LogFAQs > #942807403

I didn't see it as any sort of "chessmaster" behaviour on his part, he was just being sensible and watching out for an important underling.

Being ready to teleport in and save a key minion at the drop of a hat isn't chessmaster-type?

So in three out of four routes the final boss is either his enemy, or a superweapon who is also at best his enemy-in-waiting?

On CF, by killing a powerful enemy of Thales who he would prefer to eliminate through his minions, you are carrying out his plan. On SS, you're killing his enemy again, driven mad by (among other things) injury from his weapons. On AM, you're killing his superweapon, who in this route never turns against him and his.

I mean, you're the one who thinks he's a cunning genius, not me, so my answer here is easy: he's arrogant. He wasn't prepared for the surprise attack on other routes either, and no, "nuke my own base after I've been fatally wounded" is not an impressive backup plan.

Thing is, on other routes, we may reasonably assume that Thales isn't prepared to nuke the Alliance, etc, because he doesn't consider them to be a threat and (with Rhea victorious and Edelgard slain) is going back into hiding. But on CF, it's a safe bet that Thales is prepared to drop some nukes on the Empire; he was quick to employ one against Arianrhod the last time Edelgard stepped out of line, and implied that he'd lay waste to the Empire if it happened again. ...And yet, he doesn't, and we are not told why.

In fact as far as I'm concerned the less the game deals with the Objectively Evil Molemen, the better

While I can certainly agree that Thales is Objectively Evil rather than a nuanced and complex character, the fact remains that Edelgard has decided that cooperating with Team Objectively Evil is an acceptable method of achieving her goals, which she justifies by resolving to deal with them later, once she rules the continent. So it is important that CF show that Edelgard is both willing and able to do that; that her reign will not be marred by countless Remire-style calamities, where Edelgard offers naught but assurances that she would have done something if she knew in time, which she didn't, but it's already done and she's not going to cut ties with useful allies just because they massacred a bunch of innocent people.

I do not believe that CF does an adequate job of demonstrating that Edelgard is ready to usurp control of that relationship. Apparently you disagree. *shrug*

Can you cite evidence for this? I just went back and looked at her boss conversations with them and the worst I saw is that she doesn't want them to become the next rulers of Fodlan.

On CF, you're not able to bring Edelgard or Hubert to the Leonie/Lindhart paralogue (in which you spar with a non-hostile dragon, and leave him alive). However, Lindhardt decides to leave them out of things on the grounds that it involves a saint, not that it involves a dragon; I don't think even Lindhart has yet connected those dots. So I do not believe that anti-Nabatean is the correct read.
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I don't like this duchy. Now, it's an adventurer.