iâve never talked about this before but i have a love-hate relationship with golden route aus... like i donât have a problem with the idea of a route where everybody gets a happy ending, itâs rather sweet. itâs just the way people go about making them. every single time i see a golden route au it goes along the lines of âthe three lords team up and kill rhea and dimitri leaves the throne bc heâs mentally ill, claude leaves for almyra, and edelgard gets fodlan #slayqueenâ which is a really bad take
not to mention, they typically throw everybodyâs characterizations under the fucking bus. rhea is portrayed as this villainous demigod instead of a genocide victim trying to protect her family, dimitri is shown as this dumb guy whoâs too mentally ill to properly function, claude is just the brown friendâą, and edelgard is ironically portrayed to be some sort of divine savior. not to mention byleth, whoâs already a shit character, becomes even more of a doormat.
and i think the ooc nature of all these aus comes from the fact that, based off of everybodyâs current characterizations, thereâs absolutely no way you could get a golden route out of it. dimitri is too adverse to civilian casualties, claude doesnât like resorting to violence, rhea is too scared to tell the truth of the past for fear of a repeat of it, and edelgard is too damn stubborn to consider any alternative that doesnât end with imperial control.
the closest we get in game to a golden route is azure moon. dimitri creates a kingdom with civilian participation, claude is still alive and is 100% down for international relations (even telling dimitri theyâll meet again in a friendly conversation), and rhea gets to take a break and get some well earned retirement. and edelgard.... well... she was given a chance and she made her decision. dimitri gave her the dagger to âcarve a path to the future she wished forâ and she used it to try and kill him (or you can even read it as her choosing her death bc she didnât want to live with defeat).
and after looking at azure moon, which is the closest to everybody getting personal peace, it seems the outlier figure is, well, edelgard. look, i love el to death but that girl is extremely stubborn you might as well be talking to a brick wall (scratch that a brick wall might listen better) and this is a trait i do like about her. canât say she doesnât stand for her convictions even if you agree with her or not.
itâs very clear that the empire and twsitdâs shitty influence has made her completely against any sort of meaningful compromise which we see time and time again in game. and i honestly believe that if there is any chance for a 100% golden end she would need to have been taken from the empire at a very early age before their toxic mindset could affect her. so yeah, sheâs a product of her environment, just like everybody else in the game, and if you want a golden route thatâs not ooc someone is going to need to have ionius hand over the custody papers effective immediately. i personally vote rhea so she can start to pull away from her dead family to a present family and el gets a new parent and a bunch of kids her age to form connections to and everybody lives happily ever after
vaporwave
gummygunk
gamechangershow
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
