remain controlling and influencing Fódlan.
• Fantastic Racism: Her harsh and dehumanizing rhetoric against Children of the Goddess certainly paints a picture of this. This is expressed in her distrust of them holding power over humans, unlike the Agarthans that want them all destroyed.
• Fatal Flaw: Has quite a few.
  • Her ambition and insistence on doing things on her own leads her to antagonize many of the people around her, even those she cares about, due to placing her ambition and ideals forged by her past above all else. This can be mitigated somewhat by Byleth's influence during the Crimson Flower route, but even they, along with the entirety of the Black Eagles sans Hubert, can turn against her due to it. Especially if Byleth does not attend her coronation, her actions in the Holy Tomb irrevocably destroy everyone's trust in her. Even if Byleth does come to her coronation, they can still turn against her.
  • Her determination. Though admirable to a degree, her stubborn belief in her own ideals and refusal to countenance others, as well as her inability to question her own knowledge of the world, leads her to her death at the hands of either Byleth (Verdant Wind/Silver Snow) or Dimitri (Azure Moon).
  • Her hatred towards the Church prevents her from seeing Rhea and her kin as anything more than ambition-driven monsters masquerading as humans and makes her see those siding with the Church as enemies. This causes her to refuse to consider other viewpoints and helps lead to her death in any route but her own. Though to be fair, other than Byleth, the only lord that manages to learn most of the Church's truth (Claude) does so thanks to first learning information that Hubert gave him and using it to pressure Rhea. Despite disliking the Church of Seiros, however, she suggests that she favors stripping Rhea of her power instead of outright killing her (which she ends up doing so on default routes by keeping her jailed in the Imperial Palace), an action quite similar to what she does to Duke Aegir in all routes, a man that she has every right to hate (though her intentions with Rhea are eventually revealed to be quite different from with the Duke, namely she keeps Rhea alive on default routes because she intends to use her as insurance against the Agarthans, and unlike the Duke's standard albeit restraining house arrest, Rhea is kept in quite poor health in a hidden cell).
  • Her tendency to work with amoral individuals to achieve her goals, which leads to people believing the worst of her. In Three Houses, the assholes whose company she keeps include those who slither in the dark, who perform countless terrible acts of mass murder and genocide, bloodthirsty bandits like Metodey, Kingdom nobles led by Cornelia who played a part in the Tragedy of Duscur and the genocide of the Duscur people, and greedy power-hungry Alliance nobles who only care about personal power. On her route in that game, though, she manages to detach herself from most of these "allies", even going as far as to kill Cornelia, and eventually the rest of the Agarthans. In Three Hopes, this is almost entirely averted, and is discussed a bit: all of the above are either never worked with willingly or cast aside as soon as a more ethical path is made available to her at the start of the game. She still has to work with some Kingdom and Alliance lords who are prone to Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, but are not otherwise overtly malicious. Her working with Count Varley is clearly established as a jerk being Kicked Upstairs and placed in a Uriah Gambit.
  • Her obsession with the future, while ignoring the present and completely disregarding the past. Her need to create a better future, no matter how far off in the distance it could be, leads her to brush off the pain and torture her war causes in the present time on everyone as long they eventually lead to it, especially the commoners, while her disregard for the past leads her to ignore how it was the past that shaped her and others into who they are now. At the end of the Azure Moon route, her transformation into Hegemon Edelgard shows her complete discarding of both, which has left her so thoroughly changed that she has willingly abandoned her very humanity — a fact Dimitri will tell her directly to her face should they engage in battle, and Edelgard makes no rebuttal when he does. Finally, though the Crimson Flower route does vindicate her vision, whether things would (or should) still go the way she hopes they will after she dies remains a hotly-contested question. In Three Hopes, her reforms are confirmed to be showing benefits within two years of her becoming Emperor, as confirmed by Dimitri.
  • The most literal example is her refusal to compromise or accept any outcome of the war other than someone reaching a decisive victory and rule of Fódlan, as it is what ultimately kills her in each route where she dies. That is, in the final battle with her, Byleth, Dimitri, and Claude each express a desire/willingness to spare her life and work with her to better Fódlan, recognizing the good she seeks to accomplish, but she refuses each of them in one way or another (arguing for her own death or forcing them to kill her by continuing to fight after being offered mercy). This happens even when she admits they share many of the same beliefs (as with Claude). It is also a notable difference between her and Rhea, who in every route where she survives will willingly step aside to allow others to reform Fódlan, as long as Byleth is one of the leaders. If S-ranked, Rhea will even cooperate with Byleth to undo her past mistakes and enable progress for Fódlan. Edelgard takes no such options of compromise; indeed, she refuses to acknowledge them as options. On the Crimson Flower route and Three Hopes, this is averted: Edelgard makes it clear that her preference would be for Rhea to surrender, but Rhea is the one who refuses, and Edelgard can spare and work with Claude on routes where she is given a choice.
    Edelgard: There can be only one ruler of the world.
  • As revealed in Three Hopes, she has massive trust issues, even towards herself. Her trust issues are understandable considering all of the corruption happening in the Empire, and considering there's no guarantee the people closest to her couldn't be under the employ of or impersonated by those who slither in the dark. In fact, Claude can betray her in Scarlet Blaze in the event you do not fight Epimenides, reinforcing her trust issues. However, for the majority of the Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire routes, Edelgard is much more open with others, and this is discussed in Scarlet Blaze. In Azure Gleam, she is right to have trust issues, as Thales returns and brainwashes her.
  • Another addition from Three Hopes is Edelgard's deeply set impatience. Many of the goals Edelgard is seeking to reform are slowly happening anyway in Fodlan, including the end of the Crest system (as the Crest bloodlines are thinning) and a move towards a more meritocratic form of society in all three nations. Many key leaders in the Kingdom and Alliance are quietly making reforms in preparation for the inevitable, but Edelgard is insistent on making complete change now at any cost, which alienates many leaders who are in fact sympathetic to her goals, particularly within the Kingdom.
• The Fatalist: Edelgard is convinced that it's her destiny to reunify Fódlan by any means necessary, abolish its status quo, and oppose the Children of the Goddess as a result of being a scion of Hresvelg, as she believes her ancestor Wilhelm I supported Seiros and her church into subjugating humanity under her kin's influence. It's due to this Edelgard believes she can't afford to have second thoughts on the matter as there are many lives at stake, which in the Azure Moon route is what ultimately drives her to become Hegemon Edelgard in spite of going against everything she believes in. Her fatalism is also the reason why she's convinced a confrontation with Byleth is inevitable due to their connection to Rhea and Sothis, which explains why she's utterly dumbfounded should they choose to side with her instead at the Holy Tomb.
  Edelgard: Even I cannot choose the direction my path leads me. There is no other way. And so, I must walk on.
• Fighting Your Friend: If you're a Black Eagle, she turns against Byleth and fights them and her classmates as the boss of Chapter 11. If Byleth attends her coronation earlier that month, they are then presented a choice at the end of the battle, leading to a branching path: either try to execute her on Rhea's orders (Silver Snow) or defect to Edelgard's side (Crimson Flower). If on the Silver Snow route, this aspect with Edelgard is emphasized more than other routes, as she becomes a more personal nemesis to Byleth. Unlike the Crimson Flower route, where Edelgard reunites with Byleth in a tearful hug, in the Silver Snow route, the two cross swords at their reunion, fully cementing their opposition to each other.
• Final Boss: She is the final enemy faced on the Azure Moon route as Hegemon Edelgard.
• Foil: To Claude. Like him, at the start of the games, she harbors a goal to unite Fódlan under her rule in order to see her ideals and dreams realized, is keen to use/manipulate Byleth to achieve that goal, and she views the Church of Seiros’ teachings as an obstacle to that dream. Unlike her, however, Claude is willing to take his time understanding the truth about Fódlan, while she drives the plot forward with her schemes as the Flame Emperor and her eventual declaration of war; Claude is not particularly keen on using violence or brute force to get his way if he doesn’t have to; he is perfectly fine with reforming or working together with the Church instead of destroying it completely; and, even without Byleth to guide him, he can eventually accept the fact that other people may be better-suited to accomplishing his dreams than he is. In their interactions with each other, Claude is lighthearted and indirect, while Edelgard is direct, serious and no-nonsense. In Three Hopes, this dynamic is reversed: Edelgard expresses a non-lethal end to Rhea and the Church is preferable, while Claude doesn't see it as sufficient. In their treaty signing scene, Edelgard's route's version is more lighthearted and indirect, while Claude's is more serious and no-nonsense.
• Foreshadowing: On the Three Houses' Black Eagles route, Edelgard will promise to return to the monastery to meet Byleth in five years. Every house leader does this, but Edelgard adds she will return "even if the Millennium Festival is canceled", which foreshadows how she expects her actions will affect the festival. Sure enough, she returns, even on Silver Snow where she and Byleth have become enemies.
• Forgotten First Meeting: She and Dimitri used to be childhood friends when she and her uncle hid out in Faerghus, but in the present, Edelgard's memories of him appear to be are clouded as she can only recall that her first love was a noble from Faerghus long ago (whom she called "Dee", as shown in Three Hopes), and can realize said noble was Dimitri only in Azure Moon by the point both have already become mortal enemies. It's all but stated Edelgard can't seem to remember Dimitri because he's noted in Azure Moon to have looked quite different in the past, and because of her uncle's efforts in keeping Edelgard's identity hidden during her time in Fhirdiad, to the point Dimitri himself figured out whom was the girl he had truly met only a few years after her departure.
  Dimitri: I did not realize until much later that the girl I'd met under such strange circumstances was my stepsister.
• Frame-Up: On the Crimson Flower route, after Arundel destroys Arianrhod due to Edelgard deliberately seeking Cornelia's demise during the capture of the fort, she willingly frames the Church of Seiros for the deed with the intention of avoiding potential infighting between her allies at the most crucial time.
• Frontline General: Discussed during her support with Caspar in Three Hopes. Edelgard fights on the frontline along with her troops primarily for two reasons. The rational reason is that doing so provides a substantial boost in morale to her troops, who know they are fighting alongside an Emperor who is strong and courageous, and she herself can put her own strength and abilities to increase their odds of victory. The emotional reason is that she hates the idea of other people bleeding and dying for her ideals if she herself is safe and never has to lift a finger for her own cause.
• Game-Breaking Injury: Edelgard gets badly wounded in the Azure Moon version of the second battle of Gronder Field and is forced to spend a great deal of time recuperating, which allows Lord Arundel the opportunity to assume more direct command of the Imperial army.
• Get Out!: Played for laughs when Byleth stumbles on a painting she drew of them in her room; an embarrassed Edelgard claims she has a meeting with Hubert before resorting to just throwing you out.
• Girlish Pigtails: Flashbacks show she wore her hair this way when she was living in the Kingdom.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Funnily enough, Edelgard responds well to being given a stuffed teddy bear (albeit one clad in armor) as a gift.
• Glacier Waif: Her growths and personal class lend her to being a Mighty Glacier, and she swings around a giant axe with one hand while carrying around a large shield in the other with said personal classes (though she does two-hand it in certain Combat Arts). She's also only 158cm tall and this height is only emphasized post-Timeskip with several other characters as short or even shorter than her getting growth spurts while she remains the same size.
• Good Counterpart: On the Crimson Flower route, she serves as this to previous games' Rudolf archetypes, particularly Arvis, Walhart, and Ashnard. Despite plunging the continent into war, and still doing morally dubious things like framing the Church, and cooperating with the Agarthans, she avoids the worst traits of the Rudolf archetypes.
  • In Arvis's case, she manages to avoid relying too much on her evil allies and successfully double-crosses them in the end, never becomes possessive over loved ones like Arvis did over Deirdre, and remains regretful over the things she did such as killing Dimitri and plunging the continent to war even if she hides it, unlike Arvis who still justifies himself over his betrayal of Sigurd.
  • In Ashnard's case, they both sought to revolutionize the continent to allow a more meritocratic society with a particular disdain for blood rights. However, Ashnard viewed strength in combat as the primary value to perceive in others, while Edelgard is able to see value in other skills, goes out of her way to accomodate Linhardt's special needs to provide a mutually beneficial job, and is patient with Bernadetta's anxiety.
  • In Walhart's case, while they both sought conquest and to defeat a dragon deity to free humanity, Walhart lacked compassion, many territories under his rule suffered, and he refused to show mercy towards his enemies, while Edelgard laments over Dimitri's hatred and offers Seiros the chance to surrender in contrast to Arundel.
• Good Costume Switch: In the Crimson Flower route, she dumps her villainous Flame Emperor armor for her heroic Officers Academy uniform (or whatever class outfit you have her equipped with) during the invasion of Garreg Mach.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: While she’s not evil (depending on the route), her primary associated color is red, sharing this trait with previous Red Emperor archetypes. The color is also traditionally associated with enemy units, tying into the fact that she is one of the primary antagonists of the game in every default route.
• Graceful Loser: When defeated on the Verdant Wind or Silver Snow routes, she urges a hesitant Byleth to finish her off, as she knows her death is the only way the war will end.
• Guest-Star Party Member:
  • She is controllable during the tutorial, but if you choose the Blue Lions or Golden Deer, she permanently leaves your party. Even if you pick the Black Eagles, she'll leave unless certain additional conditions are met.
  • In Warriors: Three Hopes, she is controllable in Chapter 1, but departs if you don't pick the Black Eagles. She rejoins you for Chapter 16 as a temporary companion for the battle against Epimenides, but leaves again for good at the end of the chapter.
• The Heavy: If she's not in the player's army, she is the main threat for at least 80% of Part II.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Downplayed. While her primary weapon is an axe, swords are consistently portrayed as her backup. On Silver Snow she uses the Sword of Seiros in a cutscene duel with Byleth, while on Azure Moon and Verdant Wind she uses it as her secondary weapon in the Battle at Gronder, likely because she's prone to blowing through Aymr's uses with Raging Storm. As a playable character, swords are her strongest weapon proficiency other than axes, as her other potential offensive options are banes (bows and faith), neutral (lances and brawling), or neutral with a budding talent (reason).
• He Who Fights Monsters: On the Azure Moon path, her willingness to do whatever she must for her ideals leads to her forsaking her own humanity by willingly transforming herself into a demonic beast called a Hegemon Husk. Her complete transformation even features "Shambhala (Area 17 Redux)", showing how she's become no better than those who slither in the dark by abandoning her humanity.
• The High Queen: If she wins the war, she does away with titles and nobility, turning Fódlan into a meritocracy beloved by the commonfolk. All the while, she continues to wage war on those who slither in the dark to bring lasting peace to Fódlan.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: On Silver Snow, at least, the same tactic she uses to blitzkrieg Garreg Mach is also the same tactic used against her to end the war with the Church victorious; have soldiers infiltrate the nearby villages as merchants, performers, and travelers, before going for an attack the enemy has little time to prepare for.
• History Repeats: Her parents' romance began when Emperor Ionius snuck into the Goddess Tower during a visit back to Garreg Mach after his coronation and met Edelgard's mother there, who had just enrolled. While it's not their first meeting, Byleth's own romance with Edelgard in Three Houses can be said to begin when they have their own encounter at the Goddess Tower on the night of the ball, provided she's ultimately the person Byleth S-Supports with.
• Holy Hand Grenade: Though she has a weakness in Faith, if trained in it, she will learn the Seraphim spell, which is very effective against Monster-type enemies.
• Horns of Villainy: The Cool Crown she adopts after the time-skip is this.
• Humanoid Abomination: Edelgard's appearance as the Hegemon Husk in Azure Moon is not a pretty sight. She retains a humanoid shape, but has Creepily Long Arms, demonic and vaguely draconic wing structures, and rather off-putting legs. The only thing remotely human about her is her face... which sports Black Eyes of Crazy and Red Eyes, Take Warning.
• Hunter of Monsters: Edelgard excels in killing monsters, with the Monster Breaker combat art and the Seraphim spell dealing effective damage against them.
• Hypocrite:
  • While resolute in her ideals and motivated by her formative years of abuse, she's willing to put Fódlan through years of chaos in pursuit of accomplishing her goal of a better future, causing the exact same suffering she (and many others) have experienced at the hands of those in power onto the world. For her part, Edelgard is actually self-aware of this strange contradiction, and it still fits her overall utilitarian mentality, as she claims short-term suffering is a worthy price to pay if it means potentially preventing it long-term.
  • In Three Houses, despite loathing the methods of those who slither in the dark, she still actively aids them with their experiments by collecting Crest Stones for them to use to turn innocents into Demonic Beasts with her assault on the Holy Tomb, a grave where many Crest Stones rest in peace. She also explicitly lends them the Death Knight, who then helps them kidnap Flayn for more experiments. Ultimately, this makes her complicit in their actions, and it takes Byleth's influence for her to genuinely distance herself from them in the Crimson Flower route. And while Edelgard's Three Hopes' self is safe from this, she herself admits in her B-Support with Hubert she could've easily fallen into said hypocrisy had she not taken the chance to break her alliance with Thales.
  • In Azure Moon, Edelgard either expresses that Dimitri cannot understand those who have nothing like she can (Japanese) or that she knows how the poor suffer and Dimitri is too privileged to understand it (English), never mind that in either case, he actually can relate (at least in theory) to them better than she can. Regarding the Japanese version, Dimitri's losses—his status, his power, his wealth, his country, his sanity—are more likely to be experienced by an ordinary person than the experiments run on Edelgard, with the exception of the families losses (that both share to a different extent). Regarding the English version, not only can Dimitri support one more commoner than Edelgard (he can interact with Ashe, Raphael and Alois, while she only has Dorothea and Manuela), but by the time Dimitri reunites with Byleth after the timeskip, he has spent years in the slums, living with the poorest people and has seen how war has ravaged their lives.
  • In spite of believing the Children of the Goddess ended up ruining Fódlan as a result of lacking humanity, in the Azure Moon route, once Edelgard has been pushed into a corner, she ultimately ends up discarding hers to assume the form of a Hegemon Husk as a last ditch effort to win the war.
• Hypocrisy Nod: Edelgard concedes to Dimitri during their parlay near the end of Azure Moon that her actions are self-righteous, but remains resolute in her belief that someone had to take action and change things for the better regardless.
• Hypocrite Has a Point:
  • In the Verdant Wind route, Claude actually agrees with Edelgard's assessment that he does not have enough knowledge of Fódlan's suffering. This is implied to partly be the reason why he leaves Byleth in charge of Fódlan while he becomes king of Almyra.
  • Zigzagged on her own hypocrisies on being able to have meaningful dialogue with others. She's not wrong about the Church refusing to have a dialogue about change, at least as long as Rhea is still dead-set in her ways due to the falsehoods she's perpetrated for what she believed to be the greater good before her Heel Realization. All the endings where the Church reforms are only possible because Rhea either dies, willingly gives up her power to let others fix her mistakes, or has a full turn of faith to address the wrongs she's allowed to go forth. At the same time, as a result of Edelgard’s version of history negatively warping her perception of the Children of the Goddess, she never tried to open a dialogue with the Church and always sought war and conflict as her first solution due to her belief that the faith makes people weak, and Rhea only responds with violence onscreen to those who use violence against her first.
• I Did What I Had to Do: How she justifies many of her more morally questionable actions. Deconstructed in that her belief that she has to go the route she's chosen is often portrayed as a major flaw, as it makes her unwilling to make compromises or accept that there might indeed be another way, and makes it impossible to make peace with her unless you're on her route.
• Ignored Epiphany:
  • Discussed in her own route. Just as Edelgard makes her final preparations, Byleth can ask her if she wishes to back down with the full-scale war she is about to launch on Fódlan as anxiety starts catching up to her. Edelgard tells them that no; she has to seek the end of her path and that it's far too late for second guesses at that point.
  • Downplayed and discussed during her supports with Manuela in regard to her antagonism concerning the Church of Seiros. Edelgard comments to the former songstress she is aware how the church has done good things for Fódlan, yet she can't help but feel disdain for it due to the institution's long-term negative influence on the land.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: In Crimson Flower, she'll comment to Byleth, right when she's waiting for the main army that will soon invade Garreg Mach, how her actions will undoubtedly lead to the sacrifice of multiple lives for the sake of creating a better world where there's no longer any need for sacrifices. She then admits how contradictory her idea sounds, yet fully believes that's how things have to be.
• I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: In Three Hopes, Edelgard clarifies to Balthus in their B-Support that she views herself as "hopelessly committed" to her ideals, rather than being compassionate.
• Inadequate Inheritor:
  • Discussed on the Crimson Flower route; ambient tea party dialogue will reveal that she plans to defy this for Adrestia, stating when the time comes to choose her successor, it will be someone who is worthy, even if that person is not her own child. Given that she wants to turn the Empire into a meritocracy and abolish the nobility, this is in-keeping with that goal.
  • When she's an enemy, she ultimately becomes one (kind of) to her father Ionius IX. She allows those who slither in the dark to ruthlessly abuse her people after gaining the throne (a process that had its own morally murky aspects), leading to an outright new revolt in Hrym thanks to "Arundel"'s actions after Duke Aegir left Hrym (as detailed in Ferdinand and Lysithea's paralogue), she starts a bloody war against the Church, Kingdom, and Alliance, loses said war despite having numerous logistical advantages against them, and in roughly six years manages to cause the complete destruction of the Empire, though thanks in part to almost-literal divine intervention.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Implied near the end of the Azure Moon route. During her conversation with Dimitri, when he tells her the new world she intends to create will only benefit strong people like herself, Edelgard scoffs at the idea that she is a strong person before quickly continuing with the discussion, hinting that she doesn't consider herself the inexorable lady that Dimitri believes her to be.
• Informed Attribute: Edelgard's profile in Part I mentions "debating historical viewpoints" as one of her likes. No supports of hers ever dwell on this matter, and in the few instances where Edelgard can be seen talking about history, she's either speculating in a war speech how the church is responsible for splitting Fódlan in the first place, and when she is telling Byleth her family's secret version of the War of Heroes.
• Innocently Insensitive: Several of her comments indicate that Edelgard has a habit of speaking her mind without much care for what others think, though not because she has ill intent. For example, in the western localization, she doesn't seem to realize the implications of a statement she makes about how the other nations are all offshoots from the original empire when said nations’ future leaders are right next to her.
• Iron Lady: Edelgard's general demeanor is one of cold focus, which she acknowledges may make her come across as arrogant and distant. Post-timeskip, she fully embodies the stoic, hardened emperor persona, at least in public.
• Ironic Echo: Pre-timeskip, if she's defeated, she will say "To be left behind... Unacceptable." If she's killed in Classic after the Time Skip, she will say, “My teacher...leave me behind. You must lead the others onward...”
• Ironic Name:
  • Her name in German translates to “Noble Protector”, making it ironic due to her goal to dismantle the system that keeps nobility in power.
  • Her nickname of "El" means "God" in Semetic languages, yet she's adamant in her opposition to the Church of Seiros.
• Irony:
  • Her strong attachment to Byleth in Three Houses began when they saved her at the beginning of the story from a bandit. A bandit whom, unbeknownst to them, was hired by Edelgard herself as part of her plan to attack the party she was with the objective of killing non-specific nobles.
  • The key reason she's despised by her enemies and dies in most routes is her refusal to make peace and willingness to go to incredible extremes in the pursuit of her ideals. On Crimson Flower, she finds herself on the receiving end of that very same extremism from her enemies, such as Dedue willingly using Crest Stones on Dimitri's army (which is so eerily similar to those who slither in the dark's handiwork that Hubert initially suspects them), and Rhea's remaining forces setting Fhirdiad on fire rather than accepting Edelgard's offer of surrender.
  • The war she starts as part of a plan to both restore Adrestia to greatness and destroy the Church of Seiros can not only end with the collapse of Adrestia as a nation when she refuses to surrender, but can even make the Church of Seiros in theory more powerful when her war dismantles the three countries (in practice various reforms prevent this, and Byleth is considered the leader of Fódlan rather than leader of the church).
  • In her casus belli, she denounces the Church of Seiros for splitting the Empire in two to create Faerghus. Documents added to the DLC reveal that Loog's rebellion was actually fomented by those who slither in the dark, with the Church only getting involved when fighting was already underway. The Church did grant legitimacy to Loog's rebellion through crowning him, and in Hopes, Rhea criticizes the Leicester Federation for having been "built without the Goddess's blessing," suggesting a hand in the creation of the Alliance.
  • Edelgard feels that Children of the Goddess lack humanity and thus shouldn't lead Fódlan. On the Azure Moon route, once she has finally been cornered, she willingly sacrifices her remaining humanity to turn into Hegemon Edelgard, an incredibly powerful Crest Monster, even after being warned ahead of time that such a process might be irreversible.
  • Her chewing Dimitri out about him being born into a place of privilege and not knowing how the poor feel or what they want becomes this, as we do learn that over the five year time skip, he did in fact live among the poor, becoming aware of their hardships when he did so. ^note One important detail: this irony only really exists in the English dub. In the Japanese version, her dialogue should read: "Someone who was fortunate enough like you to have those things, will never understand those of us who don't have those things"; related to Dimitri's previous dialogue, this can be interpreted as Edelgard feeling jealous of Dimitri's trustful friends, and this is likely the case because unlike Dimitri, Edelgard only really had Hubert, not exactly the greatest support.
  • Despite her hatred of the Church, she not only has the Crest of her Arch-Enemy Seiros, but also the Crest of the goddess herself in the form of the Crest of Flames.
• It's All About Me: Discussed in her C-Support conversation with Caspar and played straight in that Edelgard has shades of this mindset at some points of the game, such as her saying that only one can rule Fódlan and she will rule it as Hegemon Edelgard at the end of the Azure Moon route.
  Edelgard: I understand. It's difficult being born a noble. Those who inherit everything also inherit great burdens, but the same can be said of those who inherit nothing.
  Caspar: What are you talking about? I don't have any troubles. Who cares if I don't inherit anything? It just means I get to cut a path to my own future. You know what your problem is, Edelgard? You always have to make everything about you.
• I've Come Too Far: On the Azure Moon route, she gives this reason to Dimitri and Byleth as to why she cannot make peace with Faerghus, even as the rest of Fódlan united under the Holy Kingdom prepares to march on the Empire's capital city, stating that she must walk her "path" and cannot turn back.
• I Will Only Slow You Down: If she dies in Part II, she tells Byleth to leave her behind. Of course, you can't because her death results in a Game Over.

J — Q

• Jack of All Trades: While she primarily specializes in axes, heavy armor, and authority, Edelgard is markedly more versatile in terms of stats than Dimitri and Claude; She has a far higher magic cap than they do, and her only banes are in Bows and in Faith, and even regarding the latter she has a fairly feasable Faith spell list. She's the first Lord character in the series to explicitly utilize Heavy Armor (As in actually be utilized as one, with the advantages and disadvantages that come with it), and her canon class lines are armored, but she finds a lot of potential customization when not in said class lines too.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Her response to Byleth grieving over the loss of Jeralt in Three Houses is the harshest among all the three Lords. Despite this, Sothis believes she isn't wrong to say what she did, since Byleth must eventually get over Jeralt's death and move on with their life. This takes on more meaning when it's revealed that this is exactly how Edelgard herself is dealing with her grief over losing all of her siblings to the experiments performed on them.
• Kill the God: Her ultimate goal is to topple the Church of Seiros and defeat Rhea, who is actually the Semi-Divine Seiros, in order to free Fódlan from the gods' influence. Ironically, she works with an actual God (as Sothis gives Byleth her power, which is explicitly stated to be the power of the progenitor God) to do this in the Crimson Flower route. Even she recognizes the irony near the end of her route.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: While Three Houses already included evidence in the form of the cat hanging out outside her room during the Academy Phase and her responding positively when the player brings up cats during a tea party conversation, Three Hopes makes Edelgard's love for cats abundantly clear in her B-Level Support with Linhardt.
• Knight Templar: There are few lines she won't cross to make her ambition a reality, and she's more than willing to use force against those who would try to oppose her. She's willing to have Flayn kidnapped, works with unsavory people like Hubert (who is genuinely loyal to her, but has ensured her success with incredibly underhanded methods), Jeritza (whose Split Personality is the Death Knight, who kills random people at night for fun, though she genuinely wants to give him a better life) and those who slither in the dark (who are completely unsympathetic, and she makes it clear that she is disgusted with them over their actions) and ultimately is willing to start a war to bring about her vision of a better Fódlan and will cut down her former classmates if they stand in her way. Not even picking her house can dissuade her from her plans, but Byleth's influence causes her to take a more merciful stance such as sparing enemies, not persecuting followers of the Church who aren't complicit with Rhea's actions, and being far quicker to distance herself from her most reprehensible allies.
• Lack of Empathy: Ultimately proves to be a Subverted Trope. At first glance, Edelgard can come off as rather dismissive of the hardships that her peers may have experienced; all but telling Byleth directly to suck it up when they are grieving Jeralt's death (and instead use the experience to keep moving forward) and her completely dismissive attitude towards Dimitri after it gets revealed that she's the Flame Emperor. Closer inspection of her dialogue reveals that this is the type of mentality Edelgard had to take with herself in order to cope with her own trauma.
• Lady of War: Edelgard is an interesting take on this trope. While she fights gracefully and carries an air of dignity, she uses axes as her weapon of choice, a weapon that isn't ladylike. However, she still has an affinity for swords.
• The Leader: She is the house leader of the Black Eagles at the Officers Academy, and thus has authority over all other members in the house as they originate from her empire, which she will eventually rule. Her authority ultimately still falls short of Byleth, however, as they can even issue orders to Edelgard herself.
• Leitmotif:
  • "The Edge of Dawn" and its variations primarily fills this role for her, as the song is about Edelgard and her feelings throughout the game.
    • In the credits on all routes other than her own, the song plays as a Tragic Villain song, lamenting that she has become the monster she feared becoming due to the protagonist refusing to side with her.
    • On her own route, the end credits song is "The color of Sunrise", a much brighter song that reflects the fact that her tragic fate was averted, and that she was able to bring about the reforms she sought.
  • On the Crimson Flower route and Azure Moon route, the final boss theme, “Apex of the World”, is a remix of “Edge of Dawn”. While on the Crimson Flower route, the theme has a very heroic connotation, it tragically becomes a Villain Song on the Azure Moon route, as Edelgard is the final boss.
  • She has "The Leader's Path", which starts playing towards the end of Part I when her true colors as a Well-Intentioned Extremist are revealed and for most of her appearances in Part II. Fittingly, reflecting her personality, the song is somewhere between a sinister villain theme and a heroic military march - the sinister tone dropping off about thirty seconds in. The song contains the literal drumbeats of war, but the longer it goes on, more heroic horns and hopeful other instruments join in.
• Lightning Bruiser: Has great Strength and Speed bases, an excellent speed growth, and abusing skills and reclassing - such as obtaining Weight-3, certifying for armored classes without actually using them, and making her a Pegasus Knight - can make her frighteningly fast and durable as well. Finally, she has her unique Combat Art Raging Storm, which lets her move again just for using it. She can do this as much as 5 times with a fully-repaired Aymr.
• Locked into Strangeness: Her white hair is a result of Crest experimentation. As seen in a flashback, her natural hair is a light brown.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Played With as it is enforced by outside forces as well as self-inflicted obliviously by Edelgard herself. She believes she has a greater understanding of Fódlan's true history and present reality than she actually does, and while this belief is warranted to an extent (namely, her alliance with those who slither in the dark makes her the only Adrestian Emperor who's aware of their existance and goals), she is still missing crucial pieces of the puzzle due to her Agarthan allies only telling her what little they want her to know, and Edelgard's own insider information, passed down via the emperors by the first Adrestian Emperor, Wilhelm I, lacking knowledge regarding certain key points and providing a different explanation to Seiros' motivations during the War of Heroes compared to what her intentions were in reality. For specific cases, Edelgard believes that the church was behind the splitting up of the Adrestrian Empire, but Abyss records indicate that the Agarthans were the true force behind the scenes. Edelgard also claims the church's real mission is to rule the world via manipulation, but a Nintendo Dream interview confirmed that Rhea and her allies meddling in society was not done out of any desire to rule over humanity, but to avoid large-scale conflict.
  • On a more specific case, the events of Chapter 8 of Three Houses screw her up royally because of this trope. While it's implied Edelgard was aware Solon was gonna perform experiments in Remire Village, her visceral reaction upon seeing them in person in the Black Eagles route make clear she didn't expect things were gonna get that bad. To make things worse, the Death Knight shows up unannounced to relish in the ensuing chaos and this instantly connects her alter ego's forces with the Slitherers, forcing her to hastily try to salvage the situation but to no avail.
  • Due to the circumstances in which Edelgard met Dimitri as a child in Fhirdiad (namely, while hiding her identity from everyone thanks to her uncle's efforts, and by by knowing Dimitri as a child only as "Dee"), she never puts two and two together and realizes that Dimitri and the boy she had met in Fhirdiad are one and the same (not helping matters is the fact Dimitri not only looked quite different as a kid, but also that in the present, he doesn't see a point with reconnecting with Edelgard anymore due to the many years that had passed since then) up until it's already too late in some routes.
• Lonely at the Top:
  • Part of her fixation with Byleth in Three Houses is due to the fact that they were the only ones to ever interact with her as an equal. Everyone else is too affected by her status to treat her as such. This is reinforced by her support dialogues with characters other than Byleth showing them being too concerned about her position, or just being incapable of understanding her.
  • While Edelgard continues to steel herself with the reality that she'll likely have to burn bridges with all of her classmates close to her in order to achieve her dream this turns out to be harder than she lets on in the Silver Snow route. She shows up at the Goddess Tower to keep her promise to her classmates, hoping against hope that they would have a change of heart and join her side. She instead only finds Byleth who themselves still rejects her offer.
• Love Confession: Gives the equivalent of one to Byleth just before the final battle against Rhea at the end of the Crimson Flower route, admitting to them that they're someone very special to her and that she hopes she's someone special to them as well.
• Magic Knight: Edelgard has good growths in both Strength and Magic and a budding talent in Reason, making her a viable candidate for classes like Dark Knight and magic weapons like the Bolt Axe, but her higher base Strength makes her better at wielding physical weapons regardless like her Axe, Aymr.
• Magnetic Hero: While this tends to be a requirement for Lords in Fire Emblem, Edelgard is notable considering her charisma involves convincing others to join her in overthrowing the existing societal structure of Fódlan in favor of a more meritocratic society, including possibly her own teacher Byleth, who happens to be the vessel for the very Goddess the Church Edelgard opposes worships. Likely in acknowledgement of this, Edelgard's Charm growth is the highest in the whole game, which makes her an ideal user of battalions and Gambits.
• Matricide: Discussed in both Three Houses and Three Hopes:
  • Dimitri accusses Edelgard of this in both Crimson Flower and Azure Moon after he becomes convinced she potentially caused the Tragedy of Duscur upon hearing Thales claim the incident was caused for her sake, which she denies in both paths as Edelgard has no memories of her mother after her exile.
  • Cornelia in Three Hopes claims to Dimitri that Edelgard killed her own mother, and once Dimitri's able to ask Edelgard about it in the routes' good endings, she's understandably confused for the reasons stated above. In spite of this, the fact Cornelia's last words in Three Hopes are revealed via Three Houses to be Metaphorically True at best, plus that Thales himself in Azure Gleam reveals to Dimitri that Anselma was killed long ago to fuel "the pyre of our ambitions", it's ultimately hinted that Anselma was most likely, by TWSITD's own view, sacrificed for Edelgard's sake (as in, to provide her the Crest of Flames).
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The Masculine Girl to Dimitri's Feminine Boy. She is a member of a traditionally-male archetype, uses a more masculine weapon (axes), and is stoic and unyielding. Also, in flashbacks featuring them as kids, Edelgard was more outgoing and energetic, whereas Dimitri was more meek and soft-spoken.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: She's one of Emperor Ionius' eleven children. Sadly, every one of them besides Edelgard did not survive the dark experimentation by those who slither in the dark.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Her name is German for "Noble Protector". Fitting for someone who will one day lead Adrestia as its Emperor.
  • Her last name, von Hresvelg, comes from Hresvelgr of Norse Mythology. Fittingly, Hresvelgr was a giant (drawing comparisons to her Hegemon form on Azure Moon), who could shapeshift, often taking the form of a Black Eagle.
  • Her axe Aymr is named for the club wielded by the Ugaritic deity Ba'al, whose name means "Lord" or "Owner". Fitting for a weapon wielded by an Emperor.
• Mercy Kill: In Three Houses, she considers offing Dimitri this, since by they time they meet again after the timeskip, Dimitri, besides fiercely protecting his Kingdom from the invading Imperial forces, is also determined to make Edelgard pay in blood due to his belief she caused the Tragedy of Duscur, leaving Edelgard no choice but to remove him entirely if she wishes to accomplish her goal.
• Metaphorical Marriage: In the English version, if she achieves an S-rank with Byleth, Edelgard doesn’t seem to be publicly married to Byleth, despite being lovers; but with that said, it’s also noted that Edelgard and Byleth could be seen leaving the palace together, presumably to spend intimate time together. Averted in the Japanese version, in which it explicitly states that they are married and share many romantic moments.
• Mighty Glacier: Not so much in the beginning, but her post-timeskip Armored Lord class gives her a hefty increase to her Defense (not to mention an increase to her Defense growth itself), meaning she'll be significantly more durable. However, her unique classes give no bonuses to her speed growth, meaning that unless lucky beforehand, she'll be the slowest of the three Lords.
• Mirror Character: Edelgard shares a lot of common with Rhea than she would want to admit. Both girls share the Crest of Seiros, had horrible tragedies in their lives which led them to develop heavy trust issues and lie to their allies, became obsessed with destroying those who had wronged them to the extend they forced themselves to assume leadership positions for the sake of this goal (in Edelgard case, she admits she would normally not have claim to the Imperial throne under normal circumstances), are willing to go the extreme to see their goals completed, and ironically, both have Byleth as their Morality Chain.
• Morality Chain: To Jeritza. She's the only thing keeping his psychotic Death Knight persona in check.
• A Mother to Her Men:
  • Despite her cold and strict exterior, she treats her housemates (and future subordinates) warmly and looks out for their well-being, helping Bernadetta with her anxiety, wondering if Hubert would have been happier outside of her service, and taking special care of Lysithea. Before declaring war on all of Fódlan, she asks them if they're still willing to follow her to make sure she isn't dragging them into a situation they'll regret. Even if she's an enemy, Seteth of all people admits that this is the case after witnessing how committed the Imperial forces are to her.
  • In Jeritza's supports with Byleth, he reveals Edelgard rescued and took him under her wing after he killed his father and house Bartels, and Edelgard even forged a new identity for him as the heir of house Hyrm instead of keeping him as an elite mook. Due to this, she gave him a way to target foes so his Death Knight personality wouldn't kill innocents wantonly. For this reason, Jeritza is extremely loyal to her, and is willing to stay with the Empire even if it brings him into conflict with Mercedes.
  • In Three Hopes, she can be confronted by Petra, Dorothea, or Bernadetta in battle after siding with a different faction. Rather than expressing frustration, she's patient with all of them and only wishes for them to return to the Empire.
• Motive Decay: Discussed in her B-support with Byleth once they have joined her side after Chapter 11. Edelgard fears that without their support, she could have — in her own words — lost perspective and become a harsh leader with a heart of ice. Considering in the other routes where she's the enemy, her stance towards religion becomes harsher to the point of persecuting believers of the Seiros faith, keeps relying on her more morally bankrupt allies and in the resources of those who slither in the dark, strips Ferdinand’s family of all their titles despite her vendetta being only with Duke Aegir himself, and on the Azure Moon route, even betrays her own beliefs about the supposed inhuman nature of the Children of the Goddess in order to become Hegemon Edelgard when pushed to the brink, it would be hard to argue her fears aren't unfounded.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Despite her waifish physique, Edelgard is a physical powerhouse who swings and twirls battleaxes around one-handed. She has the highest base Strength among the entire playable cast (tied with Byleth), the second highest base HP (behind Dedue and Raphael), and the second highest Strength growth and cap (behind Dimitri). She also manages to hold back Byleth's Sword of the Creator with just a rapier after the timeskip, despite the significant difference in size between their two swords and Byleth's larger stature. This is due to the experiments performed on her to give her the Crest of Flames, making her much stronger than a normal human.
• Mutually Exclusive Party Members:
  • She obviously cannot be poached from the Black Eagles, and will never fight directly alongside Dedue (under any circumstances), Hilda (outside of "Cindered Shadows"), Gilbert (outside of Chapter 5), or Dimitri and Claude (outside of the tutorial battle and "Cindered Shadows").
  • She and half of the Church of Seiros characters are mutually exclusive; either Flayn or Edelgard will leave the party after the Holy Tomb, and Catherine, Seteth, and Cyril cannot be recruited while Edelgard is in the party (although Catherine and Seteth can both be temporarily controlled during their respective paralogues).
  • In Three Hopes, she only fights alongside Dimitri and Claude in Chapter 1 and the optional chapter; she can never fight alongside Dedue, Felix, Ingrid, Sylvain, Annette, Rodrigue, Seteth, Flayn or Catherine. She can only fight alongside Holst and Hilda when she is, or they are, an allied NPC on their respective routes.
• My Beloved Smother: Linhardt compares Edelgard to a mother that insists on accompanying her son to his knighting ceremony when she keeps trying to rouse him into activity in their B-Support conversation, much to her shock.
• Mystical White Hair: Her hair is an unusual pearly white and she's unusually strong for her size. It's a side effect of the experiments done on her to give her the Crest of Flames.
• Nay-Theist: Zigzagged. Edelgard is well aware of the goddess's existence, but simply doesn't believe that people need to blindly follow the goddess and should take charge of their own lives. That being said, she doesn't mind if people continue their faith in the goddess, and makes it clear that she's an enemy of the church and not the faith itself. She's also not above trying to understand the perspective of those who put their faith in the goddess. Naturally, in her route, recruited characters of devout faith like Marianne and Mercedes are willing to follow her cause, as they appreciate being able to continue their faith and respect Edelgard's ambition to take down the corrupt church system.
• Never Trust a Trailer: Edelgard ends up being the source of an interesting variant of this as for much of Three Houses pre-release marketing, Edelgard was the central figure focused on leading up to the release. Based on the original marketing of the game ^note The original teaser trailer focused exclusively on her, with Edelgard providing the narration of the plot of the game. Several promotional materials leading up to the game's release also highly favored her and the Black Eagle house. one would not be faulted for assuming that Edelgard was going to be the de facto main Lord of the game. So it came to the surprise of many that it was actually something of a bait-and-switch, with Edelgard inciting the conflict of the game’s second half and being a major antagonist on 3 of the game’s 4 routes; she’s the Big Bad and Final Boss in Azure Moon and The Heavy and the Climax Boss in both Silver Snow and Verdant Wind. To drive it home further, her own route must be unlocked manually, as Silver Snow is the default story branch of the Black Eagles otherwise.
• Noble Bigot: Whether her goal to put Fódlan's fate back in the hands of humanity from the influence of Rhea and the Church or not that's a good thing is hazy, given the nature of the game, but at the least the goal is noble. She is contrasted by Arundel who takes sadistic joy in Seiros's impending death, while Edelgard merely views it as something that must be done and takes no personal pleasure in it.
• Noble Demon: As an enemy, Edelgard remains respectful to her opponents, sympathizes with why they're opposing her, and loathes the more treacherous, underhanded tactics adopted by those who slither in the dark even when she is allied with them.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: She's the only person in the school who wears shorts rather than trousers or a skirt, her tights aren't blue, and she has a unique ribbon arrangement on her chest.
• Not Me This Time:
  • In the wake of Jeralt being murdered by Kronya and the devastation of Remire Village, Edelgard approaches Byleth alone as the Flame Emperor — despite being Fódlan's public enemy number one — and declares that she had nothing to do with those who slither in the dark's actions. Whether or not Byleth believes her is up to the player.
  • Dimitri's hatred towards her when he realizes she's the Flame Emperor is founded in the belief that she's an ally of the people who committed the Tragedy of Duscur. She is, but her alliance was Teeth-Clenched Teamwork at best and was years after the Tragedy happened; she was only a young teen at the time, after all. While she does say she had nothing to do with the tragedy, she doesn't bother explaining this to him, because she recognizes that he's Ax-Crazy and won't listen, and she has her own problems with communicating with those who don't share her ideals until it's too late.
• Not So Above It All:
  • She's so serious that oftentimes even her fellow Black Eagles express surprise when she shows vulnerabilities or more casual interests. Bernadetta, for example, is legitimately (and seemingly pleasantly) surprised to learn that Edelgard can't swim and has a fear of the ocean.
  • She mocks both Hubert and Ferdinand by copying their voices, and in the latter's case, it's right to his face.
• "Not So Different" Remark: She compares herself to Lonato, claiming that she is also a ruler who must risk her subjects' lives to accomplish her goals, as she does after declaring war on the Church of Seiros.
• Not So Stoic: Despite her cold and serious-minded demeanor, she does break her stoicism several times thanks to Character Development, such as her reunion with Byleth in post-time skip.
• Oblivious to Love:
  • In Three Houses, it isn't until Hubert directly tells Edelgard herself that he's in love with her does she find out. Hubert even lampshades this, wondering how she never figured it out.
  • In Three Hopes, Edelgard is completely oblivious that Monica von Ochs is in love with her, being confused and exasperated by her clinginess and extremely affectionate behavior.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: Carries and swings her axe around in one hand.
• One-Winged Angel: In the final battle of the Azure Moon route, she turns into Hegemon Edelgard as part of her final attempt to take down both Byleth and Dimitri.
• Out of Focus:
  • Oddly enough, on the Silver Snow route. Despite being the Deuteragonist of Part I, by the time Byleth becomes the main Lord and both them and Edelgard part ways, she makes no physical appearances for most of the route except for the beginning and near the end of it.
  • She is even worse off on the Verdant Wind route, as unlike Silver Snow, since Byleth and the player are far more involved with Claude and his desires, the former attachment that forms some of Snow's conflict is absent - indeed, aside from the Flame Emperor reveal, Claude and Edelgard's one unique interaction in Part I involves her bluntly demanding to know where he came from, which sours his opinion of her considerably^noteByleth can also gain a Support point with Edelgard by agreeing with her to gang up on him, which is useless to do considering that the player cannot Support the Lords outside of their home routes; telling her to back off naturally wins over Claude. Her first Part II appearance on Verdant Wind isn't until the second battle at Gronder Field, and even when Claude's army is aiming for Enbarr, his main goal of seeking Rhea and Fódlan's lost history ultimately takes precedence over Edelgard in terms of importance.
  • And then there's her situation on Azure Gleam. While Edelgard's war does kickstart the conflict in Faerghus, Cornelia and the Kingdom's western lords are the ones who serve as Dimitri's most recurring threat in Part I. Not to mention, Edelgard in Part II remains firmly under Thales' thumb via mind control so she ends up making very few appearances and stops driving the plot forward, leaving those who slither in the dark and the corrupt Imperial nobility as the main antagonists for the remainder of the story.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Her C-support reveals she suffers from nightmares of her siblings' madness and death. Specifically, what they were forced to endure in the experiments that left Edelgard the only survivor and implanted with the Crest of Flames.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Three Hopes potentially retroactively establishes Edelgard imprisoning Rhea instead of just executing her as this. While she has no qualms with overthrowing Rhea, she'd rather not kill her unless absolutely necessary (as seen in Crimson Flower where Rhea becomes too dangerous to be kept alive.) After all, her enemy is a system, not people. This still doesn't change however, that a conversation in Abyss in Three Houses established Edelgard in that timeline also kept Rhea alive for the purpose of using her against the Agarthans in some form.
  • In Azure Gleam, if Petra dies instead of being recruited, Edelgard states she's still going to honor her promise to Petra and give Brigid their independence.
• Phlebotinum Rebel: One of her life goals is to wipe out those who slither in the dark, who put her and her siblings through horrific experimentation to implant her with the power of the Crest of Flames. In the post-game of Crimson Flower, she succeeds.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Pre-timeskip, she stands at 158cm, tying with Caspar as the second-shortest student in the Black Eagles, only being taller than Bernadetta. Post-timeskip, she's still the same height, whereas everyone either stayed the same height or grew. This doesn't stop her from wielding weapons likes axes with just one hand.
• Plagued by Nightmares: The first time she opens up to Byleth is when they wake her up from a nightmare while making the nightly rounds at the campus. She then reveals it was about the time when she and her siblings were vivisected in an attempt to give them a second Crest — she was the only success, while all her brothers and sisters died in front of her eyes. She has been reliving this trauma regularly in her dreams ever since.
• Playing with Fire:
  • She can learn Fire and Bolganone upon specializing in Reason.
  • In Three Hopes, her Unique Action Ability "Solar Prominence" will imbue all her attacks with fire to cause the Burning status effect, and upgrading it increases its potency. Her Armored Lord class gives the ability "Emperor's Ploy", which when equipped guarantees any ignited enemy she hits with her Armored Lord or Emperor class actions will explode to deal more damage. She can also learn "Essence of Fire" from mastering the Warlock class, which powers up all her fire-based attacks (which is essentially everything that isn't explicitly another elemental Combat Art or magic attack) even further.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: At the end of her route after killing Rhea, Byleth seemingly collapses. Worried that slaying the Immaculate One might've had adverse effects on them, Edelgard tries to check for a heartbeat, only to find none because of Byleth never having a heartbeat. She immediately assumes the worst and breaks down into tears, invoking this reaction, before the Crest Stone in Byleth's heart dissolves and their heart makes its first beats, turning her tears of mourning into joy upon discovering the heartbeats.
• Power Echoes: On the Azure Moon route, her voice gains a noticeable distortion effect after her transformation into Hegemon Edelgard.
• Power-Upgrading Deformation: Hegemon Edelgard's body takes on a grotesque humanoid, dragon-like appearance. She also has glowing red eyes, black sclera, and prominent veins around her eyes. Once she's beaten, the husk dissipates off her body, turning her back to normal, but weakened by the process.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:
  "I will prevail!" (Pre-timeskip)
  "For the Empire!" (Post-timeskip)
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  • Academy Phase:
    "I'll strike you down!" (Also used Post-timeskip)
    "I will prevail!"
    "Don't waste my time!"
    "Watch this!"
  • War Phase:
    "You can't stop me!"
    "This battle is your last!"
    "No mercy!"
  • Hegemon Edelgard:
    "Perish!"
    "Crumble to ash!"
    "I am absolute!"
    "Face your mortality!"
• Precision F-Strike: In the introduction to the final battle on Crimson Flower, she asks "What the hell are they planning..." when the remaining Church and Kingdom forces refuse to surrender. After seeing Fhirdiad set ablaze, she says "What?! Damn it, Rhea."
• Pride: A Fatal Flaw of hers. Edelgard admits that some see her as arrogant, but she personally thinks she's just the one best suited to doing what must be done. This is one of the factors that causes her to start a war, as she believes she's the only one capable of reforming Fódlan and that violence is the only answer. Because of this, she refuses to work with anyone who does not share her methodology, which puts her at odds with Dimitri, Claude, and potentially Byleth.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: In Silver Snow, she becomes a Well-Intentioned Extremist Anti-Villain driven by her desperate desire to protect the world from the Church of Seiros.
• Protagonist Powerup Privileges: Only Edelgard can access the Armored Lord and Emperor classes.
• A Pupil of Mine Until She Turned to Evil: She's this to Byleth on Silver Snow, as Edelgard becomes a ruthless conqueror hellbent on taking down the church and reuniting Fódlan through any means necessary.
• Puppy Love: Dialogue reveals she had such feelings as a child towards Dimitri when she lived with him. However, they both grew apart after she left the Holy Kingdom with her uncle.
• Quit Your Whining: While more sympathetic than most examples, in Three Houses she helps Byleth cope with Jeralt's death by bluntly telling them that wallowing in their misery isn't helpful, and that she's moving forward with or without them. Sothis is taken aback by the sheer arrogance of her statements, though admits she's correct.

R — Z

• Rank Scales with Asskicking: She's the Adrestian Empire's emperor-to-be and by far the strongest fighter in the Black Eagles. In fact, Edelgard has the highest overall growths and overall maximum stats out of any playable character, even moreso than Dimitri, Claude, and Byleth. A testament to how the horrific experiments done to her worked as intended.
• Recurring Boss: If you don't count paralogues, she is currently tied for the record for most appearances in one game as an enemy, with six on the Azure Moon and Verdant Wind routes; she has three on Silver Snow.
• Recurring Element: She is the forceful lord willing to use military force to solve her problems in the vein of Alm, Sigurd, and Hector... and also the Tin Tyrant emperor seeking to conquer the world through military force, in the vein of Rudolf, Hardin, or Walhart. On Crimson Flower, the former part is the more prominent one, while on other routes it's the other one.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: She wears red and Black and is the most ruthless out of the three lords. Oh and she is also The Heavy outside of her routes.
• Redemption Demotion: Ultimately downplayed on Crimson Flower should Byleth join her side. While Edelgard does lose access to the Commander and Counterattack skills she had as a boss, after rejoining the party, she comes with the Supreme Armored Co. battalion equipped, which is a better version of the one she previously used as a boss (Flame Emperor Co.). Likewise, growths and stats-wise, the Flame Emperor class is essentially a Palette Swap of the Armored Lord class, which she obtains from the get-go after the timeskip.
• Redemption Rejection: Happens on two routes, and it's implied that she does this because she believes she has fallen too far, and her survival would cause too many complications for the victor.
  • On the Azure Moon route, Dimitri offers her mercy and forgiveness after defeating her. In return, she offers him a dagger in the shoulder. He kills her with his spear, and she dies with a smile.
  • On the Verdant Wind route, if you bring her down to low health without defeating her, Claude will beg her to stop fighting because he doesn't want to kill her. She refuses. She then requests that Byleth kill her.
• Red Baron: After the timeskip, Edelgard's also known as the "Flame Emperor", the same moniker her alter ego used. Claude refers to her as such once on the Verdant Wind route, and both her character ending card, one of the game's cutscenes and even her Legendary variant from Heroes use it.
• Red Herring: In Three Houses, there are a few warning signs she might be the Flame Emperor on her route; she is conspicuously nowhere to be found the first two times the Flame Emperor confronts you in person, she's open to the idea of Byleth allying with the Flame Emperor as long as the latter is willing to reveal their identity and goals, and she is seen hanging out with a woman who's revealed later to be working with said Flame Emperor. This is subverted though, when she reveals to Byleth and her classmates that she actually is the Flame Emperor.
• Red Is Heroic: Downplayed. She wants to achieve world peace and bring harmony to Fódlan, but she's also willing to steel her heart and trample upon others to achieve it, though it is possible to minimize that aspect of hers should you side with her.
• Refuge in Audacity: Despite working with those who slither in the dark on paper, she kills three of them on-screen before officially declaring war on them after the game. Admittedly, the last of these costs her when they take retribution.
• Regretful Traitor: In Three Houses' Black Eagles route, she's openly regretful of turning on Byleth in Chapter 11 by raiding the Holy Tomb, all-but-outright stating that she does not expect to be forgiven for what she's doing.
  "Professor... I will make no excuses. Thank you for all that you did for me. In truth...no. Let's leave it at that."
• Remembered Too Late: In Azure Moon, Dimitri gives her back the dagger he gifted to her when they were children. Edelgard finally realizes who Dimitri truly was and thanks him for it... right before the Kingdom's final march against the Empire.
• Removed Achilles' Heel: During the Battle at Gronder on the Azure Moon and Verdant Wind routes, as well in the siege of the Imperial Palace on the Verdant Wind and Silver Snow paths, she has the Armored Effect Null skill, which removes the weakness her Armored Lord and Emperor classes normally have against anti-armor weaponry.
• Rescue Romance:
  • Really only evident in her route where they S support, but she definitely takes a interest in Byleth after they rescue her at the beginning. Even without S-ranking her, she is still embarrassed around Byleth, draws pictures of them, and gets flustered because Caspar told Byleth how lonely she was without them.
  • She apparently even becomes taken with them on non-Black Eagle routes, as she is always very regretful of having to come to blows with them, even if she barely spent any real time around them. Three Hopes adds another layer to this in Scarlet Blaze, where Edelgard feels a deep connection with Byleth even though on this route, they've always been enemies since Byleth was never recruited to Garreg Mach and always ends up hired by your route's opposition. It's implied that Byleth and Edelgard sharing the Crest of Flames is responsible for this.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: She's very much correct in pointing out the Church of Seiros' horrible actions, has been stagnating Fódlan with the usage of the Crests, and has been concealing the true history of the conflict between Seiros and Nemesis. However, she also lacks key context on several points due to the fact that the history passed down by the Adestrian emperors, while closer to the truth, is still not the full story and has several falsehoods in it too, namely that Seiros inspired/organized the existing opposition to Nemesis' takeover of Fódlan in part to take very justifiable revenge on him, not due to some simple disagreement over what type of being should rule (though even that is of no fault of Edelgard's own, as the only ones who know the full scope in the present are Rhea, the other Saints, and those who slither in the dark, all of whom have kept it secret for their own reasons). Granted, developer interviews reveal some truth to this as Seiros and Nemesis's conflict was also partly influenced by power over Fódlan, as Nemesis was considered a hero by the people, and the Children of the Goddess did rule over humanity in the past, and Seiros did take power despite her primary motivation being peace. From this, Edelgard's and Seiros's versions of history are two pieces of a whole rather than either one being the absolute truth.
• The Rival: Edelgard is this to a lot of characters:
  • According to Word of God, she's meant to be the archrival of Byleth. This the reason why she is the most recurring boss on half of the game's routes and has the Crest of Flames like Byleth. Although she’s oddly fought the least in Silver Snow.
  • Edelgard has also a rivalry with Claude. In Part 1 she's questioning his past and goal. In Part 2 she's his friendly enemy and worthy opponent.
  • She has also a friendly rivalry with Petra, her fellow princess, full of mutual respect and encouragement.
  • Ferdinand is also her unknown rival, or at least that's what he acts as in order to force Edelgard to work harder than usual.
  • Edelgard and Rhea become this at the end of Part 1 after the former is revealed to be the Flame Emperor.
  • She's also Dimitri's main rival on Azure Moon, as much attention is given to the two's differing ideologies and shared backstory.
• Route Boss:
  • In Three Houses, she's a noted aversion, as she’s always the boss of Chapter 11 — even on her own route, although siding with her after the fact is possible.
  • In Three Hopes she’s an enemy exclusive to Azure Gleam.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: An imperial princess who will become the next Emperor of the Adrestian Empire. She's been enrolled into the Officers' Academy to learn everything she needs to learn to effectively rule her empire.
• Royalty Super Power: As the imperial princess of the Adestrian Empire, she bears the Minor Crest of the Divine Seiros, which can occasionally boost her might while using combat arts.
• Sand In My Eyes: It's left ambiguous due to how quickly she is to recompose herself but she does not handle killing Dimitri very well. When Byleth asks if she was crying, Edelgard quickly denies it. The fact that the scene takes place in the rain implies that the rain was able to hide Edelgard's mask briefly cracking.
• Satanic Archetype: A charismatic and confident leader clad in red who has a natural talent for fire and dark magic and, post-timeskip, wears a crown that evokes the imagery of satanic horns. One of her primary goals is to dismantle the Church as a power and she starts a war with the rest of the continent partly to achieve this. Furthermore, provided that nobody is recruited from the Black Eagle House^noteor if the Black Eagle House is chosen, you don't recruit anyone into the Black Eagle House, when she raises her arms against the Church, after the timeskip, one-third of Garreg Mach's student body follows her (echoing Revelation 12:4). She even carries the Crest of Seiros, making her something akin to family of the Goddess. On the Azure Moon route, she starts directly assaulting the Church of Seiros as a faith before transforming herself into a literal demonic monster. On the Crimson Flower route, she is an Anti-Hero who qualifies for Satanic Archetype Is Good.
• Secret A.I. Moves: She has the General, Commander, and Counterattack skills when fought as an enemy, which she cannot obtain under your command.
• Secret Art:
  • Raging Storm is Aymr's combat art, which can only be used by Edelgard. It deals 14 extra damage and increases hit by 10, with the effect of refreshing her turn upon landing the hit and deals effective damage against dragons.
  • She can obtain Flickering Flower from mastering Emperor, which deals 10 extra damage, increases hit and critical by 10, and has the effect of preventing an enemy from moving. This is exclusive to the Emperor class.
• Secretly Dying: Her interactions with Lysithea, particularly in Three Hopes, all-but outright state that like the House Ordelia heiress, Edelgard's lifespan was drastically shortened by the experiments performed on her by those who slither in the dark — hence her drive to affect rapid, drastic change within her truncated lifetime.
• Self-Serving Memory: Should Edelgard confront Rhea as the Immaculate One at the end of Crimson Flower, she will claim she never believed nor trusted in her and the Children of the Goddess from the beginning. However and as shown above, if her parley with Dimitri at the end of Azure Moon is any indication, there is the likelihood this wasn't always the case. This could be explained in that Edelgard views the person she used to be as different from the person she is now.
• Series Mascot: She is the only character to get an officially licensed Figma figure.
• Shadow Archetype: To Dimitri on the Azure Moon route. Both of them are individuals who faced tragedy in their lives (Tragedy of Duscur for Dimitri and the Crest experiments for Edelgard), both swear to make those who made them suffer pay and avenge those who were taken from them, and both are willing to go to extreme lengths to make that happen, though in quite different ways; Dimitri seeks direct retaliation against those who committed such unjust atrocities to those he cared for, while Edelgard decided to focus on finding a way to diminish the influence of her enemies and transform the world, at any cost. In the end of Azure Moon, while Dimitri eventually turns away from his blind obsession for revenge, Edelgard eventually dies because of her ideals born from these events.
• A Shared Suffering: The crux of her bond with Lysithea is the fact that they have both suffered through the same traumatic experience in their backstories. Both of them are survivors of horrific experiments to implant them with a second Crest, to the point that Lysithea is probably the character with whom Edelgard's ideology resonates the most.
• She Is the King: She is referred to as the future Emperor of Adrestia.
• Shutting Up Now: In Three Houses, if Byleth sides with her in the Holy Tomb, Edelgard is shocked and starts to question if Byleth is certain, but quickly shuts herself up as it is a bad time to question the help. She only brings up the topic again just before the Final Battle of Crimson Flower.
• Sinister Scythe: Her signature Axe, Aymr is jointed to open up into a scythe.
• Sole Survivor: Twofold:
  • Out of all eleven of her siblings, she's the only one who survived the Agarthans' Crest experiments both alive and mentally intact, as all of the others either died or went insane.
  • If the player opts to kill Claude on the Crimson Flower route, she's the only faction leader to survive to the end, as killing Dimitri and Rhea (the latter being Crimson Flower's Final Boss) isn't optional.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In Three Houses, Edelgard dies in all routes barring Crimson Flower. In Three Hopes, she survives in all routes, though does not come out mentally intact in Azure Gleam.
• Split Personality: In Azure Gleam, it's implied Thales' mind control device ended up doing this to Edelgard. After arriving in Zahras in this route, she admits having no memories of anything that happened after Thales hijacked her and had been more or less "asleep" during this time while she had been mentally regressed into her younger self, meaning both Edelgard's past and present selves ended up becoming separate personalities due to his spell.
• Smitten Teenage Girl: Behaves this way pre-Time Skip in her own route regardless of Byleth's gender. Her infatuation for Byleth serves to humanize her and if you side with/S-Support her, it morphs into a more matured, adult love with time.
• Stealth Insult: She has a habit of speaking passive aggressively during White Clouds, hiding insults behind her words and even passing it off as jokes.
  Edelgard: Simply tell me your weaknesses, and you're welcome to stay. But is there enough time to cover them all?
• Student/Teacher Romance:
  • On her own route she falls into this, as she becomes infatuated with Byleth while under their instruction. It's implied in the other routes as well, but to a much lesser extent.
  • She's also the only house leader that can support either of the other teachers Manuela and Hanneman. The actual supports with the two are not explicitly romantic, but her epilogue with Hanneman is indeed romantic, and her epilogue with Manuela states that neither of them ever married anyone else.
• Suicide by Cop: One possible interpretation of her death in Azure Moon; she attacks Dimitri nonlethally to provoke him and gets run through by his spear.
• Sunk Cost Fallacy:
  • One of the main factors motivating her unflinching attitude towards her goal is that she feels a desperate desire to make the deaths of her family and the innocents caught in her crusade against the church and the crest system mean something in the end. Failing to do so in default routes plays a huge part in her eventual death.
  • Being the one to actually instigate the war, Edelgard remains steadfast that she and only she can serve as Fódlan's sole ruler, even if the route the player chooses make it apparent that Edelgard is on the losing side. In other routes, Rhea willingly steps aside to name Byleth the new archbishop of the Church to reform it, and Claude is willing to abdicate the leadership of Fódlan to Dimitri and Byleth in the Azure Moon and Verdant Wind routes respectively if it means a quicker end to the bloodshed.
• Superboss: She is one of the three bosses of the second New Game Plus-exclusive paralogue "Eagles, Lions, and Deer" in Warriors: Three Hopes, fighting you alongside fellow house leaders Dimitri and Claude. She is one and a half times the player's level cap on Maddening and gets more and more fired up as the fight progresses, although she has the misfortune of weapon triangle disadvantage against Shez's default class and is thus likely to be the first to drop.
• Superior Successor:
  • Is this to her father, Ionius IX, as Emperor of Adrestia. Unlike her father's status as a puppet for corrupt nobles after his failed attempt at centralizing power resulted in a coup d'état, Edelgard's ascension to the throne and reign as Emperor is much more successful (ironically, creating a superior emperor to Ionius was the plan of said corrupt nobles to begin with). In all routes, Edelgard does succeed in purging the Empire of corrupt nobles, by either arresting them or gaining their loyalty, and Hubert putting down those who resist. On the Crimson Flower route, she accomplishes all of her life goals; she conquers both the Alliance and Kingdom in the process of removing the Church from power, bringing the entire continent under the control of the Adrestian Empire once more, and establishes reforms across the continent that lead to a new golden age for Fódlan.
  • Those who slither in the dark attempted to make her the second coming of Nemesis. This is subverted though, in that while she succeeds where he failed in Crimson Flower, she then goes on to destroy them as well.
• Super-Soldier: She is the end product of those who slither in the dark's experimentation to implant someone with the Crest of Flames and create a warrior powerful enough to destroy the Children of the Goddess. Unfortunately, all of her siblings were killed in the process of making her what she is today, and her lifespan has been drastically shortened by what they did to her.
• Supporting Leader: On the Golden Wildfire route in Warriors: Three Hopes, she leads the Imperial forces who aid Claude against the Church of Seiros during the back half of the game.
• Survivor Guilt: A big part of her Knight Templar tendencies stem from her inability to come to terms with the fact that she's the Sole Survivor of her eleven siblings. The guilt and feeling like she needs to make sure their deaths weren't meaningless drive her to the extremes that ultimately consume her in the other routes save her own, where only Byleth being her Morality Chain makes her able to have friends.
• Sweet Tooth: One of her supports with Byleth has her admitting that if not for her work, she'd likely spend the day doing nothing and simply gorging on sweets. This is also shown in her supports with Lysithea, where they both have a deep appreciation for cake. One of her questions in the advice box, of course, mentions cakes.
• Take Over the World:
  • On the Azure Moon route, ultimately played straight. After transforming into Hegemon Edelgard, she openly declares that "there can only be one ruler of the world".
  • On the Crimson Flower route, defied. Lord Arundel suggests that the Empire could have a go at world conquest after killing Rhea, but Edelgard makes it clear her ambitions only stretch as far as the continent of Fódlan.
• Tarot Motifs:
  • Edelgard shares traits with the Reversed High Priestess represented in her Minor Crest of Seiros, which often symbolizes secrets and lack of personal harmony. If the Black Eagles are chosen, putting emphasis on her own goals over forming bonds with others can potentially alienate her from Byleth and the rest of the Black Eagles (sans Hubert). When the Black Eagles are not chosen, this leads to the rest of the students from other houses feeling betrayed due to her actions. Secrets are also referenced by the fact that she is secretly the Flame Emperor who has been staging the many attacks happening throughout Part I and has been planning to start a war against the church, which leads to Edelgard potentially alienating all of her classmates.
  • Through the implanted Major Crest of Flames, Edelgard also represents the Upright and Reversed World Arcana, which can represent "completion of long term aspiration" and "the easiest/quickest path to one's goal". Edelgard's conquest is ultimately to change the system for the better with equality for all, but also to find closure for herself so that the death of her siblings, the innocents caught in her goal, and later, her father, can mean something in the long run. The former meaning is reflected in her result in the Crimson Flower route, where she succeeds in achieving her dream of a meritocracy without crests and the church. The latter meaning is shown by the fact that Edelgard's deaths on the default routes show that by taking the fastest way to achieve her goals, she refuses to face her failures and cut her own losses properly, leading to her own demise.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In Three Houses, with those who slither in the dark, only putting up with them because she needs their power to fulfill her ambitions at the moment… which shows how desperate she is, considering their role in her backstory. She does away with them as soon as she can at the end of her route. Early on in the Black Eagles route, she tells Hubert that she can't achieve her goals alone, which is why she is forced to use the power of "those people", and it would be best if Byleth could use the Sword of the Creator in her stead.
• That Woman Is Dead: Edelgard considers who she was before she was experimented on to be essentially another life/person, in part due to how clouded her memories of that time are, and to how different her morals and ethics became after it. Quoted quite explicitly in dialogue:
  Edelgard: [enemy] That girl you knew back then is gone. As good as dead.
  Edelgard: [ally] The Edelgard who shed tears died many years ago.
• Theory Tunnel Vision: Once Edelgard believes in something, she will not change her mind, regardless of any opinion to the contrary. For example, when Arundel/Thales accidentally calls Nemesis a thief to her face, she brushes it off and never questions it in spite of the statement going against all written records of who Nemesis was (though this may be justified, considering the typical Fantastic Racism of the Agarthans). She's convinced she is the only one capable of "saving" Fódlan from the Crest system, in spite of many students in-universe (who are future heirs of their respective noble houses) complaining and noting they wish to change it in the future. The only thing that can really do so is if otherwise-irrefutable evidence is presented; a key example is that even when Byleth is her professor, she doesn't believe they would agree with what she's done or her vision for the future, in particular after she's been exposed as the Flame Emperor (along with the fact that she believes that they will ultimately side with their 'family' (Rhea and her kind), rather than humanity). If Byleth does side with her, she's genuinely shocked by their action, although she does shift gears quickly and thanks them for it.
• Took a Level in Kindness: As part of her Defrosting Ice Queen Character Development, Edelgard becomes warmer and more considerate of others' feelings. This is especially evident in her supports with Bernadetta, in which Edelgard comes off as rather temperamental and easily annoyed with Bernadetta in their C support, tries to politely provide Constructive Criticism in their B support, and is able to casually converse and joke around with her in their A support. Partly because of this, Bernadetta becomes more comfortable around Edelgard.
• Tough Leader Façade: She puts on airs of being unflappable and ruthlessly determined, but she's secretly anxious about the consequences of her actions. However, she presses on because she solemnly believes that her efforts will create a brighter future for all of Fódlan.
• Tough Love: In stark contrast to Dimitri and Claude, Edelgard's pep talk to snap Byleth out of their sorrow from mourning Jeralt's death is to tell them to get over it. She advises Byleth to use those feelings as motivation to keep moving forward as opposed to wallowing in misery. Edelgard speaks from experience here, as she uses the horrific tragedy that befell her own family to fuel her ambition to bring change to Fódlan by any means necessary. In addition, she is also motivated by a desire to help Byleth avenge Jeralt's death against Kronya and even informs Byleth where Kronya is once they are done grieving.
• Tragic Villain: When she's an enemy, she genuinely means well and wants to fix Fódlan's issues, but because of your opposition to her and her inability to trust in others, she has to be killed. However, her actions undoubtedly help change Fódlan for the better, even if they are not her ideal form of change.
• Tritagonist: In Part I, if Byleth chose the Black Eagles, she's the ostensible leader of the students you're teaching, but Byleth has more screentime and both Byleth and Sothis have more character development. She takes over as the main protagonist in Part II if you side with her as her ambitions begin to drive the plot forward.
• Trying Not to Cry: After killing Dimitri, she hides her face with her hand. When Byleth asks if she's crying, Edelgard says that the Edelgard who shed tears died long ago. This doesn’t stop her from breaking down when she believes that Byleth had died after killing Rhea. Her tears quickly turn to tears of joy when Byleth’s heart begins to beat.
• Turns Red: On the Azure Moon route as Hegemon Edelgard, she has access to the abilities Vantage, Desperation and Wrath, all which trigger once her health is at half.
• The Unfettered: She doesn't have any qualms about performing morally questionable actions to accomplish her goals, as arranging the bandit attack in the prologue is any indication. This trait is what leads to Byleth going against her in the Silver Snow route, being unable to continue supporting her knowing this. On the other hand, when she's an ally, Byleth becomes her Morality Chain, and she becomes noticeably more restrained in her actions. Her endings with Bernadetta or Caspar likewise depict them as serving as other Morality Chains when she is becoming too detached/ruthless as emperor, ensuring she doesn't end up falling back into this mindset.
• The Unfought: While Thales makes Edelgard transform into Hegemon Husk in the Azure Gleam route of Three Hopes, this only happens so that she will submit to his command and the transformation itself is never fought in-gameplay.
• Unknown Rival: After the timeskip in all routes, Dimitri attributes the Tragedy of Duscur to Edelgard and considers her death to be his ultimate goal. Edelgard, however, sees Dimitri as merely a strong foe that she must kill in order to unite the land, not even taking the time to explain how misguided he is under the belief he simply doesn't care.
• Unreliable Narrator:
  • If you play her route after completing the Verdant Wind route, it becomes obvious that her conceptions and explanations of Fódlan's history and the state of the world, originally provided by the first Adrestian emperor which has been passed down through generations to descendants of his bloodline, are missing crucial details. While she's correct that Seiros has distorted history and that a family of non-humans has secretly played a major role in leading the world for a thousand years, she, among other things, believes Seiros killed Nemesis in order to impose her kin's supremacy over humans. In reality, Seiros did so to avenge her entire race, which was slain by Nemesis and his allies with the help of those who slither in the dark. She also views the Relic weapons as proof of human prowess, unaware that they were crafted from the mutilated remains of the butchered Children of the Goddess.
  • She is this in-universe at one point. After Thales blows up Arianrhod using the Javelins of Light, she is instead quick to make an official announcement that it was all the Church's fault instead. She justifies this to Hubert and Byleth by saying that they can't afford to divide their forces' attention at the moment with the revelation of those who slither in the dark's existence when the final confrontation with Dimitri and Rhea is imminent, deciding that it's best to settle the score with them once the war is over (which is exactly what they end up doing).
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: On the Azure Moon and Verdant Wind routes, she wields Seiros' Sword alongside her relic during the Second Battle at Gronder Field, which normally can't be obtained nor wielded by any playable character.
• Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: Once you learn the details of Edelgard's backstory, it becomes apparent that one of her potential foes went through a far less refined version of what Edelgard did. Lysithea was forcibly implanted with a second Crest as a trial version for the procedure that ultimately resulted in Edelgard getting the Crest of Flames, making Lysithea the Flawed Prototype to Edelgard's Upgrade, and the two can directly cross blades in five of the seven routes in both Fódlan games. Accordingly, they have unique combat dialogue in Three Houses, with the version seen in Silver Snow and Verdant Wind shedding light on the fact that they have gone through the same experiments.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The Azure Moon route shows flashbacks of her as an adorable preteen girl teaching Dimitri how to dance and generally being an ordinary girl. By the time the main game comes around, she's become willing to trigger a war and kill everyone she once called friends to achieve her ambitions, and by the end of the game she turns herself into a literal monster to oppose Dimitri.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Edelgard sincerely believes that her dream of a united Fódlan freed from the control the Church and Crests will bring about a better future for all. What she does to realize her dream is… unpalatable to many, to say the very least.
• Villain Has a Point: The story frames her as being correct that Fódlan has major social and political problems, and substantial reform is clearly warranted. The problem is that she chooses to conquer other countries to force that reform.
• Villain Protagonist: Zig-zagged. She starts as this in White Clouds, as despite her good intentions, she is willing to thrust Fodlan into a war to reform it. Also, despite her hatred of them, she still works with those who slither in the dark, who commit, and have committed, countless atrocities. However, with Byleth's help on her own route, Edelgard is able to reduce the influence of those who slither in the dark (and she makes sure to eliminate them, once Rhea has been dealt with), and she generally tones down her more extreme tendencies, which makes her more of an Anti-Hero.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: She allies with those who slither in the dark and launches a war to bring about societal reform.
• Violence is the Only Option: Thoroughly examined. Edelgard firmly believes that the only way to reform Fódlan is to start a war to destroy the Church of Seiros and unify the continent under her guidance. It's a major sticking point between the characters and even routes whether she's genuinely doing what needs to be done or if she's senselessly sacrificing lives for a cause she could have championed peacefully. It certainly doesn't help that 1. her limited lifespan has made her desperate to enact change as quickly as possible, and 2. the actions of those who slither in the dark, either by happenstance or design, drive more moderate potential allies away from her.
• Visionary Villain: Depending on the route and your own interpretation, of course, but if she is a villain, then she is certainly this. Right or wrong, she has the boldest plans for Fódlan, kickstarting the entire story in order to realize her ideals. Additionally, her ending brings sweeping class reforms and radical systematic changes to the continent, such as abolishing the traditional system of nobility and reforming the Church to not hold any political power over people and ensuring that the throne of power isn't hereditary.
• The Von Trope Family: Von Hresvelg.
• Weapon Specialization: Generally favors axes as her go-to weapon, with her personal Hero Relic being one as well. She even uses an axe when disguising herself as the Flame Emperor.
• Weapon Twirling: She does a little twirl at the end of her attack animation.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Everything she does is out of a genuine desire to end the continent's corrupt status quo and bring true peace and progress to Fódlan.
  • Her willingness and rationale to conquer indepedendent nations is explained in more detail in Three Hopes, where after remarking on how parts of Fódlan have changed names and rulers over the centuries through land grabs and takeovers, she expresses that as far as she is concerned land doesn't truly belong to anyone. Rather it is simply controlled by whoever is in power in the area at the time, the implication being that she sees no issue with taking over a region if she thinks she can change it for the better. This viewpoint is one thing that brings her into conflict with Dimitri and Claude, who both place greater value on territorial sovereignty.
• We Used to Be Friends: Her ideals and ambitions ultimately bring her into conflict with her childhood friend Dimitri on all routes and her classmates and her beloved professor Byleth on the Silver Snow route.
• What Is This Feeling?: In her A-Rank Support with Hubert in Warriors: Three Hopes, they discuss their thoughts on Byleth. If they were recruited, Edelgard mentions how she feels drawn to them, but doesn't understand why and surmises that it might be a reaction from her Crest.
• White Hair, Black Heart: She has white hair, and is a ruthless extremist who is willing to trigger a war and crush anyone who gets in her way in order to fix what she sees as the problems within Fódlan. Even when fighting on her side, she's still an Anti-Hero who mainly avoids falling as far as she does on other routes because of Byleth's influence.
• Who Will Bell the Cat?: Everyone knows that there needs to be a conversation about Rhea's influence on Fódlan, and the state of the continent's culture as a whole (even Rhea knows this), but only Edelgard is willing to take drastic action to force change. She is labeled a warmonger for this, and whether she is justified or not, if there was a better and more peaceful way to accomplish change, etc. is discussed a number of times in the game. That discussion sees little in the way of definitive answers, though, thanks to the Gray-and-Gray Morality aspects; Edelgard, Claude, and Rhea's secrets, Edelgard, Dimitri, and Rhea's refusal to surrender, and those who slither in the dark's agenda.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Her fear of rats, which is Played for Laughs in spite of its origins.
  • During the Battle of the Eagle and Lion, if Claude confronts Edelgard, he'll try to play on her weakness by claiming there's a rat by her feet to freak her out. The prank only embarrasses and angers her.
  • At the end of Chapter 14, a cutscene plays with her shrieking in fear, causing Byleth to bolt to her room out of worry, only to find out that she was screaming over a rat. She’s understandably embarrassed and becomes even more embarrassed if Byleth comments on how “cute” her scream was.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: She has grand ideals about making Fódlan a place of true equality and prosperity. Too bad she's willing to spill a lot of innocent blood in order to make it happen.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: The Prologue of Warriors: Three Hopes ends with her getting one over on those who slither in the dark by overthrowing Thales and driving him out of the Empire. Azure Gleam results in this victory backfiring on her completely and utterly. Thales jumps her during the battle for Arianrhod, brainwashes her into a mindless puppet without even the pretense of free will, and runs the Empire into the ground along with Duke Aegir. Dimitri is able to kill Thales and Duke Aegir, but Edelgard's last words imply that she's mentally regressed to a child.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!:
  • If Byleth is a Black Eagle, she laments after the fight with Miklan that had he not been disinherited purely for lacking a Crest and given an appropriate education, he might have become a respected leader with the skills he showed as a bandit leader.
  • After killing Dimitri (and Claude if the player chooses to have him killed), she muses that they might have become prosperous and benevolent rulers if only they had been born in a time of peace.
  • Dimitri and Claude in turn give this to her at the end of their own routes, offering her the chance to surrender and work with them to make a better world; when she refuses, Claude even promises to ensure that her ideals still come to pass.
• Young and in Charge: Deconstructed. Edelgard is well aware she will eventually take the throne of Adrestia and rule it, but because of the Crest experiments she was put through, she has a shorter lifespan that will mean she will eventually die before she can achieve her goal of unifying Fódlan. As a result, she chooses to kickstart her war as early as possible and try to unify the continent as quickly as she can. In doing so, she places heavy stress on herself and uses a Violence is the Only Option approach because she lacks the time needed to make gradual change. If you side with her, she manages to remain a fairly moral person still, but if you go against her, without a real support system, and her desperation, she becomes harsher and potentially more violent towards her foes, continuing the path she always believed would leave her alone.
• Young Conqueror: With Byleth's help, Edelgard reconquers the Alliance and Kingdom, ruling a united Fódlan as Emperor at the young age of 23.
• Your Days Are Numbered: In Three Houses:
  • Edelgard's paired ending with Lysithea confirms her lifespan had also been shortened by the experimentation she was subjected to at the hands of those who slither in the dark, as it mentions they were eventually able to bring back the "years of life that had been stolen from them". Like Lysithea, her life was shortened due to being forced to hold two Crests, which would explain why she is so desperate to accomplish her goals as quickly as she can. Unlike her however, it's never explicitly made clear how much of a toll her lifespan took, which creates some ambiguity in her other endings. For what it's worth, it was mentioned in the Nintendo Dream interview her experimentation was far more "refined" compared to the one Lysithea went through, implying the toll her lifespan took was, at the very least, lower by comparison.
  • A few of Edelgard's endings have her abdicating the throne and disappearing from the public eye at some point after she finishes her reforms, implying that she had, in fact, actually passed on or was in failing health by then. Specifically, this happens in her solo ending and her paired ending with Hubert. On the other hand, her other endings don't mention anything about an early retirement. Some of the endings where this is justified are her paired endings relating to Crest research, such as Hanneman, Linhardt, and Lysithea, as well as Manuela, whose medical skills were key to prolonging Edelgard's life. Her other endings with Byleth, Caspar, Bernadetta, Dorothea, and Ferdinand don't have justification on why there is no mention of any kind of shortened life or disappearance from the public eye. In fact, Ferdinand's ending specifically states they had children together.

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