Fire Emblem Awakening / Tropes F to L

Tropes A-E | Tropes F-L | Tropes M-R | Tropes S-Z

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This game has examples of:

F

• Face Death with Dignity:
  • Emmeryn willingly and serenely walks to their death, with a smile too.
  • The Avatar also faces their death with a smile if they chose to sacrifice themselves to kill Grima.
• Failure Is the Only Option: The mission to rescue Emmeryn.
• Fake Difficulty: Lunatic+ in a nutshell. Right from the start, Mooks are given unique, stupidly overpowered skills. The problem is that these skills are distributed randomly. This renders a lot of the difficulty a case of Luck-Based Mission. To illustrate:
  • If the random Mook with the Hammer in Chapter 1 gets both Hawkeye and Luna+, Frederick is guaranteed to die against him unless you get a lucky Dual Guard, as shown here. It's worth noting that it only one-shots Frederick due to the Hammer's damage bonus against armored units, but it's not terribly likely that anyone else in your party can take the hit unless you invested almost all of the Prologue's XP into the Avatar (or, less likely, Chrom) and got good defense and/or HP on level ups.
  • This video shows that early chapters can become flat-out Unwinnable before they even begin if too many enemies are given the combination of Hawkeye and Luna+.
    • While certain combinations of enemy skills does make things very difficult for the player, this person has managed to complete multiple runs through Lunatic+ mode without ever saving the game or resetting, which shows that even with the unique enemy-only skills, most of the time there is always a way to get past them.
  • But don't let that make you think the non-Lunatic modes are free of this, no sir. This particular game delights in shoving swarms of enemies at you, usually coinciding with a complete lack of chokepoints to manage them.
  • Reinforcements that spawn at the beginning of the computer's turn on any mode harder than Normal. It basically punishes the player for not being able to predict exactly where and when they're going to spawn. While this isn't the first game in the series to do this, it's the first to make it out of Japan.
• Fanservice: The "Scramble" DLC chapters, in which the second episode features Beach Episode and characters in swimsuits while third episode has Hot Springs Episode and Kimono Fanservice.
  • All characters (except Henry, who has a unique sprite) in the Dark Mage class. Females have what amounts to a bikini, and males have a wrap around their waist. Aside from their cloak (not that it covers much), that's all they're wearing.
  • For no discernible reason, the Annas in Five Anna Firefight are all wearing bikini tops. Granted, they're in a volcano, but even the one in town wears it.
• Fantastic Racism: Far less of it in this game compared to the others. Panne treats her human companions with disdain due to how her own race was nearly wiped out by them, but it's not plot-vital.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Played with. At a glance, the world map appears similar to a real world map (if not the whole world, then at least North America, Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle East.)◊ But Ylisse, which is notably European, is where the Middle East/East Asia would be. Plegia is similarly Western but is located where Africa would be, though its Dark Mages seem to at least draw some Ancient Egyptian inspiration mixed with Gothic trappings. Ferox is home to the only two brown skinned characters and is located where Europe should be. Chon'sin is home to the most Swordmasters (who look more like Samurai in this game than any other in the series) and its most powerful sword is based on Japanese regalia, but the neighboring kingdoms are Western and the continent is shaped like the Americas.
• The Fatalist:
  • Validar and Grima fit firmly in this trope, believing everything that will happen is predestine.
  • Gerome also holds this view, finding it pointless to meddle in the past since the world will end regardless of their actions. He changes his mind by the endgame.
• Females Are More Innocent: Aversa seems to be the one truly evil woman throughout the game, with any other women merely being antagonists and/or mooks. But if you receive the SpotPass chapters, you suddenly find out that she was practically mind controlled for the entire game, she then joins your team. To compare, Gangrel was a genuinely messed up individual, with a long list of atrocities to his name; he joins too, but he actually has to bear responsibility for his actions, instead of shifting the blame to someone else.
• Final Death Mode: Inverted. This is the second (the first being Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem ~Heroes of Light and Shadow~) game in the series to include Casual Mode, where Permadeath is not in effect.
• First-Episode Twist: Within the first five minutes, the Avatar beats The Dragon, get possessed by the Big Bad, and kills Chrom. And laugh maniacally about it. In fact, the opening "Premonition" chapter was actually removed from the demo, presumably to avoid giving this away. Not that that stopped a bunch of official footage already revealing it or people who had already seen it.
• First Girl Wins: If Chrom and a female Avatar end up marrying. A female Avatar is arguably the easiest romance option to build Support with, since they fight alongside each other from the very start and can reach C Support level by the end of Chapter 2 or 3.
  • If a Male Avatar marries Lissa, it also becomes this, since she's the first female romance option. She's a tad harder to support than Chrom x Fem!Avatar because of her status as an early-game healer (which makes her impractical as a Pair Up or Support unit, as you don't want her near the frontlines), but it's about equal to any other female character.
• Flanderization: Although the localization is considered good for the most part, there were some changes in some of the characters that had this effect:
  • Unlike most other characters, who were either toned down or kept mostly the same, Henry's creepier habits were played up considerably in the English version, and some of the more sympathetic elements of his backstory were downplayed. His Dark and Troubled Past still traumatizes him into what he is today, but the end result is that he doesn't quite understand human emotion, and the morality of normal people, and he gained an obsession with blood that didn't show up nearly as often in the Japanese version.
  • Downplayed with Sumia. Her Through His Stomach tendencies in her supports with Chrom were played up heavily (the S Support went from only mentioning cooking once to being based around it almost entirely), but outside of them her character is mostly identical to the Japanese version.
• Flirting Under Fire:
  • Stepping on an event tile with any couple. They will spend their time complimenting each other looks, promising each other to survive, or given each other presents.
  • Chrom kisses the female Avatar (if they are married) in the Summer Scramble DLC during the battle.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: "Annihilation".
• Forgiveness: A major theme, especially with Emmeryn and eventually Gangrel of all people. See the character pages for more details.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Early in the game, Frederick believes the Avatar could be a Plegian spy. Later on, it's revealed the Avatar is indeed Plegian (by birth) and an important part of the Grimleal's plan.
  • Similarly, Chrom remarks on the Avatar's unusual name and asks if it's foreign. A new player will likely dismiss this as as lampshading Hello, [Insert Name Here], but considering the Avatar's past, their name likely is Plegian in-universe.
  • Lon'qu loses to "Marth", much to everyone's surprise. Turns out "Marth" is a woman, something Lon'qu fears.
  • During their Fearful Symmetry cutscene fight, "Marth" states he learned his skills, which are identical to Chrom's, from his father.
  • The "Premonition" chapter as soon as you start a new game: Chrom and the Avatar kill Validar, but then the Avatar gets possessed and kills Chrom.
  • Right after Premoniton, you get the only shot of the Avatar barehanded as Chrom helps them up. It has a mark similar to yet entirely distinct from the mark on Chrom's shoulder. As you might have guessed, it's an opposing mark from the Mark of Naga; the Avatar is of Grima's bloodline.
  • Owain says "By the ghost of Ike!" in the chapter he's recruited in. It makes sense because Ike's long dead and you meet his descendant, Priam.
  • During the epilogue of Chapter 18, a messenger informs the gang of Basilio's death. While the others are shaken by the news, the Avatar says nothing and in fact doesn't even flinch. This suggests that there might be more going on than the others, including the player at this point, know of.
  • In Paralogue 17, Chrom and his gang enter a holy glade wherein they find Tiki, the daughter of the Divine Dragon Naga, resting. The rest of the army remarks that the area is very calming and peaceful. The Avatar remarks that they felt nothing out of the ordinary. This might be related to do the Avatar being the vessel of the Fell Dragon.
  • Chrom immediately identifies Henry as Plegian, and, if you pay attention, you can see marks on Henry's collar that resemble the ones on the Avatar's sleeves, thus further hinting that they are Plegian.
  • The first time that Validar lays eyes on the party is Chapter 6, and when he does, he seems to have great amounts of interest in the Avatar for some reason, which is easy to write off as him surveying the enemy commanders. He's intrigued with how his child has grown up and thinking on the particular significance they have to his plans...
  • A minor example is in Chrom and Lissa's support. Lissa is worried she isn't useful and repeatedly asks Chrom if she seems like a princess. This seems at first like concern over her tomboyish streak, but in Owain's introduction chapter it's revealed Lissa's Mark of Naga never appeared, leading her to suspect she might be a bastard child and thus technically not a princess.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: In a gameplay sense, romantic support chains are like this, with the fourth and final conversation raising a pair to "S" rank and securing the two as a couple. Whether this applies in a story sense or not depends on the specific pairing.
  • It's very common for supports to take a sudden swerve from platonic friendship or camaraderie to romance, even to the point of previous conversations being given a romantic spin retroactively, going from A Support to S. This is because unlike previous games, every character can reach A Support with all of their options, so including romance in earlier Supports would be problematic if one of the parties is already married.
  • Chrom/Olivia and Chrom/Generic Village Maiden in particular stand out among the others, and both are lampshaded by the game.
• Friendship Moment: The selling point of the Scramble DLC. Humorous, and even heartwarming banter is available between characters, even those that usually don't get along well.
  • The Summer and Hot Spring Scrambles. The Harvest Scramble mostly features talks with characters who can support with each other (and are already friends), whereas the latter two include conversations with characters who can't normally talk, thus adding extra camaraderie between the Shepherds.
• Full-Contact Magic: The Avatar character's Ignis ability is a variation of this and Spell Blade in that they add half of their magical strength to a physical attack or vice versa.
• Funetik Aksent: The "alternotte" Anna in the EXPonential Growth DLC. Parodied, as it turns out she's faking it, and she herself points out how ridiculous it is.
• Funny Foreigner: Gregor is this in spades. He has a Russian accent in the English versions.
  • The Anna from the EXPonential Growth DLC has a French accent, which she is apparently faking!
• Future Self Reveal: Near the start of the game, a mysterious masked swordsman is introduced, referring to himself as Marth, the same name as the legendary Hero-King. During one pivotal chapter, Marth is revealed to not be the actual Hero-King, due to being a Sweet Polly Oliver. After a Time Skip, Chrom ends up married with a daughter, named Lucina. A few chapters after the introduction of the baby Lucina, Marth reappears and reveals herself to be the future version of Lucina, having traveled back in time after the world was devastated by the Fell Dragon Grima so that she can prevent this ruined future.

G

• Game-Favored Gender: Somewhat interestingly done: Females (including your Avatar if you choose female as the gender) have access to the Dark Flier, a Magic Knight class which gives you Galeforce, which allows them to move again if they defeat an enemy, which is a Game-Breaker. However, males (including your Avatar if you choose male instead) can all get access to the male-only Dread Fighter class, a Magic Knight which learns Aggressor, a skill which increases your Attack by 10 if you attack on the player phase, which is also a Game-Breaker (as well as Resistance +10 which is basically a fuck-you to enemy Mages). And because Galeforce is able to be passed down to a second-gen male, while Aggressor cannot, the best units in the game are actually males of the second generation with access to Galeforce. Avatar-wise, you may think this gives the female Avatar the advantage because the child she bears is male, compared to the male Avatar's daughter, but the male Avatar has the choice of marrying no less than three women who all have sons who can get Galeforce through their mothers' genes, but who can also choose to marry one of three women who can't pass down Galeforce to their daughters, but who can learn Galeforce through Avatar's ridiculous genes (and male Avatar marrying a spouse that can have a child results in the child being able to go through every normal class + the class they start out with, granting them super customization) instead. Female Avatar is restricted to only one spouse with a child on his own. This makes the genders surprisingly well-balanced in regards to the Avatar.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Very late in the game, when the Fire Emblem is stolen, it vanishes from Chrom's model, since he was using it as his shield.
  • If you promoted Chrom too early, the Fire Emblem isn't present on his arm.
  • Kellam says he's been with the Shepherds the whole time when you 'recruit' him, and his shield can be seen in the camp at the Northroad at the beginning of Chapter 3.
  • Lon'qu's gynophobia extends beyond support conversations and story; whereas everyone else has the same dialogues for barrack conversations and event tiles, Lon'qu will act more hostile towards female characters for those two events in particular. Even during the final boss fight, when everyone else is calling for the Avatar to wake up, Lon'qu will stutter if the Avatar is female.
    • There is one situation in which Lon'qu won't stutter in the above scene: if he's married to the avatar, because their S-support establishes that his gynophobia doesn't apply to her anymore.
  • In the Harvest DLC map, Lissa wears a party hat that's present on both her conversation portrait and her battle model.
  • A minor one, but in Cherche's support conversation with Vaike, she offhandedly mentions that she was originally training to become a cleric when she met her wyvern Minerva. Her two reclassing options with a Second Seal are the cleric and troubadour classes. In fact, most reclass options are based on character backstory.
    • Kellam can become a thief because of his talent for staying hidden.
    • Ricken's reclass options are Archer and Cavalier, which are also Chrom's alternate reclass options, as a reference to his loyalty to Chrom.
    • One of Vaike's reclassing options is Barbarian, a class that has a subpar hit rate, which ties in with his reckless nature.
    • All of Cordelia's reclass options make it such that she is the only non-Avatar 1st-generation character who can use every weapon type in the game^note Except for transformation stones, referencing how she is multitalented in-story.
    • Lissa and Maribelle share the Troubadour and Pegasus Knight classes, tying in with their friendship.
    • One of Panne's and Nowi's reclass options is Wyvern Rider, owing to the former's ability to communicate with animals and the latter's affinity with dragons. This extends to another example: Yarne actually doesn't inherit the set from Panne, and gets the Barbarian set instead. It may seem strange, since it's the only case in the game where a future child doesn't inherit a gender-neutral class from their guaranteed parent, but it does make sense that someone as skittish as Yarne wouldn't be too keen on the idea of trying to tame and ride a dragon. The skill can be passed to him from his father, though.
    • Speaking of Panne, Nowi, and their children, if you reclass them, they keep their Beast and Dragon weaknesses even if the class you choose for them doesn't normally have it.
    • A possible promotion for Donnel is Hero, since he wants to return to his village as one who saved the world.
  • Flying units (like Pegasus Knights) are weak to archers. In Chapter 9, the Pegasus Knights that act as reinforcements for the Shepards die to Risen archers. They're even One Hit Kills.
  • The battle between Basilio and Walhart is done the same way a regular game battle is done; the player has access to the camera controls, and the game even has reasonable damage/accuracy/critical values for either character. Flavia blocks an attack using the dual guard system as well.
  • In some Barracks conversations, the second character occasionally faces away from whoever they're talking to:
    • If Kellam initiates the conversation, the second person may not even acknowledge his presence.
    • Miriel and Tharja sometimes face away from their conversation partners if they're being talked to, probably because they're busy with their own experiments.
    • Lon'qu occasionally faces away from his conversation partner, as he rarely socializes, especially towards women, as noted above.
    • Gerome also does this because of his desire to avoid interaction with people of the current timeline.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The class-changing feature using Second Seals is not part of the plot or support conversations, so characters like Kjelle or Kellam will always be in heavy armor in their portraits and talk about their armor even when, say, class-changed into Assassins. This is especially jarring in scenes that involve portraits and models, because, unlike the portraits, the character models do change according to class. (Heads always remain the same, though, so Donnel will always have his pot.) The lack of class recognition in supports is a necessary evil and makes some sense in that characters still have the past and training that ties them to their original class, but it is nonetheless a bit silly when Cordelia asks Severa why she didn't become a Pegasus Knight while Severa is one and Cordelia isn't.
  • Like many Fire Emblem games, the writing likes to assume that the player will go through the game without a single casualty. So no one will get on Lucina's case for stabbing her aunt Lissa or her own (not Robin) mother, and Robin can support and be on friendly terms with the spotpass characters, even if they had just singlehandedly killed/crippled their spouse and child in the level they were recruited on.
  • A particularly bad example of this is Sully and Kjelle's supports, where Sully asks why Kjelle never became a horse-rider like her. One of Kjelle's first promotion options is the Great Knight which is, naturally, a mounted character.
  • Additionally, some characters, in-story, are significantly less badass than others. However, they can be just as powerful and deadly as any other unit in your army. Yarne, for example, is said to spend the most of his time in battles running and hiding, even if you've had him take on the entire enemy force singlehandedly. Furthermore, Gerome and Kjelle are said to be the group's strongest fighters, wiping the floor with all who challenge them, while in terms of stats Kjelle's strength is among the worst of all of the physical fighter children (the absolute worst if you consider Cynthia and Owain to be magical rather than physical) and Gerome can't get Galeforce.
  • Some support conversations (e.g. Sully and Frederick, Lon'qu and Gregor) involve the characters practicing against each other and one character easily beating the other even if the losing character is significantly stronger in-game.
  • Cherche has a lot of intimacy for her mount, Minerva, a black wyvern, and talks to her or mentions her in conversations in every chance she can have. Not only can Cherche reclass into a Cleric or Troubadour, but one of the promotions in her default class also has her ditch her wyvern, replacing it with a Gryphon. Hilarity ensues.
  • Yarne makes constant reference to being The Last of His Kind. Which is true... as long as the avatar hasn't married Panne, in which case Yarne will have a Taguel sister in Morgan and the dialogue makes a lot less sense. This still doesn't seem to set his mind at ease (though it is at least referenced in his supports with her).
  • Vaike and Gregor (eventually) understand Minerva in their supports with Cherche, but if the two wind up getting married to Cherche, he forgets he ever knew how in his A-support with Gerome (with the excuse, "It's an acquired skill!")
  • Many of Lissa's supports (e.g. with Lon'qu) present her as being defenseless and vulnerable. While this is true at the start of the game when she's a healer, Lissa can later be reclassed and become a powerful offensive unit. While still weaker in the defense department, she'd be more than capable of holding her own.
  • Stahl's C-Support with the Avatar takes places before Chrom's birthday, the B-Support after it and the A-Support on Stahl's own birthday. This is regardless of whether it actually is on or even close to their birthdays. At the very least however, Stahl's birthday (16th June) is a reasonable 20 days after Chrom's (27th May), making the latter two supports make sense chronologically.
  • Several Support conversations will mention plot points that have not officially been introduced yet, especially early on in the game.
    • Many Supports mention the characters being at war, even though Ylisse is not officially at war until the events of Chapter 5, and it's completely possible to have characters mention being at war at a point before that, when they're dealing mostly with random Risen and petty bandits.
    • The Avatar mentions the Risen in their C-Support with Lissa, even though it's possible to see this before the Risen are introduced in Chapter 1.
    • Lissa and Stahl's A-Support will have Lissa mention that her brother is "running a country", which isn't true until the Time Skip between Chapters 11 and 12 after Emmeryn's death.
  • Chapter 17 ends with Say'ri's allies performing a Cavalry Betrayal on her and Chrom's army and siding with Walhart's empire because Excellus blackmailed them. However, it's actually possible to finish the chapter before this happens, but nothing changes if the player does. The cutscene following the chapter still mentions it as if it were shown.
  • Due to the very existence of most second generation characters being one big Schrödinger's Gun, none of its members reunite with each other for two years during which they should have been keeping an eye out for each other, if not actively trying to regroup. They suddenly have a much easier time doing so once Lucina reveals she hasn't traveled to the past alone, the most blatant being Laurent, who is found on a peninsula directly east of Ylisstol, and the fact that he's been in the past for a whole 5 years means he's either been stuck in that desert the whole time or damn near had to intentionally avoid the capitol.
• Gameplay Protagonist, Story Protagonist: Zig-Zagged. In the first part of the game, we see Chrom go through all the struggles of going from protector to ruler, while Robin is the one giving the orders to the army. However, the later parts of the story have more focus on Robin as they struggle with being the vessel for the Fell Dragon Grima. Played most straight in the DLC story, Future Past, where the story focuses on an alternate version of Lucina, but the characters from the save file and main universe have more prominence in game play.
• Gender Equals Breed: While there are several pair-ups available for various mixtures of the parents' properties to pass down to their offspring, the second generation characters are generally dictated by their mother. For example, Cordelia will give birth to Severa no matter who she marries. Lucina is instead dictated by her father, Chrom. The Avatar's child Morgan will always end up as the opposite sex. As a result of being tied to their fathers, Lucina and (Female) Morgan are the only two second generation characters with the potential for a sibling with whoever their mother would give birth to.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Sumia does this to Chrom by trying to slap him across the face, but forgetting that you slap someone with an open hand, not a closed fist.
• Giant Flyer: The fell dragon Grima. It's so huge that the final chapter takes place on its back.
• Glass Cannon: Invoked with the Glass weapons (Bow, Sword, Lance, and Axe). They have a low weapon rank (so that even underleveled characters are allowed to use them), have the same damage and accuracy as Silver Weapons, but only 3 uses before breaking. There is also a tome variant called Dying Blaze.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Transformed Panne and Yarne have them. The Risen have this crossed with Glowing Eyelights of Undeath.
• Gory Discretion Shot:
  • One cutscene has a Plegian soldier admitting his failure to track the Shepherds to Gangrel and Aversa, leading the latter to slowly walk up to him as the camera pans up away from them. We then hear a stabbing sound, and the camera comes back to show Aversa holding a sword as the soldier drops dead at her feet.
  • In the cutscene featuring Emmeryn's Heroic Sacrifice, we are never shown the body during her fall down the cliff and impact on the ground, only the other characters' reactions to it.
  • One cutscene showing the bad future has a few moments where people are killed by the Risen barely offscreen. Also, when Lucina impaled a Risen, it was not completely displayed.
  • The skill "Lethality" instantly kills an enemy. As the hit connects, the entire scene goes red, except for the black silhouetted characters and a spurt of Black Blood.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: A common Ylissean trait, but special mention goes to the Avatar's "Gods bless it!" while berating Lissa. Also averted on occasion; "damn" and "hell" are clearly spoken at several points, and Brady says "piss" and "ass" repeatedly in supports. Also, characters use the term "dastard" (as in "dastardly") as though it is completely interchangeable with "bastard." Granted, nowadays it is; however, "bastard" actually gets the slip a few times, namely in Sully and Chrom's S Support conversation.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: Averted, as the epilogue reveals that all the central events of the game's story were well-chronicled and remembered, right down to the time-traveling children. The only exceptions are Kellam, whose name will be forgotten, and the Avatar's past before joining Chrom. It will be noted that the only thing all the scholars and bards could agree upon about the Avatar was their valor and how they loved their spouse with all of their heart if married.
• Grin of Rage: Henry the Perpetual Smiler grins in almost all of his portraits (except for his scared pic). This includes his angry pic, which has a slightly smaller smile than all of his other pics.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • Chrom's wife. While the game does in fact tell you Chrom's four options (five if the Avatar is female, as the Avatar can romance anybody of the opposite sex), it does not tell you that you will commit to his marriage roughly 42% of the way through the game. It also does not tell you that there is a priority, beyond dropping a few hints in-story about who is first on the priority.^note If all of them have the exact same support points, it's Sumia. After that, in order of priority, it's Maribelle, Sully, Olivia, and a female Avatar. If all of them can access C Support, but have not initiated the C Support, it's Olivia. After that, in order of priority it's Sumia, Maribelle, Sully, and a female Avatar. That's the one thing that might trip up players, and did in fact trip up a few uninformed players. While the game does tell you that Chrom can in fact marry Olivia, getting this to happen is the Guide Dang It!.^note To get Chrom to marry Olivia, you must never access Sumia, Sully, Maribelle, or a female Avatar's C Support. To make it easier, you can try to avoid giving Chrom Support points with any of them, or marry them to other characters. Finally, if Chrom has enough Support points to access Olivia's C Support, they will marry. In fact, there is an option that happens if all of Chrom's candidates are married off, or he has no Support points with either, but getting this is the true Guide Dang It!.
  • During Owain's Paralogue, he claims he's searching for the legendary weapon Mystletainn. The weapon turns out to be a fake weapon that Owain nonetheless believes is real and is called Missiletainn, but the game never tells you you need to speak to a specific Sage with Owain in order to obtain it. Finding the Goddess Staff in Laurent's Paralogue is even more difficult, since it requires you stand on a specific tile after visiting the mirage villages.
  • The final mirage village does give you a hint, though you have to visit all the villages to get it (and the hint is arguably a bit vague).

H

• Harder Than Hard: Think beating the game on Lunatic makes you a master? Think again; accomplishing this feat unlocks Lunatic+.
  • The final DLC chapter isn't even given a difficulty rating out of five, it's instead labeled as one word: Insane.
• He Had a Name: Inverted. During the Tear Jerker Battle in the Rain—after Chrom's sister, Emmeryn, kills herself to save both the enemy kingdom and her own—the enemy general vows to protect your party in Emmeryn's name if they surrender. Across the battlefield, Chrom screams "Don't speak her name!". Once the battle starts, the song of the same name begins to play.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: There's a Player Character, so of course this is in play.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Unlike the generic Mooks, all of the playable characters' faces are fully visible.
• Here We Go Again!:
  • Gaius and Panne's supports start off with Gaius climbing a cliff to gather honey and requiring Panne's help to get back down. When Panne mentions the impossibly sweet berries at the top of the cliff, Gaius starts climbing again, and gets stuck again.
  • Chrom says this during the Champions of Yore DLC when Old Hubba starts acting up again.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Many of the characters casually discuss mangling and butchering their enemies, all of which is played in a heroic, humorous light.
  • Henry gets this most of all. He enjoys blood and killing so much he even gets a small high off of the sight of his own blood.
• Heroic Sacrifice: One of the possible outcomes from the final battle has the Avatar doing this.
  • However, ultimately, it is subverted.
• Heroic Suicide: Emmeryn commits suicide in Chapter 9 to spare Chrom the guilt of choosing A) Give the Fire Emblem to Gangrel, or B) Say no and let Emmeryn get executed.
  • This can get subverted if you have the Emmeryn SpotPass Paralogue.
• He's Dead, Jim: In the ending where you sacrifice the Avatar to kill Grima, when Chrom is reunited with the Avatar, you can see that Grima's Seal on their hand is missing—confirming Grima's death.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners/Platonic Life-Partners: All playable characters when they reach an A Support. However, there are some standout examples:
  • Chrom and the Avatar, both male (Heterosexual) and female (Platonic). They will end up with this relationship in the main storyline regardless of their Support levels.
  • Chrom and Frederick.
  • Chrom and Sully.
  • Lissa and Maribelle.
  • Sumia and Cordelia.
  • Most Second Generation Characters, due of them being Childhood Friends.
• Hidden Depths: For most non-Lord party members, you can roughly summarize their personality and background in two sentences. However, their characterization mostly comes from Support conversations (true to form for Fire Emblem) and usually their characters get fleshed out or their various oddities get explained.
• High Collar of Doom: A distinguishing part of the Dark Knights's attire.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: In-universe, several thousands years really glossed over some details of other Fire Emblem games. Very visible in Donny and Olivia's Support (in the Japanese version), in which they sing a ballad of Naesala and Leanne. The Serenes Massacre is still there, but there's no trace of Naesala's more questionable actions and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder or his reasons for such actions and instead goes for a more fairytale-like story of prince meets a princess along with their happily ever after.
• Hope Spot: The entire of Chapter 9. Just as it looks like Emmeryn is saved thanks to the Avatar's plan, everything goes completely wrong and Emmeryn is forced to sacrifice herself.
• Hopeless War: In the future world, the few surviving humans banded together and settled in the one place that they still have left, but everyone knows that it's only a matter of time before the Risen overwhelms their defenses and wipe out all of humanity.
• Hostage for MacGuffin: See Sadistic Choice.
• Hotter and Sexier:
  • Compare Divine Dragon child Tiki's appearance in Awakening◊ with her appearance in Shadow Dragon◊ and see that the proof is in the pudding.
  • Again, compare Micaiah's DLC artwork◊ with her original art.
  • Also, Radiant Dawn Elincia◊ versus her DLC Artwork.◊ Hot damn.
  • Another example being Anna. (Compare her Sacred Stones appearance◊ to that of◊ Awakening appearance. HNNNNG. (Truth be told, it's a different Anna, but still.)
  • Really though, the character design in general is this to the entire series, particularly the women's uniforms. It's not uncommon for female classes to sport Minidresses or Leotards of Power along with thigh-high socks while in combat.
• HP to One:
  • One of the Ultimate Training DLC missions features a floor of Spikes of Doom that inflict this on every unit on the map! At the start of every turn! And Permadeath may still apply here.
  • Briefly in the final chapter, but it doesn't come into play because Naga heals your units before it matters.
  • Happens to Lucina, Severa, Gerome and Laurent in the final chapter of The Future Past DLC. It doesn't change back, so you'll have to heal them if you want them at full health.
• Hybrid Power: Players have the ability to pair units in marriage, and allows their offspring to inherit their last equipped skill (one from the father and one from their mother) as well as letting their base stats be influenced by the stats of the respective parents at the time the player encounters each kid on the game. One useful niche of skill inheritance is that a gender-specific skill, such as the Dark Flier's (female) Galeforce skill, or the Fighter's (male) Zeal skill, can be passed down to children of the opposite sex.
• Hyperactive Sprite: Par the course for a Fire Emblem game. Awakening adds a few nice touches to it by giving some character sprites their own unique animations. For example, Virion can be seen tousling his hair and Miriel adjusts her glasses as a Dark Knight.

I

• I Call It "Vera": You can forge weapons and give them names if you wish. Owain also loves to name his weapons.
• Idealist vs. Pragmatist: This is one of the points of contention in the support chain of Robin and Virion. Virion is able to beat Robin (The army's tactician) at a Chess-like game without fail. When Robin points out that Virion should be the leader because of this, Virion points out that the difference is more because of their playstyles. Virion is much more pragmatic, and can only win at great cost. If he were to run a real army like this, he would be deposed simply because war is Not a Game, thus the army needs someone who values the lives of its members and is adverse to losing anyone.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Most of the songs on the game's soundtrack are named after quotes from the scene where they're first played.
• I Have Your Wife: Eventually, Gangrel captures Chrom's older sister, Emmeryn, and forces Chrom to give him the Shield of Seals for her safety. But, she kills herself via falling off a cliff so that Chrom doesn't have to choose.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Said almost word from word by Chrom and the other Shepherds when the Avatar was absorbed by Grima.
• I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: During the Valm campaign, it was revealed that the nation of Ferox held onto one of the gemstones for the Fire Emblem (Gules). Guess what Basilio gives away when killed by Walhart several chapters later.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: Whereas the entire franchise so far has generally maintained a (relatively) realistic and practical bent in its character design, this game leans much more in the direction of this trope. The best examples by far are the knight characters.
• Impoverished Patrician: Ricken and his family. The reason is never explained, but he says that his house is the laughing stock of the Ylissean aristocracy.
• Improbable Age/A Child Shall Lead Them: Emmeryn is around 24 or 25, and inherited the position of Exalt after her father died when she wasn't even ten years old yet.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: The Annas. It should be noted that some translations, such as the French localization, refer to them as sisters, which explains things somewhat.
• Infinity -1 Sword: The Parallel Falchion and the Exalted Falchion, upgraded versions of the Falchion that retain its infinite-use propety, but also gain a nice boost in attack power and can be used as healing items that restore 20 HP per use, again with no usage limits. The only requirements to obtaining them is to complete Chapters 13 and 24, respectively.
• Innocent Innuendo: In their A Support:
  Lucina (to Brady): "Now, submit! Give your body over to me!"
• Intercontinuity Crossover: 120 Characters from all past Fire Emblem installments return here, through a dimensional portal that exists in the land. The player can face them, hire them to join their army, or buy items from them. And this is mostly unrelated to the game's main story. However, aside from their portraits, they just use generic classes and models colored like their original designs. Only a few characters, who are paid DLC content, actually get their own models and personal classes. The story of the paid DLC does involve many past characters though, including the ones that use generic models.
• Interface Spoiler:
  • Both Gangrel and Aversa appear on the map for the first turn of Chapter 9. An astute player will notice Aversa's stats are much higher than his. Checking Gangrel's description there will have him referred to as the former king of Plegia, when he's still king at the time.
  • Every character's Support library shows shadowed map sprites of the support partners you haven't recruited yet. Since the Avatar can support with everyone, scrolling to the bottom of their list can spoil some of the secret characters if you look hard enough. Since Walhart has a unique class, it's pretty obvious one of them is him. Gangrel's sprite shows his trademark crown, and Yen'fay and Emmeryn are similarly recognizable, with the former showing his Samurai Ponytail and the latter showing her halo-like headpiece.
    • Interestingly, this trope (in the form of blank spaces in the Support library and a name in the Japanese voice credits) was the only indication the final SpotPass character, Priam, even existed before his reveal!
  • Chrom's recruitment conversation with Libra reveals the surprise of his actual gender. However, it's already stated if you view Libra's touch screen description during the preparations phase.
  • Looking at the descriptions of the downloadable content cheerfully spoils the child mechanic.
  • During the early chapters, when Marth appears as a boss and a green unit, the only skill they have is Dual Strike+, a skill that increases the chance of dual strikes, a Player-Exclusive Mechanic. It's a pretty clear sign that they'll join you later on.
• In-Universe Game Clock: The barracks go by one. The other characters make different comments depending on the time of day.
• Irony:
  • Emmeryn and Gangrel's profiles reveal that Emmeryn is the most resilient in the army while Gangrel is afraid of heights. This is darkly funny when you remember that Gangrel had trapped Emmeryn on a cliff, and Emmeryn enacted a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Yen'fay's profile reveals that he can resist intense heat better than anyone in the army. It's ironic because his other self died in a volcano, even if it was from combat rather than the heat.
  • A particularly painful example is Chrom's frustrated declaration to Emmeryn before the events of Chapter 9: "Walking to your own death will not bring peace to anyone!" That is exactly how she dies, and that is exactly the result of her actions. It's a bitter consolation.
  • Grima, the Fell Dragon, is the subject of three ironies within the game:
    • The Avatar, created since birth to be Grima's vessel and bring about the end of the world, not only ends up being Chrom's greatest ally, but being the only person able to kill Grima.
    • Him accidentally erasing the Avatar's memory to a blank after a failed merger allowed them to bond more deeply with the Shepherds, given the Avatar not only the strength to fight his control, but the courage to sacrifice themselves to end Grima's curse.
    • Him going back into the past to ensure his future ends up not only killing him, but saving two alternative worlds (the one he left and the one he attempted to take over).
    • For bonus irony sprinkles, he went back to insure his future, not knowing that time travel creates alternate universes. He could've sat home, munching on virgin souls, and be completely unaffected by whatever Lucina did.
• Item Amplifier: The Armsthrift Skill will not reduce a weapon's durability when activated.

J-K

• Jack of All Stats: The Avatar has balanced stat growths as a Tactician and Grandmaster, making them equally good at melee fighting and magic. You can customize your Avatar by selecting a stat to receive bonus growth to and a stat to have reduced growth.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Played with with Brady due to his roughneck appearance and manner of speaking. He's less jerk and more "Heart of Gold", though.
• Joke Item: Each part of the Weapon Triangle has a joke weapon. Soup ladles are axes, logs are lances, and tree branches are swords. All of them are terrible and are described in-game as unsuitable weapons.
  • There's also a Slack Bow, a Kneader (healing staff), and a Miniature Lance (javelin).
    • Lethal Joke Item: The Miniature Lance. It has a crit rate of 35, beaten only by the Sol Katti and Dark Magic tome Ruin. And this is unmodified. Give it to someone with high strength to make up for its measly 1 attack, and you've got a powerful weapon on your hands.
    • The other weapons are surprisingly effective in the hands of powerful units as well, or at the very least useful to save your stronger weapons for later.
• Just in Time: The concept behind Dual Guard. A supporting unit will jump in and perform a Diving Save on the attacked unit.
• Kid from the Future: The entire second (and, if applicable, third) generation.
• Kick the Dog: Dalton murders an innocent villager in Chapter 12
• Kissing Cousins: The Support conversations between Lucina and Owain, who are first cousins, were changed in the English translation to remove any hints of incest. They still can S Support, but they're referred to as "companions," not husband and wife. The same thing will happen if you pair him with Cynthia or Kjelle if either of them are fathered by Chrom.
  • It's still possible for Morgan to marry her uncle/his aunt. Pair Chrom with Maribelle or Olivia. If you then pair the Avatar with Lucina, Morgan can still marry Brady or Inigo. If you have the Avatar paired with Brady or Inigo, Morgan can still marry Lucina.
  • Female Morgan can also marry her cousin(s). Pair Chrom with Maribelle or Olivia. Pair the Avatar with Lissa or Emmeryn. If paired with Emmeryn, pair Lissa with any other character. Now Morgan can marry either Inigo/Brady or Owain. If the Avatar is paired with Lissa, Morgan can marry Inigo/Brady.
• Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Winged cavalry have a crippling weakness to bows and wind magic. Nearly all campaign missions (plus several of the paralogues) have enemies wielding one or both of these to prevent the player from blitzing the map with pegasi/wyverns/griffons.

L

• Last Chance Hit Point: The skill Miracle gives you a chance of this based on the character's Luck stat.
• Last Girl Wins:
  • Olivia is the last of Chrom's love interests to be introduced - she's recruited in the very chapter he's supposed to get married in. If you didn't S-support with any of his other love interests but have enough support points, you get a special conversation with them (either Female Avatar, Sumia, Maribelle, or Sully) at the end of the chapter; Olivia doesn't have one. The game does lampshade and lampoon you a bit for it though.
  • In a similar vein, since Sumia has a small pool of love interests, her falling for Henry is this, as he joins after the two-year Timeskip (after Chrom is married with a daughter).
  • And while the Avatar can marry anyone, marrying any of the Spotpass characters takes it to a new level, as you can only play their chapters and recruit them right before the Endgame. Marrying Priam to a female Avatar is probably the biggest case of all, because he isn't seen at all during the game proper, whereas the other five are.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: The Avatar in-universe, who can marry anyone of the opposite gender; a trait not even Chrom has.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • In an early tutorial, the Avatar mentions that they "see things", such as information on enemies and their weapons, and can reveal more info if they focus. This leads in to a tutorial on how to check enemy stats using the bottom screen. A second one occurs later, at least in the demo version, with masked Marth saying "what you just saw was but a prelude", subtly alluding to the fact you're playing a demo which is about to end.
  • At the end of the Champions of Yore 3 DLC, Old Hubba tells Chrom of the other things he can expect in the Outrealms, which are to the players the content of future DLC.
  Old Hubba: "I foresee gold! Experience! Legendary weapons and heroes! But that's not all!"
  Chrom: *sigh* "Why do I feel as if I'm being sold something at market?"
  • The swimsuit and kimono scenes of Summer Scramble and Hot-Spring Scramble respectively will have Anna allude to the actual character popularity polls of the Japanese fanbase. To wit: Chrom, Gaius, Cordelia, and Tharja are the most commonly paired-up units for Japanese players, so they get their own little shots of changing into modern swimsuits.
• LEGO Genetics: Second-generation characters will have exactly the same skills and stats (averaged) of their mother and father (or at least their canonical parent if they weren't paired up)
• Leitmotif: "Id," the Avatar's theme, which is remixed into several different songs over the course of the game - there's the base version, "Serenity," that you hear at the beginning of the game, the "Sorrow" version, which plays at certain points like Lucina trying to find the resolve to kill the Avatar (and failing, if the Avatar is her mother (female) or husband (male), "Dilemma", heard when the identity of the mysterious Hierophant of Plegia is revealed, "Darkness," which is a further riff on "Dilemma" and is used when the Avatar's true heritage comes to light, and then "Return" and "Purpose," which are the set-up and stage theme for the final chapter, respectively. The last one even mixes the main Fire Emblem theme into it! The Future Past DLC includes another remix of the Avatar's theme: "Hope," which plays when you enter battle with the Morgans, and with FoD!Grima.
• Lethal Joke Item: The Miniature Lance that you can occasionally get from the Barracks. While exceptionally weak with a base Might stat of 1 and a low Accuracy of 55%, it also has a Crit Rate of 35%, tied for the highest in the game with the Wilderwind tome. A forged version in the hands of a powerful enough unit can become absolutely deadly.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Demon's Ingle^note It was originally called Duma's Remain in the Japanese version. It has since became a Non-Indicative Name as Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia retconed Duma's burial ground. is a treacherous volcano where you fight Say'ri's brother, Yen'fay. During the fight, the floor is slowly beginning to sink and will hurt your units if they stay in there. There is also the DLC, Five-Anna Firefight, which takes place in a lava cave, though instead of lava that hurts you, it's the very air, averting Convection, Schmonvection.
• Level Grinding:
  • Since the map system is back from Sacred Stones, it's possible to fight Risen for EXP and Bullion (to sell for gold). However, this time the player is restricted to map encounters (no designated grinding spot unless one pays for DLC) and on Hard/Lunatic modes, Reeking Boxes cost 4500 instead of 500, which greatly restricts how much you can powerlevel.
  • Although, you can grind using the Spotpass characters on Easy/Hard. In Lunatic and above, however, these encounters will only wield you 1 exp. It is also a bit of a money sink since you have to constantly re-supple your weapons and Spotpass battles offer no gold reward.
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Averted for the most part, as only Lucina and Female Morgan come after their fathers. All other children characters, male or female, come decidedly after their mothers.
• Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: With the exception of the Grandmaster line, spellcasters are weak compare to physical attackers at the beginning of the game; Sages tend to be extremely fragile, Dark Fliers tend to do low damage due to low MAGIC stats, and Sorcerers and Dark Knights, the sturdy spellcasters, tend to have both low SKILL and SPEED, making them both weak AND fragile. However, during endgame or if you are over-stat compare to the enemy (such as due to grinding or lower difficulty settings), rallying and pairing up will cover their weaknesses and allow them to outperform physical attackers in most cases due to the tomes' attack range of 1-2 squares.
  • If you manage to cover these fatal flaws, Nosferatu-type tomes can be a relatively easily obtainable game-breaking setup outside of Lunatic+ mode.
  • Tome's ability to attack 1-2 squares were off-set by the Brave weapons, which gave physical attackers superior damage. However, with the inclusion of Brave-type tomes, the advantage has been nulled.
• Literal Metaphor: Gaius doesn't want to kill Emmeryn, but he won't join Chrom unless he "sweetens the deal". Chrom reaches for gold, but accidentally drops a bag of candy, which Gaius declares acceptable. He'll take the payment of gold later. Unless there's more candy.
• Literal-Minded: This gem from a possible conversation during Hot-Spring Scramble:
  Avatar: Going from the sign, I'd say it's a mixed bath.
  Lucina: Oh? What do they mix it with?
  Avatar: Er, no... It's not the water that's mixed, it's the clientele.
• Locked Out of the Fight: Chapter 23 where Chrom and the Avatar face Validar while your other units face the Mooks. At least until Chrom and the Avatar defeat Validar for the first time, upon which the barrier shatters, and allows them to join the others, as well as allowing Validar to be defeated for a second time by anyone else.
  • Kind of subverted in that it's also entirely possible for one of your Sorcerers to kill him with a Mire tome (which has an attack range of 3-10 spaces) if their Magic stat is high enough.
• Long Song, Short Scene: The boss battle themes can be up to six minutes long and are absolutely epic. However, battles play out fairly quickly in this game, so you'll only hear about twenty seconds of them.
• Lost in Translation: Kind of a weird example. The localisation is truly excellent (and, given the quality of past installments, that says a lot) and—in a first for the series—the UK version actually has British English spellings and edits some of the dialogue (as some things just aren't shared between the two). So far, so good. However, some of these dialogue edits mesh with how the American voice actors read the lines. For example, Brady's British English text could very well be read in a Cockney accent but, since an American accent is the one you'll hear, any attempt to localize said accent ultimately gets lost.
• Love Bubbles: Appear in some of the special Love Confessions involving the Avatar, for example Chrom's and Lissa's.
• Lovecraft Lite: As expies of Loptous and the Lopytrians, Grima and the Grimleal wouldn't look out of place in a Lovecraftian horror story, given Grima's unknown motives and the Grimleal's fanatical worship of him. But you are able to kill Grima for good. That said, given the way that Grima has to be killed in order for him to stay dead (which was only made possible through a loophole created by the Time Travel shenanigans that Lucina and Grima engage in), and the way that Time Travel works in the Fire Emblem universe, it does go from Lovecraft Lite into a borderline Cosmic Horror Story at some points.
• Love Theme: When two characters reach S level Support (marriage) either "Id (Serenity)" plays if the Avatar is one of them or "Ha, ha! Yes, it will take some getting used to" if between other characters.
• Luck-Based Mission: Success in the Paralogue where you can recruit Anna is solely dependent on how well she can dodge incoming attacks. If you're unlucky, it's possible she can die as early as the second or third turn. Also, she always attacks if an axe-wielding bandit is nearby. She does this to protect the town, but she could just stand in front of the town's only entrance and drink her healing items there. Axes have a very poor hit rate against her sword.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: As it turns out, the Avatar is Validar's child. They... do not take that well.
• Luke, You Are My Father: Lucina does this to Chrom when she accidentally cries out "Father!" while protecting him. She explains herself afterwards.
• Luminescent Blush: Applied to the characters' dialogue portraits mostly during their S-rank Supports.
  • Olivia has it almost all the time.
  • If you tap their face in the information screen to watch their attack animation, any married character will have this, provided they're paired up with their partner at the time.

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