Whether mortal or divine, the following individuals throughout the Fire Emblem multiverse shall be remembered most for their atrocities.
- Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light and Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem:
- Gharnef, who starts by murdering Linde's dad, Miloah, due to jealousy for not inheriting Aura, and later not only manipulating Emperor Hardin and turning him Brainwashed and Crazy, but kidnapping and brainwashing Elice, Nyna, Maria, and Lena so they'll be Human Sacrifices for Medeus. And the New Mystery remake adds another one: brainwashing Eremiya as she hit the Despair Event Horizon, then having her raise Tykebombs for him... and once she loses the fight against Marth's group, he de-brainwashes her only to mock her and watch her die in despair.
- Morzas only appears in one chapter, but he definitely cements himself as irredeemable through his atrocities. Morzas, not only personally murders Marth's mother, whom was already imprisoned, but also regularly executed many innocent civilians for extremely petty infractions. When Marth arrives, Morzas taunts the Prince about all of this.
- Lang is revealed as early as the first chapter to commit a wide variety of atrocities, including robbing from civilians, taking away young girls (undoubtedly for a gruesome fate), planning to slaughter the families of those who rebelled against him, and trying to kill the young heirs of Grust (who are just young teens).
- Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War:
- Despite being a Well-Intentioned Extremist, Arvis crosses this in Chapter 5 where he throws a party for Sigurd, who has all but cleared his name. That's not the MEH; what happens at the party is. He basically brings out his new wife, Deirdre, who was Sigurd's wife before she was brainwashed, to mock Sigurd, laughs at him for his naivety, and then has a group of mages drop meteors on the entire party — which, by the way, includes his younger half-brother. "Arvis, you dastard!" sums it up pretty well.
- Like Arvis, King Travant is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who just wants what's best for his country, but it's hard to like him after he tracks down and kills Quan, Ethlyn, and half the Leonster knights, then kidnaps baby Altena so he can have the Gáe Bolg. Even Travant himself, regularly felt guilt for killing Ethyln, whom unlike Quan, had never wronged him.
- Hilda, resident Lady of Black Magic, looks like she crossed this in the story by hunting down and killing children... but then you learn that she actually crossed it long before the second generation started. Her husband, Bloom, had captured his sister Tailtiu and her daughter Tine (who couldn't have been more than four or five at the time) and brought them back to Friege. So what does Hilda do to them? Spends several years torturing Tailtiu to death while making Tine watch. And once she was done with her sister-in-law, she began to abuse said girl further. Upon learning this, Hilda goes from being just an unpleasant boss to someone you really want to kill. The fact that it's possible to get Tailtiu to die before this can happen doesn't diminish this, because Hilda simply turns towards her other sister Ethnia and makes her her new punching bag and having her daughter Linda (Tine's replacement) watch as well, then turned to torture Linda as well. Either way, you get the idea.
- Manfroy has one, but it's a little hard to tell what it is, since just about everything he does is evil. It can be pinned down to one of three acts, though: either kidnapping and brainwashing Deirdre, then emotionally manipulating her half-brother Arvis into marrying her so they can make The Antichrist; giving said anti-Christ an evil tome that possessed him and turned him into an Evil Overlord when it turned out he was actually a pretty nice kid; or murdering his pregnant daughter's husband and driving her insane because she didn't marry the person he wanted her to marry.
- Zephiel ends up crossing the horizon at the beginning of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade when he launches a surprise attack on Lycia, crushes Hector (actually one of the men that saved him from the Black Fang as detailed in The Blazing Blade) and views him as nothing more than an obstacle for his ambitions, and then locks him up in a dungeon without tending to his wounds, so he ends up dead even after being rescued. And Zephiel just goes on and on with more atrocities afterwards...
- Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade:
- Ephidel having cute-as-a-button Leila butchered, and watching it with that perpetually-irritating smug grin on his face. Interestingly enough, he just gave the order; the character who actually did the butchering, a Tyke Bomb raised from infancy into a brutal killer, pulls a Heel–Face Turn and ends up as one of the most sympathetic in the game!
- Sonia making the revelation that she killed Nino's real parents, that she never had any care or love whatsoever toward Nino, and then attempting to kill Nino herself. When the aforementioned "butcher" witnesses these acts of cruelty, this is the push he needs for his Heel–Face Turn.
- It's followed by Nergal giving a kidnapped Ninian a brutal speech in which he browbeats and verbally abuses her into reverting to her Dragon form, setting her loose so she would be slain by Eliwood without him knowing it (and under the control of the Durandal sword, made for killing dragons), and then not only revealing it to Eliwood as Ninian dies in his arms (throwing Eliwood into a state of utter despair), but also laughing about it. Did we mention that it's all but stated that Ninian is his long-lost daughter? Not even the fact that he lost his memories is good enough to get him off the hook for that, considering his glee when he tells Eliwood that he's fatally injured the girl who loved him.
- And then we have King Desmond of Bern, who orders the Black Fang to carry out the murder of his own son and heir, Zephiel, due to hating how the child of his much-hated wife Hellene is the one able to inherit the throne instead of his favorite child Guinevere. Is there any wonder that Zephiel and Guinevere's relationship, until then friendly and cute, would be broken beyond belief after the embittered Zephiel grows into a faithless Social Darwinist?
- Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones: Valter crosses the line in a big way when he brutally murders his honourable foil Glen for expressing doubts about their emperor's orders. And that's not getting into the implication that he wants to rape Eirika.
- How about a nod to the Tellius baddies?
- Mad King Ashnard, Big Bad of the first game, pumped Rajaion, prince of the dragon laguz, full of a Psycho Serum that both drove him insane and mode-locked him into his dragon form, then used him as a mount — all after using his sister's child, which Ashnard fathered, as bait to lure him in (he then abandoned their son). The sequel reveals an earlier and even more heinous horizon crossing- he tricked his father into signing a Blood Pact, causing thousands of Daein's people to die as a result, then killed his father to take the throne.
- Izuka, Ashnard's chief scientist, is the one who developed the aforementioned Psycho Serum. In the second game, he actually joins your party as your (laughably incompetent) strategist, during which time he uses his drug on Muarim, though he is thankfully cured. After that, you want him dead, and it's no shock when he's revealed to be working for...
- Lekain, easily the most horrible person in both games. To say nothing of the fact that he hands out Blood Pacts like candy, this lovely fellow bumped off his country's beloved empress, framed a race of Actual Pacifists for the crime, then whipped his countrymen into a genocidal frenzy, in the aftermath of which only four of said race were left. The Reveal that he was the one who gave the order for the genocide immediately puts him in a separate class from the rest of the series' villains, and every named character clamours for his head on a pike.
- General Jarod, Disc-One Final Boss of the first part of the second game, treats a conquered country like his personal playground, casually committing atrocities everywhere he goes for his own enjoyment. The MEH probably comes when he has his men shoot a preteen boy in the back. Micaiah heals him, but still...
- Duke Valtome may be hilarious, but that still doesn't change the fact that he sent his own men to almost certain death in a volcanic cavern just to check if the heroes were dead, nor the fact that he sics his goons on Elincia after she willingly disarms herself as a gesture of peace to him.
- Duke Hetzel considers himself to have crossed this line for not standing up to the likes of Lekain and Valtome, but he is, if not sympathetic, certainly pitiable.
- Finally, we have the goddess Ashera, who is considered to have crossed it In-Universe after she resurrects a legion of zombies to fight the heroes. Even Yune, a goddess herself, was brought to tears upon witnessing this.
- Fire Emblem: Awakening is no slouch in regards to this.:
- King Gangrel has his moment when he not only captures Emmeryn, but he forces her and Chrom into a Sadistic Choice that finishes with Emmeryn's Heroic Suicide... and then laughs about it. It's no wonder that Chrom is absolutely enraged afterwards and that, after his Break the Haughty -> Heel–Face Turn, Gangrel is not pleased with himself.
- Excellus crosses it via giving a cruel Breaking Lecture to Say'ri, which includes telling her that her apparently traitorous brother, Yen'fay, was actually trying to protect her. Again, no wonder that Say'ri goes all Beware the Quiet Ones on him.
- Validar crosses it by murdering Aversa's whole family and brainwashing her into being his servant ''when she was younger, as revealed in SpotPass content.
- Fire Emblem Fates:
- Hans and his troops massacre not only the remaining Hoshidan and Cheve knight casualties (including killing Scarlet in an especially brutal way) that were left behind by Corrin, but also Cheve civilians in Conquest Chapter 13.
- Garon has many moments, but the worst include: giving orders to break through Xander and Corrin's intentions to spare many Hoshidan prisoners of war after Sakura and Yukimura's defeats and trying to force Corrin into murdering Ryoma after he's defeated (which Ryoma can only counter via a Heroic Suicide) (Conquest) and intending to fully destroy both Hoshido and Nohr (Chapter 17 Revelation). It's then revealed that the Garon we know is nothing but a corpse that is kept alive and brainwashed by the next guy on this list, so Garon himself subverts the trope.
- The Greater-Scope Villain Anankos also has several moments qualifying as this, and the biggest ones are: corrupting the aforementioned Garon from a troubled but still loving king to a bloodthirsty tyrant that caused at least two wars for him and reviving the murdered Sumeragi and set him up to kill Corrin (which resulted in Sumeragi killing his own widow Mikoto when she realised this and went Taking the Bullet for Corrin) (all paths); corrupting the very troubled Takumi into becoming his thrall and the Final Boss of the game (Conquest), forcibly reviving the aforementioned Mikoto and her sister Arete as his Brainwashed and Crazy slaves alongside Sumeragi (Revelation); manipulating his daughter Lilith for years and siccing her on the heroes (Hidden Truths DLC); and destroying several worlds, then setting up the few survivors from the game's Second Generation into a sort of Deadly Game (Heirs of Fate DLC).
- In Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Berkut is somewhat sympathetic due to his severe Inferiority Superiority Complex, but once he sacrifices Rinea's soul to Duma in order to gain the power to defeat Alm, there's no going back for him.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
- Miklan's gang of thieves crosses it in Dimitri's eyes when they wantonly raid several villages, apparently For the Evulz. To Dimitri, stealing to survive is wrong but understandable, but this goes beyond the pale, especially since the villagers they attacked probably won't be able to survive the winter.
- Solon crosses it when he drives a bunch of innocent villagers murderously berserk using dark magic, motivated purely For Science!. Even the Flame Emperor is disturbed by this, and they're not exactly a saint themselves.
- Edelgard potentially crosses it on the Azure Moon route with ruthless tactics such as lighting a hill on fire to slow down the Faerghus advance even though her classmate Bernadetta is still on it. Dimitri personally thinks the moment she turns herself into Hegemon Edelgard is when she crosses the line.
- Rhea crosses it at the end of the Crimson Flower route when she orders Fhirdiad to be burned to the ground to kill the Black Eagle Strike Force, fully unwilling to let the innocent civilians evacuate and uncaring that they will be caught in the crossfire. And this is after Fhirdiad gave her shelter and their king just died to protect her. The moment is arguably the point at which Catherine and Cyril cross the line by carrying out those orders, as while the former is somewhat reluctant, the latter doesn't even utter a word of protest.
- With the release of Wave 3 DLC came the full details of Jeritza's backstory. From it, many players believed that his father, Baron Bartels, crossed it when he decided to forcefully marry Mercedes, his step-daughter, in order to produce more Crest bearing children. It's a small wonder that many were glad Jeritza offed him before he had the chance to do so.
- With the release of Wave 4 DLC, some players lost all respect for the Church of Seiros and, by extension, Rhea herself due to information found in the Abyss Library, regardless of her reasons. If what one of the books says is true, Rhea is responsible for banning certain inventions, specifically oil, the telescope and the printing press (as opposed to the woodblock printing that is accepted), as well as rendering autopsies taboo, in effect hindering Fodlan's ability to learn, or improve medical science. While there were some debates about whether the books in the library were real or not, Word of God has confirmed that they are in a Nintendo Dream Interview
, though said interview also notes that Seiros/Rhea did not intend to keep such progress from happening at all but rather tried to slow it down, raising the question again as to how "current" the info in the Abyss books is (the anatomy model Manuela has in particular making it seem like autopsies are allowed now).
- Fire Emblem Engage
- Zephia fitting Veyle with a helmet that will permanently suppress Good!Veyle in favor of Evil!Veyle, effectively killing the real Veyle. This, combined with killing her fellow Hound Marni for trying to break the helmet causes Mauvier to decide she's gone too far and join the Divine Dragon's forces. It also results in some players considering her Alas, Poor Villain sendoff to be unearned.
- Griss crosses it by not only going along with Zephia's above actions, but even making a cruel comment about the recently deceased Marni, his fellow Hound. Because of this, Mauvier holds him equally responsible for Zephia's misdeeds.
- Sombron crosses it in his backstory when he destroys an entire village that had sheltered him in anger over being separated from the Emblem of Foundations.
- Evil!Veyle crosses it by leading an army to burn the Firenese port of Florra to the ground.
