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  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Ephraim's route's portrayal of Lyon. He claims he's fully in control and has suppressed the Demon King's influence, but is that true? It's possible, and somewhat implied by the Demon King's speech before the final boss, that he was still influencing Lyon all along, just more subtly than on Eirika's route. Is the Demon King just letting him think he's in control?
    • In BigKlingy's Let's Play of Sacred Stones(starting around 39:28), he proposes that Selena's battle with Ephraim was not merely a case of Blind Obedience, but her committing Suicide by Cop due to realizing that her emperor could no longer be saved.
  • Anti-Climax Boss: While the Sacred Stones is already one of the easiest Fire Emblem games, these bosses are complete pushover in this game:
    • Valter is likely to go down too easily and without much ado for someone who's been a major threat for about three quarters of the game. Although he has a Fili Shield to protect himself from arrows, there's nothing stopping you from just stealing it from him. Also, you can get a Dragon Axe on the same level, which is tailor-made for taking down Wyvern Knights, and on Ross or Garcia with high strength, it can even kill him in one hit without the help of a critical hit. The Dragonspear also works well against him. Just beware that he has the Pierce skill that ignores your units' defenses or the fact he will have a chance to critical hit with both of his weapons, and let's not even get started if he gets a Pierce crit...
    • The final boss, Fomortiis the Demon King, can easily be defeated in a single turn by simply Zerg Rushing him with the numerous sacred weapons that are given to you for free as you progress through the story. This is because Fomortiis has the same weaknesses as all of the monster enemies. Myrrh and her Dragonstone are also effective against said final boss and all of these monsters.
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Eirika is one of the more divisive female lords for many of the same reasons Celica is. Some people think she's fine for being a Naïve Newcomer and goes through realistic Character Development to become a strong Lady of War by the end, given that her upbringing was solely focused on diplomacy and she made a personal effort to learn swordplay before the game even started. Others think that the game script is sexist for handing her the Distress Ball a few too many times while her brother gets Cutscene Power to the Max. Perhaps the most contentious moment involving Eirika is whether handing Lyon the Sacred Stone was stupid, or understandable given their long friendship and the Demon King's silver tongue.
    • Gheb in the fandom's circles and fanhacks: Funny one-off joke character or an annoying and outdated joke character in the fandom.
    • General Selena is either a heartbreakingly tragic Anti-Villain or a hypocritical honor-obsessed idiot who insists on following her country's orders to the letter despite being repeatedly smacked upside the head with indications that something very, very bad is happening there.
  • Best Level Ever:
    • Chapter 19. Defense and Survival maps in general are well liked, but this one in particular gives you 17 units available to use with plenty of treasure to pick up. Unlike most missions, this one feels very much like the player wasn't caught with their pants down.
    • Chapter 20 as well, for the atmosphere. Sure, the enemies are easily-defeated monsters, but there are a lot of them. A lot—if the player dawdles too long? You will get overwhelmed. It manages to convey a feeling that you're really charging into the belly of the beast, and that you really should keep moving otherwise you'll be overwhelmed.
  • Breather Boss: Gheb, The boss of Chapter 9 in Ephraim's route, is actually easy to defeat despite being a promoted boss: he lacks a long-ranged weapon alternative, unlike his Eirika's route counterpart, Binks. He's also initially equipped with the Iron Axe. Just be careful though to not leave a unit adjacent to him, because he will equip his Killer Axe and become otherwise more threatening, and due to how the droppable item mechanic in GBA works, only the axe that he is not equipped with (in this case, the Iron Axe) will be dropped instead when killed.
  • Broken Base: The Tower of Valni, an optional side area that unlocks in Chapter 10 (and also the Lagdou Ruins, though they don't unlock until the final chapter). Critics claim that it trivializes the game, as the ability to visit it as many times as you like makes gaining experience easy, while defenders point out that, being optional, one doesn't have to use it, so if it's a Game-Breaker, it's entirely your own fault for visiting it in the first place, and it's a good place for beginners to the series and casual players. (Specifically the Tower of Valni—the Lagdou Ruins are a Brutal Bonus Level.)
  • Catharsis Factor: For some, killing Valter especially with either Eirika, Ephraim, or Cormag, and slaying Caellach with Joshua. For the two Lords, Valter has been trying to hunt down and kill the twins and the heirs of Renais. For Cormag and Joshua's cases, it's even more noticable in Eirika's route, as the events of Valter killing Glen (Cormag's older brother) and Caellach killing Ismaire (Joshua's mother and the queen of Jehanna), which justifies their Revenge and them Pay Evil unto Evil onto those two petty murderers. Although the Ephraim route version doesn't provide these scenes, Joshua still can prove his superiority against his former mercenary partner Caellach, and Cormag proves that he is Defiant to the End for his betrayal of Grado when facing down Valter, refusing to beg for mercy from a man he despises.
  • Cliché Storm: Practically a Mad Libs for Fire Emblem games. Evil empire invades the peaceful kingdom next door, emperor turns out to be a Disc-One Final Boss controlled by an ancient evil, good friend of the main character is fated to be evil, and all the MacGuffins sealing away said evil end up being destroyed, forcing an ultimate showdown for the fate of the world. Oh, and you're helped along the way by a dragon-in-the-form-of-a-little-girl who's Really 700 Years Old. As always, though, this all isn't necessarily a bad thing.
  • Common Knowledge: No, Eirika and Ephraim do not get married in their Japanese paired ending. The ending is identical to the English version. Any accusations of censorship never happened. There's definite Incest Subtext there, but it never goes beyond that.
  • Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
    • Seth, Vanessa, and Franz are the most useful units, as they have strong base stats and growth rates, are mounted combatants with great mobility, and are acquired within the first three stages. As such, most players who opt not to use them only do so out of the desire of making the game harder.
    • While Thieves gain better combat abilities like the access to Assassin and Rogue class, most people would rather make them stay out of combat and use them to steal items/open locks and chests, because the game isn't as generous with their axe fighters compared to Binding Blade, on top of the game being more rampant with Cavaliers, Wyvern Riders, and Gargoyles/Deathgoyles, greatly limiting their utility as a dodge tank they supposed to do.
    • The Pirate/Berserker line is nearly always chosen for Ross' promotion, as promoting to Pirate gives him some much-needed speed, a useful water-walking utility that only one other unit has access to (Dozla), and a sweet critical rate bonus once you promote to Berserker.
    • Moulder, Artur and Natasha tend to be promoted by players into Bishop, because of the Bishop's ability, Slayer, which grants them 3x effective damage against monsters with their Light tomes (aside from Ivaldi, which is unusually a Power Up Let Down for Bishops specifically, due to it's 2x effective damage modifier overriding the Slayer ability's 3x effective weapon might.) This is especially crucial considering that basically all of the regular enemies in the last two chapters and the post-game are all monsters.
  • Complete Monster: The Demon King Fomortiis, especially on Eirika's route, shows himself to be a particularly depraved and sadistic monster. After possessing the Prince of the Grado Empire, Lyon, Fomortiis resurrects Lyon's father into a soulless puppet and uses him to initiate a series of brutal invasions to destroy the Sacred Stones of the other countries that have sealed the rest of him away. With a huge war and massive amounts of death, Fomortiis eventually reveals himself while also reviving monsters and undead creatures to run rampant throughout the land and kill those in their path. In Eirika's route, where Fomortiis possesses the prince completely, Fomortiis explicitly leaves a part of his mind intact to torment him as Fomortiis destroys everything around him, and also kills the heroic dragon king Morva before reviving him as an undead abomination while seeking to corrupt and dominate the world itself.
  • Contested Sequel: The game is sometimes seen as the best of the Game Boy Advance trilogy thanks to its easier difficulty, fixing gameplay-related issues plaguing both The Binding Blade and Blazing Blade while retaining things people liked about them, recycling mechanics from Gaiden, innovating with its branching class trees, telling a self-contained, watertight story with good worldbuilding and a strong antagonist, and removing unloved ideas like secret optional chapters with frustrating and opaque requirements.note  However, this game also gets criticized for being too easy (sometimes even without Level Grinding), a Cliché Storm plot (original by Fire Emblem standards but very derivative of other JRPG titles), its short length without using postgame features, and a lack of variety between the two main story routes. Which game from the trilogy is worth playing first and whether the complex and interesting characterization of the main antagonist makes up for the generally-cliche nature of the plot are both common sources of debate.
  • Demonic Spiders:
    • A literal example with Baels. They have high HP and Strength along with their claws having high might.
    • Cavaliers and Wyvern Riders is one of the more dangerous generic units you'll have to face, especially against sword-locked units like Eirika and the Myrmidons. The ability to singlehandedly ran across the map and deal hefty damage, on top of always going in a squad of three makes fighting them much harder than it should be.
  • Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: It's less apparent than some other entries, but the game often elicits this reaction. The gameplay is considered solid but unremarkable, but veteran players are critical of the game for being too easy, while newcomers might not like the lack of quality of life improvements from newer games, such as the ability to see all enemies' ranges at once or the option to turn off permadeath. However, the story, while cliched, has an interesting setting and solid characters, especially the main villain, so fans tend have more appreciation for the story than the gameplay.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Gheb was just some random gonk that takes little to no effort to kill, but can often be found in mods of the game, typically with a bigger role.
    • Lute is also definitely one of the more popular mages in the fandom, thanks to her odd habits, her endearing braggadocio, and the related fact that she can back that boasting up with results. (Her married endings being adorable are also a plus.) For someone who's not even related to the main houses and nobility of Magvel (she's just a particularly odd citizen of Renais), that's an achievement. Her popularity rose further thanks to a parody video showcasing her awesomeness in a memetic way going super viral that she ranked REALLY high in Fire Emblem Heroes' Choose Your Legends event and then earned her a spot in the game's roster as of November 2017, and yes, she's still having her endearingly odd habits and braggadocio on full force.
    • L'Arachel is one of the most popular characters in all of The Sacred Stones, thanks to her hilarious delusions of grandeur, devoted belief in justice, wacky personality, and pretty design.
    • Artur has a small, but devoted following due to being one of the best units in the game, as well as being just plain adorable and sweet. On top of that, Light magic is actually very useful in this game.
    • Amelia, Ross and Ewan are all very popular among fans, especially among casual fans of the series. Common reasons include all three being adorable Token Mini Moes with very sympathetic backstories and interesting personalities, all of whom growing into utter badasses should you choose to use them. Alongside that, there's also the heartwarming and very well-written dynamics they have regarding Garcia and Ross, Duessel and Amelia and Saleh and Ewan. Bonus points for the fact all three trainees can be shipped with each other, leading to some really cute Toy Ships. Amelia deserves a special mention: In addition to her cute appearance, there's her adorable dynamics with Franz, Ross, Ewan and Duessel making her among the most popular characters in the entire continuity of Magvel. This is bolstered by the notorious fact she can turn into a General when she has the stat spread of a Fragile Speedster, which only adds to her already large popularity. It's telling how well liked she is that in spite of the already-large popularity of the Magvel Trainees, she ranked seventh of the Choose Your Legends 1 poll for Magvel characters, and was the first one who made a debut in Fire Emblem Heroes before any of the other trainees, whom had to wait another two years.
    • Myrrh has had a small, quiet but very devoted fandom for a long time, partially because while she is another "little girl dragon", she pointedly avoids a lot of the "acts like a child" tropes that tend to skeeve out people in regards to Awakening's Nowi and the general perception of Marth-era Tiki. Myrrh's only real childish aspect is her difficulty understanding that she's feeling (romantic) love, and given her previous lifestyle, that's still a perfectly logical situation in-universe. Her release in Heroes brought these fans to the fore a bit.
  • Fan Nickname: Moulder the Boulder and Gilliam Bojangles. Moulder's comes from his unusually high HP, Defense and Constitution stats making him much buffer and tankier than your average cleric, while Gilliam's comes from a sprite comic.
  • Fanon: Some fan depictions of Amelia as a General is that she is actually piloting a bulky mech suit due to how small she is in comparison to the suit of armor.
  • Fridge Horror: The Za'ha map, which contains Lute and Artur's home village, can be revisited as a training map. When you do, you find that both villages there have been destroyed.
  • Game-Breaker:
    • The S-class weapons deal ridiculous damage to monsters. The game compensates for this by throwing a heck ton of monsters at you in the final levels.
    • Bishops have a class skill that makes them deal triple damage to monsters. The majority of the enemies you face are monsters, so Bishops are very powerful indeed. Plus, they're your party's main healers, so their utility extends beyond monster-smiting.
    • Seth, the game's Crutch Character, actually has really good growths, meaning he both starts off and ends up good. In fact, he averages equal to or better stats that the game's non-Crutch Character Paladins. Seth is regarded as so good that a Solo-Character Run with him is considered easier than playing the game normally. The most common Self-Imposed Challenge for the game is simply to ban using him. There's a reason why on most lists out there of the strongest unit the entire series Seth is usually listed at number 1
    • Vanessa ranks just below Seth as one of the most useful characters in the game. She is acquired very early on and has incredible mobility due to being a flying unit. Not only does she have good growths overall, but she can be promoted to Wyvern Knight as early as chapter 8. The combination of the Pierce ability and her naturally high speed and skill stats lets her plow through enemies like it's nothing.
    • The Tower of Valni, a revisitable dungeon that you can retreat from at any time, in short, an infinite source of experience. It's optional, but if you really want to put the screws to the game this is the place to do it. There's also the Lagdou Ruins, which features stronger enemies (thus more experience) but it's not available until extremely late in the game, where the Tower is available right after the story branch.
  • Genius Bonus: So by referring to the zombies as "Revenants", they're just Not Using the "Z" Word huh? Actually, "Revenant" is another name for "Zombie"—it even predates the word "zombie" to describe animated corpses. In addition, revenants are slightly different than zombies. They are undead creatures that were revived due to harboring a deep seated grudge that kept them from resting in peace. In essence, they fit well with the antagonist's demonic theme.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Whilst L'Arachel is popular with most everyone (whether due to her spectacular growths and power or her hilarious supports), Western fans seems particularly enamored with her.
  • Goddamned Bats:
    • Gargoyles. They're flying units, and as such they can move around the map with ease. They have well-rounded bulk as well, so unless you have an effective weapon such as a bow, they're not gonna take too much damage regardless of what type of weapon you use. Finally, they're rather fast, so you'll often have trouble doubling them.
    • The Mauthe Doog and Gwyllgi definitely count due to their very high speed and movement. Imagine a Swordmaster substituting their critical boost for more movement and competent attack.
  • Goddamned Boss:
    • Tirado, the Wake-Up Call Boss from Chapter 8 can be... quite really annoying to defeat, considering that he is a General and can possibly trigger Great Shield to nullify damage taken. And this is already on top of throne bonuses giving him more evasion than he should normally have, as well defenses so high that the only thing that can actually hurt him by default are down to Ephraim's Reginleif, or by having Seth attack him with his Silver Lance.
    • Caellach, one of the Chapter 15 bosses, can be rather annoying to defeat, since he has a close-combat axe and a Tomahawk, and hits like a truck with either one of them (which encourages the player to wait for him to attack at enemy phase to avoid risking a unit dying), and he carries a Hoplon Guard to prevent critical hits from landing against him. It doesn't help that he's on a Fortress tile, meaning he regenerates lost health during every enemy phase. He is either this, or an Anti-Climax Boss if you use the easy trick of dealing with him: Stealing his Hoplon Guard to make him vulnerable to critical hits like every other boss and/or using the Swordslayer, which counts as effective as him despite he uses axes exclusively because the Hero class is count as a sword-wielding class for the effective damage purposes of Swordslayer.
  • Good Bad Bugs:
    • The enemy control glitch from Blazing Blade returns, and is now even easier to trigger, as the range of tiles that cause it is much wider, and there's now a tiny window to trigger it even on ordinary tiles.
    • The Gorgons' Stone spell is treated as a regular Dark Magic spell rather than a monster-exclusive attack, but it lacks a proper weapon level, so if acquired via hacking or the enemy control glitch, it can be used by any of your units except Myrrh. As there are no E-ranked Dark Magic tomes in this game, it takes 8 uses of the Stone spell to permanently teach a unit Dark Magic. This is primarily used to give Tethys attacking capabilities and allow Sages access to all four types of magic. And it also has another unintended effect. The Sacred Twin weapons' effect of doubling in might against monster enemies overrides the Bishop class's Slayer ability, which triples the might of a tome used against monsters, such that the class actually deals more damage to monsters with the A-ranked Aura than the S-ranked Ivaldi. Except Gleipnir, the Dark Magic Sacred Twin, is the only one that lacks this doubling effect—and as such, a Bishop that has been taught Dark Magic will have Slayer activate with Gleipnir, the most powerful tome in the game.
    • The enemy control glitch also lets you repair Myrrh's Dragonstone, which otherwise isn't possible. She can also use monster weapons like claws or fangs.
  • High-Tier Scrappy: Seth, a Crutch Character who goes well past his intended role into being flat out overpowered. Despite initially meaning to be the game's early crutch, Seth has really good growths and starting stats, high rank in both Sword and Lances, and joins on the very first level, making him really good out of the gate much like Marcus in the previous games, and he only gets better as you use him. Not using Seth at all is considered closer to a challenge run than a Seth only run in fact. Worse, even if the player makes an effort not to over rely on him, he's still the best cavalier in the game by a wide margin, beating out all the other options like Forde and Kyle, and would only really lose out if a player actively never uses him, and only focused on other characters. Despite being a popular character, he tends to be looked at as a bad unit, in that he's so good that not using him is a major handicap, and some players hate using him because of that.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • At the end of Scorched Sand, Ephraim brings Eirika Glepnir and Garm, the Sacred Twin weapons of Grado, and tells her "I doubt either of us can use them, but…" Come Fire Emblem Heroes, and Eirika and Ephraim got alternate versions (Anamnesis Lady Eirika and Brave Ephraim) who use... Glepnir and Garm, respectively.
    • In their localized C support, Ephraim attempts to comfort Eirika by stroking her face.note  Years down the line, Fates would feature an infamous relationship-building minigame centered on stroking various units' faces which was exclusive to Japan.
    • Garcia and Dozla's supports (in the English version) have them trying to use magic and staves and failing in spectacular ways. Later Fire Emblem games introduced reclassing, which lets characters actually do this in gameplay. And it's very likely that with their stat builds, these two really would be that terrible in tome or staff classes. Taken even further, Awakening had the War Monk class, which uses axes and staves, while Fates had the Oni Chieftain and Malig Knight classes, which use axes and magic. The fact that two axe men tried out staves and magic seems oddly prophetic with that in mind.
    • The Japanese commercial for Sacred Stones features a young girl playing the game on her Game Boy Advance in the middle of Shibuya Crossing, before she gets transported into a medieval fantasy world. Then 11 years later, Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE includes Shibuya Crossing as an in-game location.
    • One cutscene has Ephraim tell Eirika "What say you to dressing like me and becoming king in my stead?" Not quite funny at first, but fast forward to Eirika's induction in Choose Your Legends in 2021 and we have Eirika wearing garb similar to her brother's and carrying Reginleif.
  • Ho Yay:
    • There's a mixture of admiration and rivalry between Ephraim and Lyon. Lyon is about as close to Ephraim as he is to Eirika, whom Lyon loves.
    • Kyle and Forde's relationship seems to be incredibly close. They are two of the only male characters whose endings change when they have an A Support with each other. While the ending doesn't imply anything romantic, their A support is slightly suggestive of two people not realizing they may have a crush on the other person. That being said, they can both get married to women, so if there is anything there, they are, at most, bisexual.
    • Lute and Vanessa discuss aphrodisiac together at one point.
  • Incest Yay Shipping: The Ephraim/Eirika pairing gets a lot of thanks to their interactions in and out of support conversations. It even got acknowledged and mocked in Fire Emblem Heroes.
  • It's Easy, So It Sucks!: Since The Sacred Stones is a relatively easy game in an otherwise Nintendo Hard series, Fire Emblem fans who've played other titles first often don't find it to be very fun.
  • It Was His Sled: Lyon being the primary antagonist is supposed to be a twist - the early game has both the omniscient narrator and characters referring only to Vigarde being behind the attack, and Eirika and Ephraim spend some time wondering what Lyon's attitude to the war is - but given that many fans consider Lyon to be one of the best villains in the franchise, it's hard to enter the game without knowing this twist.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Eirika seems to fall under this as she's been shipped with Seth, Innes, Ephraim, Lyon, Tana, L'Arachel, Valter, and many more. It helps that more people nowadays argue more about Eirika's canonical pairing than Ephraim's.
  • Love to Hate: Valter and Riev are just too hilariously and unrepentantly evil.
  • Low-Tier Letdown:
    • Amelia stood out as one of the worst trainee units in the entire game (if not for the whole franchise) owing to low stats and being weaponlocked and footlocked until promotion, and available during one of the harder parts of each route. While she can be made into a good Paladin just shy below Franz, doing so requires a high investment even higher than Ewan, another trainee unit recruited a bit later in the game, which players would rather put one elsewhere that needs them, like the main lords.
    • Forde sticks out as mediorce compared to all of his competition, having low base stats for his level and middling growths, and being only available after the route split guarantees him a spot in most player's bench. His brother Franz shares identical base stats and growth at level 1 and available all the way from the beginning, which means Franz will quickly catch up and ready to promote by the time you finally got the first Knight Crest. His saving grace is that he's still a cavalier with well-balanced stats and a good candidate for Great Knight promotion.
  • Magnificent Bastard:
    • Prince Lyon in Ephraim's route is initially a noble, well-intentioned prince out to prevent his kingdom of Grado and his people from dying a foreseen earthquake. Awakening the Demon King Fomortiis to use its power to save his homeland, Lyon resurrects his dead father Vigarde as a proxy and uses his nation of Grado to invade others so he may steal and destroy their Sacred Stones. Bringing the other nations to their knees, Lyon manipulates his old friends Ephraim and Eirika to constantly stay one step ahead of them. Even at the end, Lyon is driven only by a wish to save his Grado, no matter how far he has to go. While always haunted by Fomortiis, when summoned to the Order of Heroes, Lyon calmly cows the Demon King into submission and servitude using his newfound leverage, performing the one deed he never could completely do before: control the devil.
    • Caellach the Tiger Eye is a former Jehanna mercenary who has ambitions to become a king. Wanting to escape the confines of the desert, Caellach grew a reputation in his mercenary days as a boisterous yet reliable warrior for better opportunities, ending up scouted by Grado to become one of their new generals. In charge of dealing with his former home in the war efforts, Caellach's cunning and charisma was able to conquer Jehanna, taking the palace and destroying its Sacred Stone after using Carlyle, while setting in-roads with Carcino for his future reigns. Establishing his connections and cutting off his attachments to his old life, Caellach joined Valter's army in a massive battle against the Magvel army, equipping himself against any potential weaknesses, ultimately losing only inches away from ascending to his beloved throne.
    • Aias is the former comrade Caellach of, and a famed tactician that has never been cut in battle. Joining Caellach with Grado, Aias was assigned to help conquer Jehanna, defending the borders from Erika's encroaching army. With the formation he set-up, Aias stood mightly against her army, sending waves of countless cavalry and infantry to batter them as he keeps himself well defended in a wall of knights and cavalry, while remaining formidable himself if directly fought. Standing near untouchable, it's only through the impending support of the Rausten army Aias was finally defeated, either dying in battle praising his killers' tactical prowess over him, or being killed by Caellach after defiantly facing him.
    • Tirado is Valter's subordinate who contrasting him uses wit and strategic betrayal. Tasked with capturing the heirs of Renais, Tirado place the traitor Orson in Ephraim's fold and get him to try reclaiming Renais Castle, using mercenaries to weaken the prince's army before ambushing him. When Ephraim manages to escape, Tirado adapted and spread gossip of Ephraim's capture to lure Eirika, tricking his adjutant Murray and a ballista squad as bait to weaken her, and then sending Orson to trick Eirika, before destroying her escape route when it fails, nearly capturing her had it not been for Ephraim's arrival leading to him engaging them in a final battle, where in defeat praises the two's skills and warns the future dangers of Grado.
  • Memetic Badass:
    • Due to his name and his surprising bulk and usability, Moulder is often revered as a great badass known as "Moulder the Boulder", when he's usually being a friendly middle-aged priest.
    • Thanks to her prominent magic growths that justify her proclamations of genius, Lute certainly earns respect from the fanbase, to the point where many fans like to portray her as the most elite magic wielder in the series, easily capable of soloing the entire game.
    • Seth, for being one of the strongest Oifey archetypes in the franchise. After all, the name Seth rhymes with "Death".
  • Memetic Molester: Valter. Admittedly, it's not that much of a stretch, as he's far too happy to track the twins down. Also, Gheb, who isn't exactly a stretch either, given his dialogue with Tana.
  • Memetic Mutation: Has its own section here.
  • Moe: Amelia and Myrrh (less in the "super cutesy and adorable moeblob" sense and more in the "sweet child who goes through lots of shit" one).
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Novala from Chapter 6 gleefully traps several Renais citizens in the mountains to be killed by giant spiders during the fight after they fail to work as hostages for Eirika's surrender. When Eirika is horrified by this display of pointless cruelty, Novala just laughs and says that this is war; any atrocity is fair game as long as you win.
    • Valter's cold-blooded murder of Glen and subsequent lying to Cormag about who killed Glen in order to send him on a misguided Roaring Rampage of Revenge that could possibly get him killed as well. Riev's approval of Valter's savagery puts him over the line too.
  • Narm: The scene where Fomortiis began to corrupt Lyon and change his character was meant to be really dramatic, but all that tension was taken away by the fact that the scene which just came right after it has the now-possessed Lyon greet Eirika and Ephraim with a really generic "Hi". It just comes off as way too funny to take seriously.
  • No Yay: Valter's Villainous Crush towards Eirika can become Squicky very quickly since it's heavily implied that he wants to rape her, saying things like wanting to "master" and "tame" Eirika.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Morva makes a badass entrance at the beginning of his chapter and looks like he may be the 11th-Hour Ranger. Instead, he gets killed and subsequently turned into a dracozombie.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Light Magic—in past games, it's wielded mostly by Weak, but Skilled mages who're best at doubling, and often not available until about half-way through the game which meant it was Overshadowed by Awesome. Here, not only is Light magic available from the 4th chapter but it gets a weapon triangle advantage against Dark-using monsters. Further clinching it is the Bishop's passive skill, which gives them triple damage against monsters no matter what is being used. Sages also gain access to Light tomes in this game, allowing many more characters to use it.
  • Scrappy Weapon: Dark magic in this game. It's not bad per se—just overshadowed by Anima and Light magic. Sure, it does attack enemy resistance, meaning it's still useful against monsters. But, on the other hand, their legendary weapon is the only one that does not get a damage multiplier against the Final Boss or Elite Mooks at the end of the game and you only have two potential users—Knoll and Ewan. Both of them join when the game is more than past its halfway point, and Ewan requires you to really baby him to get him ready to go; it's arguably not even the best route to take him down since the Sage class is so powerful. Oh and Luna was nerfed—severely hampering its usefulness. It's saying something when the best weapon for the category overall is Flux, the low level but still respectably powerful base Dark tome, thanks to its high might compared to Fire and Lightning.
  • Spiritual Successor: The game takes several mechanics from Fire Emblem Gaiden (which are present in most RPGs but not in Fire Emblem), such as infinite XP, use of a world map, monsters as enemies, trainee classes and branched promotions. The two-protagonist setting and their ideals also brings Alm and Celica to mind, and the Arena theme is based from Gaiden's battle theme.
  • Squick: Tethys's support with Artur is one of the most infamous in the entire series due to the former's uncharacteristically pushy behavior toward the younger Artur, ostensibly to get him to consider a dancing career but coming across more like she's sexually harassing him, only made worse by her comparing his appearance to that of a ten-year-old child. For more information, see 3:25 in this video.
  • That One Attack: As the only Wyvern Knight fought as a boss, Valter has a chance to proc Pierce which can take the player by surprise due to the increased damage that outright ignores defenses. It's possible that a fragile unit that would otherwise barely survives a single hit gets killed under the circumstence of Pierce proccing.
  • That One Boss: While it's easy enough to just grind your units to higher levels to defeat these bosses, keep in mind these are considered difficult if you don't abuse grinding from skirmishes and the Valni Tower:
    • Carlyle on chapter 14 of Eirika's route is a Swordmaster with high speed, hit, and avoid, the last of these is boosted even further by the throne he's on, not unlike Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade's Kel. Not only that, he also uses a Wind Sword which hits Res instead of Def at 2-range (although that means forcing him to attack at 2-range against a unit with high resistance might be a viable option), and does effective damage against fliers. Though, he is also vulnerable to the Swordslayer, which can be obtained in the chapter before him, however, said Swordslayer is a Permanently Missable Content that the player might not get if they aren't patient or aware to know that one of the reinforcement Warriors can possibly drop it, provided it is unequipped.
    • Vigarde, in Chapter 14 of Ephraim's route. He always has that chance to proc Great Shield to completely No-Sell your attacks, and is very, very tanky. While his evasion is not as high as Carlyle due to his lower speed and at least unlikely to avoid getting doubled, or let alone double-attack your own units, not to mention he's also vulnerable to anti-armored weapons (Armorslayer, Heavy Spear, Hammer); however, he is equipped with a hard-hitting Spear that also gives him a 5% crit boost, which can pose a chance to instantly One-Hit Kill all but the sturdiest of your units unless they have good enough luck to avoid facing a critical hit from him. Magic attacks won't simply fell him, either, due to his deceptively good resistance stat. You better keep your Reginleif intact for this moment.
  • That One Level: Even for an otherwise remarkably easy Fire Emblem game, The Sacred Stones still have some annoying maps.
    • Chapter 11 of Ephraim's route on Hard Mode is one giant onslaught of enemies, including Gargoyles, which come at you from all directions, are able to bypass your defensive units and hit like trucks, and Mogalls, who while easy to kill, are numerous and can do large amounts of damage to your units with lower resistance. It gets worse after a few turns, when two recruitable NPCs; L'Arachel (a defenseless healer) and Dozla (who lacks a ranged weapon) show up on the other side of the map where the Mogalls can chip away at their health. Dozla's determination to ignore the most dangerous units doesn't help matters, so unless you've been grinding like a madman, they'll likely die before you can reach them.
    • Chapter 14 of Ephraim's route, the siege of Grado Castle, includes an enormous map and enemy units armed with Berserk staves, which force the target(s) to turn on their allies. Although one of the enemies is recruitable, doing so requires the player to either fork up 10,000 gold or have L'Arachel (a very weak unit) talk to him. Even worse, he'll run off with two of the treasures if you don't fight your way through the densely packed enemies (which he can pass through freely) to reach him in time.
    • Chapter 15, which is the first chapter after the routes merge again. You'll get the twin you didn't choose to play as, plus the characters who joined on their route (Innes and Saleh for Eirika, Duessel and Knoll for Ephraim), and not only do they start in an isolated and vulnerable position, but they may be poorly leveled or equipped if you neglected them. The enemy gets a lot of reinforcements, especially fliers from the north. To top it all off, there are two bosses- Caellach and Valter- who are armed with shields that make it difficult to one-shot them.
    • Chapter 19 is a defense map with Fog of War, which can be a frustrating combination. The player must protect Mansel for thirteen turns, but enemies are plentiful, have very high stats, and receive reinforcements every single turn. An alternative win condition is to defeat the boss, Riev, but he is equipped with Auranote  and is located in the southern portion of the map, where the majority of enemies spawn. Although you are given the option to use up to 17 units, the map's narrow corridors will likely restrict you from using all of them effectively. That being said, if you somehow manage to defeat Riev, you will be getting the only instance of Aura that you can get in the main game.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • Morva, the Manakete hero who defeated the Demon King during his first reign of terror, is introduced, killed off and revived as a zombie slave of the selfsame Demon King within the space of the opening scene of one chapter.
    • Duessel. He's set up as an interesting character, being Ephraim's lance instructor and having conflicting loyalties despite being a general of Grado. He provides some plot-crucial info in the chapter where he finally does a Heel–Face Turn... and then he promptly poofs out of the plot, having no more required dialogue after that.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
    • Carlyle, the head of the Jehannan military, nursed a Bodyguard Crush on his country's beautiful Queen Ismaire, but eventually sells his country out to the Grado Empire when it becomes apparent she'll never reciprocate. To make matters worse, he tells her that it's her fault for being "too beautiful." He seems to be intended as a Tragic Villain driven to evil by unrequited love, but in practice comes off more as an Entitled Bastard who uses I'm a Man; I Can't Help It as a justification for treason.
    • Selena was intended to be a Tragic Villain who stays loyal to Grado out of a sense of My Country, Right or Wrong, even as she disagrees with her king and those he employs in his army. Although the game attempts to paint her a reasonable and overall decent person- the narration even counts her as one of the "innocents who Grado must account for"- she refuses to turn against Grado despite various characters calling her out for her blind loyalty, and unlike Cormag and Dussel, she turns a blind eye to it simply because of her adoration of Emperor Vigarde. She is given several chances to stop fighting, and yet she goes down fighting despite being against what she is ordered to do. In the end, it's hard to find her sympathetic despite the game telling you she is supposed to be. In fact, Myrrh flat out tells her that Vigarde is a zombie and Came Back Wrong, and Selena refuses to believe it simply because she can't bring herself to accept that her beloved emperor is dead. That she still remains loyal to Grado in the face of numerous signs of its corruption makes it hard to see her as anything more than a hopelessly delusional fool and/or a hypocrite.
  • Vindicated by History:
    • A lot of the more controversial elements that were criticized as making the game too easy note  were adopted into Fire Emblem: Awakening, whose Newbie Boom will define Fire Emblem for the foreseeable future.
    • The game as a whole became a lot more popular after the release of Awakening and Fates, going from one of the biggest cases of Contested Sequel in the series to near Sacred Cow levels in some sectors of the fandom. While the plot is still considered mostly cliché, it's still seen as well-written with good characters (with the real primary antagonist, in particular, having a very believable motivation for doing what he did compared to many FE villains), and as Gaiden, the inspiration for the above-mentioned controversial mechanics, also experienced a Vindicated by History surge with the help of a remake, the gameplay became a lot more liked.
    • It was also criticized for its length. Part of this was because Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, the previous game in the series, had roughly 30 chapters (not including Gaiden chapters!) including the Prolonged Prologue that was Lyn's tale. This game in contrast has only 21... and one Gaiden chapter. But people began to appreciate that while the game is short, it makes up for it in having visible branching paths (as opposed to the Guide Dang It! branches in Binding Blade and Blazing Blade) and the lack of Gaiden chapters is made up for with more optional maps, including the postgame.
    • The warmer reception the game has gotten is mainly because the game was part of the 3DS ambassador program a short time before the release of Awakening, making the game somewhat of a introduction to the Fire Emblem series, and convince a fair amount of people to buy Awakening. As such many have nostalgia for the game despite its flaws.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: As with the Elibe games, the battle animations are considered one of the best aspects of the game.
  • The Woobie:
    • Knoll harbors a lot of guilt for the role he played in Lyon's fall to evil, to the point that he actually expresses relief in his death quote.
    • Amelia, who is also a Plucky Girl and refuses to let it get her down.
    • Myrrh, who is already a Shrinking Violet, has to witness the death of Selena, who is an enemy she sympathized with, as well as fight against and kill her undead father.
    • The country Grado in general has its forces decimated, 85% of its high-ranking leaders killed off, the entire royal family killed, and then undergoes a massive earthquake after the epilogue. The fact that its neighbors consider the latter divine retribution for its role in the war and Ephraim is the only leader who expresses an interest in helping them implies Grado will end up as a pariah among the other nations.
  • Woolseyism:
    • Ismaire's original name was Ishmael. Since that's a male name, it got approximated to the more feminine sounding Ismaire.
    • Similarly, Eirika's original name in Japanese was Eirik, which is also a male name. Like Ismaire, she received a more feminine-sounding name in the localization.

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