While every character in any Fire Emblem game has seen its fair share of supporters and detractors, these Fates characters are arguably the most contentious among the fanbase:
Main Characters
- Corrin/The Avatar, particularly their Conquest iteration, is one of the most controversial and divisive Lords in the series, comfortably joining Roy, Celica, Micaiah, Edelgard and Alear in their ranks. The main arguments against them are that their sheltered upbringing (and indeed most of the cutscenes in the game) indicates they're wholly unqualified to lead the army and are generally incapable of strategy, and that the game's insistence that their actions in Conquest were noble, heroic and self-sacrificing, and the Hoshidan family's eventual acceptance of their choices, are both completely unwarranted and undeserved because, they argue, letting Garon get 95% of the way to succeeding with his Evil Plan to conquer and devastate Hoshido before stopping him just so their Nohrian siblings could see the truth was an incredibly inefficient, destructive, and cowardly way to end the war that, far from being self-sacrificing, Corrin stood the most to gain from since it was the only way to keep the love and support of their Nohrian family. Corrin is far from without their supporters, however. Many contest the above interpretation of Corrin's actions by arguing that critics seriously overestimate how many options Corrin had and underestimate how difficult it is to go against the wishes of the people you love no matter how wrong they are. Others embrace these criticisms by arguing that Corrin's various flaws and the resulting downward spiral of tragedy and failure that their plan becomes make for both a refreshingly flawed protagonist who's allowed to be weak and an engagingly dark and tragic story. Others also argue that Nohr Corrin's naive and optimistic pacifism is far more relatable and sympathetic than Hoshido Corrin, who is far more willing to kill than Nohr Corrin is, often citing the fact that in Birthright Corrin kills Xander (albeit after trying to persuade him to give up on the duel after Elise's death) whereas in Conquest Corrin spares Ryoma, who later commits suicide to protect them. This last camp sometimes goes as far as to argue that despite the majority of the people in charge of the Nohrian army being bloodthirsty psychopaths while the leaders of Hoshido are generally merciful, the differences between the routes in Corrin's willingness to kill actually result in the Nohr path having the lower body count than the Hoshido one (at least when it comes to named, on-screen characters). Finally, there's a third crowd that acknowledges the flaws in Corrin's writing, but enjoys the character anyway for their cool designs and Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot aspects. Fire Emblem Heroes and Fire Emblem Warriors have helped in this regard because they play up Corrin's Combo Platter Powers while ignoring the controversial aspects of their character from Fates; Super Smash Bros. did the same thing a year earlier, but stirred up its own controversies over character selection and representation (which can be found on the corresponding page).
- Azura is also polarizing, for similar reasons. Being a beautiful dancing Mysterious Waif obviously made her quite popular with many and a common marriage choice. However, her role in the story is often decried as "walking exposition" and with all the promotion and Ship Tease with Corrin, accusations of being forced on players because of Developers' Desired Date-related favoritism is not uncommon. Her personality also gets pretty divisive, among those who find her mysterious and endearing, those who find her flat and dull, and those who can see where the second party is coming from because of the plot, but find her far more interesting and three-dimensional in her supports. She also gets flak for being the one to introduce some of the most disliked-by-fans plot points in Conquest and Revelation, such as the curse of Valla, the crystal ball, and her plan to use the magic throne in Hoshido to expose Garon. After Camilla was included as a DLC Emblem in Fire Emblem Engage over her, defenders of Azura became a lot more vocal, creating a character-based Fandom Rivalry with Camilla fans.
Royals
- Takumi. The single most polarizing character in the game, he is seen as either a wangsty brat and a bother who actually causes a lot of trouble in particular in Nohr when compared to the rest of his family, or he's the best of the bunch for not paying lip service to the player character alongside being a character on par with those of Three Houses. His Jerk with a Heart of Gold personality, his personal insecurities, and frequently calling out the normally faultlessly-treated Corrin, are either justified by the years Corrin spent in Nohr, or derided as a poorly-handled characterization that has frequently been used. And this isn't even getting into his gameplay viability — as an ally in Birthright and Revelation, some fans appreciate getting such a powerful Game-Breaker early on, while others feel like using him is "cheating" or resent him for essentially making the other archers on Birthright useless. On the other hand, as an enemy in Conquest, he is a Recurring That One Boss that you encounter four times, including as the Final Boss, and each time you meet him, he gives you hell, something that older fans appreciate to make Conquest really hard, and something that new fans don't like for the ridiculous difficulty. Combine all this with the #BlameTakumi meme that spawned in the fandom's early days, which quickly became one of the things he was most known for, and you have the biggest Base-Breaking Character in the game.
- Xander. While some love him for being a very powerful Royal Who Actually Does Something with a very heartwarming Big Brother Mentor relationship with Corrin, to others his blind obedience to Garon despite his extremely obvious Sanity Slippage and Motive Decay, which causes a lot of problems on all three routes, ruins his character and makes him irredeemably Lawful Stupid. Others feel this is justified by it being a recurring character trait of the Camus archetype in the series, but still more don't feel it's a valid defence as, among other reasons, Bryce in Path of Radiance being undyingly loyal to an Obviously Evil king was pointed out and mocked by the villain himself to Bryce's face and Eldigan doing the same in Geneology got him killed, while Xander is still supposed to be sympathetic. At the same time, others point out that turning against your king is one thing, while turning against your own father is another. It can also be argued that Xander's conflict over his obedience to Garon is at least part of him rationalizing Garon's behavior, which isn't uncommon among abused children. Yet another faction
argues that there's enough dissonance between his behavior in the supports and in the story (essentially being more reasonable and trusting of Corrin in the former) that he may as well be entirely different characters in each.- Though the last faction itself could be up for debate, as the Western localization made plenty of changes to Xander's character within both the supports and the story itself, where he talks as if he's more defiant of Garon than he was supposed to be written as in the first place. The most egregious example of this being the line in his support with Corrin where he said he's now strong and wise enough to stand up to Garon flat out did not exist in the original Japanese script, creating an inconsistency with his character. It's these changes to Xander that mostly make his personality seem polarizing to most Western audiences.
- Camilla is this game's counterpart of Tharja. She is still popular overall for being a Ms. Fanservice Cool Big Sis Action Girl whose relationship with other strong girls is fun to watch, her devotion to the Avatar can be very amusing (especially in her supports with Jakob), and she has an interesting past as one of the very few survivors of Nohr's blood-stained Decadent Court, which deeply messed her up. But just like Tharja, plenty of fans find her obsession with the Avatar creepy due to her overbearing attempts to get close to them, not to mention the heavy incestuous undertones in her interactions with them. She also gets a lot of hate for the yandere spell she has in the Birthright route, and, other than her Dark and Troubled Past, her lack of character not in relation to the Avatar. Not helping is the "Cowmilla" Fan Nickname she's been getting, on top of being a walking wad of Fanservice that's arguably more blatant than Tharja herself. The heavy amount of attention Camilla receives in Fire Emblem Heroes adds to her divisiveness, as for every fan who rejoices over it there's as many who mention being sick and tired of her for it. Similarly, her being chosen as a DLC Emblem for Fire Emblem Engage was controversial, as while some like her portrayal there better than in Fates and consider her necessary as a flying Emblem, others dislike her for rehashing Corrin's Dragon Vein ability and wish that Azura, who has more relevance to the plot, had been chosen instead.
Other First Generation Playable Characters
- Niles. Depending on who you ask, he's either an entertaining morally ambiguous camp bi character providing humour with his flirtatious nature and innuendo-laden dialogue, or an offensive Depraved Bisexual stereotype actively makes the game worse by being the only same-sex S-Support for the male avatar. The English localisation of the original game toning this down is also a point of contention for many. Even the game's LGBT Fanbase haven't reached a consensus on this issue.
- Peri, for her childish personality and the fact that she's essentially a serial killer who is only working for the royal family because of how well she fights and Xander's Horrible Judge of Character. Fans are divided on whether her tragic backstory witnessing her mother's murder as a child is enough to explain the way she is. Her detractors think her backstory isn't notably more traumatic than what other characters who didn't turn out like her went through, while her defenders think it is, and many believe her characterization is more justifiable with the implication that her father at best did nothing to stop her insanity and at worst actively encouraged her down this path, something that is only mentioned in two of her supports. Her detractors also criticize the fact that she sometimes comes off as a Flanderized repeat of Henry from Awakening, but with a lot of the nuance and Hidden Depths removed and the insanity exaggerated (Henry was just a creepy kid with a macabre sense of humor and an unhealthy fixation on blood and death, whereas Peri is an out-and-out serial killer), making her feel like a one-note Sociopathic Hero. Her defenders do feel she shows signs of Character Development and more to her character than just bloodlust in some of her supports, particularly with Xander and Laslow.
- Azama. Fans like him for being a hilarious Troll who also has a knack for making harsh but accurate points. Detractors, however, consider him to be too much of a Jerkass to be likeable, and fear that any relationship he's involved in is doomed to be unhealthy.
- Izana in the Western localization, seeing how often he gets brought up as a point both for and against the localization. Some love his Keet and Cloudcuckoolander traits being played-up and find his dialogue to be a Fountain of Memes, while others think the localization removed his moments of seriousness and turned him into "one big joke". (His solo ending is often cited here, with the localization re-writing it into the punchline of a Brick Joke.) Some find his dialogue too Totally Radical, while others point out that the ways his Cloudcuckoolander tendencies were portrayed in the Japanese script (elongated syllables, informal speaking style from someone expected to use Keigo [polite form of speech], tilde) don't translate well into English, so the localized dialogue was the best way to convey the same feeling. The fact that Kantopia, one of the fandom's biggest sources for translations of the Japanese script, is known to dislike his localization portrayal only adds fuel to the fire.
Second Generation Playable Characters
- Soleil has shot to this status due to her supports with a male Avatar. Most agree that they are clumsily written, that the Male Avatar needlessly holds onto an Idiot Ball, and that Soleil comes off as a cliché character, although people dispute whether it's a case of Cure Your Gays or not. The fact that it was changed for the localizations along with the fact that the localization also changed most of Soleil's S-Supports from being romantic to being platonic (with her S-Supports with Forrest and Male Corrin being the only two exceptions) despite also including dialogue that states that she's attracted to both men and women only added fuel to the fire. She's basically right behind Takumi in terms of "most contentious character".
- Players tend to tear at each others' throats when debating if Soleil is bisexual or a lesbian.note Those who think she's bi accuse the others of believing in No Bisexuals or other such biphobic attitudes (not helped by actual biphobic slurs occasionally being slung around), while those who think she's a lesbian maintain accusations of Cure Your Gays and that her interest in the opposite sex is limited to If It's You, It's Okay. There's also a third group who believe that Soleil is straight and her interests in girls is limited to the Pseudo-Romantic Friendship trope, and decry the localization for "changing her character".
- Soleil's characterization as a Yuri Fan is also divisive due to the fact that most of her support conversations revolve around that single aspect. Some fans find it a big source of Funny Moments, while others, even those who don't care about the
Unfortunate Implications aspects of it all, consider it to be an Overly Long Gag that makes her extremely annoying and simplistic. - She's also criticized for the nature of her flirting. While the game repeatedly says that she's better at flirting than her father and implies that it's because she's more ethical about it, her critics will readily argue that she's even worse than her father and crosses several lines he never has or would, between stalking Ophelia all over camp when she wants nothing to do with her, spying on girls who are total strangers to her from behind bushes, and in the Japanese version doing the same thing to Forrest that she did to Ophelia, and refusing to stop stalking him until he "proves" he's not a girl. Thus she's not only criticized for being, in their eyes, a total creep, but also for being yet another instance of making light of female sex offenses for comedy.
- Nina's in a similar vein as Soleil. Many people, particularly in the West, dislike her for being a one-dimensional Yaoi Fangirl. However, an equal amount find her antics hilarious, enough to make her the most popular female child on the official popularity poll and 10th female character overall. She even outranked such popular first-gen girls as Selena and Felicia.
- Kana, the child of the Avatar, is also rather controversial as well. Dissenters claim they have no personality aside from being a Cutie Daddy's Girl/Momma's Boy, also claiming that they can be especially annoying, especially Male Kana's voice. Furthermore, those same people say Morgan was an infinitely better son/daughter who was also entertaining. On the other hand, however, people counteract those claims by saying Kana's endearing for their innocence and love for their parents, while also citing their Parental Abandonment issues and Hidden Depths as counter evidence to them being a Flat Character. Additionally, those same dissenters say Morgan's only different from Kana in the sense that they're only Older and Wiser compared to Kana, and some people even think Kana's a marked improvement over Morgan, especially Female!Morgan with her Jerkass moments as evidenced by Yarne and Inigo's supports. Overall, people tend to debate frequently whether or not Kana is either an improvement or downgrade from Morgan.
- Rhajat, particularly in the West. It's a given since she's already an Expy of the already hugely base-breaking Tharja, but the fact that she's the only Gay Option for female Avatar players and her Stalker with a Crush traits are made even more prominent in the localization does not endear her to many fans. Meanwhile her defenders either find the stalker traits part of her charm or cite her emotional vulnerabilities such as her issues with loneliness and argue that the former aren't being fair to her positive traits.
- In a similar vein to Rhajat, Asugi and Caeldori are accused of being flanderised versions of Gaius and Cordelia respectively. Asugi's detractors accuse him of taking Gaius's more mercenary traits and making him into an immature and unlikeable brat, while his defenders claim that to be the point, as Asugi is younger than Gaius. Caeldori on the other hand is the least-hated of the three expies, though is still called boring and uninteresting by her detractors, lacking the Survivor's Guilt that defined Cordelia, while many others praise how Cordelia's unrequited crush on Chrom which many found uninteresting wasn't repeated with Caeldori.
Villains and Other Non-Playable Characters
- Iago. There are many who dislike him for being a shallow villain whose looks and motivations undermine the Grey-and-Gray Morality that the developers were aiming for. But there are also a growing number of fans who find Iago to have a cool design and consider him to be an entertaining enjoyable Love to Hate villain along the lines of Narcian and Valter, as well as considering him to be a more interesting villain than his peers Garon and Hans. Then there's a third group of fans who don't necessarily mind Iago as a character, but feel that he'd work far better as a minor villain to be dealt with early on or at the half way point like the aforementioned Narcian and Valter, rather than as a major villain with screen time lasting nearly the entire game. This is evident in how he's killed off much earlier at the halfway point in the Revelation route, unlike in the Birthright and Conquest routes where he's killed off in the last quarter. His appearance in Fire Emblem Warriors as this game's villain representative has given him a number of new fans who consider him to be better there than in this game, though he's also gotten fan detractors who wanted the potentially more unique Garon as this game's villain representative instead.
