History Videogame / FireEmblemElibe

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' -- The seventh ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance in 2003. Acts as a {{prequel}} to ''The Binding Blade'' and stars Roy's father, Eliwood. The first ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game to be released outside of Japan, its English title was originally just ''Fire Emblem'', but references to it in later games reinstate the subtitle.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' -- The seventh ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance in 2003. Acts as a {{prequel}} to ''The Binding Blade'' and stars Roy's father, Eliwood. The first ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game to be released outside of Japan.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' -- The sixth''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance in 2002. Stars Roy and takes place in Elibe.

%%Do not add tropes until everything has been sorted into the Sandbox pages.

[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fireemblemelibecases_9691.png]]

->''Once, dragons and men coexisted. They shared a peace forged in wisdom, a peace that lasted many generations. All that was lost when mankind disrupted this balance in a sudden onslaught.\\
Man fought dragon in a savage war that shook the foundations of their world. This war was called The Scouring.\\
Defeated and humbled, dragons vanished from the realm. In time, man rebuilt and spread his dominion across the land and on to the islands beyond.\\
[[TimeSkip A thousand years have passed]] since those dark days ended.''
-->-- Opening of ''The Blazing Blade''

The sixth and seventh games in the ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' series, comprising its third canon and timeline, and being the first to be completely separate from its predecessors. It was this canon which was both responsible for sparking interest among western gamers, then actually following through by being the franchise's international debut. It was also the first set of games to come following the departure of series creator Shouzou Kaga.

* ''Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade'' [[note]]Japanese title ''Fuuin no Tsurugi'', meaning "Sword of Seals".[[/note]] (UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance, 2002) stars Roy, ''Fire Emblem'''s other representative in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Melee'', as he attempts to repel the invading forces of Bern. The game was well-received in Japan, but in the west, the reception among fans was more mixed. On the one hand, it was praised for introducing the super-popular "[[RelationshipValues Support]]" feature, which allows characters to build their relationships by spending a lot of time together in battle and remains a big draw for the series. At the same time, due to technological constraints, it was forced to drop many of the mechanics introduced in the console-era, though it was able to add its own as well.
* ''Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade'' [[note]]Released as just ''Fire Emblem'' in the west, with "The Blazing Blade" as a {{Retronym}} in later western marketing; the Japanese title is ''Rekka no Ken'', meaning "Sword of Fire".[[/note]] (Game Boy Advance, 2003) was the franchise's international debut, with only a single game released since then lacking an official localization. A {{prequel}} to ''The Binding Blade'', it stars Roy's father, Eliwood, as he investigates the disappearance of his own father with his friends Hector and Lyn, leading them to clash with a brotherhood of assassins called the Black Fang. This game remains a favorite of many western fans because, in addition to being a [[FirstInstallmentWins first installment in English]] and thus for a great many fans, it features one of the longer quests of the Western released games, features a large amount of replay value, and boasts a story that's rather unique in relation to the rest of the franchise.

An 11-volume manga adaptation, ''[[http://www.mangahere.co/manga/fire_emblem_hasha_no_tsurugi/ Fire Emblem: Champion's Sword]]'' [[note]]Commonly known just by its untranslated Japanese name, ''Hasha no Tsurugi''[[/note]], was also published between 2002 and 2005. It revisits and modifies the plot of ''The Binding Blade'' through the point of view of four original characters exclusive to this manga: Young swordsman (well, teen) Al, Princess Tiena of Tania Castle, her loyal knight Gant, and MasterSwordsman Kilmar. They help Roy and his troops in the war against Bern, while on their own quest: searching for the [[McGuffin Fire]] [[TitleDrop Emblem]].
----
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Tropes in ''The Binding Blade'']]
* AlliterativeName: Roy's final weapon, which the game takes its title from, is either the '''S'''word of '''S'''eals or the '''B'''inding '''B'''lade.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: [[spoiler:King Zephiel]], and to a lesser extent Murdock.
* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler:Most of the Manaketes you will face in the game were created by Idenn.]]
* BadassAdorable: Fae, also known as [[FanNickname Fazilla]]. Her dragon form is ridiculously cute, and she attacks by sneezing flame breath on her enemies. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GieU2L0qmRM&feature=related So cute!]]
* BagOfSpilling: Justified. Twenty years pass between the two games, meaning there is plenty of time for characters to lose their edge through old age, injury, and inaction.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: ''The Binding Blade'' gives us some subversions in a series that plays this trope straighter than an arrow most of the time: The axe-wielding Gonzales (whose ugliness and low intelligence make him feared), and the plain-looking Dorothy (with her small eyes and plain, boyish clothing).
* {{BFS}}: Eckesachs, which somehow turns into a trident when not in use.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Raigh, Sophia, and Niime, the three dark magic users of the game. The last of these is the mother of Canas from the prequel, who is a strong believer in this trope.
* DespairEventHorizon: King Mordred of Etruria is sunk in a depression from the death of his son Mildain and is almost apathetic about what's happening to his country. [[spoiler:He gets better when Elphin the bard reveals that he is Mildain.]]
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** Due to ''The Blazing Blade'' being a prequel, there are several instances where characters are ignorant of elements that were also key plot points twenty years ago, although it's not difficult to rationalize things away given the time the heroes spend undercover, Canas' determination to keep the events ''out'' of the history books, and the fact that Eliwood would probably not want to talk about the painful events his InfinityPlusOneSword caused.
** In this game, there are no unpromoted classes capable of using light magic, something that isn't the case with the other types of magic. Later Game Boy Advance installments feature the monk class, which is an unpromoted class that uses light magic, essentially giving light magic an equivalent to mages and shamans.
* ElementalWeapon: The four physical Divine Weapons have epithets associated with a different element: Durandal the Blazing Blade, Armads the Thunder Axe, Maltet the Blizzard Spear, and Murgleis the Wind Bow.
* TheEmpire: The game kicks off when Bern, already a powerful and militaristic kingdom, decides it's going to rule over the whole continent and invades Lycia.
* {{Expy}}: Many of the characters strongly resemble characters from the first game. [[http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x198/pvpnk8/FE6and11comparison.png This is a rather good example]], [[http://www.serenesforest.net/general/relation.html as is this]].
* FaceOfAThug: Gonzales is an ugly character in a series that usually plays BeautyEqualsGoodness straight, but he's actually a kindhearted man who only associates with bandits because of his difficulty in being accepted anywhere else.
* FakingTheDead: It is revealed that [[spoiler:Zephiel]] did this after a failed assassination attempt in order to turn the tables on his would-be murderer, [[spoiler:King Desmond]]. This event is alluded to in the epilogue of ''The Blazing Blade''. [[spoiler:Prince Mildain of Etruria did likewise.]]
* FanRemake: A remake of ''The Binding Blade'' was made by a fan called Superluigi, which is built upon the ''The Blazing Blade'' engine (itself a slightly modified version of the original ''The Binding Blade'' engine) with a bit of content taken out but a lot more added.
* FantasticRacism: Bern mounts a genocidal campaign against the tribes of Sacae; Sue and Rutger are both witnesses to the atrocity.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture:
** Sacae: A far-eastern nation with a notable tradition of horseback riding and archery, and a traditional religion that worships the sky and earth. Clearly meant to be based upon Mongolia, with a dash of Japan (Myrmidons/Swordmasters clearly use katanas and those characters, especially Karel, are heavy with "wandering samurai" tropes).
** Etruria: Based on Medieval Rome: it is the seat of the Church of the game's resident CrystalDragonJesus and a nation with a high level of civilization. Notably, the real life civilization of Etruria was a state in what is now Central Italy which was conquered by Rome.
** Ilia: In real life, Ilia is the poetic name for the city-state of Troy. Very little is known about ancient Troy except for what is found in Greek epic poetry and medieval knightly romances, which is probably why the in-game Ilia is entirely populated by mercenaries and knights.
** Bern: Named after the capital of Switzerland. It may seem odd that the capital of a nation famed for neutrality would be the basis of a brutal, militaristic empire like Bern, but in the Middle Ages, Bern was a powerful and brutal city state that had conquered and ruled substantial parts of Switzerland and Continental Europe. Much like the in-game Bern, it was also famed for being mountainous and difficult to assail.
** Lycia: Based directly on the real-life Lycian League, a confederation of Roman city-states bound by agreement to assist each other in times of war. Much like in the game, the real life Lycian League had problems with member states not honoring the alliance or trying to sell each other out to larger, more powerful nations.
* TheFederation: The Lycian Alliance is a confederation of independent fiefdoms that unite militarily when faced with an outside threat. (In theory.) [[spoiler:In the end, it's united into a single country under Lilina and possibly Roy.]]
* GameMod: Fan translator gringe, who headed the development of the 2013 English translation patch, has made a hack that changes stats to more closely resemble those of later GBA installments. His translation is also included in the patch.
* TheGrotesque: Years of mistreatment had led Gonzales to genuinely think he's a monster, as he'd been rejected by villagers and used by his lord as a mindless pile of muscles only good for spreading havoc, until Lilina saw through his [[GentleGiant scary exterior]]. A rare [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] of BeautyEqualsGoodness in the series.
* GuideDangIt:
** Chapter 11A. It's technically possible to save all the houses, archers, and pegasus knights, but you have to have made your team really buff beforehand, make a reckless charge forward, and then a reckless charge back.
** Recruiting Douglas. He starts as an enemy and proactively attacks, and nobody can [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience turn him blue]] (including his prince and his adopted daughter). You have to capture the castle first.
* HiddenElfVillage: Arcadia, a small village protected by warriors and tucked away in the desert behind a big sandstorm. It's the only place humans and dragons live side-by-side since the Scouring.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: [[spoiler:Zephiel's firm belief in this is why he's able to gain allies in disaffected dragons.]] They believe that all of Elibe's suffering can be laid at mankind's doorstep, starting with The Scouring. As such, they want to purge the continent of them. And humans did strike the first blow in the Scouring after generations of peaceful coexistence.
* KarmaHoudini: Subverted with Erik. After helping his father's attempt to start a war in Lycia and kill Eliwood and Hector in ''The Blazing Blade'', he apparently [[CivilianVillain "reforms"]] and becomes the Marquess of Laus after his father's death. Years later he betrays Lycia ''[[TooDumbToLive again]]'', but this only leads to him getting killed by Roy.
* KissingCousins: ''Blazing Blade'' retroactively makes this a possibility for a Roy x Lilina pairing, as Florina or Farina might be Lilina's mother, and their sister Fiora might be Roy's.
* LaResistance:
** The freedom fighters of the Western Isles, trying to eject the government-sanctioned bandits that are forcing them into slavery.
** Cecilia also leads Loyalist forces against the coup in Etruria partway through the game.
* LastOfHisKind: Jahn claims to be the last dragon, even his battle theme is named after that fact. Technically, there are other dragons around, [[spoiler:but Idenn is not a "true" dragon since she became a Dark Dragon and the war dragons she created are not real dragons, either]]. However, there are dragons on the other side of the Gate and in Arcadia.
* LighterAndSofter: The art style, sprites, and battle animations when compared to all of the previous games in the series, especially the [[DarkerAndEdgier Jugdral series]]. Colourwise, this was actually justified because by the time these two games came out, the original UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance (the one without a frontlit or backlit screen) was still commonplace -- it made it easier to see. You can spot a change in ''The Sacred Stones'' gaining a more brown tone compared to these games, while still retaining the art style, though.
* TheLoad: Roy receives his promotion via story event very late in the game. It's not hard for him to ram level 20 ''long'' before this, so he can't fight or else the rest of the party loses experience.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: While this is par for the course in ''Fire Emblem'', ''The Binding Blade'' takes it UpToEleven. Most games give the player a couple of characters per class (e.g. two myrmidons, a couple of prepromotes) in case the player loses the first or prefers a different balance. This game has two separate cavalier/paladin squads, ''three'' armor knights, two prepromoted archers, three thieves... including the bonus characters, there are sixty-two playable characters.
* LuckBasedMission: Hard Mode. The early chapters can be terminated easily, if you don't like having your characters dead.
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: The Fire Dragons have ''wings made of fire''.
* PermanentlyMissableContent: If you don't meet the conditions to unlock the bonus chapters, you will never see the Divine Weapons, and failing to collect just one of them means you won't face the TrueFinalBoss.
* PerpetualStorm: Chapter 14 takes place in a desert with a perpetual sandstorm, which is supposed to protect the dragon-human settlement Arcadia from outsiders. Though the sandstorm does end on Turn 25.
* PolarOppositeTwins: Raigh and Lugh, respectively. The former sports a snarky grin and has a reputation for being cold and heartless, whereas the latter is kind and cheery. Both are potent [[BlackMage magic users]], though, with the former using dark magic and the latter using anima magic.
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Roy recruits two entire mercenary bands and gets several more independent ones. The first group was hired by Eliwood specifically to bolster Roy, the second had a contract with Hector and their leader decided Roy inherited their employ.
* TheQuisling: Etruria is turned into a puppet state for Bern after their king is struck with grief and then taken hostage. All of its generals except Cecilia obey Bern's orders, though they end up joining Roy's army one by one.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Roy's army, to varying degrees, thanks to the destruction or betrayal of his country's ''actual'' armed forces. As the game goes on he picks up mercenaries, orphans, thieves, defectors, and genuine veterans.
* RecurringElement: There are many aspects of ''The Binding Blade'' that are extremely similar to ''Mystery of the Emblem'', including some of the characters (Milady is a very blatant {{Expy}} of Minerva in terms of class, looks, and personality) and parts of the plot (mostly about Idenn being the "Dark Dragon", all of the liberation that Roy does). There are also plenty of differences, but it's one reason why its prequel is considered superior by many.
* RelationshipValues: ''The Binding Blade'' introduced the support system in its modern form, patterned after the marriage system from the fourth game. Certain characters build friendships or romance by ending turns next to each other, quickly for some and glacially slow for others.
* RoarBeforeBeating: A Brigand class character will let out a deafening roar before landing a critical blow. As they usually tend to be monstrous powerhouses only kept in check by their [[UnskilledbutStrong notorious inaccuracy]], you know [[OhCrap this is not going to be pretty]].
* RoyalRapier: [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Roy's rapier.]]
* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil: In Chapter 3, Zephiel, Idenn, and Narcian--all of them very powerful fighters--are all present at Araphen Castle. Idenn, the FinalBoss, offers to take out Roy's band of low-level fighters and mercenaries, but Zephiel declines and departs with her, leaving the matter to Narcian. ''He'' promptly turns the matter over to a low-level knight so he can lech on Clarine. This happens again in Chapter 13, but instead to a low-level Wyvern Lord and a large force of Etrurian cavalry.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Characters with official English names may have differing transliterations in Japanese materials, while characters without official names may be subject to even more inconsistent transliterations. For example, the first Myrmidon's name would more accurately transliterated as Rutger, which is the name used in both fan translations, but ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl''[[note]]Which also uses the name Nabaaru for the ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia'' character known as Navarre and Nabarl in the North American and European versions of ''Shadow Dragon'', respectively[[/note]] calls him Rutoga instead.
* StoryBranching: Roy goes through either Sacae or Ilia depending on whether or not your pair of nomads or pegasus knights, respectively, have higher cumulative experience. You also recruit different characters on each path--the leader of Sue and Shin's clan in Sacae, Thite and Shanna's older sister in Ilia.
* TimedMission: Apart from Durandal and Aureola, the Divine Weapons are found in bonus chapters that require you to win the previous battle within a certain number of turns. Otherwise the enemy goes and trashes the shrine they're housed in to keep you out.
* TurnCoat: After Hector's defeat at Araphen, Marquess Erik of Laus sides with Bern to avoid a similar fate. [[{{Irony}} This just gets him killed by Roy's army instead.]] A number of Ostian officers also turn against their country when Hector dies.
* TheUnpronounceable: In Fae's B support with Elphin:
--> '''Elphin''': Fae...the name has a unique feel to it. Is it your real name?
--> '''Fae''': No, Fae's real name is verrry long. But they say that it's a sound that humans can't hear. Fae's the only part that you can.
* UnwittingPawn: The Lycia Alliance army is sent to the Western Isles to fight "bandits," but their would-be foes are rebels who have very legitimate reasons for opposing the government. You are eventually informed the the reason for this "mission" is that the Etrurian official who gave it to you, Advisor Roartz, is TheQuisling.
* IHaveYourWife: King Mordred is held hostage by Bern forces [[spoiler:at the instigation of his TrecherousAdvisor, Roartz,]] to force Etruria's top generals to fight Roy's army.
* WeatherOfWar: Including a sandstorm that hinders movement ''and'' causes fog-of-war.
* WeHaveReserves: This repeatedly occurs with characters who are hired as mercenaries. Klain's soldiers suggest openly that they fling Thite's pegasus squad in as cannon fodder (which he refuses, one reason she likes him) and Dieck has some horror stories about employers using people like him as bait for enemy forces.
* TheWorfEffect: The Lycian Alliance is thoroughly routed in the first few chapters of the game, with Hector of Ostia dying of his wounds. It's [[HarsherInHindsight all the more dire]] if you played ''The Blazing Blade'' first and have firsthand experience of Hector's badassery.
* WrittenByTheWinners: The Scouring, a brutal war between humans and dragons, was started by humans after generations of peaceful coexistence. The eight human generals are now revered as the "Eight Legendary Heroes," with one even having a religion dedicated to her.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Roy leads Pherae's soldiers in his father's stead, but Hector places him in charge of the entirety of Lycia's loyal forces (such as they are) after being mortally wounded by Zephiel.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tropes in ''The Blazing Blade'']]
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: '''El'''iwood and his parents, '''El'''bert and '''El'''eanora.
* AlasPoorVillain: Quite a few examples, actually. Even some villains who seem ''really'' nasty are revealed to have sympathetic qualities upon dying, such as [[spoiler:Limstella]].
** Lloyd and Linus. You fight one before the other, the first one is always misled into thinking you're a gang of corrupt nobles and evil people (who the Black Fang was originally founded to combat) but upon finding out you aren't, begin to question the leadership of the Black Fang, and refuse to fight you through underhanded methods and do ''not'' want to hurt any non-combatants. They don't join you because they had to do some thinking, but [[spoiler:are killed by Limstella for their quintessence]]. The other is similarly misled because they think [[YouKilledMyFather you killed their brother]]. If you especially want this trope, have Nino attack them...
*** [[spoiler:Their morphs in the last chapter]] just make things even worse.
* AlliterativeName: Durandal is better known as the '''Bl'''azing '''Bl'''ade.
* AnAxeToGrind: Hector's collection of awesome axes.
* AnotherSideAnotherStory: Hector Mode.
* AntiCavalry: Longswords, Horseslayers, and Halberds. The Lords' starting weapons also count.
* AntiMagic: Kishuna the Magic Seal creates a 10-by-10 tile void where tomes and staves are useless.
** LoopholeAbuse: Players and enemies alike can still cast spells into the zone if they're outside, though.
* AntiVillain: The majority of the original Black Fang is revealed to be manipulated by Sonia into doing Nergal's bidding and was once a force of good.
* ArmorPiercingAttack: Armorslayers, Heavy Spears, and Hammers. The Lords' starting weapons also count.
* ArrangedMarriage: Desmond and Hellene had one; Marquess Araphen and Madelyn were going to have one [[RebelliousPrincess before she eloped with a nomad.]]
* ArtificialStupidity: An example where it's actually exploitable by the player. The enemies are programmed to pick on weaker foes - so during the chapters where you have a set of third-party allies on the map who're ''always'' weaker than your characters (and usually unable to do more than simply [[CherryTapping cherry tap]] the enemies at best), the AI will prioritize them.
** Enemies will also prioritize allies that can't fight back... cue players stripping [[CrutchCharacter Marcus]] of all weapons and using him as an extremely durable meatshield for the first part of the game.
** Lastly, enemies will always go after the nearest lord. If it's Hector, expect them to take a while chipping down his health.
* AwesomeButImpractical: The S-rank weapons in the final chapter are too heavy to use compared to their effect. High Mag combined with Luna does better than any of the legendary tomes.
** Plus, you get them in the final chapter, with almost no enemies worth using them on.
** The Sol Katti in particular. Sure, it ''looks'' cool, being a {{BFS}} RoyalRapier larger than Lyn herself... until you realize that it's too unwieldy on Lyn's FragileSpeedster frame to double attack, something her fighting style depends on.
** Debatedly, Assassins. That one in three instant kill is promising; but it comes with drawbacks. Promoting either Matthew or Legault robs them of their thieving ability (though thankfully Assassins can still use lockpicks) and hurts your final funds ranking. The other issue is supports. Matthew would get the best supports and would make a great assassin if he ever touches his strength stat enough (if not, he's either killing or doing no damage). Legault falls right in the middle, but is a bit too sluggish and frail to be on the lines fighting. Finally, Jaffar while prepromoted and able to hold his own in a fight lacks a lot of support options, two of whom are the aforementioned thieves (that take a GODAWFUL amount of turns to support up) or Nino who comes in at a level 5 mage. Many usually go without the assassin; but for those who are able to put in the work or be blessed by the RNG may find Assassins DifficultButAwesome.
*** On the other hand, though, there's only one way to easily get the Fell Contract (the promotion item for thieves), and it's in a missable gaiden chapter where you fight [[ThatOneBoss Sonia]]. A secret shop in Chapter 30 (Eliwood)/Chapter 32 (Hector) also sells them, but they go for a whopping 50,000 gold each. Due to this, you can promote one and keep the other for thieving purposes, depending on whether Matthew or Legault came out better during a run.
* BabiesEverAfter: Most of the future heroes from ''Binding Blade'' get a mention in the epilogues. A young Roy and Lilina even have cameos during the last cutscene.
* BadAssArmy: You will end up with one of these by the end of the game, if not long before (assuming that the RandomNumberGod doesn't screw you over) when everyone is finally at level 20 promoted.
* BadassBookworm: Canas in particular, although most mages qualify. Nino subverts it, as she's illiterate (and yet ironically is the most badass of them all if you have the patience to train her up).
* BadassLongcoat: Raven and Linus (Heroes), and Lloyd (Swordmaster). Both are custom sprites, by the way. Because they're ''that'' awesome.
* BadassPreacher: His poor stats aside, [[spoiler:Renault used to be a highly skilled fighter, and is implied to have gathered many bodies for Nergal's morph experiments. He became a bishop in an attempt to atone for his past actions.]]
** FridgeBrilliance: [[spoiler:His poor magic stat stems from the fact that he spent most of his life as a weapon-user. Units with both a "Strength" stat and a "Magic" stat don't exist in the GBA games, but if they did, his Strength would probably be abnormally high for his class. This also explains why his Defense is almost as high as his Resistance.]]
* {{BFS}}: Durandal is about the same length as Eliwood's horse. And he holds it with ''one hand''.
** FridgeBrilliance: No wonder the damn thing slows him down so much!
* BiTheWay: Legault insinuates as such.
* BittersweetEnding: Reading the epilogue about all the characters after the final level really feels this way if you let a lot of them die...
** Even without any casualties, ''The Blazing Blade'' still has a bittersweet ending. [[spoiler:Sure, the Dragon Gate is closed, Nergal's mad schemes have been put to rest for good, and Eliwood and Hector went on to rule Pherae and Ostia for fifteen or twenty years... but Bern's royal family is still royally screwed up, Athos and Bramimond are dead (not that anyone missed Bramimond, but still...), all of those Robin Hood types from the Black Fang have been killed or scattered to the winds, and fifteen short years later, a new tyrant sits on Bern's throne...]]
*** Not to mention that [[spoiler:Ninian either has to say goodbye forever to the man she loves, or to her brother; and either way in turn, Nils ''won't'' ever see any of the new friends the two of them made ever again.]]
*** Priscilla has three potential love interests and a large slew of male characters for her supports, [[spoiler:but the only one she can actually end up marrying is Erk. The other two (Guy and Heath) wind up leaving her due to class differences (Guy is a nomad, Heath's a mercenary from Bern, while Erk studied under noblemen). In both, she winds up crying.]] Good grief.
*** Without support grades to change their ending, the following disappear and are never seen again: [[spoiler:Dart, Raven, Renault, and Jaffar.]]
*** Matching up your supports in particular ways can lead to the worst possible endings. [[spoiler:Get Ninian with Eliwood, and it's implied she dies. If Nino gets with Erk, they both disappear. In Karel and Dart's supports in Binding Blade, it's impliied that Karel killed Vaida. If Vaida got with Heath, then he probably died alongside her. Priscilla's issues are mentioned above, and finally, if Isadora gets with Renault, then she ends up in a covenant, and if she gets with Legault then they end up fighting each other in battle.]] Cheers to a happy ending!
** For those DoomedByCanon, see the entry below.
* BondVillainStupidity: Even after claiming the InfinityPlusOneSword and the help of the EleventhHourRanger Athos, our heroes are still no match for BigBad Nergal. Too bad he just teleported in and is about to grab the girl he needs to take over the world. Oh, no, wait. Nergal simply leaves after [[NothingCanStopUsNow declaring his invincibility]] and delivering a ReasonYouSuckSpeech.
* BookEnds: [[spoiler:If one reaches maximum support level between Eliwood and Ninian, the story ends the same way the two of them are introduced in Lyndis' story: Eliwood holding Ninian in a BridalCarry. They even provide the image for the trope page RescueRomance.]]
* BossBonanza: ''The Blazing Blade'' pits you in the final chapter against NINE bosses, though not all at once, thankfully. And when you're done, you fight the FinalBoss, though that's ''technically'' another stage. Otherwise, you face one or ''maybe'' two bosses per chapter, tops.
* BossRush: Nergal resurrects and super charges 8 Bosses, releasing them one per round. You must defeat them all before you can challenge Nergal. [[VisibleSilence Their death quotes]] [[ICannotSelfTerminate imply you are]] [[AndIMustScream putting them out of their misery.]]
** DualBoss: Lloyd and Linus are super pumped during the BossRush and challenge you simultaneously. Also ThatOneBoss due to their insane equipment and their A-level support with one another. Ursula and Jerme are also Dual Bosses, albeit not nearly as frustrating since Jerme doesn't come at you wielding anything unusual (in fact, his weapon choice is ''downright stupid'').
** Interestingly, two of the bosses you fight during this BossRush (Jerme and Kenneth) were mutually exclusive when you fought one of them earlier, so for the first playthrough, you'll most likely think "Wait... who's ''that'' guy?"
* BrotherSisterIncest: Less blatant than the 4th game, but present in the form of Priscilla, who made a marriage promise to her brother Raymond[[spoiler:/Raven]]. In this case, [[spoiler:Raven]] doesn't accept this, thankfully.
* BrokenRecord: Denning is a [[{{Golem}} Morph]] made to repeat the message "This is a message from Lord Nergal. "I await you on the Dread Isle"". This makes him [[EnsembleDarkhorse one of the more popular characters]] [[MemeticMutation for some reason.]]
* CallForward: Plenty of them exist in ''The Blazing Blade'', they tend not to make sense to overseas players, as ''Binding Blade'' never got released outside Japan.
** If you have Lyn attack Uhai, he mentions Nergal sending "That woman". He means [[spoiler:Sonia]].
* CannotSpitItOut: The basis of [[ShrinkingViolet Florina]]'s support conversations with Hector.
* ChivalrousPervert: Sain.
* TheComputerIsALyingBastard: Nils' augury for chapter 30 recommends both moving as a group and avoiding entering the temples strewn across the map. Moving as a group will essentially result in being surrounded, moving in three separate groups being far more practical, and the temples contain a few stat boosting items and ''a playable unit''. Thanks for nothing, Nils.
* CrashIntoHello: Hector meets Florina, one of his possible love interests, when she plummets out of the sky and he winds up breaking her fall... and that of her pegasus.
* CrouchingScholarHiddenBadass: Don't let the monocle fool you, Canas will be nearly unstoppable once he reaches Druid form.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Canas will remind people that Shamans study ''ancient'' magic, not ''dark'' magic, but he also knows firsthand that the forces he's handling are extremely dangerous and must be treated with caution. [[spoiler:His three brothers succumbed to it, and ended up as {{Empty Shell}}s.]]
** [[GoodPowersBadPeople Kenneth is]] [[LightIsNotGood not Good.]]
** [[BigBad Nergal]] understood this at first, [[AllThereInTheManual but when he needed a massive power boost to rescue his family]], he gave in to the Dark Side.
* TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget: Despite the above, every practitioner of dark magic suffers from this, or at least risks it:
** Canas lost his brothers because of it and knows that he may lose himself as well.
** Teodor knows the risks perfectly well and ''deliberately pursues the forgetfulness''.
** Bramimond has no personality of its own and simply mimics the personality of those to whom it converses. Athos even considers it to have NoBiologicalSex anymore. Subverted in that Bramimond does remember who Athos is, though.
** Nergal... well, by the time he got the above-mentioned power boost, he had forgotten all about his family.
* DeadGuyOnDisplay: When Eliwood's party arrives on the Dread Isle, Ephidel leaves [[spoiler:Leila]]'s corpse in the forest for them to find.
* DefectorFromDecadence: Why some recruitable characters leave the enemy side. Legault left the Black Fang because he was forced to [[spoiler:kill a wounded member of their team he cared about]] and Heath left his mercenary company because he refused to kill women and children (in your party).
* DetectEvil: Nils and Ninian have the strange ability to sense impending danger, but can't do much about it. It's the first sign that that they're not... normal.
* DidNotGetTheGirl: Marquess Araphen's fiancee eloped with a Sacaean nomad. Needless to say, that made Marquess Araphen ''extremely'' bitter, [[FantasticRacism especially towards Sacaeans.]]
* DyingAsYourself: The reanimated boss morphs you fight in the final chapter all regain their color and smile right before dying.
* DiscOneFinalDungeon: Chapter 19 of ''The Blazing Blade''. The whole first half of the game leads up to a showdown with Darin, who you kill, and Ephidel, [[spoiler:who then gets [[TheUnfought unceremoniously sucked into the Dragon's Gate and presumably slaughtered by a dragon]] when the ''real'' BigBad makes his intentions and ability known]]. If you take Sain into the battle, he has some special dialogue at the start about [[GenreBlind how he and the others think this is the final battle]] and how he'll slay Darin ForGreatJustice.
* DontMakeMeDestroyYou: See MuggingTheMonster below.
* DoomedByCanon: [[spoiler:Nino, Jaffar, and possibly Erk are killed by bounty hunters or are in hiding. Roy's mother is implied to have died giving birth to Roy, meaning this can either be Fiora, Ninian, or Lyndis. Whoever Hector marries is never mentioned in Binding Blade, and the possibilities include Florina, Farina, and (again) Lyn. Karla dies of illness some time after giving birth to Fir. Canas dies trying to stop a blizzard, and his son is raised by his grandmother -- both appear in ''The Binding Blade''. Not to mention, the Black Fang. Hector dies onscreen in ''The Binding Blade'', and he's actually told that he'll die a violent death for taking Armands; furthermore, outside sources say Oswin dies in the same battle, protecting Hector. Athos and Bramminond don't make it to ''The Binding Blade''. Rath's grandfather and daughter are both in ''The Binding Blade'', but neither of them mentions him, implying the worst. Nino is on the run, regardless if she's married or not in her endings, and her sons mention that the priest who ran the orphanage they were in was killed -- in Lucius' ending, he starts an orphanage, so it's possible that he died as well. Given her loyalty to Bern and Zephiel, and the fact that she never appears in ''The Binding Blade'', it's not looking great for Vaida, and possibly Heath as well.]] This has a lesser impact on western players who never got ''The Binding Blade''
** Ninian is the worst example, as her [[spoiler: death at the hands of Eliwood]] comes after a fairly easy chapter with no difficult conversations, only for Nergal to appear out of nowhere and ruin any joy in the epilogue.
* DualWielding: Assassins and their daggers. However; they wield swords instead.
** Apparently Pirates do this with axes, then promptly drop it for a gigantic battle ax when promoted to Berserkers.
* DubNameChange: A few of the character's names, and Caelin is named Ciaran in the Japanese version. The European version also changes Ostia, Laus, and Bern (all of which are the names of real-life cities in Europe) to Ositia, Lahus, and Biran... except on the map scenes, where they're still called Ostia, Laus, and Bern.
* DudeLooksLikeALady: Lucius actually [[UnsettlingGenderReveal confused Serra]] and [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Sain]]. He later received [[{{Expy}} expies]] in ''Awakening'' and ''Fates'' who had the same effect that he did on Serra.
* DutchAngle: A few pictures in this game have a tilted "camera angle," [[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/VincentASM/Site/FE7/03.png such]][[http://smg.photobucket.com/user/VincentASM/media/Site/FE7/08.png.html as]] [[http://smg.photobucket.com/user/VincentASM/media/Site/FE7/47.png.html these]].
* EarlyBirdCameo: Hector makes a short, plot-unrelated appearance in Lyndis' story.
** Ursula also makes a short appearance in Lyndis' story, as does Renault towards the middle of the main story. (You don't recruit Renault until very late in the game.)
** Isadora also has a ''very'' brief appearance in the first chapter of Eliwood's story, before he sets out.
* EarnYourBadEnding: To get the "Bad" ending (Suspect Mind), you need to complete the game with an overall D or E rank, which requires you to get less than 200 points total [[http://serenesforest.net/blazing-sword/miscellaneous/rankings/tables/ from the bottom table on this page]], which is actually harder than it sounds.
* EgocentricTeamNaming: Lyndis' Legion (although it was Wil who came up with the name).
** The fandom has [[FanNickname unofficially]] done the same for the other Lords, such as [[EliteArmy Eliwood's Elite]] and [[TheHorde Hector's Horde]].
* EleventhHourRanger: [[spoiler:Athos]] joins your party before the final chapter.
** EleventhHourSuperPower: Even better, said ranger comes with legendary weapons for each of the Lords plus some extremely powerful weapons for [[GenderNeutralWriting itself]].
* EliteFour: The Four Fangs of ''The Blazing Blade'', who are most elite members of the Black Fang, each with their own RedBaron titles - [[LadyOfBlackMagic Ursula "the Blue Crow"]], [[TheStoic Lloyd Reed "the White Wolf"]], [[HotBlooded Linus Reed "the Mad Dog"]], and [[{{Tykebomb}} Jaffar "the Angel of Death"]], all of whom report to Brandon Reed, the boss of the Black Fang. Furthermore, the game shows that membership in the Four Fangs is not static, as former Four Fangs members [[PsychoForHire Jerme the Death Kite]] (demoted due to Jaffar being a better assassin) and [[TheSociopath Pascal Grentzer the Crazed Beast]] ([[EvenEvilHasStandards ousted due to being too ruthless]]) make appearances, as well.
* {{Elopement}}: Lyndis's parents did this in the backstory to ''The Blazing Blade''. Her mother, Lady Madelyn, was the daughter of the Marquis of Caelin. Her father, Hassar, was the leader of the Lorca Tribe, one of the three tribes of Sacae, a group of nomadic people. In order to stay together, Madelyn left Caelin to live with her lover on the Sacaen plains.
* [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas Even Bad Men Love Their Daughters]]: King Desmond towards [[MoralityPet Guinivere]]. Somewhat subverted by the fact that he apparently believes himself to be the ''only'' one allowed to love her.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Uhai holds Lyn hostage, but only to deliver a message to the enemy so they won't shoot him, and to make himself look like a more vicious opponent. Even though he could have easily killed her, he lets her go because he says it is shameful to hold hostages during battle. When he dies, he tells the party the way to the Dragon's Gate.
** The Ganelon Bandits are disgusted by the way the Taliver bandits work. And they are even offended when you ask if they belong to them.
*** Note that they are disgusted by the Taliver bandits' practice of wastefully killing women, rather than profitably selling them into slavery. So Evil has standards, but the standards themselves [[ShapedLikeItself are pretty Evil.]]
** [[spoiler:Even such a ruthless assassin as Jaffar balked at the way Sonia treated Nino.]]
* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: Almost every critical animation does this with the characters' weapons (or in the Warrior's case, ''themselves'').
* {{Facepalm}}: Kent when Sain introduces himself to Florina, [[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/VincentASM/Site/FE7/04.png as shown here]].
* FantasticRacism: The Sacaeans are treated poorly by most of Elibe's other countries due to both their nomadic lifestyle and their intensive pride. This becomes a point of contempt for Lyn during her story, and in her supports with Eliwood, she expresses fear of being ousted in Caelin's court due to her mixed blood.
* FiveBadBand:
--> BigBad: Nergal
--> CoDragons: Limstella & Jaffar
--> TheEvilGenius: Sonia
--> TheCorrupter: Ephidel
--> TheDarkChick: Kishuna
--> TheBrute: Denning
--> SixthRangerTraitor: [[spoiler:Jaffar]]
* FiveManBand: Several (with [[HelloInsertNameHere Mark (The Tactician)]] as MissionControl), depending on which route you're on (the following are probably the clearest examples):
% Lyn's Story ("Lyndis' Legion") -
--> TheHeroine: Lyn
--> TheLancer: Kent
--> TheBigGuy: Sain
--> TheSmartGuy: Wil
--> TheChick: Florina and Serra
--> TheSixthRanger: Matthew
--> The [[TagalongKid Tagalong Kid]]s: Nils & Ninian
% Eliwood's Story -
--> TheHero: Eliwood
--> TheLancer: Hector
--> TheSmartGirl: Lyn
--> TheBigGuy: Marcus
--> TheChick: Ninian
--> TagalongKid: Nils
--> TheSixthRanger: [[spoiler:Athos]]
% Hector's Story -
--> TheHero: Hector
--> TheLancer: Eliwood
--> TheBigGuy: Oswin
--> TheSmartGirl: Lyn
--> TheChick: Ninian
--> TagalongKid: Nils
--> TheSixthRanger: [[spoiler:Athos]]
* FogOfWar
* ForcedTutorial: ''The Blazing Blade'', the first game in the series released outside Japan, contained "Lyn's Tale", an unskippable ten-chapter prologue to the main quest that [[ExpositionBreak explained the game's mechanics in excruciating detail]], complete with forced moves and luck manipulation. Japanese veterans of the series were none too pleased with it (though linking the game to ''Binding Blade'' allowed you to skip the tutorials), and western players who had read the manual routinely curse it as well. Later games made the tutorials optional, and replaying Lyn's quest in "Hard Mode" allows the player to ignore the tutorials (though you lose Sain's dialog to a female tactician), with the option to skip Lyn's mode entirely (not recommended, but possible).
* ForegoneConclusion: Many characters are the parents of people who appear in ''Binding Blade'', yet were never mentioned by their kids. To handle this, the WhereAreTheyNow epilogue mentions several characters were killed offscreen in between games. DoomedByCanon indeed.
** [[MemeticMutation Canas was killed by continuity errors!]]
** Hector swears to protect his children until the day he dies. Early on in ''Binding Blade'', Roy meets a dying Hector.
** We learn the Bern royal family is having...[[DysfunctionJunction trouble,]] but after Eliwood saves their life, they promise to try to make amends. Yeah, that didn't turn out well.
*** To make things clear, the dad tries to kill the prince many times and almost succeeds, the embittered prince kills his dad, locks up his little sister, sets out to take over the world. And nobody knows what happened to his mom.
* FragileSpeedster: Lyn on a typical playthrough depends on dodging and landing double attacks. If the RandomNumberGod is generous, she'll end up as a GlassCannon as well, or even a LightningBruiser instead.
* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Pent and Louise are happily married. They also start with an A support ranking because of it. [[spoiler:If one of them falls, the other permanently leaves the party too in order to help the other off the battlefield and the two return home.]]
* GayOption: [[YaoiFangirl Some]] [[YuriFan people]] see quite a few of these, such as Legault for Heath, Kent for Sain, Florina for Lyn, and Lucius for Raven. The latter two are strongly hinted at even outside of supports. However, none of them are explicit, and there are het pairings for all of these characters, etc. Interestingly, despite the common pairing of Raven/Lucius, Lucius possesses a rather cute ''het'' option with Serra as well (though no common ending). The same could be said for all the other pairings listed getting ''straight'' options. Regardless, the game, even outside of supports, strongly has hints of Raven/Lucius and Lyn/Florina, which is why those two pairings are the two most popular pairings regarded by [[YaoiFangirl the]] [[YuriFan fans]].
* GenkiGirl: Subverted with Serra, who acts genki but is more of a StepfordSmiler. Rebecca is more of the real deal. Nino also acts rather Genki in some of her supports.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Played with; most characters follow conventions, but Brendan, the leader of the Black Fang, has noble intentions despite being on the opposing side and evil in appearance.
* GreyAndGreyMorality: This almost borders to WhiteAndGreyMorality in a couple occasions. Several Black Fang bosses are indeed bad people, ''especially'' Pascal (his chapter is called Crazed Beast for a reason). However, Uhai [[EvenEvilHasStandards is above taking hostages, especially a Sacean woman]]. Lloyd, Linus, and Ursula likewise are not bad people, and Jaffar certainly looks evil at first until you recruit him. [[FaceHeelTurn Darin]], [[PsychoForHire Jerme]], and [[FatBastard Kenneth]] are clear cut assholes[[spoiler:, but it's heavily implied that [[BigBad Ner]][[TheCorruption gal]] had influenced them into doing what they did or becoming who they are by the time you meet them. This especially seems the case when they are resurrected as Morphs.]] Hell, Nergal takes the cake when it comes to the most despicable villains[[spoiler: [[TragicVillain and the most tragic of them all]]]].
* GuideDangIt:
** Many of the [[SideQuest gaiden chapters]] require you to complete a chapter in a set amount of turns or to visit a certain village, but Chapter 19xx is notorious for having very strange ones: Leveling your SpoonyBard to level 7 (which means LevelGrinding and lots of it) on your second playthrough of Lyn's tale (see ForcedTutorial above) and killing the BonusBoss in Chapter 19x (itself a SideQuest).
** There's also a [[SideQuest gaiden chapter]] unlocked by making sure your party gets a certain amount of experience while the enemy throws itself at a OneManArmy NPC, and the boss for one chapter is determined by the total EXP of your [[TheBigGuy Fighters]] versus your [[WhiteMage Clerics]] and [[BlackMage Mages]].
** On a similar note, while you will inevitably fight and kill both of the Reed brothers, the game uses a somewhat obscure method to determine which one you fight first: The combined levels of your three Lords.
** Of all the characters in the game. Karla has a particularly obscure recruitment method. You need to be on Hector's Story, you need to bring Bartre to "Battle Preparations" (the optional shopping trip before the final battle), and ''he needs to be promoted and at least Lv 5''. Do all this and she appears on the map, and you have to have them fight, with ''both'' surviving a round of combat (which parctically requires Bartre to hold the Iron Rune since Karla is a [[CriticalHitClass Swordmaster]]). This makes sense if you've played ''Binding Blade'', where Bartre joined as a Warrior (albeit only at level 2) and had a daughter with Karla, but since that game was NoExportForYou, Western fans were left with no hints to this recruitment.
** Good luck finding the Secret Shops and all their incredibly useful wares without a guide (though at least these are actually supposed to be secret, and they do have a slightly different map tile to indicate that they are there). Or for that matter, the locations of treasure on the desert map.
** Good luck getting the promotional items for pirates (Ocean Seal) and thieves (Fell Contract); the former's hidden in the sand in Chapter 23, while the latter's obtained by beating Sonia in a gaiden chapter. You can buy them later...from a secret shop, in Chapter 30(E)/32(H), and they go for 50,000 gold ''each.''
** Some of the rankings mechanics are not as obvious as they look. For example, the "Funds" ranking is ''not'' just how much cash you have on hand; it counts the value of all items in your possession too, right down to their their number of uses left. (The ''buying'' value of your items, not the selling value; if you sell that White Gem for 10,000 gold, you actually lose 10,000 gold.) Have fun getting an S rank without knowing that...
* HateSink: Nergal and his minions are evil, sure, but even they have their fans and [[spoiler: Nergal has a fairly sympathetic backstory if you jump through hoops to get the secret sidequest mentioned above]]. The Black Fang are ultimately sympathetic despite their terrible deeds. But pretty much the entire fandom wants King Desmond dead. Want explanation? Here's a rundown... [[spoiler:shall we say that ''if'' he got over his loser complex, then Zephiel wouldn't be driven to misanthropy and turn out to be a good King, thereby averting the events of ''Sword of Seals'' and the deaths of many innocents ''and Hector''. Yep, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Desmond actually caused the horrible war and the deaths of many favorites by being a horrible father to Zephiel.]]]]
* HelloInsertNameHere: The tactician.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Lyn and Florina, Hector and Eliwood, Raven and Lucius, Sain and Kent... there's a long list. See HoYay for how fans have taken it...
* HonorBeforeReason: Sacaens supposedly never lie or break a promise, ever.
* HopelessBossFight: Subverted with Vaida. She has her stats buffed to max in the chapter she appears as a boss, but she can be defeated by highly leveled units with an A-support level. She can also be rendered an easy kill by using the Mine Glitch [[note]]lay down a mine, wait for an enemy to walk on it, then reset the game. Upon resuming, all enemies are controllable for one turn[[/note]] to take her Spear (her weapon is the source of all her overpowered stats) though killing her means that [[CaptainObvious you can't recruit her later]].
** Doubly subverted with Fargus in The Port of Badon. He can be defeated with enough Arena Abuse BUT no matter how the fight goes, the very act of attacking him gives you a NonStandardGameOver, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero since he is your ride to the Dread Isle]].
* IAmNotLeftHanded: Hector, arguably. Through almost all of the game, he only uses his right hand to cleave through just about everything in his path. When he equips [[spoiler:Armads,]] he switches to his left...and swings it like it's nothing. Eliwood and cavaliers in general also switch hands after promotion (Eliwood from right-handed to left-handed, cavaliers from left-handed to right-handed) with no discernible effect.
* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: Dread Isle.
* InformedAttractiveness: Lyn is repeatedly stated by numerous characters to be extremely beautiful, despite definitely being so, this being [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters Fire Emblem]], there are many other female characters who are far above average in the looks department.
** Eliwood mentions Lyn's Sacaen heritage, that she's "striking" -- so perhaps it's something in her movement or her complexion. Her battle animations are decidedly elegant.
* InformedAttribute: General Bauker of Laus is allegedly not such a bad guy, according to the [=NPCs=], but he never displays any sympathetic traits or a hint of regret for the sack of Caelin. Made particularly jarring since his commanding officer Bernard, the boss of the very next level, accepts his own death as justice for Laus's brutality.
* [[spoiler:InterspeciesRomance: Eliwood and Ninian, even if the latter is a dragon disguised as a woman.]]
* IslandOfMystery: The Dread Isle again. Investigating it is one of the main points of the game.
* JackOfAllStats: Kent, Sain, and Lowen, the cavaliers of the game, all fall into this category, with certain specialties emerging from otherwise-balanced stats; Kent has the best skill and speed, Sain has the best strength, and Lowen has the best defenses. Eliwood serves as this role among the three lords, although with Fire Emblem's mostly luck-based level-up system, care must be taken to avoid letting him end up a MasterOfNone.
* [[LastOfHisKind Last of Her Kind]]: Twofold for Lyn: she, along with ten or so escapees, is the last of Sacae's Lorca Tribe (they were slaughtered by bandits months before the game proper begins), and she becomes the sole member of House Caelin - if not before the game's end, then not too long afterwards. In regards to the latter, her mother was the sole heiress before running away from home and died six months before Lyn's story begins; her grandfather, Caelin's marquess, had to deal with his own younger brother poisoning him for months to obtain the throne, and was brutally stabbed almost a year later - though he received treatment for both and survived from both his willpower and robustness, he'd still be close to sixty if not older and the damage to his body would have taken its toll until he finally expired sometime before or during the epilogue.
* LeeroyJenkins: Certain [=NPCs=] (recruitable or not) will run in and attack the first enemy they see no matter how suicidal it is. Watch as Erk the squishy mage picks a fight with a decent-sized army if left to his own devices.
** The AI ''in general'' is this; unless specifically programmed not to, it will ''always'' attack if it's able to.
** Mercifully averted with Zephiel, who's smart enough to stay put and use cover in the form of a pillar tile, and other mission-critical people. Although Zephiel will, for some reason, ''[[SubvertedTrope leave his cover and stay there]]'' if he uses an Elixir ([[DoubleSubversion but he might just move onto another pillar]]).
* {{Leitmotif}}: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zu9kRwekxc Lyn]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQp7ekauEGc Eliwood]], and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPqYXkG3ecg Hector]] each have one, although technically they're variations of the same theme, of which you will hear plenty in this game.
* LightningBruiser: Don't let Hector's armor fool you, he's quite fast in addition to being strong and and well-armored. Lyn also tends towards this as a hard-hitting speedster, although her lack of armor means she could also be a GlassCannon depending on how the RandomNumberGod smiles on you.
** Other classes in general count too, especially mounted and flying ones who have sturdy attacks and defenses and unrivaled movement speed.
* TheLoad: Whoever your main lord is before they get the item that promotes them in Cog of Destiny. It's very possible for them to hit level 20 well before Cog of Destiny (this is usually the case), and then they can't gain any experience, so you have ''good reason'' to not let them fight.
* LongLostRelative: [[spoiler:It's all but stated that Nergal is Ninian and Nils' father, with the biggest hint being his extended death quote, which you can only get by doing an extremely obscure sidequest in Hector's Hard mode. In it, he mentions the children's mother Aenir. Other relatives are Dart, who is Rebecca's long-lost brother Dan, Priscilla's brother Raymond is Raven, and it's strongly hinted that Canas is Nino's uncle]]. The main plot of Lyn's story has her discovering an entire long-lost ''side of her family'', as she was unaware of her Lycian heritage until she met Sain and Kent. To compound this, she and her elderly grandfather are the only members of House Caelin left when her story ends, [[spoiler:and then ''he'' passes away after the main story and regardless of Lyn's fate (which can involve either staying in Lycia via marriage or returning to the Sacae Plains), she requests Caelin be folded into Ostia.]]
* LordBritishPostulate: Fargus. Although an enemy, fighting him is implied to be [[CurbStompBattle rather a bad idea]], and to end the chapter, all anyone has to do is talk to him. However, it is quite possible to kill him, especially with an arena on the same map that can used to bring a member of your party up to his level. It's still rather a bad idea, as killing or even attacking Fargus will still result in a NonstandardGameOver.
** Vaida in "Unfulfilled Heart" is similar; although you don't get a NonstandardGameOver for attacking her, you don't gain anything but a regular boss amount of EXP from it either, and you won't be able to recruit her in "Cog of Destiny."
* LostInTranslation: [[spoiler:Nergal's wife, Aenir, who is also Nils and Ninian's mother]], is mentioned by name exactly twice, and both are mistranslated. In the first mention, the name of a person is treated like the name of a place, and in the second, a completely unrelated word is accidentally substituted because the Japanese words are similar. This made it considerably more difficult for English-speaking players to figure out the connection.
* LoveAtFirstPunch: Bartre met his future wife Karla when she beat the crap out of him in an arena (or vice versa), gradually falling for her when they meet again much later.
** Also, Lyndis was almost hit by Hector swinging his axe around and then she told him so. That was the start of their SlapSlapKiss.
* LuckBasedMission:
** In Battle Before Dawn, there's no physical way to reach Jaffar in time to guarantee that he will live on any mode, but especially Hector Hard Mode. If the enemies kill him before he can use his Elixir, then he dies, meaning you don't get a side chapter ([[CaptainObvious and you can't recruit him]]). In fact, Zephiel, who you [[EscortMission need to protect]], can be killed 3 turns before you can ''get to the area''.
** Attempting to defeat Kishuna in "Prisoner of Magic" can be tough. He has an incredible health, good defense, enough Evasion to ensure that ''nobody'' at this point in the game except Lyn, Eliwood, and Guy will have more than a 50% chance to hit him at all, and is a living AntiMagic field. He won't fight back, but you have to take out every last hitpoint in a single turn or he'll disappear. While you aren't required to kill him to proceed with the game, you ''do'' have to kill him to reach Chapter 19xx.
** Even more so trying to kill him in "Genesis", where he retreats as soon as you attack him or open the door to his chamber. (And his position makes him impossible to hit with anything other than a Longbow, though in Hector's Story he at least moves around enough to be within range of a regular ranged weapon.) This time, though, you aren't actually supposed to defeat him, and there's nothing lost if he retreats rather than being defeated.
** Chapter 11 in Hector's story involves Hector and Matthew sneaking out of a castle while being pursued by assassins. There are only two of you and over a dozen of them. Good strategy helps, but a lot of the mission is praying you don't get screwed by the RNG.
* MageKiller: Pegasus Knights are very good at this by having abnormally high resistance for a weapon-using class and having superior movement. Eliwood also sets himself apart from Hector and Lyn with a rather high resistance growth for a physical unit (it's common for even your strongest physical units to have less than 10 res points mid-game, when Eliwood will usually have around 10-15).
* MagikarpPower: Nino is infamous for this: she comes at a low level very late in the game, but train her up and she'll be able to blow away anything that comes her way. Also a case of LamarckWasRight: one character mentions that Nino's family is filled with extremely skilled magic users, including Nino's own sons, Lugh and Raigh, in ''The Binding Blade''.
** Most units that you get at level 1 qualify for this, though to less infuriating extents. Beginners are often nonplussed at how weak Rebecca and Florina are at first, but veterans know to train them up and really achieve impressive results.
* MasterOfNone: Eliwood can be like this, if the RNG goes badly. While by no means a terrible character, his "balanced" stat growths are pretty lackluster when Lyn and Hector's unbalanced ones enable them to kick so much ass.
* MightyGlacier: Knights and Generals, full stop. They can hit ''hard'', the problem is having them keep up with the rest of your units.
* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: The game starts with a minor noble trying to usurp his brother's territory, and another minor noble going missing a year later (who appears to be in cahoots with ''another'' minor noble plotting rebellion against the rest of the republic); the main characters later learn that all of this is being orchestrated by a mad sorcerer who is attempting to use the resulting discord to summon dragons and destroy the world.
* ModularEpilogue: If certain character pairs max out their RelationshipValues via Supports, the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue describes their shared (often romantic) relationship instead of giving them individual endings. Many of these are mutually exclusive, since each character can only get the full A Support with one other character. For example, Eliwood gets one of four endings depending on which (if any) of his love interests he gets an A Support with. The previous installment, ''Binding Blade'', has the same system, but the only alternate, paired endings are ones with MainCharacter Roy.
* MotiveDecay: The Black Fang were always a group of assassins, but apparently they started off as a noble one that targeted the unjust. This slowly slipped away when Nergal had Sonia infiltrate by marrying their leader, Brendan, and so Nergal had his own group of psychopaths and fanatic followers added...
* MuggingTheMonster: In the desert chapter, a group of bandits rob [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething Count]] [[BadassBookworm Pent]] of his magical artifact he just dug up. Even as they attack him, he expresses regret in having to fight back. The results are so messy that the player might have a hard time getting EXP before he wipes the floor with all of them.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:After Eliwood unwittingly kills Ninian.]]
* NearVillainVictory: It won't be apparent on your first playthrough, but Lyn's group stumbles by sheer chance upon Nils about halfway through her story, rescuing Ninian from the Black Fang in the process, holding up Nergal's plans for a year.
** Another one that won't be apparent on your first playthrough: the brigands that Ephidel sent to "scare" Eliwood away from Santaruz outnumbered Eliwood and his company; if it weren't for [[SpannerInTheWorks Hector's]] timely arrival, Eliwood might never have reached Santaruz or learned anything about the rebellion plot until it was too late. And if he and Hector hadn't quelled the rebellion, they never would have been in a position to interfere in Nergal's dragon-summoning ritual. As Nergal said, Hector's presence was his "greatest miscalculation."
** Yet another not-so-obvious one, but in "Port of Badon", the only thing between Nergal and success is Fargus and his boat. If you attack him, he gets angry and withdraws his aid. Cue a NonStandardGameOver.
* NextThingTheyKnew: It can happen between [[KnightInShiningArmour Kent]] and [[FailureKnight Fiora]] if you decide to [[RelationshipValues pair them up]]. While it's not outright stated that this is what happened, it's rather evident that this is the case. You can best appreciate the irony of it all by watching it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-_Lg9f0ags here.]]
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: If you get the best Tactician rating, the game says that you "changed the course of history" and that "Bern and Etruria (the countries fighting in ''Binding Blade'') so desired this skilled mind that they went to war." Granted, they still go to war if you do poorly, but…
** Etruria and Bern go to war even if you don't do excellently, but for completely different reasons that have nothing to do with the Tactician. In light of Desmond's tyranny and paranoia and the Tactician's many attacks on Bern troops throughout the game (which had to be done very efficiently for an A or S Rank), and the fact that the Tactician revealed the location of the Shrine of Seals (thitherto a closely guarded national secret of Bern) to the Mage General of Etruria, it's likely that the war mentioned in the "best" ending was started by ''Desmond'' rather than Zephiel.
* NintendoHard: Hector Hard Mode.
* NonEntityGeneral: ''The Blazing Blade'' is the series's only aversion.
* NonindicativeName: With a moniker like "The Blazing Blade," you would expect Durandal to be a FlamingSword; it isn't.
* NostalgiaLevel: Several chapters in ''The Blazing Blade'' take place at the same location as a chapter in ''Binding Blade.'' To wit:
** [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/14.png Chapter 14 of The Blazing Blade]]: [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chapter4.png Chapter 4 of The Binding Blade]] (Laus)
** [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/23B.png Chapter 23 (Lloyd) of The Blazing Blade]]: [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chapter2.png Chapter 2 of The Binding Blade]] (Bern/Pherae border)
** [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/27.png Chapter 27 of The Blazing Blade]]: [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chapter21.png Chapter 21 of The Binding Blade]] (The Shrine of Seals)
** [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/28.png Chapter 28 of The Blazing Blade]]: [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chapter8x.png Chapter 8x of The Binding Blade]] (Durandal's cavern)
** [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/30H.png Chapter 30 (Hector mode) of The Blazing Blade]]: [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chapter12x.png Chapter 12x of The Binding Blade]] (Armads' cavern)
** [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/29.png Chapter 29 of The Blazing Blade]]: [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chapter8.png Chapter 8 of The Binding Blade]] (Inside Castle Ostia)
** [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/29x.png Chapter 29x of The Blazing Blade]]: [[http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chapter7.png Chapter 7 of The Binding Blade]] (Outside Castle Ostia)
* NothingIsScarier: In one of the final battles, you fight many of the previous bosses... and none of them can talk.
-->"......"
* OffscreenVillainDarkMatter: For once it's [[JustifiedTrope justified]] how Nergal keeps throwing larger and larger numbers of increasingly better units for your army to fight. After dispatching with the Black Fang, he has logically run out of cannon fodder to throw at you... so he [[spoiler:uses stolen quintessence to create vast armies of elite [[ArtificialHuman Morphs]], beings that resemble humans but come straight from UncannyValley]]
** It's implied that even before the destruction of the Black Fang, [[spoiler:Nergal was placing Morphs into their ranks.]]
* OneHitKill: A specialty of Assassins. For each attack, they have half of their normal critical hit chance to deal a OHKO, immediately terminating anyone but the final boss, even if a critical hit would barely (or even not) scratch them.
* OurDragonsAreDifferent
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Many of the Morphs are basically reanimated corpses.[[note]]They are actually made of quintessence which is like life force. New "people" can be made out of the quintessence of the dead or people can be brought back if they are strong enough.[[/note]]
* ParentalFavoritism: Guinevere is adored by her father Desmond, while he despises his son Zephiel. Hellene shows affection to her son, but it is fueled by the need for power more than love. [[spoiler:Desmond loves Guinevere far more because she was conceived with a mistress that he was genuinely in love with, whereas he had Zephiel with Hellene, and their marriage is a loveless one. To make matters worse, Zephiel is [[WellDoneSonGuy a hard-working prince]] who desperately wants his father's approval, and Guinevere is stuck beneath his shadow, because [[HeirClubForMen she's a girl.]] It reaches a tipping point when Desmond hires the Black Fang to kill Zephiel (hence the crux of Chapter 26), so that Guinevere can become the heiress apparent.]]
* PlayerCharacter: Up until ''New Mystery'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', this was the only game in the series to incorporate the player as a character, though he/she doesn't fight at all.
* PlotArmor: Important non-lord characters will retreat when defeated rather than die, though they remain unusable for the rest of the game. In ''The Blazing Blade'', this also applies to Bartre and Karel, since they're still around in ''Binding Blade'', as well as to Pent, Louise, Rath, Karla, and Nino (all of whom canonically survived long enough to have children).
** Also, allowing Zephiel to die would create a [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3 TIME PARADOX]], as he's the villain of ''Binding Blade''.
** It also applies to Karla, since she marries Bartre between the two games and has Fir, a character in ''Binding Blade''. It's a little unclear if it applies to Rath or not due to the way his "death" scene is written.
** One strange omission of plot armor, possibly an oversight, is Rebecca, who is heavily implied to die when she is defeated despite being the mother of Wolt from ''Binding Blade''.
* PlotTumor: While Roy fights artificial beings himself, ''The Blazing Blade'' goes much further with exploring the concept of artificial life, and makes Nergal's Morphs much more important to the plot.
* PoorCommunicationKills: Queen Hellene seems rather unconcerned that an attempt was made on her son's life, and is clearly confused when Eliwood accuses her of putting Zephiel's life at risk for her ambition. In reality, this is because she ''didn't know'' an assassination attempt was made on Zephiel the night before. This very nearly leads to the party losing her support to reach the Shrine of Seals, but Murdock fortunately explains the situation to her.
** And even so, neither Murdock nor Eliwood told her that the attempt on Zephiel's life had been ordered by King Desmond; she might not have made her ill-fated decision to make it up to him if she had known about his involvement in the attack.
** Hellene does (very quickly) mention something about hearing that assassins broke into the manse the previous night, but she still doesn't know that Eliwood and company were the ones that saved Zephiel until Murdock tells her. Of course, she doesn't find this out until ''after'' Eliwood calls her out, so it still fits this trope.
* PrestigiousPlayerTitle: You are a tactician, giving advice to the Lords who give the actual orders in combat.
* ProlongedPrologue: Lyn's Story is basically ten chapters of tutorial disguised as a storyline which, while important to her character, means little in the grand scheme of things. This was intentional, as Blazing Blade was intended to be the first Fire Emblem ported overseas, so the goal was to accommodate for new North American and European players.
* RecurringElement: This game plays with the archetypes by splitting them up between the three Lords. For the direct archetypes that were all in Marth's early party, Lyn comes with the Cain and Abel, a version a Gordin, and Caeda. Eliwood is introduced with Jeigan, another version of Gordin, and Bord and Cord. Hector gets Draug, Lena, and Julian in his starting line up.
** The playable characters themselves play with, subvert, or even avert the usual personalities and traits that come with their archetypes, which can be found in better detail on the character pages. Some prominent examples are the Cleric (Serra) and the Troubadour (Priscilla), as well as the [[ThoseTwoGuys red and green cavaliers]] swapping personalities/stat specialties, a very gentle-natured axe fighter (Dorcas), and the first thief you get (Matthew) being a spy working for the nobility as opposed to just another ruffian.
* RedOniBlueOni: Sain as Red, Kent as Blue. Nino as Red, Jaffar as Blue. Hector as Red, Eliwood as Blue.
* {{Retcon}}: The Dragon's Gate concept seems to be something like this; going by what Jahn says near the end of ''Binding Blade'', the dragons, bar himself, Idenn, and the population of Arcadia, were all slaughtered at their weakest by the humans in a brutal genocide. ''The Blazing Blade'' reveals they were simply chased into an AlternateDimension. Granted, Jahn was sealed before that happened so he had no way of knowing, but it still smells faintly of backpedalling.
* [[RewatchBonus Replay Bonus]]: In the opening to Nils and Ninian's introductory chapter in Lyn's story, an innkeeper berates Nils, calling him a "plague upon decent folk". At first this just seems like he doesn't want to get in trouble with the Black Fang. After going further in the story, it's revealed that the Black Fang are known for only attacking the unjust and corrupt. If they were going after Nils and Ninian, the sibling would look like villains to those not in the know. In the same chapter, Hector is in one of the houses; if you know to send someone connected to him there (Matthew or Serra), a difference scene plays.
* RoyalRapier: an effective AntiCavalry and [[ArmorPiercingAttack armor piercing]] weapon used exclusively by Eliwood.
* SacrificialLamb: Lord Helman.
* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:Leila and Elbert.]]
* SchmuckBait: Dart lays it out in no uncertain terms that attacking Fargus would be a bad move, and just in case you do, you get hit with a double whammy; not only is Fargus practically a HopelessBossFight (he can be beaten with some tweaking and Arena grinding, though), but if you try to fight him, you get a NonstandardGameOver no matter what happens next.
** Many players will often skip Lyn's story and go straight for Eliwood's or Hector's, which you can do after beating the game for the first time. However, the characters that appear in Lyn's story will carry over whatever growths and items bought in her story to the next. Matthew in particular can get hit hard with the nerf bat if you don't play Lyn's story, because if you jump into Hector's story, he's available from the start...at ''Level 2,'' on a map that's far harder than Eliwood's first map. This can actually be a big deal if you did her story on Hard Mode - since the tutorials are off, you don't have to forcibly promote Wallace, so you can have either Sain or Kent swipe his Knight Crest.
* ShipTease: The game's endings are open-ended for supports, but the game drops a lot of hints for Eliwood/Ninian, including a different ending if they reach A support. Additionally, Hector's story has a ''ton'' of Hector/Lyn moments.
** Considering that in the novel version, Eliwood ''does'' marry Ninian, it really isn't a surprise.
* SinsOfOurFathers: An odd example, since Eliwood was going to fight Nergal anyway, but Nergal specifically wanted Eliwood dead because Eliwood's father had severely wounded him. "The man who did this to me is dead. I'd like his son's death as compensation."
* SlasherSmile: [[spoiler:Zephiel in the epilogue...]] '''eek.'''
* SlapSlapKiss: Several pairings, most prominently Hector/Lyn, but also Rebecca/Sain, Rebecca/Wil, Serra/Erk, and Farina/Dart.
* SoLastSeason: In Chapter 2, Sain refers to the Mani Katti as a "[[InfinityPlusOneSword blade with no equal]]". That... ''really'' did not last at all. Even its alleged twin sword, the Sol Katti, is significantly more powerful than it (though sometimes [[AwesomeButImpractical less useful due to its weight, depending on Lyn's stats]]). Then again, [[UniquenessValue there is only one Mani Katti]], so Sain was right about it having [[ExactWords no equal]].
** Then again, it is definitely superior to other swords in categories other than power, like hit rate, crit rate, bonus damage against certain units, etc. It's considered better than the other lords' personal weapons by a moderately long shot.
* SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear: None of the characters in the prologue come back with the gear that they had in the prologue; they rejoin you with new gear. On the other hand, Lyn does come with a gem whose value depends on the total value of all of your gear and gold at the end of the prologue.
* SpannerInTheWorks: Kishuna in the first chapter he appears in ''The Blazing Blade''. The boss (who, incidentally, comes off as a [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]]-type character, what with remarks like "battle is an equation") of that chapter has long-range magic that will do some nasty damage to your non-magic party members... had the aforementioned Magic Seal not made his conveniently-timed unexpected appearance.
** Hector himself is acknowledged by Nergal as an unexpected variable that ruined everything by helping Eliwood.
** Eliwood in Lyn's tale could count too, since he was responsible for keeping Caelin's neighbors neutral in the conflict between Lyn and Lundgren.
* StartOfDarkness: [[spoiler: In the epilogue, Zephiel's.]]
* SupernaturalGoldEyes: First pointed out in Ephidel, then present in all the Morphs.
** [[HairColorSpoiler Eye Color Spoiler]]: Attentive players will notice that [[spoiler:Sonia]] has them too.
* SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity: Toward the end of the game, the party is given access to a sidequest in a town with no enemies, nothing but shops and armories, and 30,000 free gold. And guess what, you're [[MarathonLevel going to]] ''[[BossRush need it]]''
* SuspiciouslySmallArmy: One has to wonder, how *small* is Caelin's fighting force? Laus, a neighboring Lycian territory, has enough Mooks to fill up 3 chapters, yet when you come to Lyn's rescue, she has only 4 members of Lyndis' Legion (now sworn knights) with her. She states that half the guards were killed in the attack, but the next chapter shows the survivors imprisoned... all 3 of them.
** Of course, Lyn had fought her way through Caelin's army for three chapters herself, but that was two years previously.
** Caelin's army before the attack included those three soldiers, Raven, Lucius, Kent, Sain, Wil, Florina, and possibly Lyn herself, plus that many again who were killed in the attack. Granted, an "army" of 18 or 20 isn't that much more reasonable than an "army" of 6.
* TacticalRockPaperScissors: The Weapon Triangle: Swords > Axes > Lances > Swords. Same goes for magic: Light > Dark > Anima > Light.
** Inverted by the Reaver weapons (Swordreaver, etc.) that reverse which weapon they are strong and weak against (and amplify it slightly).
* TheChurch: The Church of Saint Elimine. Most monks, clerics, and bishops are members of it. Not clear what they actually teach, though, other than it was founded by a [[LightEmUp light magic-using]] member of the legendary heroes who drove away the dragons in the ancient war. (said founder was vaguely referenced as later having AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.)
* ThemeNaming: The ladies of Caelin all seem to have "lyn" somewhere in their name: Marquess Hausen's wife '''Lyn'''dis and daughter Made'''lyn'''; his granddaughter was named '''Lyn'''dis as well. And arguably, if Lyndis II is paired with Hector, she continues the tradition with her daughter Li'''lin'''a.
* TooAwesomeToUse: You'll come across several awesome weapons of which there is only one (perhaps 2) obtainable copies and probably be too reluctant to actually use them, save for the final chapter. The best example of this are the 4 "Brave Weapons". They are a powerful sword, lance, axe, and bow, respectively, and only one obtainable copy of each can be found in the game. They guarantee a doubling of your overall strikes (meaning two attacks if too heavy or slow, and four if said character can double-attack normally)... and thus use up their durability ''fast''. They can potentially break in a grand total of ''5 uses''.
* TriumphantReprise: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQp7ekauEGc Eliwood's main theme]] is pretty triumphant, but [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUfc4Wel_Dk this minor-key rendition]] is even more so.
* TheSocialDarwinist: [[spoiler:The Nergal/Sonia-corrupted version of]] The Black Fang apparently has this as a part of their creed. Jaffar even ''berates'' Nino for treating his wounds instead of abandoning him, reminding her to "discard the weak, salvage the strong."
* TheUnfought: [[spoiler:Turns out Ephidel is just a villainous MauveShirt.]] Sonia can also become this if you choose to skip her side-chapter, and Limstella will dispose of her instead.
** [[ThatOneLevel Thank]] [[ThatOneBoss God]].
** Zig-Zagged with Brendan. It appears like you might have to fight him since, well, he ''looks'' evil and ''is'' the commander of the (previously noble) Black Fang alongside Sonia. However; he is [[spoiler:killed in a pre-level dialogue scene... and you DO fight a morph in his liking in the final chapter]].
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: [[spoiler:Eliwood's supports with three characters (Lyndis, Ninian, or Fiora) can lead to him marrying them and having Roy. Ninian is the only one stated as actually loving him ''without'' having a support conversation. This means that you can ''literally'' have Eliwood fall in love with Fiora or Lyndis ''right in front of Ninian''.]] Eeeeeeeep.
** Also, if you make anyone fall in love with Eliwood or Hector? She's doomed to die young. Hope the paired ending was worth it!
** Since Harken appears as an enemy, you can have [[spoiler:Isadora, his fiancee,]] kill him.
** Attacking any of the Reed family bosses with Nino.
*** Attacking them with Legault, while less cruel than with Nino, is still pretty bad.
* WakeUpCallBoss: Eagler in Lyn's story is the second-to-last boss and the first promoted one (being a Paladin). He's also the first boss to not be a pushover and will punish any unpromoted unit you send against him unless you trained them up.
** The sidequest Port of Badon is the first one that isn't just an easy source of free money and items. Either come to sidequests prepared for a rough fight or die.
* WeatherOfWar: In addition to the usual FogOfWar, certain chapters have rain show up from time to time, slowing down all units.
* WhamEpisode: Chapter 19/21: The Dragon's Gate. [[spoiler:Nils and Ninian are free, Nergal is defeated (for now), and Ephidel and Marquess Laus are finally dead... but the gate opens for the first time and a glimpse of, guess what, dragons is seen and Elbert had to pull a HeroicSacrifice.]]
* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"The ice dragon there... The beast slaughtered by your hand... That is Ninian. The girl you loved." [[note]]Or if Eliwood and Ninian do not have A support, "the girl who adored you".[[/note]]]]
* WillNotTellALie: The people of Sacae have a reputation for being too proud to tell lies. Matthew isn't above exploiting this particular attribute...
* WithMyDyingBreathISummonYou: Nergal summons a dragon as he dies. (This is actually something of a tradition for the series, but this is the best-known example.)
* WizardsLiveLonger: Athos, Bramimond, and Nergal certainly do.
* YouBastard / TakeThatAudience: If you play with a Tactician in ''The Blazing Blade'' and get an E or D ranking overall, several characters on the Battle History screen will say something along the lines of either "What were you thinking?", "You need more practice", or just flat out say "You suck" (though [[JerkAss some units]], namely Karel and Jaffar, will say things like this even if you [[DudeWheresMyRespect played decently]] and [[DoWellButNotPerfect got a C or B rank]]). And the ending notes that future historians were baffled at how you led Eliwood and co. to victory with [[{{Scrub}} 'such incomprehensible']] strategies.
* YouHaveFailedMe: The Black Fang has such a policy. Jaffar goes so far as to ''berate the girl who saved his life'' for failing to adhere to this policy and nursing him back to health until she cried. (And yet he pretty much decides to pull a LastStand for her a few stages later.)
** This was actually [[DefectorFromDecadence the reason why]] [[spoiler:Legault]] left the Fang, since he had to [[spoiler:kill an ActionGirl from the group because she was crippled.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tropes in ''Champion's Sword'']]
* ArtEvolution: A bit subtle, but noticeable when one pays attention. Compare Al and Roy in [[http://www.mangahere.co/manga/fire_emblem_hasha_no_tsurugi/c001/ volume 1's cover]], to [[http://www.mangahere.co/manga/fire_emblem_hasha_no_tsurugi/c013/ volume 4's dust jacket]], to [[http://www.mangahere.co/manga/fire_emblem_hasha_no_tsurugi/v11/c041/ volume 11's dust jacket]], the final volume. Ties in nicely of the characters growing up, Al especially.
* ArcWords: "Fire burns everything, but it then gives birth to something new."
* BadassNormal: Al, Gant, and Kilmar ([[spoiler: Kilmar ''decapitated'' dragon!Ain using his and Al's swords despite being injured]]).
** Averted with [[spoiler: Al, who later becomes an EmpoweredBadassNormal.]]
* TheBigGuy: Gant.
* BlackMagicianGirl: Jemmie, younger sister to Wyvern Rider Zeed, whose magic is much more destructive than most other mages seen in the original game. Practically borderlines on AxCrazy.
* CatchPhrase: "You can't/don't/won't know unless you try."
* CoolSword: Al's sword, which besides its unique design, has an important significance later on.
* DamselInDistress: A few times with Tiena.
* {{Determinator}}: Game characters natch, but also the manga-only characters as well, especially Al.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Tania Castle is rebuilt, and Al marries Tiena in the end, the latter wearing a FairytaleWeddingDress.]]
** Although [[spoiler: Kilmar passes away from an incurable disease, making it a bit TearJerker, but [[BittersweetEnding he's finally with his deceased girlfriend]].]]
* FireForgedFriends: Forged through the fires of war between the manga-only quartet.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: Several times Al has shown extreme displays of strength and traits not seen in other protagonists, such as blocking Kruzard's {{BFS}} twice, cutting through Jemmie's super-charged Elfire, and blocking Zephiel's Eckesachs (which is an even bigger [=BFS=]). Another hint is that he's able to ride one of the wyverns used exclusively by Bern's Wyvern Riders with ease, something which only those that train extensively to be Bern's wyvern knights are able to do.]]
* [[spoiler: HalfHumanHybrid: Al is half-dragon courtesy of his mother, being one of the last arch-dragons.]]
* HeroicBSOD: Al [[spoiler: having to take down his adopted BrainwashedAndCrazy father near the end. His father [[UnexplainedRecovery survives to the end]].]]
* [[spoiler: HeroicRROD: The first time Al Class Changed to Dragon Lord due to the Fire Emblem's influence, he's not able to maintain his Dragon Lord class for long and almost dies from the unexpected power usage.]]
* IdiotHero: Al at the beginning. He had a habit of forming many IndyPloy out of nowhere that sounds ridiculous on paper, but actually works. While he's usually called naive or a fool early on, due to having lived on a mountain for much of his childhood, he [[CharacterDevelopment matures]] as the story progresses and some of the other characters actually [[EasyEvangelism gain some of his enthusiasm]].
* ItWasAGift: Sort of. Al's sword was given to him by his father, a blacksmith, before he left his mountain home, and Al has mentioned that his father was always tempering it in the forge. In reality, Al's sword is more of an AncestralWeapon because [[spoiler: it was born from his mother's body after she died protecting son and adopted father during their escape years ago and is the titular "Champion's Sword"]].
* KnightInShiningArmor: Gant eventually becomes this.
* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Kilmar. [[spoiler: Al later on, but only when he changes to Dragon Lord.]]
* MaamShock: Cecilia reacts this way when Al calls her "pretty auntie". [[CrowningMomentOfFunny He gets promptly punished]] by Tiena and Gant for his rudeness.
* MadeOfIron: You can almost make a drinking game on counting how many times Al, Gant, and Kilmar get injured and STILL KEEP GOING despite wounds that should've killed them.
* MasterSwordsman: Kilmar, later on DualWielding a pair when things got serious.
%%* MightyGlacier: Gant, by nature of following the games' knight stats.
* ModestRoyalty: Tiena dressed somewhat plainly as a child in a flashback. As an adult while on the run, her clothes resemble more of those of what the upper class would wear, instead of full royal combat regalia.
* NoSocialSkills: Al in the early volumes tends to act WhatsUpKingDude to several high-ranking folks, much to Tiena and Gant's horror, but he grows a bit out of it later on.
* NobleFugitive: Tiena becomes this after her home castle is taken over by Bern's forces in the early chapters, forcing her to flee with Gant and be on the road for much of the story's duration.
* ThePowerOfFriendship: How Al wins over Tiena, Gant, and Kilmar.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Al is the son of a dragon mother and human Harmut, one of the Eight Legendary Heroes who founded the country of Bern, surprising ''everyone'', including Al himself.]]
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Princess Tiena providing magic support on the front lines. [[spoiler: If you want to get technical, Al as well, being Harmut's son and thus would have a ''much'' stronger claim to Bern's throne than Zephiel or Guinivere.]]
* SaveThePrincess: A few times, Gant and Al has to save Tiena.
* [[spoiler: SealedGoodInACan: In a matter of speaking. Al was originally sealed as a child some time after the Scouring War by his own father, Harmut, but was later unsealed alongside his mother some time after ''The Blazing Blade'' takes place, as he's roughly the same age as Roy is.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: All four, to varying degrees.
* [[spoiler: TransformationTrinket: Like Fae, Al requires a Dragonstone if he needs the extra power - it allows him to access his Dragon Lord class without killing him.]]
* TheUnfought: [[spoiler: Idenn, mentioned in the manga.]]
* WhiteMagicianGirl: Tiena with a MagicStaff, at first. Later on, she gets access to [[spoiler: [[LightEmUp Aureola]], one of the Divine Weapons]].
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Zephiel [[spoiler:was a talented youth who did his best to win approval from his father, the king of Bern. But the harder he strove, the more distant his talentless father grew, and the fact that he was born from [[ArrangedMarriage a loveless marriage]] didn't help either. The final straw came when the king poisoned his heir's drink, several years after a first assassination attempt failed. Zephiel's closest retainer, [[WorthyOpponent Murdoch]], came up with the idea of faking his death to get him out of there. However, the king opened the casket, causing Zephiel to finally snap and stab him. According to his half-sister, Guinevere, Zephiel never smiled again. Years later, he (now king of Bern) was stirring up quite a bit of trouble in neighboring countries, trying to offer the land back to its rightful owners because HumansAreBastards. He had to be killed... with his crestfallen sister's help, no less]].
[[/folder]]

** Etruia: Based on Medieval Rome: it is the seat of the Church of the game's resident CrystalDragonJesus and a nation with a high level of civilization. Notably, the real life civilization of Etruria was a state in what is now Central Italy which was conquered by Rome.