Fire Emblem Fates / Tropes H To Y

Tropes H-Y for Fire Emblem Fates.

H

• Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: Zig-zagged — for some stages, the bosses are indeed threatening. Others aren't much more than a Damage-Sponge Boss, but getting to them is really difficult.
• Hard Mode Mooks: The higher difficulties of the Conquest route avert Numerical Hard and instead add more enemies to maps. This commonly includes staff users with Entrap staves, which pull one of your units to a space adjacent to them. (Usually resulting in death by Zerg Rush)
• Harder Than Hard: Lunatic Mode makes an appearance once more, ramping up enemy stats, throwing promoted units at the player much earlier than normal, outfitting enemies with frustrating skills like Counter and Countermagic throughout a good chunk of the campaign, and even giving enemy units access to devastating enemy-only skills (like Inevitable End, which lets debuffs stack).
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted with a vengeance with Xander. Compared to Ryoma, who was a natural ace at everything he put his mind to, Xander was rather weak and talentless as a child. To make up for this, he worked and trained endlessly to become stronger. And at present day, he is arguably the strongest character in the game lore-wise, especially after his meeting with the Rainbow Sage. To hammer this home, near the climax of both Conquest and Birthright, the Avatar must face their eldest brother from the opposing faction. If he faces Ryoma, Ryoma comes at him with literally everything he has due to Ryoma's belief that the Avatar slew their sister Hinoka, and yet Ryoma still ultimately loses. By contrast, when the Avatar faces Xander, they initially get their ass handed to them; it is only after Xander accidentally kills Elise that they are able to defeat him, as he has essentially given up out of grief and horror at what he had done. Xander is the only character in the game who never loses when he's trying to win.
• Healer Signs On Early:
  • Like many Fire Emblem games, one of your first allies is a healer (Felicia or Jakob, depending on the Avatar's gender).
  • Elise and Sakura, both of whom are the healers of their respective royal families, are the first of their siblings to join in their respective route. Sakura is also the first royal sibling to join you in the Revelation campaign.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: In Birthright, Zola begs for the Avatar's life, but Garon has none of this.
• Heir Club for Men: Zig-zagged. The line of succession for the throne is by age, regardless of gender. However, when Xander dies at the end of Birthright, Camilla passes the Nohrian crown to Leo because she has no desire to be queen, and when Ryoma dies at the end of Conquest, Hinoka says that she would have passed the Hoshidan crown to Takumi for similar reasons, except Takumi died too, so she wound up forced to become queen herself. However, in the original Japanese version, it is clear that Hoshidan society prefers men as their rulers. Also the case regarding the divine weapons: except for the female Avatar and female Kana, there are no canon female divine weapon wielders.
• Heroic Resolve: Channeled through the new Mercenary skill, Stubbornness (renamed Good Fortune in English), giving the unit a chance to recover 20% of their health each turn based on their Luck.
• Hero of Another Story: Selena, Odin and Laslow. The Hidden Truths two part DLC focuses on their origins, what brought them to Nohr, and the origins of the one who will be known as Anankos.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Any same-sex unit (except Gay Option units) can support with each other once they have A+ support. Doing this allows the same-sex partner to access each other's classes. Double goes with former enemies where someone like Ryoma and Xander if Ryoma becomes a Paladin and Xander a Swordmaster and Leo and Takumi with each of their classes can achieve this once the third path is chosen.
• History Repeats: In Revelation, Sumeragi explains that he met and fell in Love at First Sight with Mikoto when he met her by a lake. Mikoto's child, the Avatar, first meets Azura by a lake, and if male and romancing her is also suggested to have fallen in Love at First Sight with her.
• Hold the Line: The goal of Conquest Chapter 10 is to defend Port Dia from an invading force of Hoshidians for 10 turns. If any enemy units enter the town, you lose.
• Hotter and Sexier: Character designs in general (both male and female) have more Fanservice compared to previous entries.
• Hulking Out: The Avatar's dragon transformation is some variation of this. They're stricken with strong emotion, they transform into something twice their size and functioning on Unstoppable Rage, and it takes someone (Azura in this case) to talk (sing) them out of it. The conversation with Azura afterwards implies that it's prone to happening again, with worse consequences, without the Dragonstone.

I

• Idealist vs. Pragmatist: While Corrin's siblings (Sans Sakura and Elise who are always idealistic) will always become more idealistic depending on the route, Nohr and Hoshido show more pragmatic sides, and Corrin is often questioned by others for their idealism, particularly on Conquest.
• I Let You Win: An inverted example. The Avatar says that Xander let THEM win after they mortally wound him in their duel in Birthright. Considering the events that happened before the battle, they are almost certainly right.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: The Avatar uses this in Revelation this to flush out Scarlet's murderer hiding in their group. While making their way to Anankos, Gunter mentions the flower Scarlet pinned on her armor just before she jumped into the Bottomless Canyon. Only the Avatar, Scarlet, and the murderer should've known about the flower, since the former two were the last to jump, and it was burned away in the attack.
• In Spite of a Nail: A few key events will always happen regardless of which route is being played.
  • In Birthright and Conquest, the siblings of whichever side you picked always join in the same order; first the younger sister since she's the healer of the family, then the older sister, then the younger brother, before the older brother joins last. Averted in Revelation, where the order is muddied somewhat due to the siblings of both sides joining, but a little sister (Sakura) is still the first one to join you.
  • A battle at Fort Jinya in Hoshido always occurs, with Sakura being involved somehow. In Birthright, the newly-defected Avatar helps defend the Fort with Sakura's help from a Nohrian invasion force led by Silas. In Conquest and Revelation, however, the Avatar is the one attacking the fort, but for different reasons; in Conquest, overcoming Jinya is the first step in actually being able to invade Hoshido, and Sakura decides to take part in the battle, having learned to fight so she can defend her home. In Revelation, however, the Avatar only assaults the fort in order to defend themselves from Yukimura and to convince him they haven't betrayed Hoshido, and to lend some support to fighting the real enemy. Sakura doesn't participate in the battle directly, but upon finding out that none of the Hoshidan soldiers were actually killed, she stops Saizo from making a suicide attack at her sibling and decides to join the Avatar to prove that they aren't a traitor.
  • Scarlet's uprising at Cheve always occurs.
  • Azura always ends up singing for Garon at Nestra's Opera House, except in the Revelation route, where the opera house is destroyed before she and the Avatar arrive.
  • The Avatar's group always visits Izumo, only to find out that Archduke Izana is being impersonated by a Nohrian named Zola.
  • In Birthright and Revelation, the group is tricked into killing innocent Wind Tribe villagers due to illusions that made them appear as Faceless.
  • The group always ends up fighting Kotaro at Mokushu, in the process freeing Kagero, who is always a hostage.
  • Takumi ends up possessed by Anankos in both Birthright and Conquest.
  • Lilith always dies in a Heroic Sacrifice in both Birthright and Conquest.
  • Flora will always turn against the Avatar as part of a key battle in all three paths of the game.
  • Most tragically, Azura has to weaken the Final Boss with her song, and dies from overusing her pendant on both Birthright and Conquest.
• Instant-Win Condition: The victory condition for Birthright Chapter 12 is to get the Avatar off the map. You win the moment they step foot on one of the designated exit tiles, regardless of the status of the rest of your forces (who also escape) or the enemy's forces.
• Interface Spoiler:
  • When Silas first shows up as a boss in Chapter 7 of Birthright, his personal skill (which explicitly involves the Avatar as an ally) is visible in the HUD when he's scrolled over. After seeing this, it becomes obvious that he joins the Avatar's army upon defeat.
  • Once the player notices that S-supports are possible between the Avatar and every other opposite-sex character including the Hoshido royal family, the plot twist that they're Not Blood Related is self-evident.
  • Gunter seemingly dies at the end of Chapter 3. However, the heart symbol indicating Support points were gained still displays when he fights alongside the Avatar and Jakob (despite the function not being available yet), indicating that he's not gone for good. Unless you choose Birthright . Then he's really gone.
  • When Gunter rejoins at the end of Chapter 7 in Revelation, he does not have the ability to Support with anyone, despite the fact that he can in Conquest and the Avatar can freely Support with every single player unit. This implies that there's more to him than meets the eye.
  • Accessories given to characters will still be worn during cutscenes. If Gunter happens to be wearing something distinctive enough that it can be identified while a character is semi-invisible (like the Invaders), his identity as Scarlet's killer can be given away before the game wants it known.
  • The mysterious cloaked swordsman boss of Chapter 5 has a crown indicator besides their name, usually a symbol of Hoshidan or Nohrian royalty. He is also of the Swordmaster class, which is associated with Hoshido in this game.
  • Mikoto appears as a Priestess in the Birthright class roll. It seems strange for a character who gets killed off before ever appearing in combat to have a full battle model, with unique Voice Grunting to boot... She's a boss on Revelation via Came Back Wrong.
  • Averted in Birthright with Kaze. There is actually nothing telling you that he must have an "A" or above support with the Avatar prior to a specific point in the game, despite that it is fully possible for him to marry another character before then. However, if this is not your first playthrough, it is fully possible to spot that something might be off, since Midori's paralogue will not unlock until after Chapter 15.
• Internal Reformist: While Birthright is a fairly genre-standard "fend off The Empire" story, Conquest focuses on the Avatar and their adoptive family trying to reform Nohr from within.
• It's the Journey That Counts: The "strength" you gain from climbing Notre Sagesse and meeting the Rainbow Sage really is the strength you gain from climbing. Granted, meeting him is tantamount to a weapon upgrade for the Avatar, but that isn't so for the four people who did it before them.

J-L

• Joke Item: There are a slew of mundane objects that can be used as weapons, such as a bottle or parasol being used in lieu of a sword or a frying pan substituting for an axe. Many of these weapons have a low Mt stat for minimal damage and may have a negative attribute, such as the parasol lowering the wielder's Speed by 5 points. That being said however, they are Not Completely Useless (see the trope in the "N" folder for more information).
• Kill Streak: All the Taker Skills save for Lifetaker allows the user to gain a +2 bonus to the appropriate stats up to a maximum of +10 if they defeat an enemy. To balance it out, these skills do not overlap with each other.
• Kill the Parent, Raise the Child: Corrin is revealed to have been abducted and raised by Garon after he kills Corrin's stepfather Sumeragi during a fake truce.
• Kissing Cousins:
  • The second generation characters are allowed to marry their cousins. For example, it's possible to pair Asugi and Midori in the Japanese version even though they are related via their fathers, brothers Saizo and Kaze.
  • A lategame reveal in Revelation shows that Azura and the Avatar are cousins; their mothers, as it turns out, are sisters. The game still lets the player marry them before or after the reveal.
• Kukris Are Kool: The Iron, Steel, and Silver Kukri weapons are especially cool since they're 1~2 range versions of the Iron, Steel, and Silver Swords; less so when only enemies can wield them.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • In Chapter 18 of Revelation, the player's units are tasked with reaching eight separate Dragon Vein points on the map; using one chips away at the statue near where all your units spawn (as well as preventing enemies from respawning from this Vein), and completely destroying the statue allows passage to the chapter's boss. Azura counts how many of these the player has completed, lampshading the dullness of the task at four:
    Azura: Four down. Four more... this is quite boring...
  • After the Avatar accomplishes their mission, albeit not in the way Iago assumed, he of course curses your loopholes.
  • The units are, just like since Path of Radiance, all rather quirky. After several sets of silly retainers on Conquest, the Avatar asks themselves "Where do my siblings find these people?"
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: If you attack Garon during the Final Boss Preview of Chapter 12 Birthright, his lines sound a little as if he's talking to the player directly.
  • In Orochi and Nyx's Revelation supports, the two wonder who people will come to now that there are two powerful spellcasters in the army. The way they discuss who is needed more makes it sound similar to gameplay strategy.
• Leitmotif: "Lost in Thoughts All Alone" (or if~Hitori Omou in Japan), the song that Azura sings. It pops up frequently throughout the game in various remixes, such as the title screen song and multiple level themes, with the "true" version only playing during the end credits of each route. The song itself is tied to both Anankos and the Avatar, being sung from Anankos' perspective to the Avatar and the prophecies he foretold.
• Lethal Chef: Anyone who's on chef duty in My Castle's cafeteria can flip-flop between this and Supreme Chef. For the Lethal Chef case, their food can cause their consumers' stats to decrease temporarily.
• Lethal Joke Item: Some of the "joke weapons" are actually surprisingly potent despite their otherwise comical looks, notably including the Umbrella and Parasol which can be thrown at 1-2 range like the Kodachi, but can score critical hits or activate offensive skills, and the Pine Branch which is actually stronger than Steel Naginata, with the only offset of a significantly lower base hit rate.
• Level-Locked Loot: Standard to Fire Emblem games, a unit's Weapon Proficiency rank determines what weapons they are capable of using, with the most powerful weapons requiring a higher ranking. The S rank proficiency makes a return, but only certain classes are capable of attaining it.
• Ley Line: The Dragon Veins are hinted (thanks to images inspired by The Four Gods appearing every time they're used) to work the same way that the Dragon Veins in Feng Shui do, but instead of Chi flowing through them, it's the earth-shaping power of the First Dragons.
• A Lighter Shade of Grey: The game is somewhat more favorable towards Hoshido regardless of what path the player chooses, as the real Big Bad, the "fake" Garon and Anankos, is hiding behind Nohr's shadows. Even if the Avatar sides with Nohr, the Hoshido characters do have some justifications on sending ninjas to kill you, as you somewhat take part in conquering Hoshido in addition to trying to reform a militaristic empire. The endings are also contrasted as well, as the Birthright ending does involve rebuilding Nohr and bringing peace between the two kingdoms while the Conquest route involves reforming Nohr with Hoshido invaded and conquered at the end. The worst that can be said of Hoshido is that they send assassins to kill Corrin, Hoshido factions sending assassins to kill Azura for being Nohrian even on Birthright, as revealed in the Subaki support with her, and Takumi starting a surprise attack during Chapter 13 of Conquest to shoot the Avatar for their betrayal and Elise. And it is the Nohr siblings that save all four Hoshido family members during a Nohr plot to take them hostage.
• Living Toys: The amiibo characters subvert this. All Smash fighters, including the amiibo characters in Fates, are living versions of collectible trophies in some (ambiguous) way. Fates seems to establish that the characters' trophy forms (in this case, the physical amiibo) summon a living version of the character in some imaginary universe (in this case, the canon Fire Emblem universe), as the amiibo characters are just like any other unit with no reference to their trophy forms.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • In Conquest, one of Garon's first missions for the Avatar is to suppress a rebellion in the Ice Tribe by themselves. They manage to do this through diplomacy, and with the help of Elise, her retainers, and Leo's retainers. Because Garon never told them they had to kill the rebelling Ice Tribe members, and because they didn't outright ask for them to help, he allows this.
  • While the Avatar is visiting the Rainbow Sage in Chapter 11 of Conquest, Iago appears to relay Garon's orders to kill the Sage. The Avatar resists since the Sage just helped them power up the Yato, but he drops dead on his own to prevent the Avatar from having to do the deed. Garon lets it slide, since the end result he desired — stop anybody else from accessing the Sage for power — is ultimately the same.
  • In Chapter 25 of Conquest, the Avatar is ordered to execute the defeated Ryoma. He commits Seppuku before the Avatar even has a chance to do anything, which Garon accepts (but not Iago).
• Lord British Postulate:
  • Takumi fits into this in Chapter 10 of Conquest. He's a little too dangerous to approach, but if you're risky enough with Camilla, you can rush him and beat him before he uses the Dragon Vein against you.
  • Garon is on the map in Chapter 12 of Birthright. You are clearly not supposed to attack him; his presence is supposed to frighten you into finishing the map as quickly as possible. But if you have grinded enough, you can actually attack and defeat him. Should you accomplish this, you actually will get a few lines from Garon.

M

• Male Gaze: A certain cutscene features gratuitous close-ups of Camilla's butt, crotch, and breasts.
  • In the Conquest ending, you get a great close-up of Camilla's breasts when you accidentally run right into her.
• Market-Based Title: Primarily, there's the title change from Fire Emblem if (the Japanese title) to Fire Emblem Fates (the English title). Secondarily, the names of the games' three versions also change — the Japanese titles of Fire Emblem if: White Night Kingdom, Fire Emblem if: Black Night Kingdom, and Fire Emblem if: Invisible Kingdom are all altered to the English titles of Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright, Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, and Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation, respectively.
• Martial Arts Headband: Hana, of the myrmidon-esque Samurai class, wears a white headband.
• Maximum HP Reduction: The Hexing Rod reduces a target's max HP by half for the remainder of the map.
• Meaningful Name: Nohr, pronounced like "noire", the French word for "black," while Hoshido, besides containing the Japanese word for "star" (hoshi), which matches the kingdom's light motif and the shape of its associated symbol, was probably chosen for its American English pronunciation, that would end up sounding as as "Hoshiro," containing the Japanese word for white (shiro).
  • Both names also relate to how each nation carries itself in war: replace the first two letters of Hoshido and you get Bushido, rearrange the letters of Nohr and you get Honor.
  • Many of the weapons, more so than the people wielding them:
    • Raijinto and Fujin Yumi respectively mean "Thunder God Blade" and "Wind God Bow" and are named after the oft-paired Japanese deities Raijin and Fujin.
    • Siegfried is named after the hero of Nibelungenlied, and Brynhildr is named after the Queen of Iceland in the same poem.
    • Yato means "Blade of the Night", which ties with the names of the two warring kingdoms... at least, in the original Japanese, where Hoshido and Nohr respectively were originally Byakuya (White Night) and Anya (Black Night). Though one could argue that the translation still retains that part of the meaning, since the night is still associated with both the color black (Nohr) and stars (Hoshido), it's not as blatant, and people without knowledge of the needed Japanese might miss it easily. Its full Japanese name, Yato-no-Kami, refers to a kind of snake deity from Japanese folklore which were rumored to bring familial extermination on anyone who saw them. Fitting for a character whose choices will end up claiming the life of at least one family member, regardless of route.
    • Ganglari (the Avatar's sword before Yato (later the possessed Sumeragi's)) and Bolverk (the possessed King Garon's axe) are both pseudonyms of Odin (the real one), though not without their own meanings. Bolverk means "evil worker", which is straightforward enough, and not only does Ganglari contrast Yato's name by meaning "wanderer", but when it's not one of Odin's aliases, it's that of Gylfi, the first Scandinavian king, when he had to disguise himself.
    • Skadi, the possessed Takumi's bow, is named after Skadi, the Norse goddess of bowhunting, among other things.
    • Then there's Ophelia's Missiletainn, sharing a name with the sword her father had in Awakening.
  • Many characters in the game also have names referencing Imperial Japanese Navy ships.
• Meido: Felicia and Flora both have this style of outfit, as they are both of the new Maid class.
• Mercy Rewarded: Completing missions without smacking around named underlings can adjust the plot in a more idealistic direction, within reason. Also, you can gain a new ally by not killing them.
• Miko: The Shrine Maiden and Priestess classes and outfits are based on this.
• Mirrored Confrontation Shot: One of the promotional images, which the games' box art uses, has the Hoshido nobles and male Corrin on one side, the Nohr nobles and female Corrin on the other side, and Azura in between them.
• Missing Secret: The Armor and Beast Shield skills appear in game data, but remain unused in any form and it is unknown whether they can be obtained via DLC or are enemy-only like Wing Shield.
• Modesty Towel: A Bath Towel costume is available in the Accessory Shop. Gifting it to your soldier can get quite a few humorous reactions. Noticeably the Bath Towel is the only risqué body pieces that Nintendo hasn't Dummied Out for the Western release.
• Mordor: Official artwork for the Kingdom of Nohr depicts it as a hellish landscape.
• Morphic Resonance: With the exception of its Omega form, the Yato incorporates elements from the four sacred weapons in its various evolved forms.
  • The Noble Yato features a knuckleguard in a shape reminiscent of Takumi's Fujin Yumi, and its glow also matches the color of said weapon.
  • The Grim Yato has a widened crossguard whose shape is meant to emulate the symbols on Leo's Brynhildr, and also switches to a purple glow to match the sacred tome's.
  • The Blazing Yato gets a curved blade to mirror Ryoma's Rajinto, and a golden glow to match.
  • The Shadow Yato gets two small protrusions to mirror Xander's Siegfried, and switches to the same deep magenta glow.
  • Interestingly, the Alpha Yato combines elements from both Fujin Yumi and Brynhildr despite neither weapons being involved in its transformation. Concept art does show their respective slots on the blade being illuminated however, suggesting they may have been involved in an earlier draft.
• Motherhood Is Superior: The game inverts this, where the children are tied to their fathers (again, with the exception of Azura and the Female Avatar). It makes a point of giving the children supports with the parent they aren't tied to, however.
  • Played incredibly straight with Mikoto, as demonstrated in the fifth chapter, not-so-subtly titled "Mother." It's played with in regards to Garon; the game presents him as the wicked, distant, and stern father to Mikoto's angelic mother. However, the Garon that's dishing out orders throughout the game is a fake, and the real Garon was said to have been a kind and doting father to all of his children (hence Xander's reluctance to turn on him); he also loved all of his concubines and both of his wives. The concubines in turn, all turned on one another, fighting against one another to get their respective children on the throne. The end result was the Avatar's four Nohr siblings being the only survivors of the turmoil, and Garon eventually loses his kindness as a result. It loses some impact, however, because most of this is spoken in Supports, and the real Garon is never seen, even after dead characters (namely, the Avatar's Hoshidan father Sumeragi) are revived in the Revelation route.
  • And related to the above, it's also averted with Sumeragi, the Avatar's adopted father; he took the Avatar in with no hesitation, and even compared to the real Garon, he's portrayed as being as saintly as his wife.
  • Averted with Anankos' Heart. He loved the Avatar and wanted to be with his family until his memories returned and he tried to stop his insane half. Also averted with Gunter, who effectively raised the Avatar in Garon's stead, like turning punishments into playtime and feeding them when the fake Garon would have them starve.
• Mukokuseki: Nohr is a Medieval European Fantasy country with some German and Roman influences and Hoshido is a Fantasy Counterpart Culture for Japan, but there are only a handful of characters that look distinctly white or Asian. Despite this, all of the Medieval European Fantasy characters from Awakening's Ylisse decided to blend in on the Nohr side. This makes Corrin an interesting case, who they claim is the child of Hoshido's Queen Mikoto (who does look Japanese), but for years passed as the child of Nohr's King Garon (who does look European); possibly, they look mixed In-Universe. Granted, being raised in a secluded tower, very few people that weren't in on the masquerade ever interacted with Corrin to draw attention to their appearance, or resemblance to the parents.
  • The only real distinction that can be made between the people of the two kingdoms is that Nohr has a sizable amount of units (including one of the aforementioned Awakening characters) that are blonde, whereas other than Kaden's daughter Selkie (because she is a Kitsune), Hoshido has none. Some civilians from Valla also seem to have sky blue hair and golden eyes as prominent traits (Arete, Azura, Lilith, Shigure, and Anankos' sane half), but at the same time, Mikoto has dark brown hair, and the Avatar's appearance is customizable.
• Multiple Endings: Depending on which side is chosen, the story and endings are vastly different. Even after that, it appears that multiple in-game factors affect how the story pans out.
  • Generally speaking, both Birthright and Conquest end with the war being won by whichever country the Avatar fights for, and a peaceful alliance being restored between Hoshido and Nohr. In addition, Garon is finally exposed as an inhuman beast and is promptly defeated. However, two of the Avatar's siblings from the opposing side die in the process (Xander and Elise, or Ryoma and Takumi), leading to one of the surviving siblings (Leo or Hinoka) serving as king/queen in their stead, not to mention the various amount of Non Player Characters (party members from the alternate campaign) who have fallen in the process.
  • Revelation has a happier ending, in comparison. The Avatar is able to get both of their families and their respective armies to cooperate against Valla and Anankos, restoring the lost kingdom to its former glory. They are crowned the new ruler of Valla, and all three countries establish peace between themselves for good.
• Multiple-Tailed Beast: Kitsune will promote into the appropriately-named Nine-Tails class, which features an animal form with one large tail and eight smaller tails sprouting out of it.
• Mundane Utility:
  • In the Beach Brawl DLC, Hinoka's vacation picture shows her using her naginata to cut apart coconuts.
  • Leo uses his legendary tome Brynhildr to grow tomatoes.
  • In the Museum Melee DLC, Xander mentions that he does not want see his legendary sword Siegfried used as a "glorified whisker shaver."
  • Female Kana uses her ability to turn into a dragon to quickly dig a hole during a game of hide and seek, letting her beat Asugi.
  • If Saizo ends up marrying a female Avatar, he mentions in his C Support with his son Kana that he gave his wife a magic whistle that emits a sound only he can hear. It was originally created for the Hoshido Royal Family as a tool to summon bodyguards, but he says that she'll use it to get his help carrying heavy objects or when she wants sugar for her tea.
• Musical Spoiler:
  • Your royal siblings each share a unique boss theme; "You of the Light" for the Hoshidans and "You of the Dark" for the Nohrians. Takumi, however, uses the standard Invader/Vallite boss theme, indicating that something has gone very, very wrong.
  • When Takumi joins your team in Birthright, the song that's used is "Implore the Dawn" instead of "Guest of Light", the usual Hoshidan recruitment theme. Takumi is unwittingly and unwillingly supplying Iago with information of the Hoshidan army and as such is not completely on your side. When he's finally freed of Iago's influence in chapter 25, "Guest of Light" finally plays before the battle begins.
• Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Revelation is generally a giant subversion, as the units who were exclusive to either the Birthright or Conquest routes will happily fight together. However, there are still a few straight examples.
  • Yukimura only joins on the Birthright route, and can never fight alongside the Nohrians or Fuga.
  • Izana sacrifices himself to deliver a prophecy to convince Takumi to join you, preventing him from joining you on the Revelation route, so he cannot fight alongside Fuga.
  • Scarlet spends two chapters as a Guest-Star Party Member before suffering a Plotline Death in Revelation. This occurs before Flora or Fuga can join you, preventing them from fighting together.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules:
  • Enemy playable units are sometimes equipped with skills that the player cannot obtain, or require reclassing into units from the opposing nation. For example, Hinoka has "Wing Shield" (negates the weaknesses of flying units and lets them benefit from terrain effects, AI only) and Sol (heals user for half of the damage they deal with an attack, requires reclassing into the Nohrian class Hero) when fought in Conquest.
  • Iago can use staves, despite the fact that his class (Sorcerer) should not have the ability to wield them.
  • The Staff Savant skill lets the owner use staves without them consuming charges, on top of boosting their range to 10. The skill is exclusive to AI units.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Played straight for Xander in all three routes, especially in Birthright. Heavily Deconstructed for the Avatar in Conquest. Let's just say there's a whole laundry list of shit the kid has to go through on that route and leave it at that.
• Mystical White Hair: This Avatar's default appearance, reminiscent of the previous Avatar's standard look.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Japanese name of the protagonist's class is Dark Prince(ss), a class that formerly belonged to Julius, another noble raised by an evil emperor, who has a connection with dragons.
  • The maps for Rhajat, Caeldori, and Asugi's Paralogues have Conquest and its Ablaze variant playing, likely due to the fact that they're expies of Tharja, Cordelia, and Gaius respectively.
  • The implication that Corrin is a reincarnated Robin, or a previous incarnation of Robin, this may be directed at the player themselves and not the character, as many who play Fates likely played Awakening, similar to a conversation with Lyn in one of Awakening's DLC chapters.
  • The amiibo Robin mentions that he came from a world where he was launching fighters, implying that he's the Robin from Super Smash Bros..
  • One of the skills learned by the Lodestar class, Dancing Blade, is named after a move used by Marth and Lucina in Super Smash Bros..

N

• Named Weapons: Several significant weapons have a Meaningful Name as listed above, but you can name any weapon you forge, and Odin's personal skill, Aching Blood, even encourages you to give long names to weapons you intend to give him.
• Nerf: Many aspects, from mechanics, to weapons, to items and skills, especially from Awakening, have been nerfed, and aren't as effective as they once were.
  • Weapons and Items:
    • Weapons are now unbreakable, but that means the more powerful weapons have drawbacks, limiting their potency and forcing players to have greater forethought before equipping. These usually include dropping your Avoid, dropping your stats, halving your attacking stat, making follow up attacks harder to perform (or outright prevent you from doing so), being unable to use offensive skills, and so on. Some weapons have drawbacks so big that they include at least a few of these hindrances, and such weapons unfortunately include ones that were once staples like Javelins, Hand Axes, Spears, and various magic tomes.
    • Staves have seen a considerable decrease in the number of times they can be used before charging, like how the Rescue rod has 2 uses instead of 5, and ranged staves now have a set range rather than being based on the user's Magic stat.
    • Items also had their uses and potency decreased in general. For example, Elixirs now only heal 40 HP, and Boots only increase Mov by 1, although units can be given 2 Boots now instead of 1.
    • Only one Wind magic tome exists, the S-Rank Excalibur. It only appears near the end of the game in two of the three paths (Conquest and Revelation). As such, magic's effectiveness against flying units has been greatly limited.
    • The Spy's Yumi replaces the Longbow, and it is locked at a range of 3 instead of having 2-3 range, and is also locked to A rank, meaning not every archer class will be able to use it. It also cannot double attack like the Longbow can.
    • Unlike in Awakening, unused keys cannot be sold or saved for later. You have to use them in the Chapter they're obtained, otherwise they just disappear from your inventory.
  • Mechanics:
    • The Pair-Up mechanic from Awakening has been extensively modified, as it was easy to just keep units in a Paired-Up state and not separate. Only individual units can have adjacent units assist them in attacks, while combining two units together will only have one unit attack while the other unit only defends the first. Not only that, enemies can use this mechanic as well. The Bold Stance skill does bring back the old Pair-Up mechanic by allowing the paired up partner to attack as well, but it's an enemy only skill.
    • Unlike Robin and Morgan from Awakening, who were basically able to reclass to about anything, Corrin only has access to the secondary class chosen during their character creation at first, and can only reclass to other ones through the right Seals (such as the Partner Seal allowing Corrin to reclass into their S Support partner's classes). The same applies for Kana, who initially only gets to reclass into Corrin's secondary classes, the primary classes of their other parent (who Corrin S Supported), and any applicable classes from the Friendship and Partner Seals.
    • The forging mechanic was changed so that it requires obtaining a number of a specific same weapon and a certain number of gems to upgrade the weapon. The stat boost for each forge upgrade is also very minimal when compared to the previous installations. However, the total stat gain surpasses by a notable margin those acquired in the previous game, but the new rules enforce the player to really work for it (for the record, getting +7, the upgrade cap on a weapon, requires a Lv.3 Forge, 128 of the same weapon, and 247 of the same gem).
    • The second generation is nowhere near as powerful as they were in Awakening. There, children always started at Lv 10 and their stats were essentially the average of their parents', easily giving you a Lv 10 base class unit with stats that look decent for a promoted unit if you choose to grind before getting them. Now, children level along with the story, and their stats are determined by their growth rates, so they'll only be slightly better than a unit of the same level. On top of that, the enemies also scale along with the story, so you can't simply wait until late game then just steamroll all the Paralogues. As a result, while this means the second generation are strong, they don't overshadow the first generation like the ones in Awakening do.
    • Dodgetanking gets even harder in this game due to lowered HP growths and caps, the introduction of skills that debuff and deal damage to the target post-battle, and the change from the 'True Hit' 2RN system to a hybrid of an adjusted RN and 1RN below 50% displayed hit, leaving less room for error.
  • Classes:
    • Magic-based classes have to follow the new weapon triangle, as Tomes are classified as red weapons like Swords, which means they'll have a disadvantage against Lances, which are blue, and are the primary weapon type of the otherwise magic-weak Knights and Generals. Generals also have Wary Fighter, which prevents the unit and foes from performing follow up attacks, making them even more difficult for mages to dispatch them. Your best bet would be to use specific armour slaying weapons like, well, the Armorslayer, or the Hammer, or if you must still use magic, one of the green magical weapons like Bolt Axe or Shining Bow, or the rare Calamity Gate which reverses the weapon triangle.
    • The Dark Mage class line in particular have lower bases and growths in this game, making them hard-to-raise Squishy Wizards instead of the Mighty Glaciers that they used to be, and there is exactly one Dark magic tome in Nosferatu, and you can't perform follow up attacks, Critical Hits, or activate offensive skills.
    • Sky Knights are not as powerful as Pegasus Knights from the previous games, particularly Awakening. This is due to the removal of the Dark Flier line from their promotions (although it is still available as a DLC class), the prevalence and damage boost from bows, the nerfs to dodgetanking, and having most of their skill set being more situational than before. It also doesn't help that bows are classified as green, meaning they have an even greater advantage against such units (who often use Lances, which are blue), as if they needed any more.
  • Skills:
    • Galeforce gives you an Extra Turn if you defeat an enemy, like in Awakening. However here, you have to be completely alone, as the skill will not activate if your unit is in Attack or Guard Stance.
    • Counter now only activates when the foe initiates combat, which prevents AI units with Counter from kamikaze-rushing the player.
    • Vengeance's activation rate was reduced from (Skill x 2)% to (Skill x 1.5)%.
    • [weapon]-Faire skills now only let the unit deal +5 damage during combat when equipped with the specific weapon. While this is basically the same effect, this is done to prevent you from getting free stats to help you activate certain skills or improve your healing.
    • Warp returns from Fire Emblem Gaiden as a skill that can be used by the player, but it now only allows the user to teleport next to an ally instead of being able to go anywhere on the map.
• Neutrality Backlash: In the Revelation route, the Avatar refuses to choose a side and proceeds to get denounced by both of their families. They have to spend several chapters winning everybody over.
• Never Trust a Trailer: Some of Famitsu's claims about the game before its release were patently false or at least misleading, perhaps the most flagrant of which being that both Mikoto and Garon would be playable on both Birthright and Conquest. Neither of them is known to be playable on any of the three routes whatsoever; Mikoto bites it before the route split (and Came Back Wrong on the third route), and Garon was Dead All Along.
• New Game Plus:
  • After completing the game, you are allowed to save up to 5 of your units into your unit logbook. When a new game is started, you may purchase them back into your army as Einherjar units, or purchase their skills for your current units.
  • Captured enemy units who have been recruited to your side are similarly saved into your logbook.
  • All rewards earned through battle and visitor points are refreshed for use when a new game is started, allowing easy, early access to useful weapons and items.
• Ninja: The game features a Ninja class, basically a Japanese-flavored Thief which uses shurikens and can wield katanas or yumi when promoted to Master Ninja or Mechanist, respectively. Kaze, Saizo, Kagero, and Asugi are playable characters that are of this class.
• Ninja Maid: The new Maid class, in addition to healing staves, is able to wield weapons like knives and shuriken. They kick their weapons out of their heels and their running animation is the same as the Ninjas.
• No Fair Cheating: While not needing any cheat devices to do it, the Witch skill Warp doesn't let you teleport next to Corrin in Birthright chapter 26 when fighting Xander to secure an easy, one turn win.
• Nonstandard Game Over: Maps with alternative win or loss conditions or gimmicks can lead to this. It's also more prominent on Casual Mode, as the death of the Avatar in this game's Casual Mode does not lead to a Game Over this time around (which was the case in Awakening).
  • Chapters 12, 15, and 18 of Conquest, Chapters 6 and 21 of Revelation, Asugi's Paralogue, and Nina's Paralogue are all timed, although it's downplayed for the Paralogues. Conquest 15 and 18 and Revelation 21 need to be cleared within 20 turns, while Revelation 6 needs you to defeat both commanders in 5 turns. You will fail Asugi's Paralogue if he successfully flees the map (he is an allied unit and cannot be spoken to), and the same applies to Nina's, except she's an enemy unit and you can defeat her to ensure this doesn't happen.
  • Siegbert's Paralogue requires you to use all of the Dragon Veins on the map to prevent more enemies from spawning in addition to routing the enemy. If all of your potential Dragon Vein users (which include the royals, any of their potential children, and any unit that's been given the First Blood DLC item) are killed, then you automatically lose, even on Casual or Phoenix mode.
  • Chapter 10 of Conquest requires you to defend the port town of Dia for 11 turns. If one of the enemy units lands in the green tile zone you're supposed to defend, you lose.
  • Chapter 12 of Conquest requires you to escape within 15 turns or defeat the boss, which in this case is Ryoma, and unless you've been abusing DLC/grinding (which is difficult to do in Conquest in the first place) or really know what you're doing^note you can marry Jakob and pass him Wyvern Lord to give him Swordbreaker, which allows you to cheese Ryoma with no effort, wasting him is a borderline Luck-Based Mission. Not escaping leads to a Game Over.
• Noodle Incident: If you haven't played Awakening, then Odin, Selena, and Laslow's support conversations are full of these.
• "No Peeking!" Request: In Benny's A support with his son, Ignatius, he asks his son to turn around after he starts shedding Manly Tears after Ignatius shows him the Good Luck Charm he made for him.
• Nostalgia Level: Various DLC maps are based off of levels found in previous games:
  • Before Awakening, Hidden Truths I, and Anna on the Run all use maps from Fire Emblem: Awakening (in order: Chapter 2, Chapter 16, and Paralogue 4).
  • Vanguard Dawn is based off of the map used in Chapter 2-E of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.
  • Ballistician Blitz is based off of Chapter 13 of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, the chapter where Marth must dispatch Grust's Ballistician forces.
  • Witches' Trial is based off the Fear Mountain map in Act 4 of Fire Emblem Gaiden. It is where Alm first encounters a boss who can summon Witches.
• Not Completely Useless: The joke weapons reappear from Awakening, but thanks to the overall nerfing of the weapon system, they have an advantage over several low-tier weapons, some even bordering towards Lethal Joke Weapons. Some examples include:
  • The E-rank joke weapons with low might notably have a noticeable advantage over Bronze/Brass weapons in that they provide a +10 boost to the wielder's Avoid and Critical Avoid, in addition to they can actually trigger critical hits and offensive Skills, and having 10% more Hit rate than the Bronze/Brass weapons.
  • The Parasol and the Umbrella are both similar to the Kodachi, in which they are 1-2 range weapons which cannot double attack and makes it easier for the enemy to double attack the wielder. While both Parasol and Umbrella have only 1 might, they can activate critical hits and offensive skills. The Umbrella is notable for being one of the few 1-2 range Swords, aside from Siegfried (which is Xander's personal weapon), Levin Sword (which is a magical weapon that cannot trigger critical hits or offensive skills), the enemy-only Katti weapons and Ragnell (which is only usable by Amiibo Ike).
  • Some of these weapons also have side effects, ranging from Stale Bread's 20% HP recovery after initiating a battle with it, the Stick's +3 Skill boost which does affect the rate of offensive skill activations, Harp Yumi and Violin Yumi that buffs the Resistance or Skill of allies within 2 tiles respectively (acting similarly to the Rally skills), and Hoe that ignores both the user's and enemy's terrain effects.
• Numerical Hard: Actually averted for the most part. Enemy stats are virtually identical between Hard and Lunatic, and the stat gap between Normal and Hard isn't too significant. What makes each difficulty level a major step above the last is other factors, like more enemies with stronger weapons and skills (such as the Inevitable End skill, exclusive to Lunatic. Staff Savant is also a lot more common there), changed enemy distribution, additional reinforcements, changes to enemy AI (e.g. Xander in Birthright Chapter 12 won't move on Normal unless you enter his range. On Hard, he charges for you right from the start), modifications to mission objectives (Conquest Chapter 25) and deployment positions (Conquest 27), and even altered Dragon Vein effects (Conquest 20).

O

• Oh, Crap!: Your units will make this expression in their portraits if you send them into battle with unfavorable combat odds. Conversely, enemy units will do the same if you have the advantage.
  • On occasion, BOTH SIDES can have this expression. You'll be able to take out the unit, but not without the possibility of taking hefty damage. Same goes for the enemy as well.
  • Endless Nightmare is this trope in musical form. It plays whenever the game calculates that one of your units has a serious chance of dying, and Oh, Crap! is likely to be the player's reaction.
• Old Save Bonus: If there is StreetPass data from Fire Emblem: Awakening present on the Nintendo 3DS, the game grants the player a special Emblem Shield accessory. Specifically, it's the Ylissean Fire Emblem from Awakening, which Chrom used as a buckler on his promoted class. It is equipped on the left shoulder, much like the Mercenary class wear their own shields, and grants -2 damage taken for the wearing during online PvP battles.
• One Game for the Price of Two: Or three as the case may be. Thoroughly subverted as of the 4Gamer interviews. Unlike, say, Pokémon, which is essentially the same game with small differences here or there, the two versions of Fates not only split into two completely different stories (complete with different campaigns within each and different sides of the characters in them), but also different gameplay styles. Birthright, Hoshido's campaign, will play like Gaiden, The Sacred Stones, and Awakening, in which the player will be able to grind in between chapters and overall provide an easier experience. Conquest, Nohr's campaign, will provide a more challenging experience akin to the rest of the series, sticking the players on the rails of the plot with no breaks and more limited resources in addition to further mission completion requirements. The Third Campaign is a mixture in between the other two in terms of difficulty as the Avatar's party works to uncover the true mastermind behind the conflict between Hoshido and Nohr, the Invisible Kingdom. A more apt comparison would probably be the Legend of Zelda Oracle games.
• One-Man Army: All units as usual can become this if properly leveled and not screwed by RNG. Even non combatant classes like healers gain attacks when they promote, or they can change to a fighting class.
• One-Woman Wail: Present during the songstress Azura's first scene in the trailer.
• Oni: The Oni Savage and Oni Chieftain classes are based on these youkai, particularly in the way they wear oni masks and wield clubs as their main weapons.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: The 4 divine weapons Raijinto, Siegfried, Fujin Yumi, and Brynhildr can only be used by their rightful heirs in the royal families, while the Yato goes to the person destined to bring Nohr and Hoshido to peace.
• The Ophelia: Despite literally being named after the Trope Namer, Ophelia isn't really an example of this trope; she is a downplayed example instead. She is a bit of Bunny-Ears Lawyer, but that's it. Takumi in the Conquest path is more qualified for this trope despite the fact that he is male. He is a Long-Haired Pretty Boy who, in this particular path, falls into madness for several reasons: his hate and jealousy to the Avatar, also from his sorrow from losing his mother (actually, his Parental Substitute), his Inferiority Superiority Complex, and the depression he got from all of that. Following the water theme of Ophelia, his clothes are mostly blue and white, unlike his siblings who wear red and white — blue and white are both common color themes for water. Not to mention, the kanji for his name can be read as "ocean". Granted, he is actually under a huge More than Mind Control state caused by a water dragon god, but it doesn't change the fact that he exhibits several archetypical traits of this trope. While both hate and sorrow are the reasons for his madness, the game emphasizes more on his hatred while fanworks emphasize more on his sorrow, perfectly depicting the "beautifully broken" trait of this trope (and sometimes reducing him solely to that). He also often babbles to himself in that path.
• Optional Stealth: Chapter 24 of Revelation has an optional objective where you sneak past some weak guards wandering the map (done by not being present in their attack range at any time) and avoiding combat until you reach the boss. Doing so rewards you with Boots, a Master Seal, and 10,000 gold.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Subverted in Birthright. When the party arrives at the court of Archduke Izana of Izumo, they find him acting very... erratic. When he insists on taking the main character and Sakura somewhere separate from the others based on flimsy excuses, Hinoka comes to the rescue and declares that no noble would ever act this way, causing Izana to complain that his impersonation was perfect and reveal himself as Zola, a Nohrian mage, in disguise. They later find the real Izana in the dungeon... where he acts precisely the same way Zola did when disguised as him.
• Outside Man, Inside Man: This is how the Nintendo Direct describes the two different paths. The Hoshido path is fighting the enemy from the outside, while the Nohr path has you fight important leaders and change Nohr as a member of the "evil" team.
• Our Dragons Are Different: In ancient times, dragons were numerous across the land. During wars against each other, humans would side with the different dragons and aid them in their wars. In exchange, the dragons gave them land, and the leaders of those armies became the royal families, with dragon's blood running through their veins as proof of their loyalty and right to rule. Eventually, dragons became corrupted as their primal instincts took over, driving them mad. Most dragons escaped this fate by discarding their physical form and becoming spirits. Others were not so lucky, as they lacked the ability to discard their bodies and went mad as a result.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Wolfskins are a race of Little Bit Beastly people who can shapeshift into giant, bipedal wolf-like creatures. One particular Wolfskin, Keaton, can be recruited in Conquest and Revelation.

P

• Pacifist Run: In-universe, the Avatar does their absolute best to avoid killing anyone whenever possible. Deconstructed on the Conquest route, where despite being merciful and making sure their own troops do not kill anyone, the Avatar is unable to stop much of the death and destruction surrounding them (with Garon, Iago, and Hans gleefully committing war crimes left and right), with Xander finally explaining to them that trying to save or spare everyone in war is pointless.
• Papa Wolf: A few men, should they marry, will go berserk if their child is in any immediate danger in their respective paralogue. Examples include Gentle Giant Benny, Takumi, and even the Avatar.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • If you marry a male Avatar to any of the 1st generation females that can also S-rank with a "fertile" male, then it becomes impossible to get every 2nd generation unit. This is because the males are given just enough options so they can all get married, but the developers did not factor in the player character.
  • Kana is never born if you go with either Gay Option, preventing them from joining the army. This also applies to Nina if a male Avatar marries Niles.
  • Some characters, such as Nyx in Chapter 9 of Conquest or Benny and Charlotte in Chapter 14 of Revelation, have to be talked to while they are present on the map to get them to join the Avatar's army. If you don't do so and move on, those characters are permanently gone.
• Pet the Dog: Surprisingly, Iago. He clearly doesn't think much for the Avatar, even saying that if he had his way, the Avatar would be dead at his hands. But he does in fact laud the Avatar for following Garon's orders.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: The color of the background when performing skinship in My Room differs depending on the character's gender; pink for girls, blue for boys.
• Plain Palate: Hana likes the ninja ration buns even though, according to Saizo, they are made from pounded rice and flaked fish and so don't have much taste.
• Play Every Day: You can visit a specific castle only once per day.
• Player Mooks:
  • By using Capture, you can "recruit" most enemy units (generic or unique) to your side. These units cannot Support and lack personal Skills, but they are also readily available in high numbers (useful for Classic Mode due to its Permadeath mechanic) and disposable if you need to sacrifice somebody.
  • You can install Puppets or Stoneborn to guard My Castle. They act as autonomous friendly NPCs that will always respawn whenever you enter a new My Castle battle.
• Plot Armor: Characters that have a role in the story merely retreat when defeated, instead of dying, when playing on Classic. Though for some characters, this is just so they can die at their pre-determined time. They will no longer be usable, however. In addition, like the mothers of Fire Emblem: Awakening, even normally expendable units will retreat if they have a child unit tied to them, as to not cause complications with the child's paralogues. In this case, it would be the fathers. Anyone who doesn't meet either qualification will die as per usual.
• Point of Divergence: A major part of the game's premise is seeing how certain events change depending on which country the Avatar sides with:
  • The biggest case involves Takumi. On two out of three routes, he falls into the Bottomless Canyon and ends up being slowly possessed by Anankos. On Birthright, Azura meets up with him shortly after this happens, and so is able to use her song to (mostly) cure him. On Conquest, he isn't so lucky. As his possession did not become apparent until much later on, it's far too late to save him by the time Azura realizes. This, combined with his greater resentment and bitterness on this route due to the Avatar's betrayal, means he eventually gets so consumed that the original Takumi is outright dead (courtesy of Psychic-Assisted Suicide) and Anankos is able to turn his corpse into a puppet, which serves as the Final Boss. On Revelation, the Avatar manages to reach him while he's still in Izumo, meaning his fall into the bottomless canyon is prevented entirely. However, it's not all good news. Without him to use, Anankos possesses someone else who fell into the canyon: Gunter.
  • Another example of this is the fate of the Ice Tribe. In Conquest, the Avatar was sent in a Uriah Gambit to quell the tribe's rebellion. The rebellion is stopped through a diplomatic method (though not without a fight), and Flora much later joins as a party member. What happens to them in Birthright, where the Avatar and Felicia aren't there to talk Chief Kilma down from his plan? Garon steamrolled the tribe with impunity, slaughtering most of them, and had Kilma executed. Flora then gathered the survivors and pledged loyalty out of fear, which Garon used as a bait to lure out the Hoshidan Army. At the end, Flora was broken because of the entire affair and immolates herself out of grief. Whereas in Revelation, the rebellion still happens and is quashed by Garon, but rather than destroying them outright as in Birthright, he gives Flora a chance to save her people by helping Camilla and her retainers kill the Avatar, since Flora's ice control abilities allow them to ambush the Avatar's forces while traveling on the high seas by literally freezing the water, trapping them, and he needs her cooperation. When the Avatar in turn defeats them and gets Camilla on their side, Flora decides not to accompany them, but only so she can return to the Ice Tribe and get them into hiding before Garon can make good on the threat. Much later in the route, after Flora manages to accomplish this, she can be optionally recruited.
  • Gunter is thrown into the Bottomless Canyon by Hans early on in the game. On Conquest, the Avatar and Azura later end up in Valla (the world at the bottom of the canyon), where they are able to rescue him. On Birthright, however, this does not happen, and so he never rejoins the army. Finally, on Revelation, he rejoins the party, though much earlier than in Conquest... and turns out to be under Demonic Possession.
  • Another character, Kaze, can suffer a Plotline Death on Birthright but not on Conquest. The death itself is a case of this, too; if he does not have an A Support with the Avatar, he has to pledge his loyalty right there, which distracts him enough that he can't find a way out of their situation without sacrificing himself. If he does, he has enough concentration to notice something he can use to save them both.
  • In Revelation, the heroes never step foot in Fort Dragonfall, Macarath Palace, or the Woods of the Forlorn.
  • Scarlet's rebellion in Cheve takes place offscreen in Revelation.
  • Cyrkensia is reduced to rubble due to a skirmish between Hoshidan and Nohrian forces, thus no assassination attempt on King Garon. In addition, this is where the party encounters Kaden & Keaton, supplicating the Kitsune and Wolfskin pack encounters.
• Point of No Return: On all of the story routes, defeating the boss of the penultimate chapter sends you straight to the Endgame without a chance to save or replenish your supplies. Losing to the Final Boss means starting the previous chapter over again.
• Pointy Ears: The Avatar has noticeably pointed ears, unlike the other human characters, just like the Manaketes. There is a very good reason for this: it turns out that the Avatar is a Half-Human Hybrid, being the result of an affair between Mikoto and the dragon god Anankos which took place before Mikoto married Sumeragi.
• Poisoned Weapons: Hoshido's military occasionally employs poison as a weapon. The new Ninja skill, Poison Strike, takes an additional 20% of health off their target at the end of a battle the user initiated. Some of the Faceless (enemy-only golem-like creatures constructed from the flesh of corpses) can use Poison Strike as well, but they hit with their fists, not with weapons.
• Polar Opposite Twins:
  • Felicia is a skilled fighter, but pitiful at domestic chores. Her twin sister Flora is less adept at fighting, but she is also a perfect maid.
  • Kaze is calm and collected, and chooses who he serves based on his personal loyalties. His twin brother Saizo is hot-blooded and obeys his family tradition of serving the Hoshido royal bloodline only.
• Poor Communication Kills: A lot of battles only happen because other characters refuse to listen to the Avatar, make assumptions, or other miscommunication takes place. For example, the fight with the Ice Tribe in Conquest is caused because the tribe assumes the Avatar has come to violently ensure their loyalty to Nohr.
• Power at a Price:
  • Silver weapons are very strong and accurate, but they lower the user's stats (specifically Strength/Magic and Skill) by 2 every time they enter combat. Silver weapons also lower Dodge by 10, increasing the chances of getting struck by a Critical Hit.
  • The "Life and Death" skill increases the user's damage by 10, but they also take 10 more damage per hit.
• Power Floats:
  • Diviners and Sorcerers will float for their regular and critical attack animations, respectively.
  • In the final map of Heirs of Fate, Anankos' final phase — resembling his cloak-wearing human self in this case — also does this for his regular attack.
• Power Glows: Raijinto, Fujin Yumi, Brynhildr, and all of the Yato's upgraded forms emit some kind of light when in use. Inverted with Siegfried, which has a dark aura due to its darkness-based powers.
• The Power of Hate: Whichever younger brother you betray uses this against you. In Leo's case, it doesn't work. In Takumi's case, it works too well.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Just like Awakening. However, special mention goes to the retainers from both sides, all who share a one-liner their lieges use themselves (with little to no alterations). Then there is the Avatar's one-liners reflecting the kingdom they picked or turning their back on both kingdoms.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo:
  • The DLC map "Before Awakening" has you team up with Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick from Awakening.
  • Robin, the Avatar from Awakening, can be recruited by scanning his Super Smash Bros. amiibo.
• Punny Name:
  • The black-clad Kingdom of Nohr, whose name sounds an awful lot like "noir".
  • Camilla's class in the West is called "Malig Knight", which is similar to "malignant", which is fitting for a class riding on a zombie dragon.

Q-R

• Quirky Miniboss Squad: While the royal siblings generally have normal personalities for the most part, their retainers are often very strange or quirky. Collectively, they make for odd little groups of powerful potential enemies.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Compared to previous titles, this is heavily downplayed. The majority of Corrin/Kamui's army is made up of princes and princesses of Hoshido and/or Nohr (including Azura), the retainers and soldiers that serve them, and a number of people who either have an important status or title (three of your allies are the children of the leaders of three independent tribes, the token beasts are leaders of their packs, and Charlotte and Benny officially work as guards for the Nohrian border). The only allies that really fit the "ragtag" part are Mozu, Shura, Nyx, Scarlet, and Silas.
• Raised by Rival: Corrin was born in the kingdom of Hoshido, but was (for complicated reasons) raised by the royal family of Nohr, their rivals. As a Child of Two Worlds, the adult Corrin is now free to decide with which side to join in the ensuing war, justifying the two main routes of the game.
• Reconcile the Bitter Foes: Nohr and Hoshido have hated each other for years (if not generations) due to their preconceived notions about how the opposite acts, ultimately leading to the war. One of the Avatar's goals in Revelation is to get the two countries to make peace.
• Recurring Riff: "Lost in Thoughts All Alone", particularly the opening melody, is played several times throughout the soundtrack in different forms.
• Renovating the Player Headquarters: My Castle, the area players spend time between battles, has various features, such as farms, statues, and shops, that the player can place and move around at will (provided they don't overspend).
• Required Party Member: The Paralogues that involve the Second Generation characters require you to use their fathers (or their mothers for Shigure and male Kana) for the duration of the map.
• Reverse Grip: Ninjas and Master Ninjas hold their daggers and katanas backwards.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Villified: Played with in the Conquest route. Despite Hoshido STILL being portrayed as sympathetic and heroic, even the most ethical characters are not above making morally ambiguous choices. Ryoma withholding medicine from an ill-stricken Elise in particular stands out.
• Resist the Beast: Anankos had been resisting his primal urge to cause destruction for years, if not decades or more, as his sanity deteriorated. The entire game is essentially his last effort at this, in the sense that it's an effort to keep him from causing any more harm.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: In Birthright, Hinoka figures out that the Archduke Izana of Izumo the party meets is an impostor based on how casually he talks, believing that no royal would ever act that way. The real Izana does indeed speak that way, and she just happens to be correct that he's being impersonated.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: As per usual for the franchise, with the Avatar themself being related to Hoshido royalty. Azura also counts, being the princess of Nohr and all. And just about every other royal counts as well.
• Rule of Three: The game has three versions and there are three kingdoms that are pivotal to the plot, each being the focus of one version.

S

• The Sacred Darkness: Nohr reveres the Dusk Dragon in the same way Hoshido reveres the Dawn Dragon. Siegfried and the Grim/Shadow Yato forms are also sacred weapons that draw power from darkness.
• Sacred Flames: The Flame Tribe Rinkah hails from worships the God of Flame embodied in a holy volcano near their village, and keep a sacred flame burning at all times to honor him. Once when the flame was put out by an invading enemy tribe, the God responded by having the volcano erupt and do major damage to both sides.
• Sad Battle Music: "Thorn in You" is the "Don't speak her name!" of Fates.
• Sadistic Choice:
  • The player is presented with one near the beginning of the game that determines the course of the rest of the game: Do you side with Hoshido, the kingdom from which you originally hail and the family that you were taken from? Do you side with Nohr, the kingdom you were raised in and the family you grew up with? Or do you choose neither side, and in doing so, possibly become an enemy of both kingdoms?
  • The Player Character is not merely choosing between two opposing factions but between two different families. One who raised them as their own in spite of their foreign blood and the shady circumstances behind their "adoption", and the other who still loves them deeply even after years of separation and looks forward to seeing them again. What really drives the message home is that they both have sweet little sisters (Sakura, for Hoshido, Elise, for Nohr) who clearly adore the protagonist. And they can't choose both. Family matters indeed.
  Sakura: "Big brother/sister?"
  Elise: S/He's my brother/sister!!
  • Subverted by the third route with extreme impunity. So now those who want both little sisters (and both parties by extension) can rejoice. Even then, it's not quite a straight subversion at first, as it still takes a while for everyone but the younger sisters to come around.
  • The Conquest storyline has the Avatar forced by Garon to commit a number of atrocities, or risk death for insubordination. One of the most prominent examples is near the end of the campaign when they are ordered to execute a defeated Ryoma. The Hoshidan prince, realizing the trouble the Avatar is in, chooses to spare them from being forced to make such a decision by committing Seppuku.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Dual Weapons and the Calamity Gate reverses Weapon Triangle advantage.
• Second Hour Superpower: The Avatar's dragon abilities only appear after the first five (four if you count the initial rampage) chapters out of 28.
• Serrated Blade of Pain: The Killer weapons have their edges jagged, even the Killer Bow's arrowheads. And they do inflict a lot of pain, with their high critical rates and dealing 4 times the critical damage instead of 3.
• Share Phrase: All of the royal siblings have one Pre-Mortem One-Liner they share with both of their retainers.
  Ryoma/Saizo/Kagero: You have breathed your last!
  Hinoka/Azama/Setsuna: I won't lose!
  Takumi/Hinata/Oboro: Oh, that's it!
  Sakura/Hana/Subaki: It's all me!
  Xander/Laslow/Peri: You're right where I want you!
  Camilla/Selena/Beruka: Time to play!
  Leo/Odin/Niles: You can't hide from me!
  Elise/Arthur/Effie: No more holding back!
• Shout-Out:
  • One to Pulp Fiction, of all things. One of Scarlet's critical hit quotes is "I'm gonna get Nohrian on your butt!"
  • Another in Flora and the male Avatar's A support, in which, after starting a small blizzard, she asks if she can "Let it go a little longer."
  • Forrest and Kiragi's support has Forrest mentioning being attacked by a horde of chickens, and Kiragi pointing out that Forrest did hit one a few times. This is obviously a reference to the cuccos in The Legend of Zelda, which will attack the player if they are hit enough times.
  • One of Arthur's lines in My Castle is "Listen, Lord/Lady Corrin, I wouldn't lie! I'll make you believe a man can- er, prevail.
    • Another one from Arthur, "It is a great honor to spend time with a fellow friend of justice. We should form our own league."
  • In one of Kaze's My Room lines, he expresses support for Corrin's "quest for peace."
  • Percy's wyvern is named "Ace" (in North America), likely a reference to another superhero's Non-Human Sidekick, Ace the Bat-Hound.
  • Arthur's entire design is one to American superheroes, as he looks like a mix between Captain America and Superman.
  • The generic Hero class (which is Arthur's canon promotion in Birthright and some DLCs) resembles Thor instead, especially with the enemy's red color scheme. They can even wield Hammers!
  • Laslow and Xander's B-Support has the latter make a reference to the famous phone scene from Taken while threatening the former.
  Xander: I will seek you out, I will find you, and I will punish you.
  • When gaining a surge in My Castle, Selena references Shulk's memetic line of "I'm really feeling it!" In his C support with Selkie, Kaden calls his fellow kitsune "a bunch of jokers", referencing Reyn.
  • During Asugi's recruitment mission, the boss character "Invites you... to DIE!"
  • Corrin's transformation, rampage, and cooldown in chapter 5 is presented very similarly to Issei's brush with Juggernaut Drive in the High School D×D anime, except scaled down and with less toplessness.
  • Dwyer's A-Support with Caeldori has him say that heart failure is an awful thing to inflict on someone. His resemblance to L has never been more apparent.
  • Asugi's cat lollipop certainly looks remarkably familiar. Makes sense, seeing as how Yusuke Kozaki designed both characters.
  • Saizo is the older brother and wears red, while Kaze is the younger brother and wears green. Nope, nothing to see here.
  • Depending on which route you're on, Lilith either has an offensive skill called Astral Breath or a healing skill called Astral Blessing (or both on Revelation). That could get a bit confusing, couldn't it?
  • Where else was there a man named Arthur with a son named Percy?
  • In Kaze's supports with Mozu, he mentions painting fences and polishing armour as being part of his training, and that household chores are a traditional part of Hoshidan martial arts training.
• Silly Prayer: Izana has a tendency to start his divinations with "Oh, ancient gods... What's up?"
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Elise declares Sakura her arch-nemesis in Conquest solely because she's the Avatar's birth sister, and doesn't want to share. Sakura is far too nice to hold anything against Elise despite being on opposing sides of the war, and is more confused about it than anything. Elise drops this attitude by the end of the route, and becomes quite good friends with her.
• Sizable Snowflakes: Emitted when Felicia throws her daggers around to emphasize her ice powers.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Ice Tribe lives on a snowy mountain in Nohr. Their village is filled with snow and has a lake that can be magically frozen and thawed through Dragon Veins.
• Smug Smiler: Most of the generic units have a very smug-looking grin, especially when they have the advantage in battles.
• Socialization Bonus: The resources used to develop "My Castle" can be obtained through StreetPass and online visits to other players' castles. You can also buy items and equipment and possibly recruit new units or learn new skills this way.
• Sparing Them the Dirty Work: In the Conquest route, after defeating Zola, Leo executes him to spare the Player Character the burden of doing so.
• Splash Damage: The "Savage Blow" skill causes all units within 2 spaces of a target to lose 20% of their max health whenever the user initiates combat.
• Sprite/Polygon Mix: While overlooking the map during battle, characters are depicted with sprites while the geography uses models.
• Stance System: The reworked Pair Up mechanic, splitting the old benefits into two stances. Attack Stance allows adjacent units to make follow-up attacks when one of them attacks or defends, while Guard Stance offers the stat-buffs of the old pair up, passively negates all follow-up attacks, and will negate one enemy attack after a guard gauge fills up, but prevents the unit from either making or using any follow-up attacks.
• Stat Stick: The Yato becomes this for a Corrin that's in a class that doesn't use swords, as they still get bonus stats just from having it in their inventory.
• Static Role, Exchangeable Character: Depending on the gender of your Avatar, you will either get Felicia or Jakob as your first permanent party member and healer. While their personalities and stats are quite different, they both serve the same function in the story and Paralogues as the Avatar's loyal retainer and general assistant.
• Stealth Sequel: Fates is set in an entirely new universe (technically the sixth in the series, as Awakening is set in the same world as Akaneia and Jugdral), but the presence of the Outrealms and the presences of Owain, Inigo, and Severa (here living under aliases and often referencing events that happened during Awakening itself) imply that Fates is a very loosely connected sequel to Awakening — emphasis on "loosely," as the three aforementioned characters have little to no impact on the story, Hidden Truths notwithstanding.
• Story Branch Favoritism: While there are 3 main paths with their own narratives, Revelation is the only one that actually involves stopping the real villain, Anankos, and uniting the two kingdoms with minimal bloodshed. It also lacks a Bittersweet Ending with lots of scripted Character Deaths in favor of having the Golden Ending with a very small casualty count, along with it being the only branch where Azura and Lilith live.
• Story Branching: The English Nintendo Direct stated the player can choose which side to serve — the peace-loving Japanese-like Hoshido, and the glory-seeking Medieval Europe-like Nohr. However, it was later revealed that the game is split into two versions, with each sending the player off to one of the two kingdoms — removing the ability to choose which side you join — though the other route is available as DLC, as well as a "Third Path" campaign, called "The Invisible Kingdom" in Japan and "Revelation" in the West. Only the Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition has all three campaigns accessible right from the start.
• Strong Enemies, Low Rewards: In the level "Eternal Stairway", the infinitely spawning Faceless have the Void Curse ability which causes them to give no experience when killed, so that what could easily turn into a rare grinding opportunity remains a tense fight to the exit.
• Super Move Portrait Attack: If a character gets a Critical Hit or triggers an offensive skill, a portrait of their face shows up and they say a line just before the attack animation.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • The Rainbow Sage is an incredibly ancient wise man who can unlock the power of legendary weapons. Naturally, being so old, he dies of natural causes shortly after you meet him. Or so it would appear until the Revelation route, where he's revealed to have been one of the ancient dragons, and had been holding onto his power until he could help make things right.
    • In Conquest, after the Avatar meets the Rainbow Sage, Iago appears and orders them to kill the Rainbow Sage. As much of a Kick the Dog as it is, removing such a powerful neutral factor from the war is a pragmatic strategy, especially after in Birthright Xander was able to gain a boost in power from the Sage.
  • In Revelation, the Avatar tries to warn everyone that there is an unseen enemy, but is unable to provide any additional details or proof and asks them all to take their word on it. Needless to say, this hardly works.
    • Also in Revelation, Xander and Ryoma finally manage to call a truce after Chapter 17. In their supports, however, both of them find it difficult to dispel bad blood between their nations.
  • Despite Charlotte's good looks, not all men appreciate her overly flirtatious behavior. And several men find it inappropriate enough to report her for it. Charlotte's attempts to charm Xander into letting it slide also fail, since he read the reports and already knows her routine.
  • Although it was for their own protection, putting the children in the Deeprealms causes many of them to resent their parents for "abandoning" them without any good reason for it. Even if they don't get mad at them for doing it, several kids such as Kana develop personality issues that make them struggle in their supports.
    • Shiro is a good example. Not only was he put into the Deeprealms like the others, he was never told he was actually royalty, but was treated as one by his caretakers and never knew why. Once he did learn, he became angry for being treated differently for a factor he never knew about, and clashed with his father Ryoma because of it.
    • On the other hand, Siegbert is told from a young age he is a prince, but this causes him to grow up knowing he has a looming responsibility he will have to accept and deal with. The stress of it causes him extreme Heroic Self-Deprecation as he feels unworthy of becoming king and constantly compares himself to his father Xander. All of his supports deal with him struggling with what he needs to do and if he can even handle the pressure of an entire kingdom.
  • In Conquest, when Elise catches an illness that could very well kill her, the medicine required to save her is in the hands of Ryoma, the opposing army's leader. Though he does recognize the gravity of the situation and wants to help the Avatar out, they are at war, and the opposing army's healer being out of the picture would be a far better outcome for Hoshido.
• Swamps Are Evil: The Woods of the Forlorn are so dark that even the trees struggle for what little light they can find, and parts of it are Faceless-spawning bogs that also hurt anyone who isn't Nohrian. One boss in Birthright exploits this when battling the Avatar's group.
• Sword and Fist: Many classes, like the Swordmaster and Vanguard, incorporate kicks and other strikes during their critical animations.
• Sword of Plot Advancement: The Yato. Its upgraded forms are necessary to continue each route, and the Big Bad can't be defeated without it.

T

• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The norm for the series, though the system has been expanded in this game. Now, the triangle consists of a pair of weapons being effective against another pair of weapons; swords and magic beat axes and bows, axes and bows beat lances and concealed weapons, and lances and concealed weapons beat swords and magic.
• Take a Third Option: At the Branch of Fate, the player is given the choice between sticking with Hoshido or going back to Nohr for the inevitable war. If the Revelation DLC has been purchased, a new choice is added: refuse to side with either and instead go stop Anankos from destroying humanity.
• Taking the Bullet:
  • The Guard Stance, a modified version of Awakening's Dual Guard system, allows one unit to protect the other from enemy follow-up attacks and, after filling a gauge, from the main unit attack.
  • This also shows up at four/five points in the story: In the backstory, Sumeragi shields the Avatar from arrows; Mikoto throws herself in front of the exploding Ganglari in the Prologue to protect the Avatar; and in Birthright, Elise throws herself in front of a lethal attack from Xander, protecting the Avatar. And in both Birthright and Conquest, Lilith throws herself in the way of an attack meant for Corrin.
• Tank Goodness: The Ballistician DLC class rides around in a medieval tank with shields protecting the wheels and the Ballista/Bow acting as the cannon.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Selena decides to act overly flirtatious towards Laslow in their B Support to teach him a lesson about how his own flirting makes women uncomfortable (and thus dislike him).
• Team Switzerland:
  • The Principality of Izumo refuses to get involved in the war between Hoshido and Nohr. It's able to enforce this because it possesses the best medicine on the continent, which it can choose to withhold.
  • Cyrkensia and Mokushu are also said to be neutral territories, although Mokushu ends up Subverting it in all three routes.
• Theme Music Power-Up: In chapter 17 of Revelation, everything has gone to pot, you and your army are fatigued from dealing with Hans, and Iago is coming dangerously close to overrunning you. As all hope seems lost, the unsettling "Vanity Judge" is playing. Then Xander and Leo show up to turn the tide, and the map music changes to the much more heroic "A Dark Fall".
• Theme Naming: Sakura and her two retainers, Hana and Subaki, all have floral-themed names. Sakura is a cherry blossom, Hana is a general Japanese term for flower, and Subaki is derived from Tsubaki, a camellia flower.
• Theme Song Reveal:
  • Boy, that demon swordsman had a cool boss theme. But why is Takumi suddenly using it?
  • On both routes (though it has greater impact on Birthright), Shura, who appears to be a Nohrian bandit, uses the Hoshidan boss theme when fought. The playable Hoshidan boss theme. This is a big clue that he's more than he seems.
• Thicker Than Water: The Avatar was born into Hoshido royalty, but was raised by the Nohr royal family. One of the biggest choices in the game is deciding whether or not the Avatar will invoke this trope and side with their newfound kin against their lifelong adoptive family.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Revelation aside, the defining note of Corrin's speech when choosing a side comes down to whether they believe Garon using them as a pawn to kill Corrin's mother and thousands of innocent civilians is this, or if they want an explanation first.
• Throw the Sheath Away: Xander's boss intro cutscene in Birthright shows him unsheathing his sword Siegfried and throwing his shield behind him for his impending confrontation with the Avatar.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Swords now have a proper ranged, throwable variation in the form of the Kodachi and Wakizashi blades. Kukri and Katti swords function the same as their Sword and Katana counterparts, respectively, with the addition of being 1~2 range and only being wielded by enemies.
• Timed Mission:
  • Chapters 15 and 18 of Conquest both have a 20 turn time limit. Chapter 15 requires you to defeat the boss or escape the map entirely, while Chapter 18 requires that you defeat both Zola and two enemy Generals. Conquest's version of Chapter 15 appears again in Revelation (as the 21st Chapter instead) with the same requirements, except you have your entire army with you instead of just the Avatar, Azura, and Gunter.
  • The mission of Chapter 6 of Revelation is to beat a commanding officer from both Hoshido and Nohr within 5 turns to distract the armies.
  • There's no specific turn count, but Paralogue 9 requires you to beat the boss before Asugi flees the map.
  • Nina's Paralogue also requires you to rout the enemy before she flees the map.
• Title Drop:
  • The versions of "Lost In Thoughts All Alone" that play during the Endgames of Birthright and Conquest mention the corresponding title's name in the lyrics. The full version of the song, which plays during the credits of the 3 stories, mentions both.
  • Owain references the titles of all three games in Hidden Truths.
    Owain: I suppose being heroes is our birthright. Or maybe we crave the thrill of conquest... the seduction of revelation.
• Token Enemy Minority:
  • Kaze in Conquest, who defects upon hearing the Avatar say their ultimate goal is to change Nohr from within and create a lasting peace.
  • Silas, Jakob, Felicia, and Scarlet in Birthright. The first three defect due to their personal loyalty to the Avatar, while Scarlet's province is openly rebelling against Nohr and makes common cause with the Hoshidans.
• Too Awesome to Use: Non-healing staves have very useful effects such as freezing an enemy in place, but they cannot be purchased indefinitely and each one only has very few amount of charges before breaking down. The S-rank Bifröst staff in particular revives the most recently killed unit, but it only has a single charge and only one exists in the entire game.
• Top Wife: It's a plot point that King Garon had many concubines due to having taken the Marry Them All route, but also a legitimate wife. The first one, Katerina, was adored by the concubines. She died and got replaced by Arete, who was viewed as an in-universe Replacement Scrappy and greatly disliked.
• Tongue-Tied: Anyone who steps foot inside the borders of Valla will be cursed to be unable to talk about it outside its borders, for they'll dissolve into water if they do. Corrin gets inflicted with this in the Conquest and Revelations routes, but they manage to convince their siblings in the Revelation route to jump into the Bottomless Canyon without question, as that was the only way to reach Valla.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: The Avatar first turns some of their limbs into dragon limbs after they see Gunter fall into the Bottomless Canyon. Then when they see their mother die protecting them, they get the full deal, mind and all. Similarly, their child Kana goes on full-transformation in their paralogue when attacked by bandits.
• Troublesome Pet: Sophie's horse Avel is a Moody Mount who is prone to biting and throwing her off him, except during battles.
• Truce Zone: In Conquest, the Principality of Izumo hosts a banquet that has attendees from both Nohr and Hoshido despite them being at war.

U-Y

• Unbreakable Weapons: Unlike the previous games, the weapons in this game are unbreakable, with the only Breakable Weapons being the staves (which can be subverted with an AI-only skill). To compensate, the stronger weapons now inflict various penalties on their user's stats.
• Underwear of Power: Both genders of the Sorcerer class and the female Dark Mage class wear bikini bottoms over their leggings/bodysuits.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • Any characters that are allies regardless of which path is chosen likely has this toward the Avatar, considering the fact that following the Avatar may entail them defecting from their home kingdom.
  • The retainers of each sibling have this to their respective lord or lady, but this is especially apparent in the early game of Revelation. When Sakura, Takumi, Camilla, and Elise defect to the Avatar's side, their retainers come with them with no hesitation, even though the Avatar is considered a fugitive by both Hoshido and Nohr, since their loyalty to their lord or lady trumps their loyalty to their nation.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Birthright Chapter 12 is an Escape mission in a game where every other chapter (excluding the first five that are the same in all routes) are either Rout or Defeat Boss missions. Your goal is to get the Avatar off the map as soon as possible.
• Unprovoked Pervert Payback: If you enter the hot springs in your castle, there is a random chance that the occupants will be the opposite gender of your character, often resulting in a scathing remark (especially if you're playing as a male Avatar) from the occupant(s) and you bolting out of there. Since you have absolutely no way of knowing who's in the spring until you actually enter (apparently no one thought to post a sign indicating which gender currently has their turn), it comes off as this.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: Like most Fire Emblem games, only very specific items that are indicated as droppable (marked via green text) can be obtained from slain enemies. Typically, when an enemy is defeated, their weapons are lost with them.
• The Usual Adversaries: Kotaro, Zola, Hans, and Iago end up being faced by the Avatar in all three routes, even Conquest, in which Kotaro is (nominally) an ally of Nohr (but seeks the advancement of his nation of Mokushu above all else), and Zola, Hans, and Iago ostensibly being on the same side as the Avatar in that route!
• Variable Mix: Similar to Awakening, there are two versions of of each gameplay track; a calm one that plays on the map, and an intense one that plays during battle animations. The soundtrack seamlessly switches between them as appropriate.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Camilla pulls a map out of her bra (her breasts in the Japanese version) during her support conversation with the Avatar. When they question her about it, she retorts that it was the only place she could carry it.
• Victorious Childhood Friend: Silas is a friend of Corrin when they were kids, and helped him sneak out of the castle he was held in. If Corrin is female, she has the option of romancing and marrying him.
• Video Game Caring Potential: It's possible to spare some bosses instead of killing them by using the Capture command to place them in the My Castle jail.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • In Chapter 6, you can choose seek out and attack Elise or Sakura (depending on your route) when it's not necessary to do so. Both sisters only want the Avatar's happiness, they are easily the nicest member of their respective families, and neither are even capable of fighting back. Doubly cruel on the Birthright route, as the only objective for the chapter is to defeat Xander; at least on the Conquest route, you could justify attacking Sakura, as you need to defeat a specific number of units to win and Ryoma's extremely powerful.
  • You can make Felicia fight her own sister in any of the routes while playing as the Male Avatar. It's even worse in chapter 17 of Birthright. It's nothing compared to what happens to Flora afterwards, but it can make her fate even worse.
  • Kaze will go with the Avatar no matter which route you choose, while his brother Saizo is only playable in Birthright and Revelation. This means if you choose Nohr, you can potentially have Kaze fight his own brother.
  • In My Castle, you have the option to wake your spouse gently or violently. The results can be pretty humorous if you choose the latter.
  • During the battle in Cyrkensia in Revelation, there are lots of opportunities for this, though the game really only acknowledges one. Mainly, it's possible to have Camilla, who joined your side in an earlier chapter, fight Xander, who is leading the Nohrian forces in the city. Xander angrily denounces her as a traitor like the Avatar and refuses to listen to her pleas to back the Nohrian army off, leading to a fight, though this is made somewhat better by Xander himself joining the Avatar's side a few chapters later. You can also have Takumi or Sakura, if she's able fight Ryoma on the same map, but there's no special dialogue for either of them. The game also doesn't call attention to it, but it's also possible on the same map to have Selena cross blades with Laslow — meaning it's possible to have Severa fighting her old comrade from Ylisse, Inigo, since their respective lords are on opposite sides of the conflict now.
  • In Revelation, many of the later chapters involve fighting the re-animated bodies of the protagonists' parents. You can force the Avatar, Azura, and all the Hoshidan royals to fight and kill their mother or father, and all of them are affected by it — Ryoma even starts crying. You Bastard!.
  • Also in Revelation, Scarlet is resurrected a few chapters after her death and is fought as a mini-boss. Fighting this character with Ryoma will trigger some special dialogue where it's very clear that he's not happy about this fight.
• Villainous Rescue: Inverted. The Ice Tribe's chieftain Kilma rescues the Avatar from freezing to death in Conquest, not realizing they've come to suppress their rebellion.
• Visible Invisibility: "Invader" enemies are supposed to be invisible, but the purple distortion aura is so obvious that they're easily spotted.
• Voodoo Zombie: The insane dragon god, Anankos, can reanimate the dead and make them do his bidding. These undead soldiers seem to have varying degrees of conscience and personality, which can involve retaining the original body's personality with major or minor changes, or just be mindless puppets.
• Warrior Prince: The Avatar (whose class takes this further: Nohr Prince/ess) and their blood-related and adoptive family, particularly Xander and Ryoma, who lead their respective forces, and Camilla and Hinoka, who are well-known bruisers. Even Sakura and Elise can become this when they promote, and Azura is an incredibly competent lance wielder, even if she's more known as a dancer.
• Weeding Out Imperfections: The Conquest route has King Garon using this analogy when discussing dealing with rebellions, claiming that "one must salt the earth before they sprout."
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • Birthright Chapter 12 marks the first time you encounter promoted units as regular enemies, plus a moving Hopeless Boss Fight in the form of Xander if you are on Hard difficulty or above. It is also an Escape mission in a game where every other chapter unique to that route is a Rout mission or has you defeat a boss.
  • Conquest Chapter 7 has a lot of enemies and very few units to use against them. The next chapter has a staff user much earlier than the other routes, proving how difficult Conquest is.
  • Conquest Chapter 10 is the first chapter on Casual mode in which one of the defeat conditions is something other than a Total Party Kill, and the first chapter on Phoenix mode where you can actually lose, warning you that just because your units simply retreat instead of dying for real doesn't mean the game will hand every victory to you on a silver platter.
  • Revelation Chapter 7 is the game's only Fog of War mission. You also only have three units: your Avatar, Jakob/Felicia (who is primarily a healer), and Azura (who will most definitely not be fighting on account of not being able to take a hit).
• We Cannot Go On Without You:
  • In Classic Mode, the Avatar's defeat under any circumstance results in an immediate Game Over. In Casual Mode, this only applies for Chapter 5 since it's very difficult (if not impossible) to beat the boss without them. In any other circumstance, the Avatar simply retreats from the battle and will be ready to fight after it concludes; subsequently, they will return the following turn in Phoenix Mode if it's active.
  • The final part of the Heirs of Fate DLC is automatically lost if either of the Kanas or Shigure die, since their powers are required to beat the boss.
• Wham Episode: Revelation Chapter 12, "Frozen Sea". Up until this point, Revelation can feel a bit like just a tougher version of Birthright, with the Avatar commanding a mostly Hoshidan army against primarily Nohrian opponents, and with two Hoshidan siblings in Sakura and Takumi, with only Jakob/Felicia (who are in all three routes) and Gunter as the only Nohrian units available (and using Gunter isn't recommended for a number of reasons). Then Camilla and her retainers, as well as Flora, show up to ambush the Avatar's group on the high seas, since Garon has ordered Camilla to execute the Avatar as a traitor, which she is reluctantly willing to go through with, forcing the Avatar to fight them, the first time in the route they've been directly pitted against one of their siblings. Upon defeating Camilla's forces, however, the Avatar spares her life and convinces Camilla to follow them in defeating the real enemy and ending the war, meaning for the first time in all three routes, you can actually have siblings from opposite sides of the war in battle together, as well as units that were formerly unique to Conquest in Beruka and Selena, and this is where Revelation really starts to take off. Subsequent chapters ramp up the number of recruitable Nohrian characters as well to make up for Revelation's early game being so Hoshido-centric and really start to hit home the idea of the two sides coming together.
• Wham Line:
  • Birthright Chapter 17:
    Flora: Nothing will change the fact that I betrayed you. Not to mention my own flesh and blood. For that... I deserve to die.
  • Conquest Chapter 27, if you are deluded enough to think it's over after you finally defeat the Big Bad:
    Takumi: Betrayal... betrayal... I AM BETRAYAL!!!
• What the Hell, Player?: If you make Laslow, Selena, or Odin equip the Dragon's Feather^note which is essentially a piece of Grima, they will chew you out for it.
• White-and-Grey Morality: You know about how Hoshido kidnapped Azura? Yeah, turns out they did that because Garon kidnapped the Avatar first when he and his men ambushed Sumeragi, who was visiting Cheve to establish some relations between it and Hoshido, while Hoshido simply kidnapped Azura to trade her back for the Avatar despite treating the princess very well regardless and Nohr had yet to invade Hoshido after the incident until the present day, apparently establishing some form of non-aggression treaty prior. All in all, both sides are neutral at worst with only a few exceptions.
• With Us or Against Us: In Chapter 6, the Avatar is forced to choose whether to support their blood relations or their foster family in the war between the two. Even worse in Revelation, where both sides consider the Avatar a traitor after they refuse to pick a side, but most end up joining the Avatar to fight a bigger evil.
• World in the Sky: The Kingdom of Valla consists of a number of floating continents.
• Wutai: Hoshido is clearly based on feudal Japan, with soldiers and citizens wearing samurai armor and traditional period garb, at least one map showing a Japanese-like mansion, and medieval Japanese weaponry, including katanas and naginatas, appear to replace the series standard weapons of swords and lances.

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