#not the traumatized lady who - while still very flawed - is basically just. the scapegoat.

[holdharmonysacred]

i will say though that i think edelgard fire emblem got done fucking dirty. I want to like her so bad but all the weird Yikes undertones in the game + the weird Yikes undertones with how a lot of edelgard stans I’ve seen treat rhea + the way the game itself fucking cheats her of actually good character development by never letting her admit she was wrong or that maybe imperialism is bad or how she never gets to confront her abusers in her route or how she only really gets challenged on her bigotry issues in goddamn fire emblem heroes just. sours her for me a little.

It’s like. Weird comparison, but it feels like she has the same issues with her writing that the Diamonds in SU (and the Sympathetic Fantasy Imperials character type in general) have in that like. Yeah, the arc she has is thematically nice and good for the story her route is trying to tell, but it completely clashes with the worldbuilding and setup that the entire rest of the game provides, and also never quite properly addresses that at the end of the day, Edelgard is an Imperialist, she thinks imperialism is the solution for doing things, and the game failing to adequately address that gives the story some serious Undertones of the not-so-good kind. It could’ve made for a super good story to have Edelgard be forced to actually seriously confront her crimes and admit that she’s super complicit in some really bad shit, and rather than pushing on out of sheer Sunk Cost Fallacy she needs to actually seriously try to fix her mistakes and confront her own biases, but the game doesn’t want to do that for some reason, so the framing in her arc is just. an awful mess.

#admittedly part of the problem is that. for a game about politics. three houses sure doesn't know about politics. #like how the game thinks edelgard starting a meritocracy is a good thing #even though anyone who knows anything about how capitalism is bad should also know meritocracies bad #(hint: meritocracies is how people justify oppressive hierarchies #and people with more wealth and power and privilege have more opportunities to show off their merit than those who don't) #to be clear i really do think edelgard has some real good potential as a character under there!!!!!!! i want to like her super bad!!!!!! #but just. the way her route never lets her get to be wrong when the rest of the game shows that she's wrong about A Lot #it feels bad. it feels like bad writing and missed opportunities. and has some bad undertones. #edelgard's final boss should've been the pale people slither crew instead of rhea. #the culmination of her route should have been her fighting the people who ACTUALLY made her life a living hell #not the traumatized lady who - while still very flawed - is basically just. the scapegoat. #killing rhea does not solve the fundamentally flawed systems in fodlan because many of those systems were not her fault #nor does it help edelgard overcome her own trauma in any way. all it is is just. her doing exactly what her abusers want. #her whole route is basically her getting played like a damn fiddle and the game never properly calling her out on it #edelgard's ending should've been her unlearning adrestian imperialist propaganda and beating up the slitherers and them's the facts

[peremadeleine]

Heyyooooo wanna explain to me why you don't like Mary Todd Lincoln? (in all honesty im hella curious) And can we talk more about Ann Rutledge? And what was your opinion on Mary and Lincoln's marriage? so many questions so sorry but I love talking about this stuff

I’ll say that I don’t actively dislike Mary. I think she’s often demonized, quite unfairly, and that she had many good qualities. She was intelligent, well-educated, witty, and charming. She was by all accounts an excellent, devoted mother. Without her, Lincoln probably never would have been president. I believe she cared for him, and that he loved her after a fashion as well (he adored his children as much as she did, and even if theirs was no grand romance, I imagine he would’ve had a love for the mother of his children, whoever she was). 

That said…

Mary was emotionally unstable, horribly insecure (did I just describe myself?), more and more paranoid as the presidency/war went on, and was, unfortunately, an easy target for vicious attacks in the press. Lincoln was already less than popular, and his “Southern” wife whose well-off family, some of whom owned slaves and fought for the Confederacy, was an obvious scapegoat, though through no fault of her own. She really didn’t help either him or herself by wildly overspending (on herself and on White House renovations) or by becoming obsessed with spiritualism following the death of their son in 1862. Of course both the Lincolns felt that loss very keenly, but Mary’s increasing erratic behavior afterwards only created more strain for Lincoln. He was prone to depression anyway and was, at that time, already at breaking point mentally/emotionally. To complicate things even further, Mary was also very easily manipulated by anyone who wanted something from her husband. Even people in Lincoln’s own administration didn’t like her, eve going so far as to call her the “Hellcat”.

Honestly? No person is perfect, and often hindsight doesn’t do them any favors. I’ve read the biographies of several first ladies now (one on Abigail Adams, one on Mary, and am currently reading one on Eleanor Roosevelt) and they all had their flaws. It comes down, frankly, to personal preference and to the fact that I adore Lincoln. Even if I was super interested his wife, he is my number one favorite historical figure and has been for so long that I don’t remember a time when he wasn’t, so Mary would already be playing catch-up for me? 

tl;dr I’m not super interested in Mary, but her personality–despite her many good qualities–just doesn’t appeal to me? I’m Just Not That Into Her?? I also think I see things in Mary’s personality that reflect things I don’t like about myself (as noted above) and also things I don’t like about my mother, but that’s…a whole different topic. Some other first ladies (see: Abigail and Eleanor) are among my other favorite historical figures, so…it’s really all subjective?

I will say that I think Mary got a raw deal. She was branded as a traitor and a Confederate spy, which she wasn’t at all. Heck, her home state of Kentucky (which was also the state of Lincoln’s birth represent) didn’t even secede, even if members of her family fought for the Confederacy. She was present when her husband was killed, which could’ve only been horrific for her, and afterwards she got vilified by people like William Herndon. Then her third son (Tad) died, and her only living son (Robert) institutionalized her for being supposedly insane–a betrayal no matter how you slice it even if her behavior was erratic. People continued to take advantage of her, such as when they “photographed” her with the “ghost” of her husband. Finally, this traumatized, grief-stricken woman died believing she was impoverished when, in reality, she was able to live in perfect comfort and financial security.

Maybe part of what I don’t like about her boils down to the complexities of the marriage? It wasn’t an altogether happy one, and Lincoln must have had serious doubts about even going through with it–after all, the courtship was fairly drawn-out and he broke off their engagement at one time. There’s an anecdote, for instance, (it’s late and I haven’t read the biographies of anyone involved for some time, so I can’t cite sources) about Mary once angrily chasing Lincoln down the street in Springfield with a broom. Even if that’s exaggerated, she had a notorious temper, and Lincoln, a history of depression. He was also away from home for long stretches of time because of his career, and at the beginning of their marriage, he didn’t make the kind of money to provide Mary–a Todd of Kentucky!–with the kind of lifestyle to which she was accustomed. They lived in a boarding house for at least a couple of years, and their eldest son was born there. There’s no way that didn’t cause some tension right from the start.

However, I do think their mutual ambitions–Mary was more “refined” and certainly better-educated than Lincoln, had valuable political connections (including to his hero Henry Clay), and was basically a sounding board/adviser for him–and their deep love for their boys helped bind them together as a couple. Mary insisted after he died that Lincoln was in love with her and that he’d never loved any other woman, which I think is…well, not true on either count? But again, I do think Lincoln loved her. She was important to him in many different ways. He may have regretted proposing to her and even regretted, to some extent, actually marrying her, but he was attracted to her and by her personality, otherwise they never would’ve begun a courtship to begin with!

So again tl;dr, I don’t think the Lincoln marriage was outright miserable. I think that affection existed between Lincoln and Mary, in particular after the births (and deaths) of their sons. Being Mary’s husband had very clear advantages for Lincoln’s career. But I do think they were a rather Odd Couple and that, once Lincoln became president, Mary’s Todd connections became a burden rather than a boon. Her spending habits, paranoia, and naivete cost Lincoln valuable time and energy in the White House when he already had the “momentous issue” of the war with which to cope. Who knows if they would’ve settled into a contented retirement with one another, seeing their grandchildren born, if things had gone differently? Maybe. I like to think so, anyway.

Ann Rutledge was the love of Lincoln’s life, if you ask me. Sure, the human memory can be faulty–but are the collective memories of 100+ people faulty?? I don’t know, maybe. It is, of course, entirely possible that Lincoln and Ann were just good friends and that there was never (as many, many people from New Salem who knew them claimed) an “understanding” between them. Either way, though, Ann and Lincoln met privately while she was on her deathbed–after which her sister Nancy thought hat Lincoln looked “sad and broken-hearted”–and after her death, Lincoln’s friends feared for his life, so intense was his grief. 

Ann was remembered by her friends and family as intelligent, kind, beautiful, and someone who “loved everybody.” Her death at such a young age was a tragedy, one that scarred Lincoln no matter what the true nature of their relationship was. Had Ann had lived, though, I imagine that Lincoln would never have become president…and that would’ve been a real tragedy. Still, the hugely sentimental part of me still wishes that she would’ve lived and married him and made him happy, because his life as it was (for all his funny stories and famous sense of humor) was in many ways a series of unfortunate tragic events, and it breaks my heart.

I apologize that this is long and rambling and undetailed, or at least nonspecific. It’s late, I’m tired, and I haven’t brushed up on my Lincoln reading in quite a while, but uh, as you can see, I have plenty of opinions to make up for it…

edit: Forgot to recommend the excellent book The Shadows Rise: Abraham Lincoln and the Ann Rutledge Legend, which is what first convinced me of the factual nature of their relationship.

#paintbrushtheelf #please don't feel bad about asking me about Lincoln and esp. not about Ann Rutledge #because I will type rambling responses about Lincoln all day #as you can see! #under a cut b/c it got ridiculously long oops #depression cw #mental health cw #death cw #child death cw #idk did I get everything with those?