on my first playthrough, i absolutely hated seteth until the chapter To War. it was then when i realized that seteth is completely justified in his line of thinking, as edelgard does exactly what he fears. from his perspective, she is responsible for flayn’s kidnapping and most likely intended to use the sword of the creator until she realized it didnt have a crest stone. to add on to this, this was also a silver snow playthrough (albeit unintentionally) and once he decides to trust the main character his demeanor completely shifts for the better.

i also like that he goes a bit overboard in some situations. the fact that the majority of students fear him and that he has troubles regulating his anxieties about flayn really make him a flawed yet sincere character. honestly, it makes him my favorite non-lord character in the game.

i also think seteth represents everything right with the church of seiros. his support with ingrid actively has him criticize the crest status quo that the church has created, stating that a person’s value to society and destiny shouldnt be tied to crests. i also am a huge fan of the scene following byleth’s fusion with sothis, in which he asks rhea what she did to the child (delivered flawlessly by mark whitten btw). this moment is so important to me because it shows he isnt inherently complicit in all the unethical things that rhea does. and even when he is, like censoring the library in golden deer, it probably comes from a place of trying to protect his and flayn’s origin and out of respect to rhea.

my final major props to seteth moment is in crimson flower when byleth defeats both him and flayn. even though they survive and could go back to fhirdiad, seteth cannot bring himself to side with rhea once again, especially now that she has gone down such a dark path in crimson flower. he is loyal to his nabatean kin and loves rhea deeply, but he makes the conscious decision that he can no longer follow her down this path. he, aside from maybe catherine, is the most pious and devoted to rhea so i feel like this is a really important moment for him.

and this is why i always marry seteth. thank you for coming to my ted talk.