“Please leave the violence to me. A leader must be seen as pure. Above the fray. Allow me to paint the path that lies before you red with the blood of your enemies. I will do it gladly.”
What I like about Hubert: We see so rarely in fiction a male character who plays a subservient role to a female antagonist in a genuine way (i.e. not to secretly subvert her or anything). This game actually has two: both Hubert and Seteth play this role in different routes. I love Hubert because his passion for the cause is very genuine and not contingent on reciprocated romantic feelings. It’s refreshing to see a male-female relationship, which is complex and not necessarily romantic (even in their paired ending, it is stated that they never truly sort out their true feelings for one another). I remember seeing someone call Hubert an incel once; I feel like Hubert is an anti-incel; a man who sees a woman for her dreams, ambitions, and ideals, rather than her ‘sexual value’. He states that he has awe and empathy and trust and hope for Edelgard, and he wants to walk the same path with her without it necessarily being a path of romance. And I think that is beautiful.
Pre-timeskip, Hubert is very suspicious of other people and reluctant to trust Byleth. At the time, Hubert comes off as mildly insufferable and perhaps mockable with his unsubtle attempts to intimidate Byleth. In hindsight, we realize that he is really sizing up Byleth to see if he/she can be part of The Plan. All of his actions are aiming to the singular goal; making sure that Edelgard’s ambitions to change the world come into fruition. He is standoffish and cold, especially when you are not playing on Edelgard’s route. And he is generally a jerk in his supports pre-timeskip, where he frequently brushes off his classmates as foolish and idiotic.
Post-timeskip (more accurately, after Chapter 11, which is honestly de facto post-TS, especially on Crimson Flower) we see a change in Hubert. He is still cold and logical, but he is happy that you have joined the cause. One of my favorite scenes is when Hubert sets aside Byleth and explains the plan for dealing with Those Who Slither in the Dark, where he explains how much he (and Edelgard) desire to eliminate them. I love how his voice drips with contempt as he talks about them. He in general works very effectively at his role as an advisor; he feels like the orchestrator/planner of most of the large-scale events that happen in Part 2.
He clearly idolizes Edelgard, but with that idolization he places a lot of responsibility on her shoulders; he feels simultaneously like her servant, her confidant, but also her keeper. In her supports with Byleth, we see the effect that his expectations have on Edelgard; she is deeply concerned with how she will appear to Hubert, what he would think about her actions, and how even though (because?) he’s so logical and through that she finds him so suffocating. In her support with him, she asks him if he regrets being bound to her journey and thus being deprived of a normal life. He scoffs at this; he says that having a purpose is so much better than living as a selfish manbaby like many of the other aristocrats in the Empire. I feel like this statement reflects more about Edelgard’s feelings on the subject, honestly. Many of his supports involve, in some way, his devotion to the cause.
Despite his devotion to Edelgard, he is secretive, which is obviously good for a person of his job description. However, it makes him difficult to support emotionally, and Edelgard find this side of him very frustrating, as seen in her support with him. She feels like he doesn’t put enough trust in her as a human being and wants to keep the deepest, darkest secrets buried. And make no mistake, he has his share of dark secrets; he is essentially the imperial assassin, and he takes his role very seriously.
Edelgard and Hubert’s relationship is complex, because both of them have feelings for each other that mix together love (both romantic and non-romantic), devotion, concern, and duty. Both have obligations to each other that alter each of their lives in very meaningful ways. It is difficult to talk about Hubert without talking about Edelgard, because her ambitions are so tied in with his actions. As we see both in his Ferdinand support (which I will talk about) and his Shamir support, despite his devotion, he does show willingness to defy her orders if he considers it overall beneficial to her, with the justification that:
Hubert: Lady Edelgard's time is rightfully occupied with a great deal of concern and contemplation. Her affairs are of far greater consequence than a trifle like this. Much rests on the decisions she makes. But little details of this kind happen to be my area of expertise. So I simply handle them. Better that than to burden her with needless debate.
I find this quite logical and reasonable, but in the Ferdinand support, we explore the pros and cons of this philosophy. In the C support, Hubert calls out Ferdie for being a childish manbaby who is obsessed with proving he is better than Edelgard. (In hindsight and realizing just how much planning and scheming that Hubert/Edelgard were doing, can you imagine listening to Ferdinand prattle on about how he wants to prove that he’s better than Edelgard in some sort of anime duel?) Of course, Ferdie does have a point: if you want your liege to be successful, you should challenge them if they are wrong! Whereas Hubert believes that he shouldn’t burden Edelgard with arguments when he can make his own judgments about ‘trifles’. The C and B support mostly outline their philosophical differences / general dislike of each other, but in the A, Hubert praises Ferdinand for his positivity and tenacity, even if he’s a “contemptible degenerate”. You see in this support that they come to respect one another, even if they have significantly different outlooks on the world.
One consistent thing about Hubert is how he struggles to express positive feelings about people who aren’t Edelgard, and we see a classic example of this in his support with Ferdinand. While he’s learned to respect Ferdinand for his good points, he finds it more natural to scoff at him. In their A+, which mostly exists to flaunt how rampantly they want to bang each other, he is dismissive and insulting to Ferdie initially, but he ends up admitting that he did indeed buy Ferdinand a present and they exchange gifts after a bit of laughter.
He hasn’t experienced as much overt trauma as some of the other characters, but we know that his father is at the harsh and mostly likely at least mildly abusive. He ends up purging his father for his role in the Insurrection of Seven, and we see in his support with Hanneman that, when confronted with the idea that maybe his father had his reasons for what he did, like serving the Empire, Hubert shuts him down. (It sounds like Ionius was trying to consolidate power, which we don’t learn quite enough about to judge, but there is obviously an argument for going against that regardless.) I don’t think Hubert wants to be confronted with the idea that he was wrong to kill his father, which is a profoundly human emotion (and would ruin his facade of not caring about emotional attachments).
I liked how the support between him and Byleth explores the depth of his contempt for the goddess, having judged her for “not properly governed this world”. (The perception of the goddess as this uncaring deity is echoed in Dimitri’s Goddess Tower sequence, which I thought was an interesting touch.) I’m not sure if his contempt for the church is acquired naturally or is just a consequence of his devotion to Edelgard, but there is clearly a great deal of malice there.
In their C support, Dorothea ribs Hubert for thinking he’s in an opera, and I couldn’t agree with her more. He is very theatrical and always phrases things with a dramatic flair, especially in his boss quotes / pre-battle dialogues in AM/VW/SS. He and Claude dig at each other in the boss conversation, each wanting to get the last word in. He and Dorothea have a really good connection with each other: both characters are very utilitarian and see everything as part of a greater goal. Whereas, Dorothea wants to secure herself a happy future, Hubert wants to help see Edelgard’s/his dreams. I actually see Hubert is one of the very few good matches for Dorothea among her male suitors in the cast, and she is the only woman who seems suitably utilitarian for his interests. I don't think they would make each other as happy as their same-sex partners, but I think it would work out well enough, at least.
One final thing I wanted to talk about is his role in VW/SS, where he sends a letter to the party about the slitherers and their intentions. It shows that Hubert does care about the world and does want to do the right thing, but also shows his general distrust and contempt for people who aren’t part of his side. I thought it was quite a good touch and I really like how it is voiced in his voice and it is just perfect.
Also, I really like his post-timeskip design and his voice acting. I think he transitions from awkward goth kid to full grand vizier quite naturally, and he seems to be much more comfortable post-timeskip. He is both capable of great sins but also a great depth of empathy and compassion.
And that moral greyness is why I love Hubie. <3
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