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* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Her feeling for Cyril. It does not help that she gives him an utterly impassioned a heartwarming YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech during The Battle Of Shambahala that everyone around her heard firsthand. When its pointed out by Linhardt that ''everyone'' knows about her feelings and that Claude himself has a bet placed about when she will get together with Cyril, she's utterly mortified and plans to get revenge, much to the amusement of those around her.
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* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Her feeling for Cyril. It does not help that she gives him an utterly impassioned a heartwarming YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech during The the Battle Of of Shambahala that everyone around her heard firsthand. When its pointed out by Linhardt that ''everyone'' knows about her feelings and that Claude himself has a bet placed about when she will get together with Cyril, she's utterly mortified and plans to get revenge, much to the amusement of those around her.
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* ShellShockedVeteran: Chapter 100 makes it abundantly clear that The War Of Heroes left her with some rather noticeable phycological scars, and the Battle Of Shambahala are just making it worst for her. During her part in the chapter, he constantly switches between actively helping her allies and remembering The War Of Heroes with [[WarIsHell horrified clarity.]]
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* ShellShockedVeteran: Chapter 100 makes it abundantly clear that The the War Of of Heroes left her with some rather noticeable phycological psychological scars, and the Battle Of of Shambahala are is just making it worst worse for her. During her part in the chapter, he she constantly switches between actively helping her allies and remembering The the War Of of Heroes with [[WarIsHell horrified clarity.]]
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* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives one to the Flame Emperor during the Holy Tomb battle.
-->'''Bernadetta''': This is the person who wants to change Fódlan? What good c-could come from h-handing power to someone who c-can do this without hesitation? You...you don't value your people's lives any more than my father does! You'd never be a good ruler. You'd just be one more tyrant. And I...I won't let you! I won't let you take my f-friends, or the Crest Stones, or Fódlan! We're...definitely going to stop you!
-->'''Bernadetta''': This is the person who wants to change Fódlan? What good c-could come from h-handing power to someone who c-can do this without hesitation? You...you don't value your people's lives any more than my father does! You'd never be a good ruler. You'd just be one more tyrant. And I...I won't let you! I won't let you take my f-friends, or the Crest Stones, or Fódlan! We're...definitely going to stop you!
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* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** Gives one to the Flame Emperor during the Holy Tomb battle.
-->'''Bernadetta''': --->'''Bernadetta''': This is the person who wants to change Fódlan? What good c-could come from h-handing power to someone who c-can do this without hesitation? You...you don't value your people's lives any more than my father does! You'd never be a good ruler. You'd just be one more tyrant. And I...I won't let you! I won't let you take my f-friends, or the Crest Stones, or Fódlan! We're...definitely going to stop you!
** Gives one to the Flame Emperor during the Holy Tomb battle.
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-->'''Bernadetta''': '''SSHHHHUUUUUT ''UUUUUUUUPPPPPP!'' SHUT UP!''' Just – just ''shut'' your ''goddess-damned'' mouth, you ignorant, peasant-murdering, power-grasping ''imbecile!'' And you...all of you! You should be disgusted and ashamed of yourself...have you forgotten the last six months?! Are you so blind, so contemptuous, so ''completely without honor'' that you're just going to ''forget'' everything Claude von Riegan, Prince Khalid, has done to save you in this war? You there! Sir Dagdar...I saw Claude save your life with my own eyes during the Battle on Myrddin bridge! He deliberately made himself a target for the flying mages and held them off while giving our army directions to reorganize in the midst of the ambush! As for you! Lady Tina. Just yesterday you were effusively praising how much Claude valued the lives of even the lowest of his soldiers, how he had dreamt up plans for battle that gave us our precious low-casualty figures, stating how other lords would have discarded them as impractical and the losses 'necessary'. Has that magically become untrue because his father is King Kirah of Almyra?! What do we care about the wars of men long dead, that bones and dust would compel us to hate those we have never even ''met''? I've watched, all these months, as Claude ''agonized'' over the losses our army has taken! Spend sleepless nights hammering out the plans that took us from one victory to the next, saved not only our own people but those trapped by Adrestia's tyranny as well! He was the one who warned you before the war began that there was danger in the future; it is thanks to ''him'' that you were prepared for war, that the Alliance between Leicester and Faerghus was even possible! I saw with my own eyes how he valued lives, ''our'' lives; when our people would have rejected him the way you're trying to now! There is nothing more true than this... '''Khalid loves Fódlan!''' And you would turn on him now?! After he has fought so hard to save you, ''knowing that he would lay down his life for you'', you call him a monster and an exile from Fódlan because of his ''birth?!'' Are you so craven?! Are you like Thales and his Agarthans, discarding those who aren't one of you as ''less than human?! '''Well?!''''' Speak up!
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* CruelMercy: Felix doesn't kill [[spoiler:Count Varley... but he does strip him off his lands and titles, give them to his abused daughter and wife respectively, and banish him from Fódlan.]]
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* CruelMercy: Felix doesn't kill [[spoiler:Count Varley... but he does strip him off his lands and titles, give them to his abused daughter and wife respectively, and banish him from Fódlan.]]
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* OutOfFocus: Doesn't receive a huge amount of screentime compared with most of the other Blue Lions.
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* OutOfFocus: Doesn't receive a huge amount DownplayedTrope, while she does appear and have plenty of screentime compared with most screentime, it's not as focused as that of the other Blue Lions.her childhood friends.
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[[folder:Annette Fantine Dominic]]
* OutOfFocus: She isn't given as much focus as the rest of her classmates do.
[[/folder]]
* OutOfFocus: She isn't given as much focus as the rest of her classmates do.
[[/folder]]
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* TheHeart: One of the group's emotional anchors and also one for Sylvain as she's the one able to calm him down in light of his FreakOut about the truth of the crests.
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* OutOfFocus: Unlike his fellow Black Eagles, he isn't given a lot of focus.
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* EmbarassingNickname: "Lixie", which only [[BigBrotherMentor Glenn]] calls him by. Interestingly but fittingly for someone like [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Felix]], he's more embarrassed at the fact that Glenn is openly using it in front of their friends and allies than the nickname in itself.
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* EmbarassingNickname: EmbarrassingNickname: "Lixie", which only [[BigBrotherMentor Glenn]] calls him by. Interestingly but fittingly for someone like [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Felix]], he's more embarrassed at the fact that Glenn is openly using it in front of their friends and allies than the nickname in itself.
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The students of the Officer's Academy as they are seen in ''Fanfic/TheSaviorKingTheMasterTacticianAndTheQueenOfLiberation''.
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The students of the Officer's Academy as they are seen in ''Fanfic/TheSaviorKingTheMasterTacticianAndTheQueenOfLiberation''. For tropes relating to Edelgard and Hubert, go [[Characters/VerdantMoonAzureWindAntagonists here]].
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[[folder:Edelgard von Hresvelg]]
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: As the war drags on, Edelgard's [[spoiler:approval rating drops dangerously low; her civilian subjects riot in the streets, many of her soldiers do nothing to stop them, and all she has left are a few hardline loyalists and the Agarthans who plan to dispose of her once she outlives her usefulness.]]
* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:Despite everything that she did, Claude still spares her some pity when she finally dies, noting that she only became what she was because of Thales. Dimitri is outright horrified.]]
* AllForNothing: Chapter 52 has Edelgard forced to face the fact that [[spoiler:she threw away hundreds of Imperial lives in the Battle of Garreg Mach and has nothing to show for it.]]
* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Chapter 80 is an interlude showing her imprisonment at the hands of the Agarthans, where for much of the chapter she's trapped by some sort of headgear that essentially acts as a muzzle. Several times she's nauseous enough to vomit—including during a truly sickening beating by an enraged Odesse—but she's forced to choke it back down because it has nowhere to go. She's finally free to speak by the end of the chapter...when she's StrappedToAnOperatingTable and about to be prepped for transfiguration into the Hegemon Husk, and she's sedated before she can have any release.]]
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: After chapter 51, Edelgard starts getting the odd interlude every now and then from her point of view. They also count as [[VillainEpisode Villain Episodes]].
* BigBadWannabe: She thinks that she's TheChessmaster who [[spoiler:is using Agartha to her own ends, and that she's a noble revolutionary who is reclaiming stolen land for her kingdom and 'saving' humanity from the Nabateans.]] Edelgard does succeed in starting a war of reunification, but her ruthlessness alienates her fellow students, her use of DirtyBusiness and demonic beasts turn her people against her to the point of open revolt, [[spoiler:Maximus Varley, who she released under the assumption she could control him, attacks Hrym and slaughters hundreds of her own people]], and she repeatedly underestimates Claude and Dimitri even as they invade deeper and deeper into Adrestia. Finally, despite thinking that she's TheStarscream to Thales, [[spoiler:she's actually just an UnwittingPawn whose actions have only served Agartha's goal of destroying Fódlan.]]
* BreakTheHaughty: Edelgard is hit ''hard'' by this in [[WhamEpisode chapter 73]]. After seeing both the Immaculate One and the Immovable tearing through the Titanus and Demonic Beasts that were meant to be her trump cards, almost being killed twice - first by Glenn, then at the end of a CurbStompBattle with Lysithea and Sylvain who both [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tell her how self-serving and immoral her decisions have been]], learning about Claude's status as the Prince of Almyra (meaning her invasion of the Alliance would have likely ended in disaster and bloodshed even if everything ''had'' gone as planned), she enters the castle to find Thales and Myson calmly having a discussion and planning to pull their troops out. When she attempts to confront him and force the issue, Thales summons [[CombatMedic Angel]] [[VoodooZombie Lamine]], who hits her with Bolting and almost kills her.
* BrokenPedestal: Becomes this to Dorothea, Linhardt and virtually everybody acquainted with her during their times in the academy in light of her declaration of war. As the war goes on, [[spoiler:the other Black Eagles (sans Hubert) who had initially joined her cause eventually started to see Edelgard in the same light as she starts to commit even more amoral and ruthless actions to win the war and promptly defect to Byleth, Claude, and Dimitri's side, one by one]].
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Turns out, being a warmongering YoungConqueror is a ''lot'' more problematic and difficult that the game would have you believe, and her whole CharacterArc in the series is a painful reminder about the harsh realities of war.
** In order to provide funding for her armies, Edelgard has to raises taxes, which puts a strain on the economy.
** Most of the food gets sent to the army, while the rest is rationed among civilians, which causes famine in many cities.
** As Edelgard finds herself facing one defeat after the other, she resorts to even more desperate and immoral acts to try to eke out a victory.
** The constant defeats cause the citizens to have doubts about the war and begin protesting [[spoiler:in Enbarr. When Edelgard tries to quell the protest, the citizens see through her lies and half truths, which leads to a couple of bricks being thrown at her. One brick grazes her shoulder, and after she dodges the other one, one of her guards kills the protester who threw it, which sparks a riot in her own capital city.]]
** Finally, despite her plans to be TheStarscream, [[spoiler: she has far less power against Thales than she thinks.]] She's so blatant about her intention to betray him that [[spoiler: Thales had plans to remove her regardless of if she'd won the war or not,]] and despite being in the heart of her powerbase when she confronts him, [[spoiler: he easily reduces her back to a powerless prisoner and plans to strip her of her free will via {{Geas}} to ensure she serves the role he'd groomed her for.]]
* DefiantCaptive: She [[SpitefulSpit tries]] her best against Odesse in chapter 80, but to say that it did not go [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown her way]] is a ''major'' understatement.
* DivideAndConquer: In Chapter 55, Byleth deduces that [[spoiler:after failing to prevent the Kingdom and Alliance from teaming up, Edelgard's objective is to drive a wedge between the two by using Gloucester (who doesn't bite) and Acheron (who does) to kill Dimitri and Rodrigue and make it look like the Alliance intended to backstab the Kingdom from the beginning.]]
* EtTuBrute: She's shocked and dumbfounded by [[spoiler:Petra's]] "betrayal", and wonders if [[spoiler:Caspar or Ferdinand will turn on her next.]] She's indeed dumbfounded in chapter 72 when she sees [[spoiler:Ferdinand among the rebels and arguing her peaceful surrender.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Edelgard is a ruthless extremist willing to plunge Fódlan into war to fix its societal issues, but she is utterly devastated to learn [[OnlyFriend Hubert]] is dead.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Edelgard is willing to do almost anything to reunite Fódlan, but even she sees [[spoiler:releasing Count Varley to the front lines as an absolute GodzillaThreshold and is horrified to discover the Agarthans' transhuman project. However, this doesn't stop her from making use of the resurrected Elites, or from unleashing Count Varley to stop her people from rioting.]]
* EvilIsNotAToy: Edelgard is struck with a mundane version of this [[spoiler:in regards to their dealings with Count Varley. She orders him to subdue the rioters in Hrym banking on Ferdinand to keep him from going too far, not realizing that he will simply usurp Ferdinand's authority and start killing everyone.]]
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Lysithea and Sylvain's opinion of her, [[spoiler:remarking that they too have suffered because of both Crests and the Agarthans but have not resorted to the measures she has, not the least of which being siding with the Agarthans themselves.]]
* GodzillaThreshold: As the opening stages of the war turn into several crushing defeats for Adrestia, [[spoiler:Edelgard notes she is getting desperate enough to let Count Varley out of prison to help turn the tide even though "blood, slaughter and ruin would follow him should he be put at the head of an army against foes who were encroaching on what he considered 'his land'". By Chapter 68, she has actually crossed that line and sent him to subdue the rioters, with predictably bloody results.]]
* HeelRealization: Edelgard spends most of the second half of Chapter 80 realizing she was nothing more than a power-crazed tyrant who only ever cared about herself.
* HumiliationConga:
** The whole war is a long, ''painful'' and constant one for her. [[spoiler:The war only lasts for a few months, the heroic forces led by Byleth, Dimitri, and Claude don't suffer a single meaningful loss, and the only ground she's able to gain in western Faerghus is swiftly undone when Almyra intervenes on the heroes' side.]]
** The Battle of Enbarr exemplifies this like nothing else. [[spoiler:Between the sheer numerical superiority of the combined Alliance-Kingdom-Church forces, having obtained information on Enbarr's defenses from captured Agarthans, and the participation of both The Immaculate One and the Immovable, the Imperial army quickly crumbles. Not only that, but during said battle there's the Edelgard vs. Sylvain and Lysithea fight. The two avoid or block her every attack, refute her attempts at garnering their sympathy, and verbally dress her down. In the end she's grievously injured by Lysithea and is almost finished off by Sylvain before Hubert teleports her to safety.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: Edelgard accuses the Church of altering the truth to suit her own ends in the exact same breath she [[spoiler:lies her ass off about who really destroyed Fort Merceus.]]
* IAmTheNoun: [[spoiler:In one of the [[VillianEpisode Edelgard interludes,]] she says, "I am the revenge of the my murdered siblings upon the world that sacrificed them, of the people mistreated and stomped on by the 'Crest bearing nobility!'"]]
* IgnoredEpiphany: Her thoughts indicate that [[spoiler:several of the heroes' dressing-downs are getting to her more than she cares to admit, but she keeps pushing forward regardless.]]
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Her final fate, in chapter 93. Stripped of her free will and forced into the Hegemon Husk, she battles the students before being attacked by Maurice, and the two fall several stories through the floors of Shambhala before she's impaled on the Viskam spire.]]
* InternalReveal: Chapter 80 has Edelgard discover Dimitri was her long-forgotten stepbrother.
* IRejectYourReality: Edelgard claims to be more open minded than any aristocrat before her, but in her [[spoiler:interludes this quirk rapidly spirals out into a refusal to acknowledge that Byleth, Claude and Dimitri are winning the war, or that they have justifiable grievances against her that aren't rooted in 'propping up Fódlan's current circumstances'.]] Even when [[VoodooZombie Renata]] [[LadyOfWar Fraldarius]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech spells out her lack of clarity and self-serving narrative]], she refuses to consider taking Blaiddyd's advice to flee, refusing to abandon her sense of righteousness or her belief that she's Fódlan's savior.
* ItsAllAboutMe: There's a subtle but tangible undercurrent to Edelgard's interludes; for all that she talks about improving her people's lives, she only thinks about that in terms of ''her'' ideals and ''her'' beliefs, by using ''her'' experiences and none others.
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Contrary to every route in the original game, she dies in chapter 93 with no dignity or grandeur. Instead, she suffers the fate of every citizen who was forcibly turned into a Demonic Beast—her will stripped from her, her voice lost, and her body destroyed. Like her nameless citizens whom she carelessly sacrificed, her only real purpose was to be Thales's disposable pawn.]]
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: The opinion the author has of her, describing her as knowing nothing while playing the "I know more than you sheeple" card. It is consistently shown that [[spoiler:Edelgard bought off and believed the lies that the Agarthans had told her and claims to have the high ground when compared to everyone else. She was also under the impression that the people she tried to reach out to (such as Sylvain, Lysithea and Byleth) would understand and support her when they knew the truth; in reality, her ruthlessness had alienated them]].
* LovingAShadow: Chapter 73 reveals that [[spoiler:she’s just as much in love with Byleth]] as in canon and is absolutely [[VillainousBSOD broken]] when [[spoiler:Thales offhandedly mentions that Byleth is in a [[{{Polyamory}} relationship with both Claude and Dimitri]]]]. The [[{{Deconstruction}} rub]] here? [[spoiler:Edelgard has shown herself time and time again to be someone who discards any kind of dissenting opinion, including ''Byleth's'', and her connection with the older woman is absolutely flimsy in comparison to Byleth’s connection to both Claude and Dimitri. Her heartbreak also has some disturbing elements of [[EntitledToHaveYou entitlement]]; basically, she “loves” Byleth without truly knowing the other woman in any meaningful way whatsoever.]]
* MoralMyopia: Calls Rhea/Seiros a "beast" who is controlling people and lying to them, despite the fact that Edelgard herself does the exact same thing.
* NeverMyFault: In Edelgard's mind, everything that goes wrong with her plans for Fódlan is either Sothis' fault, [[spoiler:Thales' fault]], or Claude's fault.
* ThePoorlyChosenOne: [[spoiler:Twice over, in the opinion of the Agarthans. Both Marian and much later Thales himself consider her a terrible champion against the dragons in hindsight. Marian point-blank tells Dimitri that she personally believes he would be much better suited for the role than Edelgard and in chapter 73 Thales himself openly admits that ''Claude'' would have been a much better champion for the Agarthans to have than Edelgard, bluntly stating: "I choose poorly; I should have waited until he stepped into Fódlan and whisked him away, made him our chosen dragon slayer. He has more guile in one finger than she possessed in her entire body".]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Edelgard is portrayed as paranoid and distrusting when she questions the nature of Claude's sudden and easy friendship with Dimitri. Setting aside the fact that their coalition ''does'' end up ruining all of her plans, Claude works hard to present himself as an untrusting schemer, and Dimitri, while cordial and polite, is a closed individual, even among his fellow Lions. It's only natural that she would suspect these two suddenly having such a strong friendship, given their statuses as heir apparent to the other two countries of Fódlan.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: Edelgard's apprehension about Claude's sudden and easy friendship with Dimitri turns out to be spot-on, as they ''do'' end up ruining all of her plans together. However, in the biggest case of {{Irony}}, ''she'' was one who started the war which made said coalition possible. Their friendship and budding romantic relationship had nothing to with her and they were not planning to ally against her before the war started, because in their relationship she was a complete non-issue. Both Dimitri and Claude going against her turned out to be a SelfFulfillingProphecy due to her actions.
* SmugSnake: Edelgard is extremely arrogant and overconfident, thinking [[spoiler:she's TheStarscream to the Agarthans when in reality, she's just the Agarthans' dupe from start to finish.]]
* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: [[spoiler:In chapter 80, being prepped for her transfiguration under Agarthan imprisonment.]]
* SurroundedByIdiots: Edelgard's opinion of her war council, remarking in her head that she's close to just firing them all and leaving only Hubert and [[spoiler:Hanneman.]] Which becomes darkly ironic in Chapter 73, [[spoiler:considering that Thales himself considers her something of a LeeroyJenkins incapable of knowing when it's best to retreat and Odesse openly scorns her for her failures.]]
* ThisMeansWar: Once it's revealed that [[spoiler:Edelgard is the Flame Emperor, Byleth realizes that her attack on the Holy Tomb is an act of war and that they have to be ready for a full conflict with the Empire.]] Sure enough, the formal declaration comes the next chapter.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Throughout their school year together, Edelgard expresses bemusement at both Claude and Dimitri's personalities. [[spoiler:She's confident she can sweep them aside once she starts the war, believing Dimitri to be too naïve and guileless to make a good king and Claude to be an overconfident schemer who's in way over his head. She also dismisses the idea that they would work together. After they inflict multiple crushing defeats on her without any significant losses, she re-evaluates her opinion on Claude, but persists in dismissing Dimitri as reliant on Claude and Byleth rather than a significant player in his own right - even after her own people start speaking favorably of him right before rioting against her.]]
* UnknownRival: As the story goes on, Edelgard grows to develop an incredible ''seething'' hatred for Claude in the most visceral of ways due to a great helping of EvilCannotComprehendGood, FantasticRacism and [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]] on her part- She's absolutely (and utterly 100% erroneously) convinced in her belief that Claude is a ruthless, uncaring manipulator who cares about nothing but his own goals, ambitions and desires and would do anything in his power to TakeOverTheWorld, and therefore Edelgard treats him as her own personal ArchEnemy. And while Claude ''is'' one of the main enemies Edelgard has in the story, Claude himself has absolutely ''no'' idea Edelgard hates him in such a personal way and the main reasons why he's so strongly opposed to her are solely driven by the fact that he considers her an absolutely deplorable and amoral ruler and a major case of StupidEvil in how she has handled the war. Basically, her hatred towards Claude is all based on Edelgard's own delusions and myopic ideas, while her brutal and amoral actions done in order to take him down in turn have only [[CreateYourOwnHero served to galvanize his desire to take her down in order to save everyone from both her actions and the actions of her Agarthan allies.]]
* UnwittingPawn: Despite fancying herself TheStarscream, by chapter 73 it [[spoiler:becomes plain that in reality, Edelgard was nothing but a tool that Thales used to destabilize Fódlan and kill as many people as possible to achieve his plan to take the surface for Shambhala. When she attempts to confront him, he merely has Lamine blast her into submission and takes her prisoner again as they retreat, leaving Adrestia to the United Army.]]
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Dimitri's flashbacks in chapter 70 strongly indicates that Edelgard was this. [[spoiler:She was fierce but kind, encouraging him to stand up for himself, playing with him and fussing over an injured kitten, making their current relationship all the more tragic.]]
* VillainousBreakdown:
** [[spoiler:Edelgard in chapter 73 gets this as the truth sinks in to her that she is nothing but an UnwittingPawn and all of her plans have been crushed.]]
** [[spoiler:She's broken down even further in chapter 80, when she's taken prisoner by the Agarthans and learns that Hubert—the one person she trusted to always be at her side—is dead. The chapter is one long breakdown for her, culminating in a young Agarthan boy telling her how her mother really died and that Dimitri is her stepbrother—all while matter-of-factly stating that he's prepping her to be "transfigured" and deployed at a moment's notice, implicitly as the Hegemon Husk. It's while this happens that she realizes what characters have been trying to convince her of for the whole story—that she's fighting the wrong enemy, that she's not as powerful as she thinks she is, and that everything she's done has only destroyed the home she wished to save.]]
* YouDoNOTWantToKnow: An Agarthan civilian and former apprentice to Cornelia informs Edelgard that she doesn't want to know what happened to Anselma. When she persists, it's revealed [[spoiler:she was duped into thinking the Tragedy of Duscur would be nothing more than a simple ruckus; when she saw her second husband decapitated, she fled into a nearby forest, tripped, and died of internal bleeding.]]
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: As the war drags on, Edelgard's [[spoiler:approval rating drops dangerously low; her civilian subjects riot in the streets, many of her soldiers do nothing to stop them, and all she has left are a few hardline loyalists and the Agarthans who plan to dispose of her once she outlives her usefulness.]]
* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:Despite everything that she did, Claude still spares her some pity when she finally dies, noting that she only became what she was because of Thales. Dimitri is outright horrified.]]
* AllForNothing: Chapter 52 has Edelgard forced to face the fact that [[spoiler:she threw away hundreds of Imperial lives in the Battle of Garreg Mach and has nothing to show for it.]]
* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Chapter 80 is an interlude showing her imprisonment at the hands of the Agarthans, where for much of the chapter she's trapped by some sort of headgear that essentially acts as a muzzle. Several times she's nauseous enough to vomit—including during a truly sickening beating by an enraged Odesse—but she's forced to choke it back down because it has nowhere to go. She's finally free to speak by the end of the chapter...when she's StrappedToAnOperatingTable and about to be prepped for transfiguration into the Hegemon Husk, and she's sedated before she can have any release.]]
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: After chapter 51, Edelgard starts getting the odd interlude every now and then from her point of view. They also count as [[VillainEpisode Villain Episodes]].
* BigBadWannabe: She thinks that she's TheChessmaster who [[spoiler:is using Agartha to her own ends, and that she's a noble revolutionary who is reclaiming stolen land for her kingdom and 'saving' humanity from the Nabateans.]] Edelgard does succeed in starting a war of reunification, but her ruthlessness alienates her fellow students, her use of DirtyBusiness and demonic beasts turn her people against her to the point of open revolt, [[spoiler:Maximus Varley, who she released under the assumption she could control him, attacks Hrym and slaughters hundreds of her own people]], and she repeatedly underestimates Claude and Dimitri even as they invade deeper and deeper into Adrestia. Finally, despite thinking that she's TheStarscream to Thales, [[spoiler:she's actually just an UnwittingPawn whose actions have only served Agartha's goal of destroying Fódlan.]]
* BreakTheHaughty: Edelgard is hit ''hard'' by this in [[WhamEpisode chapter 73]]. After seeing both the Immaculate One and the Immovable tearing through the Titanus and Demonic Beasts that were meant to be her trump cards, almost being killed twice - first by Glenn, then at the end of a CurbStompBattle with Lysithea and Sylvain who both [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tell her how self-serving and immoral her decisions have been]], learning about Claude's status as the Prince of Almyra (meaning her invasion of the Alliance would have likely ended in disaster and bloodshed even if everything ''had'' gone as planned), she enters the castle to find Thales and Myson calmly having a discussion and planning to pull their troops out. When she attempts to confront him and force the issue, Thales summons [[CombatMedic Angel]] [[VoodooZombie Lamine]], who hits her with Bolting and almost kills her.
* BrokenPedestal: Becomes this to Dorothea, Linhardt and virtually everybody acquainted with her during their times in the academy in light of her declaration of war. As the war goes on, [[spoiler:the other Black Eagles (sans Hubert) who had initially joined her cause eventually started to see Edelgard in the same light as she starts to commit even more amoral and ruthless actions to win the war and promptly defect to Byleth, Claude, and Dimitri's side, one by one]].
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Turns out, being a warmongering YoungConqueror is a ''lot'' more problematic and difficult that the game would have you believe, and her whole CharacterArc in the series is a painful reminder about the harsh realities of war.
** In order to provide funding for her armies, Edelgard has to raises taxes, which puts a strain on the economy.
** Most of the food gets sent to the army, while the rest is rationed among civilians, which causes famine in many cities.
** As Edelgard finds herself facing one defeat after the other, she resorts to even more desperate and immoral acts to try to eke out a victory.
** The constant defeats cause the citizens to have doubts about the war and begin protesting [[spoiler:in Enbarr. When Edelgard tries to quell the protest, the citizens see through her lies and half truths, which leads to a couple of bricks being thrown at her. One brick grazes her shoulder, and after she dodges the other one, one of her guards kills the protester who threw it, which sparks a riot in her own capital city.]]
** Finally, despite her plans to be TheStarscream, [[spoiler: she has far less power against Thales than she thinks.]] She's so blatant about her intention to betray him that [[spoiler: Thales had plans to remove her regardless of if she'd won the war or not,]] and despite being in the heart of her powerbase when she confronts him, [[spoiler: he easily reduces her back to a powerless prisoner and plans to strip her of her free will via {{Geas}} to ensure she serves the role he'd groomed her for.]]
* DefiantCaptive: She [[SpitefulSpit tries]] her best against Odesse in chapter 80, but to say that it did not go [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown her way]] is a ''major'' understatement.
* DivideAndConquer: In Chapter 55, Byleth deduces that [[spoiler:after failing to prevent the Kingdom and Alliance from teaming up, Edelgard's objective is to drive a wedge between the two by using Gloucester (who doesn't bite) and Acheron (who does) to kill Dimitri and Rodrigue and make it look like the Alliance intended to backstab the Kingdom from the beginning.]]
* EtTuBrute: She's shocked and dumbfounded by [[spoiler:Petra's]] "betrayal", and wonders if [[spoiler:Caspar or Ferdinand will turn on her next.]] She's indeed dumbfounded in chapter 72 when she sees [[spoiler:Ferdinand among the rebels and arguing her peaceful surrender.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Edelgard is a ruthless extremist willing to plunge Fódlan into war to fix its societal issues, but she is utterly devastated to learn [[OnlyFriend Hubert]] is dead.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Edelgard is willing to do almost anything to reunite Fódlan, but even she sees [[spoiler:releasing Count Varley to the front lines as an absolute GodzillaThreshold and is horrified to discover the Agarthans' transhuman project. However, this doesn't stop her from making use of the resurrected Elites, or from unleashing Count Varley to stop her people from rioting.]]
* EvilIsNotAToy: Edelgard is struck with a mundane version of this [[spoiler:in regards to their dealings with Count Varley. She orders him to subdue the rioters in Hrym banking on Ferdinand to keep him from going too far, not realizing that he will simply usurp Ferdinand's authority and start killing everyone.]]
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Lysithea and Sylvain's opinion of her, [[spoiler:remarking that they too have suffered because of both Crests and the Agarthans but have not resorted to the measures she has, not the least of which being siding with the Agarthans themselves.]]
* GodzillaThreshold: As the opening stages of the war turn into several crushing defeats for Adrestia, [[spoiler:Edelgard notes she is getting desperate enough to let Count Varley out of prison to help turn the tide even though "blood, slaughter and ruin would follow him should he be put at the head of an army against foes who were encroaching on what he considered 'his land'". By Chapter 68, she has actually crossed that line and sent him to subdue the rioters, with predictably bloody results.]]
* HeelRealization: Edelgard spends most of the second half of Chapter 80 realizing she was nothing more than a power-crazed tyrant who only ever cared about herself.
* HumiliationConga:
** The whole war is a long, ''painful'' and constant one for her. [[spoiler:The war only lasts for a few months, the heroic forces led by Byleth, Dimitri, and Claude don't suffer a single meaningful loss, and the only ground she's able to gain in western Faerghus is swiftly undone when Almyra intervenes on the heroes' side.]]
** The Battle of Enbarr exemplifies this like nothing else. [[spoiler:Between the sheer numerical superiority of the combined Alliance-Kingdom-Church forces, having obtained information on Enbarr's defenses from captured Agarthans, and the participation of both The Immaculate One and the Immovable, the Imperial army quickly crumbles. Not only that, but during said battle there's the Edelgard vs. Sylvain and Lysithea fight. The two avoid or block her every attack, refute her attempts at garnering their sympathy, and verbally dress her down. In the end she's grievously injured by Lysithea and is almost finished off by Sylvain before Hubert teleports her to safety.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: Edelgard accuses the Church of altering the truth to suit her own ends in the exact same breath she [[spoiler:lies her ass off about who really destroyed Fort Merceus.]]
* IAmTheNoun: [[spoiler:In one of the [[VillianEpisode Edelgard interludes,]] she says, "I am the revenge of the my murdered siblings upon the world that sacrificed them, of the people mistreated and stomped on by the 'Crest bearing nobility!'"]]
* IgnoredEpiphany: Her thoughts indicate that [[spoiler:several of the heroes' dressing-downs are getting to her more than she cares to admit, but she keeps pushing forward regardless.]]
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Her final fate, in chapter 93. Stripped of her free will and forced into the Hegemon Husk, she battles the students before being attacked by Maurice, and the two fall several stories through the floors of Shambhala before she's impaled on the Viskam spire.]]
* InternalReveal: Chapter 80 has Edelgard discover Dimitri was her long-forgotten stepbrother.
* IRejectYourReality: Edelgard claims to be more open minded than any aristocrat before her, but in her [[spoiler:interludes this quirk rapidly spirals out into a refusal to acknowledge that Byleth, Claude and Dimitri are winning the war, or that they have justifiable grievances against her that aren't rooted in 'propping up Fódlan's current circumstances'.]] Even when [[VoodooZombie Renata]] [[LadyOfWar Fraldarius]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech spells out her lack of clarity and self-serving narrative]], she refuses to consider taking Blaiddyd's advice to flee, refusing to abandon her sense of righteousness or her belief that she's Fódlan's savior.
* ItsAllAboutMe: There's a subtle but tangible undercurrent to Edelgard's interludes; for all that she talks about improving her people's lives, she only thinks about that in terms of ''her'' ideals and ''her'' beliefs, by using ''her'' experiences and none others.
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Contrary to every route in the original game, she dies in chapter 93 with no dignity or grandeur. Instead, she suffers the fate of every citizen who was forcibly turned into a Demonic Beast—her will stripped from her, her voice lost, and her body destroyed. Like her nameless citizens whom she carelessly sacrificed, her only real purpose was to be Thales's disposable pawn.]]
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: The opinion the author has of her, describing her as knowing nothing while playing the "I know more than you sheeple" card. It is consistently shown that [[spoiler:Edelgard bought off and believed the lies that the Agarthans had told her and claims to have the high ground when compared to everyone else. She was also under the impression that the people she tried to reach out to (such as Sylvain, Lysithea and Byleth) would understand and support her when they knew the truth; in reality, her ruthlessness had alienated them]].
* LovingAShadow: Chapter 73 reveals that [[spoiler:she’s just as much in love with Byleth]] as in canon and is absolutely [[VillainousBSOD broken]] when [[spoiler:Thales offhandedly mentions that Byleth is in a [[{{Polyamory}} relationship with both Claude and Dimitri]]]]. The [[{{Deconstruction}} rub]] here? [[spoiler:Edelgard has shown herself time and time again to be someone who discards any kind of dissenting opinion, including ''Byleth's'', and her connection with the older woman is absolutely flimsy in comparison to Byleth’s connection to both Claude and Dimitri. Her heartbreak also has some disturbing elements of [[EntitledToHaveYou entitlement]]; basically, she “loves” Byleth without truly knowing the other woman in any meaningful way whatsoever.]]
* MoralMyopia: Calls Rhea/Seiros a "beast" who is controlling people and lying to them, despite the fact that Edelgard herself does the exact same thing.
* NeverMyFault: In Edelgard's mind, everything that goes wrong with her plans for Fódlan is either Sothis' fault, [[spoiler:Thales' fault]], or Claude's fault.
* ThePoorlyChosenOne: [[spoiler:Twice over, in the opinion of the Agarthans. Both Marian and much later Thales himself consider her a terrible champion against the dragons in hindsight. Marian point-blank tells Dimitri that she personally believes he would be much better suited for the role than Edelgard and in chapter 73 Thales himself openly admits that ''Claude'' would have been a much better champion for the Agarthans to have than Edelgard, bluntly stating: "I choose poorly; I should have waited until he stepped into Fódlan and whisked him away, made him our chosen dragon slayer. He has more guile in one finger than she possessed in her entire body".]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Edelgard is portrayed as paranoid and distrusting when she questions the nature of Claude's sudden and easy friendship with Dimitri. Setting aside the fact that their coalition ''does'' end up ruining all of her plans, Claude works hard to present himself as an untrusting schemer, and Dimitri, while cordial and polite, is a closed individual, even among his fellow Lions. It's only natural that she would suspect these two suddenly having such a strong friendship, given their statuses as heir apparent to the other two countries of Fódlan.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: Edelgard's apprehension about Claude's sudden and easy friendship with Dimitri turns out to be spot-on, as they ''do'' end up ruining all of her plans together. However, in the biggest case of {{Irony}}, ''she'' was one who started the war which made said coalition possible. Their friendship and budding romantic relationship had nothing to with her and they were not planning to ally against her before the war started, because in their relationship she was a complete non-issue. Both Dimitri and Claude going against her turned out to be a SelfFulfillingProphecy due to her actions.
* SmugSnake: Edelgard is extremely arrogant and overconfident, thinking [[spoiler:she's TheStarscream to the Agarthans when in reality, she's just the Agarthans' dupe from start to finish.]]
* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: [[spoiler:In chapter 80, being prepped for her transfiguration under Agarthan imprisonment.]]
* SurroundedByIdiots: Edelgard's opinion of her war council, remarking in her head that she's close to just firing them all and leaving only Hubert and [[spoiler:Hanneman.]] Which becomes darkly ironic in Chapter 73, [[spoiler:considering that Thales himself considers her something of a LeeroyJenkins incapable of knowing when it's best to retreat and Odesse openly scorns her for her failures.]]
* ThisMeansWar: Once it's revealed that [[spoiler:Edelgard is the Flame Emperor, Byleth realizes that her attack on the Holy Tomb is an act of war and that they have to be ready for a full conflict with the Empire.]] Sure enough, the formal declaration comes the next chapter.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Throughout their school year together, Edelgard expresses bemusement at both Claude and Dimitri's personalities. [[spoiler:She's confident she can sweep them aside once she starts the war, believing Dimitri to be too naïve and guileless to make a good king and Claude to be an overconfident schemer who's in way over his head. She also dismisses the idea that they would work together. After they inflict multiple crushing defeats on her without any significant losses, she re-evaluates her opinion on Claude, but persists in dismissing Dimitri as reliant on Claude and Byleth rather than a significant player in his own right - even after her own people start speaking favorably of him right before rioting against her.]]
* UnknownRival: As the story goes on, Edelgard grows to develop an incredible ''seething'' hatred for Claude in the most visceral of ways due to a great helping of EvilCannotComprehendGood, FantasticRacism and [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]] on her part- She's absolutely (and utterly 100% erroneously) convinced in her belief that Claude is a ruthless, uncaring manipulator who cares about nothing but his own goals, ambitions and desires and would do anything in his power to TakeOverTheWorld, and therefore Edelgard treats him as her own personal ArchEnemy. And while Claude ''is'' one of the main enemies Edelgard has in the story, Claude himself has absolutely ''no'' idea Edelgard hates him in such a personal way and the main reasons why he's so strongly opposed to her are solely driven by the fact that he considers her an absolutely deplorable and amoral ruler and a major case of StupidEvil in how she has handled the war. Basically, her hatred towards Claude is all based on Edelgard's own delusions and myopic ideas, while her brutal and amoral actions done in order to take him down in turn have only [[CreateYourOwnHero served to galvanize his desire to take her down in order to save everyone from both her actions and the actions of her Agarthan allies.]]
* UnwittingPawn: Despite fancying herself TheStarscream, by chapter 73 it [[spoiler:becomes plain that in reality, Edelgard was nothing but a tool that Thales used to destabilize Fódlan and kill as many people as possible to achieve his plan to take the surface for Shambhala. When she attempts to confront him, he merely has Lamine blast her into submission and takes her prisoner again as they retreat, leaving Adrestia to the United Army.]]
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Dimitri's flashbacks in chapter 70 strongly indicates that Edelgard was this. [[spoiler:She was fierce but kind, encouraging him to stand up for himself, playing with him and fussing over an injured kitten, making their current relationship all the more tragic.]]
* VillainousBreakdown:
** [[spoiler:Edelgard in chapter 73 gets this as the truth sinks in to her that she is nothing but an UnwittingPawn and all of her plans have been crushed.]]
** [[spoiler:She's broken down even further in chapter 80, when she's taken prisoner by the Agarthans and learns that Hubert—the one person she trusted to always be at her side—is dead. The chapter is one long breakdown for her, culminating in a young Agarthan boy telling her how her mother really died and that Dimitri is her stepbrother—all while matter-of-factly stating that he's prepping her to be "transfigured" and deployed at a moment's notice, implicitly as the Hegemon Husk. It's while this happens that she realizes what characters have been trying to convince her of for the whole story—that she's fighting the wrong enemy, that she's not as powerful as she thinks she is, and that everything she's done has only destroyed the home she wished to save.]]
* YouDoNOTWantToKnow: An Agarthan civilian and former apprentice to Cornelia informs Edelgard that she doesn't want to know what happened to Anselma. When she persists, it's revealed [[spoiler:she was duped into thinking the Tragedy of Duscur would be nothing more than a simple ruckus; when she saw her second husband decapitated, she fled into a nearby forest, tripped, and died of internal bleeding.]]
to:
*
*
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:She deserts the Empire after Edelgard is
* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Chapter 80 is an interlude showing her imprisonment at the hands of the Agarthans, where for much of the chapter she's trapped by some sort of headgear that essentially acts as a muzzle. Several times she's nauseous enough to vomit—including during a truly sickening beating by an enraged Odesse—but she's forced to choke it back down because it has nowhere to go. She's finally free to speak by the end of the chapter...when she's StrappedToAnOperatingTable and about to be prepped for transfiguration into the Hegemon Husk, and she's sedated before she can have any release.]]
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: After chapter 51, Edelgard starts getting the odd interlude every now and then from her point of view. They also count as [[VillainEpisode Villain Episodes]].
* BigBadWannabe: She thinks that she's TheChessmaster who [[spoiler:is using Agartha to her own ends, and that she's a noble revolutionary who is reclaiming stolen land for her kingdom and 'saving' humanity from the Nabateans.]] Edelgard does succeed in starting a war of reunification, but her ruthlessness alienates her fellow students, her use of DirtyBusiness and demonic beasts turn her people against her to the point of open revolt, [[spoiler:Maximus Varley, who she released under the assumption she could control him, attacks Hrym and slaughters hundreds of her own people]], and she repeatedly underestimates Claude and Dimitri even as they invade deeper and deeper into Adrestia. Finally, despite thinking that she's TheStarscream to Thales, [[spoiler:she's actually just an UnwittingPawn whose actions have only served Agartha's goal of destroying Fódlan.]]
* BreakTheHaughty: Edelgard is hit ''hard'' by this in [[WhamEpisode chapter 73]]. After seeing both the Immaculate One and the Immovable tearing through the Titanus and Demonic Beasts that were meant to be her trump cards, almost being killed twice - first by Glenn, then at the end of a CurbStompBattle with Lysithea and Sylvain who both [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tell her how self-serving and immoral her decisions have been]], learning about Claude's status as the Prince of Almyra (meaning her invasion of the Alliance would have likely ended in disaster and bloodshed even if everything ''had'' gone as planned), she enters the castle to find Thales and Myson calmly having a discussion and planning to pull their troops out. When she attempts to confront him and force the issue, Thales summons [[CombatMedic Angel]] [[VoodooZombie Lamine]], who hits her with Bolting and almost kills her.
* BrokenPedestal: Becomes this to Dorothea, Linhardt and virtually everybody acquainted with her during their times in the academy in light of her declaration of war. As the war goes on, [[spoiler:the other Black Eagles (sans Hubert) who had initially joined her cause eventually started to see Edelgard in the same light as she starts to commit even more amoral and ruthless actions to win the war and promptly defect to Byleth, Claude, and Dimitri's side, one by one]].
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Turns out, being a warmongering YoungConqueror is a ''lot'' more problematic and difficult that the game would have you believe, and her whole CharacterArc in the series is a painful reminder about the harsh realities of war.
** In order to provide funding for her armies, Edelgard has to raises taxes, which puts a strain on the economy.
** Most of the food gets sent to the army, while the rest is rationed among civilians, which causes famine in many cities.
** As Edelgard finds herself facing one defeat after the other, she resorts to even more desperate and immoral acts to try to eke out a victory.
** The constant defeats cause the citizens to have doubts about the war and begin protesting [[spoiler:in Enbarr. When Edelgard tries to quell the protest, the citizens see through her lies and half truths, which leads to a couple of bricks being thrown at her. One brick grazes her shoulder, and after she dodges the other one, one of her guards kills the protester who threw it, which sparks a riot in her own capital city.]]
** Finally, despite her plans to be TheStarscream, [[spoiler: she has far less power against Thales than she thinks.]] She's so blatant about her intention to betray him that [[spoiler: Thales had plans to remove her regardless of if she'd won the war or not,]] and despite being in the heart of her powerbase when she confronts him, [[spoiler: he easily reduces her back to a powerless prisoner and plans to strip her of her free will via {{Geas}} to ensure she serves the role he'd groomed her for.]]
* DefiantCaptive: She [[SpitefulSpit tries]] her best against Odesse in chapter 80, but to say that it did not go [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown her way]] is a ''major'' understatement.
* DivideAndConquer: In Chapter 55, Byleth deduces that [[spoiler:after failing to prevent the Kingdom and Alliance from teaming up, Edelgard's objective is to drive a wedge between the two by using Gloucester (who doesn't bite) and Acheron (who does) to kill Dimitri and Rodrigue and make it look like the Alliance intended to backstab the Kingdom from the beginning.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Edelgard is a ruthless extremist willing to plunge Fódlan into war to fix its societal issues, but she is utterly devastated to learn [[OnlyFriend Hubert]] is dead.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Edelgard is willing to do almost anything to reunite Fódlan, but even she sees [[spoiler:releasing Count Varley to the front lines as an absolute GodzillaThreshold and is horrified to discover the Agarthans' transhuman project. However, this doesn't stop her from making use
* EvilIsNotAToy: Edelgard is struck with a mundane version of this [[spoiler:in regards to their dealings with Count Varley. She orders him to subdue the rioters in Hrym banking on Ferdinand to keep him from going too far, not realizing that he will simply usurp Ferdinand's authority and start killing everyone.]]
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Lysithea and Sylvain's opinion of her, [[spoiler:remarking that they too have suffered because of both Crests and the Agarthans but have not resorted to the measures she has, not the least of which being siding with the Agarthans themselves.]]
* GodzillaThreshold: As the opening stages of the war turn into several crushing defeats for Adrestia, [[spoiler:Edelgard notes she is getting desperate enough to let Count Varley out of prison to help turn the tide even though "blood, slaughter and ruin would follow him should he be put at the head of an army against foes who were encroaching on what he considered 'his land'". By Chapter 68, she has actually crossed that line and sent him to subdue the rioters, with predictably bloody results.]]
* HeelRealization: Edelgard spends most of the second half of Chapter 80 realizing she was nothing more than a power-crazed tyrant who only ever cared about herself.
* HumiliationConga:
** The whole war is a long, ''painful'' and constant one for her. [[spoiler:The war only lasts for a few months, the heroic forces led by Byleth, Dimitri, and Claude don't suffer a single meaningful loss, and the only ground she's able to gain in western Faerghus is swiftly undone when Almyra intervenes on the heroes' side.]]
** The Battle of Enbarr exemplifies this like nothing else. [[spoiler:Between the sheer numerical superiority of the combined Alliance-Kingdom-Church forces, having obtained information on Enbarr's defenses from captured Agarthans, and the participation of both The Immaculate One and the Immovable, the Imperial army quickly crumbles. Not only that, but during said battle there's the Edelgard vs. Sylvain and Lysithea fight. The two avoid or block her every attack, refute her attempts at garnering their sympathy, and verbally dress her down. In the end she's grievously injured by Lysithea and is almost finished off by Sylvain before Hubert teleports her to safety.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: Edelgard accuses the Church of altering the truth to suit her own ends in the exact same breath she [[spoiler:lies her ass off about who really destroyed Fort Merceus.]]
* IAmTheNoun: [[spoiler:In one of the [[VillianEpisode Edelgard interludes,]] she says, "I am the revenge of the my murdered siblings upon the world that sacrificed them, of the people mistreated and stomped on by the 'Crest bearing nobility!'"]]
* IgnoredEpiphany: Her thoughts indicate that [[spoiler:several of the heroes' dressing-downs are getting to her more than she cares to admit, but she keeps pushing forward regardless.]]
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Her final fate, in chapter 93. Stripped of her free will and forced into the Hegemon Husk, she battles the students before being attacked by Maurice, and the two fall several stories through the floors of Shambhala before she's impaled on the Viskam spire.]]
* InternalReveal: Chapter 80 has Edelgard discover Dimitri was her long-forgotten stepbrother.
* IRejectYourReality: Edelgard claims to be more open minded than any aristocrat before her, but in her [[spoiler:interludes this quirk rapidly spirals out into a refusal to acknowledge that Byleth, Claude and Dimitri are winning the war, or that they have justifiable grievances against her that aren't rooted in 'propping up Fódlan's current circumstances'.]] Even when [[VoodooZombie Renata]] [[LadyOfWar Fraldarius]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech spells out her lack of clarity and self-serving narrative]], she refuses to consider taking Blaiddyd's advice to flee, refusing to abandon her sense of righteousness or her belief that she's Fódlan's savior.
* ItsAllAboutMe: There's a subtle but tangible undercurrent to Edelgard's interludes; for all that she talks about improving her people's lives, she only thinks about that in terms of ''her'' ideals and ''her'' beliefs, by using ''her'' experiences and none others.
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Contrary to every route in the original game, she dies in chapter 93 with no dignity or grandeur. Instead, she suffers the fate of every citizen who was forcibly turned into a Demonic Beast—her will stripped from her, her voice lost, and her body destroyed. Like her nameless citizens whom she carelessly sacrificed, her only real purpose was to be Thales's disposable pawn.]]
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: The opinion the author has of her, describing her as knowing nothing while playing the "I know more than you sheeple" card. It is consistently shown that [[spoiler:Edelgard bought off and believed the lies that the Agarthans had told her and claims to have the high ground when compared to everyone else. She was also under the impression that the people she tried to reach out to (such as Sylvain, Lysithea and Byleth) would understand and support her when they knew the truth; in reality, her ruthlessness had alienated them]].
* LovingAShadow: Chapter 73 reveals that [[spoiler:she’s just as much in love with Byleth]] as in canon and is absolutely [[VillainousBSOD broken]] when [[spoiler:Thales offhandedly mentions that Byleth is in a [[{{Polyamory}} relationship with both Claude and Dimitri]]]]. The [[{{Deconstruction}} rub]] here? [[spoiler:Edelgard has shown herself time and time again to be someone who discards any kind of dissenting opinion, including ''Byleth's'', and her connection with the older woman is absolutely flimsy in comparison to Byleth’s connection to both Claude and Dimitri. Her heartbreak also has some disturbing elements of [[EntitledToHaveYou entitlement]]; basically, she “loves” Byleth without truly knowing the other woman in any meaningful way whatsoever.]]
* MoralMyopia: Calls Rhea/Seiros a "beast" who is controlling people and lying to them, despite the fact that Edelgard herself does the exact same thing.
* NeverMyFault: In Edelgard's mind, everything that goes wrong with her plans for Fódlan is either Sothis' fault, [[spoiler:Thales' fault]], or Claude's fault.
* ThePoorlyChosenOne: [[spoiler:Twice over, in the opinion of the Agarthans. Both Marian and much later Thales himself consider her a terrible champion against the dragons in hindsight. Marian point-blank tells Dimitri that she personally believes he would be much better suited for the role than Edelgard and in chapter 73 Thales himself openly admits that ''Claude'' would have been a much better champion for the Agarthans to have than Edelgard, bluntly stating: "I choose poorly; I should have waited until he stepped into Fódlan and whisked him away, made him our chosen dragon slayer. He has more guile in one finger than she possessed in her entire body".]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Edelgard is portrayed as paranoid and distrusting when she questions the nature of Claude's sudden and easy friendship with Dimitri. Setting aside the fact that their coalition ''does'' end up ruining all of her plans, Claude works hard to present himself as an untrusting schemer, and Dimitri, while cordial and polite, is a closed individual, even among his fellow Lions. It's only natural that she would suspect these two suddenly having such a strong friendship, given their statuses as heir apparent to the other two countries of Fódlan.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: Edelgard's apprehension about Claude's sudden and easy friendship with Dimitri turns out to be spot-on, as they ''do'' end up ruining all of her plans together. However, in the biggest case of {{Irony}}, ''she'' was one who started the war which made said coalition possible. Their friendship and budding romantic relationship had nothing to with her and they were not planning to ally against her before the war started, because in their relationship she was a complete non-issue. Both Dimitri and Claude going against her turned out to be a SelfFulfillingProphecy due to her actions.
* SmugSnake: Edelgard is extremely arrogant and overconfident, thinking [[spoiler:she's TheStarscream to the Agarthans when in reality, she's just the Agarthans' dupe from start to finish.]]
* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: [[spoiler:In chapter 80, being prepped for her transfiguration under Agarthan imprisonment.]]
* SurroundedByIdiots: Edelgard's opinion of her war council, remarking in her head that she's close to just firing them all and leaving only Hubert and [[spoiler:Hanneman.]] Which becomes darkly ironic in Chapter 73, [[spoiler:considering that Thales himself considers her something of a LeeroyJenkins incapable of knowing when it's best to retreat and Odesse openly scorns her for her failures.]]
* ThisMeansWar: Once it's revealed that [[spoiler:Edelgard is
* ShipTease: Has some with
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Throughout their school year together, Edelgard expresses bemusement at both Claude and Dimitri's personalities. [[spoiler:She's confident she can sweep them aside once she starts the war, believing Dimitri to be too naïve and guileless to make a good king and Claude to be an overconfident schemer who's in way over his head. She also dismisses the idea that they would work together. After they inflict multiple crushing defeats on her without any significant losses, she re-evaluates her opinion on Claude, but persists in dismissing Dimitri as reliant on Claude and Byleth rather than a significant player in his own right - even after her own people start speaking favorably of him right before rioting against her.]]
* UnknownRival: As the story goes on, Edelgard grows to develop an incredible ''seething'' hatred for Claude in the most visceral of ways due to a great helping of EvilCannotComprehendGood, FantasticRacism and [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]] on her part- She's absolutely (and utterly 100% erroneously) convinced in her belief that Claude is a ruthless, uncaring manipulator who cares about nothing but his own goals, ambitions and desires and would do anything in his power to TakeOverTheWorld, and therefore Edelgard treats him as her own personal ArchEnemy. And while Claude ''is'' one of the main enemies Edelgard has in the story, Claude himself has absolutely ''no'' idea Edelgard hates him in such a personal way and the main reasons why he's so strongly opposed to her are solely driven by the fact that he considers her an absolutely deplorable and amoral ruler and a major case of StupidEvil in how she has handled the war. Basically, her hatred towards Claude is all based on Edelgard's own delusions and myopic ideas, while her brutal and amoral actions done in order to take him down in turn have only [[CreateYourOwnHero served to galvanize his desire to take her down in order to save everyone from both her actions and the actions of her Agarthan allies.]]
* UnwittingPawn: Despite fancying herself TheStarscream, by chapter 73 it [[spoiler:becomes plain that in reality, Edelgard was nothing but a tool that Thales used to destabilize Fódlan and kill as many people as possible to achieve his plan to take the surface for Shambhala. When she attempts to confront him, he merely has Lamine blast her into submission and takes her prisoner again as they retreat, leaving Adrestia to the United Army.]]
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Dimitri's flashbacks in chapter 70 strongly indicates that Edelgard was this. [[spoiler:She was fierce but kind, encouraging him to stand up for himself, playing with him and fussing over an injured kitten, making their current relationship all the more tragic.]]
* VillainousBreakdown:
** [[spoiler:Edelgard in chapter 73 gets this as the truth sinks in to her that she is nothing but an UnwittingPawn and all of her plans have been crushed.]]
** [[spoiler:She's broken down even further in chapter 80, when she's taken prisoner by the Agarthans and learns that Hubert—the one person she trusted to always be at her side—is dead. The chapter is one long breakdown for her, culminating in a young Agarthan boy telling her how her mother really died and that Dimitri is her stepbrother—all while matter-of-factly stating that he's prepping her to be "transfigured" and deployed at a moment's notice, implicitly as the Hegemon Husk. It's while this happens that she realizes what characters have been trying to convince her of for the whole story—that she's fighting the wrong enemy, that she's not as powerful as she thinks she is, and that everything she's done has only destroyed the home she wished to save.]]
* YouDoNOTWantToKnow: An Agarthan civilian and former apprentice to Cornelia informs Edelgard that she doesn't want to know what happened to Anselma. When she persists, it's revealed [[spoiler:she was duped into thinking the Tragedy of Duscur would be nothing more than a simple ruckus; when she saw her second husband decapitated, she fled into a nearby forest, tripped, and died of internal bleeding.]]
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[[folder:Hubert von Vestra]]
* {{Angrish}}: One could very strongly argue that ShutUpHannibal moments are his metaphorical AchillesHeel as both times he's given one, [[spoiler:first by Marianne and later by Bernadetta]], he's left spluttering in rage and without any logical defense to their words. For all of the wordplay he enjoys dishing when giving smug lectures, Hubert really ''cannot'' counter whenever someone has a logical point.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: His death due to being [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice stabbed]] by an Obsidian Dagger is described as being ''excruciatingly'' painful.
--> To his horror, he started to see the veins in the child skin were turning black, his body jerking sharply and his eyes rolled up into his head. Glancing at Hubert was something even worse; the blood dripping from his side wound sizzled when it hit the ground; the smell of rotting flesh hit his nose as bubbling blood began to drip out of his nose and mouth and eyes, and the once sneering, eternally composed Lord Vestra was thrashing in agony, his screams bubbling because of the blood in his throat.
* EtTuBrute: Feels this way towards Bernadetta, as she chooses to side with the Church instead of her homeland.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Hubert is stabbed by [[spoiler:[[CruelAndUnusualDeath an Obsidian blade]] from an Agarthan child whose mother perished in the battle in Brigid, claiming revenge on Hubert for getting his mother killed]].
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Marianne calls out Hubert for his hypocrisy, saying that he's just like the "weak people" relying on their goddess, with the only difference being that he's blindly faithful to Edelgard instead of Sothis. Hubert doesn't take this well
* OnlyFriend: He's the only person genuinely loyal to Edelgard - everyone else is either using her for their own ends or abandons her once they discover the lengths she is willing to go to to change Fódlan.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Edelgard.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dorothea Arnault]]
* AffectionateNickname: Calls Edelgard "Edie." Hubert is "Hubie," Bernadetta is "Bernie," Ferdinand is "Ferdie," etc. [[spoiler:She stops using nicknames for Edelgard and Hubert after TheReveal that Edelgard is the Flame Emperor.]]
* CooldownHug: Gives one to Sylvain after the AwfulTruth about the Crests drives him into such a FreakOut that he goes into LaughingMad.
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:She deserts the Empire after Edelgard is revealed to be the Flame Emperor.]]
* EtTuBrute: After the true identity of the Flame Emperor is revealed, Dorothea does not take [[spoiler:Edelgard's]] betrayal very well.
* ShipTease: Has some with Sylvain.
[[/folder]]
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[[center: [- ''Fanfic/TheSaviorKingTheMasterTacticianAndTheQueenOfLiberation'' '''[[Characters/TheSaviorKingTheMasterTacticianAndTheQueenOfLiberation Main Character Page]]''' -] ]]
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The students of the Officer's Academy as they are seen in ''Fanfic/TheSaviorKingTheMasterTacticianAndTheQueenOfLiberation''.
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[[foldercontrol]]
!!The Golden Deer
[[folder: Hilda Valentine Goneril]]
* BodyCountCompetition: In Chapter 75, she and Balthus engage in one once inside [[spoiler: the main palace in Enbarr]]. It's clearly half irreverent enjoyment and half ShipTease between them.
* CuddleBug: Hilda's very touchy feely and her first action of choice whenever she's comforting someone dear to her is basically to hug them as much as she can. This is best seen with both Marianne (rushing to hug her, and later starting a GroupHug with all the Golden Deer members, after the [[spoiler:the truth of The Crest Of Maurice was revealed to them all]] and with Claude (giving her BestFriend a combination of TheGlomp and a BearHug in order to show him [[spoiler:that his status as half-Almyran does not change a single thing about their relationship]], all while tearfully professing her [[UndyingLoyalty her absolute friendship and heartfelt loyalty.]]
* GirlyBruiser: Although she would prefer not to do the bruiser part, Hilda is extremely girly and effective with an axe in hand.
* PintsizedPowerhouse: She's not particuarly tall by any means. It does not hinder her ability to crush enemies with axes in the slightest.
* PlatonicLifePartners: Her relationship with Claude has this dynamic.
* PlayingWithFire: How the Combat Art, Apocalyptic Flame, fittingly manifests in this story.
* ShipperOnDeck: Is shown to support Ignatz/Flayn and Marianne/Ashe, among others.
* ShipTease: With Balthus.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Lysithea von Ordelia]]
* AllGirlsLikePonies: Upon deciding that she needs more mobility to keep up with her classmates, Lysithea quickly become enamored with a black pegasus whom she quickly starts riding into battle.
* AngerBornOfWorry: Lysithea is ''not amused'' by Claude's idea of 'distracting' the Death Knight so she can hit him with Death Spikes, or when he grabbed and shielded her from hitting the ground during [[spoiler: the battle with the Umbral Beast in the Mausoleum]].
-->'''Lysithea''': You call that a distraction?! [...] You moron!
* BerserkButton: She does not like being reminded that she's the youngest kid in the class. More seriously, [[spoiler: she's ''furious'' when Edelgard brings up her dead siblings as a reason she should have joined her, saying that having her own losses don't justify inflicting her own childhood on thousands of other people in Fódlan.]]
* BrokenBird: Showed fully on [[spoiler:chapter 78, where she not reveals every detail of her absolutely horrifying DarkAndTroubledPast but her emotional turmoil is showed for everyone to see, being sadly resigned and even [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness meek]] about her fate and her past. Her reaction to her [[TrueCompanions friend’s]] horror to her circumstances is both tired and resigned and even with the TearsOfJoy she holds back when ''everyone'' tells her that [[YouAreNotAlone they will do everything in their powerful to help her]] she’s described as looking far older than she should.]]
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Her side story in "The Knights of Fódlan" gives a peek into the Agarthans' experimentation on her and her siblings. She watched her siblings be taken away one by one, listened to them scream and eventually die before she herself was finally subjected to the procedure... which she survived, but at the expense of a shortened life.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Her feeling for Cyril. It does not help that she gives him an utterly impassioned a heartwarming YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech during The Battle Of Shambahala that everyone around her heard firsthand. When its pointed out by Linhardt that ''everyone'' knows about her feelings and that Claude himself has a bet placed about when she will get together with Cyril, she's utterly mortified and plans to get revenge, much to the amusement of those around her.
* FriendOrFoe: In Chapter 41, Lysithea ignorantly [[spoiler:attacks Marianne after her Crest turns her into a Demonic Beast.]]
* ItsPersonal: Once she learns of their existence, Lysithea has it in for the Agarthans due to the fact that they were responsible [[spoiler:for conducting the Crest Experiments on her and her family.]] As far as she’s concerned, [[ArchEnemy Myson]] is nothing more than a dead man walking and she will take the ''utmost'' care to make his end as excruciating as possible.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Lysithea usually refuses to show fear in public, so Dimitri hearing her openly panic is an immediate sign that something very, very bad is about to happen. [[spoiler:Fort Merceus being about to get blown to kingdom come by javelins of light would perfectly fit the bill for such panic.]]
* PintSizedPowerhouse: She's the shortest and youngest of the Deer, but she's a magical powerhouse, repeatedly tearing Demonic Beasts in half and blasting holes in any enemy foolish enough to mess with her.
* ShipTease: With Cyril.
* ShutUpHannibal: Gives a ''ruthless'' version of this to [[spoiler:Edelgard during the Battle of Enbarr, refuting her propensity for blaming the Church and the existence of Crests for things like the Crest experiments conducted on Edelgard and Lysithea, all the while [[CurbStompBattle completely dominating her fight]] with the older woman.]]
* SpeakIllOfTheDead: Considering that he was directly responsible for her absolutely nightmarish DarkAndTroubledPast, [[spoiler:chapter 78 shows that Lysithea has, 100% understandably, absolutely ''zero'' respect for Emperor Ionius and spends the whole chapter basically showing how utterly unforgivable, pathetic and unfit she considers him. Her personal, mocking epithet for the man is “The Weak” and [[BigBrotherInstinct Claude]] fully agrees with her consensus.]]
* SurvivorsGuilt: Implied in her POV chapter in the Knights of Fódlan side story. She laments that she always seems to be powerless to save anyone who cares about her as she watches Byleth sleep [[spoiler: after her brush with death.]]
* {{Tsundere}}: She's a platonic sort towards Claude; she's constantly irritated by his teasing and frequently yells at him in exasperation, but she genuinely admires and trusts him... She just has trouble saying so.
* YouKilledMyFather: “I'M HERE FOR MY SIBLINGS, YOU MURDERING BASTARD!”
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Marianne von Edmund]]
* BadassPreacher: She's training to be a priestess, and is highly devout. She's also more than magically strong enough to make you regret crossing her.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Coldly rebukes a soldier who expresses irritation over Ashe's crying after Lonato's death and demands he apologizes. Later on, [[spoiler: she coolly rebukes Hubert's insults and derision of Bernadetta and her faith and isn't afraid to get into the middle of the fighting in order to provide healing to front line soldiers.]]
* CombatMedic: A skilled healer and a very talented attack mage.
* DrivenToSuicide: Obliquely implies she's had these feelings [[spoiler: while explaining the history of the Crest of the Beast to Byleth and her classmates.]] She mentions a letter in which one earlier holder of the crest warned her descendants to 'choose to fall while there was still enough human left in you to die'. Ashe quickly begs her not to give up, and she seems to have new confidence [[spoiler: going into the war]].
* TheIdealist: Firmly believes HumansAreGood deep down, which is why she’s of the firm opinion that the Agarthans civilians in the end will side with them.
* ShutUpHannibal: Marianne is not impressed by [[spoiler: Hubert's attempt at a HannibalLecture when they meet on the battlefield at Brigid]], calling out his hypocrisy and noting that he's no less 'devoted' then she is.
* SuperpoweredEvilSide: The Crest of the Beast gives Marianne a powerful transformation in which she can become a demonic beast while still mostly maintaining her humanity; however, she looses almost all control over the form and [[spoiler: Maurice indirectly warns her that her transformed state may eventually become permanent, just like his]].
* TwiceShy: With Ashe. They get together [[spoiler: right before the Battle for Garreg Mach]].
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: When she’s worried that her SuperpoweredEvilSide might overtake her, everyone from [[DeathSeeker Maurice]], to [[BigBrotherInstinct Claude]], to [[LoveInterest Ashe]] to [[TeamMom Byleth]] rush to reassure that she’s a lot more powerful in every sense of the word that she believes herself to be.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Bernadetta von Varley]]
* ActionGirl: She matures into one with Byleth's tutelage and support.
* AdaptationalSuperpowerChange: Bernadetta’s [[AdaptationalBadass Major]] Crest of Indech, rather than enabling her at chance to launch an additional strike in quick succession, multiplies her attack threefold; for example, one arrow fired projects two additional arrows launching alongside it (think similar to [[Franchise/{{Naruto}} Shadow Clones]] and/or [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Tsubame Gaeshi]]).
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Byleth's DeclarationOfProtection to her made her decide to transfer over to the Golden Deer so she could be close to and support one of the few people who showed her kindness.
* BetaCouple: She and Felix form one late in the story.
* BigShutUp: When finally pushed to her breaking point hearing Count Gloucester disparage Claude for his Almyran heritage, Bernadetta yells at the top of her lungs to "'''SSHHHHUUUUUT'' UUUUUUUUPPPPPP!'''''"
* CowardlyLion: Bernadetta repeatedly makes it clear she's terrified of war and violence; but she still throws herself into the thick of it again and again because she believes it's the right thing to do.
* CoolBigBro: Considers both Claude and [[spoiler: Yuri]] to be this.
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:She deserts the Empire after Edelgard is revealed to be the Flame Emperor.]]
* IntergenerationalFriendship: It's strongly implied she's developing one with [[spoiler: Lian/Indech]]; he's clearly quite fond of her.
* InsecureLoveInterest: She is in total disbelief when Felix admits that he loves her, babbling about how she's not good enough for him, how she's still fighting against her fears and what could he possibly see in her? Felix disagrees vehemently, thank goodness.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives one to the Flame Emperor during the Holy Tomb battle.
-->'''Bernadetta''': This is the person who wants to change Fódlan? What good c-could come from h-handing power to someone who c-can do this without hesitation? You...you don't value your people's lives any more than my father does! You'd never be a good ruler. You'd just be one more tyrant. And I...I won't let you! I won't let you take my f-friends, or the Crest Stones, or Fódlan! We're...definitely going to stop you!
** Later on, Bernadetta goes ''nuclear'' on Count Gloucester and the knights rallying him after they ignore all of the hard work Claude has put in protecting Fódlan in favor of hating him for being half-Almyran.
-->'''Bernadetta''': '''SSHHHHUUUUUT ''UUUUUUUUPPPPPP!'' SHUT UP!''' Just – just ''shut'' your ''goddess-damned'' mouth, you ignorant, peasant-murdering, power-grasping ''imbecile!'' And you...all of you! You should be disgusted and ashamed of yourself...have you forgotten the last six months?! Are you so blind, so contemptuous, so ''completely without honor'' that you're just going to ''forget'' everything Claude von Riegan, Prince Khalid, has done to save you in this war? You there! Sir Dagdar...I saw Claude save your life with my own eyes during the Battle on Myrddin bridge! He deliberately made himself a target for the flying mages and held them off while giving our army directions to reorganize in the midst of the ambush! As for you! Lady Tina. Just yesterday you were effusively praising how much Claude valued the lives of even the lowest of his soldiers, how he had dreamt up plans for battle that gave us our precious low-casualty figures, stating how other lords would have discarded them as impractical and the losses 'necessary'. Has that magically become untrue because his father is King Kirah of Almyra?! What do we care about the wars of men long dead, that bones and dust would compel us to hate those we have never even ''met''? I've watched, all these months, as Claude ''agonized'' over the losses our army has taken! Spend sleepless nights hammering out the plans that took us from one victory to the next, saved not only our own people but those trapped by Adrestia's tyranny as well! He was the one who warned you before the war began that there was danger in the future; it is thanks to ''him'' that you were prepared for war, that the Alliance between Leicester and Faerghus was even possible! I saw with my own eyes how he valued lives, ''our'' lives; when our people would have rejected him the way you're trying to now! There is nothing more true than this... '''Khalid loves Fódlan!''' And you would turn on him now?! After he has fought so hard to save you, ''knowing that he would lay down his life for you'', you call him a monster and an exile from Fódlan because of his ''birth?!'' Are you so craven?! Are you like Thales and his Agarthans, discarding those who aren't one of you as ''less than human?! '''Well?!''''' Speak up!
* ShamingTheMob: Bernadetta does this to the knights rallying after Count Gloucester in her TheReasonYouSuckSpeech above with added support from her friends and allies. It works with the two knights she called out earlier being rendered speechless and the other knights soon kneeling in front of Claude in shame.
* ShutUpKiss: Showing how much more confident she is, ''she'' plants one on Felix when he's [[GibberishOfLove fumblingly trying to articulate his feelings to her]], right in the middle of the battlefield while the army around them cheers on.
* SixthRanger: She transfers to the Golden Deer shortly after the battle with Miklan.
* TookALevelInBadass: Bernadetta goes from being terrified of her own shadow to volunteering for missions on her own, to becoming an archer knight, to being brave enough to call out the ''Flame Emperor'' and swear to stop them no matter what, even when surrounded by their troops.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Leonie Pinelli]]
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Like Claude, she found [[spoiler: Ren Von Riegan's FlippingTheBird moment]] absolutely hilarious, bursting into laughter just at the reminder of it.
* BerserkButton: [[WasOnceAMan Demonic Beasts]] become this to her after [[spoiler: Jeralt's death]], cursing out the Flame Emperor when they transform a couple of their soldiers [[spoiler: during their invasion of the Holy Tomb]]
* TheDeadHaveNames: Invokes this as a threat to the Flame Emperor.
-->'''Leonie''': Do you know the names of the children of Remire? Don't worry, Captain Jeralt told me. [[ToThePain I'm going to carve each and every one of them into your skull.]]
* HeroWorshipper: To Jeralt, who taught her all she knows about fighting.
* OddCouple: She and Lorenz are shaping up to be this; they grew up in completely opposite social structures, but they're almost always seen fighting together, and Claude has contributed to TheBet on when they'll come out and admit it.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Raphael Kirsten]]
* TheBigGuy: A very simple guy with simple needs, who happens to be very bulky and trained to be a capable War Master for Byleth to call on.
* BoisterousBruiser: Very upbeat and very strong, maintaining his cheerful attitude both in and out of battle.
* OutOfFocus: Doesn't get as much screentime as some of his other classmates.
* SpiritedCompetitor: Is mentioned to have gotten into arm wrestling contests with Caspar.
* WiseBeyondHisYears: Raphael knows a lot about grief, giving Byleth useful and succinct advice on how to help Ashe when the latter is grieving for Lonato while she's spinning her wheels, uncertain what to do. He also has a habit of leaving arrogant, self entitled royals (such as [[BigBadWannabe Edelgard]] and [[ItsAllAboutMe Lord]] [[FantasticRacism Gloucester]]) in complete StunnedSilence when poking holes into thier delusions with his simple, common words of wisdom.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Ignatz Victor]]
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Like Claude, he found [[spoiler: Ren Von Riegan's FlippingTheBird moment]] absolutely hilarious, bursting into sniggers just at the reminder of it.
* LuminescentBlush: When Hilda catches him and Flayn hugging, she cheers them on, resulting in him blushing furiously.
* OutofFocus: Like Raphael, he tends to blend into the background compared to some of other students.
* ReluctantWarrior: Would rather be painting. Though he feels conscience-bound to fight, and can come to the rescue when least expected [[spoiler: like when he uses his keen eyesight to sling a broken golem into the breach in Garreg Mach's gates during the siege]].
* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: His dynamic with Flayn is suggested to be something like this.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Lorenz Hellman Gloucester]]
* ApologeticAttacker: “I'm terribly sorry, but you're all in our way”
* BreakTheHaughty: Getting chewed out by Byleth for disobeying her during the rescue for Flayn, endangering everyone else in the process, deflates Lorenz's ego significantly.
* HumblePie: Eats some when he's sidelined during the Flayn rescue mission for disobeying Byleth for the sake of showing off. After that, he's much less pushy and less concerned with credit.
* UnknownRival: Byleth and Edelgard both note at the beginning that Lorenz repeatedly tries to undermine Claude and considers himself a competitor as the ruler of the Alliance, but the latter doesn't really acknowledge his efforts - only occasionally expressing annoyance of him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Flayn]]
* CombatMedic: Moreso now with Byleth's training than she was [[spoiler: back when she was called Cethleann]], but Flayn can fight to a degree in between moments of providing powerful healing to her allies.
* DamselInDistress: After [[spoiler: Jeritza/Emile]] kidnaps her, prompting Byleth and the Deer to look for and eventually rescue her.
* NiceGirl: No one, excluding [[FantasticRacism Agarthans]] and [[spoiler: Edelgard]], have anything negative to say about her; she's incredibly compassionate and very kind to everyone she meets.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Chapter 100 makes it abundantly clear that The War Of Heroes left her with some rather noticeable phycological scars, and the Battle Of Shambahala are just making it worst for her. During her part in the chapter, he constantly switches between actively helping her allies and remembering The War Of Heroes with [[WarIsHell horrified clarity.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: Went from being a helpless kidnapping victim to a competent CombatMedic who has no fear going into the thick of things.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Byleth, for rescuing her.
[[/folder]]
!!The Blue Lions
[[folder: Felix Hugo Fraldarius]]
* AmazonChaser: Instantly becomes interested in Bernadetta after she disarms and defeats him during the Battle of the Eagle and Lion.
* AngerBornOfWorry: [[spoiler:His reaction to seeing Dimitri’s one on one fight against one of [[WasOnceAMan The White Dragons]] and the reckless tactics used to defeat it? Rushing forward without hesitation to give Dimitri [[TheGlomp one hell of a hug]]….which is fallowed by a ''furious'' tirade about his idiocy and self-sacrificing nature. Dimitri is actually both utterly confused yet absolutely ecstatic by Felix’s obvious [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther care for him.]]]]
* BigWHAT: Felix hollers the word "WHAT?!" at the top of his lungs when he learns about how Bernadetta's father "raised" her.
* CannotSpitItOut: Felix has enormous difficulty telling anyone - LoveInterest and close friends alike - that he cares about them, that he worries, or that he's sorry about something. [[spoiler: He finally manages to spit out his feelings for Bernadetta in chapter 69 after defeating her father.]]
* CurbStompBattle: Delivers one to [[spoiler: Maximus Varley during the Battle of Hrym]], from yanking him off his horse to breaking three different weapons he uses through the duration of the duel before finally bashing him unconscious with a hit to the head.
* CruelMercy: Felix doesn't kill [[spoiler:Count Varley... but he does strip him off his lands and titles, give them to his abused daughter and wife respectively, and banish him from Fódlan.]]
* EmbarassingNickname: "Lixie", which only [[BigBrotherMentor Glenn]] calls him by. Interestingly but fittingly for someone like [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Felix]], he's more embarrassed at the fact that Glenn is openly using it in front of their friends and allies than the nickname in itself.
* GibberishOfLove: Descends into babbling [[spoiler: when he realizes Bernadetta heard him say he loved her]] while trying to fumble through a proper confession.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Felix is rough around the edges, but he repeatedly shows he cares more than he lets on. He tries in his own way to pull Byleth out of her grief [[spoiler: over losing her father]] and offhandedly makes it clear on several occasions that he thinks Bernadetta is a strong person long before he confesses to her.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Considering his overall character and personality, the fact that his reaction upon learning [[spoiler: the AwfulTruth about the Heroes' Relics and the Crests is first indulge in StressVomit and later almost ''beg'' Indech to take the Aegis Shield off his hands shows how utterly and completely horrified Felix is about the real tragic and twisted past of the items.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives one to Count Varley during [[spoiler:their duel in Hrym.]]
-->'''Felix''': Do you always run your mouth this much? All you've proven is just how weak you are. You can't win loyalty without threatening to slaughter people in retaliation. You endlessly scream about deserving their respect by dint of a cosmic accident, when most people live past their second birthday without thinking the world owes them something for that achievement. You heap abuse on your daughter, your servants, your people; all who have no recourse against you, and think that doing so makes you powerful. You're so desperate to increase your name that you would sell your daughter as if she were a bed slave, when if you were ''actually'' a man of capability and respect, you wouldn't need to stoop to gutter crime. [...] The woman I love is ''still'' suffering because of you! You abused her...called her worthless...convinced her no one would ever want her! One of...the bravest people I've ever met... still lives if fear of you. ''You''! You worthless, pathetic, spineless waste of air! You aren't worthy to carry her shoes!
* StressVomit: His reaction to [[spoiler:learning the truth about the origin of the Heroes' Relics.]]
* SurroundedByIdiots: PlayedForLaughs. Felix grumbles that he's surrounded by lunatics when they get distracted by Balthus' love life in Shambhala. Byleth retorts that if he's down there with them, what does that make him?
* YouRemindMeOfX: Indech fondly and very bittersweetly compares him to Shiva in his inner mussing on chapter 98. Turns out that while he was alive Shiva shared both Felix’s unfettered drive to better himself at all cost and his almost unrelenting pace when pushing himself.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dedue Molinaro]]
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Normally the epitome of a quietly pleasant, considerate and utterly erudite GentleGiant and a man utterly filled with compassion, but when vowing to…[[ImpliedDeathThreat talk]] to Odesse about his machination of [[ThePurge the Tragedy Of Duscur]] his rage is so evident that it actually spooks [[CuteAndPsycho Marian]] and makes Byleth take note of it.
* CommonalityConnection: Dedue befriends Bernadetta for their interest in plants and quietly spending their time in the green house together.
* DespairEventHorizon: [[ThePurge The Tragedy OF Duscur]] was ''nearly'' this towards him, for very obvious reasons. And it’s made clear in Dedue mussing on Chapter 98 that if it were not for [[BestFriend Dimitri]] he would have been consumed by his grief all together.
* {{Fainting}}: [[GentleGiant His]] reaction upon learning [[spoiler:the [[AwfulTruth horrifying]] history behind both the Heroes' Relics and the Crests]] is to understandably faint dead away. Being a survivor of [[ThePurge the Tragedy of Duscur]] obviously meant that he could very painfully sympathize with [[spoiler:the Nabateans and their tragic history]] and hearing about it became a bit too [[TraumaButton much]] for Dedue.
* ItsPersonalWithTheDragon: Completely understandably wants [[ArchEnemy Odesse’s]] head on a spike.
* MommasBoy: In an interesting parallel to fellow foreigner Claude, in Chapter 98 its shown that Dedue was particularly close to his own mother while she was still alive and he still currently remembers her with the utmost reverence and respect.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Normally, a heroic character like [[GentleGiant Dedue]] [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge beating a man to death to the point that their head is nothing but red pulp]] would raise major alarm flags (and it does with Dimitri)….but considering the victim of said brutal death was the man directly responsible for the massacre of his people, Odesse’s death at Dedue’s hands is ''very'' deserved.
* SecretKeeper: He learns of Claude's Almyran heritage after hearing Claude speak his native language. After he asks Claude of what intention he has in mind for Dimitri and what made Claude deciding to come to Fódlan, Dedue lets him be and promises to keep his secret safe.
* ShipTease: With Mercedes.
* TakingTheBullet: During [[spoiler: the battle on Myrddin Bridge]], Dedue shoves Dimitri out of the way and covers Mercedes to protect them from a tomahawk, resulting in it hitting him in the back. Fortunately, Mercedes is able to heal him.
* YouKilledMyFather: Goes on a screaming rant towards the killer of his people, Odesse, right before pounding him into the consistency of salsa.
--> “I am a man of Duscur!” He roared. “You murdered a friend of my people! Framed my brothers for the crime! Used the massacre of women and children merely to hide ''your crime''! Do not act as though you don't remember! After you killed the king of Faerghus, you framed my people to hide your involvement. You cowered in the darkness while my home was destroyed and my family killed for ''your crime''! If you were so righteous, why didn't you claim it as your own?! I think you know better! That massacre does not happen without the one you ''instigated''! You killed my people too, simply because they were there and they were in your way! You framed us! You left the results of your evil! My people's blood cries out from the ground and you don't even care!”
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Mercedes von Martritz]]
* AdaptationalBadass: Zigzagged. In ''Three Houses'', Mercedes could not learn Abraxas as a playable character and only had it as a midboss at the end of Crimson Flower if not recruited. She can wield it here, doing so in the FinalBattle.
* AllLovingHero: Easily one of the most compassionate characters in the story, Mercedes's heart is open to everyone, no matter who they are or where they're from. She [[spoiler: takes the Agarthan child soldiers that the army captures under her wing, treating them like normal children and patiently tolerating their learned FantasticRacism and wariness.]]
* BerserkButton: Mercedes does ''not'' like it when people hide behind their faith while committing atrocities. She calls out a Western Church fanatic early in the story and scorns them in more detail during her POV chapter in the Knights of Fódlan, noting that cruel extremists who justify thier evil actions behind zealotry and religious fanaticism are a special kind of evil.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Everyone - including [[OneManArmy Byleth]], [[TheChessmaster Claude]] and [[AntiHero Yuri]] - flinches away from the TranquilFury she emits when [[spoiler: Jeritza/Emile]] reveals to her that [[spoiler: The Agarthans tortured him with sleep deprivation to trigger his Death Knight persona]]. She's also perfectly willing to fight to kill during the war in order to bring about its end.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Gender flipped. Mercedes loves [[spoiler: her brother Jeritza/Emile]] very much and is ''not pleased'' to find out how [[spoiler: Agartha]] treated him.
* CoolBigSis: [[AllLovingHero She]] is this not only towards [[BigLittleBrother Emille]], but chapter 79 reveals that she has become this towards all The Agarthan children under her care as well as they obviously care a great deal about [[MoralityPet her]] and they all show genuine fear and dismay at the idea that Mercedes might be hurt or killed in combat to the point that even [[CuteAndPsycho Marian]] sounds sick at her idea of Mercedes getting hurt.
* FlatWhat: When Mercedes learns that the Agarthans used sleep deprivation and drugs to drive Jeritza into his berserk Death Knight state, her response is, ''They what.'' in what the narration describes as a very flat tone.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: As noted by Claude, if [[AllLovingHero Mercedes]] thinks you're a slimeball, you must ''really'' suck (in reference to her adoptive father).
* ShipTease: With Dedue, the pair being just shy of an OfficialCouple.
* SugaryMalice: Noticeably ''averted'', compared to her canon self from ''Three Houses''. This version of Mercedes more openly expresses disgust with people by raising her voice at or directly insulting offenders.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Ashe Ubert]]
* BreakTheCutie: Suffers this during Lonato's rebellion. Despite his best efforts, he can't convince his adoptive father to surrender, the latter actually ''attacks him'' in a fit of rage and ultimately he breaks down crying after losing him and so many people he knew in the militia.
* NiceGuy: Forgives easily and is very kind, worrying about the people of Abyss even as he's fleeing for his life from the Chalice's defense system.
* TwiceShy: With Marianne, until their RelationshipUpgrade.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Ingrid Brandl Galatea]]
* AngerBornOfWorry: Gets very protective of both Sylvain and Dimitri at various different points in the story.
* LadyOfWar: Aspiring to be one. Early on, for instance, she all but begs Byleth to bring her along to fight Miklan.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Chides Sylvain for his CasualDangerDialogue with Dimitri at the Great Bridge of Myrddin, before joining in on it herself.
* OutOfFocus: Doesn't receive a huge amount of screentime compared with most of the other Blue Lions.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Sylvain Jose Gautier]]
* BerserkButton: Gets pissed [[spoiler: when Edelgard tries to emotionally bait him with the pain his Crest has caused him, snapping that [[BigBrotherBully Miklan]] was just a terrible human being who used being disowned as an excuse to be his worst self, and to not 'pass the buck' by making his decisions solely about his lack of a crest.]]
* CallingTheOldManOut: While most interaction between our heroes and their ancestors among the Ten Elite are filled with both SympathyForTheDevil (from our heroes to [[TragicMonster the]] [[VoodooZombie Ten]] [[ReluctantMonster Elites]]) and raw, utter [[SoProudOfYou pride towards their descendants]] from the Ten Elites, the fight between Sylvain and Griffith is completely different. Sylvain spends the whole fight absolutely ''furious and disgusted'' about hellish legacy his ancestor left him to suffer and becomes absolute [[TheBerserker enraged and lost in his emotions]] after listening to Griffith apparent absolute lack of remorse for the legacy he left behind, to the point that he almost becomes consume by his long stirring resentment during their fight until [[AngerBornOfWorry Ingrid steps in and make sure to stop Sylvain from all but killing himself.]]
* CasualDangerDialogue: Out off all the Blue Lions, he's the one who indulges in this most. Considering its subtly implied that all the Blue Lions use this tactic to keep Dimitri sane during battle, its just another sutble sign that Sylvain is a lot more that his "ladykiller" persona reveals.
* {{Claustrophobia}}: He does ''not'' do well in enclosed spaces, which is something that was born from [[BigBrotherBully Miklan]] throwing him down a well. While in {{Canon}} this is treated as a horrific NoodleIncident but never really fully explored, here it’s made clear that the experience left some pretty deep scars on him.
* FreakOut: Considering how he was treated all througth his childhood becuase he ''had'' a crest (both by [[BigBrotherBully Miklan]] and [[MealTicket almost everyone around him]] outside [[ChildhoodFriends Felix, Dimitri, Ingrid and Glenn]]) it makes absolute sense that when he learned the AwfulTruth about the Crests he bursted into [[LaughingMad wild, unhinged laugther]] at the twisted {{Irony}}. It actually took a worried Dimitri and later a CooldownHug [[ShipTease from]] Dorothea for the mania to disperse from Sylvain and the laughter to disolve into quite tears.
* TheGadfly:
** Loves to tease Dimitri about his love life; first blatantly asking him DidYouJustHaveSex in chapter 43 before nagging him about the status of his relationship with Claude [[CasualDangerDialogue right in the middle of the battle on the Great Bridge of Myrddin.]]
** He also gleefully teases Felix about his feelings for Bernadetta, blatantly acting friendly with her and asking her about her writing specifically to make the former [[GreenEyedMonster jealous.]]
* LadykillerInLove: Implied to be falling for Dorothea.
* MissedHimByThatMuch: Sylvain is notably dismayed when he learns in Chapter 78 that [[spoiler:during Atra and Glenn’s whole “information gathering mission” they actually came to his family’s territory and he never managed to stumble into them while they where there.]] Glenn sheepishly admits that considering the fact that both he and Atra were trying their best to fly under the radar and his own [[spoiler:amnesia]] , Sylvain finding him would have been impossible.
* PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo: Sylvain recounts an incident where he accidentally offered a girl some tea spiked with sedative. She forced him to drink it first, and it knocked him out cold.
* ShutUpHannibal: Sylvain is not impressed [[spoiler: with Edelgard starting a war and justifying it by removing the Crest System, noting that he has no interest in avenging his own pain by causing the deaths of thousands of people and tells her not to pass off responsibility for human evil onto Crests and the Nabateans.]]
* YouShallNotPass: In order to allow grant Macuil time to completely disarm the [[FantasticNuke The Javelins Of Light]], Sylvain pulls this in Chapter 98 against Jason Dominic.
[[/folder]]
!!The Black Eagles
[[folder:Edelgard von Hresvelg]]
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: As the war drags on, Edelgard's [[spoiler:approval rating drops dangerously low; her civilian subjects riot in the streets, many of her soldiers do nothing to stop them, and all she has left are a few hardline loyalists and the Agarthans who plan to dispose of her once she outlives her usefulness.]]
* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:Despite everything that she did, Claude still spares her some pity when she finally dies, noting that she only became what she was because of Thales. Dimitri is outright horrified.]]
* AllForNothing: Chapter 52 has Edelgard forced to face the fact that [[spoiler:she threw away hundreds of Imperial lives in the Battle of Garreg Mach and has nothing to show for it.]]
* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Chapter 80 is an interlude showing her imprisonment at the hands of the Agarthans, where for much of the chapter she's trapped by some sort of headgear that essentially acts as a muzzle. Several times she's nauseous enough to vomit—including during a truly sickening beating by an enraged Odesse—but she's forced to choke it back down because it has nowhere to go. She's finally free to speak by the end of the chapter...when she's StrappedToAnOperatingTable and about to be prepped for transfiguration into the Hegemon Husk, and she's sedated before she can have any release.]]
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: After chapter 51, Edelgard starts getting the odd interlude every now and then from her point of view. They also count as [[VillainEpisode Villain Episodes]].
* BigBadWannabe: She thinks that she's TheChessmaster who [[spoiler:is using Agartha to her own ends, and that she's a noble revolutionary who is reclaiming stolen land for her kingdom and 'saving' humanity from the Nabateans.]] Edelgard does succeed in starting a war of reunification, but her ruthlessness alienates her fellow students, her use of DirtyBusiness and demonic beasts turn her people against her to the point of open revolt, [[spoiler:Maximus Varley, who she released under the assumption she could control him, attacks Hrym and slaughters hundreds of her own people]], and she repeatedly underestimates Claude and Dimitri even as they invade deeper and deeper into Adrestia. Finally, despite thinking that she's TheStarscream to Thales, [[spoiler:she's actually just an UnwittingPawn whose actions have only served Agartha's goal of destroying Fódlan.]]
* BreakTheHaughty: Edelgard is hit ''hard'' by this in [[WhamEpisode chapter 73]]. After seeing both the Immaculate One and the Immovable tearing through the Titanus and Demonic Beasts that were meant to be her trump cards, almost being killed twice - first by Glenn, then at the end of a CurbStompBattle with Lysithea and Sylvain who both [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tell her how self-serving and immoral her decisions have been]], learning about Claude's status as the Prince of Almyra (meaning her invasion of the Alliance would have likely ended in disaster and bloodshed even if everything ''had'' gone as planned), she enters the castle to find Thales and Myson calmly having a discussion and planning to pull their troops out. When she attempts to confront him and force the issue, Thales summons [[CombatMedic Angel]] [[VoodooZombie Lamine]], who hits her with Bolting and almost kills her.
* BrokenPedestal: Becomes this to Dorothea, Linhardt and virtually everybody acquainted with her during their times in the academy in light of her declaration of war. As the war goes on, [[spoiler:the other Black Eagles (sans Hubert) who had initially joined her cause eventually started to see Edelgard in the same light as she starts to commit even more amoral and ruthless actions to win the war and promptly defect to Byleth, Claude, and Dimitri's side, one by one]].
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Turns out, being a warmongering YoungConqueror is a ''lot'' more problematic and difficult that the game would have you believe, and her whole CharacterArc in the series is a painful reminder about the harsh realities of war.
** In order to provide funding for her armies, Edelgard has to raises taxes, which puts a strain on the economy.
** Most of the food gets sent to the army, while the rest is rationed among civilians, which causes famine in many cities.
** As Edelgard finds herself facing one defeat after the other, she resorts to even more desperate and immoral acts to try to eke out a victory.
** The constant defeats cause the citizens to have doubts about the war and begin protesting [[spoiler:in Enbarr. When Edelgard tries to quell the protest, the citizens see through her lies and half truths, which leads to a couple of bricks being thrown at her. One brick grazes her shoulder, and after she dodges the other one, one of her guards kills the protester who threw it, which sparks a riot in her own capital city.]]
** Finally, despite her plans to be TheStarscream, [[spoiler: she has far less power against Thales than she thinks.]] She's so blatant about her intention to betray him that [[spoiler: Thales had plans to remove her regardless of if she'd won the war or not,]] and despite being in the heart of her powerbase when she confronts him, [[spoiler: he easily reduces her back to a powerless prisoner and plans to strip her of her free will via {{Geas}} to ensure she serves the role he'd groomed her for.]]
* DefiantCaptive: She [[SpitefulSpit tries]] her best against Odesse in chapter 80, but to say that it did not go [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown her way]] is a ''major'' understatement.
* DivideAndConquer: In Chapter 55, Byleth deduces that [[spoiler:after failing to prevent the Kingdom and Alliance from teaming up, Edelgard's objective is to drive a wedge between the two by using Gloucester (who doesn't bite) and Acheron (who does) to kill Dimitri and Rodrigue and make it look like the Alliance intended to backstab the Kingdom from the beginning.]]
* EtTuBrute: She's shocked and dumbfounded by [[spoiler:Petra's]] "betrayal", and wonders if [[spoiler:Caspar or Ferdinand will turn on her next.]] She's indeed dumbfounded in chapter 72 when she sees [[spoiler:Ferdinand among the rebels and arguing her peaceful surrender.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Edelgard is a ruthless extremist willing to plunge Fódlan into war to fix its societal issues, but she is utterly devastated to learn [[OnlyFriend Hubert]] is dead.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Edelgard is willing to do almost anything to reunite Fódlan, but even she sees [[spoiler:releasing Count Varley to the front lines as an absolute GodzillaThreshold and is horrified to discover the Agarthans' transhuman project. However, this doesn't stop her from making use of the resurrected Elites, or from unleashing Count Varley to stop her people from rioting.]]
* EvilIsNotAToy: Edelgard is struck with a mundane version of this [[spoiler:in regards to their dealings with Count Varley. She orders him to subdue the rioters in Hrym banking on Ferdinand to keep him from going too far, not realizing that he will simply usurp Ferdinand's authority and start killing everyone.]]
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Lysithea and Sylvain's opinion of her, [[spoiler:remarking that they too have suffered because of both Crests and the Agarthans but have not resorted to the measures she has, not the least of which being siding with the Agarthans themselves.]]
* GodzillaThreshold: As the opening stages of the war turn into several crushing defeats for Adrestia, [[spoiler:Edelgard notes she is getting desperate enough to let Count Varley out of prison to help turn the tide even though "blood, slaughter and ruin would follow him should he be put at the head of an army against foes who were encroaching on what he considered 'his land'". By Chapter 68, she has actually crossed that line and sent him to subdue the rioters, with predictably bloody results.]]
* HeelRealization: Edelgard spends most of the second half of Chapter 80 realizing she was nothing more than a power-crazed tyrant who only ever cared about herself.
* HumiliationConga:
** The whole war is a long, ''painful'' and constant one for her. [[spoiler:The war only lasts for a few months, the heroic forces led by Byleth, Dimitri, and Claude don't suffer a single meaningful loss, and the only ground she's able to gain in western Faerghus is swiftly undone when Almyra intervenes on the heroes' side.]]
** The Battle of Enbarr exemplifies this like nothing else. [[spoiler:Between the sheer numerical superiority of the combined Alliance-Kingdom-Church forces, having obtained information on Enbarr's defenses from captured Agarthans, and the participation of both The Immaculate One and the Immovable, the Imperial army quickly crumbles. Not only that, but during said battle there's the Edelgard vs. Sylvain and Lysithea fight. The two avoid or block her every attack, refute her attempts at garnering their sympathy, and verbally dress her down. In the end she's grievously injured by Lysithea and is almost finished off by Sylvain before Hubert teleports her to safety.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: Edelgard accuses the Church of altering the truth to suit her own ends in the exact same breath she [[spoiler:lies her ass off about who really destroyed Fort Merceus.]]
* IAmTheNoun: [[spoiler:In one of the [[VillianEpisode Edelgard interludes,]] she says, "I am the revenge of the my murdered siblings upon the world that sacrificed them, of the people mistreated and stomped on by the 'Crest bearing nobility!'"]]
* IgnoredEpiphany: Her thoughts indicate that [[spoiler:several of the heroes' dressing-downs are getting to her more than she cares to admit, but she keeps pushing forward regardless.]]
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Her final fate, in chapter 93. Stripped of her free will and forced into the Hegemon Husk, she battles the students before being attacked by Maurice, and the two fall several stories through the floors of Shambhala before she's impaled on the Viskam spire.]]
* InternalReveal: Chapter 80 has Edelgard discover Dimitri was her long-forgotten stepbrother.
* IRejectYourReality: Edelgard claims to be more open minded than any aristocrat before her, but in her [[spoiler:interludes this quirk rapidly spirals out into a refusal to acknowledge that Byleth, Claude and Dimitri are winning the war, or that they have justifiable grievances against her that aren't rooted in 'propping up Fódlan's current circumstances'.]] Even when [[VoodooZombie Renata]] [[LadyOfWar Fraldarius]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech spells out her lack of clarity and self-serving narrative]], she refuses to consider taking Blaiddyd's advice to flee, refusing to abandon her sense of righteousness or her belief that she's Fódlan's savior.
* ItsAllAboutMe: There's a subtle but tangible undercurrent to Edelgard's interludes; for all that she talks about improving her people's lives, she only thinks about that in terms of ''her'' ideals and ''her'' beliefs, by using ''her'' experiences and none others.
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Contrary to every route in the original game, she dies in chapter 93 with no dignity or grandeur. Instead, she suffers the fate of every citizen who was forcibly turned into a Demonic Beast—her will stripped from her, her voice lost, and her body destroyed. Like her nameless citizens whom she carelessly sacrificed, her only real purpose was to be Thales's disposable pawn.]]
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: The opinion the author has of her, describing her as knowing nothing while playing the "I know more than you sheeple" card. It is consistently shown that [[spoiler:Edelgard bought off and believed the lies that the Agarthans had told her and claims to have the high ground when compared to everyone else. She was also under the impression that the people she tried to reach out to (such as Sylvain, Lysithea and Byleth) would understand and support her when they knew the truth; in reality, her ruthlessness had alienated them]].
* LovingAShadow: Chapter 73 reveals that [[spoiler:she’s just as much in love with Byleth]] as in canon and is absolutely [[VillainousBSOD broken]] when [[spoiler:Thales offhandedly mentions that Byleth is in a [[{{Polyamory}} relationship with both Claude and Dimitri]]]]. The [[{{Deconstruction}} rub]] here? [[spoiler:Edelgard has shown herself time and time again to be someone who discards any kind of dissenting opinion, including ''Byleth's'', and her connection with the older woman is absolutely flimsy in comparison to Byleth’s connection to both Claude and Dimitri. Her heartbreak also has some disturbing elements of [[EntitledToHaveYou entitlement]]; basically, she “loves” Byleth without truly knowing the other woman in any meaningful way whatsoever.]]
* MoralMyopia: Calls Rhea/Seiros a "beast" who is controlling people and lying to them, despite the fact that Edelgard herself does the exact same thing.
* NeverMyFault: In Edelgard's mind, everything that goes wrong with her plans for Fódlan is either Sothis' fault, [[spoiler:Thales' fault]], or Claude's fault.
* ThePoorlyChosenOne: [[spoiler:Twice over, in the opinion of the Agarthans. Both Marian and much later Thales himself consider her a terrible champion against the dragons in hindsight. Marian point-blank tells Dimitri that she personally believes he would be much better suited for the role than Edelgard and in chapter 73 Thales himself openly admits that ''Claude'' would have been a much better champion for the Agarthans to have than Edelgard, bluntly stating: "I choose poorly; I should have waited until he stepped into Fódlan and whisked him away, made him our chosen dragon slayer. He has more guile in one finger than she possessed in her entire body".]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Edelgard is portrayed as paranoid and distrusting when she questions the nature of Claude's sudden and easy friendship with Dimitri. Setting aside the fact that their coalition ''does'' end up ruining all of her plans, Claude works hard to present himself as an untrusting schemer, and Dimitri, while cordial and polite, is a closed individual, even among his fellow Lions. It's only natural that she would suspect these two suddenly having such a strong friendship, given their statuses as heir apparent to the other two countries of Fódlan.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: Edelgard's apprehension about Claude's sudden and easy friendship with Dimitri turns out to be spot-on, as they ''do'' end up ruining all of her plans together. However, in the biggest case of {{Irony}}, ''she'' was one who started the war which made said coalition possible. Their friendship and budding romantic relationship had nothing to with her and they were not planning to ally against her before the war started, because in their relationship she was a complete non-issue. Both Dimitri and Claude going against her turned out to be a SelfFulfillingProphecy due to her actions.
* SmugSnake: Edelgard is extremely arrogant and overconfident, thinking [[spoiler:she's TheStarscream to the Agarthans when in reality, she's just the Agarthans' dupe from start to finish.]]
* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: [[spoiler:In chapter 80, being prepped for her transfiguration under Agarthan imprisonment.]]
* SurroundedByIdiots: Edelgard's opinion of her war council, remarking in her head that she's close to just firing them all and leaving only Hubert and [[spoiler:Hanneman.]] Which becomes darkly ironic in Chapter 73, [[spoiler:considering that Thales himself considers her something of a LeeroyJenkins incapable of knowing when it's best to retreat and Odesse openly scorns her for her failures.]]
* ThisMeansWar: Once it's revealed that [[spoiler:Edelgard is the Flame Emperor, Byleth realizes that her attack on the Holy Tomb is an act of war and that they have to be ready for a full conflict with the Empire.]] Sure enough, the formal declaration comes the next chapter.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Throughout their school year together, Edelgard expresses bemusement at both Claude and Dimitri's personalities. [[spoiler:She's confident she can sweep them aside once she starts the war, believing Dimitri to be too naïve and guileless to make a good king and Claude to be an overconfident schemer who's in way over his head. She also dismisses the idea that they would work together. After they inflict multiple crushing defeats on her without any significant losses, she re-evaluates her opinion on Claude, but persists in dismissing Dimitri as reliant on Claude and Byleth rather than a significant player in his own right - even after her own people start speaking favorably of him right before rioting against her.]]
* UnknownRival: As the story goes on, Edelgard grows to develop an incredible ''seething'' hatred for Claude in the most visceral of ways due to a great helping of EvilCannotComprehendGood, FantasticRacism and [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]] on her part- She's absolutely (and utterly 100% erroneously) convinced in her belief that Claude is a ruthless, uncaring manipulator who cares about nothing but his own goals, ambitions and desires and would do anything in his power to TakeOverTheWorld, and therefore Edelgard treats him as her own personal ArchEnemy. And while Claude ''is'' one of the main enemies Edelgard has in the story, Claude himself has absolutely ''no'' idea Edelgard hates him in such a personal way and the main reasons why he's so strongly opposed to her are solely driven by the fact that he considers her an absolutely deplorable and amoral ruler and a major case of StupidEvil in how she has handled the war. Basically, her hatred towards Claude is all based on Edelgard's own delusions and myopic ideas, while her brutal and amoral actions done in order to take him down in turn have only [[CreateYourOwnHero served to galvanize his desire to take her down in order to save everyone from both her actions and the actions of her Agarthan allies.]]
* UnwittingPawn: Despite fancying herself TheStarscream, by chapter 73 it [[spoiler:becomes plain that in reality, Edelgard was nothing but a tool that Thales used to destabilize Fódlan and kill as many people as possible to achieve his plan to take the surface for Shambhala. When she attempts to confront him, he merely has Lamine blast her into submission and takes her prisoner again as they retreat, leaving Adrestia to the United Army.]]
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Dimitri's flashbacks in chapter 70 strongly indicates that Edelgard was this. [[spoiler:She was fierce but kind, encouraging him to stand up for himself, playing with him and fussing over an injured kitten, making their current relationship all the more tragic.]]
* VillainousBreakdown:
** [[spoiler:Edelgard in chapter 73 gets this as the truth sinks in to her that she is nothing but an UnwittingPawn and all of her plans have been crushed.]]
** [[spoiler:She's broken down even further in chapter 80, when she's taken prisoner by the Agarthans and learns that Hubert—the one person she trusted to always be at her side—is dead. The chapter is one long breakdown for her, culminating in a young Agarthan boy telling her how her mother really died and that Dimitri is her stepbrother—all while matter-of-factly stating that he's prepping her to be "transfigured" and deployed at a moment's notice, implicitly as the Hegemon Husk. It's while this happens that she realizes what characters have been trying to convince her of for the whole story—that she's fighting the wrong enemy, that she's not as powerful as she thinks she is, and that everything she's done has only destroyed the home she wished to save.]]
* YouDoNOTWantToKnow: An Agarthan civilian and former apprentice to Cornelia informs Edelgard that she doesn't want to know what happened to Anselma. When she persists, it's revealed [[spoiler:she was duped into thinking the Tragedy of Duscur would be nothing more than a simple ruckus; when she saw her second husband decapitated, she fled into a nearby forest, tripped, and died of internal bleeding.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Hubert von Vestra]]
* {{Angrish}}: One could very strongly argue that ShutUpHannibal moments are his metaphorical AchillesHeel as both times he's given one, [[spoiler:first by Marianne and later by Bernadetta]], he's left spluttering in rage and without any logical defense to their words. For all of the wordplay he enjoys dishing when giving smug lectures, Hubert really ''cannot'' counter whenever someone has a logical point.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: His death due to being [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice stabbed]] by an Obsidian Dagger is described as being ''excruciatingly'' painful.
--> To his horror, he started to see the veins in the child skin were turning black, his body jerking sharply and his eyes rolled up into his head. Glancing at Hubert was something even worse; the blood dripping from his side wound sizzled when it hit the ground; the smell of rotting flesh hit his nose as bubbling blood began to drip out of his nose and mouth and eyes, and the once sneering, eternally composed Lord Vestra was thrashing in agony, his screams bubbling because of the blood in his throat.
* EtTuBrute: Feels this way towards Bernadetta, as she chooses to side with the Church instead of her homeland.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Hubert is stabbed by [[spoiler:[[CruelAndUnusualDeath an Obsidian blade]] from an Agarthan child whose mother perished in the battle in Brigid, claiming revenge on Hubert for getting his mother killed]].
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Marianne calls out Hubert for his hypocrisy, saying that he's just like the "weak people" relying on their goddess, with the only difference being that he's blindly faithful to Edelgard instead of Sothis. Hubert doesn't take this well
* OnlyFriend: He's the only person genuinely loyal to Edelgard - everyone else is either using her for their own ends or abandons her once they discover the lengths she is willing to go to to change Fódlan.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Edelgard.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dorothea Arnault]]
* AffectionateNickname: Calls Edelgard "Edie." Hubert is "Hubie," Bernadetta is "Bernie," Ferdinand is "Ferdie," etc. [[spoiler:She stops using nicknames for Edelgard and Hubert after TheReveal that Edelgard is the Flame Emperor.]]
* CooldownHug: Gives one to Sylvain after the AwfulTruth about the Crests drives him into such a FreakOut that he goes into LaughingMad.
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:She deserts the Empire after Edelgard is revealed to be the Flame Emperor.]]
* EtTuBrute: After the true identity of the Flame Emperor is revealed, Dorothea does not take [[spoiler:Edelgard's]] betrayal very well.
* ShipTease: Has some with Sylvain.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Linhardt von Hevring]]
* AfraidOfBlood: Is squeamish at the sight of blood. This is also why he refuses to go along with [[spoiler:Edelgard]] and stayed fighting for Byleth, Claude and Dimitri's cause together with Dorothea.
* BerserkButton: After [[spoiler:knowing the AwfulTruth of the origins of Crests and the Heroes' Relics, Linhardt is infuriated by Edelgard's insistence on painting the Nabateans as the villains and framing the Crests and Relics as creations of mankind]].
-->'''Linhardt''': That – that-! ''You're what's revolting'', [[spoiler:Edelgard!]] How ''dare'' you say humans were ''justified'' in committing that horrific massacre solely because humankind ''benefited'' from it?! Because we ''benefit'' from it by carrying [[spoiler:their stolen blood and bones?!'']] Where does Agartha get off thinking they were entitled to commit murder and mutilate corpses simply because they were humans? ''Humans'' caused the cataclysm with their power hunger, ''humans'' were fighting and killing each other without any input to survive in the aftermath! The enemy was always [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humankind]], spitting in the face of their kindness to us!
* CombatMedic: Perfectly capable of being of using powerful destructive spells such as [[PlayingWithFire Ragnarok]] but [[MartialPacifist far prefers to use his magic to heal others and greatly dislikes killing]].
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:He deserts the Empire after Edelgard is revealed to be the Flame Emperor.]]
* ItNeverGetsAnyEasier: Being a healer and medic at heart, it’s made quite clear that his dislike and misgivings about taking a life in battle has never truly left him. [[NiceGuy Indech]] actually commends him for his kind heart and points out that his sense of mercy and hatred for blatant violence are perfectly good traits to have.
* MommasBoy: In a chapter focusing on Linhardt in the "Knights of Fódlan" side story, he is more fond of his mother than he is of his father, and chose to follow her advice than to return to his father's side.
* ShipTease: With Hapi.
* UnPerson: Not him, but he starts to treat [[spoiler:Edelgard as one and no longer see her as the house leader that he spent time with in the academy when the war starts]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Petra Macneary]]
* ForcedIntoEvil: Petra has little choice but to join [[spoiler:Edelgard's]] cause lest her country, Brigid, suffers for it.
* HeelFaceTurn: After being freed from her ForcedIntoEvil situation, Petra defects from the Empire in Chapter 63.
* HostageSituation: She is a political prisoner of the empire. This is why Petra was forced to join [[spoiler:Edelgard]] at the start of the war. [[spoiler:When contacted by the heroes that they plan to set her free and bring her back to Brigid, she's all too happy to join their side and eventually joined the United army]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Caspar von Bergliez]]
* DragonTheirFeet: Caspar is the only member of Edelgard's still loyal inner circle explicitly shown to survive the war. [[spoiler:He is left behind by the heroes to maintain order in Adrestia after Edelgard's defeat.]]
* FaceHeelTurn: When he [[spoiler:joins Edelgard in her war.]]
* LethalChef: According to Lysithea and an amused Cyril, anyway.
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Caspar only [[spoiler:joined Edelgard's cause because she convinced his father to do so. So even if he finds many faults in Edelgard's war, he only presses on out of loyalty for his father]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Ferdinand von Aegir]]
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:He deserts the Empire after the Hyrm massacre.]]
* MoralityPet: He tries to be this towards Edelgard, bless his heart, but she's too far gone.
* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Why he stayed fighting for [[spoiler:Edelgard's cause at first. He has a strong duty to lead his country and need to set Edelgard on the right path. Though he eventually joins Byleth, Claude and Dimitri's side when Edelgard chooses to send Maximus Von Varley out and he is nearly killed for it, realizing that Edelgard's too far gone]].
* OnlySaneMan: During his time [[spoiler:fighting on behalf of Edelgard's side, he's the sole voice of reason among the empire and he is the only one to point out that they are losing the war and need to sue for peace, but Edelgard ignores him completely and he ultimately jumps ship after the Hrym massacre.]]
* RelationshipUpgrade: With Constance in Chapter 97, with Ferdinand all but declaring his love for her after he [[IKissYourHand kisses her hand]] which basically leaves the young woman adorably swooning.
* ShipTease: With Constance.
[[/folder]]
!!The Ashen Wolves
[[folder:Yuri Leclerc]]
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Like Claude, he found [[spoiler: Ren Von Riegan's FlippingTheBird moment]] absolutely hilarious, bursting into sniggers just at the reminder of it.
* AdaptationalSuperpowerChange: Yuri's Crest Power in canon is to stop counterattacks. Here, he can turn [[{{Invisibility}} invisible]] at will.
* BirdsOfAFeather:
** He and Claude immediately hit it off, both being [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] [[TheChessmaster chessmasters]] who trick their enemies into underestimating them with lazy, playful exteriors hiding their sharp minds. [[spoiler:They're also both considered social outcasts, Yuri for being a street rat and Claude for his mixed-race heritage, who became cynical and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] as both a self defense and coping mechanism.]]
** He and Atra share deep regrets over previous immoral choices they made, and struggling to really find their feet in Fódlan.
* TheChessmaster: Despite [[spoiler:Aelfric holding his mother and some of his men hostage]], Yuri is able to turn the tables on him with nothing but a few well-placed comments and some unexpected new allies in Byleth and her students.
* DecapitatedArmy: Mentioned in his interlude to be his primary strategy during battles. Yuri likes to go after the nearest commander and kill his way down the chain of command until there are only demoralized infantry left who can be pressured into surrender.
* {{Determinator}}: Spends the whole of Chapter 101 pushing his body to the limit and to the breaking point in order to reach Nemesis's coffin and destroy the slumbering warlord before he can awaken. No matter how utterly exhausted he is and no matter how many killing blows he barely manages to dodge, Yuri does not deviate from his mission because he's well aware he ''cannot'' afford to do so. [[YankTheDogsChain Unfortunately for him, moments after he arrives at the chamber where the caskets for the Ten Elites are stored, Nemesis awakens from his own before Yuri is able to deal the finishing blow]].
* AFatherToHisMen: Fiercely protective and devoted towards his friends and the people of Abyss, calling them "my people". All throughout the story it's made utterly clear that thier wellbeing and safety are his top priority and the loyalty he commands from the people of Abyss is only matched by the sheer devotion he has towards them and their wellbeing. Part of the reason he's able to push himself so much in Chapter 101? Because he's constantly using his loved ones and his people as inspiration in order to make sure he reaches Nemesis in time, to the point that it's almost as if ThePowerOfLove is all that's sustaining him near the end of the chapter.
* MommasBoy: In his interlude, his thoughts turn to his mother when he's in mortal peril.
* NamedByTheAdaptation: In canon, it's known that "Yuri" is an alias and his real name is something that begins with "Reg". [[spoiler:Chapter 101 gives him the birth name Regulus.]]
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: As Byleth notes in Chapter 94, Yuri being openly worried and anxious is something so rare that is outright worrying in itself.
* ThePromise: Made one with his mother sometime before the Battle of Shambahala, to return to his mother after the battle is over alive.
* RelationshipUpgrade: In Chapter 97 with Atra, with Yuri giving her a NowOrNeverKiss and gently telling her to keep herself safe, which utterly leaves her lovestruck and adorably flustered.
* ShipTease: With Atra.
* TheSpymaster: Becomes this [[spoiler:to the Kingdom-Alliance-Church army during the war]], turning his gang of rogues into a massive network of informants that repeatedly brings useful information to the leaders when it's most useful.
* TheTease: Yuri openly flirts with all three of the protagonists, but besides that is willing to let them be with each other in peace
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Balthus von Albrecht]]
* BodyCountCompetition: In Chapter 75, he and Hilda engage in one once inside [[spoiler: the main palace in Enbarr]]. It's clearly half irreverent enjoyment and half ShipTease between them.
* BoisterousBruiser: Believes that the best way to understand a person is to get into a fight with them; he generally enjoys himself in combat [[spoiler:even keeping his spirits up in battle during the war]].
* ButtMonkey: Downplayed, but he tends to be on the receiving end of jokes during the Cindered Shadows mini plot, from cowering under [[MamaBear Byleth's]] DeathGlare for implying he'd sell information on Claude to Count Gloucester, getting teased over his impractical battle outfit or Yuri's semi-serious threat to [[spoiler: sacrifice him to the golem chasing them after they trip the Chalice's defenses.]]
* ChildhoodFriends: Was this with Holst and Hilda; [[spoiler: Balthus is very happy to see his friend again after the Battle for Garreg Mach]].
* INeedAFreakingDrink: When Dimitri reports the truth about Crests to his allies, Balthus is described as having desire for a stiff shot of booze.
* ShipTease: He has a lot with Hilda; they're just shy of being an OfficialCouple.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Constance von Nuvelle]]
* BreakTheCutie: She's devastated when [[spoiler:Ferdinand [[FaceHeelTurn defects to Edelgard's side when she declares war]], given that their obviously has mutual feelings for each other. Fortunately, they're reunited after the Battle for Hrym]].
* LadyOfWar: Elegant, composed and ladylike, and also effectively flying artillery between Bolting and her magic-providing crest.
* OneManArmy: She almost single-handedly stalls [[spoiler:the Imperial Army that's storming Garreg Mach]] by hitting them with Bolting and setting the field they're standing on ablaze, causing an unknown number of casualties as they scramble to do damage control.
* RelationshipUpgrade: With Ferdinand in Chapter 97, with Ferdinand all but declaring his love for her after he [[IKissYourHand kisses her hand]] which basically leaves the young woman adorably swooning.
* ShipperOnDeck: For Balthus/Hilda.
* StarCrossedLovers: She and Ferdinand seem to be this when they find themselves on opposite sides of the war. [[spoiler:Byleth is not about to let that stand, and with Ferdinand's defection from Edelgard's cause, they're together once again]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Hapi]]
* HiddenDepths: Hapi reveals during the Parley with [[spoiler: Edelgard and Hubert]] that her parents are farmers, following up by pointing out that by starting a war in sowing season and dragging their farmers into the army, they've destined their kingdom for harsh famine. [[spoiler: Edelgard]] can only offer a LameComeback that she doesn't understand the nuances of ruling.
* NervesOfSteel: Isn't afraid to taunt The Death Knight before hitting him with a powerful spell, even when he's less than a dozen feet away from her and she doesn't have any heavy armor. She later pulls off a similar stunt against [[spoiler:Ren von Riegan,]] summoning three demonic beasts and attacking him with that same powerful spell. Keep in mind that [[spoiler:the demonic beasts instinctively target ''her'' and that Ren is capable of fighting both Claude and Dimitri simultaneously.]]
* TheNicknamer: Aside from her canon "Coco," "B," "Yuri-bird," "Chatterbox," and "Didi" for Constance, Balthus, Yuri, Byleth, and Dimitri respectively, she also has "Mourning dove" for Atra and "Coyote" for Claude.
* OnlyOneName: As in canon, her last name- if she has one- is unknown. A minor character in one of the "Knights of Fódlan" side stories mentions that "farmers' girls don't get last names," so it's likely that she does not.
* ShutUpHannibal: Isn't impressed by [[spoiler:Edelgard's]] decisions in starting the war, questioning how she can be 'for the people' when she's directly doing them an immense amount of harm.
* ShipperOnDeck: For Balthus/Hilda.
* ShipTease: Has a bit with Linhardt.
[[/folder]]
----
[[foldercontrol]]
!!The Golden Deer
[[folder: Hilda Valentine Goneril]]
* BodyCountCompetition: In Chapter 75, she and Balthus engage in one once inside [[spoiler: the main palace in Enbarr]]. It's clearly half irreverent enjoyment and half ShipTease between them.
* CuddleBug: Hilda's very touchy feely and her first action of choice whenever she's comforting someone dear to her is basically to hug them as much as she can. This is best seen with both Marianne (rushing to hug her, and later starting a GroupHug with all the Golden Deer members, after the [[spoiler:the truth of The Crest Of Maurice was revealed to them all]] and with Claude (giving her BestFriend a combination of TheGlomp and a BearHug in order to show him [[spoiler:that his status as half-Almyran does not change a single thing about their relationship]], all while tearfully professing her [[UndyingLoyalty her absolute friendship and heartfelt loyalty.]]
* GirlyBruiser: Although she would prefer not to do the bruiser part, Hilda is extremely girly and effective with an axe in hand.
* PintsizedPowerhouse: She's not particuarly tall by any means. It does not hinder her ability to crush enemies with axes in the slightest.
* PlatonicLifePartners: Her relationship with Claude has this dynamic.
* PlayingWithFire: How the Combat Art, Apocalyptic Flame, fittingly manifests in this story.
* ShipperOnDeck: Is shown to support Ignatz/Flayn and Marianne/Ashe, among others.
* ShipTease: With Balthus.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Lysithea von Ordelia]]
* AllGirlsLikePonies: Upon deciding that she needs more mobility to keep up with her classmates, Lysithea quickly become enamored with a black pegasus whom she quickly starts riding into battle.
* AngerBornOfWorry: Lysithea is ''not amused'' by Claude's idea of 'distracting' the Death Knight so she can hit him with Death Spikes, or when he grabbed and shielded her from hitting the ground during [[spoiler: the battle with the Umbral Beast in the Mausoleum]].
-->'''Lysithea''': You call that a distraction?! [...] You moron!
* BerserkButton: She does not like being reminded that she's the youngest kid in the class. More seriously, [[spoiler: she's ''furious'' when Edelgard brings up her dead siblings as a reason she should have joined her, saying that having her own losses don't justify inflicting her own childhood on thousands of other people in Fódlan.]]
* BrokenBird: Showed fully on [[spoiler:chapter 78, where she not reveals every detail of her absolutely horrifying DarkAndTroubledPast but her emotional turmoil is showed for everyone to see, being sadly resigned and even [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness meek]] about her fate and her past. Her reaction to her [[TrueCompanions friend’s]] horror to her circumstances is both tired and resigned and even with the TearsOfJoy she holds back when ''everyone'' tells her that [[YouAreNotAlone they will do everything in their powerful to help her]] she’s described as looking far older than she should.]]
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Her side story in "The Knights of Fódlan" gives a peek into the Agarthans' experimentation on her and her siblings. She watched her siblings be taken away one by one, listened to them scream and eventually die before she herself was finally subjected to the procedure... which she survived, but at the expense of a shortened life.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Her feeling for Cyril. It does not help that she gives him an utterly impassioned a heartwarming YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech during The Battle Of Shambahala that everyone around her heard firsthand. When its pointed out by Linhardt that ''everyone'' knows about her feelings and that Claude himself has a bet placed about when she will get together with Cyril, she's utterly mortified and plans to get revenge, much to the amusement of those around her.
* FriendOrFoe: In Chapter 41, Lysithea ignorantly [[spoiler:attacks Marianne after her Crest turns her into a Demonic Beast.]]
* ItsPersonal: Once she learns of their existence, Lysithea has it in for the Agarthans due to the fact that they were responsible [[spoiler:for conducting the Crest Experiments on her and her family.]] As far as she’s concerned, [[ArchEnemy Myson]] is nothing more than a dead man walking and she will take the ''utmost'' care to make his end as excruciating as possible.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Lysithea usually refuses to show fear in public, so Dimitri hearing her openly panic is an immediate sign that something very, very bad is about to happen. [[spoiler:Fort Merceus being about to get blown to kingdom come by javelins of light would perfectly fit the bill for such panic.]]
* PintSizedPowerhouse: She's the shortest and youngest of the Deer, but she's a magical powerhouse, repeatedly tearing Demonic Beasts in half and blasting holes in any enemy foolish enough to mess with her.
* ShipTease: With Cyril.
* ShutUpHannibal: Gives a ''ruthless'' version of this to [[spoiler:Edelgard during the Battle of Enbarr, refuting her propensity for blaming the Church and the existence of Crests for things like the Crest experiments conducted on Edelgard and Lysithea, all the while [[CurbStompBattle completely dominating her fight]] with the older woman.]]
* SpeakIllOfTheDead: Considering that he was directly responsible for her absolutely nightmarish DarkAndTroubledPast, [[spoiler:chapter 78 shows that Lysithea has, 100% understandably, absolutely ''zero'' respect for Emperor Ionius and spends the whole chapter basically showing how utterly unforgivable, pathetic and unfit she considers him. Her personal, mocking epithet for the man is “The Weak” and [[BigBrotherInstinct Claude]] fully agrees with her consensus.]]
* SurvivorsGuilt: Implied in her POV chapter in the Knights of Fódlan side story. She laments that she always seems to be powerless to save anyone who cares about her as she watches Byleth sleep [[spoiler: after her brush with death.]]
* {{Tsundere}}: She's a platonic sort towards Claude; she's constantly irritated by his teasing and frequently yells at him in exasperation, but she genuinely admires and trusts him... She just has trouble saying so.
* YouKilledMyFather: “I'M HERE FOR MY SIBLINGS, YOU MURDERING BASTARD!”
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Marianne von Edmund]]
* BadassPreacher: She's training to be a priestess, and is highly devout. She's also more than magically strong enough to make you regret crossing her.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Coldly rebukes a soldier who expresses irritation over Ashe's crying after Lonato's death and demands he apologizes. Later on, [[spoiler: she coolly rebukes Hubert's insults and derision of Bernadetta and her faith and isn't afraid to get into the middle of the fighting in order to provide healing to front line soldiers.]]
* CombatMedic: A skilled healer and a very talented attack mage.
* DrivenToSuicide: Obliquely implies she's had these feelings [[spoiler: while explaining the history of the Crest of the Beast to Byleth and her classmates.]] She mentions a letter in which one earlier holder of the crest warned her descendants to 'choose to fall while there was still enough human left in you to die'. Ashe quickly begs her not to give up, and she seems to have new confidence [[spoiler: going into the war]].
* TheIdealist: Firmly believes HumansAreGood deep down, which is why she’s of the firm opinion that the Agarthans civilians in the end will side with them.
* ShutUpHannibal: Marianne is not impressed by [[spoiler: Hubert's attempt at a HannibalLecture when they meet on the battlefield at Brigid]], calling out his hypocrisy and noting that he's no less 'devoted' then she is.
* SuperpoweredEvilSide: The Crest of the Beast gives Marianne a powerful transformation in which she can become a demonic beast while still mostly maintaining her humanity; however, she looses almost all control over the form and [[spoiler: Maurice indirectly warns her that her transformed state may eventually become permanent, just like his]].
* TwiceShy: With Ashe. They get together [[spoiler: right before the Battle for Garreg Mach]].
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: When she’s worried that her SuperpoweredEvilSide might overtake her, everyone from [[DeathSeeker Maurice]], to [[BigBrotherInstinct Claude]], to [[LoveInterest Ashe]] to [[TeamMom Byleth]] rush to reassure that she’s a lot more powerful in every sense of the word that she believes herself to be.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Bernadetta von Varley]]
* ActionGirl: She matures into one with Byleth's tutelage and support.
* AdaptationalSuperpowerChange: Bernadetta’s [[AdaptationalBadass Major]] Crest of Indech, rather than enabling her at chance to launch an additional strike in quick succession, multiplies her attack threefold; for example, one arrow fired projects two additional arrows launching alongside it (think similar to [[Franchise/{{Naruto}} Shadow Clones]] and/or [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Tsubame Gaeshi]]).
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Byleth's DeclarationOfProtection to her made her decide to transfer over to the Golden Deer so she could be close to and support one of the few people who showed her kindness.
* BetaCouple: She and Felix form one late in the story.
* BigShutUp: When finally pushed to her breaking point hearing Count Gloucester disparage Claude for his Almyran heritage, Bernadetta yells at the top of her lungs to "'''SSHHHHUUUUUT'' UUUUUUUUPPPPPP!'''''"
* CowardlyLion: Bernadetta repeatedly makes it clear she's terrified of war and violence; but she still throws herself into the thick of it again and again because she believes it's the right thing to do.
* CoolBigBro: Considers both Claude and [[spoiler: Yuri]] to be this.
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:She deserts the Empire after Edelgard is revealed to be the Flame Emperor.]]
* IntergenerationalFriendship: It's strongly implied she's developing one with [[spoiler: Lian/Indech]]; he's clearly quite fond of her.
* InsecureLoveInterest: She is in total disbelief when Felix admits that he loves her, babbling about how she's not good enough for him, how she's still fighting against her fears and what could he possibly see in her? Felix disagrees vehemently, thank goodness.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives one to the Flame Emperor during the Holy Tomb battle.
-->'''Bernadetta''': This is the person who wants to change Fódlan? What good c-could come from h-handing power to someone who c-can do this without hesitation? You...you don't value your people's lives any more than my father does! You'd never be a good ruler. You'd just be one more tyrant. And I...I won't let you! I won't let you take my f-friends, or the Crest Stones, or Fódlan! We're...definitely going to stop you!
** Later on, Bernadetta goes ''nuclear'' on Count Gloucester and the knights rallying him after they ignore all of the hard work Claude has put in protecting Fódlan in favor of hating him for being half-Almyran.
-->'''Bernadetta''': '''SSHHHHUUUUUT ''UUUUUUUUPPPPPP!'' SHUT UP!''' Just – just ''shut'' your ''goddess-damned'' mouth, you ignorant, peasant-murdering, power-grasping ''imbecile!'' And you...all of you! You should be disgusted and ashamed of yourself...have you forgotten the last six months?! Are you so blind, so contemptuous, so ''completely without honor'' that you're just going to ''forget'' everything Claude von Riegan, Prince Khalid, has done to save you in this war? You there! Sir Dagdar...I saw Claude save your life with my own eyes during the Battle on Myrddin bridge! He deliberately made himself a target for the flying mages and held them off while giving our army directions to reorganize in the midst of the ambush! As for you! Lady Tina. Just yesterday you were effusively praising how much Claude valued the lives of even the lowest of his soldiers, how he had dreamt up plans for battle that gave us our precious low-casualty figures, stating how other lords would have discarded them as impractical and the losses 'necessary'. Has that magically become untrue because his father is King Kirah of Almyra?! What do we care about the wars of men long dead, that bones and dust would compel us to hate those we have never even ''met''? I've watched, all these months, as Claude ''agonized'' over the losses our army has taken! Spend sleepless nights hammering out the plans that took us from one victory to the next, saved not only our own people but those trapped by Adrestia's tyranny as well! He was the one who warned you before the war began that there was danger in the future; it is thanks to ''him'' that you were prepared for war, that the Alliance between Leicester and Faerghus was even possible! I saw with my own eyes how he valued lives, ''our'' lives; when our people would have rejected him the way you're trying to now! There is nothing more true than this... '''Khalid loves Fódlan!''' And you would turn on him now?! After he has fought so hard to save you, ''knowing that he would lay down his life for you'', you call him a monster and an exile from Fódlan because of his ''birth?!'' Are you so craven?! Are you like Thales and his Agarthans, discarding those who aren't one of you as ''less than human?! '''Well?!''''' Speak up!
* ShamingTheMob: Bernadetta does this to the knights rallying after Count Gloucester in her TheReasonYouSuckSpeech above with added support from her friends and allies. It works with the two knights she called out earlier being rendered speechless and the other knights soon kneeling in front of Claude in shame.
* ShutUpKiss: Showing how much more confident she is, ''she'' plants one on Felix when he's [[GibberishOfLove fumblingly trying to articulate his feelings to her]], right in the middle of the battlefield while the army around them cheers on.
* SixthRanger: She transfers to the Golden Deer shortly after the battle with Miklan.
* TookALevelInBadass: Bernadetta goes from being terrified of her own shadow to volunteering for missions on her own, to becoming an archer knight, to being brave enough to call out the ''Flame Emperor'' and swear to stop them no matter what, even when surrounded by their troops.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Leonie Pinelli]]
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Like Claude, she found [[spoiler: Ren Von Riegan's FlippingTheBird moment]] absolutely hilarious, bursting into laughter just at the reminder of it.
* BerserkButton: [[WasOnceAMan Demonic Beasts]] become this to her after [[spoiler: Jeralt's death]], cursing out the Flame Emperor when they transform a couple of their soldiers [[spoiler: during their invasion of the Holy Tomb]]
* TheDeadHaveNames: Invokes this as a threat to the Flame Emperor.
-->'''Leonie''': Do you know the names of the children of Remire? Don't worry, Captain Jeralt told me. [[ToThePain I'm going to carve each and every one of them into your skull.]]
* HeroWorshipper: To Jeralt, who taught her all she knows about fighting.
* OddCouple: She and Lorenz are shaping up to be this; they grew up in completely opposite social structures, but they're almost always seen fighting together, and Claude has contributed to TheBet on when they'll come out and admit it.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Raphael Kirsten]]
* TheBigGuy: A very simple guy with simple needs, who happens to be very bulky and trained to be a capable War Master for Byleth to call on.
* BoisterousBruiser: Very upbeat and very strong, maintaining his cheerful attitude both in and out of battle.
* OutOfFocus: Doesn't get as much screentime as some of his other classmates.
* SpiritedCompetitor: Is mentioned to have gotten into arm wrestling contests with Caspar.
* WiseBeyondHisYears: Raphael knows a lot about grief, giving Byleth useful and succinct advice on how to help Ashe when the latter is grieving for Lonato while she's spinning her wheels, uncertain what to do. He also has a habit of leaving arrogant, self entitled royals (such as [[BigBadWannabe Edelgard]] and [[ItsAllAboutMe Lord]] [[FantasticRacism Gloucester]]) in complete StunnedSilence when poking holes into thier delusions with his simple, common words of wisdom.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Ignatz Victor]]
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Like Claude, he found [[spoiler: Ren Von Riegan's FlippingTheBird moment]] absolutely hilarious, bursting into sniggers just at the reminder of it.
* LuminescentBlush: When Hilda catches him and Flayn hugging, she cheers them on, resulting in him blushing furiously.
* OutofFocus: Like Raphael, he tends to blend into the background compared to some of other students.
* ReluctantWarrior: Would rather be painting. Though he feels conscience-bound to fight, and can come to the rescue when least expected [[spoiler: like when he uses his keen eyesight to sling a broken golem into the breach in Garreg Mach's gates during the siege]].
* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: His dynamic with Flayn is suggested to be something like this.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Lorenz Hellman Gloucester]]
* ApologeticAttacker: “I'm terribly sorry, but you're all in our way”
* BreakTheHaughty: Getting chewed out by Byleth for disobeying her during the rescue for Flayn, endangering everyone else in the process, deflates Lorenz's ego significantly.
* HumblePie: Eats some when he's sidelined during the Flayn rescue mission for disobeying Byleth for the sake of showing off. After that, he's much less pushy and less concerned with credit.
* UnknownRival: Byleth and Edelgard both note at the beginning that Lorenz repeatedly tries to undermine Claude and considers himself a competitor as the ruler of the Alliance, but the latter doesn't really acknowledge his efforts - only occasionally expressing annoyance of him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Flayn]]
* CombatMedic: Moreso now with Byleth's training than she was [[spoiler: back when she was called Cethleann]], but Flayn can fight to a degree in between moments of providing powerful healing to her allies.
* DamselInDistress: After [[spoiler: Jeritza/Emile]] kidnaps her, prompting Byleth and the Deer to look for and eventually rescue her.
* NiceGirl: No one, excluding [[FantasticRacism Agarthans]] and [[spoiler: Edelgard]], have anything negative to say about her; she's incredibly compassionate and very kind to everyone she meets.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Chapter 100 makes it abundantly clear that The War Of Heroes left her with some rather noticeable phycological scars, and the Battle Of Shambahala are just making it worst for her. During her part in the chapter, he constantly switches between actively helping her allies and remembering The War Of Heroes with [[WarIsHell horrified clarity.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: Went from being a helpless kidnapping victim to a competent CombatMedic who has no fear going into the thick of things.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Byleth, for rescuing her.
[[/folder]]
!!The Blue Lions
[[folder: Felix Hugo Fraldarius]]
* AmazonChaser: Instantly becomes interested in Bernadetta after she disarms and defeats him during the Battle of the Eagle and Lion.
* AngerBornOfWorry: [[spoiler:His reaction to seeing Dimitri’s one on one fight against one of [[WasOnceAMan The White Dragons]] and the reckless tactics used to defeat it? Rushing forward without hesitation to give Dimitri [[TheGlomp one hell of a hug]]….which is fallowed by a ''furious'' tirade about his idiocy and self-sacrificing nature. Dimitri is actually both utterly confused yet absolutely ecstatic by Felix’s obvious [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther care for him.]]]]
* BigWHAT: Felix hollers the word "WHAT?!" at the top of his lungs when he learns about how Bernadetta's father "raised" her.
* CannotSpitItOut: Felix has enormous difficulty telling anyone - LoveInterest and close friends alike - that he cares about them, that he worries, or that he's sorry about something. [[spoiler: He finally manages to spit out his feelings for Bernadetta in chapter 69 after defeating her father.]]
* CurbStompBattle: Delivers one to [[spoiler: Maximus Varley during the Battle of Hrym]], from yanking him off his horse to breaking three different weapons he uses through the duration of the duel before finally bashing him unconscious with a hit to the head.
* CruelMercy: Felix doesn't kill [[spoiler:Count Varley... but he does strip him off his lands and titles, give them to his abused daughter and wife respectively, and banish him from Fódlan.]]
* EmbarassingNickname: "Lixie", which only [[BigBrotherMentor Glenn]] calls him by. Interestingly but fittingly for someone like [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Felix]], he's more embarrassed at the fact that Glenn is openly using it in front of their friends and allies than the nickname in itself.
* GibberishOfLove: Descends into babbling [[spoiler: when he realizes Bernadetta heard him say he loved her]] while trying to fumble through a proper confession.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Felix is rough around the edges, but he repeatedly shows he cares more than he lets on. He tries in his own way to pull Byleth out of her grief [[spoiler: over losing her father]] and offhandedly makes it clear on several occasions that he thinks Bernadetta is a strong person long before he confesses to her.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Considering his overall character and personality, the fact that his reaction upon learning [[spoiler: the AwfulTruth about the Heroes' Relics and the Crests is first indulge in StressVomit and later almost ''beg'' Indech to take the Aegis Shield off his hands shows how utterly and completely horrified Felix is about the real tragic and twisted past of the items.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives one to Count Varley during [[spoiler:their duel in Hrym.]]
-->'''Felix''': Do you always run your mouth this much? All you've proven is just how weak you are. You can't win loyalty without threatening to slaughter people in retaliation. You endlessly scream about deserving their respect by dint of a cosmic accident, when most people live past their second birthday without thinking the world owes them something for that achievement. You heap abuse on your daughter, your servants, your people; all who have no recourse against you, and think that doing so makes you powerful. You're so desperate to increase your name that you would sell your daughter as if she were a bed slave, when if you were ''actually'' a man of capability and respect, you wouldn't need to stoop to gutter crime. [...] The woman I love is ''still'' suffering because of you! You abused her...called her worthless...convinced her no one would ever want her! One of...the bravest people I've ever met... still lives if fear of you. ''You''! You worthless, pathetic, spineless waste of air! You aren't worthy to carry her shoes!
* StressVomit: His reaction to [[spoiler:learning the truth about the origin of the Heroes' Relics.]]
* SurroundedByIdiots: PlayedForLaughs. Felix grumbles that he's surrounded by lunatics when they get distracted by Balthus' love life in Shambhala. Byleth retorts that if he's down there with them, what does that make him?
* YouRemindMeOfX: Indech fondly and very bittersweetly compares him to Shiva in his inner mussing on chapter 98. Turns out that while he was alive Shiva shared both Felix’s unfettered drive to better himself at all cost and his almost unrelenting pace when pushing himself.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dedue Molinaro]]
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Normally the epitome of a quietly pleasant, considerate and utterly erudite GentleGiant and a man utterly filled with compassion, but when vowing to…[[ImpliedDeathThreat talk]] to Odesse about his machination of [[ThePurge the Tragedy Of Duscur]] his rage is so evident that it actually spooks [[CuteAndPsycho Marian]] and makes Byleth take note of it.
* CommonalityConnection: Dedue befriends Bernadetta for their interest in plants and quietly spending their time in the green house together.
* DespairEventHorizon: [[ThePurge The Tragedy OF Duscur]] was ''nearly'' this towards him, for very obvious reasons. And it’s made clear in Dedue mussing on Chapter 98 that if it were not for [[BestFriend Dimitri]] he would have been consumed by his grief all together.
* {{Fainting}}: [[GentleGiant His]] reaction upon learning [[spoiler:the [[AwfulTruth horrifying]] history behind both the Heroes' Relics and the Crests]] is to understandably faint dead away. Being a survivor of [[ThePurge the Tragedy of Duscur]] obviously meant that he could very painfully sympathize with [[spoiler:the Nabateans and their tragic history]] and hearing about it became a bit too [[TraumaButton much]] for Dedue.
* ItsPersonalWithTheDragon: Completely understandably wants [[ArchEnemy Odesse’s]] head on a spike.
* MommasBoy: In an interesting parallel to fellow foreigner Claude, in Chapter 98 its shown that Dedue was particularly close to his own mother while she was still alive and he still currently remembers her with the utmost reverence and respect.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Normally, a heroic character like [[GentleGiant Dedue]] [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge beating a man to death to the point that their head is nothing but red pulp]] would raise major alarm flags (and it does with Dimitri)….but considering the victim of said brutal death was the man directly responsible for the massacre of his people, Odesse’s death at Dedue’s hands is ''very'' deserved.
* SecretKeeper: He learns of Claude's Almyran heritage after hearing Claude speak his native language. After he asks Claude of what intention he has in mind for Dimitri and what made Claude deciding to come to Fódlan, Dedue lets him be and promises to keep his secret safe.
* ShipTease: With Mercedes.
* TakingTheBullet: During [[spoiler: the battle on Myrddin Bridge]], Dedue shoves Dimitri out of the way and covers Mercedes to protect them from a tomahawk, resulting in it hitting him in the back. Fortunately, Mercedes is able to heal him.
* YouKilledMyFather: Goes on a screaming rant towards the killer of his people, Odesse, right before pounding him into the consistency of salsa.
--> “I am a man of Duscur!” He roared. “You murdered a friend of my people! Framed my brothers for the crime! Used the massacre of women and children merely to hide ''your crime''! Do not act as though you don't remember! After you killed the king of Faerghus, you framed my people to hide your involvement. You cowered in the darkness while my home was destroyed and my family killed for ''your crime''! If you were so righteous, why didn't you claim it as your own?! I think you know better! That massacre does not happen without the one you ''instigated''! You killed my people too, simply because they were there and they were in your way! You framed us! You left the results of your evil! My people's blood cries out from the ground and you don't even care!”
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Mercedes von Martritz]]
* AdaptationalBadass: Zigzagged. In ''Three Houses'', Mercedes could not learn Abraxas as a playable character and only had it as a midboss at the end of Crimson Flower if not recruited. She can wield it here, doing so in the FinalBattle.
* AllLovingHero: Easily one of the most compassionate characters in the story, Mercedes's heart is open to everyone, no matter who they are or where they're from. She [[spoiler: takes the Agarthan child soldiers that the army captures under her wing, treating them like normal children and patiently tolerating their learned FantasticRacism and wariness.]]
* BerserkButton: Mercedes does ''not'' like it when people hide behind their faith while committing atrocities. She calls out a Western Church fanatic early in the story and scorns them in more detail during her POV chapter in the Knights of Fódlan, noting that cruel extremists who justify thier evil actions behind zealotry and religious fanaticism are a special kind of evil.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Everyone - including [[OneManArmy Byleth]], [[TheChessmaster Claude]] and [[AntiHero Yuri]] - flinches away from the TranquilFury she emits when [[spoiler: Jeritza/Emile]] reveals to her that [[spoiler: The Agarthans tortured him with sleep deprivation to trigger his Death Knight persona]]. She's also perfectly willing to fight to kill during the war in order to bring about its end.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Gender flipped. Mercedes loves [[spoiler: her brother Jeritza/Emile]] very much and is ''not pleased'' to find out how [[spoiler: Agartha]] treated him.
* CoolBigSis: [[AllLovingHero She]] is this not only towards [[BigLittleBrother Emille]], but chapter 79 reveals that she has become this towards all The Agarthan children under her care as well as they obviously care a great deal about [[MoralityPet her]] and they all show genuine fear and dismay at the idea that Mercedes might be hurt or killed in combat to the point that even [[CuteAndPsycho Marian]] sounds sick at her idea of Mercedes getting hurt.
* FlatWhat: When Mercedes learns that the Agarthans used sleep deprivation and drugs to drive Jeritza into his berserk Death Knight state, her response is, ''They what.'' in what the narration describes as a very flat tone.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: As noted by Claude, if [[AllLovingHero Mercedes]] thinks you're a slimeball, you must ''really'' suck (in reference to her adoptive father).
* ShipTease: With Dedue, the pair being just shy of an OfficialCouple.
* SugaryMalice: Noticeably ''averted'', compared to her canon self from ''Three Houses''. This version of Mercedes more openly expresses disgust with people by raising her voice at or directly insulting offenders.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Ashe Ubert]]
* BreakTheCutie: Suffers this during Lonato's rebellion. Despite his best efforts, he can't convince his adoptive father to surrender, the latter actually ''attacks him'' in a fit of rage and ultimately he breaks down crying after losing him and so many people he knew in the militia.
* NiceGuy: Forgives easily and is very kind, worrying about the people of Abyss even as he's fleeing for his life from the Chalice's defense system.
* TwiceShy: With Marianne, until their RelationshipUpgrade.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Ingrid Brandl Galatea]]
* AngerBornOfWorry: Gets very protective of both Sylvain and Dimitri at various different points in the story.
* LadyOfWar: Aspiring to be one. Early on, for instance, she all but begs Byleth to bring her along to fight Miklan.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Chides Sylvain for his CasualDangerDialogue with Dimitri at the Great Bridge of Myrddin, before joining in on it herself.
* OutOfFocus: Doesn't receive a huge amount of screentime compared with most of the other Blue Lions.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Sylvain Jose Gautier]]
* BerserkButton: Gets pissed [[spoiler: when Edelgard tries to emotionally bait him with the pain his Crest has caused him, snapping that [[BigBrotherBully Miklan]] was just a terrible human being who used being disowned as an excuse to be his worst self, and to not 'pass the buck' by making his decisions solely about his lack of a crest.]]
* CallingTheOldManOut: While most interaction between our heroes and their ancestors among the Ten Elite are filled with both SympathyForTheDevil (from our heroes to [[TragicMonster the]] [[VoodooZombie Ten]] [[ReluctantMonster Elites]]) and raw, utter [[SoProudOfYou pride towards their descendants]] from the Ten Elites, the fight between Sylvain and Griffith is completely different. Sylvain spends the whole fight absolutely ''furious and disgusted'' about hellish legacy his ancestor left him to suffer and becomes absolute [[TheBerserker enraged and lost in his emotions]] after listening to Griffith apparent absolute lack of remorse for the legacy he left behind, to the point that he almost becomes consume by his long stirring resentment during their fight until [[AngerBornOfWorry Ingrid steps in and make sure to stop Sylvain from all but killing himself.]]
* CasualDangerDialogue: Out off all the Blue Lions, he's the one who indulges in this most. Considering its subtly implied that all the Blue Lions use this tactic to keep Dimitri sane during battle, its just another sutble sign that Sylvain is a lot more that his "ladykiller" persona reveals.
* {{Claustrophobia}}: He does ''not'' do well in enclosed spaces, which is something that was born from [[BigBrotherBully Miklan]] throwing him down a well. While in {{Canon}} this is treated as a horrific NoodleIncident but never really fully explored, here it’s made clear that the experience left some pretty deep scars on him.
* FreakOut: Considering how he was treated all througth his childhood becuase he ''had'' a crest (both by [[BigBrotherBully Miklan]] and [[MealTicket almost everyone around him]] outside [[ChildhoodFriends Felix, Dimitri, Ingrid and Glenn]]) it makes absolute sense that when he learned the AwfulTruth about the Crests he bursted into [[LaughingMad wild, unhinged laugther]] at the twisted {{Irony}}. It actually took a worried Dimitri and later a CooldownHug [[ShipTease from]] Dorothea for the mania to disperse from Sylvain and the laughter to disolve into quite tears.
* TheGadfly:
** Loves to tease Dimitri about his love life; first blatantly asking him DidYouJustHaveSex in chapter 43 before nagging him about the status of his relationship with Claude [[CasualDangerDialogue right in the middle of the battle on the Great Bridge of Myrddin.]]
** He also gleefully teases Felix about his feelings for Bernadetta, blatantly acting friendly with her and asking her about her writing specifically to make the former [[GreenEyedMonster jealous.]]
* LadykillerInLove: Implied to be falling for Dorothea.
* MissedHimByThatMuch: Sylvain is notably dismayed when he learns in Chapter 78 that [[spoiler:during Atra and Glenn’s whole “information gathering mission” they actually came to his family’s territory and he never managed to stumble into them while they where there.]] Glenn sheepishly admits that considering the fact that both he and Atra were trying their best to fly under the radar and his own [[spoiler:amnesia]] , Sylvain finding him would have been impossible.
* PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo: Sylvain recounts an incident where he accidentally offered a girl some tea spiked with sedative. She forced him to drink it first, and it knocked him out cold.
* ShutUpHannibal: Sylvain is not impressed [[spoiler: with Edelgard starting a war and justifying it by removing the Crest System, noting that he has no interest in avenging his own pain by causing the deaths of thousands of people and tells her not to pass off responsibility for human evil onto Crests and the Nabateans.]]
* YouShallNotPass: In order to allow grant Macuil time to completely disarm the [[FantasticNuke The Javelins Of Light]], Sylvain pulls this in Chapter 98 against Jason Dominic.
[[/folder]]
!!The Black Eagles
[[folder:Edelgard von Hresvelg]]
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: As the war drags on, Edelgard's [[spoiler:approval rating drops dangerously low; her civilian subjects riot in the streets, many of her soldiers do nothing to stop them, and all she has left are a few hardline loyalists and the Agarthans who plan to dispose of her once she outlives her usefulness.]]
* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:Despite everything that she did, Claude still spares her some pity when she finally dies, noting that she only became what she was because of Thales. Dimitri is outright horrified.]]
* AllForNothing: Chapter 52 has Edelgard forced to face the fact that [[spoiler:she threw away hundreds of Imperial lives in the Battle of Garreg Mach and has nothing to show for it.]]
* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Chapter 80 is an interlude showing her imprisonment at the hands of the Agarthans, where for much of the chapter she's trapped by some sort of headgear that essentially acts as a muzzle. Several times she's nauseous enough to vomit—including during a truly sickening beating by an enraged Odesse—but she's forced to choke it back down because it has nowhere to go. She's finally free to speak by the end of the chapter...when she's StrappedToAnOperatingTable and about to be prepped for transfiguration into the Hegemon Husk, and she's sedated before she can have any release.]]
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: After chapter 51, Edelgard starts getting the odd interlude every now and then from her point of view. They also count as [[VillainEpisode Villain Episodes]].
* BigBadWannabe: She thinks that she's TheChessmaster who [[spoiler:is using Agartha to her own ends, and that she's a noble revolutionary who is reclaiming stolen land for her kingdom and 'saving' humanity from the Nabateans.]] Edelgard does succeed in starting a war of reunification, but her ruthlessness alienates her fellow students, her use of DirtyBusiness and demonic beasts turn her people against her to the point of open revolt, [[spoiler:Maximus Varley, who she released under the assumption she could control him, attacks Hrym and slaughters hundreds of her own people]], and she repeatedly underestimates Claude and Dimitri even as they invade deeper and deeper into Adrestia. Finally, despite thinking that she's TheStarscream to Thales, [[spoiler:she's actually just an UnwittingPawn whose actions have only served Agartha's goal of destroying Fódlan.]]
* BreakTheHaughty: Edelgard is hit ''hard'' by this in [[WhamEpisode chapter 73]]. After seeing both the Immaculate One and the Immovable tearing through the Titanus and Demonic Beasts that were meant to be her trump cards, almost being killed twice - first by Glenn, then at the end of a CurbStompBattle with Lysithea and Sylvain who both [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tell her how self-serving and immoral her decisions have been]], learning about Claude's status as the Prince of Almyra (meaning her invasion of the Alliance would have likely ended in disaster and bloodshed even if everything ''had'' gone as planned), she enters the castle to find Thales and Myson calmly having a discussion and planning to pull their troops out. When she attempts to confront him and force the issue, Thales summons [[CombatMedic Angel]] [[VoodooZombie Lamine]], who hits her with Bolting and almost kills her.
* BrokenPedestal: Becomes this to Dorothea, Linhardt and virtually everybody acquainted with her during their times in the academy in light of her declaration of war. As the war goes on, [[spoiler:the other Black Eagles (sans Hubert) who had initially joined her cause eventually started to see Edelgard in the same light as she starts to commit even more amoral and ruthless actions to win the war and promptly defect to Byleth, Claude, and Dimitri's side, one by one]].
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Turns out, being a warmongering YoungConqueror is a ''lot'' more problematic and difficult that the game would have you believe, and her whole CharacterArc in the series is a painful reminder about the harsh realities of war.
** In order to provide funding for her armies, Edelgard has to raises taxes, which puts a strain on the economy.
** Most of the food gets sent to the army, while the rest is rationed among civilians, which causes famine in many cities.
** As Edelgard finds herself facing one defeat after the other, she resorts to even more desperate and immoral acts to try to eke out a victory.
** The constant defeats cause the citizens to have doubts about the war and begin protesting [[spoiler:in Enbarr. When Edelgard tries to quell the protest, the citizens see through her lies and half truths, which leads to a couple of bricks being thrown at her. One brick grazes her shoulder, and after she dodges the other one, one of her guards kills the protester who threw it, which sparks a riot in her own capital city.]]
** Finally, despite her plans to be TheStarscream, [[spoiler: she has far less power against Thales than she thinks.]] She's so blatant about her intention to betray him that [[spoiler: Thales had plans to remove her regardless of if she'd won the war or not,]] and despite being in the heart of her powerbase when she confronts him, [[spoiler: he easily reduces her back to a powerless prisoner and plans to strip her of her free will via {{Geas}} to ensure she serves the role he'd groomed her for.]]
* DefiantCaptive: She [[SpitefulSpit tries]] her best against Odesse in chapter 80, but to say that it did not go [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown her way]] is a ''major'' understatement.
* DivideAndConquer: In Chapter 55, Byleth deduces that [[spoiler:after failing to prevent the Kingdom and Alliance from teaming up, Edelgard's objective is to drive a wedge between the two by using Gloucester (who doesn't bite) and Acheron (who does) to kill Dimitri and Rodrigue and make it look like the Alliance intended to backstab the Kingdom from the beginning.]]
* EtTuBrute: She's shocked and dumbfounded by [[spoiler:Petra's]] "betrayal", and wonders if [[spoiler:Caspar or Ferdinand will turn on her next.]] She's indeed dumbfounded in chapter 72 when she sees [[spoiler:Ferdinand among the rebels and arguing her peaceful surrender.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Edelgard is a ruthless extremist willing to plunge Fódlan into war to fix its societal issues, but she is utterly devastated to learn [[OnlyFriend Hubert]] is dead.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Edelgard is willing to do almost anything to reunite Fódlan, but even she sees [[spoiler:releasing Count Varley to the front lines as an absolute GodzillaThreshold and is horrified to discover the Agarthans' transhuman project. However, this doesn't stop her from making use of the resurrected Elites, or from unleashing Count Varley to stop her people from rioting.]]
* EvilIsNotAToy: Edelgard is struck with a mundane version of this [[spoiler:in regards to their dealings with Count Varley. She orders him to subdue the rioters in Hrym banking on Ferdinand to keep him from going too far, not realizing that he will simply usurp Ferdinand's authority and start killing everyone.]]
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Lysithea and Sylvain's opinion of her, [[spoiler:remarking that they too have suffered because of both Crests and the Agarthans but have not resorted to the measures she has, not the least of which being siding with the Agarthans themselves.]]
* GodzillaThreshold: As the opening stages of the war turn into several crushing defeats for Adrestia, [[spoiler:Edelgard notes she is getting desperate enough to let Count Varley out of prison to help turn the tide even though "blood, slaughter and ruin would follow him should he be put at the head of an army against foes who were encroaching on what he considered 'his land'". By Chapter 68, she has actually crossed that line and sent him to subdue the rioters, with predictably bloody results.]]
* HeelRealization: Edelgard spends most of the second half of Chapter 80 realizing she was nothing more than a power-crazed tyrant who only ever cared about herself.
* HumiliationConga:
** The whole war is a long, ''painful'' and constant one for her. [[spoiler:The war only lasts for a few months, the heroic forces led by Byleth, Dimitri, and Claude don't suffer a single meaningful loss, and the only ground she's able to gain in western Faerghus is swiftly undone when Almyra intervenes on the heroes' side.]]
** The Battle of Enbarr exemplifies this like nothing else. [[spoiler:Between the sheer numerical superiority of the combined Alliance-Kingdom-Church forces, having obtained information on Enbarr's defenses from captured Agarthans, and the participation of both The Immaculate One and the Immovable, the Imperial army quickly crumbles. Not only that, but during said battle there's the Edelgard vs. Sylvain and Lysithea fight. The two avoid or block her every attack, refute her attempts at garnering their sympathy, and verbally dress her down. In the end she's grievously injured by Lysithea and is almost finished off by Sylvain before Hubert teleports her to safety.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: Edelgard accuses the Church of altering the truth to suit her own ends in the exact same breath she [[spoiler:lies her ass off about who really destroyed Fort Merceus.]]
* IAmTheNoun: [[spoiler:In one of the [[VillianEpisode Edelgard interludes,]] she says, "I am the revenge of the my murdered siblings upon the world that sacrificed them, of the people mistreated and stomped on by the 'Crest bearing nobility!'"]]
* IgnoredEpiphany: Her thoughts indicate that [[spoiler:several of the heroes' dressing-downs are getting to her more than she cares to admit, but she keeps pushing forward regardless.]]
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Her final fate, in chapter 93. Stripped of her free will and forced into the Hegemon Husk, she battles the students before being attacked by Maurice, and the two fall several stories through the floors of Shambhala before she's impaled on the Viskam spire.]]
* InternalReveal: Chapter 80 has Edelgard discover Dimitri was her long-forgotten stepbrother.
* IRejectYourReality: Edelgard claims to be more open minded than any aristocrat before her, but in her [[spoiler:interludes this quirk rapidly spirals out into a refusal to acknowledge that Byleth, Claude and Dimitri are winning the war, or that they have justifiable grievances against her that aren't rooted in 'propping up Fódlan's current circumstances'.]] Even when [[VoodooZombie Renata]] [[LadyOfWar Fraldarius]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech spells out her lack of clarity and self-serving narrative]], she refuses to consider taking Blaiddyd's advice to flee, refusing to abandon her sense of righteousness or her belief that she's Fódlan's savior.
* ItsAllAboutMe: There's a subtle but tangible undercurrent to Edelgard's interludes; for all that she talks about improving her people's lives, she only thinks about that in terms of ''her'' ideals and ''her'' beliefs, by using ''her'' experiences and none others.
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Contrary to every route in the original game, she dies in chapter 93 with no dignity or grandeur. Instead, she suffers the fate of every citizen who was forcibly turned into a Demonic Beast—her will stripped from her, her voice lost, and her body destroyed. Like her nameless citizens whom she carelessly sacrificed, her only real purpose was to be Thales's disposable pawn.]]
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: The opinion the author has of her, describing her as knowing nothing while playing the "I know more than you sheeple" card. It is consistently shown that [[spoiler:Edelgard bought off and believed the lies that the Agarthans had told her and claims to have the high ground when compared to everyone else. She was also under the impression that the people she tried to reach out to (such as Sylvain, Lysithea and Byleth) would understand and support her when they knew the truth; in reality, her ruthlessness had alienated them]].
* LovingAShadow: Chapter 73 reveals that [[spoiler:she’s just as much in love with Byleth]] as in canon and is absolutely [[VillainousBSOD broken]] when [[spoiler:Thales offhandedly mentions that Byleth is in a [[{{Polyamory}} relationship with both Claude and Dimitri]]]]. The [[{{Deconstruction}} rub]] here? [[spoiler:Edelgard has shown herself time and time again to be someone who discards any kind of dissenting opinion, including ''Byleth's'', and her connection with the older woman is absolutely flimsy in comparison to Byleth’s connection to both Claude and Dimitri. Her heartbreak also has some disturbing elements of [[EntitledToHaveYou entitlement]]; basically, she “loves” Byleth without truly knowing the other woman in any meaningful way whatsoever.]]
* MoralMyopia: Calls Rhea/Seiros a "beast" who is controlling people and lying to them, despite the fact that Edelgard herself does the exact same thing.
* NeverMyFault: In Edelgard's mind, everything that goes wrong with her plans for Fódlan is either Sothis' fault, [[spoiler:Thales' fault]], or Claude's fault.
* ThePoorlyChosenOne: [[spoiler:Twice over, in the opinion of the Agarthans. Both Marian and much later Thales himself consider her a terrible champion against the dragons in hindsight. Marian point-blank tells Dimitri that she personally believes he would be much better suited for the role than Edelgard and in chapter 73 Thales himself openly admits that ''Claude'' would have been a much better champion for the Agarthans to have than Edelgard, bluntly stating: "I choose poorly; I should have waited until he stepped into Fódlan and whisked him away, made him our chosen dragon slayer. He has more guile in one finger than she possessed in her entire body".]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Edelgard is portrayed as paranoid and distrusting when she questions the nature of Claude's sudden and easy friendship with Dimitri. Setting aside the fact that their coalition ''does'' end up ruining all of her plans, Claude works hard to present himself as an untrusting schemer, and Dimitri, while cordial and polite, is a closed individual, even among his fellow Lions. It's only natural that she would suspect these two suddenly having such a strong friendship, given their statuses as heir apparent to the other two countries of Fódlan.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: Edelgard's apprehension about Claude's sudden and easy friendship with Dimitri turns out to be spot-on, as they ''do'' end up ruining all of her plans together. However, in the biggest case of {{Irony}}, ''she'' was one who started the war which made said coalition possible. Their friendship and budding romantic relationship had nothing to with her and they were not planning to ally against her before the war started, because in their relationship she was a complete non-issue. Both Dimitri and Claude going against her turned out to be a SelfFulfillingProphecy due to her actions.
* SmugSnake: Edelgard is extremely arrogant and overconfident, thinking [[spoiler:she's TheStarscream to the Agarthans when in reality, she's just the Agarthans' dupe from start to finish.]]
* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: [[spoiler:In chapter 80, being prepped for her transfiguration under Agarthan imprisonment.]]
* SurroundedByIdiots: Edelgard's opinion of her war council, remarking in her head that she's close to just firing them all and leaving only Hubert and [[spoiler:Hanneman.]] Which becomes darkly ironic in Chapter 73, [[spoiler:considering that Thales himself considers her something of a LeeroyJenkins incapable of knowing when it's best to retreat and Odesse openly scorns her for her failures.]]
* ThisMeansWar: Once it's revealed that [[spoiler:Edelgard is the Flame Emperor, Byleth realizes that her attack on the Holy Tomb is an act of war and that they have to be ready for a full conflict with the Empire.]] Sure enough, the formal declaration comes the next chapter.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Throughout their school year together, Edelgard expresses bemusement at both Claude and Dimitri's personalities. [[spoiler:She's confident she can sweep them aside once she starts the war, believing Dimitri to be too naïve and guileless to make a good king and Claude to be an overconfident schemer who's in way over his head. She also dismisses the idea that they would work together. After they inflict multiple crushing defeats on her without any significant losses, she re-evaluates her opinion on Claude, but persists in dismissing Dimitri as reliant on Claude and Byleth rather than a significant player in his own right - even after her own people start speaking favorably of him right before rioting against her.]]
* UnknownRival: As the story goes on, Edelgard grows to develop an incredible ''seething'' hatred for Claude in the most visceral of ways due to a great helping of EvilCannotComprehendGood, FantasticRacism and [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]] on her part- She's absolutely (and utterly 100% erroneously) convinced in her belief that Claude is a ruthless, uncaring manipulator who cares about nothing but his own goals, ambitions and desires and would do anything in his power to TakeOverTheWorld, and therefore Edelgard treats him as her own personal ArchEnemy. And while Claude ''is'' one of the main enemies Edelgard has in the story, Claude himself has absolutely ''no'' idea Edelgard hates him in such a personal way and the main reasons why he's so strongly opposed to her are solely driven by the fact that he considers her an absolutely deplorable and amoral ruler and a major case of StupidEvil in how she has handled the war. Basically, her hatred towards Claude is all based on Edelgard's own delusions and myopic ideas, while her brutal and amoral actions done in order to take him down in turn have only [[CreateYourOwnHero served to galvanize his desire to take her down in order to save everyone from both her actions and the actions of her Agarthan allies.]]
* UnwittingPawn: Despite fancying herself TheStarscream, by chapter 73 it [[spoiler:becomes plain that in reality, Edelgard was nothing but a tool that Thales used to destabilize Fódlan and kill as many people as possible to achieve his plan to take the surface for Shambhala. When she attempts to confront him, he merely has Lamine blast her into submission and takes her prisoner again as they retreat, leaving Adrestia to the United Army.]]
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Dimitri's flashbacks in chapter 70 strongly indicates that Edelgard was this. [[spoiler:She was fierce but kind, encouraging him to stand up for himself, playing with him and fussing over an injured kitten, making their current relationship all the more tragic.]]
* VillainousBreakdown:
** [[spoiler:Edelgard in chapter 73 gets this as the truth sinks in to her that she is nothing but an UnwittingPawn and all of her plans have been crushed.]]
** [[spoiler:She's broken down even further in chapter 80, when she's taken prisoner by the Agarthans and learns that Hubert—the one person she trusted to always be at her side—is dead. The chapter is one long breakdown for her, culminating in a young Agarthan boy telling her how her mother really died and that Dimitri is her stepbrother—all while matter-of-factly stating that he's prepping her to be "transfigured" and deployed at a moment's notice, implicitly as the Hegemon Husk. It's while this happens that she realizes what characters have been trying to convince her of for the whole story—that she's fighting the wrong enemy, that she's not as powerful as she thinks she is, and that everything she's done has only destroyed the home she wished to save.]]
* YouDoNOTWantToKnow: An Agarthan civilian and former apprentice to Cornelia informs Edelgard that she doesn't want to know what happened to Anselma. When she persists, it's revealed [[spoiler:she was duped into thinking the Tragedy of Duscur would be nothing more than a simple ruckus; when she saw her second husband decapitated, she fled into a nearby forest, tripped, and died of internal bleeding.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Hubert von Vestra]]
* {{Angrish}}: One could very strongly argue that ShutUpHannibal moments are his metaphorical AchillesHeel as both times he's given one, [[spoiler:first by Marianne and later by Bernadetta]], he's left spluttering in rage and without any logical defense to their words. For all of the wordplay he enjoys dishing when giving smug lectures, Hubert really ''cannot'' counter whenever someone has a logical point.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: His death due to being [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice stabbed]] by an Obsidian Dagger is described as being ''excruciatingly'' painful.
--> To his horror, he started to see the veins in the child skin were turning black, his body jerking sharply and his eyes rolled up into his head. Glancing at Hubert was something even worse; the blood dripping from his side wound sizzled when it hit the ground; the smell of rotting flesh hit his nose as bubbling blood began to drip out of his nose and mouth and eyes, and the once sneering, eternally composed Lord Vestra was thrashing in agony, his screams bubbling because of the blood in his throat.
* EtTuBrute: Feels this way towards Bernadetta, as she chooses to side with the Church instead of her homeland.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Hubert is stabbed by [[spoiler:[[CruelAndUnusualDeath an Obsidian blade]] from an Agarthan child whose mother perished in the battle in Brigid, claiming revenge on Hubert for getting his mother killed]].
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Marianne calls out Hubert for his hypocrisy, saying that he's just like the "weak people" relying on their goddess, with the only difference being that he's blindly faithful to Edelgard instead of Sothis. Hubert doesn't take this well
* OnlyFriend: He's the only person genuinely loyal to Edelgard - everyone else is either using her for their own ends or abandons her once they discover the lengths she is willing to go to to change Fódlan.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Edelgard.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dorothea Arnault]]
* AffectionateNickname: Calls Edelgard "Edie." Hubert is "Hubie," Bernadetta is "Bernie," Ferdinand is "Ferdie," etc. [[spoiler:She stops using nicknames for Edelgard and Hubert after TheReveal that Edelgard is the Flame Emperor.]]
* CooldownHug: Gives one to Sylvain after the AwfulTruth about the Crests drives him into such a FreakOut that he goes into LaughingMad.
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:She deserts the Empire after Edelgard is revealed to be the Flame Emperor.]]
* EtTuBrute: After the true identity of the Flame Emperor is revealed, Dorothea does not take [[spoiler:Edelgard's]] betrayal very well.
* ShipTease: Has some with Sylvain.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Linhardt von Hevring]]
* AfraidOfBlood: Is squeamish at the sight of blood. This is also why he refuses to go along with [[spoiler:Edelgard]] and stayed fighting for Byleth, Claude and Dimitri's cause together with Dorothea.
* BerserkButton: After [[spoiler:knowing the AwfulTruth of the origins of Crests and the Heroes' Relics, Linhardt is infuriated by Edelgard's insistence on painting the Nabateans as the villains and framing the Crests and Relics as creations of mankind]].
-->'''Linhardt''': That – that-! ''You're what's revolting'', [[spoiler:Edelgard!]] How ''dare'' you say humans were ''justified'' in committing that horrific massacre solely because humankind ''benefited'' from it?! Because we ''benefit'' from it by carrying [[spoiler:their stolen blood and bones?!'']] Where does Agartha get off thinking they were entitled to commit murder and mutilate corpses simply because they were humans? ''Humans'' caused the cataclysm with their power hunger, ''humans'' were fighting and killing each other without any input to survive in the aftermath! The enemy was always [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humankind]], spitting in the face of their kindness to us!
* CombatMedic: Perfectly capable of being of using powerful destructive spells such as [[PlayingWithFire Ragnarok]] but [[MartialPacifist far prefers to use his magic to heal others and greatly dislikes killing]].
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:He deserts the Empire after Edelgard is revealed to be the Flame Emperor.]]
* ItNeverGetsAnyEasier: Being a healer and medic at heart, it’s made quite clear that his dislike and misgivings about taking a life in battle has never truly left him. [[NiceGuy Indech]] actually commends him for his kind heart and points out that his sense of mercy and hatred for blatant violence are perfectly good traits to have.
* MommasBoy: In a chapter focusing on Linhardt in the "Knights of Fódlan" side story, he is more fond of his mother than he is of his father, and chose to follow her advice than to return to his father's side.
* ShipTease: With Hapi.
* UnPerson: Not him, but he starts to treat [[spoiler:Edelgard as one and no longer see her as the house leader that he spent time with in the academy when the war starts]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Petra Macneary]]
* ForcedIntoEvil: Petra has little choice but to join [[spoiler:Edelgard's]] cause lest her country, Brigid, suffers for it.
* HeelFaceTurn: After being freed from her ForcedIntoEvil situation, Petra defects from the Empire in Chapter 63.
* HostageSituation: She is a political prisoner of the empire. This is why Petra was forced to join [[spoiler:Edelgard]] at the start of the war. [[spoiler:When contacted by the heroes that they plan to set her free and bring her back to Brigid, she's all too happy to join their side and eventually joined the United army]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Caspar von Bergliez]]
* DragonTheirFeet: Caspar is the only member of Edelgard's still loyal inner circle explicitly shown to survive the war. [[spoiler:He is left behind by the heroes to maintain order in Adrestia after Edelgard's defeat.]]
* FaceHeelTurn: When he [[spoiler:joins Edelgard in her war.]]
* LethalChef: According to Lysithea and an amused Cyril, anyway.
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Caspar only [[spoiler:joined Edelgard's cause because she convinced his father to do so. So even if he finds many faults in Edelgard's war, he only presses on out of loyalty for his father]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Ferdinand von Aegir]]
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:He deserts the Empire after the Hyrm massacre.]]
* MoralityPet: He tries to be this towards Edelgard, bless his heart, but she's too far gone.
* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Why he stayed fighting for [[spoiler:Edelgard's cause at first. He has a strong duty to lead his country and need to set Edelgard on the right path. Though he eventually joins Byleth, Claude and Dimitri's side when Edelgard chooses to send Maximus Von Varley out and he is nearly killed for it, realizing that Edelgard's too far gone]].
* OnlySaneMan: During his time [[spoiler:fighting on behalf of Edelgard's side, he's the sole voice of reason among the empire and he is the only one to point out that they are losing the war and need to sue for peace, but Edelgard ignores him completely and he ultimately jumps ship after the Hrym massacre.]]
* RelationshipUpgrade: With Constance in Chapter 97, with Ferdinand all but declaring his love for her after he [[IKissYourHand kisses her hand]] which basically leaves the young woman adorably swooning.
* ShipTease: With Constance.
[[/folder]]
!!The Ashen Wolves
[[folder:Yuri Leclerc]]
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Like Claude, he found [[spoiler: Ren Von Riegan's FlippingTheBird moment]] absolutely hilarious, bursting into sniggers just at the reminder of it.
* AdaptationalSuperpowerChange: Yuri's Crest Power in canon is to stop counterattacks. Here, he can turn [[{{Invisibility}} invisible]] at will.
* BirdsOfAFeather:
** He and Claude immediately hit it off, both being [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] [[TheChessmaster chessmasters]] who trick their enemies into underestimating them with lazy, playful exteriors hiding their sharp minds. [[spoiler:They're also both considered social outcasts, Yuri for being a street rat and Claude for his mixed-race heritage, who became cynical and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] as both a self defense and coping mechanism.]]
** He and Atra share deep regrets over previous immoral choices they made, and struggling to really find their feet in Fódlan.
* TheChessmaster: Despite [[spoiler:Aelfric holding his mother and some of his men hostage]], Yuri is able to turn the tables on him with nothing but a few well-placed comments and some unexpected new allies in Byleth and her students.
* DecapitatedArmy: Mentioned in his interlude to be his primary strategy during battles. Yuri likes to go after the nearest commander and kill his way down the chain of command until there are only demoralized infantry left who can be pressured into surrender.
* {{Determinator}}: Spends the whole of Chapter 101 pushing his body to the limit and to the breaking point in order to reach Nemesis's coffin and destroy the slumbering warlord before he can awaken. No matter how utterly exhausted he is and no matter how many killing blows he barely manages to dodge, Yuri does not deviate from his mission because he's well aware he ''cannot'' afford to do so. [[YankTheDogsChain Unfortunately for him, moments after he arrives at the chamber where the caskets for the Ten Elites are stored, Nemesis awakens from his own before Yuri is able to deal the finishing blow]].
* AFatherToHisMen: Fiercely protective and devoted towards his friends and the people of Abyss, calling them "my people". All throughout the story it's made utterly clear that thier wellbeing and safety are his top priority and the loyalty he commands from the people of Abyss is only matched by the sheer devotion he has towards them and their wellbeing. Part of the reason he's able to push himself so much in Chapter 101? Because he's constantly using his loved ones and his people as inspiration in order to make sure he reaches Nemesis in time, to the point that it's almost as if ThePowerOfLove is all that's sustaining him near the end of the chapter.
* MommasBoy: In his interlude, his thoughts turn to his mother when he's in mortal peril.
* NamedByTheAdaptation: In canon, it's known that "Yuri" is an alias and his real name is something that begins with "Reg". [[spoiler:Chapter 101 gives him the birth name Regulus.]]
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: As Byleth notes in Chapter 94, Yuri being openly worried and anxious is something so rare that is outright worrying in itself.
* ThePromise: Made one with his mother sometime before the Battle of Shambahala, to return to his mother after the battle is over alive.
* RelationshipUpgrade: In Chapter 97 with Atra, with Yuri giving her a NowOrNeverKiss and gently telling her to keep herself safe, which utterly leaves her lovestruck and adorably flustered.
* ShipTease: With Atra.
* TheSpymaster: Becomes this [[spoiler:to the Kingdom-Alliance-Church army during the war]], turning his gang of rogues into a massive network of informants that repeatedly brings useful information to the leaders when it's most useful.
* TheTease: Yuri openly flirts with all three of the protagonists, but besides that is willing to let them be with each other in peace
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Balthus von Albrecht]]
* BodyCountCompetition: In Chapter 75, he and Hilda engage in one once inside [[spoiler: the main palace in Enbarr]]. It's clearly half irreverent enjoyment and half ShipTease between them.
* BoisterousBruiser: Believes that the best way to understand a person is to get into a fight with them; he generally enjoys himself in combat [[spoiler:even keeping his spirits up in battle during the war]].
* ButtMonkey: Downplayed, but he tends to be on the receiving end of jokes during the Cindered Shadows mini plot, from cowering under [[MamaBear Byleth's]] DeathGlare for implying he'd sell information on Claude to Count Gloucester, getting teased over his impractical battle outfit or Yuri's semi-serious threat to [[spoiler: sacrifice him to the golem chasing them after they trip the Chalice's defenses.]]
* ChildhoodFriends: Was this with Holst and Hilda; [[spoiler: Balthus is very happy to see his friend again after the Battle for Garreg Mach]].
* INeedAFreakingDrink: When Dimitri reports the truth about Crests to his allies, Balthus is described as having desire for a stiff shot of booze.
* ShipTease: He has a lot with Hilda; they're just shy of being an OfficialCouple.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Constance von Nuvelle]]
* BreakTheCutie: She's devastated when [[spoiler:Ferdinand [[FaceHeelTurn defects to Edelgard's side when she declares war]], given that their obviously has mutual feelings for each other. Fortunately, they're reunited after the Battle for Hrym]].
* LadyOfWar: Elegant, composed and ladylike, and also effectively flying artillery between Bolting and her magic-providing crest.
* OneManArmy: She almost single-handedly stalls [[spoiler:the Imperial Army that's storming Garreg Mach]] by hitting them with Bolting and setting the field they're standing on ablaze, causing an unknown number of casualties as they scramble to do damage control.
* RelationshipUpgrade: With Ferdinand in Chapter 97, with Ferdinand all but declaring his love for her after he [[IKissYourHand kisses her hand]] which basically leaves the young woman adorably swooning.
* ShipperOnDeck: For Balthus/Hilda.
* StarCrossedLovers: She and Ferdinand seem to be this when they find themselves on opposite sides of the war. [[spoiler:Byleth is not about to let that stand, and with Ferdinand's defection from Edelgard's cause, they're together once again]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Hapi]]
* HiddenDepths: Hapi reveals during the Parley with [[spoiler: Edelgard and Hubert]] that her parents are farmers, following up by pointing out that by starting a war in sowing season and dragging their farmers into the army, they've destined their kingdom for harsh famine. [[spoiler: Edelgard]] can only offer a LameComeback that she doesn't understand the nuances of ruling.
* NervesOfSteel: Isn't afraid to taunt The Death Knight before hitting him with a powerful spell, even when he's less than a dozen feet away from her and she doesn't have any heavy armor. She later pulls off a similar stunt against [[spoiler:Ren von Riegan,]] summoning three demonic beasts and attacking him with that same powerful spell. Keep in mind that [[spoiler:the demonic beasts instinctively target ''her'' and that Ren is capable of fighting both Claude and Dimitri simultaneously.]]
* TheNicknamer: Aside from her canon "Coco," "B," "Yuri-bird," "Chatterbox," and "Didi" for Constance, Balthus, Yuri, Byleth, and Dimitri respectively, she also has "Mourning dove" for Atra and "Coyote" for Claude.
* OnlyOneName: As in canon, her last name- if she has one- is unknown. A minor character in one of the "Knights of Fódlan" side stories mentions that "farmers' girls don't get last names," so it's likely that she does not.
* ShutUpHannibal: Isn't impressed by [[spoiler:Edelgard's]] decisions in starting the war, questioning how she can be 'for the people' when she's directly doing them an immense amount of harm.
* ShipperOnDeck: For Balthus/Hilda.
* ShipTease: Has a bit with Linhardt.
[[/folder]]
