Fire Emblem Awakening / Tropes S to Z

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

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This game has examples of:

S

• Sad Battle Music: "Don't Speak Her Name," which plays during Chapter 10 after Emmeryn's Heroic Sacrifice, on the map, during battles, and even against the boss! Essentially Lonely Piano Piece combined with Playing the Heart Strings. For bonus points, the chapter is also a Battle in the Rain.
• Sadistic Choice:
  • Gangrel holds Chrom's sister Emmeryn hostage, and forces him to either give up the Fire Emblem, dooming his nation to ruin, or watch her die. To spare him the pain, she defies this Trope by making the choice herself.
  • Later in the game if the Avatar has married Chrom or Lucina this puts Lucina in this situation after one of many wham episodes at that point in the game. If she doesn't take action the Avatar will likely murder Chrom under Validar's control, but to take action means murdering her lover (Male Avatar) or her mother (Female Avatar). In the end she can't bring herself to do it, which does little to help her emotionally since she knows this only puts Chrom in mortal danger.
  • At the end of the game, the Avatar must decide if they will land the final blow on Grima, assuring their death, or let Chrom land the final blow and dooming the future to the inevitable return of Grima. Subverted in that the Avatar landing the final blow will always result in the Golden Ending where the Avatar comes back to life anyways.
  • Also discussed by certain DLC characters.
• Samus Is a Girl: Marth, but it's pretty easy to tell because of the voice. It's revealed fairly early on, but her gender is far from the biggest reveal about her...
• Satellite Love Interest: The generic "Maiden" (yes, that's what she's called in-game) Chrom marries if all his other options are taken fits this to a T. She has practically no characterisation and only exists so Chrom can have a kid. In fact she isn't even present when Chrom's Kid from the Future reveals herself (having never gone with the heroes since she's the only one of Chrom's potential wives who isn't an Action Girl), while all Chrom's other potential wives get special scenes. Lissa even lampshades the hell out of it.
• Scenery Censor: Tharja in the "Summer Scramble" DLC in the NA version of the game. You can see the original CG scene and the censored version here.
• Scenery Porn:
  • The whole game is very pretty, but Chapter 16, The Mila Tree, really stands out.
  • Mount Prism is also really pretty. It's a level with an endless rainbow and hills in the background.
  • While the game is grid-based, very few elements of the maps are recycled tiles. Most of one chapter takes place on a perilously narrow path with a mountain range on top and a steep cliff on the bottom, making 90% of the map inaccessible to non-flying units. Where previous games would show a Cliff and probably pitch black darkness beyond it, this game has the "cliff" tile that takes up most of the map be a very detailed canyon with a river running along the bottom.
  • Another map takes place atop a series of plateaus connected to each other with bridges. The background consists of the trees in the valley miles below, with wyverns and smaller birds flying in between it and the plateaus where you fight. Other maps have chickens searching for food on a farm, fish swimming past the boats you're battling on and a lazy cat on a roof paying no attention to the fight in the streets.
• Schrödinger's Gun: The first generation and their children. Most first generation females have a guaranteed child, that they have if they marry a first generation male. Chrom has a guaranteed child of his own, who will be the sibling of the guaranteed child of whoever he marries (except the village maiden who has no child of her own). A female avatar works like the mothers and will have a second child only if married to Chrom. A male avatar works like Chrom: he'll have two children if married to a female with a child of her own, only one if married to someone who does not. This leads to a diversity of relationships, parents, children, siblings; and uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews where Chrom and his family are concerned. Some of the first generation members can even become grandparents if the Avatar marries their child. For example, if a Female Avatar pairs with Chrom, then they are by extension Lucina's mother. (And Lucina will have different dialogue with them for it) But a male character can wait and marry Lucina, and have different dialogue for that. Or not be related to them at all.
• Screw Destiny: What Chrom and the other Shepherds firmly believes and the driving force behind the second half of the game.
  Chrom: "Anything can change!"
• Seahorses Are Dragons: All the playable Manaketes in this game takes a dragon form that greatly resembles the leafy seadragon.
• Secret Character: Six of them. They are recruited through playing six Sidequest Chapters unlocked through SpotPass, and are only available at the very end. Thanks to DLC, they aren't really Bragging Rights Rewards, and each can Support with the Avatar, and potentially marry them if they're the opposite gender. They are, in order of the first to last unlocked through SpotPass: Gangrel, Walhart, Emmeryn, Yen'fay, Aversa, and Priam.
• Self-Made Orphan: Technically possible in The Future Past if the Avatar is Lucina's mother.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Inverted actually. Not sacrificing yourself turns out to be the foolish choice in light of the sacrifice ending, since you survive anyway, with the bonus of killing off the Big Bad for good. So you actually screwed over future generations for nothing.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Compare Validar and Aversa to say... Chrom and the Avatar. Subverted with Tharja and Nowi.
• Serial Escalation:
  • The previous addition to the Fire Emblem series, Shadow Dragon, featured a story and multiplayer mode, and class changing. Awakening has all that, and throws in new classes with branching promotions, a fully-customizable Avatar, ability to Pair Up units in combat, a new Skill system with new Skills, limited voice acting during conversations, more Support options without limitations, a return of the world map, allowing grinding, downloadable content, Event Tiles on maps, full 3-D fights (naturally), the option for characters to marry and have children in-game, and PLENTY of cameos from past Fire Emblem characters.
  • To summarize, think of all the best aspects of every Fire Emblem game, mixed them with several new features, and you pretty much have what Awakening is. Very fitting for a game that could have been the last of the series.
• Series Continuity Error: Lissa and the Avatar’s C-Rank support conversation has the Avatar mention the Risen. But the conversation can be unlocked before the Risen even appear, which causes a continuity error. The European version fixes this error by changing the Risen to bandits.
• Series Fauxnale: The game was expected to be the last Fire Emblem game ever, and it shows. The story takes place in the same continuity as the original Archanea saga, the gameplay takes elements of all of the previous entries, and the SpotPass and DLC characters allow you to make an all-star team of the franchise's greatest heroes and villains, making a love letter to the series' history.
• Shipper on Deck: Naga, of all people, in the Nah/Morgan supports.
• Shop Fodder: Bullion of three different sizes get dropped at least once per Challenge map and are commonly lootable during Story missions too. Their only purpose is to sell to the shop for gold.
• Shoot the Dog: A lot of the fights with the Einherjar can feel this way, as the Einherjar genuinely believe that they are defending themselves and/or innocent lives, and you are the interlopers who are threatening their way of life. Attacking their Clerics or Troubadours comes off as this as well, especially if they're the last ones standing, because those classes can't even use weapons. They have no way to defend themselves and once their comrades are down for the count they are absolutely no threat to you, but you have to cut them down.
• Shoot the Messenger: Aversa apparently has a habit of doing this. Even Gangrel has to ask her to try not to kill all their soldiers, since they still need them.
• Shout-Out: See them here.
• Shown Their Work: Bear meat as mentioned in Robin's conversations about food is indeed a very greasy type of meat.
  • Three characters have amnesia for plot reasons, the Avatar, Morgan, and Emmeryn. Unlike Easy Amnesia, none of them ever recover their memories completely, except Emmeryn just before she dies (if she dies in battle).
• Significant Reference Date: Some of the characters' birthdays reference the release dates of the earlier games in the series or holidays. Nearly all of the second generation characters' birthdays are the same as the Japanese release dates for most of the games in the series. ^note Japanese-only releases do not have a region assigned to them.
  • Sully's birthday is December 5th, the European release date for Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.
  • Ricken's birthday is May 23rd, the North American release date for Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.
  • Cordelia's birthday is July 7th, the same date as the Tanabata Star Festival in Japan.
  • Cherche's birthday is October 17th, the North American release date for Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
  • Henry's birthday is November 13th, which is World Kindness Day.
  • Aversa's birthday is November 3rd, the North American release date for Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade.
  • Lucina's birthday is April 20th, the release date for the very first game, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Sword of Light, and the Japanese release date for Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
  • Owain's birthday is July 15th, the release date for Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem ~Heroes of Light and Shadow~.
  • Inigo's birthday is August 7th, the Japanese release date for Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.
  • Brady's birthday is February 22nd, the Japanese release date for Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.
  • Kjelle's birthday is September 29th, the release date for BS Fire Emblem: Akaneia Saga.
  • Cynthia's birthday is May 14th, the release date for Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. Incidentally, the in-game record of this game, "Ribald Tales of the Faith War", is her mother Sumia's favorite novel.
  • Severa's birthday is January 21st, the release date for Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem.
  • Gerome's birthday is September 1st, the release date for Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.
  • Morgan's birthday is May 5th, which is Children's Day in Japan and Cinco de Mayo in North America.
  • Yarne's birthday is March 14th, the release date for Fire Emblem Gaiden, the European release date for Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and White Day in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China.
  • Laurent's birthday is April 25th, the Japanese release date for Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade.
  • Noire's birthday is October 7th, the Japanese release date for Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.
  • Nah's birthday is March 29th, the release date for Fire Emblem: Binding Blade.
• Single-Stroke Battle: The Assassin's Lethality skill when done with a sword. For extra effect, put Lethality on a Swordmaster and give them a Killing Edge.
• Sins of Our Fathers: The previous Exalt of Ylisse, the father of Chrom, Lissa, and Emmeryn was a Well-Intentioned Extremist that led a devastating crusade against the Grimleal to stop them from resurrecting Grima, and causing the apocalypse. Gangrel tries to use this to help provoke the citizens of Plegia into war with Ylisse.
• Skippable Boss: Male Morgan and Female Morgan in The Future Past's first and second chapters respectively, achieved by talking to them with an Avatar of either gender. Talking to them with the opposite gender Avatar will yield a longer conversation for your trouble.
• Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: Firmly on the side of free will.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: North of Ylisse lies Regna Ferox. Since it is a land of warriors, the north is completely covered in snow.
• The Smurfette Principle: The protagonists of all types (regular, Paralogue, and SpotPass) avert this. It's played with in regards to the villains; out of all of them, only four bosses (Raimi, Pheros, Aversa, and Lucina!Marth) are women, and two of them (Raimi, a Feroxi soldier, becomes an ally because of a misunderstanding, while Masked Marth is really Lucina, Chrom's daughter) are allies (the player can also opt to recruit Aversa in a Paralogue), so Pheros is the only "villainous" female boss.
• SNK Boss:
  • In the higher difficulties, bosses gain more skills to use. The most ridiculous examples are in Lunatic+, which is basically The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The Game. On Lunatic+, enemies and bosses receive broken skills like Luna+, which always ignores half of your Def or Res, Hawkeye, which ensures all attacks hit, and some of the harder bosses get Rightful God, which adds 30% to skill activation rates. The most ridiculous examples are in the DLC map Apotheosis, where not only every enemy receives skills like these, they all have Dragonskin (which halves damage that you do and prevents you from using Counter or Lethality), most will also have Pavise+ and Aegis+ to further reduce the damage to the point you're doing single digit damage, but every enemy will have stats beyond regular limits, reaching up to 70 in a stat (or, in the case of one enemy's luck stat, 99).
  • What's even worse is that said difficulties also turns every Reeking Box encountered Risen into one as early as Chapter 4. They have capped stats in all but maybe one area that they will never need, all of them are promoted and equipped with Hit Rate +10, they possess skills from their previous classes while not as aggravating as the Future Past 3 enemies is still not a good thing, and all of them have broken forged weapons. The dev team made level grinding virtually impossible without DLC.
• Someone to Remember Him By: A father dying in combat would mean that the wife is already pregnant at this point, leading to this trope.
  • This can get a little bizarre when the Avatar is concerned, since it's heavily implied that Morgan is the youngest of the second generation. This creates the strange implication that, if a female Avatar's husband dies in combat, every single female in the army must already be several months pregnant.
    • In one support conversation, Laurent (who is older than Lucina, the only second-generation character to be born in the "current time") implies that there's a valid reason why the children's ages are so weird, but then dodges the question and leaves. ^note His B Support reveals that the children (or at least he) all arrived at different points in time in the past. Laurent, for instance, had arrived three years prior to Lucina's trip to the past.
• Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness:
  • Mostly played straight, but you can end up with some powerful weapons early on if you pick them up by random.
  • It is more of an aversion. Increasingly stronger weapons do become available as you progress, but since they break after so many uses, you'll generally want to save these weapons for the toughest enemies, so the beginner weapons still have value even late in the game, especially when grinding for experience. Although, if the character has the Armsthrift skill, you can use stronger weapons much longer.
• Spell My Name With An S:
  • Nowi's daughter is named ンン in the Japanese version, roughly pronounced un-un or nn-nn. How are you supposed to spell that?! Because of this, the fandom jokingly called her "n_n" until her English name "Nah" was revealed.
  • Up until the first English trailer was released, everyone called Chrom "Krom."
• Spit Take: Lissa does this in her C Support with Maribelle when the latter jokingly claims her favorite tea is mixed with bear blood.
• Spiteful A.I.: In two flavors. If the AI can deal enough damage with its units, it will send all of them toward a single character, even if it causes the death of every unit in range. If there are a few characters in range but none of them can be killed and all can counterattack, the AI goes after the highest leveled character to deny experience points to your weaker characters that would get more out of it.
• Spock Speak: Miriel and Laurent. VERY much so.
  • Miriel never stops speaking this way, even during her S Supports. Laurent does break off from his mother's speech patterns every so often, though, particularly when he speaks to his father. In fact, in both his A Supports with whomever his father is and in the Japanese version of his love confession to the Avatar, he speaks normally.
• Star-Crossed Lovers:
  • If Chrom, or any of his relatives who are infused with the bloodline of Naga, marries the Avatar this trope is Played Straight in the Bad Future where the Avatar becomes Grima and kills everyone and Defied in the alternative timeline where Grima is killed by the Avatar.
  • Tiki and the Avatar also fits this role since Tiki is Naga's daughter.
• Static Role, Exchangeable Character: Intermarrying your characters opens up an extra map where you can meet a child whose identity is determined by the female half but who is also said to be the child of the male half of the pairing (in effect, for every marriageable female character, there is a static role "Her Husband" that can be assigned to any marriageable male). The child can support with their father, but the main point of the support conversations is always the same (e.g. Nah wondering why her father married her mother), with only the father's speech patterns and rarely personality impacting the way it is presented. Additionally, since Chrom and male Robin are the only men with assigned children, Lucina and female Morgan will have a sibling, with whom they too will have support conversations that remain largely the same regardless of who said sibling is.
• Stat Sticks: Upon reaching Level 15, the unit learns the Faire skills of their appropriate class (Swordmaster, Falcon Knight, Berserker, Sniper, and Sage). It buffs Strength by 5 whenever they equip the weapon type of that Faire. However, it will increase magic instead if they are wielding a magic weapon. Since every weapon type, save Bows, has at least one staff-wielding class (Trickster with Swordfaire, Falcon Knight and the DLC-exclusive Bride class with Lancefaire, War Monk/Cleric with Axefaire, and Sage and Valkyrie with Tomefaire) that can equip their respective magic weapon and staves aren't "equipped", they can improve their healing capability and extend their staff range from holding unto the magic weapons.
• Storm of Blades: The Feroxi knights use this tactic on Chrom in order to steer the Shepherds away from their outpost. It fails thanks to Sumia who arrives Just in Time to save him.
• Story Branch Favoritism: Main character Chrom is the only character forced to get married to progress the game, and has a noticeably restricted set of possible lovers. He has to choose between Sumia, Sully, Maribelle, Olivia or a female Avatar. However, the game makes it very clear that either Sumia ^note (several in-game scenes have Ship Tease and she generally will have the highest priority among his prospect girlfriends unless you deliberately pursue one) or the Female Avatar ^note (gets a special alternate dialogue during a scene with Lucina, is the only one of Chrom's wives who remains relevant to the story after the reveal of Chapter 13 and is extremely close to Chrom even if you don't marry him. is the Implied Love Interest. Naturally, be careful when discussing which is more the case.
• Stripperiffic:
  • Olivia's Dancer is pretty risque, and practically see-through to boot. Her being the Reluctant Fanservice Girl because of her dancing talents makes it all the more ironic.
  • The all-female Pegasus and Falcon Knights, as well as Dark Riders, sport Leotard of Power/Zettai Ryouiki combos, while only wearing some light upper-body armor. This is to some degree justified by the fact that they're flying units who have to be light enough for their mounts to stay airborne with the added weight of their passengers, with the Dark Riders in particular specializing more in ranged spellcasting than hand-to-hand combat anyways.
  • In general, if one compares the female and male versions of each class, both will usually be wearing about the same amount of actual armor, but the clothes worn underneath will be a bit more revealing on the female version.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Certain enemies' AI is actually coded to go after the strongest unit in range rather than the weakest. An example from the early-game DLC.
• Super Move Portrait Attack: Right before a Critical Hit. The cut-in also occurs when a skill activates.

T

• Take Your Time: You're free to spend as much time as you want doing Paralogues, random skirmishes, and DLC chapters before progressing in the story, in spite of a sense of urgency. In a specific early-game example: a Paralogue chapter is unlocked right after finding out Emmeryn is scheduled to be executed and you're told have to hurry to save her. Another becomes available immediately after Emmeryn commits her Heroic Sacrifice, and Basilio specifically told you to hurry and flee the area.
  • Justified for the Outrealm missions, since Old Hubba explains that time works differently in the Outrealm, meaning they can spend as much time as they want in it and return to the normal world at exactly where they left off.
  • This also applies to the postgame. The postgame in Awakening occurs right before the fight with Grima, which means that everything you do during the post game will be occurring while Grima is flying in the air doing god knows what.
• Temporal Paradox: Averted. Chrom's wife understandably worries when Adult Lucina makes her reveal, asking what happens to Infant!Lucina. Apparently the two of them can exist at the same time with no harm done.
• Terminator Twosome: Chrom's daughter Lucina was sent back in time to prevent a Bad Future happening. The Big Bad Grima sends himself back in time to prevent her from altering the past.
• Terrible Pick-Up Lines: Happens offscreen, during supports between Maribelle and Olivia. Seeing Olivia's crippling shyness, Maribelle takes it on herself to cure her by pushing her to start a conversation with some gentlemen. Trouble is, as Maribelle later finds out, the lines she taught Olivia to that end were, in fact, mens' pickup lines. Whoops!
  Olivia: So all those lines you made me say were...
  Maribelle: Completely inappropriate for women of our station, yes. ...Especially the wolf whistles. ...And the bit about his legs "going all the way up."
• The Theocracy: Two of them, the Halidom of Ylisse and the explicitly-named Theocracy of Plegia.
• Thin Chin of Sin: Validar has a pointy chin, as well as a long and pointier beard coming from the bottom.
• This Loser Is You: Completely inverted. Not only does Avatar have a special class and is the first true Magic Knight since Judgral, but they can also get paired with Chrom and Sumia, and even have kids. Way to go, stud!
  • It gets inverted even harder when dealing with the game's inner mechanics. Specifically, the "children" units can inherit classes to promote to and certain skills from their parents. The classes they can change into will decide their final skill list, since multiple "mastery" skills can be learned and carried through class changes, with some of them halving damage, healing half HP when defeating an enemy, granting another turn when defeating an enemy, causing an instant KO, or the like. ... What's that? Avatar can reclass into and pass down ANY non-gender specific class? Well, at least they won't be getting the Aether skill... but their son/daughter Morgan can, if paired with Chrom or Lucina. With lots of change seals and the right supports, one can have a Morgan with all of the extremely powerful attacking skills (Lethality, Astra, Sol, Luna, Aether) on at the same time. Even worse, if it's a Morgan with access to Galeforce (entirely possible by passing it down for Male Morgan, or just learning it directly from the Dark Flier class if Female Morgan), they will rip holes in the enemy army. All this from the Avatar's stupidly powerful genes.
  • Of course, you're also Grima...
• Through His Stomach: This seems to be a sort-of theme for several characters:
  • In Sumia and Chrom's supports, she bakes him a series of savory pies (a bento in the Japanese version) in hopes of both winning his heart and help him outside the battlefield. If she's married, her "gift" reply to her husband (whoever he may be) on an event tile is her showing him that she has made lunch for him... even if she dropped it twice.
  • Kellam can have two girls cooking for him... not bad for a guy who's often forgotten. On one hand, Lissa bakes him a "rainbow-filled" pie but it doesn't go that well. On the other, Olivia makes rock candy for him with some honey that he brought her before and it works much better.
  • Gaius invokes the trope several times too. He tries to win the aforementioned Olivia's heart with pies and proposes to her via hiding a ring inside a tart he baked for her, helps Lissa improve her cooking, and a good part of his supports with Sumia include their Epic Fail at finding honey for pies. (She manages to bake him a cake in the end.) In his own "gift" dialogue with a girlfriend has him saying he's baked a treat for her.
  • Stahl wins Panne's trust and affection over by trying to come up with meals she can enjoy with the others. This one's quite justified: being a Taguel instead of a human (meaning she has the dietary needs of a rabbit, the animal that the Taguel are based from), there are several things that Panne simply cannot eat, lest she'll get sick or even die.
  • As a Ninja Maid, Cherche is said to be a pretty good cook too. Her ending with Stahl has him actually gaining weight from eating all of her delicious food.
  • Mixed gender example: the Avatar (whether male or female) makes a carrot stew for the aforementioned Panne. They are a Lethal Chef. Panne loves it anyway.
    • The male Avatar starts cooking for Nah in their A Support after seeing that her diet consists of little more than berries, leaves, and roots. She greatly appreciates the gesture because in the Bad Future, where Nah was raised by scornful foster parents, food was scarce, which was especially a problem for a half-dragon like Nah, as manaketes require far more food than humans to survive.
  • Tharja, in her attempts to get closer to the Avatar (regardless of gender), tries her hand at "acting normal" and cooks their favorite meal: liver-and-eel pie (which is actually a real dish). The Avatar is taken aback by Tharja's drastic change in personality (even saying that they preferred her old habits), but they DO find the pie in itself to be delicious.
  • Tharja's daughter Noire is an excellent baker. Her supports with Owain show her baking for him, and if she supports with a Male Avatar who's not her dad he agrees to go out in a date with her to taste her cakes.
  • The "gift" reply from event tiles involving Cordelia's daughter Severa have her giving her lover something she baked for him. Being a tsundere, she immediately tells him "don't you DARE complain about the taste!"
  • Sully and Cynthia mention in some of their supports that the village girls often give them savory pies with cream (Sully) and sweet cakes (Cynthia) to show their admiration for them.
  • In Lon'qu and Cordelia's supports, it's revealed that Cordelia often cooks dinner for the army with this trope in mind.
  Cordelia: Right then! To the sound of thunderous gratitude, I'll go and prepare supper. You like cabbage stew, don't you?
  Lon'qu: It is my favorite dish. Are you the one who keeps preparing it every meal?
  Cordelia: Oh, so you DID notice! Yes, that's me. I like to keep morale up by serving little treats now and then. Anyways, see you at supper!
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: How most 1-2 Range swords work in Awakening. The magic based Levin Sword is the exception.
  • Axes and Lances behave like this. They'll return to your hand (somehow), too!
• Time Travel: Of the Alternate Timeline variety. One timeline has Grima revive and turn the world into a Zombie Apocalypse, killing everyone except Lucina and whoever came with her to the good timeline, which you're in. Then there's Morgan, who may have come from the good timeline instead of the bad, or a third, entirely different timeline.
• Time Skip:
  • Awakening is a direct sequel to the Archaneia series games, Shadow Dragon and Mystery of the Emblem, albeit around two thousand years later.
  • A minor two-year time skip occurs between Chapter 11 and Chapter 12.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Your characters' children come from the future in order to prevent the end of the world. Expect a lot of this. It's most apparent when two characters marry, and then a new Paralogue featuring their child instantly becomes available.
  • It turns out that it's not only the characters' children who can come from the future...
  • It also turns out that they're not really from the future so much as from an alternate timeline.
  • The ending reveals that all of the second generation characters do not disappear, even when the Bad Future is averted, so they all go off on their own adventures.
  • Then there's the fact that Morgan, depending on who you married, could have potentially come from yet another timeline. Timey Wimey doesn't even begin to cover all the possibilities.
• Time-Travel Romance: If the Avatar marries any of the second-generation characters.
• Title Drop:
  • "Awakening," being a flexible stock subtitle, can refer to any number of things in the story but in particular:
    • The Avatar's awakening at the beginning of the story. And, should they sacrifice themselves, their Bookend reawakening after the story.
    • The Awakening of Grima to wreck havoc on humanity.
    • Naga awakening to bless the Falchion.
    • One Chapter is actually titled "Awakening."
  • The title of Chapter 20, The Sword or the Knee, comes from the conversation Chrom has with Walhart should the two fight each other.
• Token Evil Teammate: Played with. As usual in Fire Emblem, you can recruit from the enemy side. Here, both Plegians you can recruit are Dark Mages, have something of a creepy or mentally unstable streak, and show no intent of atoning (Tharja pulls a Screw This, I'm Out of Here! and is self-serving while Henry joins because he can spill more blood that way). However, both of them are alright people deep down, as their supports reveal, despite their dark streaks. The Avatar is Plegian too, and the embodiment of a god of evil no less, but they are the ultimate Anti Anti Christ.
• Took a Level in Badass: Axefighters. With no weight system slowing anyone down, axes have gone up from powerful, yet inaccurate, to the best weapon type in the game.
• Tournament Arc: In order to gain the help of Flavia, you have to win a one-round tournament so she will gain regency. Justified in that it's the country's custom for determining which Khan will rule for a term, and even more justified why strangers are doing the fighting — Flavia explains the Khans won't fight themselves because they don't want to leave dead Khans left and right and have the whole country collapse due to blood feuds.
• Trap Is the Only Option: After the Valm arc, the protagonists have only one gemstone left to obtain before the Fire Emblem is complete. At that point, Validar invites the protagonists to meet with him, and Chrom and the Avatar know he's up to no good, but also know he has the last gemstone (or at least knows where it is), so they don't have any choice, with the Avatar scoping out escape routes on the way in. The trap springs, and the protagonists escape, but Validar activates his control over the Avatar, forcing them to hand over the Fire Emblem.
• Trapped in Villainy: This conversation between a Plegian general and his soldiers after Emmeryn's Heroic Sacrifice causes a Heel–Face Turn amongst the Plegian army:
  Mustafa: "So be it! Those of you who are unwilling to fight are dismissed!"
  Soldier: "But I don't wish to abandon you, sir!"
  Mustafa: "I cannot defy the king, lad. I know him well. He would murder my wife and child to set an example. I will accept the blame for your actions today. Now go!"
  Soldier: "W-wait, General! I see a cause worth fighting for, one I believe in: loyalty to my general."
  Mustafa: "...Aye. That's a good lad."
  • Averted in that, off-screen, the vast majority of the Plegian army deserted on the spot when Emmeryn committed suicide, chanting her name as they went.
  • The rebels-turn-turncoats in Valm seem to be this at first, but it turns out they only sided with Walhart because he threatened them. When Chrom and the Avatar show up in Valm and start putting the boots to Walhart, they side with Say'ri and the rebels again.
• Trial-and-Error Gameplay: Reinforcements on any difficulty above Normal invoke this, since they can act immediately after arriving. The game will (early on) warn you that reinforcements are coming, but not when, where, who they are, what they have equipped, or for how long they'll be coming. Left a flyer within the range of a bow-wielder who wasn't there a turn ago? Got your Squishy Wizard killed by a spawning Pegasus Knight? Tough. About halfway through the campaign, the game drops all pretenses and stops letting you know if reinforcements will even be coming.
• Triumphant Reprise: Various versions of the Avatar's theme, "Id", play at several key points throughout the game, such as "Id (Serenity)" when the Avatar reaches S Support, or "Id (Sorrow)", which plays during the Lucina's judgement scene. For the final chapter, an orchestral, incredibly uplifting variation of the song called "Id (Purpose)" plays, which features a Latin chorus and incorporates portions of the main Fire Emblem theme into it.
• True Companions: The playable characters (see Heterosexual Life-Partners/Platonic Life-Partners above). Another staple of the Fire Emblem series.
• Turns Red: The Wrath skill increases crit rate by 20% if the unit is below half health, making it good on Berserkers or other units that are likely to reach that point frequently.

U

• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Most sets in the first series of DLC feature massive battles between heroes of past games. So if you ever wondered who would win a fight between, say, Ike and Hector or Sigurd and Marth...
• Uncle Sam Wants You: Fredrick's idea of a morale boosting recruitment poster is having picture of Chrom naked with a sword and scale in each hand with the phrase "Chrom Wants You!" posted underneath his feet. He puts one such poster in every tent, much to Chrom's dismay.
• Underdogs Never Lose: Channeled through the new Villager class skill, Underdog. If the Underdog unit fights a higher-level opponent, they gain a boost in evasion and accuracy.
• Undying Loyalty: The Avatar is extremely loyal to Chrom and he is to them, even after finding out that they are the vessel for Grima and destined to kill him.
• Unexplained Recovery: Done with most of the SpotPass characters, which makes their being alive—let alone recruitable—egregious. Gangrel, Walhart and even Aversa should, by all rights, have been slain in combat against Chrom's army (especially since they are all dangerous individuals who threaten peace, and you'd think the army would ensure they killed their enemy commanders), yet they show up with no explanation for surviving. Emmeryn somehow survives stepping off a cliff—while the game lampshades how hard she is to kill, one would more likely be a broken, lifeless mess on the ground at that height, and her injuries miraculously aren't as severe as you'd expect. Subverted with Yen'fay and Priam — the former is explicitly stated to be from an Alternate Universe where he lived and his sister died, the latter is a Secret Character who you mightn't know exists if not for the DLC.
  • It's also somewhat debatable in Walhart's case: dialogue in the recruitment paralogue has him implying he is actually dead.
• Unwanted Assistance:
  • Some of the more proud characters may actually get upset if their allies "steal kills" from them via Dual Strike.
  • In the Champions of Yore 2 DLC map, Old Hubba's attempt to reason with the Einherjar only serve to piss them off even more. This is after the first map, where he says that you can't reason with them.
• Uriah Gambit: After finding out about Excellus' plans to abandon him while the Shepherds and their allies begin closing in, Walhart generously "promotes" him to be the captain of his personal guard, ensuring he will be forced to fight on the front lines rather than trying to escape.
• Utility Magic: Played for Laughs in the Summer Scramble DLC, where the Anna running the resort makes use of "Megaphone" and "Snapshot" magic tomes.
  • Ricken is weirded out by Miriel's use of magic to do noncombat-oriented things like alchemy. Apparently turning solid metals into other metals has no use in combat, even if it was only electroplating it could to reduce the rusting of weapons and armor.

V

• Vague Age: The age of the characters is never stated, but most first generation characters look in their early-to-mid 20s, if not teenagers, while the second generation characters look and sound to be around the same age as, or older than in some cases, their parents. The problem is that according to Lucina, her and every other second gen character come from an ambiguous 10+ years into the future, meaning that they were probably in their mid to late teens when they traveled to the past. This is averted in the non-English translations, though, since in them it's stated that they come from 15+ years into the future, instead of just 10. The most controversial characters would be Lissa, Ricken and Donnel, who look the youngest. And then, you have Nowi and Nah, the explanation for them being that manaketes age slowly.
  Nowi: Oh, I'm a thousand... something? But look, no wrinkles!
  • In Chapter 6, Chrom tells the Avatar that his father, the previous exalt, died 15 years ago and that Emmeryn was just under 10 at the time, which would make her about 24 or 25 at this point in the story. Chrom and Lissa are also implied to have been born a few years apart, since Chrom tells the Avatar in Chapter 6 he was old enough during the time of his father's campaign against Plegia to remember it firsthand, whereas Lissa tells the Avatar in their C Support she never really knew her parents.
    • According to an artbook, Emmeryn is six years older than Chrom and ten years older than Lissa, which would mean that Chrom is 18 or 19 and Lissa is 14 or 15 in the game's first story arc.
  • Lissa tells Donnel in their C Support that he's one of the very few Shepherds younger than her, meaning he could potentially be under 15.
  • In Flavia and Basilio's B Support, Flavia tells Basilio that he's twice the age of future Lucina, and he retorts that she's old enough to be Chrom's mother. Of course, being the Vitriolic Best Buds that they are, they may be exaggerating their ages to rile each other up.
  • In her B Support with the Female Avatar, Aversa claims to be 8 years older than Chrom, though the Avatar suspects this number is actually 12. Since Chrom is at most 21 at this point (see above and then factor in the two-year Time Skip after Chapter 11), Aversa can be inferred to be in her late 20s or early 30s at the youngest when she is recruited late in the game. Additionally, Aversa tells the Male Avatar in their B Support that she's older than him, meaning the Avatar cannot be more than 7 or 8 years older than Chrom.
  • Cherche (who joins after the two-year Time Skip) tells Vaike in their A Support that she's been with Minerva for over a decade. Considering that Cherche tamed Minerva when she was nine, she's no younger than 19 and likely no older than her early 20s.
• Variable Mix: When field actions like battles or healing are initiated, the music segues into a more intense version while the scene plays out, and goes back to the original version when it ends.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Word of God says they were aiming to further heighten the series' penchant for this with this game. The expanded supports, marriage system, and voice acting were all intended to give the players a greater sense of attachment to the characters. To say nothing of the fact you can make everyone in your party Happily Married, kick major ass as Battle Couples, and later become full-fledged Badass Families.
  • In the Paralogue chapters, there are several instances of helpless villagers or less useless but still vulnerable NPC's surrounded by enemies. There's even a physical reward for saving them or helping them survive.
  • Some players treat Morgan and Lucina as their actual child/children. This also extends to the other children of the character their Avatar married, especially Noire. Sometimes to creepy degrees.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • In the Outrealm chapters, it's entirely possible to have Tiki fight to the death against Marth and his army, many of whom were probably people she knew personally when they were alive (including Tiki's past self!)
    • Equally cruel, take her to Rogues & Redeemers 2 (the one where villains from previous games are allies) and have her talk to Gharnef. Unlike Marth (who says that Tiki reminds him of the Tiki he knows in Rogues & Redeemers 1, but doesn't make the connection) or Tiki's past self, he seems fully aware who she is, and she's outright repulsed by the idea of having to fight alongside him.
  • Or even better, in the paralogues where recruitable second generation characters start off as hostile, you can have their own parents unknowingly kill them or vice versa.
  • Have Gaius hurt Maribelle, or vice-versa with a reclassed or promoted early Maribelle, before recruiting the former. The cruelty of this can be seen in their support line that reveals that Gaius once went out of his way to avoid Maribelle getting killed back when she was a child.
  • In the Future Past DLC, while the game encourages you to have the Avatar talk to Morgan to convince them to retreat, there is nothing stopping you from attacking and killing them like any other enemy.
• Villain by Default: All the characters who worship Grima are portrayed as Card Carrying Villains with no apparent motivation other then being evil.
• Villainous Badland, Heroic Arcadia: Ylisse is a pleasant, Ghibli Hills region and the home of the heroes, surrounded on one side by Regna Ferox, inspired by Mongolia and with a climate about as pleasant, and on the other by Plegia, whose most notable locations are deserts and swamps and which is ruled by a Religion of Evil with no redeeming qualities. However, the Feroxi prove to be astute diplomats as well as warriors, and quickly become allies.
• Villainous Harlequin: Gangrel wouldn't look out of place as a villainous court jester. His class is Trickster, but he's the king of a whole nation, though. He can also join you come SpotPass Sidequests, dropping the villainous part.

W

• Wacky Wayside Tribe:
  • The DLC Chapters. Full Throttle. Just replace "Tribe" with "Cameos."
  • Paralogue chapters basically have an Excuse Plot of "bandits/thugs/jerks are terrorizing innocents, go stop them" so you can unlock optional characters or get goodies. You can easily finish the game without doing them, though recruiting the children characters can certainly help.
• The War Just Before: Fifteen years prior, the Exalt of Ylisse began a war with the neighboring kingdom Plegia with the intention of destroying the Grimleal, unfortunately he failed, and nearly destroyed both Plegia and Ylisse. The war ended when Emmeryn became the new Exalt after her father's death, and spent the time since then trying to make reparations. Despite this, Plegian King Gangrel uses Ylisse's former aggression to stir up trouble along their border, inciting raids and incidents hoping to spur an all-out war.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: Present as usual for the game's main Lord, Chrom, as well as the Avatar. Should they ever go down, no matter the situation, it's Game Over. Also applies to Lucina for some reason, but only in Classic mode.
• Weapon Twirling: Some critical animations. Also, all of Chrom's victory poses as a Lord.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Walhart. He may be a conqueror, but he truly believed that the world would be better off living by his rule united in peace. He also wanted to stop Grima's revival.
  • Emmeryn, Chrom and Lissa's father, the previous Exalt. He waged a brutal war on Plegia, in part because he heard that Grima's vessel had been born. Unfortunately, his poor tactics and strategies only ended up causing as much harm to Ylisse as it did to Plegia, the campaign ended in failure with his death, and Emmeryn had to bear the full brunt of Sins of Our Fathers to try and fix things, and that simply laid the groundwork for the next war to break out.
• Wham Episode: Several;
  • Premonition: Invisible Threads: You, the Avatar, kill Chrom after seemingly defeating Validar.
  • Chapter 9: Your plan to rescue Emmeryn fails, Phila is killed, and Emmeryn sacrifices herself so Chrom won't have to give up the Fire Emblem, sending him into a Heroic BSoD. The following chapter is a lesson in White-and-Grey Morality set to Sad Battle Music.
  • Chapter 13: You learn that Validar has now become king of Plegia, he has an Enigmatic Minion, the Hierophant, who looks exactly like the Avatar, and he's the Avatar's father. As if it couldn't get any more insane, at the end, "Marth" pulls a Big Damn Heroes, calls Chrom "father", and reveals herself as Lucina, Chrom's Kid from the Future. Then she drops another bombshell: the future she comes from had the bad guys winning, all the parents dying, and humanity about to be wiped out by a Zombie Apocalypse. But on the plus side, Time Travel exists, and she wasn't the only one who came back.
  • Chapter 18. Previously, Basilio went to take on Walhart's main forces to buy the rest of you time. Before the start of the chapter, you witness him being presumably killed in battle by Walhart himself. Your next opponent is Yen'fay, Say'ri's brother, who seems reluctant to fight you, though he doesn't reveal why. But after his death, Excellus is all too willing to. Turns out that Yen'fay only joined Walhart on the condition that his men spare Say'ri's life. He was fighting to save her, and she never knew. Cue My God, What Have I Done?. And after all this, Chrom and the Avatar officially learn that Basilio is dead and they'll be facing Walhart himself next.
  • Chapter 21. Outright confirmed that the Avatar is Validar's child and Lucina later reveals that the premonition the game opened up with wasn't just a bad dream, they actually did kill Chrom in Lucina's time, causing her to attempt to take their life.
  • Chapter 23. The chapter starts off almost identical to how the game begins, with the added reveal that the Avatar is the host for the soul of the Fell Dragon. At first, it seems that the Avatar kills Chrom and is possessed by Grima. But, as it turns out, things aren't as they seem. The premonition experienced at the beginning of the game was a dream the Avatar had, and they remember it well. So the Avatar took steps to avoid their fate. Thanks to Lucina's intervention, Basilio survived his encounter with Walhart in Chapter 18. The gems in the Fire Emblem that Validar received are fake, meaning he cannot use it to awaken Grima. And Chrom survived the Avatar's attack, foiling Validar's plan entirely. But then, after defeating Validar, the Hierophant, previously seen in Chapter 13, reveals himself as the Avatar from the future Lucina escaped from. In that future, Grima possessed the Avatar and killed Chrom for real. When Lucina went back to the past, the Avatar (who is now Grima) followed her. Grima then tried to possess the present Avatar, but failed, causing his past self to lose his memory. Grima then went into hiding, occasionally intervening with events, such as reviving Validar in Chapter 6. Now that Validar has failed, Grima begins Plan B, reviving the Fell Dragon with his power.
• Wham Line: Two in Chapter 13. First we get:
  Validar: "You dare take such a tone... with your own father?!”
  • And later:
  "Marth": "Father, no!"
  • From Chapter 23:
  Validar: "You carry my blood—the blood of the fell dragon. His soul slumbers within you. And now the time has come to awaken you both!"
  • And later:
  Grima/Future Avatar: "I told you. I'm Avatar. The Avatar that murdered you and became the fell dragon, Grima. When this "Marth" of yours decided to come back in time...I came with her."
  • Another big one for Inigo's character is in his B support with his father. His father once again chews him out for being overly carefree and girl-obsessed to the point of skewed priorities. Inigo utterly snaps, and shouts this at his father, which precedes a huge and depressing revelation about his character and his time in the future:
  Inigo: Do you think I'd be out here if I were ONLY after girls!?
  • In Lucina's B support with her sibling^note Morgan, Cynthia, Kjelle, Brady or Inigo, she realizes that her sibling may be able to use Falchion, the sword that is limited to certain members of the exalt's bloodline.
  Lucina: If you are, in fact, among Falchion's chosen, that is knowledge we need. There may come a time when it proves necessary for you to take it up.
  (The cheerful music stops)
  Sibling: What, like if you're busy?
  (Somber music plays)
  Lucina: Like if I'm dead, (sibling).
  • In Lucina and her sibling's A support, she convinces the latter to try wielding Falchion against a log, only for the sibling to fail. After Lucina leaves, the sibling takes one last swing, before being convinced that s/he was not chosen to wield Falchion and leaving. Then Chrom happens by and this line casts the entire scene in a new light.
    Chrom: ...Hmm? What's this log? Was someone training? Hmm, split perfectly in two. I've never seen such a clean cut before...
• Wham Shot: In Chapter 13, Validar and Aversa introduce Chrom and the Shepherds to the hierophant, a high-ranking member of the Grimleal. Frederick asks the hierophant to remove their hood, which they do, revealing that they have the same face as the Avatar.
  • Later in the same chapter, a close-up on Marth's eye shows the Brand of the Exalt in her iris, exactly the same as the one seen in the eye of Chrom's newborn daughter several chapters earlier.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Chapter 10, probably also a Mook Horror Show chapter. Many of them do not wish to fight (but are forced to, possibly due to I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure), and they just got in the way of Chrom's Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • Hammered even further in Ricken's Support with Henry, which gave Ricken a Heroic BSoD.
  • Played straight later on when the characters are surrounded by all sides in Fort Steiger and Basilio is sent to the north with some Feroxi troops to engage Walhart in a hopeless battle to buy some time for the others to escape. He outright tells them that it will result in the deaths of many of his men.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: As is custom in Fire Emblem games, the end credits has brief summaries on what every (surviving) character does after the events of the game.
• Where's My Gun?: Vaike loses his axe prior to his first battle. Fortunately, Miriel soon arrives with it, leading to the tutorial on how to trade items between units.
• Who's on First?: The names of Nowi and her daughter Nah. Nowi's case is a little odd, but it's probably meant to be pronounced like "no way". Nah's case is more obvious, and is the only of the two to lampshade it. The puns are also present in the Japanese localization (where they are called Nono and Nn respectively).
• Who Wants to Live Forever?:
  • Manaketes live for thousands of years. Humans do not. Most of Nowi's supports involve her and her partner promising to be with each other forever. This also goes for Nah, Nowi's daughter, and Tiki.
  • Also for Tiki, who's far older than Nowi. One of her generic Barracks conversations has her stating something to the effect of "I want to make friends. I know I'll lose them all eventually, but it beats never having them at all."
• Wind Is Green: All the wind spells summon gusts that are more blue than green, but there's still some green and it depends on the environment's lighting.
• The Worf Effect: After Chapter 12, you find out Basilio and his army took a devastating blow from the Valmese forces off screen. The characters explicitly comment on how "they must be tough if they beat his forces."
  • Poor Basilio gets used for this twice; the second time, he's going up against Walhart himself, and gets his ass handed to him in proper fashion to show off how much of a beast Walhart is in combat. That said, it also ends up being a huge fake-out, as Basilio fakes being dead thanks to Lucina's warning so he can come back and be a Big Damn Hero later on.
• World of Badass: This is a Fire Emblem game. What did you expect? And in Lunatic+, even the lowliest enemy soldier has a good chance of having crazy abilities.
• World's Strongest Man: Walhart the Conqueror. He possess Conquest, a passive that negates his anti-cavalry and anti-armor weaknesses and wields a massive axe that only he can use. Even Khan Basilio, a Proud Warrior Race Guy hailing from a region which only respects strength, considers him 'a monster'.
• Wutai: The nation of Chon'sin isn't shown in-game, but it's easy to see after seeing Say'ri's Support conversations (she mentions cherry blossoms being a common sight and that fish and rice are staples of her people's diet, and the way that she, Yen'fay, and Lon'qu dress (outfits that vaguely resemble kimonos, at least on top) also adds to this.

Y-Z

• Yandere: Tharja, as one could tell from her various Support conversations, especially the ones she has with the Avatar.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: It's possible to recruit Emmeryn from a SpotPass chapter, despite her supposedly having died through making a Heroic Sacrifice. You'd think that this would result in everyone living happily ever after as one big family. Instead, it turns out that she's become heavily brain damaged and has developed amnesia. She has no memory of Chrom or anyone else and she never recovers (aside of remembering the Avatar's name in their Supports)... unless she dies (in Classic Mode) after you manage to recruit her, where she remembers her siblings in her final moments. Whether or not Chrom succeeds or fails to save her, he's either heartbroken that she doesn't remember him and Lissa or he is sent into a second Heroic BSoD in the event that she dies. This family just can't seem to catch a break.
• You Can't Fight Fate:
  • At first, this seems to be the case, as most of the changes Lucina makes to the timeline (such as saving Emmeryn from being assassinated) are eventually undone (Emmeryn dies later anyway). Some characters believe that this is the timestream trying to return to its original flow, however, Lucina's efforts are secretly being undone by another time traveler: the Fell Dragon Grima.
  • This trope is Played Straight in Lucina's timeline where despite all of Chrom and the Avatar's struggles, they couldn't stop the return of Grima.
• You Can't Go Home Again: The party asks Lucina what she will do after the world is saved, whether or not she will stay in the past, or go back to the future. Lucina tells them it's not a question of whether or not she can go back to her own time, it's whether or not there's a world for her to go back to.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Grima returns no matter what anyone does. Although this time, they have a way to outright kill Grima.
• You Don't Look Like You:
  • Most of the SpotPass and DLC characters, such as Ike and Micaiah, are just a customized Avatar head on a generic body of whatever class they are.
  • Most Ancestral Weapons from the previous games barely resemble what they look like originally. While many of these changes are simply artistic liberties, it is explained in the case of the Falchion; Lucina and Owain's B-support reveals that the only thing that changes with the Falchion is the hilt as it wears out over time while the blade stays the same.
• You Have Failed Me: Aversa kills a Plegian soldier who failed to bring back accurate information about Chrom's army. Gangrel actually comments on "trying not to kill all the help".
• You Shouldn't Know This Already:
  • It's possible for the player character to know about the Risen's names from Lissa's C-rank conversation, despite not actually being named yet. This is averted in the PAL version, due to all mentions of Risen being changed to "bandits" instead.
  • Rushing through some Supports (like the male Avatar and Chrom, for example) will have the two talk about being in a war even if there isn't one currently.
  • In Cordelia's supports with Frederick or Stahl, she'll mention Phila's death... even if you haven't been to that chapter yet.
  • If you're playing on Normal difficulty, the game prevents you from using the Pair Up system until you're given the tutorial on it in Chapter 3...unless you turn the tutorials off. Then you can use it right from the start.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Grima's Awakening ritual fails due to the fake stones in the Fire Emblem, and Validar is killed for good. That should be the end of it, but then the Avatar's mysterious twin shows up. Said twin reveals themself to be the future Grima in Future Avatar's body, and decides to use his power to awaken the present Grima.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Like Sacred Stones, one's getting underway with the mass appearance of the "Risen". There's a Bad Future where it got to full-fledged Apocalypse levels.

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