Characters / Fire Emblem - Heroic Archetypes - Mid-Late Game Units

Heroic Archetype Index | Main Characters | Availability Vs Growth | Teams | Physical Units | Magic Units | Mid-Late Game Units | Personalities | Others

Other Mid-Late Game Units

These units show more variance between games. They are marked by similar story or gameplay impact, but exactly what that impact is changes depending on the arc of the game as you get deeper into the story.

• The Dancer: A unit that allows other units to act twice per turn. Commoner dancers are often perky teases. Plot-relevant dancers are elegant Mystical Waifs.
• The Tiki: A Really 700 Years Old manakete/dragon unit taking form of a little (often childish) girl that packs a massive punch but powered by a rare resource.
• The Lorenz: An enemy general with a strong conscience. They may have a complicated recruitment, but a Heel–Face Turn is possible.
• The Secret Noble: A character pretending to be a common traveler who turns out to be some sort of nobility.
• The Beowolf: A optional soldier for hire that actually charges you to use them.
• Arran and Samson: Mutually exclusive party members where only one can join depending on the choices you make.

The Dancer

The resident Quirky Bard of the army. Their dances allow characters to take an extra action during their turn and sometimes provide stat boosts. Commoner dancers are beautiful girls that make their livelihoods as professional, or street performers, to climb themselves out of poverty. These ones are often perky, flirtatious, and wear clothing that shows off their features. After being Recruited from the Gutter, they may have to contend with the pressures of being a Penny Among Diamonds if they end up in the company of nobles through adoption or marriage — especially if married to the main Lord through supports in the latter case. After the war, if still unmarried, they return to traveling the land inspiring the masses through their dances.

Starting with Elffin from The Binding Blade, the series introduces mysterious plot-important bards, a foundation that is laid by Lewyn from Genealogy of the Holy War (who is a travelling street performer in the "Bard" class, but lacks the ability to refresh allies in gameplay). These traits are then inherited by Ninian in The Blazing Blade, giving rise to a subtype of dancers who focus on elegance rather than sultriness and are often imbued with some magic ability. This carried somewhat into the heron laguz, and directly succeeded by Azura in Fates. These dancers are usually nobles or otherwise heir to powerful bloodlines (such as dragons) and have a much larger impact in the main storyline.

Playable characters of this archetype: Phina (Mystery of the Emblem); Silvia and Lene/Laylea (Genealogy of the Holy War); Lara^note She starts as a Thief and only becomes a Dancer by activating a special event. (Thracia 776); Elffin and Larum (The Binding Blade); Nils and Ninian (The Blazing Blade); Tethys (The Sacred Stones); Reyson (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn); Rafiel and Leanne (Radiant Dawn); Olivia (Awakening); Azura (Fates); Dorothea^note While any student you choose can be a Dancer, she fits the traits of the commoner dancer; she is also the only one who has a personalized sprite as a Dancer and is the only one (prior to Version 1.1.0 of Three Houses) who can still wear her regular outfit in this class after the timeskip (Three Houses); Seadall and Emblem Byleth (Engage); Peony (Heroes)

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• Breaking Old Trends: Seadall is the first canonical male Dancer. ^*While any student you choose can be a Dancer in Three Houses male or female, as mentioned above Dorothea is the most recommended character to be a Dancer.
• Dance Battler: In some games they also wield swords while a handful of them wield tomes. The Fates version, the Songstress, wields lances/naginata instead.
• Genki Girl: The commoner dancers often have outgoing, bubbly personalities. Olivia, as a Shrinking Violet, is played as an intentional inversion. Seadall is also generally more composed than perky.
• Lamarck Was Right: If there's more than one person with the dance or Magic Music ability, odds are they're related. Silvia's daughter will be the only dancer in the second generation of her game. Ninian and Nils are siblings, as are the heron in the Tellius series. Inigo and Shigure inherit Olivia and Azura's abilities, if only in the plot (or during special circumstances in gameplay in the former's case).
• Made a Slave: See the descriptions under Street Urchin below. Many have been kidnapped, or forced into abusive and controlling enviroments or relationships at one point or another in their lives.
• Magic Dance: Mostly averted; the ability of Dancers to grant other units an extra turn is mundane, although it functions like magic. The only exceptions are Ninian, Peony, and Emblem Byleth.
• Magic Knight: Dancers in Three Houses use swords and magic.
• Magic Music: Nils, the Heron Laguz, and Azura can all play Magic Music. Although Elffin plays music as well, he's more like other dancers in that he has no magical ability.
• Ms. Fanservice: Dancers tend to be this to some extent, thanks to their minimal clothing and sultry dances. The only one who doesn't solidly fit this description is Ninian. In Seadall's case, he fits the opposite-gendered version of the trope.
• Mutually Exclusive Party Members: If there is more than one Dancer in a single game, circumstances will conspire to ensure that they can never be in the party at the same time; this is a safeguard against infinite action loops. The main exception, being Fire Emblem Heroes, has an Obvious Rule Patch to have them never refresh each other if the other unit has Dance or Sing equipped. Engage potentially also has two Dancer units assuming Byleth is not equipped onto Seadall, but this is still stifled by Byleth's Goddess Dance skill being more limited in its uses.
• Quirky Bard: Actually not that spoony. It's true that they have (depending on the game) little or no means to defend themselves and low-to-average defense/HP, but a well-trained character of this class can have massive Speed and Luck, thus they will dodge a good part of the attacks thrown at them. (Additionally, Tethys has good HP growths.)
• Status Buff: In certain games, their dances/songs can occasionally give 1-turn stat boosts to their recipients.
• Support Party Member: Dancer variants from the GBA and Tellius games can't attack enemies at all, and rely solely on their refreshing abilities. And even in the games where they are capable of fighting, their refreshing ability is so valuable that they'll rarely see combat.
• Street Performer: Most of them come across as this, either as a Wandering Minstrel, or as a plausible cover story for their real role in the plot. And many of them return to this lifestyle after the war.
• Street Urchin: Related to the above, or just Conveniently an Orphan. Many are parentless and divorced from kin by their backstories for various reasons.
  • Phina just got lost in the woods and separated from her performance group before joining the main party.
  • Silvia was orphaned, and then had an abusive foster father who she fled from. She was later Recruited from the Gutter by Lewyn and became attached to him. And there's a decent chance she's actually Lost Orphaned Royalty and Duke Claud's younger sister.
  • Lene was abandoned by her mother Silvia and she became a dancer to find her. She was kept in a dungeon by Bramsel for refusing his advances before being rescued by Ares and Seliph's army.
  • Lara was sold into slavery and forced to become a dancer at a young age. She was saved by Perne, but he eventually let her go due to feeling weird about her being so young.
  • Larum was happily adopted off the street by General Douglas.
  • Ninian and Nils' mother was kidnapped, so their father went to go look for her and never returned. They posed as traveling street performers at the time of Lyn's story before being hunted down by the Black Fang — an organization being controlled by their long-lost father Nergal, years after he'd long since been corrupted by dark magic and lost his purpose.
  • Tethys (and her mage brother Ewan) were abandoned on the street as children. As the big sister, she forced herself to imitate dancers she saw on the street to have some sort of skill she could use to support them. They were later Recruited from the Gutter to be part of Gerik's mercenary company.
  • The three Heron Laguz royals are the few survivors of the Serenes Massacre, which decimated most of their tribe. Their father did survive as well, but he stays offscreen and is presumably mostly incapacitated. Reyson, Leanne, and Rafiel became wards of the leaders of the Hawk, Raven, and Wolf Tribes respectively in the aftermath. They also all ran afoul of being "adopted" or sold in slavery by the Begnion clergy at least once.
  • Olivia was a traveling street performer that was almost forcibly married off to a corrupt noble before being saved by Basilio.
  • Azura is an orphaned princess of Nohr (by her mother's second marriage) that was raised by the Hoshidan royal family with her maternal aunt. Her biological father was also the king of Valla.
  • Dorothea was a street urchin that was noticed by an opera company for her singing talents and good looks. She was able to segue that career and her connections to become a student of Garreg Mach.
  • Peony, along with the other álfar in Heroes were once mortal children abandoned or mistreated by their parents before transformed by Freyr and Freyja and put under their service.
  • Even ignoring the events of Three Houses, Emblem Byleth was stolen from Lythos and given to Hortensia to use against Alear's army. Hortensia herself loses her father by the time Byleth's Emblem ring is returned to the Divine Dragon's forces.
• The Tease: Of the commoner dancers, many of them are serial flirts (sometimes with both men and women) and quite proud of their beauty. Ninian and Azura are much more reserved and above such things, and Olivia is very self-conscious about the Male Gaze, whether she's getting too much or too little attention.
• Uniqueness Decay: In Heroes; besides the obvious fact of most dancers from the rest of the series all being in the same game and able to be put on a team together, there are a couple ballroom-themed Genealogy and Echoes banners where all the characters on them, being dressed for a formal dance and all, have the Dance skill. This includes characters who weren't even playable in their own games, like Ishtar and Berkut.

The Tiki

This character is one of the last remaining benevolent manaketes, or last manaketes period. Most present as young girls despite being hundreds or thousands of years old. Despite their small size, they can be among the most powerful people on the continent in their dragon form, sometimes with the drawback of relying on dragonstones with very limited uses.

In terms of relationships, this archetype often has an attachment to one of the Lords, and an adult caretaker figure (despite usually being older than they are). Like the original Tiki, they may also have some sort of relationship to holy powers, or another legendary dragon.

Playable characters of this archetype: Tiki (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Mystery of the Emblem, Awakening, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE); Fae (The Binding Blade); Nils and Ninian (The Blazing Blade)^note they split the difference from a story perspective, though gameplay-wise, they can only be used as Dancers in their original game; Myrrh (The Sacred Stones); Kurthnaga and Yune ^note Yune is not formally playable in Radiant Dawn, but she possesses Micaiah and feeds energy into Ike.(Radiant Dawn); Nowi and Tiki (Awakening); Sothis ^note Like Yune, Sothis is not formally playable in Three Houses, but she is Sharing a Body with Byleth and eventually performs a Fusion Dance with them.(Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes); Nel and Nil/Rafal ^note They appear older than most other examples of the archetype, but they fit as they can use dragonstones and have connections to both another powerful dragon (Sombron) and the Lord (Alear). (Engage)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Flayn ^note Although she is a manakete in the body of a young girl, she lacks a unique class and her dragon form is never seen in-game.(Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes), Veyle^note She is a young-looking dragon like previous dragon characters, but she lacks a dragon form and is not associated with light magic, but dark instead. (Engage)

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• Badass Adorable: They look like young, but their main feature is the ability to turn into a dragon and lay waste to the enemy.
• Breaking Old Trends: Instead of being directly playable, Yune introduced the idea of being part of another character's subconscious and bestowing extra power on them or possessing them when necessary. This would later be reprised by Sothis.
• Cute Monster Girl: At least appearance-wise. Most look like young girls but with dragon-like features like odd-colored eyes, pointy ears, fangs, or even wings.
• Hidden Depths: They are often much wiser and more mature than they first seem.
• Immortal Immaturity: Despite being hundreds of years old, they are still young by dragon standards and tend to act as such.
• Interspecies Friendship: Implied in their bond to the Lord or another figure. Some of these relationships overlap with Precocious Crush towards these figures. Tiki to Marth, Fae to Elffin, Myrrh to Ephraim. Sothis to Byleth. As Ninian presents as an adult, it's allowed to become a full Interspecies Romance with Eliwood. Nowi and Adult!Tiki also have some marriage options due to Awakening's marriage/child mechanics, but the former may attract some... troubles to some people.
• Mayfly–December Romance: If the precocious crush below is allowed to blossom. Even on a platonic level, they are all very aware that they'll outlive their allies. Subverted with Ninian, who chooses to live a shorter life if she marries Eliwood.
• The One Guy: Nils splits the traits of the archetype with his sister Ninian. He's the childlike one, but she is more valued for her latent powers, and has the crush on the Lord.
• Parental Substitute: A few of them may have an 'older figure' looking out them. Bantu to Tiki is the straightest example as he's also a manakete. Fae has the guardians of Nabata, both Hawkeye and Igrene. Saleh to Myyrh. Nowi comes in the company of Gregor. Nils, despite being the younger sibling, plays a Bantu-like role in being protective of Ninian.
• Token Mini-Moe: Tiki (particularly her younger self) is bound to appear in spin-off titles as the cute mascot of the series, only right behind Marth in terms of the "most marketed Archanea character". She's the originator of the trend of young-looking girls who are actually Really 700 Years Old dragons who join the player's party.
• Too Awesome to Use: In some games, there are only a handful of dragonstones, so once it's used up, they become useless. It's a delicate balance of saving it for when it counts, but still letting them get enough EXP somehow.
• Weredragon: Played straight with all of them except for Ninian and Nils. While they can transform, Ninian only does it once during a cutscene and Nils not at all in their first game. When she comes with a proper dragonstone in Heroes, however, Ninian can function as both a full-time manakete and a dancer.

The Lorenz

The Lorenz is an enemy general that is loyal enough to their country to fight for them to the end, but can eventually be persuaded to join your side after you convince them that fighting alongside you is in their country's best interests. Recruiting them can be tricky, as many games from Gaiden onward require that several specific conditions (differing depending on the game) are met before they will join you. Those with requirements will be noted below.

Playable characters of this archetype: Lorenz^{Special Condition}Lorenz is located in a part of the map near several ballistae that can easily shoot down Caeda, the Pegasus Knight who is needed to recruit him. (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light); Zeke^{Special Condition}You need to recruit Tatiana first before even facing him, otherwise he will be unrecruitable, and neither will Tatiana. (Gaiden); Astram^{Special Condition}You must not kill him in the first three chapters he appears; in the fourth, you can recruit him with Jeorge. and Sheena^{Special Condition}In the level to recruit her and Samson, you are not allowed to kill any Gra soldiers (Level 1 Soldiers) before talking to Sheena with Marth, otherwise she will not join. In New Mystery, once you recruit her, you still cannot kill any Gra soldiers for experience, otherwise she deserts. (Mystery of the Emblem); Hannibal^{Special Condition}In the level to recruit him, you must first conquer the castle behind the castle Hannibal is stationed in order to recruit Coirpre/Charlot, then have Coirpre/Charlot talk to Hannibal, all while Hannibal keeps sieging your main castle and returns with reinforcements when he runs out of soldiers. (Genealogy of the Holy War); Xavier^{Special Condition}In the map to recruit him, you must have all the NPC villagers rescued and talk to their corresponding Armor Knights without missing any or getting any of them killed; only then can you have Leif talk to Xavier to recruit him (Thracia 776); Douglas^{Special Condition}You must finish the map where Douglas appears as an enemy without killing Douglas at all (and he will make a beeline to your army instead of standing still). Many team members can talk to him, but none will recruit him. He's then unlocked with the side chapter. (The Binding Blade); Vaida^{Special Condition}Keep her alive until the time runs out in her debut map, and she will join much later. and Jaffar^{Special Condition}Recruit Nino and have her talk to him and keep them both alive until the end of their joining chapter. (The Blazing Blade); Duessel (The Sacred Stones); Tauroneo (Path of Radiance); Oliver ^{Special Condition}You need to have Rafiel enter Oliver's attack range, which is normally a terrible idea due to Rafiel being a Support Party Member. If you succeed, Oliver will instead run up to Rafiel and join your army. (Radiant Dawn); Wolf ^{Special Condition}In the map where you fight the Wolfguard, first, you must not kill any of them while visiting the western village so the King of Aurelis will force the Wolfguard to retreat (otherwise, they risk being killed). Then in the next map, you must first recruit Roshea, followed by having him recruit Vyland, followed by having Vyland recruit Sedgar, and finally have Sedgar talk to Wolf. Miss any of them, and Wolf cannot be recruited. (New Mystery of the Emblem); Lorenz^note Azure Moon and Silver Snow routes and Ashe ^note Verdant Wind and Silver Snow routes^{Special Condition}Lorenz and Ashe have to be recruited normally in Part I; they will desert you during the timeskip, but you can get them back in Part II by defeating them and sparing them. (Three Houses); Byleth, Jeralt^{Special Condition}You must complete the appropriate chapter without failing certain objectives or defeating Byleth. If you succeed, they will surrender and join at the end of the map., and Jeritza^note Azure Gleam route^{Special Condition}Must have Mercedes be alive in the chapter he is fought in; the player has to take on his Puzzle Boss fight to make him vulnerable, then initiate the strategy to recruit him. (Warriors: Three Hopes)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Stefan^note Though he does have a complicated recruitment - moreso than Path of Radiance's actual Lorenz archetype, Tauroneo - Stefan is not an enemy general that needs to be convinced to join the opposing side.^{Special Condition}You need to have a specific unit wait on a specific, unmarked, tile in the chapter where he joins (Lethe or Mordecai in Path of Radiance, Micaiah in Radiant Dawn). Upon doing so, he will appear out of nowhere, and automatically join your army. (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn), Ryoma and Xander^note Revelation; both are automatic recruits. (Fates), Lysithea^note Crimson Flower route; Unlike Ashe and Lorenz, Lysithea does not have to be recruited in Part I, and can simply be beaten up. (Three Houses), Mauvier^note While he fits this role narratively, Mauvier does not have a complicated recruitment; he joins automatically at the start of Chapter 21. (Engage)

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• 11th-Hour Ranger: While not as much as the Gotoh archetype, they join late, but have good base stats and growths.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Lorenz himself wasn't quite as difficult to recruit as his successors. All he needed was just Caeda talking some sense to him.^note Doing so immediately would put her in danger, however, as there are many ballista units ready to kill her off if she tries to get into talking range. The real "difficulty" of his recruitment came from subverting Beauty Equals Goodness, since his thuggish appearance made it easy to mistake him for yet another generic, unrecruitable Mini-Boss, especially in comparison to the actual unrecruitable boss of the chapter, Camus. The fact his portrait in the original game is a palette swap of several unrecruitable bosses does not help in this regard.
• Foil: To the antagonistic Camus and Murdock archetypes. Both archetypes are renowned enemy generals and Anti-Villains, but while the Camus is too mired in Honor Before Reason and Murdocks are too mired with Undying Loyalty to fight for what's right, the Lorenz's virtue ultimately wins out and he can join your side.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • Subverted. If a Lorenz has a special condition to join, you're usually told via dialogue about what's keeping them from joining, so the only way you'll not know how to recruit them is if you don't pay attention to the story.
  • Played straight with Zeke. You are told how you're supposed to recruit him... after you've killed him as a boss and lost Tatiana forever. The NPCs will chew you out for this.
• Mighty Glacier: The ones appearing up to Path of Radiance tend to be slow armored classes, and even when they're not in those types of classes, their stat spread often tends towards power and defense. The ones appearing afterward have more mixed statlines, but Xander still qualifies.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: This is a common trait for many characters of this archetype, though unlike the Camus, they're always recruited in the end.
• Oddball in the Series: Just like the original Lorenz, Duessel and Tauroneo are not particularly difficult to recruit, either, simply needing to be talked to by the lord of their respective games. Mauvier is another oddball, as while he is fought several times throughout the game, and could theoretically have his recruitment in any of the chapters he is fought in, he actually joins automatically a few chapters after the last battle against him. Lindon has a more traditional recruitment method for the archetype; in fact, he's the only enemy unit that needs to be talked to in the game, but even his recruitment is not as complicated as other members of the archetype.
• Permanently Missable Content: While other characters can suffer this fate, Lorenz characters can be really prone to this due to the difficulty of their recruitment method. Miss out on one step, and say goodbye to the prospects of them existing within your ranks. Zeke takes this further, in that no one tells you his issues until you have already fought and killed him. This means that unless you actually knew his issues ahead of the encounter, you can end up missing him out and having to reload to get him (if you haven't already saved your progress).
• That One Sidequestinvoked: Recruiting members of this archetype tends to be very difficult to do for one reason or another. Even among the archetype, however, Xavier is especially infamous, with the player needing to protect sixteen easily killable units in order to allow Leif to speak with him. While the chapter Xavier joins in is rather simple if the player just wants to finish it, recruiting him, among other bonus objectives, can turn it into an absolute nightmare.

The Secret Noble

This character presents themselves as some sort of commoner, usually a bard. But as the story advances, you will find out that this character turns out to be a high-ranking member of the nobility from the neighboring kingdom of the main character, a status that tends to be critical to the plot.

Playable characters of this archetype: Jeorge (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem); Lewyn (Genealogy of the Holy War); Seliph (Thracia 776); Elffin (The Binding Blade); Raven (The Blazing Blade)^note his sister Priscilla doesn't count because she never really keeps it a secret that she's nobility; Joshua and L'Arachel (The Sacred Stones); Kurthnaga (Radiant Dawn); Virion (Awakening); Odin and maybe Laslow^note He could potentially fit if Olivia married Chrom, Virion, or Robin (Fates); Conrad (Shadows of Valentia); Seteth and Flayn (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes); Kagetsu and Fogado (Engage)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: Céline and Timerra ^note Support conversations reveal that both of them to disguise themselves as a commoner to travel and do various non-noble things depending on the character. However, this amounts to absolutely nothing in the main story, as they presents themselves as their nation's princesses from get-go to Alear. In a sense, they only count as the archetype for the non-playable commoner NPCs, but not for the player. Timerra is immediately outed because Alear met Fogado first who confirms her status after he surprise-revealed his own.(Engage)

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• Blue Blood: They hide it for whatever personal reasons, but they are always high-ranking members of the nobility or royalty. Seteth and Flayn, however, live amongst nobles and already had high position in the Church, therefore they take the archetype up a notch by being of draconic heritage usually held by a Naga figure.
• Chekhov's Gunman: They are usually introduced as some random unit you get, but then they prove to have hidden noble heritage, about three quarters of whom are plot-relevant.
• King Incognito: They are a part of the nobility, but somehow have a need to hide it.

The Beowolf

The Beowolf is an Optional Party Member who's a mercenary at heart. If you want to recruit them, then you have to pay a substantial amount of gold up-front. This usually ups the difficulty of the game, because gold is usually a finite resource within the game. Hence, after the Tellius saga, this archetype has been mostly retired, presumably to make the games at least easier to bear. By 'mostly', we mean that Intelligent Systems stopped making brand new characters for the archetype^note Saber's characterization in Shadows of Valentia is an upgrade from his Flat Character status in Gaiden, and while he does demand payment, he didn't subtract actual money as he doubles as the Ogma., for the most part, this archetype lives on in form of the series' recurring character Anna, the redheaded lady who always comes with money fetish and usually becomes a DLC character of the game. This means that the player literally has to pay actual money to get her services.

Playable characters of this archetype: Beowolf (Genealogy of the Holy War); Malice and Dice^note They join for free in New Mystery of the Emblem (BS Fire Emblem: Archanea War Chronicles); Hugh (The Binding Blade); Farina (The Blazing Blade); Rennac^note if L'Arachel talks to him, she gangpresses him into joining the army without the player having to pay anything (The Sacred Stones); Volke (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn); Anna (Fates and Three Houses)^note In a very meta sense, since recruiting her in these games requires the player to pay actual money for DLC; Saber (Shadows of Valentia)

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• Only in It for the Money: They're only helping you because the cast paid them. Differing from Ogma, their policy is "Pay in advance".
• Optional Party Member: Recruiting the Beowolf is optional and requires payment.
• Shadow Archetype: They're what the Ogma would be had they been put in more desperate circumstances, which would make them more concerned with the payment aspect of mercenary work, thus more demanding for payment upfront.

Arran and Samson

A set of characters who can fight alongside the player, but once one of them joins you, the other never will, either because they support a cause the other opposes, they reside on the opposite end of a pair of paths you had to choose between to advance the plot, one or the other joins due to fulfilling certain requirements (or lack thereof), or they just plain don't like each other. They either fulfill completely different roles, meaning it's a question of what kind of role you need at the time, or fulfill the same role for your army, meaning that the choice is based upon what they offer stat-wise. Typically, they join around the mid-game, but might appear much later on.

It's possible for the Arran and Samson (or just one) to belong to another archetype, and it's also possible for there to be multiple pairs of them. It's also one of the archetypes that has been used by NPCs: Gyrall and Dalen in Awakening, leaders of opposing mercenaries, may attempt to recruit your army to their side, with the one you didn't recruit becoming the boss of the chapter. Similarly, in Chapter 6 of Genealogy, your female swordfighter can recruit one of two enemy characters, but the other one will become the next miniboss.

Fire Emblem Fates takes this archetype to the extreme: The majority of the characters in that game will only join you on certain paths as a result of a choice you have to make, and as a result affects the story a fair amount. Most of them, however, can be recruited in the Revelation path. However, there are a few characters who are only fully available permanently in just one route, and in other routes, they don't fare very well or are not exactly playable. And they also still manage to get some traditional examples of the archetype.

Playable characters of this archetype: Arran and Samson (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light); Deen and Sonya (Gaiden); Iuchar and Iucharba (Genealogy of the Holy War); Olwen and Ilios, Western route recruitable characters^note Ilios again, Sleuf, Misha, and Amalda and Eastern route recruitable characters^note Miranda, Shannam, and Conomore, Saias and Ced (Thracia 776); Elffin and Larum, Bartre and Echidna, Juno and Dayan (The Binding Blade); Harken and Karel, Geitz and Wallace (The Blazing Blade); Nasir and Ena (Path of Radiance); Nagi and Gotoh^*While Tiki is required to be "killed" and Falchion has to be lost in order to get Nagi, she can be resurrected with the Aum Staff, and it's possible to get the lost Falchion if she has it in her inventory upon her initial death (Shadow Dragon); Scarlet and Flora/Fuga, Yukimura and all non-Birthright characters, Izana and Fuga ^SpoilersScarlet suffers a Plotline Death before Flora and Fuga join in Revelation and will never fight alongside them. Yukimura is exclusive to the Birthright route and will never fight alongside the Conquest/Revelation exclusive characters. Izana is the default 'upgrade bath house' bonus member, but in the Revelation route, he suffers a Plotline Death and is replaced by Fuga. (Fates); Empire-aligned characters^note Edelgard, Hubert, and Jeritza, Kingdom-aligned characters ^note Dimitri, Dedue, and Gilbert, Claude, and Church-aligned characters ^note Hilda, Catherine, Cyril, Flayn, and Seteth ^*The Empire characters are exclusive to the Crimson Flower route, the Church characters and Hilda cannot be recruited on Crimson Flower, the Kingdom characters are exclusive to the Azure Moon route, and Claude is exclusive to the Verdant Wind route (Three Houses); Empire-aligned characters^note Edelgard, Hubert, Ferdinand, Caspar, Monica, and Manuela, Kingdom-aligned characters ^note Dimitri, Dedue, Felix, Sylvain, Ingrid, Annette, Rodrigue, Seteth, Flayn, and Catherine, Alliance-aligned characters ^note Claude, Hilda, and Holst, Kingdom-opposed characters^note Leonie and Lysithea, and Alliance-opposed characters^note Mercedes and Jeritza ^*The Empire characters are exclusive to the Scarlet Blaze route, the Kingdom characters are exclusive to the Azure Gleam route, the Alliance characters are exclusive to the Golden Wildfire route, the Kingdom-opposed characters cannot be recruited on Azure Gleam, and the Alliance-opposed characters cannot be recruited on Golden Wildfire; however, all party restrictions are lifted when replaying missions through the Record Keeper (Warriors: Three Hopes)

Playable characters that only have elements of this archetype: The second-generation child units and their respective substitute units ^note While they are Mutually Exclusive Party Members, they don't support opposing sides. Additionally, getting the child units instead of the substitute units or vice-versa isn't presented as a choice but rather as a consequence of the player's actions during the first generation (I.E. players will only get the substitute units if the mothers of their respective child unit counterparts are either dead or unmarried by the end of the first generation). (Genealogy of the Holy War)

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• Competitive Balance: If the pair fulfills the same role in your army, regardless of who is chosen, one member will typically be much better in a set of stats than the other and vice versa.
• Cool Horse: A popular way of differentiating one from the other is to make one in the pair into a member of a horse-riding class.
• Foil: Often, but not always.
• Late Character Syndrome: Can fall victim to this. Other times, they're the 11th-Hour Ranger, which is popular if they're part of the Gotoh archetype.
• Mercy Mode: Oftentimes, the deciding factor between one or the other depends on how well the player does at fulfilling a certain requirement. If they fail to meet those requirements, they'll get a Boring, but Practical Lightning Bruiser to compensate for the player's inability to keep their characters alive etc., in contrast to the Difficult, but Awesome Glass Cannon they would have otherwise gotten.
• Mutually Exclusive Party Members: The choice is never taken lightly, as one of the pair will always be barred from joining your army.
• Schrödinger's Player Character: Typically averted. The other character of the pair is typically alluded to in some form.
• Story Branching: Many of these characters are only encountered or only allied with you if you choose to go down one story route or another.