I have to politely disagree to your reasoning of why Dimitri spared Edelgard at the end of AG. My reading was that he figured that she has already suffered enough because this time he has an idea of what TWSID have done to her and/or because now that she mentally regressed to twelve year old Edelgard, she's no longer the Edelgard that started the war in the first place.

I'm not sure if you saw my post after that one, but I mentioned a theory that basically there was dark magic on top of dark magic; that being, in this game specifically, maybe Edelgard had dark magic used on her to begin with (and was part of why she forgot about Dimitri), so in a way it could be that the "new" personality started there and the "real" personality was "asleep" that whole time.

When Thales used his dark magic to control her during AG, that would be the second time in this theory that he used it on her and I guess took her memory away to some extent, since she couldn't remember what happened over the course of six months.

If that happened it would be like, once Thales died and his dark magic on her was released, that the time she lived from back then to the present was possibly just gone. In a sense, you could say the Edelgard we know was possibly totally erased and that she's starting over from the moment her memories were first wiped/altered.

And I think it's totally valid that you have your own idea on what the final scene meant! To me I think it could be a combination of both the ideas we have, because while I think it'd make sense that maybe he's letting some things go since she may not have been totally in control and all that and the blame for most of his pain was due to Thales' desires, I think it would be hard for him to reconcile with her mentally by then. I think there's still probably some part of him that will struggle to look at her and not feel anger for things she did (especially the war). In time I think he might be able to forgive her if the theory I mentioned above is accurate/somewhat accurate and like you said, she regressed back to being a child.

Since it's an open ending on that stuff though, it could be possible that maybe she remembered him but still has her memories of the war and whatnot? Like maybe all that happened is her old memories are accessible to her now but she's returned to being who she was throughout the war, but she's remembering "oh shit, it's Dee who I've been at war with".

Because it's an ambiguous ending I think there are any number of possibilities as to why he walked away tbh. Basically the way I've been seeing it is what I wrote just above - that she might finally remember him but may also be just now realizing exactly what she's done. Perhaps a part of him was at the time still too bitter and he had to address the armies that they'd won first before trying to get into anything emotional with her.

You could kind of say with how I'm thinking of it that like, imagine you were talking to someone online and didn't know who it was. You ended up in this fight with them and bad things happened, only for you to find out later that it was another person you cherished and kind of had that oh shit moment, but the fact still remains that you had this fight with that person due to a conflict of interests without knowing who it was. You did things you normally wouldn't have done to that person, but because you didn't know it was them you did do those things.

If Edelgard had just completely regressed and was living her life over again from the age of, mentally, twelve, and everything from that point after was truly erased, I'm sure Dimitri would reconcile with her, though I'm sure he'd need some time to let his feelings work themselves out.

What he'd do after imo would really depend on which Edelgard she is at the end: twelve year old Edelgard or a combination of her memories from back then but also the person we knew in game.

Thank you for being polite about it though! I don't mind discussing opposing thoughts/opinions. Usually it's just angry stans who have no actual discussion to add and just throw insults and angry comments, so I'm not gonna bother having a calm discussion with them when I know they won't listen. Ima just tell 'em to hop off my blog if I say anything to them because they have nothing nice to say and no actual discussion to offer. I don't mind talking to fans of her (not sure if you would consider yourself a fan or if you just see the scene differently) and I've talked to a small few before who don't mind a casual conversation. The only time I actually mind it is when people have a fit and don't know how to do anything except combust and malfunction. At that point it's like, if you can't calmly explain your view to someone then you need to just ignore it and accept that someone has a different opinion. I don't talk to hardcore Dimitri haters because I know nothing I say will change their mind (and most are just gonna shit on him anyway lol), but I'm also not gonna waste my time getting mad at them one on one when I could be posting something positive about him.

Honestly I really like the idea of Edelgard's lack of Agarthan support causing her to lose early and allowing the Agarthans to assume direct control of Adrestia in the ensuing power vacuum. Very cool concept imo, but I guess it was too bleak for them to commit fully to. Would have made alot more sense for Edelgard to just die at the end of part 1 and get replaced by an Agarthan doppelganger and/or zombified a la Nemesis. Could have done that with Hubert and Ferdinand too, instead of having them off screened unceremoniously

I kind of wish they did commit to it because it would have made the story a bit more different and unique. Hopes is just a retelling of the war rather than a full AU, and while AG is closer to Houses' roots (i.e. inspiration coming from FE4), they didn't quite commit to that story. The first half of FE4 is basically like, you're out there fighting, you're saving people, you're doing good shit, right? But then the second half is just full of horrible things happening and people have to fight to survive. It's a full circle where gen 1 is like the happy, knowing beginning that slides into things getting darker and more awful. Then you get to gen 2 which is at the peak of the awful things and slowly brings the player back into the good, where things are better now.

AG is the closest thing to that with Thales actually getting control over the Empire for a while. I do think it might have made more sense for them to kill Edelgard because honestly I'm not sure why Thales didn't do that? Like we know he hates the bloodlines but why would he keep her around? While he did use her as a fighting machine in the final battle, she ends up not dying and I feel like Thales would've/should've had her go into battle first and only show up after she's defeated. I just feel like it doesn't make much sense for him to keep her alive when his aim has been to eliminate all these bloodlines.

Also, like you said, it would make more sense to have her be replaced because then she wouldn't look like a puppet while giving orders. I think it would've made people like Leopold less knowing as to what was really going on. A person just using her looks wouldn't talk like she was when controlled and would seem more confident and whatnot. I think whoever was using her body/appearance would be able to rally the Empire better than puppet Edelgard.

In terms of being zombified I feel like there's not much use for that with the option to outright replace her with another Agarthan. Nemesis was revived because they wanted him around, but they don't actually want Edelgard with them. If she died I think they'd just consider it a win similarly to how in any route that TWS members die, Edelgard considers that something of a win even if they're losing their battles (like for her Cornelia dying in AM would still be a small win, and Thales dying as Arundel would be a huge win for them even if they're losing the war in that route). I think Thales and co would just be happy to have her gone the same way she would be with them.

I could be wrong about this but my understanding of Hubert was that he was killed by the Alliance or something during the war? Ferdinand went missing but I think Hubert was actually confirmed dead when Randolph was talking with Jeralt about the state of the Empire. It's just a me thing but I like to think Ferdinand is just hiding and not showing himself because he's seen what's going on in the Empire and how things are falling apart. If he just went out there to fight to save it, he could (and probably would) die trying when he doesn't have the army strength to fight back against Thales. The best thing he could do is just hide and wait it out until it was safe for him to return and just help pick up the pieces and restore things once everything settled down.

Hubert I think was confirmed though which makes sense because I can't imagine he wouldn't find out about Edelgard's situation somehow and come back for her. If he were alive I think he'd be doing anything he could to get back to her, though honestly it would've been very interesting to see Hubert in a situation where he either has to make do with the forces available to him (and not in Thales' grasp) or grapple with the idea that he might have to ally with the Kingdom and Alliance if he has any chance of fighting back against TWS. Even if he was able to rescue Edelgard and they all knew that, they all would have to deal with TWS anyway before Edelgard could even be a thought as far as "will she continue the war after this if she's back to normal" and such.

It would've actually been really interesting if Hubert was recruitable in AG because he hated TWS enough that he was willing to set aside any disdain he has and ally with his former enemies to deal with a common enemy. Not only are they a common enemy of course but I think if it came down to saving Edelgard or even having the chance to, he'd take that and side with them for her sake rather than risking trying to make it a three way battle like Thales does in SB. I think he'd weigh his options and probably determine that with the forces he has left that it would be a losing battle if he didn't pick sides, and since Thales is the one who did that to Edelgard I don't think he'd truly side with him. At best he might pretend to to ensure Edelgard’s safety, but I feel like something would happen where he had to switch sides like Thales being on to his plan. He could escape to survive because if he doesn’t, who else is going to save Edelgard, so he escapes and maybe joins with the Kingdom and Alliance for a while. Maybe he’d still be an enemy later or something if Edelgard was back to normal and continued the war, but if that didn’t happen I think Hubert would just prioritize her rather than keeping the war going.

In a sense though I also wish AG was more like AG as it is and AM combined, similar to what VW was already like. In VW you fight Edelgard first and then Thales, which in the sense of order makes sense. Maybe we’d have no Nemesis in AG but I think it would be more of a full story to have the Empire end of the story dealt with and not just left up in the air. In AM Hapi destroys the rest of TWS post game (similar to CF dealing with them post game), and in that game while you do kill Thales, Dimitri never learns the whole truth. I wish it was something more fulfilling with AG where he defeats Edelgard (maybe she is still puppet Edelgard or replaced by TWS, but this way it prevents an open ending on that front) and still learns about Thales and whatnot and defeats TWS. I feel like it would be more of a full story that way because as much as I love AM, the fact that Dimitri never learns the whole truth and how Rodrigue isn’t able to fight Thales when he has just as much right and reason as Dimitri to do so is unsatisfying. I feel like my perfect ending would be a mix of AM and AG where Rodrigue survives and is there to fight at the final battle, being Thales, and Edelgard might still have to be fought because maybe like you said she’s not even Edelgard anymore. Maybe it’s something Dimitri struggles with, knowing his real step sister is dead, but it also means he doesn’t have to hold back or feel bad about killing “Edelgard”. He could defeat “her” and go on to fight Thales.

Honestly I feel like AG would’ve been the ideal route and situation to make everyone but Edelgard recruitable (and her for obvious canonical story reasons). Instead of having Hubert and Ferdinand MIA for any reason, maybe have them join up with Dimitri and Claude for differing reasons (Hubert for Edelgard’s sake and Ferdinand for help with the Empire), which just leaves Monica and Caspar. If it was for Edelgard then Monica absolutely should’ve been there like Hubert and it’s so weird that she’s just... not there when she’s not even dead in AG, despite that Edelgard is in the state she’s in. Since you save Monica pre-skip it’d make sense to have her be an ally later on. In GW she’s still technically an ally even if not playable but in AG I think that would’ve the best opportunity to make her playable. Caspar of course should not have been fighting for Thales thinking it was helping to protect the Empire, like, that was just dumb. He should’ve been able to switch sides because at that point he wasn’t fight for the Empire. He’d be fighting to get rid of Thales for the Empire if he was with Dimitri’s army and things would go from there.

Then of course there’s Lysithea who it was stupid not to make recruitable in AG since it focuses so heavily on TWS (and I’m not even that fond of Lysithea so I don’t say that as like, I want xyz character I like/love to be playable in a route that they’re not). Leonie I guess would have reason to be there if Jeralt is recruited and otherwise maybe not. That just leaves Hilda and Holst as understandably not playable in AG since they and Claude are NPC allies that fight with you instead.

Imo it’s just a lot of missed opportunity in AG lol. It’s a good route, but there’s definitely a lot of missed potential.