Rhea's regime over the previous thousand years was responsible for keeping the continent in a feudal, medieval state, at each other's throats, under the heel of her theocracy. I was totally on board with anyone breaking the crest system, the power of the church and hers in particular. I don't see how allowing such theocratic tyranny to continue to avoid open warfare is fine just because it's the status quo. However, it's a shame that the only person willing to step up and do it was Edelgard. Sure, the *end results* of the other campaigns lead to Rhea backing off, but she's been a murderous tyrant for 30+ generations. I don't see why she gets to walk away with a 'alright I'll stop oppressing your entire continent' after all that she's done to the entire population of Fodlan for so long. That all powers are equally strong, leading to mass warfare, is down to Rhea keeping them all at that state of constant readiness for war- it was her way of making sure none of them ever gathered enough support to challenge her theocracy blocking all technological and social progress.
Still, Edelgard, looking for any advantage she can get to break the stalemate enacted by Rhea, chooses awful, murderous methods and allies. It's only in her own route that she comes across as more sympathetic and her early choices become even slightly *understandable* even against the tyranny of a dragon-god that can destroy cities, once you realise what's been done to her as a kid under the crest system and the lack of support even from her own empire, even if it isn't justifiable. She's still one of the more interesting FE leads for it though, rather than the usual generic teenage rookie heroes that engage in mass continent-wide medieval warfare against terrible odds and win through, getting everything right, every time without ever making terrible choices.
These discussions often revolve around the house leads, but what I thought was the strength of TH was the linked backgrounds of all 30+ characters across Fodlan's society, they are one of the strongest sets of backgrounds they've had. I loved reading about all of them and putting the links together.
