With a long history, a diverse cast, and at least four arcs in the series, there are bound to be characters that fans have a love or hate relationship towards.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
- Josette Capua. Story-wise, she starts as an antagonist who still acts abrasive even after her Heel–Face Turn, is a Tsundere who's in "Tsun" mode 90% of the time, and also has a petty rivalry with Estelle over Joshua. (Contrast with Kloe, who also likes Joshua but is far less obnoxious about it and doesn't hate Estelle) That being said, many fans sympathize with her circumstances and find her dynamic with Estelle entertaining. Gameplay-wise, she's the biggest Low-Tier Letdown of the second game, joining very under-leveled halfway through the final dungeon, being outclassed at everything she can do, and not having an S-Craft until you complete an annoying mini-dungeon that she's mandatory for. In The 3rd, she receives a ridiculously useful Remote Ability, but Remote Abilities only work when characters aren't in your party to begin with.
- Ries Argent. While most fans warmed up to her and fondly recall the character, fans are split on her Character Development or lack thereof. While she's the co-protagonist of The 3rd, her withdrawn, somewhat stoic personality traits can make it harder to like her. It doesn't help she's a case of Remember the New Guy?, and in a game all about celebrating the returning cast and their dynamics, she makes a point of keeping away from the group for about half the game. Ries also gets far less character focus than Kevin and his thoroughly-explored issues and backstory. The characterization we do get is generally liked, but it's still debated if what's there is enough to flesh her out beyond her role as Kevin's best friend.
- In terms of antagonists, Luciola. In a game where every other Enforcer either has a deep backstory or falls under Evil Is Cool or Love to Hate, many find her overall motivation (she fell in love with her adoptive father figure, and when he understandably rejected her, she killed him) a bit of a letdown after all the buildup to it, and find her sympathetic treatment by the party unjustified. It doesn't help that she re-uses Jubokko and Zaqqum for all her encounters, with neither changing much. On the other hand, she has her fans for the development and backstory she gives Scherazard, along with her Ms. Fanservice design.
- Erika Russell's antics are seen as either hilarious or annoying, creepy, and abusive. Being part of the Tita/Agate Ship Tease by proxy also doesn't help matters.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure
- Lloyd Bannings is either one of the most normal characters of the series that fans can relate to or a hypocrite who makes a ton of choices, and the games actually try to paint him as that everything he says and does is always correct even though logically what he proposes doesn't work.
- The Wellspring Alchemist, the ultimate Big Bad of Azure, is a contentious character. Many love them for their plans, abilities, and surprise reveal as Mariabell Crois and sexy Evil Costume Switch, while others find their ultimate motives weak despite the build-up and feel Dieter, who had much clearer ideological reasons for their actions, should have been the sole Big Bad. And that isn't even getting into their relationship with Elie, which has some fans appreciating the Les Yay while others finding it creepily one-sided and non-consensual. Their appearance in Cold Steel IV is even more contentious, with some feeling their actions as an antagonist don't amount to much more than messing with the SSS for fun. It doesn't help that they inherited the position in Ouroboros formerly held by fan-favorite villain Weissman and are frequently compared to him in later arcs in a manner some feel is undue Character Shilling.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
- Machias can be considered this. Some love his tsundere-like antics and his banter with Jusis while others hate him for the same reason, calling him a massive whiner. However, his meltdown in Chapter 2, his justified reasons for hating nobles, and his usefulness combat-wise (if played right) gained him quite a few fans — though he still has detractors due to how forced and rushed the resolution at the end of Chapter 2 feels for some. Most of this faded after the first game, and the main complaint Machias gets later in the arc is that he was Demoted to Extra.
- Some people love Jusis' cool and detached attitude and his massive Character Development throughout the series. Others dislike him for being haughty and arrogant, along with his angst throughout the second game.
- Possibly the most polarizing character among Class VII is Alisa. Her detractors point to her as an overly-cliched anime girl whose Tsundere tendencies and Pervert Revenge Mode reaction to Rean's accidental Funbag Airbag moment at the start of the first game make her wholly unlikable (the fact that Rean/Alisa tends to get pushed as the closest thing to an Official Couple the game has doesn't help). Her defenders will typically point out that her Tsundere actions get toned way down after the first chapter of the first game and that she does admit to an overreaction and apologizes for her slap. However, despite all this, Alisa does well in popularity polls; she's especially popular in Japan, as seen with the Cold Steel III popularity poll, where she came in 3rd place right behind Rean and Altina, respectively.
- As for protagonists, Rean is a general base breaker for the Trails fans among the Western fanbase. Either his entire character arc is interesting and complex, and his angst is thoroughly justified, or he's a whiny, Wangst driven teenager whose past compared to the other characters in the Trails franchise comes off as dull and uninspired. The sheer number of women in love with him is another major point of contention; some love it for all the Shipping potential, while others find it unrealistic and feel it relegates potentially interesting characters to Satellite Love Interests. Then there's his insistence in wanting Crow back to the academy, never mind the latter assassinating the highest official of the empire. Is it thoroughly justified for Rean to want to bring him back to atone for the crimes that he's committed just like the other protagonists before himnote or are his reasons for bringing Crow back to the academy very flimsy and can come off as forceful, never mind the other guy being very insistent that he's doing all this on his own accord? The fact that he's the protagonist for a total of four games compared to his predecessors doesn't help his case. There's also the constant debate over whether Rean's writing flaws are the fault of or exasperated by the Bonding Point system, or whether he was a flawed concept from the start regardless of its existence. Though many fans now do think that Rean's angst is justifiable at the end of Cold Steel II and especially Cold Steel III. Although, keep in mind this is mostly for the Western fanbase. Rean is very popular in Japan, ranking third place in a post Cold Steel II poll with the characters of the entire franchise, only being beaten by Olivier and Estelle. He also comes in at first place in the Cold Steel III and Cold Steel IV popularity polls.
- Crow is also very polarizing due to how Easily Forgiven he was by Rean and the others for his actions as leader of the Imperial Liberation Front. Those who hate him think the story tries to downplay his crimes which, among other things, started the civil war that makes up the bulk of the second game. On the other hand, those who like him think the game makes it clear Crow is a villain, as he still helps Duke Cayenne and the Noble Alliance during the civil war after Osborne's presumed death and instead takes issue with Rean and the rest of Class VII for being so lenient with Crow. These fans think Class VII has incredibly Skewed Priorities, which Crow calls them out on when they try to bring him back. His situation has also gotten compared to other characters in the Trails Series such as Renne and Joshua, with people pointing out how forgiveness has always been a theme in the franchise given that Estelle forgave those two for their actions as Enforcers of Ouroboros. However, some fans see the comparison of Crow's situation to those two as a false equivalence due to the differences in their situations: Renne and Joshua were much younger than Crow when they joined Ouroboros, and Joshua got brainwashed by Weissmann, whereas Crow's actions as C were of his own free will. On the other hand, people often cite his acknowledgment of his role as a villain, his attempts to bring the war to an end as quickly as possible to "clean up the mess he created," and his willingness to atone for his actions as points in his favor. Do note that this mainly applies to the Western fanbase, just like Rean, because as of Cold Steel IV, Crow's the second most popular character of the Trails series, right behind Rean according to the popularity polls
◊. He has two times the number of votes compared to the character in third place (Altina) in the Cold Steel IV popularity poll. - Juna Crawford is a unique example in that while her personality and gameplay role is generally well-liked, her divisiveness comes from how she's integrated into the story and its effects on the writing. Juna gets established as not only a die-hard fan of Crossbell's Special Support Section but someone they consider a trusted friend and ally, despite not appearing in Zero or Azure at all (until remakes added a cameo). To detractors, this spits in the face of the series' focus on Worldbuilding, and they feel Falcom should've instead had an actual recurring Crossbell NPC be Promoted to Playable. Others don't mind and point out that the series had used retcons before, that there was plenty of time for the SSS to meet her during one of Azure's many time-skips, or believe her character makes up for these aspects. There's a third camp who meet in the middle: feeling Juna simply being a Fangirl of the SSS would make sense, but the SSS treating her as an Honorary True Companion is too much. Ash gets similar reactions for being a hitherto unknown Hamel survivor, though not to the same extent.
- Claire Rieveldt fell into this following Cold Steel III and her betrayal of the heroes. One side of the fandom considers her a compelling, morally gray antagonist with a sympathetic backstory and a legitimate reason to stick by Osborne. This same side also tends to like her dynamic with Rean, wishing she'd become an official romance option. The other side, however, hates her for sticking by Osborne even against all reason, with her justifications and rationale coming across as wearing thin and ultimately unsympatheticnote . As such, these fans feel that she, like Lechter, was let off the hook too easily and should've been given comeuppance instead. There is also some debate as to whether she is well-written in her own right or wasted potential due to Falcom both underutilizing her and not having her either fully commit to Osborne and the other Ironbloods or turn against him.
