Fire Emblem 15's Jedah and Celica are Both Pretty Stupid

Cult leaders are not really known for making good choices.  Which isn’t surprising, of course.  Much like psychopathy and a corporate executive, or compulsive lying and the publishing head of Bethesda, poor decision-making is essentially a requirement for the job of being a cult leader; without it you pretty much won’t be in the role to start with.  But even compared to notably dumb peers like Mr. Carpainter and Confessor Cromwell, Fire Emblem 15’s Jedah is a moron.

So here’s the scene:Jedah has persuaded protagonist Celica to at least consider the option he's offering. He’s convinced her to come over to his place to talk the deal over.  The man is so, so near to achieving his goals.  Depending on Celica's Tiresome Overwrought Self-Sacrificing Girl levels, Jedah might be just minutes away from the most important success in his life. Victory is so close.

And what does he do?

He announces--gleefully announces, mind you, this clearly tickles him pink, or at least a less putrescent shade of periwinkle than usual--to Celica that since her friends happen to be around, he's gonna kill them all right in front of her before he’ll continue to pursue their diplomatic discussion.

I mean holy shit dude, could you really not have eased off on the cliched villainy for 10 minutes until you’d secured Celica’s help?  What, it would’ve killed you to just have her entourage chill in the lobby for a few, while you take Celica to your office and secure the win?  Do you somehow think that it’s going to strengthen your bargaining position to announce that you’re a psychopath whose absolute highest priority is the pleasure of killing a dozen of your business partner’s closest friends, or something?  In terms of shooting yourself in the foot, this is basically loading your foot into a fucking cannon's barrel and cheerfully lighting the fuse...

...And yet somehow still managing, through truly miraculous contrivance, to completely miss that shot.  Because in spite of Jedah arbitrarily deciding that Celica’s allies, childhood friends, and brother should all die just for shits and giggles, Celica is STILL stupid enough an hour later to sell her soul to the jackass in exchange for Alm’s safety.  Jedah seriously hit the RPG Villain Lottery with this twit.  Any other RPG protagonist would see a spontaneous self-indulgent attempt at slaughtering said protagonist’s friends as a deal-breaker, but Jedah managed to get the ONLY heroine in the entire franchise that doesn’t buy into that Friendship is Magic bunk.  Dozens, maybe even hundreds, of other RPG narratives have been specifically based around the idea that a protagonist refuses to sacrifice even a single member of their party to save the world, and meanwhile Jedah doesn’t lose an iota of bargaining leverage for trying to kill them ALL as a villainous side hustle!  Ike may fight for his friends, but Celica sure as hell ain’t gonna.

So Celica, the fact that the guy trying to convince you to do as he says because it’s for the greater good of all is the same guy who has a truly irrepressible urge to see human beings die, that doesn’t bother you, huh?  No red flags?  Nothing that doesn’t add up about the murder-enthusiast making a case about what’s in the best interests of humanity as a whole?  You don’t see any conflict of interest on that one, Celica?

The fact that she later has the shameless audacity to be shocked when Jedah betrays her trust and doesn’t keep his end of their bargain--said end being “just, like, don’t kill this 1 single guy, please”; Celica didn’t exactly haggle very hard and yet it was still more than Jedah could deliver--is mind-boggling.  Hell, even if he hadn’t attempted to murder every one of her friends in front of her as a way to kick off their diplomatic talks, her surprise would still be absurd.  Oh gosh, Celica, did the cackling yellow-eyed cult leader who regularly sacrifices women’s souls to his dark god turn out not to be trustworthy?  Well, at least you can take comfort in the fact that there was just no way to tell that he wasn’t on the up and up.

So yeah, Jedah is a self-sabotaging idiot, and the only reason that he gets as far as he does in FE15’s narrative is that he luckily got matched against a protagonist who is not only really stupid, but also shockingly unconcerned with the well-being of those around her.