the fe3h fanbase seems to have a lot of problems with popular character interpretation but imo petra seems to get the worst of this. yes, she’s a very kind-hearted character and she struggles with learning a new language and she doesn’t always understand idioms and metaphors and whatever but like. that’s not her entire personality!! those are all very surface-level things that are easy to notice, obviously, but there’s so much more to petra that actually makes her a wonderfully complex character. she’s not some haha funny foreign pushover and it just sucks when people reduce her to comedy relief because she doesn’t always understand what other people are saying. petra isn’t dumb. she’s actually extremely quick-witted. and maybe she doesn’t always get sayings, but she clearly puts a lot of effort into learning about them. like in her support with edelgard, she clearly understands both the literal and metaphorical meaning of “two birds with one stone,” and she even makes a joke about it that catches edelgard by surprise. again, petra isn’t dumb. she’s really, really smart.
it’s easy to think she’s quiet and nice and docile. but in truth, she misses brigid so much but she avoids talking about it because she doesn’t want people to think she’s too hung up on her home to focus on her studies. petra doesn’t want people to think less of her just because she happens to be from one of the empire’s annexed territories. life dealt her a bad hand, but she refuses to complain to others because she’s doing her best to be strong and self-reliant. in her supports with hubert and edelgard, both of them note that petra could quite possibly be on par with edelgard in terms of ambition and determination. in other words, she’s just as strong a leader as edelgard. and she has to be, because she loves brigid and wants to be the best leader she can. so she’s not a pushover at all. petra has the same strength as the heir to the empire that conquered her country.
and adding on to that, petra isn’t just super nice all the time. i mean, of course she cares deeply about her friends and treats everyone with respect. but she also has moments where she’s just sick and tired of fodlan bs! she does a great job of keeping her emotions in check because she has to. she knows she has to keep a positive face because she’s representing brigid. though she’s rightfully angry about the death of her father, she doesn’t blame caspar for it. she’s only angry that he’s taken so long to learn the truth and that he still speaks of his father in a good light. (side note: it also sucks that she has to be this perfect representative of brigid when she shouldn’t have to be the sole ideal of how other people perceive her country! but she does it anyway because she wants a better future for brigid!!) but underneath that carefully crafted outward appearance she’s incredibly passionate and she’s just so angry about how brigid has been treated by the empire.
anyways petra is a really good and complex character and she deserves better