#it's just Seteth banning them from the library (which hey!! still very bad!!)

[butwhatifidothis]

It's not serious because it ISN'T played in a serious manner. One look through Dorothea and Edelgard's support makes it pretty obvious.

"Dorothea: Edie. I'm telling you I'm fine. If you push me any further, I'll write an opera about you. I'll do it right here and now. And then I'll sing it in your face!

Edelgard: Settle down, Dorothea, I can take a hint! If you insist, I'll drop the subject. Whatever you do, don't write more opera lines about me. My cheeks are probably still red from your last performance."

So yeah, it's not some deep "Edelgard is censoring operas for giving info about the war" so much as it is "Edelgard's bans her friends play where she's the main character because she's embarrassed by the way she'll be depicted."

Hell, you can't even go "she's censoring it because she doesnt want to be potrayed negatively" because she's potrayed positively in said play. It's not serious because it isn't POTRAYED seriously.

My guy I don’t know how to tell ya this but censorship is literally always serious. There’s no “haha this person of high authority disallowed the public from producing [x piece of art here] because they’re just a silly goose” there is almost only ever “this person of high authority disallowed the public from producing [x piece of art here] because they are abusing their power over the people.” Edelgard literally passed a law saying the company couldn’t make the play before she even saw it. I cannot stress this enough: that is serious, because that is censorship, and censorship is bad 99.99% of the time because it holds back the arts and disincentives people from engaging in artistic drives lest their works be deemed illegal and they as artists put in danger of being arrested for breaking the law of “don’t make art this one person who’s in charge doesn’t like.” 

Like!! “you can't even go "she's censoring it because she doesnt want to be potrayed negatively" because she's potrayed positively in said play” except she banned it before she saw it, so she can’t even know for a fact that she was portrayed either positively, negatively, in a serious light or a light-hearted one, in an action piece or a political drama, whether there’s romance in the forefront or as a central focus or even present at all - she knows zero, zilch, nada about this play except for it was made by the Mittelfrank Opera Company and so maybe Dorothea had a direct hand in actually writing it, and that was enough for her to make an official decree that banned the company from performing this play. 

I’m going to be serious and transparent here, I am not understanding how “no, she didn’t ban the play for political reasons, or because it shows her in a bad light, but because - despite it (in all likelihoods) being something that shows her in a good light - it was about her at all, and so she banned it and made a decree saying this company isn’t allowed to make or perform this play in front of the public, and is only convinced otherwise because of favoritism” is any better at all. You said in the previous ask that this never said that all plays about the war are banned, “just” this one, but be honest with me! How on earth is this not indicative of something larger when any and all plays about the war must have Edelgard as the main character nearly without exception? When she’s already shown a penchant of censoring things she doesn’t want others knowing during the war? Edelgard is the face of the war, by her own want, so unless you are specifically detailing the life of one specific person that isn’t Edelgard (or Byleth or Hubert, because they are attached to Edelgard’s hips and thus must also heavily feature her) you just can’t make a play about the war, you can’t make one of her at all, whether or not it’s positive or negative, unless you’re a very close friend of hers that can convince her otherwise. 

Edelgard getting flustered about Dorothea writing a play about her is all cute and funny and okay and something I literally have zero problems with up until she spreads and forces the people to comply to not do that with a decree that actively disallows them from doing so. At that point it is no longer just her getting haha embarrassed about her friend writing something about her. That is her, as an authority figure responsible for thousands of people, showing that she is willing to throw around her power to stop people from making, apparently, literally harmless art about her, all because she’s too childish and insecure and she’s letting her emotions heavily influence her decisions that affect thousands of people, not just her personal circle of friends.

Because that is what their supports are referring to. Edelgard asking one friend to not write anything about her (or at least not saying what they wrote to her face). You’ll notice a distinct lack of any mention of “I will actively legally ban plays where I am the main character” in their supports, because their supports are not in reference to Edelgard actively legally banning plays where she is the main character. That that is what ends up happening in their ending despite its light-hearted tone should be very worrying.

#ask #anon #anti edelgard #Anti-edelgard #Edelgard discourse #edelgard critical #just to be safe #exqueuese me princess #maybe this is just a difference in opinion? #like I'm very sorry for being kinda mean but I am genuinely lost #because legit I am NOT seeing how what you're describing is any better if not actually worse #because apparently it's NOT the war that's the issue but that it has Edelgard as the main character AT ALL no matter what #like literally even Rhea allows that much?? She doesn't ban the making of the Seiros x Wilheim plays themselves?? #and those plays are implied to be adult in nature?? #it's just Seteth banning them from the library (which hey!! still very bad!!)

[butwhatifidothis]

Except it ISN'T about the war in general. It's described as "a war drama depicting the journey and sacrifice of the emperor and her companions." Dorothea even mentions that it'll be an opera about Edelgard in their support.

It's not as deep as "Edelgard doesn't want information about the war in the form of a musical getting out". It's just her going "Yeah no I don't want a play about me with me as the main character because it's embarrassing."

As I said, Edelgard does plenty of fucked shit, but that isn't an example of one of them. There's no secondary motivation about not wanting the play outside of "I don't WANT a play about me it's embarrassing".

Theres a huge difference in "Rhea censors things and holds back technology" and "Edelgard bans her friend's musical about her because it embarrases her but ultimately relents and lets Dorothea preform the play."

One is serious, the other very much isn't. The ending doesn't even say she banned all plays about the war, just that SPECIFIC play by her friend which was ABOUT her.

I'm sure you could find evidence of Edelgard ACTUALLY censoring shit, but this just isn't it.

(assuming it’s the same anon, if it’s not then sorry!)

Alright. Let’s go with this. It’s not Edelgard hiding information about the war from the public - even though we already know there are some aspects of the war she doesn’t want anyone knowing, let alone the general public, such as Arianrhod, and even though we already know that things such as the war against TWS was explicitly hidden from the public. 

This is still censorship. You even say it’s her banning the play - that’s literally censorship. 

And you’re right - this isn’t the same as Rhea. Rhea hid knowledge from humans that they’ve already shown to use for malicious purposes, up to and including genocide and nearly ruining Fodlan, respectively. Edelgard is throwing around her power as Emperor to ban art because she’s, in your own words, “embarrassed” over it. You are describing her as someone who’s so childish she can’t stand people depicting her in a way she doesn’t like for literally no other reason than she’s embarrassed. This is abuse of power, full stop. 

Because yes, I can point to instances where Edelgard hides things/lies about things to make herself look better than she is or to otherwise benefit herself. I can point to when she takes Byleth’s credit at the Battle of Garreg Mach, to the missiles dropped on Arianrhod, to the shadow war against TWS, to her lying about “allowing” the people of Garreg Mach to escape when she attacks pre ts, so why, then, is it so unacceptable to believe that this is another instance of her doing what she’s already been shown to be capable of doing multiple times?

Or, alternatively, why does that suddenly make it not serious? It’s serious that Seteth is willing to censor anything about romance from the library, because it’s suppression of art. That is Seteth abusing his power as a high-ranking official of the Church to ban things he personally doesn’t like, not because they’re an inherent threat, but because he’s an overprotective father who’s too scared of his daughter getting with anyone and getting any ideas about romance (or is too grossed out by his sister gettin’ funky with Wilheim). He’s letting his own personal feelings get in the way of the spreading of harmless art and that is a bad thing.

If Edelgard didn’t initially allow this play that was (implicitly) written by someone close to her, what would stop her from banning any play about her she doesn’t like? If she already has multiple details about the war she doesn’t want the people knowing, what would stop her from censoring any play about the war? This one only got a pass because a friend of hers wrote it, and it still got banned and it still needed that friend to convince her to unban it - not everyone in the Empire is her friend. And also, this is only after she herself watched the play, so does every play about her need her to personally vet it (or in general vet it) for approval before being allowed to be shown to the public? Is that how art of her is going to be treated in her society? All because she’s too embarrassed?

And I’m sorry!! I don’t want to sound rude, but “I'm sure you could find evidence of Edelgard ACTUALLY censoring shit, but this just isn't it” except it... is? An example of her actually censoring shit? This is an example of her using her position as Emperor to disallow the production of art due to the contents of said art being considered unfit for public consumption as decreed by solely Edelgard? Because she personally doesn’t like what’s in it - by your explanation, not even for objective reasons that could actually disadvantage her? How is this not censorship, and why is this not serious? 

Because, again, this is not her going up to her friend and saying “Hey, I’d really appreciate if you don’t do this” like their supports, which I have literally no issues with. It’s her demanding the entire Mittelfrank Opera Company not produce this play they wanted to perform. There’s a difference between a huge political leader going to their personal friends and asking them as friends to not do a certain thing, and that same leader forbidding the general public from doing that same thing under law. 

So either Edelgard is banning this play because it’s about the war and she doesn’t want the possibility of it revealing any information she doesn’t want the public to know about and is willing to abuse her power to ban it and is only appeased once she knows a close friend of hers wrote it and even then only after she’s seen the performance for herself... or she is banning this play because she’s embarrassed about any possible haha details coming out about her and she’s willing to abuse her power to ban it and is only appeased once she knows a close friend of hers wrote it and even then only after she’s seen the performance for herself. 

Both are bad. They may not be equally bad, but they are both very bad. Censorship is so rarely good that 3H had to come with a literal impossible scenario for it to be even possible to justify (”this nearly genocided race of dragon people with magic blood needed to hide the history of their magic blood from people that wanted to kill them for it”), and it’s definitely not good for as petty a reason as “nooo, don’t talk about me like that //>~<//” 

#ask #anon #anti edelgard #Anti-edelgard #Edelgard discourse #Edelgard critical #just to be safe #again - very sorry if I come across as rude #but I just don't see how this is not censorship #whether or not it's due to the war aspect of the play or the personal aspect this screams censorship #and I don't see how this is not serious - especially considering who's enacting the censorship and what all else we know she's willing to do #to make herself look better to those around her