History Headscratchers / FireEmblem

* [[IncrediblyLamePun It's heavy with knowledge.]]

* ''Headscratchers/FireEmblemTheSacredStones''

** In part 4, it might be explainable ([[spoiler:having one half of Ashunera working with you might be good enough]]), but presumably they were using light magic before that point.

!!!''VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight''

[[folder: Wait, how'd I become a General?]]
* Why do some of the reclass sets in ''Shadow Dragon'' and ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' allow units to become the promoted form of a class whose unpromoted form they couldn't actually use? For instance, characters in both games with the Male A reclass set can become Dracoknights, but not Pegasus Knights, and characters in ''New Mystery'' with the Female reclass set can become Generals, but not Knights. It's understandable why they gave females access to the General class (because Sheema was a General in the original and they didn't want to change her class), but why couldn't women become Knights beforehand, and why were men given the Dracoknight class at all?
* Answer: Having characters from the original games that are classes that would be otherwise "one gender only". plus laziness in not making different gendered version of the earlier class. As you mentioned, Sheema is a General, the promotion of the male only knight. Thus, girls can be generals, but not knights. This next one applies more to ''Shadow Dragon'' than ''New Mystery'', but girls could only be Paladins because Midia was a Paladin. There is no Girl Cavalier options until New Mystery. Male Dragon Knights? Micalis is a male (sure, he is enemy only in Shadow Dragon, but they have to code that male Dragon Knight class for him, so they might as well put it to use!)
[[/folder]]

!!!''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem''

[[folder: Women and axes]]
* Why does a female My Unit only have access to one class with use of axe, and only after promotion?
** Same reason the male can't be a pegasus knight.
** ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games are rather scarce with female axe users, and moreso older games (Which were scarce in Axe Users in general. ''Gaiden'' and ''Mystery of the Emblem'' Book 2 had NO Axe users, period!), so that's to be expected.
* Aside from one ''Franchise/DotHack'' anime, I can hardly recall any axe-wielding females in anime. That brings me to the point that it is a conscious decision just like no male pegasi knights or troubadours in most games.
* Hold a second, Female My Unit can be a Wyvern Rider which is a pre-promoted axe user, right?
[[/folder]]

!!!''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar''

[[folder: All the women escaped!]]
* Also, if the Belhalla Massacre happens pretty much immediately after the events of chapter 5, how is it that a pairing that only reached lover status during that chapter still gets to have two children?
** I'd been thinking on that a lot myself and here's what I figure: One, the maps are huge and you'd have to take Real Time into account. The player can go from Zaxon to Lubeck in half an hour or 20 turns or whatever, but to the soldiers marching it takes WAY longer so there was most likely time for the couples to marry and have their first kid. Two, only Sigurd was confirmed to have died at Bahara, everyone else except Edain either died or went missing. Third, Nanna and Tinny are confirmed to have been born after Bahara and it's commonly assumed Corple was as well.
*** I also recall that Sylvia, Tityu, Lachesis, Briggid, Adean, and Fury all survived Bahara, which would mean that any husband they had could have possibly gotten them pregnant before that battle. This does make one wonder about Ira, though, since nothing about her survival was ever confirmed...
*** What you have to remember is that the maps represented in [=FE4=] are not the same as most other Fire Emblems. Maps in all other Fire Emblems are about the size of a fort, or a small battlefield. [=FE4=] has maps that are the size of countries. Each chapter isn't a small skirmish, they are full-scale wars, with each chapter being about a year in length. It is entirely possible for a pairing in Chapter 5 to result in two children, especially since all the relevant mothers are confirmed to survive, aside from Arya. But Larcei and Ulster are special; they're twins. [[spoiler:But considering how early Arya joins you, you'd have to suck pretty bad to not pair off Arya before Chapter 5.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Think of the children!]]
* Cuan and Ethlin's deaths. Not that they happened, but that they'd brought Altenna with them when they happened. If you're going to catch the DistressBall, catch it for yourself, not your three-year-old daughter.
** And miss out on having a LongLostSibling raised by the Enemy? Anyway, Ethlin was only bringing Altenna to the country's border (she had ''planned'' to join up with Sigurd too, but Cuan convinced her to go back for both of their sakes).
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Those damn paladins!]]
* Those damn paladins in chapter 2 of Seisen no Keifu. You'd think three fully promoted Augustrian knights could do a little better out there, especially considering they most likely trained under Eltosian himself.
** It's probably because Manfroy was skulking about Agustria around the time of Chapter 2. He must have tested out his brainwashing spell for Deirdre on Eve and his brothers to make sure it worked; this resulted in severe memory loss, so the paladins couldn't remember basic tactics anymore and just [[ArtificialStupidity suicidally charged]] the nearest enemies over and over again.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: But do you spell it with an S?]]
* The fact that people can't seem to agree on the names of [=FE4=] characters bugs me. Aideen/Adean/Edin? Ira/Aira/Ayra? Midir/Midayle? Eltshan/Eltosian? Deirdre/Diadora/Didir? And what is up with some the names of the 2nd Gen. characters like Lackche, Skasaha, Delmud, etc.? These names has made me appreciate NoA's name changes for English Fire Emblems so much more...
** They can't agree on [=FE6=] character names either. Cass/Cath? Ray/Rei? This seems to be an accidental difficulty in translation. I mean, how are you really going to find out which one IS actually intended?
*** I ''wish'' those were as bad as it got. Purists insist on spelling Ray's name as Lleu due to some technicality about how Japanese characters are romanized, ''despite the fact that the appropriate pronunciation for those characters is "Ray" anyway!''
*** Where "some technicality", as far as I can tell (after a bunch of Googling), is a (fairly reasonable) guess that they ''meant'' for the character to be named after the Welsh Lleu (to match the Celtic Lugh). Which actually ''is'' pronounced Rei - as far as the Japanese would be able to render it, anyway. Actually, about as far as most English speakers would be able to render it. Welsh has '''weird''' vowels. Considering that FE has come up with names like "Bartre" that are complete tongue-twisters for the Japanese, I think this gets a pass. But make no mistake: "Lleu" definitely does not come from any romanization scheme. You'd have to be smoking something pretty awesome to use a double-ell for romanizing Japanese.
** Relax! It's to be expected with the ambiguous nature of translating names. Go for literal? Go for something with a more natural look and sound? Or maybe figure out which obscure Greek/Celtic/Finnish/Belgian figure they were named for. Of course a broad and diverse fan base can't come to a unified consensus. Heck, people still disagree even when NOA gives us something concrete (as I am guilty of sometimes, but I don't hold my name choices against others).
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Ishtar's secret class]]
* In [=FE4=]: Why does Ishtar, a Sage, have a Mage Fighter battle sprite?
** Simple. The Mage Fighter battle sprite has a ponytail.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Time travellers]]
* The kids' ages in the second generation of [=FE4=]. Celice is born in the timespan between the end of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3, he spends a year in Silesia and then seventeen years later he and the other kids take up arms against the Empire. He and probably Lakche, Skasaha and Lester ought to be about 18 by now, but they give the impression of being several years younger. Were they just really sheltered, or did they just not do the math correctly when they made up the timeline?
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Adean X Lex 4EVER!]]
* In ''Genealogy of the Holy War'', why is it that Lester resembles Lex so strongly? I mean, it can't just be a coincidence...they look practically identical! Is IS trying to suggest that Lex and Adean had an affair at some point (Ã la Fin and Lachesis) or is Lex the "canon" lover? All of the other children at least resemble their mothers partially, but Lester is ''quite'' the anomaly. (This might actually be a good [[WildMassGuessing WMG theory]] now that I think about it.)
** It depends on what you look at. His hair is blue and brushed back the same way that Lex's is, but looking at his sprite and artwork, his facial structure resembles Adean's more than Lex, with the narrow face and pointy chin (which are also qualities shared by Midayle, one of her canon pairings). It's possible that someone in the Ulir line married someone from Neir or Baldo somewhere along the line, and the blue-hair genes just happened to pop up in Lester.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Who needs a holy weapon, anyway?]]
* Why doesn't Lord Ring have Ichival with him? Instead, Aideen is apparently carrying it around.
** Aideen explicitly says that she has it on her for when she finds Briggid. Considering that Lord Ring has absolutely no idea that Grandbell is about to see a coup, I doubt that he thought it was important for him to have Ichival with him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Ok, maybe brainwashing her wasn't such a good idea...]]
* Why did Manfloy brainwash Julia instead of just killing her?
** The thought of having Yuria and Celice kill each other was probably just hilarious to him. Yurius does ask the same thing, and even later curses Manfroy's lack of foresight if you use Yuria against him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Cheating is way worse than murder]]
* How come everyone here is always complaining about Beowolf cheating on Lachesis but have no problem with him being willing to betray and kill his friend to [[PunchClockHero join the good guys]] after the player gives him enough money? Isn't murdering your own friend for money much worse than possibly cheating on one person?
** Money or not, switching sides and murdering the people whom you were fighting for just a minute ago is something dozens of other characters do as well. Whether you do it out of greed or out of belief, the result is the same.
** ProtagonistCenteredMorality? After all, it's ok as long as he betrays the bad guys and joins the good guys, even if the victim was his best buddy. Right? But when "betraying" the good guys, all bets are off.
** Murder? Beowulf betrayed Macbeth because the greedy bastard was sending his thugs to [[RapePillageAndBurn rob and burn down the nearby villages]]. He tells his mercenary captain up-front that he's about ready to leave, and Voltz even tells him to feel free to switch sides if he gets a better offer. And it's pretty silly to complain about him "murdering" Voltz when, if the two come to blows, Beowulf says it's only happening because [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential YOU]] ordered him to do it!
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Hey, where'd my sword go?]]
* A minor thing, but...Sigurd was named after the mythological dragon-slaying hero, who is also known as Siegfried. So...why is his legendary weapon the Tyrfing? I mean, Siegfried's actual sword, the Balmung, does exist in this universe...
** Who knows? Maybe they just thought those two names both sounded cool. I doubt they were really going for mythical accuracy, after all.
** Almost none of the names are accurate to their mythological origins. Sigurd never fights any dragons aside from Thracia's wyvern-equivalents, Naoise doesn't marry Deirdre, Ethlyn doesn't give birth to Lugh, the Mystletainn isn't used to kill a god, Tyrfing doesn't drive its user berserk, Gungnir can't be thrown, Arthur isn't a king (unless his father is Lewyn), etc. The ''Fire Emblem'' pattern is to use western mythical names because they sound cool, not because the games are about retelling mythology.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Because no one likes someone for leaving someone else who cheated on them]]
* On the subject of Beowulf, I don't understand why he's TheScrappy. At all. Could anyone please clear this up?
** I'm not completely sure on the topic myself, but most of it seems to stem from the translation of Beowulf and Lachesis' last conversation:

--->Beowulf: "Lachesis, I've got a confession to make."
--->Lachesis: "Hm?"
--->Beowulf: "I've known your true feelings all along."
--->Lachesis: "What...!?"
--->Beowulf: "Take good care of yourself. It was mighty nice while it lasted."
--->Lachesis: "Wait! Beowulf!"

** It's completely canon that Lachesis had children with both Finn and Beowulf, but the text is too ambiguous to figure out. A lot of people think Beowulf was completely unjustified in leaving his lover (and baby son) and giving her no chance to explain herself, even if she had been cheating on him. Some think Lachesis wasn't even cheating on him at this point in the game, but became pregnant with Nanna between Seisen no Keifu and Thracia 776. Of course, there are also others who think Lachesis was a cheating whore who had a creepy crush on her brother. The hate stretches both ways.
*** Fin seems to be the only one involved who's not hated.
** Because SlutShaming. The idea that a mercenary with a roving lifestyle or a woman who's just lost her brother and been exiled from her country might not adhere rigidly to monogamy is apparently too much for people to handle.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Spare the mothers]]
* What exactly happens to the female characters from Part 1 of ''Genealogy'' if they didn't marry? We never actually hear anything about whether or not they survive unless they marry, so are we supposed to assume they died at Belhalla with the rest of the army? This is especially noticeable with Tailto, whose abuse at Hilda's hands is replicated with her sister, Ethnia, with Tailto nowhere to be seen.
** I assume with Ethnia and Tailto, they were both abused by Hilda and died, it's just that one isn't really relevant to the other's kids. Although actually, now that I think about it, Ethnia's kids (Amid and Linda) do reference that Tailto also died due to Hilda's abuse. It's Arthur and Teeny who ignore their aunt.
*** I didn't actually know that. I'd only played the game once, and I'd already married Tailto off, so when I read about the Ethnia thing I'd just assumed that she wasn't involved in that subplot. Thanks for clearing that up.
*** Correction: Amid and Linda don't reference that Tailto died due to Hilda's abuse, but that Ethnia joined Siglud because Tailto died in battle. (Of course, this becomes strange if Tailto lived to the end, but just wasn't married, which would mean that she died at Belhalla...)
** With a few exceptions, we can probably assume that they met similar fates. Briggid will still be TakenForGranite as Eyvel before Leaf joins the army, Aideen still retires in Isaach to help raise the kids/substitutes. Ferry becomes Queen of Silesse whether she's married to Lewyn or not. Raquesis vanishes in the desert while looking only for her nephew instead of nephew and son. The ones whose fates if childless are still muddy are Ayra, who's probably dead, and Sylvia, who's only connected to her own children and not any of the predetermined ones.
** What confuses me is how can the survivors escape getting meteored to death in a (presumably) strictly guarded public execution grounds or be enslaved/imprisoned/forcefully married to anyone involved in the coup. One would think that both Grannvale and the Loptyrian sect would go to every ends to crush every single one who opposed them. Most of them died, but the cause of deaths are mostly unrelated to the same event that killed Sigurd and most of the males involved in that specific massacre.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: They're exactly the same...]]
* Why is Verdane acknowledged as a nation of barbarians, when there's almost nothing that makes them different from any other country? Let's see... everyone speaks the same language, which knocks out the original definition (people who don't speak Latin or Greek). They have castles, a monarchy, and an army. Yeah, the princes abuse their power, but that's not really any different from anyone else. There are fewer towns, but there aren't very many in other countries either. The only difference are that the monarchy doesn't have Holy Blood, and that the army is smaller, has no commanders other than the princes, and not made of knights.
** Probably those exact reasons. A good chunk of the Holy Blood houses are lead by douchebags, so it's plausible that they would look down on a royal house that doesn't have that blessing. IIRC, the country is also very forested, which would give the impression of "uncivilized wilderness" and according to the FE Wiki, Verdane has a history of pushing at Grannvale's borders which would not endear them. Plus their forces are mostly axe-wielders (unrefined and brutal) and on foot (too poor for warhorses).
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The clergy is a great place to meet new people]]
* Why would becoming a nun help Adean find Briggid? Wouldn't becoming a knight help Adean find Briggid faster, since she would be able to go out searching?
** Possibly because a nun is less intimidating than a knight, possibly that a healer could get into little villages and other unrefined places without anyone getting suspicious of it. (Villagers might be happier to give full and detailed information to someone who's just healed them as opposed to someone on horseback with a sword.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder: We had nothing better to do.]]
Why are TheArtifact characters still in the castle in between chapters 2 and 3 of ''Genealogy''? It's been a year since the last chapter. Adean had time to fetch the Yewfelle between chapters. So why are people like Dew and Beowolf still there? They don't owe any allegiance to anyone.
* Beowolf ''did'' offer his services to Sigurd in exchange for 10,000 gold. Plus, Eldigan's sister is still with them. Dew most likely stuck around since he figured he'd have more opportunities to steal if he hung around these nobles who were fighting other nobles. As to why Jamke, who has a kingdom of his own to take care of (since his father and brothers are now dead) is still with them, I have no idea.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: She's just that good.]]
Why is Ishtar so effective? She doesn't seem older than Sigurd or Eldigan, and yet she's level 22 when you meet her. Sigurd fought a lot of battles because of the player, and the kings are strong because they had a lot of time to train. As nobles of Granvale and Major Blood holders, Sigurd and Ishtar should be around the same power level [[spoiler: Julius is younger than Seliph, but he's Loptyr's human host and gets a bypass]]. This can really apply to any character who has no reason to be that strong.
* Probably some GameplayAndStorySegregation: in gameplay terms, you need to kill a lot of enemies in order to gain experience, so most player characters start at comparatively low levels, and bosses are at whatever level to provide the right challenge at that time in the game. If Ishtar had instead defected and joined Seliph's army in one of his early chapters, she'd doubtlessly have come at a much lower level.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Thank you for guiding us. And not eating our brains.]]
What was actually going on with [[spoiler: Lewyn in the second generation? Is it actually him? Is it Forseti? Is he dead? Is it a geas? Could someone give an explanation?]]
** [[spoiler:He's kind of both dead and possessed. He was killed at Balharra, but "resurrected" and possessed by Forseti--he can't live without him, and his personality differences are because he's possessed by a deity that is AboveGoodAndEvil.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:100 years and they're only just now mixing it up]]
At the start of Genealogy of the Holy War, there are only three people that we know of who have more than one type of Holy Blood: [[spoiler:Arvis and Deirdre]] who inherited their mother's minor Loptyr blood in addition to their respective major [[spoiler:Fala and Naga]] blood, and the newborn Altena, who inherited her mother's minor Baldur blood in addition to her father's major Noba blood. The next generation will almost certainly bring more children with more than one Holy Blood. My question is, why is this only happening now? Why didn't the descendants of the Twelve Crusaders not already start hooking up in earlier generations?
* It might be something of a purity thing. Royal families in Europe used to be massively inbred to keep the Royal line... royal. In other words, people wanted the bloodlines distinct and "pure" of the other ones and this stigma is only just staring to fade out when the game roles around.
** But if that were true, then there would be a lot more Major Holy Blood users hanging around, because two Minors make a Major.
* Holy Blood doesn't always pass to the next generation: Chagall has no Holy Blood at all despite being a direct descendant of Hezul, Scipio didn't inherit his father's Minor Ulir Blood, Lewyn's uncles don't have any Forseti blood, and Ishtar got her father's Major Thrud Blood but not her mother's Minor Vala/Fjalar Blood. There are probably tons of people who are descended from the Crusaders, but lost the perks of such over the [[MuggleBornOfMages Holy Blood equivalent of genetic bad luck]] over the generations.
[[/folder]]

!!!''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776''

[[folder: We're ditching the pirate. No one likes him.]]
In ''Thacia 776'', Leif gets captured early on and is arrested. Evyel joins him to make sure he's all right, and the other members of the group run and vow to find him later. But then how and why does Lifis get captured? It's implied that Lifis and Leif came in around the same time, because they started talking to their cell mates around the same time. Gameplay wise, it might be so that you get another thief in your party in case Lara dies, but for what reason? Is it because Lifis is an actual criminal, and the bandits are just bandits in name? Did Lifis run and get captured for a completely different reason and was coincidentally taken to the same place?
[[/folder]]

!!!''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade''

[[folder: "Yer a wizard, Lilina"]]
* What's the explanation for Lilina in [=FE6=] being a mage? Her father is Hector, an axe-wielding badass and the game's three wife choices for him are also physical weapon users. There is no mention of magic in their bloodlines and isn't Ostia famous for Armor Knights anyway? How is Lilina a proficient spellcaster? Do they ever mention anything about how that came to be in ''Sword of Seals'' (I didn't dabble much in [=FE6=]'s support conversations since they weren't as interesting as the ones in 7-9. Plus, no support library! WAT!)? I think [=FE7=] should have included a female mage character (other than Nino for obvious reasons) that could've been a potential love interest for Hector to partly explain (or gave Hector an ending with Serra) to give ''some'' explanation for why Lilina wanted to take up magic instead of the axe or the sword.
** This isn't ''Genealogy of the Holy War''. Maybe it's recessive genes. Maybe she just had a talent for it, nothing genetic. With Florina as her mother, there could be a bit of inherited magicalness, if that's even necessary in this setting. A better question would be why is Wolt such a terrible archer when his mother is Rebecca and one of his possible fathers is Wil?
*** That's a bit harsh, don't you think? Wolt's more or less Dorothy's equal, albeit a bit weaker physically (just like Rebecca was to Wil).
*** Genetics determines potential and talent, but they still need to be worked on in order to yield results. Maybe he had a shitty archery teacher or maybe he slacked off.
** It's also possible that Lilina's mother is an npc lady who could have high magic, similar to the potential romance of Chrom and village maiden, even though it's possible to be a mage even if the parents aren't inclined to mage.
** [[http://serenesforest.net/fe6/support/089.html Cecilia's support with Lilina]] suggests that, at some level or another, anyone can learn magic. Some people just happen to be more talented at it than others, and as such those people become mages.
*** FridgeBrilliance: Remember Hector's support with Eliwood (I think it's the B support), where he has a vision of an older version of himself and Lilina? Also, if you play Hector's mode, he can sense Raven's hostility despite ''having no possible way of doing so''... unless Hector has magical potential that he never used.
** Keep in mind that [[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Soren's]] parents weren't mages either, and that didn't stop Soren from becoming a mage.
*** But Almedha was still a dragon. Their seid magic surpasses even the herons.
*** But seid magic (which Soren can't use) is quite different from tome magic (which he can).
*** Are we sure about that? I don't recall them ever actually explaining what exactly seid magic is, how much training it involves if any, and its relationship to staves and tomes. Considering both Soren and Micaiah are very powerful mages descended from clans known for having powerful seid magic, I think a connection is implied.
*** Micaiah can use seid magic to transfer her health to a companion, and Sothe stated quite clearly that that ability was quite different than tome or staff magic. And more to the point, Soren does not have any unusual abilities like that.
*** Micaiah is also extremely skilled in magic and staves. Her magic stat is only matched by Soren. Also, Titania at one point describes Soren as being very empathic. It's hardly a stretch to think that that's a result of him actually being an empath, which is one of the abilities seid magic can manifest as.
*** The point is that neither Ashnard nor Almedha had any skill in tome or staff magic, even though Soren does. So the fact that neither Hector nor his wife have any skill in tome or staff magic doesn't rule out the fact that Lilina does.
*** And Soren has an alternate explanation for his skill in magic, so his case is still quite different from Lillina.
** This troper wonders if Serra was originally a potential candidate for Hector's wife while [=FE7=] was still in the planning stages. Her claim to Erk that she's his fiancee could be a leftover DevelopmentGag.
** Even if magical talent is strictly genetic (and that's not a given for the Elibe saga), MageBornOfMuggles is a thing.
** Keep in mind that in the Elibe games, a unit either has a strength stat or a magic stat, but not both. If the two are conflated, than Hector's high strength growth would make a magically talented Lilina more likely. If they're separate but one is hidden, then all we can deduce is that sword wielders' magic is half of their strength (due to how the Light Brand and Runesword work), so Hector has decent but not particularly high magic and would average 15 when maxed out. Also, if we use ''Awakening'' breeding rules as a guideline, the child's tendencies make up a third of their growth rates, so Lilina could still manage a high magic growth rate even with two parents who aren't so gifted.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: He really gets around]]
* I'm not sure I understand why Roy is continually classified as a KidAnova on this wiki. Yes, he has a larger pool of possible brides than most other FE lords, but they are just that: possibilities. He's not like Sain or Saul, who actively flirt with every woman they come across -- in fact, he acts very uncomfortable when Lalum tries to make a move on him and seems totally oblivious to Lilina's obvious infatuation with him.
** Probably because he's the only unit in that game to actually have a paired ending, but KidAnova seems to be used for any young person with a lot of suitors.
** That, and it's probably supposed to be a joke.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Commerical]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM-s5C0dnZs The US commercial]] for ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' is a good example of the confusion that can arise from GameplayAndStorySegregation. On one hand, the "trust nobody" tagline makes sense in the context of the setting: the player's band of warriors routinely has to deal with the consequences of shadow politics, in which betrayal and attempted assassinations are common elements. However, none of this affects the player directly, as the battlefield is strictly divided between friendly and enemy units, with no amount diplomacy beyond convincing certain enemies to join your side. In fact, said enemies are the ''only'' defectors on the battlefield, and on the player's side they will remain as loyal as every other playable unit; the player would not be able to recruit them if they were to take the "trust nobody" tagline at face value.
[[/folder]]

!!!''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade''

[[folder:No love for prissy Priscilla]]
* Priscilla has seven different support options: ''all'' of them with men, ''all'' of them occur faster than normal (most have one extremely slow option), and ''all'' of them are with early (read: good) characters. Is it just me, or is she[[DistaffCounterpart ...]][[KidAnova yeah]].
** Only four of those supports are romantic. The other three are there for backstory purposes.
*** Probably. [[BrotherSisterIncest We're still not sure about Raven.]]
*** Aren't we? I mean, this IS ''Fire Emblem''...
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Holy shit, a ghost!]]
* If you let Bartre die in ''Blazing Blade'', the epilogue says that he survived--which makes sense as he appears again in ''Binding Blade''. However, the same is not true of Karel, who also appears in ''Binding Blade'', nor of Rebecca or Nino, both of whom are canonically the mothers of characters in ''Binding Blade'' and [[TokenMiniMoe neither of which had been remotely sexually active beforehand]].
** That we know of.
*** ''[[{{Squick}} Ewwwww]]''.
*** What? And before you start with [[WhatTheHellHero the]] [[PaedoHunt accusations]], that can easily be a case of ValuesDissonance mixed in with a degree of TruthInTelevision and/or ShownTheirWork. Back in the day - [[OlderThanSteam the time of William Shakespeare is a great example]] - people had a MUCH lower life expectancy than is enjoyed today, since we get the benefit of all those neat medicines, CrazyPrepared hospitals, etc. So, in order to perpetuate the species, it was normal for women to bear children at earlier ages. In the original Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet, IIRC, Juliet was... what, fourteen - [[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes]], even thirteen or TWELVE - according to most sources? [[FridgeBrilliance Considering that the setting and general level of society/technology appears to be that timeframe]] LikeRealityUnlessNoted, [[ShownTheirWork this makes a great deal more sense]]. In a matter of fact, in some Third World countries ''today'', that (relative) social norm is still in effect.
*** Lugh and Ray were 14 in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'', and Nino was 14 in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade''. Binding took place 20 years after Blazing. Therefore, Nino was 20 years old when she gave birth to Lugh and Ray. She HAD to survive at least six years past Blazing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Elfire is delicious]]
* Nino's supports with Canas have her learning to read from Canas' "tomes". This is despite the fact that she can already cast Elfire when you recruit her. In a world where spells are cast from spellbooks. Referred to as "tomes" in-game. What, does spellcasting normally work by ripping out a magical page and eating it or something? (I suppose that would explain the finite durability...) Also, while Nino has already learned from Sonia at this point that she's not her actual mother, in the support conversations she inexplicably possesses a pendant with pictures of her real family. Which she was ripped away from as an infant. Er? I guess that must be Uncle Jan's doing...
** Nino's support with [[http://serenesforest.net/fe7/support/063.html Erk]] answers the first question: she auditorily memorized the chants Sonia used to cast spells. Yeah, she's just that good.
** The pendant ''is'' Uncle Jan's doing: he gives it to her at the end of Night of Farewells. The only thing that doesn't make sense is her having that pendant if you skipped the chapter.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Screw you, honey!]]
* Sain and Rebecca's support conversations consist entirely of Sain [[ChivalrousPervert doing what he does]] and Rebecca ''rejecting'' him hard. Why, then, does their A-support ending have them get married?
** SlapSlapKiss? They didn't get married immediately after the game ended and things changed? Because she has to shack up with any dude she can to [[DoomedByCanon be Wolt's mother]] even though [[UnfortunateImplications he looks exactly like Wil]]? Or maybe they just did it for the heck of it?
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Is he hiding something?]]
* Someone keeps referencing Hector using an axe and potholing it to NotCompensatingForAnything. What's up with that? Is the logic that he must be compensating because he uses a different weapon? Is it because his axe is huge after his class change? Because if it's the latter I'd really like to know how you can compulsively call that compensation while not batting an eye at Durandal.
** HeroesPreferSwords used to be called NotCompensatingForAnything.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Stupid dress...]]
* How is Ninian able to run while wearing that dress? You'd think it would be a bit hard to stay away from a group like the Black Fang while wearing [[http://fireemblemblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/ninian.jpg this.]]
** Nils played his flute for her and she danced for him, thus cheesing their way to safety.
** There's also the fact that they got caught. Twice.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Lived by continuity errors]]
* Renault possibly being centuries old was an interesting twist, if only it didn't completely screw with the Fire Emblem timeline. As Renault was a soldier when Wallace was a youth (who, despite being old, is not centuries old), and he only chose to aid Nergal and leave Caelin after his friend had died. Thus it is likely that Canas believed Nergal started creating the morphs assisted by Renault several centuries ago, when in fact it may have just been a few decades. Another possibility is that after leaving Nergal, he returned to Caelin and became a knight for a while before becoming a Bishop, though it is unlikely as he is said to have killed Lucius's parents when Lucius was a child during his blood-crazed state after his friend's death.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fire Emblem 7's subtitle]]
* Why is the most common fan translation for Fire Emblem 7's subtitle "Blazing Sword" instead of "Blazing Blade"? I can understand, with the lack of an official translation, how people might end up translating the same word differently, but "Blazing Blade" is actually used several times in English version of the game when referring to Durandal. It's the closest thing to an official translation of the subtitle, so why does everyone ignore it?
** InconsistentTranslation is the only thing I can think of.
** Because [=FE6=] is translated as "The ''Binding'' Blade." Having two titles so similar to each other can lead to people preferring a slightly different translation to make them more distinct from each other.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:They probably have a great pension plan.]]
* How and why does the Black Fang, a league of assassins, have enough soldiers to field an entire army? Cog of Destiny alone had hordes and hordes of heavily armed and armoured soldiers, and it seems to be the case that most of Nergal's non-Morph henchmen you fight are Black Fang members. Wouldn't an assassin's guild only have a handful of actual assassins, and maybe a few guards and soldiers for support other duties? Having hundreds of soldiers doesn't strike me as good sense for what's supposed to be a secret guild.
** They don't appear to me as the purely stealthy type of assassin. More like the "rush into the evil noble's house through the front door, beat down his guards and then put an axe in his head" type. They'd need more people for that and they also would be able to recruit from a wider scale without having to train them all in the arts of stealth. It's also plausible that they started recruiting whatver thugs, mercenaries, rogues and who-knows-who as soon as Sonia became involved to fill out their ranks for just such an occasion. After all, the more death, the more Quintessence.
** I think Nergal was filling out their ranks with his morphs.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Darin and Hausen's titles]]
* Darin, Helman and Hausen are titled Marquess, but Laus and Santaruz are in the dead center of Lycia and Caelin is sorounded by other Lycian teritories. They should be Counts (Ostia and Pherae are on the borders, so Hector/Uther and Eliwood/Elbert are correctly titled).
** This isn't earth. The naming conventions for nobility may be similar, but they mean different things. As well, it seems that while each league in Lycia is different in economic and military power and standing, they at least give the pretense of aiming for equality, so every noble ruler has the same title.
** Also, keep in mind that titles like "marquess" can end up as linguistic artifacts. They may have originated as lords guarding borders, but kept their titles after more territories joined the League and expanded it beyond said borders. Or the component territories might have all agreed to give everyone the same title so that they all feel like equals, and since no nobleman wanted to be demoted, they started calling the counts marquesses.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Special Snowflake Dragons]]
* Ninian, Nils and Sophia are all half-breed dragons, and yet they function so differently. It's implied that Ninian and Nils could take a dragon form if they had their dragonstones, yet Sophia is just a Shaman. On the other hand, it's pretty much stated that Ninian's lifespan would be short if she stayed on Elibe in her human form, and yet Sophia didn't age a day in the twenty years between games, and it's heavily implied she's still got a few good centuries to go. And that's not even getting into all the silly and vaguely-defined powers Ninian has. What's up with all of this?
* It could be that Sophia was born on this side of the Gate, and thus is more adapted to the post-Ending Winter environment. Also, Ninian and Nils can take Dragon form because they have their Dragonstones. Sophia, to our knowledge at least, doesn't. As for vaguely defined powers, even Sophia has the ability to see minor ways into the future and heal with a touch.
** Ninian and Nils were also born on the Elibe side of the Gate, though they spent the last thousand years on the other side. (There is a side quest that very strongly implies that Nergal is actually their father and was married to a dragon, Aenir, during the Scouring. Somehow, Aenir was separated from her family. Ninian and Nils are left by their father at their home on Dread Island and told to wait ten days while he goes to look for their mother. If he doesn't return before then, they should go through the Gate. Obviously, that's what they do.) Also, Ninian is specifically mentioned to be special, like an oracle of some sort. She's not just any dragon.
** As mentioned, Sophia also has oracle powers. Ninian and Nils aren't completely unique in that regard. (It is possible that both Sophia and the siblings have special oracle powers coincidentally but that is neither here or there) And even if Ninian and Nils were born in Elibe, they spent their lives on the other side, and thus any adaptation they made to the post-Ending Winter environment wouldn't be nearly as strong as Sophia's, if they still have it at all. Think of it this way: You were born in a cold environment, but as a kid moved to a warm environment and grew up there. As an adult, you move back to the cold environment. Will you be adapted to live there because you lived there as a kid?
* Yahn survived for a 1000 years in post-Scouring Elibe by residing in a Dragon Temple. It's implied that such buildings have an eerie ambiance to them, probably magic that negates the effects of the Ending Winter. Moreover, the Dragon Temple's power was dependent on the life force of a Divine Dragon (Idenn). Chances are that Arcadia has buildings similar to the Dragon Temple. That plus a population of Divine Dragons means that Sophia could survive much longer in Elibe so long as she regularly returned to Arcadia. Ninian may have been able to do the same but it would be tantamount to crossing the Dragon's Gate since she stayed in Elibe to be with Eliwood.
* Another question is how Nils look like a kid when he is around the same age rage of Ninian, since their father is a mortal and their mother died when they were children. Maybe dragons can chose what age rage they look or they can chose to stop developing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Necromancy is bad, except that one time]]
* Ninian being brought back to life at the end of [=FE7=] always bothered me. This is a game where even gameplay doesn't allow bringing back the dead. Dead is Dead, that's it. Moreover, the next game in the series is all about how trying to revive the dead is A Bad Idea. But then Ninian gets revived out of nowhere and it's all hunky-dory. There's absolutely no explanation for it. There's no even vague foreshadowing. It's like they just threw it in there. And then, to add insult to injury, if you didn't pair her off with Eliwood, Ninian leaves, never to be heard from again. She doesn't even really do anything in the end! You still fight the dragon. Am I the only one who saw this as at least inconsistent if not a full on BrokenAesop?
** Not necessarily. There's a difference between Brammimond (technically a Good Guy, only he's got no self) and Nergal or Lyon (the former weak and going mad with power, the latter weak-minded and easily corrupted). Brammimond is said to be VERY powerful in the arcane magics, so it's possible he had some knowledge of how to revive the dead without them coming back wrong ''or'' at a cost to himself. He already has no more self to speak of, so what more could he lose?
* There's also the fact that previous games let you revive a dead unit with a one use staff. Bramimond didn't bring Ninian back to life for selfish reasons and it didn't kill thousands of people or release a primordial evil to do it.
* It only seems to be bad if the dead person doesn't have a consciousness, apparently. Or if it's a Phantom, which is basically a puppet/killing machine hybrid.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Having babies isn't THAT dangerous, even back then]]
* Why does everyone always assume Roy and Lilina's mothers died in childbirth? Or even that they're Definitely Dead by the epilogue? Ninian most certainly is, but there's still a chance Lyn or the pegasus sisters are alive offscreen. And even if they are long dead, childbirth isn't the only killer of women. Illness, perhaps, or a riding accident.
** The reason everyone assumed was a fan translation lists Wolt as Roy's milk-brother, implying that Roy was not nursed by his mother.
** Another reason that they are considered to be dead is that they don't appear in key moments of the story. Lyn, Fiora for sure would be with Roy in important moments and would even maybe enjoy the war to protect their son since they are warriors themselves. Farina, Florina and Lyn also would be there for Lilina when Hector is killed if they were alive, and possibly would be fighting with Hector until his death.
** Maybe Roy's mother opted not to nurse due to a health issue or just not wanting to. Women hired wet nurses back then anyway, if they could afford to. It's quite common nobles and queens having wet nurses in medieval times.
** On that note, it isn't that certain that Ninian, Fiora and Lyn are dead by Sword of Seals. The epilogue of Blazing Sword said that for example, Ninian enjoyed a brief life with Eliwood, but to somebody who has lived for more than a thousand years, twenty years could qualify as "brief."
** Also a lot of people assume that Roy or Lilina's mother died in a point of Roy's childhood, not exactly in childbirth.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Durandal's size]]
In the opening of ''Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade'' we see all eight Legendary Heroes, including Roland and Hartmut with their respective swords. Roland, known well enough for his diminutive size to earn the moniker "Little Hero", nonetheless seems to wield Durandal quite comfortably.

So why is Durandal so big and unwieldy in Eliwood's hand? Eliwood isn't as big as Hector, but he's not particularly small either (as Roland was).
* Durandal's size and weight were never consistent: it went from a manageable 12 weight in [=FE6=] to a monstrous ''16'' in [=FE7=]. Durandal also isn't nearly as powerful as it was in the past, so maybe it once had the ability to change sizes (say, if Roland needed the extra reach against a particular big dragon), but became unstable afterwards, resulting it it being too large for Eliwood, but shrinking in the twenty years afterwards in a belated effort to get to the right size for the last person to use it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:How old is Uther?]]
We get some seemingly contradictory information about Uther's age. On the one hand, he's old enough to have been PromotedToParent after his and Hector's parents' death many years ago; on the other hand, he's young enough to have only recently become marquess of Ostia and head of the Lycian League. (And since Hector would later become marquess of Ostia and head of the Lycian League at age 18, it can be assumed that Uther also became marquess at age 18, if he wasn't already.)

But if Uther had already been marquess of Ostia for years, why did Hector and Oswin say that he had only ascended to the throne recently?
[[/folder]]

!!!''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones''

[[folder: As it turns out, charging into an empire with only three other people is a poor tactical decision]]
* In ''The Sacred Stones'', both Eirika and Ephraim make some less than stellar choices, but only Eirika is criticized or discussed. How she was so stupid to give Lyon the stone, how naive she is, etc. Yet Ephraim attempts to take on the Grado empire with only what, three men at his side, ''and'' answers the challenge of a madman who could skewer him in seconds, and only a few people acknowledge that it was a bad idea while everyone else cheers at what a badass he was. Why is taking on an empire while dangerously unprepared = awesome genius while believing the MacGuffin can save your friend from ruin and attempting to do so = big honking dumbass? (Don't get me wrong, it was awesome that Ephraim managed to survive, but he was ''extremely'' lucky he did.)
** I think it's because Ephraim has much more personality as a character so people are more forgiving, while the only thing that really makes Eirika stand out from other generic lords is her clingyness to her brother. Don't get me wrong, I consider Ephraim's decision very reckless (though in character), but I'm just giving a possible explanation. Personally I'm somewhat willing to forgive Eirika because of her naivety and her friendship with Lyon, though it was a pretty stupid choice.
*** True, Ephraim has a very dynamic personality. But Eirika hardly seemed "generic" to me. (Then again, I've grown to despise "generic" as a term because it implies that not having a bombastic kickass standout personality = boring and flat)
** It's less about Ephraim's personality than it is about how Ephraim's plan was much more successful. Like, seriously, he attacks the world's most powerful military with, yes, three other people, one of whom is TheMole, yet still manages to capture Renvall castle, one of the most secure castles in Grado. He is captured shortly afterward by the aforementioned [[TheMole Mole]], but he's still in the middle of a breakout himself when Eirika rescues him (and she seems to have taken much more time and effort to get to that point than he did). The reason there are no cries of TooDumbToLive on Ephraim's plan is because it's shown that Ephraim, Kyle, and Forde are competent enough to actually get it done, while Eirika has been told repeatedly that Lyon's soul has been devoured, that he's a puppet of the [[BigBad Demon King]], etc., and then gives him their only hope of salvation anyway.
*** Ephraim wasn’t even captured at Renvall - he, Kyle and Forde [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome cut a path through Valter’s wyvern riders and vanished]]; Tirado spread false rumors that Ephraim was caught [[TheChessmaster to lure Eirika in]], and her brother abandoned his plan to assault the capital to hurry back and [[BigDamnHeroes arrived just in time to help her]]... The narrative almost bends over backwards for Ephraim while Eirika struggles with arguably lesser war issues, which feeds these reputations (Ephraim’s failure is treated as being his irresponsibility as a ruler, being out adventuring when Renais fell while his sister and father were at least at the home front).
** Another reason is what was at stake. Ephraim was hounding the Grado Military, but Renais was already lost. Ephraim was risking the three men under his command, and that's about it. (Not knowing about the bracelets at the time.) When Eirika handed over the stone, she was putting the entirety of Magvel in danger.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Ephraim forgets L'Arachel]]
* In [=FE8=], when the twins reunite, Ephraim says that he sees "unfamiliar faces" and introduces himself to L'Arachel... despite having recruited L'Arachel several chapters ago on the phantom ship.
** From looking at the game script, it seems like they just forgot to differentiate that dialogue between Ephraim and Eirika's routes. Alternatively, she's piggybacking on Ephraim's introduction to the "unfamiliar faces" of Eirika's group to introduce herself to Eirika.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Is Ephraim's route supposed to be the canonical route?]]
* Is it only me or that Ephraim's route in The Sacred Stones just makes a lot more sense? From a gameplay standpoint, it neatly divides the game into 3 parts. One with Eirika, one with Ephraim, and the final part with both, while in Eirika's route Ephraim only really joins in the last third of the game. From a story standpoint, we have Ephraim going to attack Grado directly while Eirika goes to warn Rausten, a much simpler (as far as they knew at the time) mission. In Ephraim's route, he gets most of the forces, which not only makes more sense in that context, it makes the part where his forces have to rescue Eirika and her forces understandable, since it's pretty obvious that she and her few escorts will not be able to survive an attack by 2 large forces on their own. Meanwhile in Eirika's route, we are supposed to believe that Ephraim and Duessel beat the Empire on their own, and that Ephraim, Duessel(who has a hard time moving in the desert) and a very squishy Knoll are somehow rescuing Eirika's far larger force.
** I think it makes more sense for Eirika's route to be the canonical one. For one, Ephraim's has the plot hole of Saleh bringing Ewan down to Grado, then somehow turning around and beating Eirika to Caer Pelyn even though the route she's taking ''is the fastest route''. For another, you get a lot more characterization on Eirika's route that you'd miss out on Ephraim's--specifically [[spoiler:Joshua being the lost prince of Jehanna]] has build-up and a conclusion on her route, but seemingly comes out of nowhere when mentioned in the epilogue of Ephraim's. You also get Cormag and his vendetta against Valter on hers, whereas him joining Ephraim is a little too...out of the blue. Also, Ephraim was marching to Grado with Frelia's finest (yes, an army of greens isn't worth much, but he had an army), which means he can let their RagtagBandOfMisfits protect Eirika--half of them weren't even proper soldiers, so naturally they'd be assigned to the less dangerous of the two tasks. And honestly, I find the imagery of Ephraim and Duessel taking down Grado by themselves once their green army falls [[RuleOfCool to be pretty damn badass]].
[[/folder]]

*** {{Fridge Brilliance}}: Remember Hector's support with Eliwood (I think it's the B support), where he has a vision of an older version of himself and Lilina? Also, if you play Hector's mode, he can sense Raven's hostility despite ''having no possible way of doing so''... unless Hector has magical potential that he never used.
** Keep in mind that [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Soren's]] parents weren't mages either, and that didn't stop Soren from becoming a mage.

* What's up with saying Fire Emblem is obsessed with [[BrotherSisterIncest incest]]? The only ones that give very strong vibes are Raven/Priscilla and Eirika/Ephraim. All other FE sibs (Marth/Elice, Minerva/Michalis, Tethys/Ewan, Tana/Innes, Ike/Mist, Reyson/Leanne, Makalov/Marcia, etc.) have pretty normal sibling relationships. Okay, ''maybe'' Klein/Clarice skirted a bit close to it, but not enough to turn too many heads.

*** In addition to the previous examples, which are the most blatant, there's Sothe and Micaiah (not related, but the siblinghood was hammered into the player for a reason) in Radiant Dawn. [=FE6=] seems to be more or less clean, although there's an odd exchange where Narshen says to Clarine "I will play with you instead of your brother..." when clearly about to rape her, and Clarine laughs at the idea not of being raped, but of Narshen being able to stand up to her brother's handsomeness.

*** Fine, so maybe some people are perverts whose shipping goggles are on too tight. But answer this: What gives another person the authority to say "that's wrong" and try to shame people for it? Because that's kinda what it sounds like you're doing. It's not anyone's job to play the Morals Police in the Franchise/FireEmblem fandom.

*** Aren't we? I mean, this IS Fire Emblem...

* If you let Bartre die in ''Blazing Blade'', the epilogue says that he survived--which makes sense as he appears again in ''Sword of Seals''. However, the same is not true of Karel, who also appears in ''Sword of Seals'', nor of Rebecca or Nino, both of whom are canonically the mothers of characters in ''Sword of Seals'' and [[TokenMiniMoe neither of which had been remotely sexually active beforehand]].

*** And there are many, many more. The creepiness goes UpToEleven.

* It's not that hard to imagine the "horseslayer" applying to both the horse AND the rider. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhanmadao Anti-cavalry]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_(weapon) weapons]] are a thing in real life. Horse-riding is already risky, and mounted combat was ''notoriously'' dangerous. As noted above, a spear designed to kill a cavalry horse will make you, as the rider, ''[[CaptainObvious fall off your horse,]]'' most likely at speed. Alternately, [[RussianReversal your dying horse might fall ON YOU]] and end up [[OhCrap breaking one of your legs. In a war-zone.]] The horseslayer wouldn't always kill a rider ''immediately,'' but after getting unhorsed and suffering a concussion or a broken limb, [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment in a warzone?]] [[ExactWords The rider will die REALLY SOON]] without a rescuer and a lot of healing magic.

* It's not that hard to imagine the "horseslayer" applying to both the horse AND the rider. Anti-cavalry weapons are a thing in real-life. Horse-riding is already risky, and mounted combat was ''notoriously'' dangerous. As noted above, a spear designed to kill a cavalry horse will make you as the rider [[CaptainObvious FALL OFF YOUR HORSE,]] most likely at speed. Alternately, [[RussianReversal your dying horse might fall on YOU]] and end up [[OhCrap breaking one of your legs. In a war-zone.]]