Doro and Edel sorta come off as "let me be evil" while also asking the audience to pity or validate their actions.
I actually disagree.
I think both of them genuinely think they are doing what they are doing "for the greater good" or "for the people" because they're convinced of the "goodness" of their goal - even if the means to reach that goal are a bit... more messy than breaking 6 eggs to make an omelette.
And for Supreme Leader, I never thought she was the one asking the audience to throw a pity party or to validate her actions - it's the games themselves that twist themselves in a pretzel to completely dodge - and by dodge I mean jump to another continent levels of avoiding - all the obvious implications her actions lead to -
Sure, Supreme Leader was written by those devs and put in those games, but imo, with the way she was written, the character never asks for forgiveness or uwu - it's the game that serves it on a platter, Crust system? You have to piece tidbits of backstory and hear it from a DLC character that Miklan wasn't kicked out bcs no crust, but bcs he tried to kill his younger brother and has been busy "seducing" women with his merry band of dudes. Ditto for foreign royalty that will never be mentionned in relation to the "crust = nobility, if no crusts no nobles anymore" paradigm.
Which leads to really interesting stuff when Supreme Leader is in a game where she can be challenged (not counting Engage bcs for some reason no one knows, it's Dimitri who talks to Zelestia about a place where people can live together regardless of their race), Supreme Leader doesn't make excuses or brings the pity party, she's too stubborn (or too determined) to reconsider her path.
(Supreme Leader inherited Poor Dumb Willy's fierce will?)
The only time she sorts of tug at the player's heart string, imo, is with the revelation she had siblings and her infodumping her backstory to Billy - iirc in the C+ support, just when Billy got the SoC - but as some people theorised, Supreme Leader's supports are unlocked at key moments, and I really like how - if following this theory - some characters try to fool/manipulate/"gaslight" as young people say nowadays/trick the player -
I've said it enough times regarding the Nabateans and Fodlan in general, but i don't think I've said it regarding Supreme Leader : the worst character hit by the uwu hammer and Hresvelg Grey is Supreme Leader herself - if Supreme Leader has been able to be a "traitor" character à la Tales of you can side with in CF for a vilain route, or like Togame in Katanagatari - her goal first her feelings second, and her feelings are a means to reach her goal but then she falls in her own trap - or even Baten Kaitos's Kalas, I think she would have been one of the best and most memorable characters in the franchise.
But the waifu and uwu hammer hit her, and all those opportunities fell on their faces because the devs wanted a waifu first and foremost, controversial maybe, but at the end of the day, a waifu to pander to a certain demographic and plays on the usual and tiresome "only u can defrost the ice queen" trope.
As for Doro...
It's a bit more nuanced, I think Doro genuinely wants to help people, but Doro, due to her backstory (and maybe experiences in Mittelfrank?) wants to help herself most - securing a successful marriage to a wealthy "noble" (tfw Ignatz, who's from a super rich family, isn't on her list) and become the "friend" of the Emperor - who should represent - status wise - everything she hates about nobles, if Ferdie was so hated, then why isn't the Hresvelg Heir, the Imperial heir, isn't as hated? Because Supreme Leader didn't see her bath in a fountain? Did Supreme Leader tone down her "if the weak remain weak it's because they are too used to rely on the strong to survive" discourse around Doro, one of those "weak ones" who only managed to make a name for herself through bribes, heavily implied prostitution and countless hours of hard and gruesome work that will be ruined anyways when she gets "older" so that's why she tries to find a noble and rich husband asap?
I love messy characters, I hc Saias as someone who will see the world burn as long as he can serve his younger brother, and he has to reconsider everything when he learns 1/lil bro dgaf about him and would rather kill him himself + 2/lil sis is actually alive - but the Fodlan games refuse to do anything interesting with the BESF members, in FE8, Ephraim gets a wake-up slap by Seth about what is expected of him now, and what was expected of him then, so he has better polish his father's armor because playtime is over, there's work to do, and Ephraim realises how much of a fool he has been.
Doro will never reconsider (her support with Lorenz is very good in that sense - much like Supreme Leader, Doro is sure her pov and way are the only ones that work) her POV, her most ridiculous takes about "y church never helped people like me in Adrestia" or "military academy makes us fight real fights and kill bandits i thought we weren't in a fire emblem game :(" or even "why is the goddess making us fight like this sure i joined the imperial army who conquers the world and tried to kill you many times but if you attack us it's only bcs of the goddess :(" are never tackled, compare them to Lorenz thinking the church promotes isolationism and Claude correcting him by remembering Dedue and Petra exist(ed?) in Garreg Mach...
TL;Dr : I wouldn't say those characters spend their time going "sad uwus about my life" or ask the audience to validate their action - but that's what their games did, just count how many times (maybe only 1?) people vow to take down the mole people "for Supreme Leader bcs she was manipulated too :(" or the lol-tastic "can't we walk with her (and trample Fodlan)?" ; Supreme Leader doesn't even need to "pity" herself, the game does it itself by giving those "pity" lines to multiple other characters.
It can sound like it's the same thing, after all both Supreme Leader and Doro are characters designed to fit in that game, but it's a bit more nuanced, and it's that nuance - the game severing one of its limbs to prevent them from being seriously challenged about their opinions - that's actually really, imo, annoying. When characters like Dimitri or even to a point, Rhea herself, are dissected and held accountable/are challenged for the weather, the double standard really stings, and that's what pisses me off with these characters.
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