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Video Game: Fire Emblem: Awakening

Two sleeping dragons—one a sacred ally of mankind, the other its sworn destroyer. Two heroes marked with the symbols of the dragons. Their meeting heralds the dragons' awakening—and the world's ending.
— Cover logo, Fire Emblem Awakening

The thirteenth Fire Emblem game, the first original title (as in, not a remake) since Radiant Dawn in 2007, and set nearly 2000 years after Marth's adventures. It stars Chrom, yet another blue haired swordsman and the prince of the Halidom of Ylisse who leads a vigilante force known as the Shepherds, and a player-created custom character who acts as both a strategist and part of the group.

The game brings back the world map system of Gaiden and The Sacred Stones, and reintroduces the Skills system in a form similar to Radiant Dawn, allowing you to learn additional Skills simply by levelling up, and even more of them by switching to different classes. It sports a graphical style reminiscent of the Tellius games with a more cartoonish bent, sporting a 2½D map and 3D fights. The character design and portrait art style - the work of Yusuke Kozaki - looks like it belongs in a Seinen anime, which is a fresh departure from the overly-realistic art style from the DS games. A new feature introduced allows units to gang up on or block attacks from enemies when next to an attacking ally, which is also tied to a dramatically expanded Supports system, with shipping features reminiscient of and even exceeding Genealogy of the Holy War.

The game was the first 1st-party Nintendo title to feature paid Downloadable Content, here coming in the form of "episodes" comprising map packs telling side-stories, not unlike BS Fire Emblem: Akaneia War Chronicles.note 

The game was confirmed for both a European and North American localization at E3 2012, a fortunate return to form after the fate that befell its predecessor. It was released in North America on February 4, 2013, and in Europe on April 19, 2013.

This game has examples of:

  • 7th Episode Twist: Chapter 6 (which when you count the prologue is the actual seventh Chapter of the game) reveals that Marth is a woman who somehow knows of the future. Also introduces Validar, the Big Bad from the Premonition Chapter, and has him meet the fell dragon Grima (the obvious Bigger Bad) in human form for the first time. Chapter 7 is when Emm gives Chrom the Fire Emblem to protect as she splits with the rest of the team to lead the war against Plegia.
  • Accidental Pervert: In their B support, Chrom walks in on a female Avatar naked, and she returns the favor in their A support.
    • The Avatar (male or female) also is accused of this in Vaike's C support, (by Sully's horse), after catching Vaike spying on the woman's bath area.
  • Action Girl: As usual in the series, all the female playable characters. Although this time they can be upgraded to Action Moms.
  • Actor Allusion: When Donnel introduces himself, he says his name is "Donny. Er, that is, Donnel."
  • Added Alliterative Appeal: The official localized titles of the boss themes all start with an "M".
  • Adorkable: Characters being adorkable in all of their opposite-sex supports is the standard, not the exception.
  • Aerith and Bob: The named Plegian characters are: Gangrel, Aversa, Tharja, Validar... and Henry.
  • Affectionate Nickname:
    • Gaius has one for everyone, like "Blue" for Chrom, "Sunshine" for Tharja, or "Bubbles" for the Avatar.
    • Frederick is known as "Frederick the Wary", a title he wears with pride.
    • Tiki called Marth "Mar-Mar" during his lifetime. She occasionally uses it towards people who remind her of him throughout the game.
  • After the End: The world shown in the Future Past Xenologues, as well as the time from where Lucina came from.
  • All Deaths Final: According to Tharja.
  • Ambidextrous Sprite: Averted with Chrom, who has two different portraits◊ for when he faces left or right.
    • Some characters avert this by having symmetrical character designs.
    • Oddly enough, Chrom is the only asymmetrical character with two different portraits. Other asymmetrical characters, like Basilio (who has an eyepatch) and Vaike/Brady/Donnel (who have scars), play this trope straight with mirrored portraits. This results in their facial features flip-flopping sides during conversations.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore: Not present in the game itself, but compare the the Japanese Swapnote stationary with the American one.
    • Later subverted, as America and Europe ended up getting the original version too.
  • Anime Hair: Present, but nowhere near the level of what was previously feared by some since most of the hairstyles are at least plausible aside from the colours.
  • Anti Poop Socking:
    • This game seems to be designed to be played in small increments. Usually after a Chapter, a Risen horde or a merchant shows up so you can train characters or buy stuff respectively. But they won't show up more than once in one sitting. So if you want to play for more than an hour, you better be prepared to go through multiple save files. Also, events in the Barracks only show up once every couple of hours, or a whole bunch at once if you leave it off for a day or two. In Hard mode, the Reeking Boxes which summon hordes of zombies are 9x more expensive, making grinding not an option. Nintendo seems REALLY concerned about eye strain.
    • After completing a chapter, Anna will sometimes remind you to take a break.
    • If you play the game very late at night and go to the barracks, all of the characters will comment on how late it is, with most them advising you to go to sleep.
  • Anyone Can Die: A distinct possibility if you have the permadeath option turned on. The only exceptions are Chrom and the Avatar, since you automatically lose if any of them die.
  • Art Shift: The series as a whole seems to have shifted its art style towards more of a Seinen look and feel. With the exception of Nowi and her daughter Nah, everyone has realistic eyes.
  • Artificial Brilliance: Like with the recent games, the enemy knows that players will restart the game, and thus lose, if they lose even one character. They even arrange a trap to catch anyone using a certain laguz-like unit in the Wake Up Call Chapter.
    • Later on, when enemies with Rally skills start showing up, the AI knows how to use them so they affect as many units as possible. And if the enemy has a Dancer (which only occurs in Streetpass teams or Paralogue 22), they know how to use them.
    • The enemy AI in Paralogue 17, a Hold the Line mission that has you protecting a defenceless Tiki, has enemies that employ a very simple, yet brilliant, strategy: They'll always ignore your units and head straight for the NPC you're guarding instead. (Unless they have no choice but to fight you to get to her, of course.) Given that most defence missions like this in earlier games were won by by positioning your troops in the enemy's path and waiting for them to suicidally charge into you, it's a wonder why the series has never tried this behavior before.
  • Artificial Stupidity: Enemies will sometimes attack units who will most surely kill them on a counterattack. While normally, the series' AI will do this to weaken them so another unit can eventually kill them, they'll even do this when none of the enemies nearby that unit could even scratch them. They may also body-block their own units by throwing a ranged weapon at someone behind an easily killable target very early in their turn.
    • For that matter, it doesn't even matter if an enemy literally cannot conceivably do any damage to their target - if they're the only PC in range, they'll almost certainly waste health and effort trying anyway.
    • The enemy AI will also always use the maximum amount of movement required to get in range of your units. Most of the time all you have to do is move a few of your toughest characters into the edge of their range with the rest on standby right behind them, and watch as the enemies all charge forward and leave themselves vulnerable to a counterattack.
      • This is especially obvious if you've put a lot of effort into hitting max level on just a few characters very early (particularly the player character and Lucina/Marth, once she joins the party.) You can put a single over-leveled unit in the middle of the enemy forces and watch your foe rush to their death!
    • The villagers' AI in the third paralogue. When you're being attacked by Risen that can easily kill you and you can't fight back, what do you do? If you answered "Run right towards them", then you surely know the frustrations players had trying to save them.
    • Anna's AI in the second Paralogue is a Double Subversion. She's supposed to be protecting a village from bandits out to destroy it. So naturally, her AI prioritizes the enemies that go for villages. That's good. What's NOT good is that she prioritizes killing bandits over any sense of self-preservation. Even if she'll die in one more hit, she still won't use her healing potion until there are no enemies around.
      • Even worse is that the bandits actually aren't much of a threat to her, since she can easily dodge their attacks. The main problem is that she doesn't bother going after the archers, who have a much higher chance of hitting her without fear of counterattack.
      • Justified since Anna only goes after the axe-wielding bandits — the only unit type that can destroy villages — if they're close enough to do so on their next turn. Once all of the axe bandits within range of the village are dead, she'll use her potions regardless of if there are anymore enemies nearby.
    • Severa in the paralogue you can recruit her in. Even when you get Cordelia to talk to her, Severa will remain AI controlled until she reaches a mission critical NPC. Unfortunately, this means she'll just charge blindly forward into the enemy fortress, ignoring the fact that any one of the enemies inside can kill her in a single attack and turning the whole thing into an Escort Mission.
    • In fact, it can easily be proven that the NPC AI in this game will prioritise sacrificing itself even to only weaken enemies. This is fine in the DLC chapters, where there's no penalty for allies dying, but when it comes to recruitable allies in the main story...
  • Ascended Extra: Anna, the plucky mascot of Fire Emblem who has only made walk-on appearances in every game so far, is finally recruitable.
  • Ascended Meme:
    • Frederick's body is ready!
    • Western fans probably won't know, but the game apparently ascends several of the Japanese fandom's memes, at least in the Japanese version. Most obvious is the option to identify yourself as an "Emblemer" in your Streetpass profile: that's actually a Fan Community Nickname for FE players in Japan. You can find a full list of others here, if you can read Japanese.
    • A good chunk of the fandom tends to call Anna the RNG Goddess or some form of mystical deity. With this game, not only does she have infinite identical sisters, they're all hinted to have divine powers. The alternate boss for the Apotheosis DLC map is a level 30 Merchant class Anna with stats way beyond what her class allows, a forged Brave Lance and Spear, and the skills Aether, Counter, Dragonskin, Rightful God, and Vantage+.
  • The Atoner: Gangrel, in his supports with the Male Avatar, at least.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The third Ultimate Training DLC map features giant Risen.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: The Khans.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • Expect War Clerics to be this. Considering how low Lissa's strength growth is, it's unlikely that this class would be the most practical outside fighting mages. Libra, on the other hand falls under Boring, but Practical.
    • All but 6 of the Spotpass characters. See, Spoties can't Support other units, making them all essentially generic units. The DLC characters fall under this too (they cost actual money of course), but Alm and Eirika at least give us nifty new classes. They do have the ability to freely reclass, however, giving them intense Elite Tweak potential. And any Lord or Villain is a potential Disk One Nuke who makes Radiant Dawn's Black Knight cry... or IS that Black Knight.
  • Ax Crazy: Gangrel. Until he joins you.
  • Background Music Override: Used in Chapter 10, both in the preparation screen and in the actual chapter, to amazing emotional effect.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: The Pair Up system works this way.
  • Badass Family: Due to the second (And even THIRD!) generation, you can get lots of these.
    • Special mention to Chrom's family, which can get HUGE if you marry the right characters. Specially crucial is to marry a male Avatar with Lucina. If you get all the second and third generation characters, you can fill the entire party just with Chrom's family tree and still be awesome!
      • You can also achieve the same effect by having a male Avatar marry Lissa while Chrom marries someone else, though that means you'd only be related to Chrom's children by law rather than blood.
  • Bad Future: Lucina hails from one, where Avatar was killed and possessed by Grima, killed Chrom◊, and Grima as well as the Risen killed everything. Knowing that, her Anti-Hero disposition, and later woobification is justified.
    • The Future Past DLC is an even darker scenario, which is quintessentially saying that all the second generation characters got lucky to escape when they did.
  • Battle Couple: Loads of them. In fact, it's a game mechanic. Playing matchmaker with certain couples results in their marriage, which allows them to kick more ass than usual when they fight together.
  • Belated Happy Ending: A minor example, but the mention of Cain and Abel in Stahl and Sully's supports hints that Abel is remembered as a hero rather than as a betrayer (although this posthumous rehabilitation probably doesn't mean that he lived and died a happy man, if his Mystery of the Emblem and Heroes of Light and Shadow endings are any indication).
  • Birthmark of Destiny: The Mark of Naga/Mark of the Exalt, carried by members of the Ylissean Royal Family as proof of their Heroic Lineage. Emmeryn has one on her forehead, Chrom on his right shoulder, Lucina in her left eye, and Chrom's other child in his/her right eye. We have no clue where Lissa's is.
    • It's eventually revealed that she doesn't have one, which had her concerned that she might be a bastard child. The fact that her son Owain has one is quite a relief for her. His mark is located on his upper arm, hidden by his sleeve.
    • One dark example is Grima's mark on the back of the Avatar's right hand.
  • Bash Brothers: Chrom and a Male Avatar are a textbook example of this trope.
  • Battle Couple: Potentially, your entire army can be composed of these.
  • Battle in the Rain: Chapter 10. It's also one of the most emotional battles in the game.
  • Beef Gate: The Paralogues where you recruit the Kids From The Future are available as early as Chapter 13, provided the parents are married. Most of them, however, contain enemies far beyond what the average party at that point is capable of handling, forcing you to come back later. And given that the higher the parents' stats, the higher their kids' stats will be, this is highly recommended.
  • Bilingual Bonus:
    • Stahl's name is German for "steel".
    • The Deadlords' names are Latin words for the animals of the Chinese zodiac.
  • Bishounen: There are a fair number of male characters who fit this. It's also a definite possibility for a Male Avatar.
  • Black and White Morality: Seemingly, the issue between Ylisse and Plegia on the surface. Ylisse worships the benevolent Divine Dragon Naga, ruled by the kind and just Emmeryn, and minus the Shepards, is mainly peaceful. Plegia, on the other hand, worships the monstrous Fell Dragon Grima, ruled by the cruel Gangrel, and at least a portion of its people are Barbarians who like to Rape, Pillage, and Burn. Even the Token Heroic Orcs, Tharja and Henry, don't even seem to be that heroic. However, Emmeryn's predecessor had oppressed Plegia in the past, so relations between the two countries were naturally sour by the time she took over, and Gangrel's supports reveal that the people of Plegia may not necessarily worship Grima because they choose to do so.
  • Bleached Underpants: Celica from Fire Emblem Gaiden makes an appearance as a DLC character, and her new design is drawn by Masatsugu Saito...a Hentai doujinshi artist. The artist's past definitely shows through, as can be seen here◊.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Chrom's romance choices, Sumia (Brunette), Sully (Redhead), Maribelle (blonde), plus a Rose-Haired Girl.
  • Book Ends: The opening scene takes place with Chrom and Lissa finding the Avatar passed out in a field. In one of the possible endings, the Avatar's fate is left somewhat ambiguous and ends with this same scene as the The Stinger, with only one extremely heartwarming change.
  • Bowdlerisation: One of Tharja's conversations (Nowi asking her about her "boingy bits") in the "Harvest Scramble" DLC was altered in the Eurpoean version (but not the American version). Then in "Summer Scramble", Tharja's swimsuit Fanservice was censored◊ in the American version (though some think this actually made it look more risque than before...) but was surprisingly left alone for the European version.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
    • In the C support conversation between Lissa and Avatar in which the Avatar is woken from his/her nap, he/she exclaims "Risen...wolves...risen riding wolves!!", much to Lissa's amusement.
    • In the C support between Olivia and Henry, Olivia refers to Henry as "that creepy kid who's obsessed with blood, magic, and...blood magic!"
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In Miriel's A support with Frederick, she says, "I've collected flowers, fished in the river, and been chased by bees."
  • Breather Level: Word Of God says the 'Other-World Resort' episodes of the second batch of DLC were designed to be this, focusing more on character relationships and dialogue than on combat. Contrast the Ultimate Training missions.
  • Bribing Your Way to Victory:
    • The "Golden Pack" DLC contains three levels blatantly designed for easy grinding. They also contain hilariously flimsy Excuse Plots, so even if you're not interested in farming lots of cash/EXP/gear you can still play them once to watch Chrom play the Only Sane Man.
      • Cordelia will even call you out on it during EXPonential Growth.
    • The Limit Breaker manual, which boosts all of a character's maximum stats by 10. Sounds totally broken, exclusive to the last DLC chapter... Then the second batch of DLC was revealed, and let's just say you're going to NEED it.
    • Honestly, Spotpass and the DLC in general is this, since they all give you strong weapons and new units for free...as long as you have internet and a credit card.
      • Spotpass isn't so bad, thanks to being free. Doesn't make it any less useful, though.
  • Brick Joke: When Tiki wakes up and sees Lucina, she mistakes her for her "Mar-mar".
  • Bucket Helmet: The Villager class is badly equipped, and wears these.
    • Donnel wears his all the time — even when he's ranked all the way up to a Hero or Warrior and swinging around weapons old enough to have songs written about them, he'll still have that old tin pot on his head. Kinda justified, as he uses it to hide his very curly hair.
  • Busman's Holiday: The Festival Episode, Beach Episode, and Hot Springs Episode DLCs. Generally any trip to the Outrealms throws Chrom and co. into the middle of a battle.
  • But Thou Must: An interesting variation. In Chapter 9, you're given the choice of whether to give up the Fire Emblem to save Emmeryn, or to listen to her warnings and refuse the offer. Which option you choose makes no difference, not because you're forced into one option, but because Emmeryn Takes A Third Option and makes the choice for you.
    • There are several choices throughout the game, none of which actually matter due to the actions of another character. Only the very final choice makes a difference.
  • Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Appears throughout the intro.
  • Bystander Syndrome: If Chrom strikes the final blow on Grima, he is merely put to sleep for another thousand years, meaning that it'll be up to future heroes to defeat him again.
  • The Caligula: Gangrel. Until he joins you.
  • Call Back: There are tons in the Einherjar's conversations in the DLC chapters. To name a few:
    • Caeda assuming Kellam is only helping brigands because his mother is sick.
    • The previous Avatar of Heroes of Light and Shadow is alluded to a few times.
    • Outside of the Einherjar, Stahl and Sully bring up Cain and Abel in one of their support conversations.
  • Came Back Wrong: Of the Damaged Soul Variety in the case of Emmeryn, who is resurrected in a late/post game spotpass-sidequest... tragically, with amnesia so bad she can't even talk right. Her condition is stated to never improve, but she ends up living a simple, happy life.
  • The Cameo: A LOT of characters from past Fire Emblem games will appear in the extra content. Using Spotpass, many characters from previous games can be fought in Skirmishes and may be recruited upon defeat. Most of the main Lords from previous games can also be won as prizes for completing certain downloadable chapters.
  • Canon Welding: Even WITHOUT the dimension warping aspect of this game, there's overwhelming evidence in this game that every other Fire Emblem game were indeed in the same universe.
    • Avatar's child is a tactician named Morgan, who shares the same outfit and Japanese name as the player avatar Mark from Blazing Sword, and the game already has dimension hopping. The best ranking in the Japanese version of Blazing Sword also gives Mark the same "Grandmaster" title as a promoted Avatar.
    • Valm is the future form of Gaiden's Valentia, as Ylisse is to Archanea. Chapter 16 takes place at the "Mila Tree", and the setting of chapter 18, the Demon's Ingle, is where Duma was defeated (it's named "Doma's Remains" in the Japanese version).
    • The Holy Weapons from the Jugdral games make an appearance (and anyone with the appropriate weapon rank can use them now), as do the twelve Deadlords, some of whom are in possession of said Holy Weapons.
    • Donny and Olivia's supports in the Japanese version reference Naesala and Leanne!
    • And Stahl and Sully's supports reference Cain and Abel, and Sully even lampshades the fact that she and Stahl are part of the archetype.
    • The conversation with Lyn after her DLC chapter makes her speculate that Avatar is the Tactician of Blazing Sword.
    • The last Bonus Unit, Priam, claims to be a descendant of Ike. Yes, THAT Ike.
  • Cast of Snowflakes: As per Fire Emblem tradition, each playable character has a unique design and personality.
    • Subverted for enemies and some Paralogue bosses that reuse generic portraits.
  • Cel Shading: Uses this in the CGI scenes to give a look much like that of hand-drawn anime.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Not in the main story, but in the "Golden Pack" DLC episodes. The first two are hilarious Excuse Plots that don't even try to hide their status as Bribing Your Way to Victory. The third, "Infinite Regalia", is not only considerably more difficult, gameplay-wise, but contains a lot of Fridge Horror as it hints at who the Deadlords really are.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: None of the other Manakete tribes of Akaneia make an appearance in Awakening for unexplained reasons. Also Xane and Gotoh, though the latter may have died of old age.
  • Climax Boss: Gangrel is the early game climax boss, and he is also a Disc One Final Boss. He stands out from his peers in that: A. He's of the Trickster class, rather than the General class. B. He uses a magic-casting sword which goes off his Magic stat, rather than his Strength stat. C. The battle is fought on a plain, rather than in or near a castle/fortress that tends to be the usual spot for a climactic early game battle. D. He moves towards you along with his troops, rather than sitting on a throne or gate and waiting for you to battle your way through to him.
  • Color-Coded Elements: A staple in Fire Emblem. As usual:
  • Colossus Climb: The endgame chapter is like this, with all of your units fighting on Grima's back to take it down.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: From Serenes Forest's page on forging: "There is an overall limit of 8 intervals that can be raised per weapon. For example, you can raise Might by 5 intervals and Critical by 3 intervals, but no more than that. [...] Enemies on higher difficulties can have weapons that exceed the 8 interval limit." That should tell you enough. And then there's the enemy-exclusive Skills for Lunatic Mode, which include one that always makes them hit, regardless of stats and a Luna that ALWAYS activates.
  • Contemptible Cover: The cover of the Japanese manual shows nothing but a picture of Aversa.
  • Continuity Cavalcade: Just see Canon Welding above. And that's the least of it. The game is absolutely filled with Mythology Gags to earlier games in the series, some of them extremely subtle.
  • Convection Schmonvection: Averted in a DLC scenario, which has you rescuing a bunch of NPC merchants from a lava cave, while they're taking damage (presumably from the heat) every turn.
    • Played straight, however, in Chapter 18 of the main story. The showdown with Yen'Fay takes place inside an active volcano with magma on all sides. If a unit falls into the liquid molten lava, they're hit with a whopping... 10 damage.
  • Cult: The entire nation of Plegia is a theocracy dedicated to the worship of the Fell Dragon Grima.
    • Religion of Evil
      • However, Gangrel tells Male Avatar that while said Religion of Evil is a state religion, people do not necessarily worship Grima out of choice...
  • Class Change Level Reset: In addition to traditional promotion, the Second Seal allows switching to a new basic class at level one.
  • Critical Hit: A staple of the Fire Emblem series, this time each one paired with a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner and a Super Move Portrait Attack.
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: The developers themselves, when designing the "Entombed Heaven" DLC chapter. Its very existence shows they know full well that players love to exploit Entombed for easy EXP, but made sure if you just blindly rush in and started beating them up, you'll be met with a nasty surprise... Level 30 Entombed with Counter. Given that Entombed have massive HP, but abysmal Defense, that's an awful lot of damage coming right back at you...
    • Even worse is that occasionally these level 30 Entombed will have Miracle equipped, which seems to have a high activation rate. If that Entombed had more health than your attacking unit, well... we hope you weren't too fond of that unit.
    • The Entombed encountered in the Harvest Scramble DLC map. Every single one of them has their Luck boosted to 50 and have the Miracle skill. The map may not be hard, but they weren't gonna make it that easy to blow through.
  • Dark Is Evil / Light is Good: Naga, Tiki, and Nowi VS Grima.
  • The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Every possible pairing has a totally unique set of supports justifying it, and every pair of children who could potentially end up as siblings have unique supports if they do.
    • The only aversions are conversations between children and fathers (which all seem to be the same), since the children are tied to their mothers, with the exception of Morgan and Lucina, who are specifically tied to the Avatar and Chrom respectively. Lucina's sibling and mother supports are also the one exception to the above, as her support with her sibling is the same across all possible siblings/mothers (which makes sense, given that she has five candidates each for such).
      • Even then, this is not completely averted, at least in the Western version: While the events are the same between children and fathers, the fathers' speeches alter depending on who the father is (so, for example, Vaike will still speak in third person occasionally no matter who his child is). Similar modification occurs with Lucina and her mother supports, and with Female Morgan and her mother supports.
    • Things get particularly crazy with Morgan, the Avatar's child, as each of the other children could potentially be their sibling, spouse, or parent, and naturally each possibility has to have different supports.
    • The devs even alter a certain character's appearance based on the story events, despite the visual effect being so minor: Chrom's Great Lord in-battle model normally wields the Fire Emblem as his shield. When the Fire Emblem is stolen, the model also loses the shield until the Emblem is retrieved. A similar effect occurs if you somehow manage to promote him before he obtains the Fire Emblem.
    • Due to plot reasons, Chrom must be married to a female character by the end of chapter 11. However, if the player doesn't manage to get an S support level between Chrom or a female character, the game will default to the female character with the highest support level with him. If none of the female characters have any support points with him, Chrom then marries a generic village girl.
    • The Hubba Tester actually has quite a variety of responses. The two characters being both single, married, parent and child, siblings or one married and the other not all produce different sets of potential messages.
    • The Spotpass version of Marth can use the Falchion, despite it being restricted to Chrom and Lucina, since it was originally his weapon.
  • Difficulty Spike: Chapter 12. It's not the first time you faced promoted enemies... however, it is the first time you faced promoted enemies mixed in with squads of four or five enemies who move as one, mixed with large amounts of cavalry and infantry. (Whereas before, a huge number of your enemies were on foot.) Oh, even despite the game giving you a unit equipped with anti-infantry weaponry, you better keep her out of range of the bow knights. In addition, you also get confronted with bottlenecks, forcing you to either let them come to you or hope your units are strong enough to survive the onslaught of the squad on the other side of the map. The fact that Master Seals become available in the shop pretty much shows that if you haven't already promoted some of your units, you should do so soon. (And it's not like you'll be short on money if you've been fighting the optional maps that give bullions like candy.)
    • The next chapter is even worse, as you're surrounded right from the start, with ranged troops hammering you from cliffs on either side. It also features more reinforcements than ever before, including one particularly nasty group of promoted reinforcements that spawn all at once and will gladly pile in on anyone weak in range. And the chapter after is the first one to feature reinforcements you're not warned of in advance. It's safe to say all bets are off in the Valm arc, which delights in handing you Asshole Reinforcements in nearly every single chapter.
      • Chapter 17 officially marks the point that NOTHING you face is unpromoted anymore, save for a select few Paralogues.
    • Some of the side missions can be this as well, forcing you to farm random Risen groups to complete several story missions before your characters are remotely strong enough.
      • Or the Exponential Growth DLC. Or the Spot Pass Teams.
    • The transition from hard mode to lunatic mode. And how!
  • Disney Death: No major character who has a plotline death actually stays dead, with characters such as Emmeryn, Gangrel, and Walhart all being revealed to have survived their apparent deaths. Validar technically gets revived twice. Fully averted for most your entire army if played on Classic mode as some of them for story purposes "retreat" never to be seen outside of cutscenes.
  • Dysfunction Junction: Most of the present characters are merely quirky, but practically all of the future children characters are either a little insane or have some other sort of personal complex as a result of having to survive day by day on their own in the hellish world of the future.
  • Double Entendre: One of Sully's Battle quotes
    Sully: Quick and dirty... Huh! I like it!
  • Double Meaning Title: Chapter 13: "Of Sacred Blood". Validar provides the Title Drop, referring to the Avatar as his child and thus "destined" to become the new vessel of Grima. But said chapter also features The Reveal of Chrom's Kid from the Future Lucina who, having the Mark of the Exalt, is also "of sacred blood". The exact opposite variety, in fact.
  • Downer Beginning/Spoiler Opening: The game begins with the player character getting possesed by Grima, and murdering Chrom after seemingly defeating Validar. It turns out to be a premonition of things to come (at Chapter 23).
  • Downloadable Content: Marth (The classic one, not the masked one) is officially announced as Nintendo's first DLC. Roy, Leif, Alm, Celica, Micaiah, Elincia, Ephraim, Eirika, and Seliph have also been announced. There are also numerous more story or character based DLC.
  • Dub Name Change/Spell My Name with an S: Pretty much everyone had their name changed or altered in some way.
    • Some characters had their names changed in the Non-English European versions as well, for some reason. See the character pages for details.
  • Eleventh Hour Superpower: The Exalted Falchion, obtained one chapter before the final battle.
  • Elite Tweak: With the return of the Inheritance system and the new Modifiers system (where each character possess unique additions to their Caps across all classes) and the changes to the Reclass system, as well as how the Skills play out, the ways to maximize a character's potential now goes far beyond just leveling up — it's mind-boggling to the eleventh degree.
  • Encounter Bait: The Reeking Box item causes a company of Risen to show up on the map.
  • Enforced Method Acting: In-Universe example. The Avatar and Basilio fool everyone into thinking the latter was killed at the hands of Walhart, and the green gem on the Fire Emblem is replaced with a fake, meaning that Grima cannot actually possess the avatar. In order to put up a show for Validar, the avatar still "kills" Chrom, so that his and Lucina's reactions will be legit.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Gangrel may be a murdering psychopath, but at least he doesn't worship Grima like the majority of his people.
    • Pheros and even Walhart himself don't like Excellus's manipulative tactics which involve turning the enemies against each other. Moreover, Walhart wants to conquer the land. Not destroy it with Grima's revival.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: Invoked in universe, with the skills system. If it occurs that a male character gets the "Demoiselle" skill from his mother... And what's more, with the exception of one character who can't have any children, all of the potential troubadours will have sons.
  • Everybody's Dead, Dave: In the Bad Future Lucina hails from, only the second generation characters survived. (DLC spoiler) Only them. Grima's dialogue in the second "flash-forward" cutscene and The Future Past DLC in general suggest that the entire rest of humankind is dead and/or Risen by the time Lucina and crew go back. And even they only escape by the skin of their teeth.
  • Everyone Is Bi: Played for Laughs with the Hubba Tester, which might as well be called "Wheel of Shipping".
  • Everything's Better with Samurai: The Swordmaster class has a strong samurai-esque feel this time around.
  • Evil All Along: Validar. Well, not really, due to being Obviously Evil, and because he tried to kill Emmeryn, but he comes off as reasonably "good" to Chrom after the Time Skip, though they do stay suspicious.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Validar, the leader of the Fell Dragon-worshiping Grimleal.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: DLC Eirika's Class, "Bride"... guess what that looks like?
  • Excalibur in the Rust: One of the top-tier legacy weapons is an aged and worn-out looking Ragnell. Its owner is Ike's descendant, explaining why it has aged.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: The mission to rescue Emmeryn.
  • Fake Difficulty: Lunatic+ in a nutshell. Right from the start, Mooks are given unique, stupidly overpowered skills. The problem is that these skills are distributed randomly. This renders a lot of the difficulty a case of Luck-Based Mission. To illustrate:
    • If the random Mook with the Hammer in Chapter 1 gets both Hawkeye and Luna+, Frederick is guaranteed to die against him unless you get a lucky Dual Guard, as shown here. And since he's your Crutch Character, if he can't survive something, no-one can.
    • This video shows that early chapters can become flat-out Unwinnable before they even begin if too many enemies are given the combination of Hawkeye and Luna+.
  • Fanservice: The "Scramble" DLC chapters, in which the second episode features Beach Episode and characters in swimsuits while third episode has Hot Springs Episode and Kimono Fan Service.
  • Fan Disservice: Some Risen, in particular the flying classes. (Hearing that low growl coming from Pegasus Knights in particular...)
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Played with. At a glance, the world map appears similar to a Real World map (if not the whole world, then at least North America, Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle East.)◊ But Ylisse, which is notably European, is where The Middle East / East Asia would be. Plegia is similarly Western but is located where Africa would be, though its dark mages seem to at least draw some Egyptian inspiration. Ferox is home to the only brown skinned characters and is located where Europe should be. Valm is home to the most swordsmasters (who look more like Samurai in this game than any other in the series) and its most powerful sword is based on Japanese regalia, but the land itself is shaped like the Americas.
  • Filler: The chunk of the game with Walhart as the antagonist has absolutely no impact on the overall story, outside of supplying Chrom with a few McGuffin gems he could've acquired otherwise. Combined with the fact that he's a generic evil emperor with generic motives, it makes his section probably the weakest part of the game, story-wise. It's still fun to play, though.
    • However, Aversa does mention later on that Walhart had intended to stop the Grimleal from resurrecting Grima, and that had he not been stopped by the main characters they would've not been able to resurrect Grima.
  • First Episode Spoiler: Within the first five minutes, the Avatar beats The Dragon, get possessed by the Big Bad, and kills Chrom. And laugh maniacally about it. In fact, the opening "premonition" chapter was actually removed from the demo, presumably to avoid giving this away. Not that that stopped a bunch of official footage already revealing it... or people who had already seen it.
  • Flanderization: Although the localization is considered good for the most part, there were some changes in some of the characters that had this effect:
    • Unlike most other characters, who were either toned down or kept mostly the same, Henry's... creepier habits were played up considerably in the English version, and some of the more sympathetic elements of his backstory were downplayed or removed. Rather than having his Dark and Troubled Past traumatize him into what he is today, he now says he actually enjoyed it, for one, and he gained an obsession with blood that didn't show up nearly as often in the Japanese version.
    • Some fans accuse the localizers of doing this to Tharja, regarding her obsession with Avatar, claiming that her attitude got played up and that the heartwarming moments were mostly removed.
    • Sumia made Chrom a Bento once in the Japanese version of their B support, and cooking was only brought up once again in their A, and not at all in their S. The English version made her supports with Chrom (including S) entirely focused around her baking him pies, which caused unfortunate implications for some.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Early in the game, Frederick believes the Avatar could be a Plegian spy. Later on, it's revealed the Avatar is indeed Plegian and an important part of the Grimleal's plan.
    • Lon'qu loses to "Marth", much to everyone's surprise. Turns out "Marth" is a woman, something Lon'qu fears.
    • During their Fearful Symmetry cutscene fight, "Marth" states he learned his skills, which are identical to Chrom's, from his father.
    • The "Premonition" chapter as soon as you start a new game: Chrom and the Avatar kill Validar, but then the Avatar gets possessed and kills Chrom.
    • Right after Premoniton, you get the only shot of the Avatar barehanded as Chrom helps him/her up. It has a mark similar to yet entirely distinct from the mark on Chrom's shoulder. As you might have guessed, it's an opposing mark from the mark of Naga; the avatar is of Grima's bloodline.
    • Owain says "By the ghost of Ike!" in the chapter he's recruited in. It makes sense because Ike's long dead and you meet his descendant, Priam.
  • Fourth Date Marriage: Played straight. The game's support system has marriageable characters tie the knot in their fourth and final unlockable conversation.
    • It's very common for supports to take a sudden swerve from platonic friendship or camaraderie to romance going from A-Support to S. This is because unlike previous games, every character can reach A support with all of their options, so including romance in earlier supports would be problematic if one of the parties is already married.
    • Chrom/Olivia and Chrom/Generic Village Maiden in particular stand out among the others, and both are Lampshaded by the game.
  • Full-Contact Magic: The Avatar character's Ignis ability is a variation of this and Spellblade in that they add half of their magical strength to a physical attack or vice versa.
  • Funetik Aksent: The 'alternotte' Anna in the EXPonential Growth DLC. Parodied, as it turns out she's faking it, and she herself points out how ridiculous it is.
  • Funny Foreigner: Gregor is this in spades. He has a Russian accent in the English versions.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration: Very late in the game, when the Fire Emblem is stolen, it vanishes from Chrom's model, since he was using it as his shield.
    • If you promoted Chrom too early, the Fire Emblem isn't present on his arm.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: The class-changing feature using Second Seals is not part of the plot or support conversations, so characters like Kjelle or Kellam will always be in heavily armored sprites and talk about their armor and such even when, say, class-changed into Assassins. But even though Donnel will still be holding a pike despite a class change, he'll always have that pot on his head.
  • Giant Flyer: The fell dragon Grima. It's so huge that the final chapter takes place on its back.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: Quite a few.
    Nah: (speaking to her father) I don't know what you see in her. Unless... you rushed into marriage for some reason? Like you got her-

    Maribelle (to Lon'qu): I could bring you to an establishment where a pack of lovely ladies wait on you?
    Lon'qu: ...Wait. How would you know about such a place?
    Maribelle: Rude! A woman must have her secrets.

    Inigo: I snuck in some practice, if you know what I mean...What? No, FIGHTING practice.
  • Glass Cannon: Invoked with the Glass weapons (Bow, Sword, Lance, and Axe). They have the same damage and accuracy as Silver Weapons, but only 3 uses before breaking. There is also a tome variant called Dying Blaze.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Risen, as well as transformed Panne and Yarne. Or perhaps...
  • Glowing Eyelights of Undeath
  • Gory Discretion Shot:
    • In the cutscene featuring Emmeryn's Heroic Sacrifice, we are never shown the body during her fall down the cliff and impact on the ground, only the other characters' reactions to it.
    • One cutscene showing the bad future has a few moments where people are killed by the Risen barely off screen.
    • Also, when Lucina impaled a Risen, it was not completely displayed.
    • The skill "Lethality" instantly kills an enemy. As the hit connects, the entire scene goes red, except for the black silhouetted characters and a spurt of Black Blood.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: A common Ylissean trait, but special mention goes to the Avatar's "Gods bless it!" while berating Lissa. Also averted on occasion; "damn" and "hell" are clearly spoken at several points, and Brady says "piss" and "ass" repeatedly in supports.
    • Also, characters use the term "dastard" (as in "dastardly") as though it is completely interchangeable with "bastard". Granted, nowadays it is; however, "bastard" actually gets the slip a few times, namely in Sully and Chrom's S Support conversation.
  • Guide Dang It: Chrom's wife. While the game does in fact tell you Chrom's four options (Five if the avatar is female, as the avatar can romance anybody), it does not tell you that you will commit to his marriage roughly 42% of the way through the game. It also does not tell you that there is a priority, beyond dropping a few hints in-story about who is first on the priority.* That's the one thing that might trip up players, and did in fact trip up a few uninformed players.
    • While the game does tell you that Chrom can in fact marry Olivia, getting this to happen is the Guide Dang It.* In fact, there is an option that happens if all of Chrom's candidates are married off, or he has no support points with either, but getting this is the true Guide Dang It.
  • Harder Than Hard: Think beating the game on Lunatic makes you a master? Think again; accomplishing this feat unlocks Lunatic+.
  • Here We Go Again:
    • Gaius and Panne's supports start off with Gaius climbing a cliff to gather honey and requiring Panne's help to get back down. When Panne mentions the impossibly sweet berries at the top of the cliff, Gaius starts climbing again, and gets stuck... Again.
    • Chrom says this during the Champions of Yore DLC when Old Hubba starts acting up again.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: One of the possible outcomes from the final battle has the player doing this.
  • The Hero's Birthday: Each character has a unique birthday. If you visit the barracks on their birthday, they'll get experience, a random item, and a random skill surge. However, if it's the Avatar's birthday, all the characters will wish him or her a happy birthday.
  • He's Dead, Jim: In the ending, where Chrom is reunited with the Avatar, you can see that Grima's Seal on his hand is missing, confirming Grima's death.
  • He Had a Name: Inverted. During the Tear Jerker Battle in the Rain - after Chrom's sister, Emmeryn, kills herself to save both the enemy kingdom and her own - the enemy general vows to protect your party in Emmeryn's name if they surrender. Across the battlefield, Chrom screams "Don't speak her name!", as the song of the same name begins to play. Once the battle begins, the background music is literally nameless, appearing as "....." in the sound test.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners/Platonic Life Partners: All playable characters when they reach an A rank support. However, there are some stand out examples:
    • Chrom and the Avatar, both male (Heterosexual) and female (Platonic). They will end up with this relationship in the main storyline regardless of their support levels.
    • Chrom and Frederick.
    • Chrom and Sully.
    • Lissa and Maribelle.
    • Sumia and Cordelia.
    • Most Second Generation Characters, due of them being Childhood Friends.
  • Historical Hero Upgrade: In-universe, several thousands years really glossed over some details of other Fire Emblem games. Very visible in Donny and Olivia's support, in which they sing a ballad of Naesala and Leanne. The Serenes Massacre is still there, but there's no trace of Naesala's more questionable actions and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder or his reason of such actions and instead goes for a more fairytale-like story of prince meets a princess along with their happily ever after.
  • Hopeless War: In the future world, the few surviving humans banded together and settled in the one place that they still have left, but everyone knows that it's only a matter of time before the Risen overwhelms their defenses and wipe out all of humanity.
  • Hot Dad/Hot Mom: Parents apparently don't age a day, meaning potentially all couples will continue to be gorgeous even after having children. The 'children' come from the future.
  • Hotter and Sexier:
  • HP To One:
    • One of the Ultimate Training DLC missions features a floor of Spikes of Doom that inflict this on every unit on the map! At the start of every turn! And Final Death may still apply here.
    • Briefly in the final chapter, but it doesn't come into play because Naga heals your units before it matters.
  • Hybrid Power: Players have the ability to pair units in marriage, and allows their offspring to inherit their last equipped skill (one from the father and one from their mother) as well as letting their base stats be influenced by the stats of the respective parents at the time the player encounters each kid on the game.
  • I Call It Vera: You can forge weapons and give them names if you wish. Owain also loves to name his weapons.
  • I Have Your Older Sister: Eventually, Gangrel captures Emmeryn and forces Chrom to give him the Shield of Seals for her safety. But, she kills herself via falling off a cliff to prevent this.
  • Impossibly Cool Clothes: Whereas the entire franchise so far has generally maintained a (relatively) realistic and practical bent in its character design, this game leans much more in the direction of this trope. The best examples by far are the knight characters.
  • Improbable Age / A Child Shall Lead Them: Emmeryn is, as noted below in Suspiciously Vague Age, around 24 or 25. and got the position of Exalt after her father died, when she wasn't even ten years old yet.
  • Improbable Use of a Weapon: Thieves, Assassins, and Tricksters wield their broad swords Reverse Grip style. Impractical, yes. But it is pretty cool.
  • Impoverished Patrician: Ricken and his family. The reason is never explained, but he says that his house is the laughing stock of the Ylissean aristocracy.
  • Inexplicably Identical Individuals: The Annas. It should be noted that some translations, such as the French localization, refer to them as sisters, which explains things somewhat.
  • Intercontinuity Crossover: 120 Characters from all past Fire Emblems return here, through a dimensional portal that exists in the land. The player can face them, hire them to join his army, or buy items from them. And this is mostly unrelated to the game's main story. However, aside from their portraits, they just use generic classes and models colored like their original designs. Only a few characters, who are paid DLC content, actually get their own models and personal classes. The story of the paid DLC does involve many past characters though, including the ones that use generic models.
  • Interface Spoiler: Both Gangrel and Aversa appear on the map for the first turn of Chapter 9. An astute player will notice Aversa's stats are much higher than his...
    • Every character's support library shows shadowed map sprites of the support partners you haven't recruited yet. Since the Avatar can support with everyone, scrolling to the bottom of his list can spoil some of the Secret Characters if you look hard enough. Since Walhart has a unique class, it's pretty obvious one of them is him. Gangrel's sprite shows his trademark crown, and Yen'fay and Emmeryn are similarly recognizable.
      • Interestingly, this trope (in the form of blank spaces in the support library and a name in the Japanese voice credits) was the only indication the final Spotpass character, Priam, even existed before his reveal!
  • In-Universe Game Clock: The barracks go by one. The other characters make different comments depending on the time of day.
  • Irony:
    • Emmeryn and Gangrel's profiles reveal that Emmeryn is the most resilient in the army while Gangrel is afraid of heights. This is darkly funny when you remember that Gangrel had trapped Emmeryn on a cliff, and Emmeryn made a Heroic Sacrifice.
    • Yen'fay's profile reveals that he can resist intense heat better than anyone in the army. It's ironic because his other self died in a volcano, even if it was from combat rather than the heat.
    • A particularly painful example is Chrom's frustrated declaration to Emmeryn before the events of Chapter 9: "Walking to your own death will not bring peace to anyone!" That is exactly how she dies, and that is exactly the result of her actions. It's a bitter consolation.
  • It Makes Sense in Context: Nah: Mmm... Your love is delicious... Hee hee!
  • Joke Item: Each part of the weapon triangle has a joke weapon. Soup ladles are axes, logs are lances, and tree branches are swords.
    • There's also a slack bow, a kneader (healing staff), and a miniature lance (javelin).
      • Lethal Joke Item: The miniature lance. It has a crit rate of 35, beaten only by the Sol Katti and dark magic Ruin. And this is unmodified. Give it to someone with high strength to make up for its measly 1 attack, and you've got a powerful weapon on your hands.
      • The other weapons are surprisingly effective in the hands of powerful units as well, or at the very least useful to save your stronger weapons for later.
  • Kid from the Future: The entire second (and, if applicable, third) generation.
  • Kissing Cousins: The Support conversations between Lucina and Owain, who are first cousins, were changed in the English translation to remove any hints of incest. They still can S support, but they're referred to as 'companions', not husband and wife.
    • It's still possible for Morgan to marry her uncle/his aunt. Pair Chrom with Maribelle or Olivia. If you then pair Avatar with Lucina, Morgan can still marry Brady or Inigo. If you have Avatar paired with Brady or Inigo, Morgan can still marry Lucina.
  • Lady of War: Lucina.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Avatar in-universe. This is completely intended.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    • In an early tutorial, the Avatar mentions that they "see things", such as information on enemies and their weapons, and can reveal more info if they focus. This leads in to a tutorial on how to check enemy stats using the bottom screen. A second one occurs later, at least in the demo version, with masked Marth saying "what you just saw was but a prelude", subtly alluding to the fact you're playing a demo which is about to end.
    • At the end of the Champions of Yore 3 DLC, Old Hubba tells Chrom of the other things he can expect in the Outrealms, which are to the players the content of future DLC.
    Old Hubba: I foresee gold! Experience! Legendary weapons and heroes! But that's not all!
    Chrom: *sigh* Why do I feel as if I'm being sold something at market?
    • Anna in Hot Spring Scramble will allude to Lucina's popularity with the fanbase.
  • Leitmotif: Id, the Avatar's theme, which is remixed into several different songs over the course of the game - there's the base version, "Serenity", that you hear at the beginning of the game, the "Sorrow" version, which plays at certain points like Lucina trying and failing to find the resolve to kill Avatar, if Avatar is her mother or her husband, "Dilemma", heard when the identity of the mysterious hierophant is revealed, "Darkness", which is a further riff on Dilemma and is used when the Avatar's true heritage comes to light, and then "Return" and "Purpose", which are the set-up and stage theme for the final chapter, respectively. The last one even mixes the main Fire Emblem theme into it! The Future Past DLC includes another remix of the Avatar's theme: "Hope", which plays when you enter battle with the Morgans, and with FoD!Grima.
  • Like Brother and Sister/Not Blood Siblings: Thanks to Aversa being More Than Mind Controlled, she believed she was Validar's daughter, like Avatar, and if Avatar is male, both of these tropes are fired off... this being Fire Emblem, however, one may guess the result.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: A staple in all Fire Emblem games. Although the cast of this game has received a particular high praise both by critics and gamers. Most people agree that the characters MAKE Awakening, both the story and the gameplay.
  • Locked Out of the Fight: Chapter 23 where Chrom and the Avatar face Validar while your other units face the Mooks. At least until Chrom and Avatar defeat Validar for the first time, upon which the barrier shatters, and allows them to join the others, as well as allowing Validar to be defeated for a second time by anyone else.
  • Lost in Translation: Kind of a weird example. The localisation is truly excellent (and, given the quality of past instalments, that says a lot) and - in a first for the series - the UK version actually has British English spellings and edits some of the dialogue (as some things just aren't shared between the two). So far, so good. However, some of these dialogue edits mesh with how the American voice actors read the lines. For example, Brady's British English text could very well be read in a Cockney accent but, since an American accent is the one you'll hear, any attempt to localise said accent ultimately gets lost. Surprisingly, though, nobody seems to mind.
  • Lovecraft Lite: Grima and the Grimleal wouldn't look out of place in a Lovecraftian horror story, given Grima's unknown motives and the Grimleal's fanatical worship of him. But you are able to kill Grima for good. That said, given the way that Grima has to be killed in order for him to stay dead (which was only made possible through a loophole created by the Time Travel shenanigans that Lucina and Grima engage in), and the way that Time Travel works in the Fire Emblem universe, it does go from Lovecraft Lite into a borderline Cosmic Horror Story at some points.
  • Luck-Based Mission: Success in the paralogue where you can recruit Anna is solely dependent on how well she can dodge incoming attacks. If the RNG really hates you, it's possible she can die as early as the second or third turn.
  • Luminescent Blush: Applied to the characters' dialogue portraits mostly during their S-rank supports.
  • Magic Knight:
    • The second protagonist's main class: the "Tactician". It functions the same as Jugdral's Mage Fighter, wielding both magic and swords.
    • NUNSWITHAXES
      • Which later proved to also be MONKSWITHAXES.
    • Tricksters and Falcon Knights also qualify, since they use staves as well as weapons. So do Dark Knights and Dark Fliers, which are closer to the traditional Magic Knight class from Fire Emblem 4 and 5.
    • DLC Class "Dread Fighter": Swords, Axes, Tomes.
      • As well as its followup, the "Bride" class: Bows, Staves, and Lances.
  • Magikarp Power: Donnel. At first, he may seem weak, but his skill Aptitude increases the odds of each of his stats by leveling by 20% — For example, the chance of his HP increasing when leveling up increases from 85% to 105% with Aptitude equipped — meaning that now not only is there is a 100% chance his HP will go up by 1, but there is also a 5% chance that it will go up again! This can make him turn him into a powerhouse — if you take the time to train him. And by marrying him with a character who can have children, he can produce a child who can become extremely strong. This page has more details.
    • Donnel actually teeters back and forth on this one a little. While it's true that Donnel's growths are boosted to pretty ridiculous levels, which gets him very strong early on if you get him past the villager class (the "Magikarp" stage), his actual stat caps, as well as the abilities he has available to him (and can pass to his children), are fairly lackluster compared to most characters. That leaves him a little underwhelming later in the game once the others catch up.
      • Donnel's job inheritance depends on who he pairs up with, because two of his jobs are male only. If he has a daughter the jobs she receives as replacements can learn some of the best abilities. The only down side is that she can't naturally learn the Aptitude skill and must have Donnel pass it down to her directly.
      • Though like with everyone else in the game, the better his stats, the smarter it is to Junction him to anyone you want to grind and/or survive against a group of enemies.
  • Mama Bear/Papa Wolf: Every first generation character has the potential to become this when they marry and have children.
  • May-December Romance: The Avatar can marry Flavia, Basilio, or Aversa depending on their gender - all of which are potentially twice their age.
  • Mayfly-December Romance: Any marriage with a Manakete will likely be this. The confession scene with Tiki in particular can be both a tearjerker and a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming at the same time.
    • Marrying Gregor to Lissa doesn't elicit any abnormal response. He just promises to "protect" her.
  • Meaningful Name: Most of the game's villains hail from a kingdom known as Plegia, to which the citizens are called "Plegians". "Plegian" sounds a lot like "Plebian". Aversa sound suspiciously like "adverse".
  • Medieval Stasis: It's been well over a thousand years since King Marth's reign and very little has changed. It's implied that Grima has something to do with that, as several of the old nations - including Altea - have been reduced to little more than a lifeless desert.
  • Men Are the Expendable Gender: Any female characters who could potentially be mothers only "retreat" when killed, even on Classic Mode, to prevent time paradoxes with the future children. (As well as avoiding having to create a substitute character system like FE 4.) The fathers, on the other hand, are free to die.
  • Mildly Military: The Shepards do not place much value on formality, coming off as more of a group of wacky teenagers than an army.
  • Mirror Match: Paralogue 22, due to the Wellspring of Truth casting mirror images of the Shepherds, which include their skills although their stats cap only goes to a point.
  • Misery Builds Character: Discussed by the Shepherds in the intro to Chapter 1.
  • Mood Whiplash: Chapter 16, after an intense build up for the battle at hand, you're treated to... Cervantes and his mustache.
    • After the climatic battle against the evil Validar in Chapter 23, come Chapter 24, you find yourself in a beautiful valley covered in rainbows and sunshine.
    • The post battle scene of "Infinite Regalia" as the leader of the Deadlord tells him to come back again and gives him the sliver card and a legacy character card. The whole thing is oddly lighthearted as they come off as lonely and want company. This is after being bombarded with bits of Fridge Horror during the battles.
  • More Hero than Thou: The main conflict between the nations is this. Ylisse was a warmongering kingdom at the time of Chrom's father, who had exhausted their resources in the last reign around 15 years ago, opting to be The Atoner by becoming a nation with a very small military force. They end up getting kicked around many times in the present. Valm, on other hand, tries to unite its dividing countries like its first king and maintains order under Walhart's rule. He's a good king, it's just that many of his men either don't agree with his motivation and prefer to spread chaos; or don't understand said motivation, blindly throwing their lives into a wrong cause in the name of following their king's will. Hell, even Plegia jumps the bandwagon. Valm's unification war made Plegia's memory of Ylisse's orgy of destruction come to the surface and Gangrel makes a unification plan on his own to prevent that before Motive Decay takes place. They all end up joining forces to take down the Final Boss.
  • More than Mind Control: Aversa's backstory reveals that she was a victim of this, thanks to her having a power that interested Validar — he murdered her family, friends, and her entire village, and wiped her memories so she'd believe he had saved her life so she'd serve him...
  • Mukokuseki: Except for Nowi, who isn't human, most everyone's eyes are proportional to their faces.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Cherche's wyvern is named Minerva.
    • Paris was Ike's early codename. It's used as the Japanese name for the final Spotpass Secret Character, Priam, who claims to be a descendant of Ike and wields the Ragnell.
    • One support set has a story about two birds, named after two of the Bird-tribe Laguz.
    • Owain's quotes reference previous games in the series, such as "Radiant Dawn!" as a battle cry.
    • Some of the higher spells have runes floating around them when cast, which, upon closer examination, are written in the Heron language.
    • One event with Nowi has her saying she's met a new dragon friend named something like Banta.
    • In Nowi and Stahl's B support, she names a bird Janaff.
    • Every second generation character's birthday, save Morgan's, corresponds with the Japanese release dates for most of the games in the franchise.
    • In Ricken's C support with Olivia, he says he's reading a story about "a prince who falls in love with a forest maiden."
    • The awesome music theme Id - Purpose includes in its second half an Ominous Latin Chanting version of the Fire Emblem Main Theme. If you pay attention, you'll realize that it has the actual Latin lyrics that were created for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
    • The map for Paralogue 2 is a big chunk of map taken right out of Chapter 4 of Genealogy Of The Holy War.
  • Nerf:
    • The forging system seems to have had one, compared to how utterly broken it was in the previous two games. You can now only give a limited number of 'buffs' to a single weapon, meaning you can no longer forge both Might and Critical up to max. You'll need to choose between a weapon that hits really hard all the time, or one that's slightly weaker but criticals more often. Needless to say, this limit does not apply to enemies. While they have used forged weapons on the harder difficulties in 11 and 12, they now go past the forge limits.
    • Because your units do not have proper Holy Blood, the Holy Weapons, such as Tyrfing, Forseti, and Book of Naga are all far weaker than they were when used properly in FE4.
    • Skills in general also got hit HARD with the Nerfbat. While attacks that hit more than once no longer use up durability for each extra hit, every single one of them has its effect only do half of whatever the max is of what's being added, rounded down, and none of them get the damage buffs Radiant Dawn threw in. For example, Sol (and the Nosferatu tome by association) only restores HP by half of the damage inflicted on the enemy. If the enemy with 13 health left was killed by an attack that does 40 damage, you only get 6 HP back. If you kill an enemy with only 1 HP left, you get nothing.
  • New Game Plus: After beating the game, future playthroughs will start with the same level of Renown that the previous playthrough ended with. Also, the Avatar Logbook carries over between saves, making it possible (with a lot of gold) to buy back high-level troops earlier on than you originally got them.
  • The Nicknamer: Gaius.
  • No Body Left Behind: Standard for the Risen, their bodies just fade away like ash and/or magical energy when killed. With their mounts, it tends to vary on how they're slain.
  • No Man of Woman Born: Naga said that Grima cannot be killed even with the Exalted Falchion, but only be sealed away for a millennium. The only power capable of destroying Grima is his own. This gives the Avatar, who is said to be 'one and the same' as him, a Eureka Moment, and you are given the choice to take another option in the final battle.
  • No True Scotsman: Meta example. A very vocal portion of the fandom believes that the grinding and reclassing makes this game not a 'True' Fire Emblem.
  • Noodle Incident: Avatar accidentally sees a tattoo given to Gaius that marks him as a thief. In order to convince Gaius he won't blackmail him, the Avatar tells him an embarrassing secret involving a cow.
  • Oh My Gods!: Common in the English dialogue.
  • Official Couple: Given that it used Genealogy's pairing system, the game pretty much lacks this, except in one case. Chrom and Sumia are shown to be together in the game's opening cutscene (holding the baby Lucina); among all the characters in the game, only these two are not free to marry anyone (instead being restricted to those in their support pool). The cutscene where Sumia saves Chrom is titled "Lovebirds", even if they are not in love with each other at that point. Chrom being a Lord and Sumia being a Pegasus Knight resembles Marth and Caeda, the original Official Couple (in fact, the Lord marrying or being able to marry a Pegasus Knight is a bit of a tradition within the Fire Emblem series), while game developers liken Cordelia to Catria, the Pegasus Knight that lost in their Love Triangle. When Chrom is forced to get married in Chapter 11 if he hasn't already, Sumia takes priority over any other girls if two have equal affection with him. Of course, the player is free to pair them up with others if they wish.
    • Of course, if you've paired all three (or four, if your Avatar is female) possible love interests with other units, he ends up marrying a static NPC.
  • Off Model: The character models HAVE NO FEET.
    • Or, well, they do; they're just Wind Waker feet.
      • Word Of God from this interview says that the dev team wasn't sure how many bones and joints they could put on the character models. Turns out, the CPU for the 3DS had more than enough power to allow it.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: Some of the music, such as Divine Decree and Mastermind.
  • Only I Can Kill Him: Only the Avatar striking the finishing blow can truly kill Grima.
  • Ornamental Weapon: Some classes, like the Assassin and Swordmaster, carry additional knives or swords on their person, but these are merely part of their model and cannot be drawn even if their other weapons break.
  • Out-Gambitted: Chapter 23, the Avatar pulls it off quite well.
  • Petal Power: The Ignis skill has this effect after landing a success hit on an enemy.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: Eirika's new DLC costume.◊ Complete with Giant Poofy Sleeves, lots of frills, and what appears to be sheer Fluffy Fashion Feathers. May double as a Battle Ballgown.
  • Piñata Enemy: The gold Entombed variant of the basic Risen gives out a lot of EXP when taken down, up to 100 points for a unit of sufficiently lower level. Thieves also give rather more EXP than other units of their level.
  • Player Character: Avatar; you get to select your gender, name him or her, select a character portrait and model, and select his or her voice. You're locked in with the Tactician class, though, but you can use Second Seals to change into almost every other class.
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner/Pre-Mortem One-Liner: All the characters right before a Critical Hit. Some of them are simple, like "Here goes!", while others are more badass, like "Pick a god and pray!".
  • Production Throwback: The DLC chapters reuse past music, like 8-bit and 16-bit chiptunes.
    • The entire game has its basic mechanics thrown back to the semi-nostalgic feel of Shadow Dragon and New Mystery, with no in-battle supports or proper rescue mechanics, and the weapon triangle's effects (when applicable) only becomes noticeable the better you get with a certain weapon, and only with the basic physical weapons, not magic.
  • Punctuation Shaker: Seems to be standard for those hailing from Chon'sin.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Nearly everyone in Chrom's army, especially the recruited enemies.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Emmeryn, Basilo, Flavia.
  • Recurring Riff: There is one that functions as some sort of main theme of the game. Although it's always attached to other themes and never appears on its own. A clear example are the first 20 seconds of the Opening Theme. If you pay attention, you will hear those notes very often throughout the game.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning:
    • The Risen, in both their portraits and battle animations.
    • Played with by the party. Just about every redheaded character, as well as Maribelle, Panne, Brady, and Yarne, all have russet brown eyes (which are more red on the redheads), but they're only dangerous to the enemy, naturally.
  • Red Mage: There's no longer any magic triangle whatsoever. A unit with a Tome weapon level can use all three regular varieties, and dark mages can use dark tomes on top of that.
  • Reality Subtext: It's possible to pair Miriel and Ricken. Their voice actors, Tara Platt and Yuri Lowenthal, are married in Real Life. Doubles as Hilarious in Hindsight, as the two were a fairly popular pairing even before their English voice actors were announced.
  • Relationship Values:
    • The relationship system from Fire Emblem Jugdral returns, only this time allowing (almost) any two units of the opposite sex to tie the knot. Even Avatar can get in on the action.
    • When certain characters obtain an 'S' rating with each other, they will also have children. These children are dependent on the mother, except for Chrom, who always has Lucina after chapter 12 no matter who he's supported with, and Avatar, who has Morgan.
  • Respawning Enemies: Unlike other chapters with reinforcements, the final chapter will have infinite reinforcements that do not stop spawning after a set number of turns, meaning you have to take out the boss or you will eventually be overwhelmed.
  • Retraux: The Champions of Yore DLC recreates the first level from the original game (And by extension, Shadow Dragon). The Lost Bloodlines one recreates part of the first level from Seisen no Keifu, and Smash Brethren is the last level from Blazing Blade. They also use the musics from these games, in their original forms.
  • The Reveal: "Marth" is actually Lucina, Chrom's daughter from the future.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: This happens to an NPC in Chapter 8 after he betrays Ylisse for Plegia.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Actually quite a few characters, among those being Chrom (the prince of Ylisse), Lissa (Chrom's sister, and therefore the princess of Ylisse), Marth whom is actually Lucina, Chrom's daughter from the future, Maribelle, and several others. Of course, Chrom gets lots of crap from the other chars for putting himself in danger, but he always ignores them.
  • Running Gag: Several, almost one per character.
  • Sad Battle Music: Don't Speak Her Name, which plays during Chapter 10 after Emmeryn's Heroic Sacrifice, on the map, during battles, and even against the boss! Essentially Lonely Piano Piece combined with Playing the Heart Strings. For bonus points, the chapter is also a Battle in the Rain.
  • Sadistic Choice:
  • Samus Is a Girl: Marth, but it's pretty easy to tell because of the voice.
  • Scenery Censor: Tharja in the "Summer Scramble" DLC in the NA version of the game. You can see the original CG scene and the censored version here.
  • Scenery Porn: The whole game is very pretty, but Chapter 16, The Mila Tree, really stands out.
    • While the game is grid-based, very few elements of the maps are recycled tiles. Most of one chapter takes place on a perilously narrow path with a mountain range on top and a steep cliff on the bottom, making 90% of the map inaccessible to non-flying units. Where previous games would show a Cliff and probably pitch black darkness beyond it, this game has the "cliff" tile that takes up most of the map be a very detailed canyon with a river running along the bottom.
  • Secret Character: Six of them. They are recruited through playing six Sidequest Chapters unlocked through Spotpass, and are only available at the very end. Thanks to DLC, they aren't really Bragging Rights Rewards, and each can support with Avatar, and potentially marry him/her if they're the opposite gender. They are, in order of the first to last unlocked through Spotpass: Gangrel, Walhart, Emmeryn, Yen'fay, Aversa, and Priam.
  • Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Compare Validar and Aversa to say... Chrom and the Avatar. Subverted with Tharja and Nowi.
  • Shipper on Deck: Naga, of all people, in the Nah/Morgan supports.
  • Shoot the Messenger: Aversa did this once. This has happened more than once, if the messenger in Chapter 11 is any indication.
  • Shout Out:
  • Significant Reference Date: Some of the characters' birthdays reference the release dates of the earlier games in the series or holidays. Nearly all of the second generation characters' birthdays are the same as the Japanese release dates for most of the games in the series. *
    • Sully's birthday is December 5th, the European release date for Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.
    • Ricken's birthday is May 23rd, the North American release date for Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.
    • Cordelia's birthday is July 7th, the same date as the Tanabata Star Festival in Japan.
    • Cherche's birthday is October 17th, the North American release date for Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
    • Henry's birthday is November 13th, which is World Kindness Day.
    • Aversa's birthday is November 3rd, the North American release date for Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword.
    • Lucina's birthday is April 20th, the release date for the very first game, Fire Emblem: The Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light, and the Japanese release date for Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance.
    • Owain's birthday is July 15th, the release date for Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem ~Heroes of Light and Darkness~.
    • Inigo's birthday is August 7th, the Japanese release date for Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.
    • Brady's birthday is February 22nd, the Japanese release date for Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.
    • Kjelle's birthday is September 29th, the release date for Fire Emblem: Akaneia Saga.
    • Cynthia's birthday is May 14th, the release date for Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. Incidentally, the in-game record of this game, "Ribald Tales of the Faith War", is her mother Sumia's favorite novel.
    • Severa's birthday is January 21st, the release date for Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem.
    • Gerome's birthday is September 1st, the release date for Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.
    • Morgan's birthday is May 5th, which is Children's Day in Japan and Cinco de Mayo in North America.
    • Yarne's birthday is March 14th, the release date for Fire Emblem Gaiden, the European release date for Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and White Day in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China.
    • Laurent's birthday is April 25th, the Japanese release date for Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword.
    • Noire's birthday is October 7th, the Japanese release date for Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.
    • Nah's birthday is March 29th, the release date for Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals.
  • Skippable Boss: Male Morgan and Female Morgan in The Future Past's first and second chapters respectively, achieved by talking to them with Avatar of either gender. Talking to them with the opposite gender Avatar will yield a longer conversation for your trouble.
  • Someone to Remember Him By: A father dying in combat would mean that the wife is already pregnant at this point, leading to this trope.
  • Spell My Name with an S:
    • Nowi's daughter is named ンン in the Japanese version, roughly pronounched un-un or nn-nn. How are you supposed to spell that?! Because of this, the fandom jokingly called her "n_n" until her English name "Nah" was revealed.
    • Up until the first English trailer was released, everyone called Chrom "Krom".
  • Spit Take: Lissa does this in her C support with Maribelle when the latter jokingly claims her favorite tea is mixed with bear blood.
  • Spock Speak: Miriel and Laurent. So much so that it's been pretty much Fanon that they're autistic.
    • Miriel never stops speaking this way, even during her S Supports. Laurent does break off from his mother's speech patterns every so often, though, particularly when he speaks to his father. In fact, in both his A supports with whomever his father is and in the Japanese version of his love confession to the Avatar, he speaks normally.
  • Stock Subtitle: "Awakening"
  • Stop Helping Me!: Some of the more proud characters may actually get upset if their allies "steal kills" from them via Dual Strike.
    • Additionally, there are some cases where you, as the player, don't want your allies to support attack, such as if you want to keep a recruitable enemy alive or to stop enemies from repeatedly attacking a certain character.
    • In the Champions of Yore 2 DLC map, Old Hubba's attempt to reason with the Einherjar only serve to piss them off even more. This is after the first map, where he says that you can't reason with them.
  • Stripperiffic:
    • Absolute Cleavage: Aversa.
    • Chainmail Bikini: Nowi, arguably. It's unclear whether the material is supposed to be protective, but it clearly isn't covering anything.
  • Super Move Portrait Attack: Right before a Critical Hit.
  • Suspiciously Vague Age: The age of the characters is never stated, but most first generation characters look in their early-to-mid 20s, if not teenagers, while the second generation characters look and sound to be around the same age as, or older than in some cases, their parents. The problem is that according to Lucina, her and every other second gen character come from an ambiguous 10+ years into the future, meaning that they were probably in their mid to late teens when they traveled to the past. This is averted in the non-English translations, though, since in them it's stated that they come from 15+ years into the future, instead of just 10. The most controversial characters would be Lissa, Ricken and Donnel, who look the youngest. And then, you have Nowi and Nah, the explanation for them being that manaketes age slowly.
    • In Chapter 6, Chrom tells the Avatar that his father, the previous exalt, died 15 years ago and that Emmeryn was just under 10 at the time, which would make her about 24 or 25 at this point in the story. Chrom and Lissa are also implied to have been born a few years apart, since Chrom tells the Avatar in Chapter 6 he was old enough during the time of his father's campaign against Plegia to remember it firsthand, whereas Lissa tells the Avatar in their C support she never really knew her parents.
      • According to an artbook, Emmeryn is six years older than Chrom and ten years older than Lissa, which would mean that Chrom is 18 or 19 and Lissa is 14 or 15 in the game's first story arc.
    • Lissa tells Donnel in their C support that he's one of the very few Shepherds younger than her, meaning he could potentially be under 15.
    • In Flavia and Basilio's B support, Flavia tells Basilio that he's twice the age of future Lucina, and he retorts that she's old enough to be Chrom's mother.
    • In her B support with the Female Avatar, Aversa claims to be 8 years older than Chrom, though the Avatar suspects this number is actually 12. Since Chrom is at most 21 at this point (see above and then factor in the two-year Time Skip in Chapter 11), Aversa can be inferred to be in her late 20s or early 30s at the youngest when she is recruited late in the game. Additionally, Aversa tells the Male Avatar in their B support that she's older than him, meaning the Avatar cannot be more than 7 or 8 years older than Chrom.
  • Take Your Time: You're free to spend as much time as you want doing Paralogues, random skirmishes, and DLC chapters before progressing in the story, in spite of a sense of urgency. In a specific early-game example: a Paralogue chapter is unlocked right after finding out Emmeryn is scheduled to be executed and you're told have to hurry to save her.
    • Justified for the Outrealm missions, since Old Hubba explains that time works differently in the Outrealm, meaning they can spend as much time as they want in it and return to the normal world at exactly where they left off.
    • This also applies to the post game. The post game in Awakening occurs right before the fight with Grima, which means that everything you do during the post game will be occurring while Grima is flying in the air doing god knows what.
  • Terminator Twosome: Chrom's daughter Lucina was sent back in time to prevent a Bad Future happening. The Big Bad Grima sends himself back in time to prevent her from altering the past.
  • Theme Tune Cameo: One of Olivia's voice clips is humming the level-up jingle.
  • The Theocracy: Two of them, the Halidom of Ylisse and the explicitly-named Theocracy of Plegia.
  • This Loser Is You: Completely inverted. Not only does Avatar have a special class and is the first true Magic Knight since Judgral, but he/she can also get paired with Chrom and Sumia, and even have kids. Way to go, stud!
    • It gets inverted even harder when dealing with the game's inner mechanics. Specifically, the "children" units can inherit classes to promote to and certain skills from their parents. The classes they can change into will decide their final skill list, since multiple "mastery" skills can be learned and carried through class changes, with some of them halving damage, healing half HP when defeating an enemy, granting another turn when defeating an enemy, causing an instant KO, or the like. ...What's that? Avatar can reclass into and pass down ANY non-gender specific class? Well, at least they won't be getting the Aether skill... but their son/daughter Morgan can, if paired with Chrom or Lucina. With lots of change seals and the right supports, one can have a Morgan with all of the extremely powerful attacking skills (Lethality, Astra, Sol, Luna, Aether) on at the same time. Even worse, if it's a Morgan with access to Galeforce (entirely possible by passing it down for Male Morgan, or just learning it directly from the Dark Flier class if Female Morgan), he/she will rip holes in the enemy army. All this from the Avatar's stupidly powerful genes.
    • Of course, you're also Grima...
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: How most 1-2 Range swords work in Awakening. The magic based Levin Sword is the exception.
  • Time Travel: Of the Alternate Timeline variety. One timeline has Grima revive and turn the world into a Zombie Apocalypse, killing everyone except Lucina and whoever came with her to the good timeline, which you're in. Then there's Morgan, who may have come from the good timeline instead of the bad, or a third, entirely different timeline.
  • Time Skip:
    • Awakening is a direct sequel to the Archaneia series, albeit over a thousand years later.
    • A minor two year time skip occurs between Chapter 11 and Chapter 12.
  • Timey Wimey Ball: Your characters' children come from the future in order to prevent the end of the world. Expect a lot of this.
    • It turns out that it's not only the characters' children who can come from the future...
    • It also turns out that they're not really from the future so much as from an alternate timeline.
    • The ending reveals that all of the second generation characters do not disappear, even when the Bad Future is averted, so they all go off on their own adventures.
  • Title Drop: "Awakening," being a flexible Stock Subtitle, can refer to any number of things in the story but in particular:
    • The Avatar's awakening at the beginning of the story. And, should they sacrifice themselves, their Book End reawakening after the story.
    • The Awakening of Grima to wreck havoc on humanity.
    • Naga awakening to bless the Falchion.
    • One Chapter is actually titled "Awakening."
  • Tournament Arc: In order to gain the help of Flavia, you have to win a one-round tournament so she will gain regency. Justified in that it's the country's custom for determining which Khan will rule for a term, and even more justified why strangers are doing the fighting — Flavia explains the Khans won't fight themselves because they don't want to leave dead Khans left and right and have the whole country collapse due to blood feuds.
  • True Companions: The playable characters (See Heterosexual Life Partners/Platonic Life Partners above). Another staple of the Fire Emblem series.
  • Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Most sets in the first series of DLC feature massive battles between heroes of past games. So if you ever wondered who would win a fight between, say, Ike and Hector or Sigurd and Marth...
  • Uncle Sam Wants You: Fredrick's idea of a morale boosting recruitment poster is having picture of Chrom naked with a sword and scale in each hand with the phrase "Chrom Wants You!" posted underneath his feet.
  • Unexpected Character:
    • Spotpass allows you to recruit Gangrel. Yes, THAT Gangrel. And later, Walhart and... Aversa.
    • The DLC Bride class. Let's just say no-one saw that coming and leave it at that.
    • The first chapter of The Future Past DLC features Male Morgan as its boss!
      • And the second chapter of The Future Past DLC has Female Morgan as the boss!
  • The Uriah Gambit: After finding out about Excellus' plans to abandon him while the Shepherds and their allies begin closing in, Walhart generously "promotes" him to be the captain of his personal guard, ensuring he will be forced to fight on the front lines rather than trying to escape.
  • Utility Magic: Played for Laughs in the Summer Scramble DLC, where the Anna running the resort makes use of "Megaphone" and "Snapshot" magic tomes.
  • Variable Mix: When field actions like battles or healing are initiated, the music segues into a more intense version while the scene plays out, and goes back to the original version when it ends.
  • Videogame Caring Potential: Word Of God says they were aiming to further heighten the series' penchant for this with this game. The expanded supports, marriage system, and voice acting were all intended to give the players a greater sense of attachment to the characters. To say nothing of the fact you can make everyone in your party Happily Married, kick major ass as Battle Couples, and later become full-fledged Badass Families.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential:
    • In the Outrealm chapters, it's entirely possible to have Tiki fight to the death against Marth and his army, many of whom were probably people she knew personally when they were alive (including Tiki's past self!)
    • Or even better, in the paralogues where recruitable second generation characters start off as hostile, you can have their own parents unknowingly kill them or vice versa.
  • Villainous Harlequin: Gangrel wouldn't look out of place as a villainous court jester. His class is Trickster, but he's the king of a whole nation, though. He can also join you come Spotpass Sidequests, dropping the villainous part.
  • Wacky Wayside Tribe: The DLC Chapters. Full Throttle. Just replace "Tribe" with "Cameos."
  • Wake Up Call Chapter: Chapter 12. While not the first time the game pits you against promoted enemies, it still ups the levels of the Valmese forces, who proceed to run as a group to attack you. At the same time, you're forced into multiple bottlenecks, meaning you have to either let them come to you and hope your defenses are solid enough, or you go to them and risk another squad getting the jump on you.
    • The second chapter in Lunatic mode qualifies, due to everyone but Frederick dying in two hits. To make it worse, any Risen with swords are able to double most of your units.
  • We Cannot Go On Without You: Present as usual on your main Lord, as well as the Avatar, however, depending on the mode, one additional character has this: You can afford to have Lucina get her HP depleted to 0 on Casual Mode, but on Classic Mode, it's an instant Game Over instead.
  • Weapon Twirling
  • Wham Episode: Several, actually.
    • Chapter 9: Your plan to rescue Emmeryn fails, Phila is killed, and Emmeryn sacrifices herself so Chrom won't have to give up the Fire Emblem, sending him into a Heroic BSOD. The following chapter is a Roaring Rampage of Revenge set to Sad Battle Music.
    • Chapter 13, hoo boy... You learn that Validar has now become king of Plegia, he has an Enigmatic Minion who looks exactly like the Avatar, and he's the Avatar's father. As if it couldn't get any more insane, at the end, "Marth" pulls a Big Damn Heroes, calls Chrom "father", and reveals herself as Lucina, Chrom's Kid from the Future. Then she drops another bombshell: the future she comes from had the bad guys winning, all the parents dying, and humanity about to be wiped out by a Zombie Apocalypse. But on the plus side, Time Travel exists, and she wasn't the only one who came back...
    • Chapter 18. Previously, Basilio went to take on Walhart's main forces to buy the rest of you time. Before the start of the chapter, you witness him being presumably killed in battle by Walhart himself. Your next opponent is Yen'fay, Say'ri's brother, who seems reluctant to fight you, though he doesn't reveal why. But after his death, Excellus is all too willing to. Turns out that Yen'fay only joined Walhart on the condition that his men spare Say'ri's life. He was fighting to save her, and she never knew. Cue My God, What Have I Done?. And after all this, Chrom and the Avatar officially learn that Basilio is dead and they'll be facing Walhart himself next.
    • Chapter 21. Outright confirmed that the Avatar is Validar's child and Lucina later reveals that the premonition the game opened up with wasn't just a bad dream, he/she actually did kill Chrom in Lucina's time, causing her to attempt to take his/her life.
  • Wham Line: Two in Chapter 13. First we get:
    Validar: "You dare take such a tone... with your own father?!”
    • And later:
    "Marth": Father...
  • What Measure Is a Mook?: Chapter 10, probably also a Mook Horror Show chapter. Many of them do not wish to fight (but are forced to, possibly due to I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure), and they just got in the way of Chrom's Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
    • Hammered even further in Ricken's support with Henry, which gave Ricken a Heroic BSOD.
  • Where Are They Now: As is custom in Fire Emblem games, the end credits has brief summaries on what every (surviving) character does after the events of the game.
  • Who's on First?: The names of Nowi and her daughter Nah. Nowi's case is a little odd, but it's probably meant to be pronounced like "no way". Nah's case is more obvious, and is the only of the two to lampshade it. The puns are also present in the Japanese localization (where they are called Nono and Nn respectively).
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Manaketes live for thousands of years. Humans do not. Most of Nowi's supports involve her and her partner promising to be with each other forever. Yeah. (This also goes for Nah, Nowi's daughter, and Tiki.)
    • Also for Tiki, who's far older than Nowi. One of her generic Barracks conversations has her stating something to the effect of "I want to make friends. I know I'll lose them all eventually, but it beats never having them at all." Ouch.
  • The Worf Effect: After Chapter 12, you find out Basilio and his army took a devastating blow from the Valmese forces off screen. The characters explicitly comment on how "they must be tough if they beat his forces".
    • Poor Basilio gets used for this twice; the second time, he's going up against Walhart himself, and gets his ass handed to him in proper fashion to show off how much of a beast Walhart is in combat. That said, it also ends up being a huge fake-out, as Basilio fakes being dead thanks to Lucina's warning so he can come back and be a Big Damn Hero later on.
  • World of Badass: This is a Fire Emblem game. What did you expect?
  • Wutai: The nation of Chon'sin isn't shown in-game, but it's easy to see after seeing Say'ri's support conversations (she mentions cherry blossoms being a common sight and that fish and rice are staples of her people's diet, and the way that she, Yen'fay, and Lon'qu dress (outfits that vaguely resemble kimonos, at least on top) also adds to this.
  • Yandere: Tharja, as one could tell from her various support conversations, especially the ones she has with Avatar... hopefully you don't have a nice boat...
  • Yank the Dog's Chain: It's possible to recruit Emmeryn from a Spot Pass chapter, despite her supposedly having died through making a Heroic Sacrifice. You'd think that this would result in everyone living happily ever after as one big family. Instead, it turns out that she's become heavily brain damaged and has developed amnesia. She has no memory of Chrom or anyone else and she never recovers... unless she dies during said chapter, where she remembers her siblings in her final moments. Whether or not Chrom succeeds or fails to save her, he's either heartbroken that she doesn't remember him and Lissa or he's forcing back a second Heroic BSOD in the event that she dies. This family just can't seem to catch a break.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: The party asks Lucina what she will do after the world is saved, whether or not she will stay in the past, or go back to the future. Lucina tells them it's not a question of whether or not she can go back to her own time, it's whether or not there's a world for her to go back to.
  • You Can't Thwart Stage One: Grima returns no matter what anyone does. Although this time, they have a way to outright kill Grima.
  • You Don't Look Like You: Most of the Spotpass and DLC characters, such as Ike◊ and Micaiah◊, are just a customized Avatar head on a generic body of whatever class they are.
  • You Have Failed Me: Aversa kills a Plegian soldier who failed to bring back accurate information about Chrom's army. Gangrel actually comments on "trying not to kill all the help".
  • You Shouldn't Know This Already: It's possible for the player character to know about the Risen's names from Lissa's C-rank conversation, despite not actually being named yet.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Grima's Awakening ritual fails due to the fake stones in the Fire Emblem, and Validar is killed for good. That should be the end of it, but then the Avatar's mysterious twin shows up. Said twin reveals him/herself to be the future Grima, and decides to use his power to awaken the present Grima.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: All of the women. The T&A is modest and realistic on everyone (except Aversa), but all the women except Lissa (who wears a dress) have it. Thus far, the biggest examples are males, in the form of Chrom and Marth*, who score a grade-A!
  • Zombie Apocalypse: Like Sacred Stones, one's getting underway with the mass appearance of the "Risen"... There's a Bad Future where it got to full-fledged Apocalypse levels.
Fire Emblem TelliusStrategy RPGFront Mission
Fire Emblem TelliusFantasy Video GamesGabriel Knight
Lost PlanetNintendo 3 DSFlipnote Studio
alternative title(s): Fire Emblem Awakening; Fire Emblem Kakusei
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