Characters / Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Blue Lions Part One

aka: Fire Emblem Three Houses Sylvain

Fire Emblem: Three Houses characters index
Main Characters: Byleth | Edelgard | Dimitri | Claude | Rhea | Other Main Characters
Houses: The Black Eagles (Part One, Part Two) | The Blue Lions (Part One, Part Two) | The Golden Deer (Part One, Part Two)
Garreg Mach Factions: The Ashen Wolves | The Church of Seiros | Officers Academy Instructors and Staff
The Three Nations of Fódlan: The Adrestian Empire | The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus | The Leicester Alliance
Other: Historical Figures | The Flame Emperor Army | Those who slither in the dark | Other Characters

Felix

Felix Hugo Fraldarius

Nationality: Holy Kingdom of Faerghus

House: Blue Lions

Class: Noble → Myrmidon → Mercenary → Swordmaster (Three Houses), Myrimdon → Swordmaster → Mortal Savant (Three Hopes)

Age: 17 (2/20)

Crest: Fraldarius (Major)

Height: 174 cm

Voiced by: Yuichi Jose (Japanese), Lucien Dodge (English)

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Houses)}

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Hopes)}

^{Click here to see Felix in Fire Emblem Heroes}

The Shield's Successor / Meandering Sword / Lone-Wolf Blade

"I'm not interested in glory or prizes. All I want is a formidable enemy to sink my teeth into."

The second son of the ducal House of Fraldarius, and a friend of Dimitri since childhood. He is hard to approach and is devoted to honing his swordsmanship to the point he will challenge any strong person he meets to a duel immediately.

His personal ability, Lone Wolf, increases his damage dealt if he does not have a battalion with him. He bears the Major Crest of Fraldarius, which has a chance to raise his Might whenever he uses a weapon.

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• Adaptation Expansion: He gets a way bigger role in Hopes, where he becomes Dimitri's Number Two and co-retainer alongside Dedue. Dimitri trusts him with leading the Kingdom army if he's otherwise incapacitated and mentions in their supports that he welcomes his criticism and his unwillingness to become a Yes-Man, a trait that Dimitri finds invaluable. It's worth noting that if the player unlocks the map where Shez has to confront Epimenides, the latter can summon a phantom of Felix and not Dedue alongside the other retainers.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Felix is noticeably a lot nicer in Three Hopes, with his overall prickliness toned down. While he's still a bit of a jerk, his attitude towards Dimitri carries less hostilty and more concern, and he isn't nearly as mean as he was to Dedue. With the former, it's a little justified in that Felix learns why Dimitri was grinning like a maniac the day they put down that rebellion, because the person he just killed was involved in the Tragedy of Duscur. Dimitri's display still made Felix see him in a different light, leading to his present day prickliness, but he at least gets why.
• Admiring the Abomination: Downplayed, but when Catherine shows up with Thunderbrand, most of the students will talk about how intimidating said weapon is and how fearsome Catherine is in battle. Felix? He just wants to spar against a legendary weapon.
• Ambiguously Bi:
  • Most of his paired endings with female characters (including Byleth) end in marriage, but he seems equally eager to settle down with Sylvain in their Azure Moon-route paired ending. Not to mention, in their A-support Felix blushes. While the English localization keeps things somewhat ambiguous, the Japanese version of their A+ support features heavily romantic undertones. In both the localization and the original Japanese text, it’s stated that they become so close that they pass away on the same day, thusly fulfilling their childhood promise. It’s notable that the ending makes no mention of either of the two marrying anyone.
  • Furthermore, his paired ending with Dimitri states that the two became incredibly close over the years and that Felix was more saddened by Dimitri's death than the queen.
• Ambiguous Ending:
  • In his paired ending with Sylvain on every route that isn't Azure Moon, Felix throws himself into a life of wandering the land looking for work as a mercenary. After Sylvain, now Margrave of his house, recruits Felix for a job, they part never to meet again. Some years later, Felix's sword arrives at Sylvain's home, with what happened to Felix unknown.
  • His non-Azure Moon paired endings with Flayn and Mercedes, both notably being worded similarly, end with it being mentioned that no one knows what became of the pairs after they travelled together, only implying that Felix quit his life as a mercenary.
  • The "vanished from recorded history, save for several unsubstantiated rumors" variant occurs in his solo endings on non-Azure Moon routes, as well as a few other non-Azure Moon paired endings, most notably Byleth's.
• Ancestral Weapon:
  • Ancestral shield, in his case, which also doubles as Fraldarius' namesake as the Shield of Faerghus. Saving all of the villagers in his Paralogue grants you the Aegis Shield, which he can safely use thanks to his Crest, and is also markedly useful in mitigating his Glass Cannon stats by not only boosting both his Defense and Resistance, but providing the passive effects of Pavise and Aegis when equipped.
  • In Chapter 15 of the Azure Moon route, if Byleth talks to Rodrigue when he appears on the field, they can obtain the Fraldarius Sacred Weapon (as opposed to the shield, which is a Hero's Relic), the Sword of Moralta, which restores HP every turn it's equipped.
• And Then What?: As someone dedicated to being the best warrior possible, Byleth asks what his plans are for when the war ends. He dodges the issue, though he admits in his S-rank that there hasn't been anything for him to do in a while. In most of his endings outside of the Azure Moon route, he either wanders Fódlan killing and never finds a new purpose, or spends his entire life searching for it only to find it at the end. Alternatively, he becomes a wandering merc with his spouse, with his spouse's presence giving his life meaning.
• Anger Born of Worry:
  • While his treatment of Dimitri is somewhere between this and genuine disgust for the man he's become in Three Houses, in Three Hopes, it's clear that he's largely just pissed about how Dimitri refuses to trust anyone to help shoulder the burden he carries (Dimitri believing he's the only one who should have to carry it). It finally reaches a breaking point when Dimitri willingly hands himself over to Cornelia to be executed after Cornelia is able to take all of Ferhdiad hostage with Agarthan turrets without letting anyone talk to him about it first, at which point Felix absolutely lays into him.
  • In his A+ support with Sylvain, he is visibly shaken when he thinks Sylvain is in critical condition due to protecting him from a fatal blow. While Sylvain did take a bad wound, he shrugs it off like its no big deal. Felix is naturally upset with how laid-back he's acting and forces Sylvain to tell him he won't be reckless anymore.
  • He scolds female Byleth for standing around in the cold during his Goddess Tower scene with her because he doesn't want her to get sick.
  • In his B-Support with Mercedes, he chastises her for endangering herself in order to heal him during a battle.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Wolves. His personal ability is called "Lone Wolf," and while he's prickly and distant, at the end of the day Felix is a loyal ally through and through, especially on the Azure Moon route.
  • He also has a mild cat motif. Felix has a positive reaction to Byleth bring up cats at teatime and says he doesn't dislike cats in his supports with Bernadetta. He's also somewhat antisocial, prefers to stick to his own "territory" (the training grounds) and enjoys hunting.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Felix holds little love for his father. If recruited to the Black Eagles, he can even kill Lord Rodrigue. While he constantly argues with his father on the Azure Moon route, he is devastated by Rodrigue's death, although he hides it with his tsundere behavior. If he isn't recruited on the Crimson Flower route, he somberly vows to continue the fight in Rodrigue's name if Rodrigue is killed first in Chapter 16.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: He's extremely proud of his sword skill, fairly antisocial, is looking to spar with anyone he deems worthy, and tends to trash talk enemies he defeats.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Post-timeskip on the Azure Moon route, while outwardly antagonistic towards Dimitri, he's just as concerned as the rest of the Blue Lions, if not more so. After Dimitri calms down, their A-support conversation confirms in a roundabout way that Felix does indeed care about Dimitri.
• Babies Ever After: Or baby ever after in his non-Azure Moon paired ending with Ingrid. It is notably the only paired ending in which it’s stated that he has a child.
• Badass Cape: His post-Time Skip outfit in Three Houses features a half cape. Three Hopes has him wearing a more regal-styled winter cloak in a similar style to that of his father.
• Badass Teacher: In his paired ending with Annette on non-Azure Moon routes, the two of them become teachers at the Officers Academy, with Felix as the new sword-fighting instructor.
• Battle Couple:
  • In their S-support, Felix proposes to Byleth not just because he's in love with her, but because he fears that his sword will grow dull and rust if they can't fight side-by-side. On non-Azure Moon routes they become legendary mercenaries, while their Azure Moon ending notes that they're at their happiest when sparring together.
  • In their Azure Moon ending, he and Dorothea travel together while he serves as the right hand of the king; more often than not she throws herself into battle alongside him.
  • In their non-Azure Moon endings, he and Ingrid choose to abandon their noble titles to become a pair of mercenaries.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He tells you in Chapter 12 of Crimson Flower that he's sticking with you so he can finally forge his own path. Unfortunately, he sacrificed his ties to his family, his nation, and at least one childhood friend to do so, and thus the only place his path leads him is the monstrosity he hates.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Very much so with Dorothea in their supports. As the sole surviving heir of the influential and powerful House Fraldarius, as well as the bearer of a Major Crest, Felix is keenly aware of the fact he is a highly desirable marriage candidate. Furthermore, Felix is also ware of Dorothea's reputation as a beautiful vixen looking to marry into a noble family. Naturally, when recruited into the other's house, Dorothea almost immediately fixates on Felix with obvious romantic interest. Given their personalities, they initially mix like oil and water: he's irritated by her forward nature and she is irritated by his standoffish behavior, resulting in some serious snark between them. However, after a bout of sparring, they develop respect for each other, and start having tea together. Naturally, they can get married on Azure Moon. On the other routes, despite Felix's meaningless wandering and killing, when Dorothea returns to the opera, the wandering swordsman will occasionally come to listen her sing only for him.
• Best Her to Bed Her: Felix being Felix, one of the main signs of romantic attraction from him is a keen interest in sparring with, and beating, the object of his interest. It's particularly evident with Dorothea and Byleth, both talented swordswomen in their own right.
• Big Brother Worship: Felix held his brother Glenn to a high esteem. Naturally, he doesn't take his brother's death that well and blames the concept of chivalry on why his brother was killed.
• Birds of a Feather: With Lysithea, as both of them are quite Tsundere in their attitudes but have a hidden softer side beneath that, they both have had their personalities drastically affected by a traumatic incident in their pasts (Glenn's death for Felix, the Crest experimentations for Lysithea), they both are considered prodigies in their respective class, tend to be very blunt, have Tsurime Eyes and don't like being reminded they are the youngest ones of their friendship groups. Naturally they can get married at the end of their support chain.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • The majority of his endings on the other routes besides Azure Moon mention him living a very sad and meaningless life filled with bloodshed. Sometimes he finds a reason to live in certain parings, but if he settles down, it's usually only after suffering for a long time.
  • The non-Azure Moon endings endings where he becomes half of a Battle Couple also fall into this trope. The presence of a lover allows him to retain his humanity and find a greater purpose in life, but it comes at the cost of vanishing from the historical record and/or cutting all ties with anyone who isn't his spouse. His endings where he settles down somewhere can be seen this way too, depending on interpretation (i.e. if one sees it as a stifling life Felix accepted, or him finding new/different and fulfilling purpose), with a notable one being him marrying Bernadetta. It's noted that as a couple they got along smoothly, however it is also rumored she had to force him to stay home early in their marriage instead of leaving to train in the Oghma Mountains. It's also noted that he ended up taking over much of the work as head of House Varley as Bernadetta became more reclusive over the years, that documents from their later years were increasing signed with the name Felix, Count Varley.
  • No matter what route, if he falls in love with Lysithea, her Crests are never removed and she dies very young. He spends what little time they have together making her happier than she had ever been.
• Blood Knight: He's always on the hunt for strong, skilled warriors to challenge in battle. And in all of his non-Azure Moon campaign endings, he at least starts out wandering the world looking for combat. However, he draws a line between this trope and mindless bloodshed. Enjoying a fight is fine, but enjoying violence for its own sake is a very easy way to get on Felix's bad side. He even comments on this if his Goddess Tower scene is obtained.
  Felix: Blades, blood, and battle. That's what I'm made of and nothing else.
• Bond One-Liner:
  "Why am I even here..." (pre timeskip)
  "Next time, bring your friends." (pre timeskip)
  "You haven't earned my pity." (post timeskip)
  "One to remember."(post timeskip)
  "It was meant to be." (post timeskip)
• Book Dumb: Or at least "tactically dumb." Felix isn't unintelligent in the slightest, but struggles with tactics and strategy. If his C support with Ingrid is obtained after the timeskip, Felix admits he doesn't know much about tactics and claims he only knows how to swing a sword around. This is supported by his starting banes in Reason and Authority, the more brain/study-intensive fields.
• Born Lucky: He's one of the few characters to have a Major Crest that wasn't forced on them or literally being the originator of it.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: Bows are one of his starting proficiencies, and combined with his sword talent, he can become a good Assassin.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: A variation; Felix is a hard worker when it comes to combat and regularly trains to improve himself, but he is disinterested in forming strategies and plans. Despite this, it's noted by Ingrid he has great potential as a tactician if he applied himself to it, and several supports show him to be very perceptive of other people in ways that make him a good strategist. Felix doesn't care to apply himself for it, though, instead wanting to spar and train.
• Bring It: If fought on the Crimson Flower route, he's the only Blue Lion who isn't angry or sad over Byleth's decision to join the Empire.
  Felix: Part of me has been waiting for this since I met you. No need for chitchat. Come at me!
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: He's the Brooding Boy to Mercedes, Annette, and Bernadetta's Gentle Girl if they pair up, especially on non-Azure Moon routes where the guilt of what he's done eats at him and they end up being the major lights in his life.
• Brutal Honesty: Felix doesn't mince words; he'll say what he thinks about a person or their actions without regards to their feelings. He repeatedly calls Dimitri monstrous, lays into Dedue for his extreme loyalty to Dimitri, and calls his father foolish for his idealistic attitude.
• Calling the Old Man Out: After his Paralogue battle ends, he lays into his father for seemingly caring more about his honor and his duty to the late king than about saving the lives of his people, asking if Rodrigue would have cared if Felix had met the same fate as his brother. Apart from scolding Felix for his rudeness, Rodrigue mostly sits back and takes it.
• The Cameo: He appears in Engage as one of Byleth's Bond Rings.
• Can't See a Damn Thing: His Classic Mode death quote, post-timeskip.
  Felix: Where's my weapon? Damn it! Can't see...anything!
• Career-Ending Injury: If he reaches an A-Support with Ingrid, their Azure Moon ending states that he took a blow meant for her, crippling his sword arm for life. Despite this, he ends up not regretting it.
• Cassandra Truth: Several of his monastery dialogues in Part 1 have him warn Byleth against Dimitri, even going as far as urging them to kill him on one occasion. Given Dimitri's general behavior in Part 1, these come off as rather extreme and unwarranted, and Byleth ignores them. Then Chapter 11 happens and Dimitri's Sanity Slippage reaches its apex, turning him into an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight obsessed with revenge, and Felix's earlier warnings no longer sound preposterous.
• Clark Kent Outfit: Implied. Leonie remarks that he is heavier than he looks in their B-support. Felix also ties with Edelgard for the second-highest Strength growth in the game, and has the third-highest Strength cap, trailing only Edelgard and Dimitri.
• Combat Stilettos: Gender-inverted. His post-timeskip outfit has noticeable heels on his boots, despite not being used for a riding class.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • Believes strongly in this philosophy, as he praises Byleth during their support for being able to mix in fists and feet into their spar rather than only relying on them as a backup when their weapon is lost, as he criticizes that most knights do.
  • When Leonie beats him with a pit trap in their support, he takes his loss gracefully and praises her for using that.
• The Comically Serious: The game takes a fair amount of humor with him taking goofy situations completely seriously, particularly with his supports with Annette.
• Cool Sword:
  • In his B-support with Dimitri, Dimtri notices that Felix has a new, high-quality blade; Felix explains he discovered the Sword of Zoltan, a blade crafted by the finest blacksmith in Fódlan, in a merchant's wares mixed in with a bunch of common swords and bought it. An awed Dimitri asks to swing it only once, but, knowing Dimitri's history with swords, Felix refuses.^note By default, it goes to Byleth's inventory, and if Dimitri has at least an A rank in swords, he's able to wield it like anyone that meets the same requirement. It's also his weapon as an enemy on Crimson Flower.
  • While other units can use the Sword of Moralta, one of Fódlan's Sacred Weapons, which restores HP when equipped at the beginning of each turn, as Felix is the only bearer of the Crest of Fraldarius in the cast, he's the only person who can use it to its fullest potential. It's also his weapon as an enemy on Verdant Wind.
• Crutch Character:
  • Not Felix himself, but his personal skill Lone Wolf. In the early game it provides Felix with nearly unparalleled damage output, but later on he’ll want to work against his Authority weakness, as a good battalion can not only match or exceed Lone Wolf’s damage boost, but also provide many other statistical bonuses. It becomes a backup skill in case his battalion loses its endurance.
  • Downplayed in Three Hopes. While the bonuses are not quite as drastic as in Three Hopes he loses out on the coverage a battalion would provide, but can ultimately run without one.
• Cultural Rebel: Holds the ideals of knightly honor and chivalry held by the rest of his home country, and most of his classmates, in contempt as a result of his brother's death and his father's approval of it. His response on Crimson Flower as he stays this path, however, makes clear that this ends up leaving him just as bitter and bloodthirsty as Dimitri, with a number of his paired endings keeping him from being completely consumed by how unhappy his rebelling against those ideals has ultimately left him.
• The Cynic: He believes wholeheartedly that idealism, honor and nobility are purely for fools, and that writers of idealistic stories control peoples' thoughts.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: With Ingrid, as the Cynic.
• Cynicism Catalyst: The death of his older brother Glenn, whom Felix idolized. Or more accurately, his father's reaction to his brother's death. Instead of grieving the loss of his son or trying to console Felix, he was proud that "[Glenn] died like a true knight." This made Felix turn his back on the ideals Glenn epitomized, and instilled in him a belief that chivalry is a flawed system that glorifies death.
• Damage Reduction: Completing his Paralogue gives him the Aegis Shield, which only works for him (as he bears the Crest of Fraldarius), and it has a chance of halving the damage Felix takes. This can help his survival, considering he's a Glass Cannon.
• Deadly Distant Finale: In his paired ending with Sylvain on the Azure Moon route, they pass away on the same day in what's presumed to be the future.
• Deadpan Snarker: The guy always seems to have something snarky to say regardless of the situation.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Male version. He's prickly and aloof, but tends to warm up to his partners in supports, especially if they can reach an A-rank.
• Difficult, but Awesome: His Intense Velocity ability in Three Hopes can provide a very powerful speed boost on demand without the need to rack up hit count, but the difficult part comes from its very short duration that only allows for one full combo before having to dodge cancel to maintain the buff. Miss the window by even a second, and you have to build up speed all over again.
• Disc-One Nuke: His Lone Wolf personal skill is an excellent boost to his damage output early on in the game, but it starts to become irrelevant later on as more powerful battalions that offer very good bonuses become available.
• Does Not Like Spam:
  • He dislikes sweet foods, including cake. This forms the basis of his supports with Lysithea, and other supports, such as with Sylvain and Bernadetta, touch upon this dislike, too. He learns to love Lysithea's cakes, a recipe she developed herself to be as mild as possible to not be offensively sweet to him, by the end of their support. If they become a couple, on some routes she will leave her recipe with another baker so he can still eat them after she dies young as a last gift.
  • It's subtle and not stated in text, but he's also not fond of vegetables, as he dislikes three of the four vegetable-based dishes, and the fourth he's simply indifferent towards (and it's also as much a seafood/cheese dish as it is vegetables).
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: If he gets a paired ending with Annette on a non-Azure Moon route their ending card states that she successfully convinced him to abandon his mercenary work and become a teacher at the Officers’ Academy and that his students described him as a very harsh instructor.
• Early-Bird Cameo: In Heroes, he appeared in Annette's section in "Meet the Heroes" months before becoming playable himself (albeit as a seasonal).
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite his seemingly uncaring attitude regarding violence, and considering it a means to get stronger, Felix's supports with Dimitri reveal that he was disgusted by how the prince visibly enjoyed inflicting violent deaths upon rebels they fought a few years before enrolling in the Officers Academy.
• Expository Hairstyle Change:
  • He switches his mostly-contained bun for a more ragged ponytail after the timeskip in Three Houses, showing the stress he's under.
  • In Three Hopes, he ties it up in a ponytail to go more nicely along with his new title of Duke Fraldarius.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: In his non-Azure Moon paired ending with Leonie, after mercenary work dries up in the post-war Fódlan, the two become street performers to make ends meet.
• Fatal Flaw: Cynicism and his single-minded pursuit of strength. Due to his brother's death and strained relationship with his father, Felix views idealism and honor as useless. His only goal in life is to become stronger with a blade (though this is so he can protect those he cares about). In non-Azure Moon routes, Felix's cynicism and Blood Knight tendencies ultimately cause him to not only live a meaningless and hollow life, but also become as bloodthirsty and violent as Dimitri. Turning his back on his friends and family in the means of pursuing strength ultimately leaves him all alone and unhappy.
• First-Name Basis: Despite calling Dimitri "the boar" or other variants for much of the story, after Rodrigue dies, and Dimitri comes to his senses, Felix starts calling Dimitri by name again as a sign of their relationship being mended.
• Flash Step: Invoked with his unique ability "Intense Velocity" in Three Hopes, increasing his movement speed and attack speed every time he evades in the middle of his combo, stacking up to 7 times.
• Freudian Excuse: A big part of his hatred for the ideals of chivalry and the Knight in Shining Armor has to due with the death of his older brother Glenn during the Tragedy of Duscur where he died protecting Dimitri instead of saving his own life, and his father Rodrigue's approval of said sacrifice. Rodrigue claims that Glenn was the type who never could have forgiven himself if he ran for his life out of self-preservation, but Felix doesn't see it that way.
• Friend to All Children: Felix is one of the few characters that actually likes talking about children if pressed on the subject during teatime. Additionally, while it's subtle, he's overall less prickly and/or rude to characters younger than him.
• Glass Cannon: He’s got pretty good strength and speed growths, and his Crest has a chance of raising the might of his weapon when attacking, though his low defense and resistance means he relies on dodging and can’t take much punishment. Furthermore, his personal skill encourages not giving him a battalion, which could otherwise offset his low defenses.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: One of his starting proficiencies is in brawling, and it's half of his default study plan alongside swords. He also praises Byleth for incorporating their fists and feet into their fighting style alongside swordplay. With his stat growths, Felix can notably make a monstrous Grappler or War Master – the double-attack from gauntlets means his Crest’s effect has twice as many chances to activate, greatly helping his damage output.
• Has a Type: His supports with Annette and Dorothea show that he likes girls who can sing.
• Hates Their Parent:
  • Felix's father is listed as one of his dislikes. He's shown to be avoiding Rodrigue if you talk with him in the monastery in Chapter 5, and he shows hostility toward his father in most of their conversations. That said, he's devastated when Rodrigue dies, even if he doesn't openly show it.
  • In Three Hopes 's Azure Gleam route, assuming that Rodrigue survives as an after effect of recruiting Byleth, Felix’s A Support with his father allows them to speak on equal terms and mend their estranged relationship.
• Headbutting Heroes: He and Dedue have perhaps the worst relationship out of all the playable characters who can support with each other. Felix repeatedly refers to Dedue as a "dog" in service to the "boar" Dimitri, and while Dedue is willing to tolerate the insults against himself, he warns Felix that he won't stand for badmouthing Dimitri.
• He Who Fights Monsters: If you recruit him on the Crimson Flower route, after the timeskip, he laments that he's become the same mindless murderer he hated Dimitri for becoming.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Knew how to swing a sword before he learned how to write, as is tradition in his homeland. His stats also make him an ideal fit for sword-wielding classes like Myrmidon.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • With Dimitri in their paired ending. It's noted that his grief when Dimitri passes away is said to be stronger than that of the queen's.
  • Potentially with Sylvain, at least in the English translation. The Japanese translation, however, uses romantic language to describe their relationship. They even die on the same day in their Azure Moon paired ending, where to quote the game, "as if conceding that one could not live without the other."
• Hey, You!: His supports with Dorothea and Bernadetta have him getting their attention by calling out "you."
• Hidden Depths:
  • In both the ending of his paralogue in Part I and his A-Support with Dimitri taking place post-timeskip, he implies his difference of opinion with his father was not just about Glenn's death, but Rodrigue's insistence on fulfilling his duty to the late king which he found foolish. For him, there is a boundary between the affairs of the dead and the living, and not understanding this boundary leads to misery when grounded by the dead. Felix admits that yes, he will be pained by Glenn and Rodrigue's deaths for the rest of his life, but he refuses to let himself wallow when he has more important things to do.
  • He has a "hidden talent" in Reason even though he initially comes with a weakness penalty in the skill.
  • The opera is one of his favored topics in tea time events, and his supports with both Dorothea and Annette have him expressing an interest in hearing them sing. (In fact, it's only Dorothea's singing and that she can wield a sword decently that Felix begins to see her as anything other than a pest.) Evidently, Felix is a man with an appreciation for music.
  • While he is Book Dumb (or at least tactically-challenged), he's also able to deduce that something's up with Jeritza in Chapter 6.
  • Despite his cold and mildly antagonistic demeanor towards Dimitri, he makes several comments that implies he does still care about Dimitri as a friend, even before the timeskip; he makes several comments to Byleth that allude to his concern for Dimitri's mental well-being, especially after it is revealed who the Flame Emperor actually is. When Dimitri is killed in the Verdant Wind route, he is visibly distraught, even blaming himself for not stopping Dimitri from going insane before this point, and it is even implied that this kicked off his own Start of Darkness that causes his more bittersweet endings in the postgame.
• Honest Advisor: In his solo Azure Moon ending and paired ending with Dimitri, he becomes this.
• Hypocrite:
  • He holds Dimitri in contempt for constantly wallowing in grief and letting the dead guide his actions, yet he admits in his support with Byleth that he is driven by a need to surpass his deceased brother Glenn's power. That said, Dimitri concedes that Felix isn't wrong about this.
  • On the Crimson Flower route, he becomes the bloodthirsty murderer he always despised Dimitri for being, although to his credit he's at least aware that he's fallen to Dimitri's level.
  • On Silver Snow and Verdant Wind, after spending some time believing Dimitri is dead and joining the respective route to try to make a better future with those capable of doing so, his dialogue after Dimitri's actual death has him consumed by a desire to avenge Dimitri and his spirit, chaining himself down the very path that made Dimitri into the boar. By the end of the game, he's also degenerated into the same battle-hungry Blood Knight he despised Dimitri for being, except unlike Crimson Flower he's not even aware of it.
  • In his C-Support with Sylvain, Felix calls him out on his hedonistic behavior and how he never considers how his actions hurt others. While Felix wasn't wrong about Sylvain's womanizing, he too often doesn't consider how his actions and words hurt others since he's often very prickly towards almost everyone who talks to him.
• Hypocrisy Nod: On Crimson Flower, he fully acknowledges that he's become just like Dimitri, and no longer has any right to criticize him. If they meet in battle, Felix says that killing Dimitri is something he must do to achieve his goals.
• Informed Flaw: In Houses, Ingrid describes him as a troublemaker on par with Sylvain in her early exploration dialogues, but this never comes up in the game proper. He mostly sticks to training by himself and while his confrontational nature makes him difficult to approach and gets him into all sorts of arguments in his supports there's nothing suggesting he's causing any kind of trouble, unlike Sylvain's rampant womanizing. It gets a bit more expanded upon in his C-support with Sylvain in Hopes, as the conflict of it was about Felix off-screen putting his nose into other people's business because they were fighting.
• Insult of Endearment: In Three Hopes, while he still calls Dimitri a boar, it's noticeably less hostile and has a more affectionate tone behind it.
• Introverted Cat Person: Felix is the most aloof member of the Blue Lions and prefers to train alone, but he's fond of cats and will respond positively if you mentioned them during teatime.
• Ironic Name: Felix translates to "happy" in Latin, which is a far cry from his usual demeanor. It can also mean "lucky", which is — again — not something you'd use to describe Felix.
• Irony:
  • He's against obsessing over and trying to stay attached to the dead, never realizing his rejection of the ideals of chivalry are his own response to the death of his brother, and digging himself deeper into trying to reject said path only leads to him being further chained down by the dead in his attempts to reject the ideals he blames for Glenn's death.
  • If he is recruited on the Silver Snow or Verdant Wind campaign, he dedicates himself to avenging Dimitri's death, falling into the same mentality of living for the dead that he criticized Dimitri so much for.
  • If recruited on the Crimson Flower campaign, he defects from Dimitri's army because he is disgusted with how bloodthirsty Dimitri is. Yet in the end, Felix becomes just as bloodthirsty as Dimitri ever was, and without even having a cause to fight for.
  • The New Game Plus item that bestows the Crest of Fraldarius on its holder is called the "Shield Dragon Sign." While the Fraldarius Hero Relic is a shield, Felix is a Glass Cannon by default.
  • The original Fraldarius was a Falcon Knight, if the revived version in the Verdant Wind endgame is any indication. Felix cannot become a Falcon Knight due to it being a female-only class.
  • Despite being prickly and rude and admitting he's avoided romance and love his entire life, Felix has twice as many romantic supports as his best friend Sylvain, a notorious womanizer.
  • While Dimitri struggles with dexterous tasks and regularly breaks weapons by accident, Felix (who does not have either of these issues) has a lower Dexterity stat, in terms of base, cap, and growth.
  • Normally, Sylvain's supports are characters telling him off for immaturity and idiocy, Felix especially. In Three Hopes, Felix and Sylvain's first support is Sylvain telling Felix off for a recent dumb action Felix committed (namely getting into a fist fight with someone that he easily could have just walked away from, particularly since he has become the head of House Fraldarius at this point). Felix notes that it's bizarre that Sylvain of all people is telling him to grow up, but he does acknowledge that he wasn't acting his best.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: After the timeskip on the Azure Moon route, he's grown so disgusted with Dimitri that he starts referring to him as "it," likely to emphasize Dimitri's descent into madness has left the former ruler with naught but an obsession with revenge.
• It's All My Fault: After Dimitri's horrible death on the Verdant Wind route, should he be recruited, he laments about his past with Dimitri and wonders if he could have done anything to change things. Given Felix's tsundere nature, he's naturally blaming himself for Dimitri's death.
• I Work Alone: This is reflected in his personal skill, Lone Wolf. The skill gives him 5 extra points of damage if he has no battalion accompanying him, either due to not having been assigned a battalion at all or having his battalion forced to withdraw.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Felix is noticeably rude towards Dimitri, calling him a savage boar. It seems like Felix is just being an ass, but Dimitri never denies that nickname; indeed, Dimitri's sanity begins to wane over the course of the story. To Felix's credit, he never stops calling Dimitri on his issues even once it becomes readily apparent that Dimitri is dangerously unstable and is one of the only Blue Lions to repeatedly address the elephant in the room regarding their leader's spiraling mental health.
  • Felix also insults Dimitri for being a "boar who knows nothing save frontal attacks" if Byleth leads the Blue Lions to victory in the mock battle. While Ingrid gets offended, Felix is right about Dimitri being the worst tactician of the three house leaders, which gets Dimitri killed on all routes besides his own.
  • Felix comes off as a real jerk regarding his opinion of Dedue, whom he views as little more than an animal with no will of his own. Again, Felix turns out to have a point when Dedue outright admits he would do literally anything Dimitri asked of him, even kill children. Felix's accusation ends up right, but for the wrong reasons. Dedue ultimately knows Dimitri even at his worst would never order him to do such a thing, and so on the Crimson Flower route, Dedue gives likeminded Kingdom soldiers Crest Stones and uses one himself, turning everyone who uses one into Demonic Beasts, to protect their liege without his consent.
  • In the ending of his Paralogue, Felix gets incensed at his father for appearing to care more about his honor and duty to the late king (the village they just protected was important to Lambert) than prioritizing the lives of his people, which makes his talks about how Glenn's death was an act of true chivalry feel empty. It's implied even Rodrigue acknowledges his son isn't entirely wrong about those observations, but like the above, Felix is blind to his father's own attempts to cope with Glenn's passing.
  • Felix rebuffs Dorothea's flirtatious behavior during their support chain, accusing her of being a Gold Digger who is trying to marry into a rich family such as House Fraldarius. Dorothea outright states that marrying rich is her goal at the beginning of her own support chain with Byleth.
  • Felix advises Ashe not to obsess over becoming a knight, but words it in a way that makes him sound like he's decrying Ashe's dream. He clears up the misunderstanding later and admits his personal bias against knights left him too hostile to properly get his point across. That being said, his advice ends up being validated on the Silver Snow and Verdant Wind routes, which will always result in Ashe turning on the Kingdom as a knight of House Rowe, and later attacking Byleth's forces in Ailell. The latter can even result in his death if he wasn't recruited pre-timeskip or if the player just kills him anyway.
  • Felix snaps at Mercedes in their C-support for comparing him to her own younger brother, telling her he is not her brother and to stop bothering him. She may have unintentionally touched a nerve by reminding him of Glenn, but he was right that her mothering behavior was somewhat patronizing.
  • Felix hates chivalry and honor because he believes they promote the glorification of death and Blind Obedience. His cynicism has some merit; some knights believe their duty is to obey any order without question or argument, rendering them unable to think for themselves. On Silver Snow and Verdant Wind, Dimitri's charge towards Enbarr ends in his death; given that the Kingdom's knights followed him faithfully (a group that includes Felix himself if he is not recruited), the country is left in shambles upon their failure.
  • In Three Hopes, Felix doesn't insult Dimitri as much, but tends to frequently scold him, and with the way Dimitri keeps talking about doing things himself, it's easy to see why Felix gets frustrated with him.
• Jerkass Realization:
  • In his paired ending with Lysithea on non-Azure Moon routes, after spending years wandering the continent aimlessly as a mercenary, he runs into Lysithea who is living a perfectly happy life as a baker despite being on death's door at that point. Seeing her managing to be happy in spite of her impending death makes him realize how he's been wasting his life, and after she passes he takes over the bakery in her stead.
  • On the Verdant Wind route, should you recruit him, he realizes how far gone Dimitri goes and wonders if being by his side would have changed things.
• Jerkass to One: He can be rather prickly to most of his classmates, but his behavior toward Dedue (at least until the end of their Supports) is outright hateful due to his disdain of the latter’s Blind Obedience. Three Hopes thankfully tones this down significantly, but they do still bicker at times.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be rude, snide, judgmental and even confrontational, but underneath it all, he does genuinely care about the well-being of his comrades; in their support chain, Ashe compares him to a sarcastic and snide, but still caring protagonist of one of his favorite knightly tales. One conversation post-timeskip demonstrates this particularly well: In Azure Moon Chapter 14, Felix can be found in the cathedral, looking directly at Dimitri from a distance. Talking to him will result in him requesting that Byleth "Do something about that creature." Which of the 3 responses does he like? The only one of them that agrees to try. In fact, picking either of the other two will make Felix angrily tell Byleth off for giving up so easily. Three Hopes further emphasizes the heart of gold part while toning down the jerk part a bit, showcasing his caring nature a lot more, and the way he talks to Dimitri is not one of contempt, but of genuine concern.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover:
  • Felix, of all people, responds positively if Byleth mentions cats to him during a Teatime event and he says during a conversation with Bernadetta he "doesn't dislike them".
  • His C-support with Mercedes in Three Hopes involves Felix asking her to heal an injured kitten he picked up outside.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Many of his non-Azure Moon endings have Felix becoming a sword for hire after the war and the narration desribed that that he "seeks battles as if he had a death wish." Fortunately in these endings, his life is turned around when he is reunited with Mercedes, Flayn, or Lysithea.
• The Lancer: Felix fills in a similar role to most Lancers: The "sarcastic Foil to the team leader/hero" (Dimitri in this case) that tends to criticize or snark at him a lot, but deep down harbors a strong loyalty to him. While the martial-inclined Azure Moon specialize in spear-fighting, Felix prefers sword-fighting, with high aptitude in the Sword skill, setting him apart.
• Lightning Bruiser: After he obtains the Aegis Shield and the Strength to not lose much Speed off it, ^note Or just getting Weight -3. he transitions from a Glass Cannon to this. The defensive boosts give Felix a good amount of bulk, and his good Dexterity means that the Pavise/Aegis effect has a reasonable chance of going off.
• Like Father, Like Son:
  • Felix ironically fits this trope despite his extremely strained relationship with Rodrigue, since his rebellious streak in the Academy mirrors his father's own rebellious nature back when Rodrigue and Lambert were students. On the Azure Moon route, Felix even matches his father's devotion to Dimitri, becoming near inconsolable once the king passes away in their paired ending.
  • In Three Hopes, Shez says that Rodrigue and Felix are both alike in that when something important needs to be done, they're the first to volunteer for it - Rodrigue is flattered, yet also notes that he and his son share a need to have a purpose in life, and cannot bear an existence without one. They also both dislike sweets.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Felix is a cold and aloof swordsman with a budding talent in the reason skill, while his father is an emphatic Knight in Shining Armor that uses faith magic as a Holy Knight^note Though if Rodrigue is taken on an Expedition in Hopes, one of the things he can say is that he mastered magic in place of Lambert, which might include reason magic.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: His Aegis Shield that reduces damage, making him a rare swordsman to actually use them like a Swashbuckler would.
• Made Myself Sad: In his B-support with Dimitri, Felix refuses to let Dimitri hold the Sword of Zoltan he bought, citing an incident where the latter managed to carelessly snap a sword in half by swinging it too hard. When Felix brings up how his family kept telling that story years after, his expression darkens and he leaves in a huff, saying there's no use talking about someone who is long dead.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Zigzagged:
  • He starts with a weakness in Reason and despite having a budding talent in the skill, he learns only two spells, which doesn't give much incentive in putting him in magic-oriented classes aside from making the Mortal Savant, the only sword-focused Master class available for Felix, much easier to access.
  • Felix's Magic growth of 30%, while higher than most physically-oriented units, ^note Only Byleth, Ingrid, Seteth, Jeritza, and Cyril at 35% are higher, and the latter is only due to Aptitude; Lorenz and Edelgard are even higher at 40% and 45%, respectively. pales to designated spellcasters. While the Mortal Savant class is considered a poor fit for him, this does allow him to use magic weapons such as the Levin Sword to decent effect.
• Master Swordsman: What he strives to be.
• Meaningful Echo: He shares his post-timeskip Pre Ass Kicking One Liner with pre-timeskip Dimitri; "I'll cut through."
• Meaningful Name:
  • While also an Ironic Name, Felix can also mean "lucky," and he's one of the few characters to have a Major Crest.
  • His middle name, Hugo, means "mind," and he's something of an Only Sane Man (with Ingrid).
• Missing Mom: Similarly to Hilda. While Rodrigue plays a small but crucial role in Azure Moon and Glenn's death is a huge moment in the lives of Felix, Dimitri and Ingrid, we never even learn if Felix's mother is still alive or not in Three Houses. All we know about her is Felix got his eye color from her.
  • Three Hopes has Rodrigue clarify in an offhand mention that she is indeed alive and running the Dukedom's affairs while he and Felix are campaigning with Dimitri.
• Morality Chain: His A-support with Dimitri in Hopes has the latter flat-out admit that Felix is the only reason he hasn't gone off the deep end.
• My God, What Have I Done?: His endings with Lysithea outside of Azure Moon start with him roaming Fódlan as a vicious sword for hire, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. Seeing her making the most of life while she's extremely sick and dying, while he coped with his grief by killing, causes him to have a breakdown and put down his sword forever, spending the little time they have together baking sweets and making her happy.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The Mean to Ingrid's Nice and Sylvain's In-Between. It's downplayed in the sense that he's merely a Jerk with a Heart of Gold rather than a full-fledged Jerkass.
• No Place for a Warrior: In his non-Azure Moon endings with Leonie, the two become mercenaries but struggle to find jobs after the post-war chaos is over. Desperate, they are forced to become street performers to earn a living.
• No Sense of Humor: Flat out states to Dorothea that he doesn't joke, and one of the notes he leaves in the advice box has him saying that people find him dour and suggest that he should joke more often, which he doesn't see the point of.
• No Social Skills: Downplayed, but Felix lacks social tact and is prone to being insensitive.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: Downplayed. Felix wears the vest variant of the uniform, has a belt around one thigh, and has a semi-unique boot design (only Sylvain and Lysithea wear the same boots).
• Not So Above It All: He acts aloof and no-nonsense, but a lot of his supports have him engaging in silly or light-hearted behaviour, like slicing up fruit that Flayn throws to him, eating cake Lysithea baked for him, talking about cats with Bernadetta, listening to Annette singing, etc...
• "Not So Different" Remark: If recruited and on the Crimson Flower route, he laments that he's become no better than Dimitri in his service to the Empire.
• Not in This for Your Revolution:
  • Zigzagged with Silver Snow and Verdant Wind. He joins up precisely to try to help the continent under those he thought could do so upon hearing the lie about Dimitri's death, but following Dimitri's actual death descends down a more vengeful path as he obsesses over avenging Dimitri.
  • He doesn't believe in Edelgard's cause if recruited to the Black Eagles on the Crimson Flower route, but his desire to forge his own path leads him to join them. He does make it very clear that their actions better be worth it in the end.
• Number Two: He serves as this in Azure Gleam in Three Hopes. In Chapter 7, Dimitri returns to the capital with just Dedue and Rodrigue, leaving Felix in charge of the standing army at the frontlines. Felix also tends to be the first person he consults for military advice.
• Older Than They Look: Post-timeskip. He barely looks any different than he did as a teenager pre-timeskip (only changing his clothes and hairstyle), but is in fact 22 years old. His model is even the same size for both the academy and war phases.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Despite repeatedly calling Dimitri a "wild boar", when Felix first sees how far Dimitri has fallen post-timeskip and being a lot more aggresive than before, he says with a surprised face: "It's like he's a completely different person now."
• Only Sane Man: Downplayed, but for the first half of post-timeskip chapters on the Azure Moon route, he is the only one to openly question the point of following orders from the clearly insane Dimitri, who is too obsessed with killing his enemies and revenge on Edelgard to think clearly.
• Perpetual Frowner: Seeing Felix smile is a rare treat, he's usually quite dour and serious.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He's genuinely curious about Annette's songs. She's additionally one of the few people he's not initially hostile towards with the others including Flayn, Lysithea, Bernadetta and Seteth.
  • During his C-support with Bernadetta, despite being confused and annoyed by her panicking in his presence, when he mistakenly believes someone is trying to kill Bernadetta, he immediately draws his sword to get ready to protect her.
• Picky Eater: It's subtle, but Felix dislikes nearly all of the sweet dishes in the Mess Hall and he also doesn't like three out of four of the vegetable ones, being merely neutral on the fourth. He only really seems to like meat and cheese.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Downplayed, but Felix is 174 cm and no taller after the timeskip, putting him on the shorter end for male characters, in addition to his model being noticeably thinner than most other characters. Felix also ties for the second-highest Strength growth (55%) and has the third-highest Strength cap (78).
• Platonic Life-Partners: His relationship with Leonie if their paired endings are achieved. Despite never being romantically attracted to nor marrying each other, they end up as mercenary partners, and eventually, street performers for the rest of their lives, or on Azure Moon he becomes her best employer, keeping her around by exploiting her drinking habit.
• Plot Armor: In Classic Mode of Three Hopes, if his HP drops to 0 in battle, Felix will retreat from battle instead of dying outright, a trait he did not have in Three Houses.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: In a few of his supports, Felix says sexist things. In his support with Ingrid, he tells her to settle down and marry instead of being a knight, and his support with Leonie, he tells her that she's impressive "for a girl" before being reminded she made a fool out of him earlier. Leonie tells him he's better than looking down on her, and he concedes.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
  "I'll go." (pre-timeskip)
  "I'll cut through." (post-timeskip) ^note Doubles as a Meaningful Echo on Azure Moon, as this is also used for pre-timeskip Dimitri.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "Too slow!"
  "Is that all?"
  "Worthless!" (Pre-timeskip)
  "An opening!" (Pre-timeskip)
  "I'll cut you down!" (Post-timeskip)
  "Leave my sight!" (Post-timeskip)
• Real Men Eat Meat: One of his favorite gifts is smoked meat, and he likes meat-based dishes in the dining hall.
• Real Men Hate Sugar: "Sweets" is even in his dislikes, although like Saizo before him, it's not that he's trying to make a point but rather that he just doesn't like sweets. If you support him with Lysithea however, she manages to get him to start liking sweets after she makes him some special cakes.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: During his C-Support with Sylvain, Felix calls him on his womanizing and hedonistic behavior after he grows irritated with him.
• Recurring Element: The game's Navarre, being an asocial swordsman focused on skill and speed who is mainly focused on improving their swordsmanship. He mainly fulfills this archetype in terms of personality and stats, as he does not start with a Killing Edge, nor does he have to be recruited from the enemy's side like Lon'qu and other members of the archetype before him. In exchange for the Killing Edge, however, he has the Crest of Fraldarius, which boosts his attacks at random (activates more often, but deals less bonus damage).
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Felix is nothing but bitter towards his father during the story due to a falling out they had years ago, but in cut content from the game, Felix could/would be so infuriated with Dimitri for letting Rodrigue's death happen that he would defect from the Kingdom army and side with Cornelia, claiming that he’ll cut Dimitri down.
• Running Gag: Most of his supports begin with a girl (or Sylvain) following him around the training grounds until he gets annoyed enough to try and run them off. In multiple cases they also end up stalking him for the rest of the support.
• Secret A.I. Moves: As an enemy unit, he knows Darting Blow, a skill that is impossible for him to obtain as a playable character. He can also know Axebreaker+, which no playable character can learn. ^note Not to be confused with the regular Axebreaker (no plus sign), which is not only universal but easy for Felix to obtain as a playable unit.
• Self-Made Orphan: If recruited on the Crimson Flower route, he can kill his own father Rodrigue in battle.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: In his support chains with Ashe, he mocks and talks down the idea of the Knight in Shining Armor, honor and idealism.
• Shock and Awe: He learns two magic spells if his Reason is trained: Thunder and Thoron.
• Smug Smiler: Not on his portrait, but his model's default expression during the academy phase is a rather smug grin. He loses this during the war phase.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In Three Hopes, despite being exclusive to the Azure Gleam route, both times he is fought on the other two routes, he retreats when defeated instead of getting killed. This is in contrast to Three Houses where if not recruited storyline-wise his death is necessary on Crimson Flower due to being one of the commanders guarding Arianrhod, and in Verdant Wind it's possible for him to be killed when he appears as a combatant on Gronder Field.
• Speed Echoes: In Three Hopes, when his personal skill, Intense Velocity, is active, he leaves afterimages behind whenever he attacks or dodges, emphasizing his buffed attack speed.
• Spirited Competitor: Challenging those he sees as Worthy Opponents to spars is one of his favorite things to do. When Catherine shows up, everyone starts talking about what a fearsome weapon Thunderbrand is and how they wouldn't want to face her in battle. Felix? He immediately starts talking about how he wants to spar with her, and he shows similar interest when Byleth gets their hands on the Sword of the Creator.
• The Spock: For the most part, he's the most grounded in reality between himself, Sylvain, and Ingrid.
• Spotting the Thread: When Flayn is kidnapped, Felix is the student to suspect Jeritza, due to his swordsmanship subtly shifting to a more impulsive, less refined style, something only Felix notices. Jeritza is indeed the Death Knight and Flayn's kidnapper.
• Stay in the Kitchen: In his support with Ingrid, he coldly tells her to give up her passion of being a knight and get married. It's implied this is because he is worried about her being hurt given how close she was to his brother, and doesn't want to lose someone as important to him as her.
  Felix: Stop bothering with all this. You're not meant to be a knight. Go find a husband.
• Strong and Skilled: Felix ties for both the second-highest Strength growth (55%) and third-highest cap (79). He's also at worst neutral in every physical weapon and movement type, and is dedicated to improving his skills rather than rely on his Crest.
• Strong Family Resemblance: If he let his hair down and grew a beard, he'd be look like his father with a different eye color.
• Tarot Motifs: The Crest of Fraldarius is based off The Emperor, which represents aggression and bravery, which describes Felix pretty well. When reversed however, it represents petty emotions and going against authority, playing into his disdain for chivalry and knighthood, and his feelings towards his father (who advocates said ideas for chivalry and knighthood) and post-timeskip Dimitri.
• Together in Death: He and Sylvain promised that they would stay together until they die together.
  • If paired on the Azure Moon route, their ending states that they pass away on the same day due to conceding that they could not live without each other. Subverted if one is recruited but the other isn't, Felix throwing that promise away immediately the moment they face each other.
  • Takes a more tragic turn if you recruit one without the other on Crimson Flower. Sylvain will lament that they promised to die together when they were kids, and that they must now kill each other in battle.
• Took the Wife's Name: In Bernadetta's non-Azure Moon ending with Felix, she convinces him to marry into House Varley, rather than having him set out on his own like he normally does. In their later years, he ends up handling most of the house's documents, signing them as Count Varley.
• Tragic Hero: Becomes this if recruited out of the Blue Lions. While other characters do have different endings depending on route, Felix stands out as almost all of his non-Azure Moon endings are bittersweet at best and outright depressing at worst.
  • On Verdant Wind/Silver Snow, Felix leaves Faerghus due to believing Dimitri is dead and that Claude/Byleth's army has better odds of defeating the Empire. He finds out Dimitri is actually alive shortly before the prince does die at Gronder Field. This leaves Felix full of regret, as he wonders whether he could have saved him if he'd stuck around, before he becomes obsessed with the idea of avenging Dimitri's death.
  • On Crimson Flower, his defection to the Empire is framed as an angry, rebellious teen's last "screw you" to his father at the cost of permanently burned bridges with his family, his friends, and his nation. Free to forge his own path as he wanted, but having nothing left, Felix becomes the exact same bloodthirsty monster he always accused Dimitri of being, and is fully aware of it.
• Tsundere:
  • One of the most clear-cut male examples in the entire franchise. He's arrogant, brash, shows open disdain for chivalry, and prefers sparring over social interaction. Yet those who become close to him through supports can get many glimpses of his dere side. His Goddess Tower scene with female Byleth in particular involves Felix rambling on about how he has avoided romance his entire life, finding it a waste of time and only interested in being stronger, before telling Byleth she'd better not get sick from standing around in the cold because he'd "hate for such a good sparring partner to be out of commission." Sure, Felix.
  • In Dedue's Forging Bonds dialogue in Heroes, his chivalric tendencies towards Dimitri remain such that Felix has grown tired of him being "Dimitri's lapdog prancing around with a leash on his mouth." He goes on to say "just don't waste your life by dying too fast" protecting Dimitri. Who knew he had a soft spot for the big guy?
  • In several of his supports with his other childhood friends, Ingrid and Sylvain, Felix scolds them for risking their lives to help him in battle and is clearly worried about their wellbeing but struggles to express that in a way aside from anger and frustration.
  • Shez even points this out in their support in Three Hopes, noting how he performs much better when he's fighting with Dimitri, Sylvain, and Ingrid. Felix's reaction is to suddenly choke up in a hilarious manner, make an excuse for each of them, then quickly tries to dismiss the conversation, claiming it's "exhausting". Heh.
  • In Shez's B-Support with Dimitri they mention that after Dimitri was knocked out by a stray bolt of magic for several hours, both Dedue and Felix didn't know what to do with themselves in the interim.
• Tsurime Eyes: His eyes point sharply upward, in contrast to Sylvain and Ingrid's Tareme Eyes, and matching Dimitri's.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: He's the only student with a Major Crest that wasn't forced on them through traumatic experimentation and coexisting alongside a natural Minor Crest. It's never brought up in-story, despite Crests being a big deal.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: According to Sylvain, Felix used to be "meek and cute," and looked up to him like a big brother. Felix doesn't like revisiting the memory. Dimitri also comments if Felix and Dimitri are picked to eat together that he used to whine if he couldn't do everything with Dimitri, much to Felix's annoyance.
• Vocal Dissonance: In the Japanese version, Felix's voice is quite deep, in contrast to his slender physique and relatively small size.
• Walking the Earth: On all routes but the Azure Moon, his solo ending sees him give up his noble title to become a wandering mercenary after the war. His paired endings on these routes can avert this trope entirely, or have him become one half of a wandering Battle Couple.
• Wall Pin of Love: As befitting a tsundere, he does this to Byleth in his S-rank CG.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: In his A-support with Byleth, Felix admits that he's been chasing his brother's shadow ever since his death. His paralogue makes it abundantly clear that his relationship with his father is strained because of the "difference of opinion."
• We Used to Be Friends:
  • While he was once the best of friends with Dimitri an event before the beginning of the story has put a serious strain on his relationship with him, to the point that he freely describes Dimitri as a monster. Namely, he saw Dimitri acting so savagely in their first battle together that he couldn't even believe it was him, and considering what a Blood Knight Felix is, that's saying something. Thankfully their friendship can be renewed and mended (assuming it’s a route where Dimitri lives, anyhow), and their paired ending confirms this.
  • It's possible for you to permanently destroy his friendships with Dimitri, Sylvain, and Ingrid if you recruit him or his friends to the Black Eagles and side with Edelgard.
• What the Hell, Hero?: If he's not recruited on the Crimson Flower route but Ingrid is, Felix will voice his anger with complete bluntness.
  Felix: All that talk about chivalry and loyalty, only to turn against your homeland!
• When He Smiles: Felix is generally dour, so his smiles are notable. In a support with Bernadetta, she follows him around just to see him smile again, and when she gets a chuckle out of him, she's delighted.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Right from the very beginning he views Byleth as this, eager to challenge them. If they meet him in battle in chapter 16 of Crimson Flower, he will tell them that their battle is one he's been looking forward towards since the day he met them.
  • He starts warming up to Dorothea because he gets to see that she's very good with swords and can keep him on his toes during a spar, realizing that there is more to her than just being flirtatious.
• You Monster!:
  • He outright calls Dimitri a 'boar' and a monster in their support chain, disgusted with how bloodily the prince fought during the battle to quell a rebellion.
  • He calls Dedue a monster in their support chain after the former's Undying Loyalty to Dimitri has him claiming he would commit heinous actions, like massacring women and children, without hesitation should the situation arise that prince orders him to.
  • If recruited on the Crimson Flower route, this can be turned around on him. He can potentially fight Dimitri, Sylvain, Ingrid or even his own father. Needless to say, none of them mince their words when they run into him again (unless they too have been recruited). He'll even admit as much, lamenting about how what he hated so much about Dimitri is something he now has become.
• Young and in Charge: In Three Hopes, Rodrigue abdicates early on and names Felix the new Duke Fraldarius.

Ingrid

Ingrid Brandl Galatea

Nationality: Holy Kingdom of Faerghus

House: Blue Lions

Class: Noble → Soldier → Pegasus Knight → Falcon Knight

Age: 17 (1/04)

Crest: Daphnel (Minor)

Height: 165 cm

Voiced by: Manaka Iwami (Japanese), Brittany Cox (English)

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Houses)}

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Hopes)}

^{Click here to see Ingrid in Fire Emblem Heroes}

Stalwart Knight / Galatea's Heir

"I'm not a tool for furthering my family's fortunes. I'm a knight at heart. Regardless of what my father desires."

The daughter of Count Galatea and a childhood friend of Dimitri, Felix, and Sylvain. Because of her admiration of noble knights and her inherently serious nature, Dimitri says she's already got a very knightly air to her. However, she forgets herself in the presence of delicious food.

Her personal ability, Lady Knight, increases her Might and Hit Rate when using Gambits. Ingrid bears the Minor Crest of Daphnel, which has a chance to raise her Might while using Combat Arts.

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• Abusive Parents: Inverted overall. While her father is almost constantly trying to marry her off to another noble regardless of what she truly wants, they do have a loving relationship; Ingrid's angst in the matter comes from feeling that she is the abuser, due to the fact that their house has fallen on hard times, he worked himself to the bone to make sure she got into the academy, and that her becoming a knight instead would be a betrayal of all his hard work.
• Adaptational Badass: Her Atk and Def are higher in Heroes than in Three Houses. Lúin also receives the ability to add 20% of Ingrid's Speed to her damage done and block enemy counterattacks if she initiates combat or is within 2 spaces of an ally. That being said...
• Adaptational Wimp: Her Heroes incarnation also sports slightly lower Speed and noticeably lower Resistance than her Three Houses self.
• Aloof Big Brother: She mentions in her supports with Mercedes in Three Hopes that her older brothers were quite strict with her, scolding her if she attempted activities like horseback riding, with her father agreeing with them. Ingrid thinks they were being overprotective due to her status as a Crest-bearer, but Mercedes refutes that they were most likely being protective due to her being the youngest in the family, Crest or no Crest. Not so much in the present, as Ingrid notes that they're aware of her dream to become a knight, and are willing to preside over House Galatea in her stead.
• Ancestral Weapon: The Relic lance Lúin, which can be obtained from hers and Dorothea's Paralogue, "Rumored Nupitals." It originally belonged to the Alliance's House Daphnel, but House Galatea's founder ran off with the lance after splitting from the family. It more or less is tied to House Galatea in the current era, as Ingrid is the first and only Daphnel-Crest bearer in generations and House Daphnel has since lost a lot of clout. Naturally, said Crest of Daphnel allows her to wield it safely.
• Anger Born of Worry: In her support with Sylvain, she gets upset at him for speaking carelessly about the danger his philandering puts him in, revealing that she cares deeply about him and couldn’t stand losing someone else close to her after Glenn’s death.
• Arranged Marriage:
  • In her support with Mercedes she reveals that, when she was young, her hand had been promised in marriage to Glenn, Felix's elder brother; his untimely death prevented it from going through, though her father has continued to hassle her about marriage proposals in the present.
  • She is presented one during the game by her father, but Dorothea convinces her not to when she learns the man was an abhorrent jerk, and her Paralogue involves fighting off his hired goons who wanted to kidnap her so he could marry her and gain more influence. Her father is very happy to learn she was safe and drops the deal right away upon learning of this incident.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • She and her father often clash, because her goal of becoming a knight conflicts with his desire to marry her off for political advantages that can help benefit their land. However, when one of her suitors attempts to kidnap her and fails, her father is overjoyed that she's safe and rejects the suitor immediately, showing that he does care about his daughter. On non-Azure Moon routes, several of her supports even change slightly to mention her regret at having "betrayed" her father, while musing over how he wanted her to help the family, only for her to abandon it.
  • Her supports with her childhood friends (Dimitri, Felix and Sylvain) as well as her supports with Claude and Raphael begin with Ingrid exasperated or annoyed at them for one reason or another (Sylvain's philandering, Felix's antisocial attitude, Dimitri being Innocently Insensitive regarding Glenn's death, Claude's informality and teasing, and Raphael's unrefined social habits) and the other participant in the support rebuffing her, but by the end of the support, they make up and she reveals that she cares deeply about them and worries about their well-being and vice versa.
• Babies Ever After: In her endings with Sylvain, Felix and Claude.
• Badass Adorable: Ingrid is a very beautiful young woman, who becomes an elegant and powerful knight.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Out of the Blue Lions girls, she's the Brawn to Annette's Brains and Mercedes' Beauty, being a physical attacker who has trained to be a knight since she was a little girl, compared to Squishy Wizard Annette and White Magician Girl Mercedes.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Claude or Sylvain should either route be pursued. The two wind up bickering with each other at every support rank, but slowly fall in love along the way.
• Big Eater: Loves food a little too much. She reveals that the place where she lived suffered from poor agriculture, resulting in a lack of food despite her status as nobility. Despite this, she admits to Byleth that she feels guilty about it since her father would often give up his own portion of food while she was growing up to ensure she could eat well. Her love of food is how Yuri manages to bond with her in their supports.
• Birds of a Feather: She can end up marrying Ashe over their shared love of novels and aspirations of becoming knights. Their kind and upstanding personalities are also similar.
• Bond One-Liner:
  "You weren't ready." (pre timeskip)
  "It is done. Onward!" (post timeskip)
  "My duty is your death.""(post timeskip)
• Boyish Short Hair: Downplayed. She cuts her hair short after the timeskip, fitting with her desire to be a knight and being a more physical attacker in terms of stats compared to Annette and Mercedes. However, she does accent her hair with some ribbons, and in the Japanese version of the game she generally has a more feminine personality compared to the English localization which makes her more tomboyish.
• The Cameo:
  • She watches fights in the Marketplace portion of the downloadable Garreg Mach Monastery stage in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate alongside Dimitri and Dedue.
  • She also appears in Engage as one of Byleth's Bond Rings.
• Celibate Hero: Her solo ending on the Azure Moon route states that she never took a husband as she decided to spend her life serving House Blayddid as a knight instead.
• Combat Stilettos: Before the timeskip as part of her academy uniform, she wears high-heeled boots. Averted after the timeskip, as the armor she wears doesn't have any. The new armor she wears in Three Hopes, however, goes back to Ingrid fighting in heels.
• Commonality Connection:
  • In her supports with Ashe, the two bond over their shared appreciation for the same legends and fairy tales and desire to become knights like the ones in those stories. In their paired ending, they even become knights together.
  • In her support with Mercedes, the two bond over their shared situation of being hassled by marriage proposals they have no interest in. Ingrid muses that it's something that makes them similar.
  • In her support with Bernadetta, Ingrid mentions that she once shut herself in her room. Many of the two's problems also stem from their fathers wanting to marry them off for the good of the family.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: When fought as an enemy in chapter 7 and Verdant Wind chapter 17, Ingrid uses the completely unobtainable enemy version of the Pegasus Knight class, coded as an Advanced Class. This version of the Pegasus Knight gives her Lancefaire as an innate ability and has 7 movement compared to the regular Pegasus Knight's 6. This is likely due to there being no Advanced Class progression for Pegasus Knight, with Falcon Knight being a Master Class and all other enemy Part 2 students using Advanced Classes (the only two exceptions are Sylvain and the aformentioned Ingrid as enemy units on the Crimson Flower route, who are classed as a Great Knight and Falcon Knight, respectively). Notably, in non-Azure Moon playthroughs, this works greatly to her advantage if she's recruited right before the timeskip, giving her considerably much higher stats than normal.
• Contralto of Strength: She's a more than capable fighter, and has one of the deeper voices amongst the female cast, about on-par with Edelgard's and only exceeded by Catherine.
• Control Freak: Much of Ingrid's supports involve her lambasting whoever she's talking to for not acting the way she wants them to, especially Claude, Sylvain and Raphael. In Bernadetta's support she actually kicks the door down and forcibly carries Bernadetta to training when the latter wants to skip it. Bernadetta is, unsurprisingly, terrified.
• Cultural Rebel: While not nearly to the level as Felix, Ingrid does run into this after the Time Skip on non-Azure Moon playthroughs. Should Ingrid have been recruited it's treated like a major deal that she explicitly did not stay with the Kingdom to fight for her house. The majority of her endings note that once she returned to rule Galatea, she actually had an uphill journey to regain the support of all the residents because they considered her a traitor.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: With Felix, as the Idealist.
• Death by Adaptation: She can survive any route in Three Houses if she’s been recruited; in Three Hopes, she cannot be recruited outside Azure Gleam, and dies as part of Scarlet Blaze's story progression.
• Death by a Thousand Cuts: Ingrid has equal but mediocre growths in both offensive stats at 35% each, but a high Speed growth of 60% and a lean towards the Pegasus Knight line. While her lower strength means she lacks per-hit damage, she can double most enemies with ease, causing this trope.
• Disappointed in You: If she isn't recruited, her reaction to Byleth should they side with the Empire is one of cold disappointment.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Ingrid doesn't seem to have a problem hitting Sylvain when he annoys her, such as during the opening sequence when he gets too touchy with her and when he jokes about Flayn's disappearance.
• Dub Personality Change: Downplayed. While her personality remains largely the same, the English localization portrays her as more tomboyish due to her preference for activities like riding over make-up and baking. However, in Japanese her speech is actually extremely feminine, and she's presented as more of a practical and proper young lady who abstains from flashy fashions. This may be a cultural difference; tomboyishness is far more associated with immaturity in Japan, so Ingrid's polite and serious nature pegs her as feminine by default.
• Dude, Not Funny!: She takes issue with her classmates joking about Flayn's disappearance, Sylvain in particular, and warns them that this is no laughing matter. She even slaps Sylvain after he remarks that Flayn must have eloped.
• Entitled Bastard: When it comes to Glenn, Ingrid often acts like she is the most affected by his death and she understood him the best, striving to embody the knightly ideals he portrayed. This causes her to clash with Felix, Glenn's younger brother, who believes that knightly ideals are what got Glenn killed and Ingrid's memory of him doesn't match up with who he really was.
• Famed In-Story: In her solo ending and paired ending with Ashe on the Azure Moon route, she goes down in history as a peerless knight. In her endings with Byleth, her parrying an assassin's blade meant for her husband is immortalized in storybooks.
• Family Versus Career: One of Ingrid’s biggest struggles is deciding between her dream of being a knight and the welfare of her noble house as the only Crest bearer in the Galatea family - in fact, she's only the second person in the House's lifetime to bear it, as the last one to have it was its founder. While she has knightly aspirations, in several supports she thinks of her dream as selfish or unreasonable in comparison to her responsibility of marrying and continuing the Galatea line, and her father strongly urges her to marry. Most characters she shares her feelings with advise her to follow her dreams, while Byleth can advise her in their support that it’s possible for her to fulfill her family responsibilities and follow her dream at the same time.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: In Three Hopes, Ingrid can utilize fire with her Luin's Burning Quake art, ice with her Icy Plunge ability and ice magic, and lightning with her Thoron spell.
• Foil:
  • She and Sylvain are polar opposites; Ingrid is responsible, rigid and serious, while Sylvain is relaxed, a bit irresponsible, prone to getting into trouble and enjoys joking around. Fittingly, in their default Time Skip outfits, Ingrid prominently wears green in contrast to Sylvain's red, making it clear that they are the red and green knights of the game.
  • Ingrid's responsible, serious nature contrasts with the relaxed, joke-prone and fond-of-teasing Claude, which is discussed in-universe in their support chain. When Claude objects, Ingrid begrudgingly admits that Claude at least isn't a menace to the opposite sex in the manner of Sylvain.
• Fragile Speedster: She ties for the best speed growth in the base game (only Yuri exceeds her), but her strength is fairly middling, and her physical defense is slightly low, making her rely on her high dodge rate to stay on the frontlines.
• Friend to All Living Things: One of her favorite things is to take care of the academy's mounts, which shows itself in her high Riding and Flying aptitude.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Despite being extremely polite and having overall feminine speech patterns (especially in the Japanese version) her actual interests aren't really the most feminine, since she has aspirations to become a knight rather than a noble lady. The English localization plays up her tomboyish streak a lot more.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She’s got blonde hair and aspires to be a noble knight while also being one of the most approachable, kind and well-adjusted characters of the cast.
• Hero Secret Service: Essentially becomes Byleth's best bodyguard alongside being their lover, should they reach S rank. In several of their endings, her foiling an assassination attempt on him becomes a tale that's passed on for generations.
• Hero-Worshipper: She bears respect for Lady Judith Daphnel of the Leicester Alliance for being a high-ranking warrior and noble, as well as their distant relationship due to House Galatea being an offshoot of House Daphnel. On Crimson Flower, she evokes her as a Worthy Opponent and muses they might have been allies in another life after her death.
• Humble Hero: Ingrid carries herself with dignity and chivalry and is overall a very polite and approachable person. She never boasts about her abilities as a Knight and is willing to take responsibility for her actions, shown in her supports with Claude and Dimitri where she apologizes for her misbehavior towards them.
• Hypocrite:
  • In her B-Support with Felix, she angrily tells him he has no right to criticize the way she chooses to live her life, yet the majority of her supports have her constantly lecturing people for not doing things the way she thinks that they should.
  • She interrogates Yuri during their C-support during his time with House Rowe, but when he asks her what she's doing at the inn they're at, she defensively snaps at him to mind his own business.
  • If recruited to the Empire and made to fight a non-recruited Felix, he calls her out for going on and on about chivalry and loyalty only to stab the Kingdom in the back. She answers then maybe she's not a traditional knight, but she is loyal to Byleth and what she herself believes in, even if it means betraying her home.
• I Can't Dance: She's one of the students who asks Byleth to not pick them as the class representative for the White Heron Cup as she doesn't have any skills in dancing, which is because it wasn't her thing growing up. Though with her decent base and growth in Charm, she does have a good chance at winning, since that stat is what determines if a student wins.
• An Ice Person: She learns ice magic if her Reason is leveled up.
• Impoverished Patrician: Despite being nobility, her family is not wealthy at all, on account of holding territory that is inadequate for agricultural use. As the only member of the family who has a Crest, her father plans to marry her off to a wealthier family in order to secure some measure of financial stability.
• Incompatible Orientation: In her paralogue and supports with Dorothea, the other party is pretty obvious about being into her, but Ingrid is not interested in women in the slightest. It’s notable that she’s the only playable student to not have a single same-sex A-support/Ending in the game.
• Informed Attractiveness:
  • Dorothea and Mercedes spend a lot of time gushing over Ingrid's supposedly stunning good looks and Annette manages to get Ingrid to agree to being her makeup tester, even though all the aforementioned girls are quite gorgeous themselves and Ingrid isn't designed or dressed any more attractively than the other female students.
  • In her A-support with Sylvain, Ingrid using makeup turns the normally unflappable Casanova into a stuttering schoolboy. Sylvain never has any issues conversing with any of the other beautiful girls in the game (Dorothea, Mercedes, Hilda, Byleth), but Ingrid using makeup apparently makes her so beautiful that he stumbles over his words.
• Innocently Insensitive: In her supports with Bernadetta, when she's trying to get Bernadetta to come train with the others. Ingrid asks why Bernadetta came to the Officer's Academy, only for Bernadetta to insist that she "was forced" to come (although Bernadetta doesn't mention the part about her mother sending her there in a sack). Ingrid seems somewhat uncomfortable when she concedes that not everyone has to be pleased about being there, before again insisting that Bernadetta come out.
• Irony:
  • Despite her insistence she is still following her own path towards knighthood on the likes of Crimson Flower, her endings on non-Azure Moon routes almost never have her become a knight, and instead she either marries someone or has to work to improve Galatea and make up to her people for betraying them.
  • The New Game Plus item that bestows the Crest of Daphnel on its holder is called the Flame Dragon Sign, and the Secret Art it enables for Luin is called Burning Quake. Ingrid not only does not learn a single fire spell, but even learns ice magic.
  • Is very against the idea of marriage. In her non-Azure Moon ending with Raphael she is the one who eventually proposes to him.
• I've Come Too Far:
  • If recruited on the Crimson Flower route, she explains that she wants to return to her father and home, and thinks maybe doing so will help prevent conflict, but feels she has stayed with the Adrestian Empire for too long, and thus she cannot return to her family after helping Edelgard wage war with the church. That said, she ultimately stands by her choice despite her regrets, and emphasizes it with her battle dialogue with an unrecruited Felix.
  • If recruited, Ingrid starts having second thoughts about her choice of allegiance on the Verdant Wind route, especially after Dimitri's death. Unlike the case on the Crimson Flower route, Ingrid is more resolute on staying with the Leicester Alliance and fighting for Byleth till the very end.
• Jack of All Trades: She has four weapon proficiencies and no particular weaknesses when handling weapons. She has at least passable growths in every stat, and the highest overall growths ^note 370, the same as Byleth and Claude and only 5% below Dimitri of all non-Lord students. Even her base stats are only 1 point less than Dimitri ^note 82 to Dimitri's 83 in total, making her a Jack of All Stats.
• Jerkass to One: While quite a few of her supports sees Ingrid start off on shaky terms, she's downright hostile towards Dedue, rooted in the Tragedy of Duscur. She ends up reflecting that it's not fair for her to project her anger onto Dedue and apologizes to him.
• Jumped at the Call: In the introduction trailer for the Blue Lions, "tales of chivalry" is listed as one of the things she likes.
• Knight in Shining Armor: She aspires to the ideal of the moralistic, benevolent and stalwart knight, and enjoys reading tales about them in her spare time. In addition, with her own aptitude for lances, riding and flying skills, she makes a great cavalier or pegasus knight.
• Lady and Knight: Genderflipped in her paired ending with Dimitri. She serves as his knight after the war, and they eventually marry after falling in love during the events of the game.
• Lady of War: Ingrid is a calm, straightforward, and dignified female knight skilled at riding, flying, and wielding lances. Her personal skill is even called Lady Knight, which gives bonuses to her might and hit when using Gambit attacks.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Her entire support chain with Claude is essentially her and Claude annoying each other about their personalities. If they get married, it continues, and their ending states that despite their love, the angry queen chasing Claude around their house was still a common sight.
• Like Father, Like Son: She describes Count Galatea as being incredibly stubborn and set in his ways, two things that fit Ingrid to a T.
• Literally Shattered Lives: Invoked with her unique ability "Icy Plunge" in Three Hopes, where any enemies that she sends flying with her attacks are frozen, then shattered.
• Lost Food Grievance: For one of her post-timeskip inquiries during tutoring, Ingrid bemoans she has apparently lost her reason for living after her favorite food cart has shut down.
• The Lost Lenore: Much of her idolization of knighthood and chivalry comes from the memories of her dead fiancé, Glenn. She adored him and uses him as her picture of an ideal knight. Unfortunately, this causes her to romanticize his death, though this could be viewed as a way of coping.
• Loving a Shadow: Zigzagged. In her support conversations with Felix, he accuses her of not truly knowing Glenn, telling her straight to her face that the Glenn she fell in love is a romantized version of Glenn, and that he was a completely different person from the brother that he knew personality. Ingrid in response calls him out on it, accusing him of not being appreciative of Glenn, and how he gave his life to save Dimitri. This is also discussed in her Supports with Dimitri — the latter eventually explains how Glenn’s death looked to be full of pain and regret, to Ingrid’s solemn sorrow; in their last Support she admits that her image of her fiancé wasn’t an honest and complete image of the man. Accepting this while not dismissing her genuine feelings for Glenn helps her move forward, explicitly telling Dimitri she will pledge her life to him, rather than her death, which pleases him.
• Mage Killer: Her good resistance growth, high speed and proficiency with physical weapons make her adept at safely taking out enemy mage threats.
• Magic Knight: Ingrid has identical growths in strength and magic. While she doesn't have proficiencies in reason or faith, she can use magical weapons like the Levin Sword or magic based combat arts like Frozen Lance to hit weak enemy resistance stats. With her respectable spell list, she can perform serviveably in a mixed class such as Dark Knight or Dark Flier.
• Maybe Ever After: Several of her Azure Moon paired endings leave it ambiguous as to whether she and her partner shared a romantic relationship. Averted with her non-Azure Moon endings, most of which are all explicitly romantic.
  • In her paired endings with Ashe and Raphael, the two go down in history as legendary knights, but sources can't agree whether they fell in love and got married or not.
  • After a stint of serving the crown, she eventually retires and spends the rest of her days together with either Yuri or Seteth, but the nature of their relationship is never clarified.
• Mayor Pain: Inverted on the non-Azure Moon routes where most of her endings have her become the new ruler of the Galatea territory and go down in history as an excellent ruler as she manages to turn the previously famine-stricken Galatea territory into a land of plenty with her policies.
• The McCoy: Between herself, Felix, and Sylvain, Ingrid is the most moral and emotional.
• The Muse: Becomes Ignatz's, if they get a paired ending together.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The Nice to Felix's Mean and Sylvain's In-Between. It's played with, though, as while she is thoughtful and friendly, she's also a Control Freak and can be unnecessarily rude to people for minor offences.
• Not Afraid to Die: Several of her death quotes — especially as a member of the player's party — indicate that Ingrid treats dying not with dread or regret, but rather with the hope to meet Glenn in the afterlife:
  Ingrid (if killed as an enemy on Crimson Flower): Maybe... I've become like him...
  Ingrid (if killed as a playable unit): Glenn... I'll see you soon. Death isn't sad, not... really.
• Not Like Other Girls: Before the ball, Ingrid will complain about being dragged by Mercedes to her quarters and having make-up slathered all over her face. In her support chain with Annette, she comments how she's never been interested in girly habits like make-up or haircare beyond basic hygiene and sees her training as way more important.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Her mature personality takes a hilarious dive when she's presented with delicious food, or when faced with the prospect of eating delicious food.
  • While she comes off as dignified and mature most of the time, her supports with Ashe have her bond with him as they nerd out over the story they're reading.
  • Her support with Sylvain in Three Hopes has her drop her normally mature demeanor to gleefully make fun of Sylvain and the Laser-Guided Karma he's received.
• Not the Intended Use: Although she's clearly set up to be a combat unit between her lack of skill weaknesses, high growth rate total, proficiency with physical weapons, and Tomboy personality, she's also a solid pick for the Dancer class, of all things. ^note Ingrid's naturally high Speed and sword proficiency combined with Sword Avoid +20 makes her difficult to hit, allowing her to hang out in the combat zone. Her riding boon enables easy access to the Movement +1 skill. Finally, Ingrid's high charm gives her a high chance to win the contest and strengthens Sword Dance if she actually has to attack.
• Opposites Attract: The serious, reliable and somewhat uptight Ingrid can marry the laid-back, informal and prone to joking Claude or Sylvain should you wish her to.
• Only Sane Woman: Ingrid comes off as the well-adjusted common sense-having one in some of her supports, such as her exasperation at Raphael's eating habits and Sylvain's skirt-chasing, and she doesn't really have any outstanding personality quirk herself. She's also the only Blue Lion to avoid both the Dysfunction Junction and Fallen Hero tropes.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: According to Dimitri in his support with Ingrid, she and her betrothed Glenn were of similar noble, idealistic temperament and adored one another. Unfortunately, their arrangement was made impossible after his death.
• Platonic Life-Partners:
  • If paired with Dedue, the two never marry, but become close in service to Dimitri nonetheless.
  • Potentially with Ashe on the Azure Moon route, as while they are noted to be close, it's unclear if they married or not.
  • If paired with Raphael on the Azure Moon route, marriage is never mentioned, but they become close as knights of Faerghus regardless.
• Playing with Fire: While Ingrid doesn't learn fire magic herself, the New Game Plus item that bestows the Crest of Daphnel on its holder is called the Flame Dragon Sign. Her personal Combat Art is also called Burning Quake.
• Plotline Death: In Three Hopes she dies at Arianrhod, pulling a Last Stand to ensure Dimitri can flee and survive for their people.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: She is generally a nice person who strives to live up to the ideals of knighthood, but she is rather prejudiced against the people of Duscur due to believing that they were responsible for Glenn's death during the Tragedy of Duscur, causing her to treat Dedue with contempt. However, this becomes downplayed if she reaches an A-level support with Dedue and starts to trust him, leading her to apologize to him for her previous behavior, and causing her to begin abandoning her prejudiced views.
• Poor Communication Kills: A downplayed example, but Sylvain dreads training with or spending time around Ingrid because she is always browbeating him for his carefree attitude, something she comments in her supports with Claude. In their A-support, Ingrid becomes upset when Sylvain starts joking about getting killed, leading him to realize his mistake and apologize, but it seemed Sylvain genuinely believed Ingrid wouldn't have been that affected if he had been killed.
• Practically Different Generations: She was confirmed as having at least one brother in Three Houses, but Three Hopes elaborates further on this — both her brothers are considerably older than her, making it hard to relate to them as siblings and due to her being The Baby of the Bunch they shared caretaker duty with her father. She chalks this up to being the only Crest-bearer, although Mercedes (to whom she confides this) assures her that even if she was Crestless they’d have likely treated her just the same.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
  "Ready." (pre-timeskip)
  "Ready when you are." (post-timeskip)
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "Defenseless, are we?" (Pre-timeskip)
  "You're finished!" (Pre-timeskip)
  "Try this on for size!" (Pre-timeskip)
  "This should do the trick!" (Pre-timeskip)
  "I can do no less!" (Post-timeskip)
  "Let's end this quickly!" (Post-timeskip)
  "Prepare yourself!" (Post-timeskip)
  "I've got you figured out!" (Post-timeskip)
• Rags to Royalty: Depending on who she marries, she can go from an Impoverished Patrician to queen of Faerghus, Almyra, or the whole of Fódlan.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Byleth, Felix, and Sylvain over their joining the Empire if she's fought on the Crimson Flower route. If she fights an unrecruited Felix, she'll receive one instead about how for all her talk of being a loyal knight she's ended up betraying her country.
• Recurring Boss: In Three Hopes, she’s fought in Chapters 5 and 8 of Scarlet Blaze.
• Recurring Element:
  • Ingrid is pretty close to an Abel part of the Cain and Abel archetype (with Sylvain as her pseudo-Cain), but not completely enough to be a complete archetype. While she is dutiful and more speedy, she is that way because she is geared to be more of a Pegasus Knight, being the only named character that defaults to the Pegasus Knight class line (in a similar manner to Erinys and Fee), and it means that she ends up in a different class than her Cain counterpart (Sylvain). She also only starts wearing green clothing after the Time Skip.
  • On the other hand, Ingrid followed several elements that has been started by Caeda: She is a starter noble, aspiring Pegasus Knight who forms a close bond with her Lord character (in this case, Dimitri, and he's also the closest with Caeda's love interest Marth) and pretty set to be your go-to flyer unit. She's also the only character in the game who specializes in Pegasus Knight class path, much like Erinys and her daughter Fee, and naturally, like them, can't do the traditional Triangle Attack.
  • Like Palla, she's associated with the colour green and defaults to the Pegasus Knight line, and can reasonably promote to a Wyvern Rider. She's also a mother hen who browbeats everyone else into behaving themselves.
• Red Baron: Should she marry Byleth on the Verdant Wind route, she eventually gets dubbed Fódlan's Warrior Queen.
• The Reliable One: She’s calm, responsible, hardworking and noble, and spends some of her time trying to run damage control for the roguish Sylvain and the prickly and antisocial Felix. Several of her supports involve her trying to help others out with whatever she can.
• Rightful King Returns: In some of her non-Azure Moon endings, she returns to being the leader of House Galatea's territory, though the relationship between herself and the people is strained due to her previous abandonment. Thankfully, in her paired endings with Ashe, Ignatz, and Yuri they're able to restore the people's faith in her.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Insists on still serving on the front lines if she marries Dimitri. Also takes a very active role in governing the whole of Fódlan if she marries Byleth on the Verdant Wind route.
• Sacrificial Lion: In Three Hopes on Scarlet Blaze, she's the first member of the playable cast who will perish in battle rather than retreat after being beaten, have the option to be recruited, or just surrender. Her death has a noticeable effect not just on Dimitri, but several members of the party.
• Second Love: Anyone she gets with will be this, on account of her nearly Perfectly Arranged Marriage to Felix's older brother Glenn.
• Secret A.I. Moves: As an enemy unit, she can know Pass, a skill that is impossible for her to obtain as a playable unit.
• Secret Art: She's the only character outside of a New Game Plus that can use Burning Quake, Luin's combat art. It deals 8 extra damage and increases critical by 20 and avoid by 10, deals bonus damage based on her speed, and deals effective damage against dragons.
• Settle for Sibling: Was to be in a Perfectly Arranged Marriage with Glenn of House Fraldarius until his death in the Tragedy of Duscur. Ingrid can instead get together with Glenn's younger brother Felix.
• Shock and Awe: She learns Thoron upon reaching C in Reason.
• Spirited Young Lady: Despite her status as a young noblewoman, Ingrid vehemently refuses to allow herself to be used as a pawn to be married off at her father's behest, determined to focus on training as a knight. That's not to say she doesn't love her father, as she repeatedly states she's touched by his concern for her, but he's unbelievably stubborn on the marriage subject.
• Stepford Smiler: Not largely, but when it comes to her dream of becoming a knight, Ingrid has shades of this. Because of her Crest, her family regards her as their "last hope" when it comes to their overall situation, and Ingrid doesn't believe she can say no without causing them terrible misfortune, which causes her no end of guilt (particularly since her father provided for her more than he did for himself). At first, she's convinced that she can only be the latter, but supports with others - particularly post-timeskip - manage to make her realize that she can attempt to do both at once.
  Ingrid: (during their B-support) Ashe, I am bound by honor not to to follow through on my own dreams... but I can help you achieve yours.
  Ashe: Come on, this isn't like you at all. Please, don't smile when your eyes are so sad...
• Tareme Eyes: She has droopy eyes, contrasting with Dimitri and Felix's Tsurime Eyes and matching Sylvain's.
• Tarot Motifs: The Chariot arcana represented by the crest of Daphnel. The upright Chariot represents overcoming obstacles, will power and ambition, which represents Ingrid's determined goal to train as a knight. She also shares a trait with the reversed Chariot arcana, which can mean lack of direction. Ingrid's dream to become a knight clashes with her sense of duty to her family, which left her feeling lost and guilty towards her father at several points of her life, something that she confessed to Byleth with in their support conversations.
• Team Mom: She tries her hardest to keep Felix and Sylvain out of trouble, and in her support with Sylvain rants in exasperation at having to clean up after his philandering. However, she can also drift into a gender-inverted Team Dad, as many of her supports have her trying to clean up the behavior of others, such as Raphael's messy eating habits and Claude's rather informal demeanor.
• Through His Stomach: Her entire support chain with Yuri revolves around them bonding over delicious food.
• To Be Lawful or Good: In her support with Felix, Ingrid contemplates a scenario question from an essay in which one would be forced to choose between following the orders of a superior that puts one's hometown in danger, or protecting one's hometown from danger. She declares that, while the correct thing for a knight to do is to follow orders, she'd attempt to stop anyone who tried to do so.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl:
  • In her support with Annette, Ingrid is the training-focused girl unconcerned with her appearance beyond basic hygiene, while Annette enjoys traditionally feminine pursuits like putting on makeup. Despite Ingrid’s protests, in the end, Annette manages to persuade Ingrid to put on some makeup anyway.
  • Mercedes encourages her to put on makeup and enjoy gossiping over tea instead of training all the time.
  • Ingrid befriends Dorothea, who helps to give her a makeover so that she can attend the opera.
• Took a Level in Kindness: She starts off Three Houses being hostile towards the Duscur people, unable to see past her own grief to recognise that even if they were responsible for Glenn and others’ deaths their slaughter by the Kingdom’s army was abhorrent; in her Supports with Dedue, she comes to realise the injustice of her stance and apologises to him. In Three Hopes, this growth is accelerated after Rufus, Cornelia, and Viscount Kleiman are exposed; after the Time Skip she’s shown in Azure Gleam being very civil towards the Duscur soldiers in the army’s ranks, is personally good friends with Dedue, and directs her ire solely towards those personally responsible for the Tragedy of Duscur (even then, she refrains from killing a Duscuran dissident who was involved, determined to follow the legal proceedings for the sake of justice).
• Tsundere: A mix of Type A and B, flipping from polite and agreeable to bossy Jerkass, depending who she's speaking to.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Ingrid views herself as this. In her A-Support with Byleth, Ingrid openly admits that she feels conflicted about turning her back on her father, who sacrificed so much so she could have a happy childhood. While she wishes to pursue her dreams of becoming a Knight, she also acknowledges what her father has done for her and feels regret for not fulfilling her duties to House Galatea.
• Unkempt Beauty: In many of her supports, particularly with Dorothea, Ingrid is noted to be absolutely gorgeous, but she has no ability, or desire, to actually take care of her appearance beyond basic hygiene. In her A-Support with Sylvain, he becomes uncharacteristically flustered when she starts experimenting with makeup.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: On Sylvain's part, for her. They have a typical Childhood Friends relationship for the most part, with Ingrid frequently expressing exasperation at Sylvain's constant philandering, Ingrid teasingly insulting Sylvain and Sylvain playing it off with jokes. Occasionally Sylvain takes it further and makes a pass at Ingrid, but it's mostly just (friendly) teasing. Other times, Sylvain is frustrated by her taking his genuine attempts at interaction as superficial flirting or teasing, and shyly asks to spend time with or be close to her, and Ingrid is gentler with him.
• Weak, but Skilled: Ingrid's base growths in strength and magic are a somewhat low 35%. She compensates with having a diverse range of weapon and riding proficiencies, as well as weapon skills to strike both defense and resistance.
• We Used to Be Friends: She's good friends with Dimitri, Felix, and Sylvain at the beginning of the game, but it's possible for them to end up on opposite sides of a war should you recruit her or her friends to the Black Eagles and side with Edelgard.
• Welcome Back, Traitor: Downplayed on non-Azure Moon routes as several endings she can have in those routes state that she had to do a lot of work to win back the trust of the common folk after becoming the ruler of the Galatea territory as they remembered how she abandoned the Kingdom and/or sided with the enemy during the war. However, she eventually manages to earn her people's forgiveness by being a competent ruler and (possibly) due to the influence of her spouse.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: If Ingrid is recruited but falls pre-timeskip, she will return to her home territory but vanish during the timeskip, leaving her final fate unclear.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In Three Hopes on Scarlet Blaze Chapter 8, she drops one of these on Ashe if he's fighting in Arianrhod, asking if all the tales of chivalry he'd believe in were just things he'd trample over. It's noticeable in that she's the only Blue Lion in the chapter who reacts like that, as of the others on the map Mercedes and Dimitri simply provide their condolences that their paths diverged like this, while Dedue effectively offers a blunt "if you're fighting us, at least fight like you mean it".
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Ingrid had a romanticized idea of being a knight; she saw Glenn as the embodiment of chivalry and adores figures in the Kingdom for their dedication and loyalty to their wards. Because of it she takes her training seriously and only believes in the most straightforward paths to knighthood. However, some of Ingrid's supports slowly deconstruct her rosy views of knighthood when faced with certain realities. Dimitri and Felix challenge her entitled beliefs towards Glenn and his death since she wasn't the only one affected or even there, Catherine points out how dangerous extreme Undying Loyalty can be when facing a morally-gray scenario, and Raphael's unorthodox ideas of becoming a knight clash with her own. If she is recruited and fights Felix in the Crimson Flower route, she laments that she couldn't be a traditional knight after all.
• You Don't Want to Know: In her supports with Bernadetta, Ingrid kicks the door down to drag Bernadetta out to training. Bernadeta asks that if this is what Ingrid does to her classmates, then what does she do to her enemies?
  Ingrid: Don't ask questions you don't want answers to.
• You Remind Me of X: In her B-rank support with Claude, Ingrid admits that a good deal of her hostility towards him is rooted to how much he reminds her of Sylvain. Although she concedes that Claude, unlike Sylvain is not a womanizer so she admits that this hostility is misplaced on her end.
• You Shall Not Pass!: In Three Hopes at the end of the battle in chapter 8 of Scarlet Blaze, the Imperial Army have beaten Dimitri and Dedue at Arianrhod. Dedue volunteers first to guard Dimitri while he escapes, before Ingrid enters the scene and guards both of their escapes, giving up her life for them. Ingrid then dies with no regrets, seeing as she accomplished what she set out to do, which is something even some of the Black Eagles find tragic.

Sylvain

Sylvain Jose Gautier

Nationality: Holy Kingdom of Faerghus

House: Blue Lions

Class: Noble → Soldier → Cavalier → Paladin → Great Knight (Three Houses), Soldier → Paladin → Holy Knight (Three Hopes)

Age: 19 (6/05)

Crest: Gautier (Minor)

Height: 186 cm

Voiced by: Makoto Furukawa (Japanese), Joe Brogie (English)

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Houses)}

^{Post-Timeskip (Three Hopes)}

^{Click here to see Sylvain in Fire Emblem Heroes}

Sincerest of Knights / Consummate Flirt

"Playing around with girls is the most fun a guy can have. Besides, I don't care what you think of me. I don't intend to change how I live my life."

The heir to the margravial House of Gautier at the border. He cares for his friends, and is admired as an older brother figure in his class, but his fondness for sweet-talking girls is unmatched, such that he has endless troubles. He has an elder brother who was removed as the heir due to not possessing a Crest.

His personal ability, Philanderer, increases his damage and reduces the damage he takes if he is adjacent to a female ally. He also bears the Minor Crest of Gautier, which has a chance to raise his Might when he uses Combat Arts.

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• Action Initiative: He learns Swift Strikes at A Lances, which allows him two consecutive attacks with any lance weapon for the cost of some weapon durability, even if he was unable to double before. He's notably the only character without a Crest of Cichol to learn this ability.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: He is a lot better behaved in Three Hopes and his casanova tendencies get downplayed. In particular, the roles have been reversed with him and Felix or Ingrid, where he is the one to get them out of trouble when his friends used to do the same to him when they were younger. He tells the reason for why this is to Shez in their supports; he felt that since Dimitri and Felix had to assume their positions as the next King of Faerghus and Duke Fraldarius respectively at such a young age, he needed to mature alongside them in preparation for when he becomes the next Margrave Gautier.
• Adaptational Wimp: His summer variant in Heroes has a noticeably lower Atk than his Three Houses self. Possibly justified, as his summer variant is a mage and thus using Sylvain's lower Magic stat.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Downplayed. Sylvain admits that the relationship between himself and his brother is very strained. But, and especially after the timeskip, he wonders at times how different their relationship could've been or how much more better off his brother would've been if Crests were really of no importance.
• Ambiguously Bi: While he's an infamous skirt-chaser and has a strong preference for women, Sylvain's strongly hinted to be equal-opportunity bisexual.
  • When Flayn brings up a rumor that he hits on both men and women, Sylvain doesn't exactly deny it.
    Flayn: Of course I would prefer to believe that, but no one can never know for certain. Particularly when similar stories are constantly in circulation about you. I have heard that men and women alike have been seduced by your nefarious ways.
    Sylvain: I hate to suggest my talents are being oversold, but...
  • He also hits on Ashe in the Japanese version of their support conversation, even suggesting that Ashe may have fallen in love with him before being cut off by the latter.
  • In his B-support with Ingrid, she suggests he hits on everyone, something he doesn't comment on, though given that he's used to Ingrid flinging accusations at him, he probably thinks it's probably beating a dead horse to try denying it.
    Ingrid: You flirt with anything that has a pulse, offend people left and right, and constantly cause commotions.
  • In Three Hopes he flirts with Yuri on accident at first but fully admits he doesn't mind the truth.
• Ancestral Weapon: Sylvain gains use of House Gautier’s Relic, the Lance of Ruin^note Called the “Lance of Rupture” in Japanese, if he's in Byleth's class either after his brother Miklan's defeat in chapter 5 if Byleth refuses to relinquish the lance to Rhea, or after Miklan's gang is dealt with in the Paralogue "The Forgotten" if Byleth agrees to give up the lance. Unlike his brother, Sylvain's Crest allows him to wield it safely.
• Anti-Air: Ruined Sky does bonus damage against flying enemies.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: His unique ability "Gordian Thrust" in Three Hopes encourages this, increasing his attack range and damage the higher his combo count is, starting at 300 hits and capping at 1500.
• Babies Ever After: In his paired endings with Mercedes, Byleth (in non-Azure Moon routes), and Ingrid.
• Baritone of Strength: Despite his flippant nature, he's a fully capable and deadly fighter, and he has a deep voice. This is even more apparent in his Japanese voice over particularly when he shifts over to using a more serious tone.
• Beneath the Mask: In his support with Mercedes, Sylvain at first approaches her with his usual superficial philandering, only to be surprised at her insistence that she wants to see "the real him." He rants about being frustrated by his Crest straining his relationship with his brother and making it impossible for him to believe the women interested in him were genuine, and for a moment regrets it, though Mercedes soothes him:
  Sylvain: No, I... I should keep my temper better. I don't want you to see me act that way.
  Mercedes: Don't say that. I'm glad we were able to talk. I feel like I'm finally seeing the real you.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: During her C-level support conversation with him Flayn mentions there being rumors of Sylvain flirting with chickens and horses. Subverted as that rumor never ends up being proven true.
• Better as Friends:
  • A large number of his female support options end with him and the other party agreeing that while they develop a good friendship, romance wouldn't work between them due to various factors. Sylvain takes all of them in stride.
  • Hilda refuses anything beyond friendship with Sylvain because she doesn't feel he could stand a chance convincing her brother to allow the marriage, and to her admitting that she was just using him.
• Beware the Silly Ones: He's a shameless philander and a lighthearted jokester, but he's also the most likely to dole out open death threats when you fight him in Part II.
• Black Knight: His armor as a mounted class evokes this imagery, being a unique spiky black armor. Suitably, he can be considered a knight (a nobleman who fights on horseback) but lacks traditional virtues and has a cynical outlook on life. He's also one of three playable units to have easy access to the Dark Knight class^note He has strength in Lance and Riding and a budding talent in Reason, which are the three requirements, along with Lorenz and Jeritza.
• Blessed with Suck: In several of his supports, Sylvain laments how his Crest has ruined his life - turning his brother's jealousy into murderous rage directed at him, forcing him to deal with the high expectations people had of him, and making it impossible for him to trust that people liked him as a person instead of for his Crest.
• Boring, but Practical: Compared to the rest of the Blue Lions, he falls into this. He has decent to good growths in every stat except Resistance, and a budding talent in Reason combined with his only weakness being in bows, allowing him to take up most classes without much issue, and having Pyschic among his Faith spells gives him extra utility. While he can't compete with some dedicated units, he can also adapt quickly on the battlefield making him one of the best characters from Blue Lions and one of the best characters to recruit on any route.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He's highly intelligent and insightful, but admits he dislikes hard work and would rather coast through having fun. In Three Hopes, during Shez's B support with him, he admits he's trying to research/work out a new design for a portable fire orb that anyone could use, which would be a definitive improvement over the current large-scale ones that require magical training to use.
• Broken Ace: In his support with Annette, Annette rails against Sylvain for being good at everything he tries effortlessly, while Sylvain reveals that he is Obfuscating Stupidity in order to escape the pressure placed on him by those with high expectations of him, as well as his tendency to hide his true feelings Beneath the Mask of superficiality and laziness.
• Cain and Abel: Sylvain claims that his older brother Miklan so resented him for being the favorite child due to his Crest that he wanted Sylvain dead, and if Sylvain talks to Miklan in chapter 5, Miklan urges Sylvain to "hurry up and die."
• Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Sylvain's a skirt-chaser but in his A+ Support with Ingrid, he's a blubbering mess who stammers even more than Bernadetta.
• Character Tics: Tends to hold his hands behind his head, even performing a one-handed variant in his academy phase portrait.
• The Casanova: He is known to be successful with women to the point where it earned him a negative reputation with them. During the games story he trickles between this and Handsome Lech due to said reputation and his insecurities keeping him from forming meaningful relationships with the girls he supports in the main cast.
• Commonality Connection:
  • In his support with Mercedes, the two bond over how their Crests have caused them misfortune and strife throughout their lives.
  • Averted with his supports with Marianne, as even though both of them have had their lives ruined by being Crest-bearing nobles, this doesn't get brought up and instead focuses on Sylvain attempting to encourage Marianne to be more sociable and teaching her to smile.
• Cool Big Bro: Seen as one by his classmates, and according to Sylvain, when Felix was younger, looked up to Sylvain and treated him like an older brother. He often offers his comrades advice or assists them in solving their problems. Considering how Miklan treated Sylvain growing up, this is probably a direct response to being the opposite of that, as Sylvain knows how awful it is to be bullied by someone you looked up to.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: It's subtle, but his character model has slight dark circles around his eyes when examined closely. Shadow effects are also more prominent on his portraits than most other characters, notably for his sad and angry expressions. A subtle hint that he's far more cynical and bitter than he lets on.
• The Cynic: Beneath his easygoing nature, Sylvain is quite cynical and distrustful.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: He becomes this if not recruited on the Crimson Flower route, especially on Maddening. While he is immobile, he has massive HP and Defense (84 and 40+5, respectively), making him difficult to take out without class-effective weaponry or magic.
• Dark Is Not Evil: His Ancestral Weapon is called the Lance of Ruin^note Or the Lance of Rupture in Japanese and said weapon has an overall sinister look to it, he wears dark armor after the timeskip, he is one of two playable characters to ride a black horse, and his generic class outfits are all black and red, but Sylvain is ultimately a good person at heart.
• Deadly Distant Finale: His ending with Mercedes has him eventually pass away to be succeeded by his oldest, crestless child. His ending with Felix has them fulfill their childhood promise of dying together after becoming so close that they could not live without each other.
• Deadpan Snarker: Not as snarky as Felix, but Sylvain makes sarcastic comments from time to time.
• Death by Adaptation: He can survive all Three Houses routes if he’s been recruited before the Time Skip; in Three Hopes, he cannot be recruited outside of Scarlet Blaze, and will die as part of Scarlet Blaze's story.
• Death Glare: After the timeskip, his angry portrait becomes this.
• Declaration of Protection: Exchanges these with Mercedes in their A-support, with both vowing to protect the other.
• Deliberate Under-Performance: Sylvain intentionally shirks his studies and skips training to flirt with girls because he's tired of the expectations placed on him for bearing a crest. As shown by his wide range of proficiencies, he's actually good at nearly anything he puts his mind to, he just doesn't want the attention.
• Dirty Kid: In his younger days. Ingrid won't let him forget the time he hit on her grandmother when he was eight. Sylvain's defense is that Ingrid's grandmother was gorgeous.
• Disc-One Nuke: You can get the Lance of Ruin as early as Chapter 5 if you are playing Azure Moon or you recruited him (especially if you are female as he'll immediately request to join you if you talked to him) and deny returning the relic to Rhea. This weapon boasts 22 might and 20 critical rate and the combat art Ruined Sky, which gives 13 extra might and is effective against flying and dragon enemies.
• Easily Forgiven: Discussed. If Byleth talks to Sylvain when exploring the monastery in chapter 18 of the Azure Moon route, a week or a few weeks following Dimitri's epiphany and Redemption in the Rain at the end of chapter 17, Sylvain muses that he isn't sure if he can just forgive Dimitri after his reprehensible and destructive actions, but decides that he's willing to trust that the prince is genuinely working to atone and give him a chance.
• The Eeyore: A lot more subtle than it is with characters like the constantly-gloomy Hapi, but he is far more cynical and bitter than his initial attitude lets on, as he feels that all women only want him for his Crest instead of him. This is especially true should he be recruited on Crimson Flower.
• Establishing Character Moment: During the cutscene introducing the houses and students, Sylvain tries flirting with Ingrid only to be rejected with a backhand punch.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Though he's a womanizer and is known for breaking hearts, he doesn't go for people he's aware would be too fragile to handle it and doesn't try to force people into doing something they don't want - for instance, in his supports with Bernadetta, he never flirts with her but instead comes across a book she was writing and goes out of his way to tell her how much he liked it, even though Bernadetta is so shocked by the praise she runs away.
  • In his supports with Marianne, when she declines going to town with him and is obviously uncomfortable by his advances, Sylvain backs off and tells her the offer still stands if she changes her mind but doesn't push the issue any further. He then tries to teach Marianne to smile and tells her it will help her feel better about herself, to which she seems to take to heart, and even mentions Sylvain's advice to Ashe in her support with him.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: After the timeskip, while his hair is still spiky, it's noticeably neater than it was during the academy phase. This fits with his more serious nature during the war phase.
• Fiery Redhead: Inverted, as he's actually pretty laid-back.
• Foil:
  • He and Dimitri are pretty much direct opposites; Sylvain is easygoing, fun-loving and lighthearted, while Dimitri is serious, responsible, and in Sylvain's words, "uptight." Highlighted by their support chain, where Sylvain promises to act more responsibly if Dimitri will lighten up.
  • He and Ingrid are polar opposites; Ingrid is serous, straightforward, responsible and presents as the picture of a traditional, reliable knight. Sylvain is relaxed, somewhat irresponsible, has a fondness for joking around and tends to get into trouble.
  • Similar to the above, he is this to Felix as well, being carefree, likable side to Felix’s serious and at times callous exterior.
  • As a Handsome Lech, Sylvain is one for Lorenz, as although he flirts around Sylvain holds the girls in contempt despite his charming persona, while Lorenz is actively looking for a wife that would be a good match for him, despite being obnoxious about it. Sylvain resents his status and responsibilities as a noble and heir of his house, while Lorenz is proud of and embraces his own.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Despite being something of a goofball, he's the Responsible to Miklan's Foolish, as despite his own issues, Sylvain is serious about becoming a good leader and copes with Gallows Humor and flirting. His solo ending also has him make peace with Sreng through diplomacy alone.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: His initial interactions with his fellow Blue Lions classmates come off as this. Dimitri, Felix, and especially Ingrid are quite annoyed with his skirt chasing tendencies, and even Ashe and Annette find him to be an irritating and lazy slacker. The exceptions are Dedue, who is mostly very quiet, and Mercedes, who is a Nice Girl to just about everyone, and even then, Mercedes instantly sees through his flirty act and calls him out on it in their supports. That said, everyone either warms up to him or shows they care about him at the culmination of their supports with him.
• Friendly Enemy: In his, Dimitri, and Rodrigue's paralogue in Three Hopes, Sylvain and the commander of the Sreng army fought in said paralogue aren't too hostile towards each other (aside from Sylvain questioning the commander on why he would care that Miklan has died) and are a bit more jovial towards each other than normal enemies of war, despite the terror the commander and his fellow brothers-in-arms have brought to his father and the Kingdom, and the betrayal he dealt the former. He's very thankful that they managed to get this relation, as he hopes this means that Faerghus and Sreng have a better chance at peace by understanding each other, despite his father thinking that peace is impossible.
• Gallows Humor: He's rather fond of this, choosing to hide his trauma through jokes.
• Genius Bruiser: Despite his slacker attitude, he's no less capable than his more hardworking peers on the battlefield. Additionally, he's also considerably more intelligent than he lets on.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Sylvain is jealous of the fact that Byleth grew up with a powerful crest with none of the social baggage that usually comes with it, especially since they didn't even know they had one until it manifests during the game. The first time this comes up, he plays it off with a "Just Joking" Justification, but during a later conversation, he admits that he really did feel jealous about Byleth. If he's not recruited, he doesn't get over his jealousy over Byleth and makes it explicitly clear if male Byleth faces him as an opponent.
  Sylvain: (angry) You were free. Nobody pretended to like you. I kind of hate you for that... You were a spoiled brat who should pay for that Crest. Maybe I'll collect the debt.
  Sylvain: (smiling) Ha! Gotcha! Wow, you shoulda seen the look on your face just then.
• Handsome Lech: Played with, as Sylvain is successful with women. However, by the time the game's events transpire, he has earned himself such a negative reputation with women that it makes his attempts to score with most of the girls in the main cast unsuccessful due to their distrust toward him as well as his unwillingness to fully commit himself due to his own insecurities. This often leads to many of his supports ending with them declaring that they’d be Better as Friends or simply implying that he chooses not to pursue the girl any further. Should he not be paired by the end of the game, his solo ending has his reputation following him despite all the good he is stated to have done in the form of cheaters being known as “The sons of Gautier” out of tradition.
• Heroic Build: While he's visibly broad-shouldered in Three Houses, his summer variant in Heroes reveals that he's completely shredded.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Potentially with Felix, at least in the English translation. The Japanese translation, however, uses romantic language to describe their relationship. They even die on the same day in their Azure Moon paired ending, where to quote the game, "as if conceding that one could not live without the other."
• Hidden Depths:
  • Despite being a skirt-chaser, he actually holds most of the women he dates in contempt because he believes that none of them care about who he actually is, but rather simply want him for his bloodline. Appropriately enough, most of his supports tend to revolve around the other person learning about Sylvain's true motives. Indeed, a majority of his supports with female characters max out at a B-rank, prohibiting them from getting a paired ending together.
  • He admits post-timeskip to Byleth that disliking the girls he dates for being interested in him for his Crest is just an excuse to pass blame onto someone for the misfortune he goes through because of Crests, and even before then he admits that despite breaking the hearts of women all the time, he really doesn't enjoy it and he hates to see a girl cry.
  • Despite starting out as a basic foot soldier, he's incredibly intelligent and loves tactics board games to go with his pretty good aptitude for magic, Reason being his budding talent. He is able to easily understand a book of magic that Annette struggles with, and one of his requirements for recruitment by male Byleth is for Byleth to have a high Reason stat.^note He'll immediately join if female Byleth asks him to, regardless of her stats.
  • He believes the people of Duscur are not responsible for the conspiracy to kill the previous king of Faerghus and gives a number of reasons why he thinks so. Hence, he's completely fine being around Dedue. He also justifies it to Dedue because he's the victim of even worse rumors and hate than Dedue is, and Sylvain acknowledges that unlike Dedue, he's actually earned that reputation.
  • In his support conversation with Ashe, Sylvain reveals that he holds genuinely heroic beliefs, saying that it’s a knight’s job to protect and help out anyone and everyone who needs it. A surprised Ashe even remarks that, were it not for his philandering and troublemaking, Sylvain would be a great person.
  • Despite coming off like kind of a goofball, he has a taste for fine art and theatre; one of his favorite gifts is the Landscape Painting and he mentions to Byleth that he likes the opera. In Three Hopes, during Sylvain's support with Ignatz, he admits that at first he got knowledgeable about art to impress the ladies, but genuinely became interested in the craft after a time.
  • His support with Bernadetta has him reading a book she wrote, in which he gives great praise to it as well as surprisingly strong in-depth commentary and critique on its contents.
  • Despite being the one person in his group of childhood friends who isn't dedicated to some sort of ideal in the first half of the game (with Ingrid focusing on being a knight and Felix focusing on becoming strong), he is the most dedicated to an ideal if recruited to the Black Eagles during the Crimson Flower route. Ingrid and Felix both become unsure that they've made the correct decision to turn on their homelands (with Ingrid specifically wanting to return home, but feeling she has killed too many of her kin to do so), but Sylvain's hatred of Crests means that he’s willing to support Edelgard's path (even if he has some misgivings). He does, however, express regret in having to turn against and kill his friends as evidenced in his dialogue.
  • His room is very neat and tidy. Combined with his dislike of the Watering Can gift (said to be enjoyed by people who enjoy gardening, a messy hobby) and "unclean spaces" being in his dislikes, Sylvain obviously has high standards for hygiene and tidiness.
  • Despite agreeing to a point about changing societies value on Crests, before the invasion of Faerghus on Crimson Flower he tests Byleth to see how obedient they are to Edelgard. If they also disagree on the idea of invading Faerghus, not only does he get support points, but he shows a dislike for Edelgard's justifications and her "idiot sidekick" Hubert for invading, even if he's accepted that he can't do anything about it at this point.
  • One of his lost items is a book about "A History of Sreng", the country to the north-east of Fódlan that the Gautier family have long been tasked with defending Faerghus from, showing that despite this, Sylvain is interested in learning more about the people who have by all rights been his family's "enemy".
  • During his paralogue he comes up with a pretty decent strategy for dealing with the thieves in his father's territory- cut off their escape routes and hunt the rest down.
  • In his supports with Shez in Three Hopes, Sylvain reveals an industrious side to himself. He's eager to experiment with Shez's teleporting sword and is developing plans for a new portable fire spell that anyone could use (prototype grenades or firearms) to better arm the common man so that Fódlan wouldn't be so reliant on the Hero's Relics for protection.
• Humble Hero: In his support with Annette, he's quick to downplay his intelligence and the fact that he picked up on a magic formula that she struggled with by saying that he just got lucky with it.
• Hunter of Monsters: Sylvain is good at killing monsters, due to Ruined Sky's bonus damage and learning Monster Piercer at C+ Lance. He also has access to Seraphim at B Faith if made a magic class.
• Hypocrite:
  • Possibly on the Crimson Flower route. If brought as mission assistance for Chapter 5, he witnesses his brother turn into a demonic beast with appropriate horror. In Chapter 17, if not recruited, he voices his approval for random Kingdom soldiers being transformed into demonic beasts for the sake of revenge, though he never says Miklan doesn't deserve to be turned into a monster and the fact it's his own brother probably contributed heavily to his initial reaction.
  • He accuses Byleth of being a "spoiled brat" in their B-support because they didn't know they had a Crest for most of their life and thus were free do as they pleased, but Sylvain comments in his C-support with Lysithea that he was allowed to do pretty much whatever he wanted as a child because he was the heir to his house. Granted, he does say he was joking, but it's hard to tell with Sylvain.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • In his C-support with Manuela, Sylvain tries to console Manuela regarding a recent breakup of hers, only to condemn someone who exhibited his own normal behavior toward women:
    Manuela: What a thoughtful young man you are. You're a real gentleman compared to that jerk who just —
    Sylvain: That guy who strung you along, whispered sweet nothings in your ear, then shattered your heart beyond repair? I agree. He's a jerk.
  • When talking about the Kingdom's troubles, he criticizes the regent for being a skirt-chaser instead of helping his people, then immediately jokes about how he's well aware of the irony of his remarks.
• I Am What I Am:
  • Sylvain is well aware of others' perceptions of him as a troublemaker, but he doesn't care and is adamant about living the life he wants to live.
  • His later supports with Byleth and Mercedes reveal that he's more conflicted about himself and his lifestyle than he lets on. He dislikes the way he lives and the society he's stuck in, but doesn't see any way to change, nor does he believe he can escape it.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • The laid-back Sylvain has a habit of making off-color jokes during tense situations, or other lighthearted, potentially offensive remarks in serious situations that annoy others. Notably, he's on the receiving end of a slap from Ingrid after suggesting that Flayn went missing because she eloped in chapter 6. He's got a habit of not bothering to filter his thoughts before he speaks them.
  • In his support with Ingrid, Sylvain makes lighthearted jokes about the bodily danger his antics put him in, without realizing the impact that seeing someone else close to her hurt or killed would have on Ingrid after losing Glenn. He genuinely apologizes to her once he realizes his mistake.
• Intentional Heartbreaker: He has this reputation, though unlike usual perpetrators of this trope he actually feels bad for what he does.
• Ironic Echo: His and Ingrid's C-support in Three Houses starts with Ingrid dropping a hard sigh over all the troubles Sylvain gets himself into, to which he remarks on it and asks her what's wrong. Their C-support in Three Hopes starts with Sylvain being the one to sigh hard over troubles Ingrid gets into to which she asks him what's wrong.
• Irony:
  • Despite being a total skirt chaser, Sylvain has the fewest potential romantic supports of any student at 3 (4 if Byleth is a girl), with Dorothea being the only girl outside the Blue Lions that he can marry.
  • If you level up his Reason skill, most of the spells he learns are fire-based, but Sylvain hates the heat and mentions he hails from the most Northern part of the Faerghus Kingdom, which is very cold.
  • Ruined Sky does bonus damage against flying enemies. The New Game Plus item that bestows the Crest of Gautier upon its holder is called the Fissure Dragon Sign.
  • Despite having much of his life revolving around his Crest and passing it on, Sylvain never explicitly bears a child with a Crest in his endings. Doubles up if he married Ingrid or Mercedes, who are in a similar situation.
• It's Personal: In Three Hopes on the Golden Wildfire route, he shows the most hostility against the Federation army after they killed his father on their way to Fhirdiad, and he was already infuriated at them given that they invaded Faerghus.
  Sylvain (to Claude): You come here, trampling people's homes and murdering their parents... I'm going to make you pay.
• Jack of All Stats: His growths are well-balanced with the exception of a low magic growth, making him well-rounded overall.
• Jack of All Trades: Sylvain only has a negative modifier to his bow skill, and despite his mediocre skill with magic, he does have a fairly respectable spell list, allowing him to become pretty good at just about any class and about as versatile as Byleth.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be rude, smug, and even callous concerning the feelings of others, especially those of the women he dates, but he's a genuinely outgoing, friendly person and ultimately well-meaning.
• The Kirk: He's a balance between Felix's pragmatic logic and Ingrid's knightly virtues.
• Ladykiller in Love: He's a shameless philanderer, most of his relationships go nowhere, and in several of his support conversations he outright admits to resenting women who show interest in him, believing their intentions to be shallow. If he gets a paired ending with Byleth, Mercedes, Ingrid, or Dorothea, however, he genuinely falls for them, and the epilogues states that he happily settled down and was a devoted husband.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Played for Laughs in his support with Ingrid in Three Hopes. Sylvain tells her how he always has to clean up after a particularly unruly knight in his squadron, in which a very amused Ingrid proceeds to laugh at how Sylvain now knows what she had to deal with when it came to him in the past.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Sylvain is laid-back and jovial while his father Matthias is a lot more stern and serious. Their views on Sreng are also vastly different, as Sylvain hopes to make peace with Sreng through diplomacy and understanding, while Matthias views them as barbarians and has no hope of peace being forged between the two nations.
• Loveable Rogue: He tends to skirt the boundaries of responsibility and cares little for the consequences of his actions, but he’s a charming and kind guy regardless.
• Magic Knight: Despite his below average magic stats and growth, he has a budding talent in Reason magic and a solid spell list, making him a decent choice as a Dark Knight.
• Meal Ticket: What he sees himself as, as he's convinced the women he dates are only interested in him for his noble status and Crest.
• Meaningful Name: Or meaningful last name in his case. “Gautier” is the French variation of the Germanic name “Walter” which means “Ruler of the Army”, hinting at the fact that he inherits the title Margrave Gautier from his father after the war is done. Humorously of note, he shares his last name with two prominent male historical figures associated with women. One who was a saint that founded a monastery for women and a minstrel known for his crass and erotic poetry.
• Messy Hair: Pre-timeskip, Sylvain's hair is a mess, sticks out in multiple directions, and partially falls over one eye. It becomes a bit more tidy after the timeskip.
• Mr. Fanservice: He's tall, broad-shouldered, has a deep voice, and is attractive enough in-universe to be successful with the ladies despite being a philanderer. His summer variant in Heroes also reveals a very muscular physique, with his swim trunks being low on the waist. He's damn proud of it, too.
  Sylvain: I won't ask if you like my swimsuit. I'll just say... you're welcome.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The In-Between to Ingrid's Nice and Felix's Mean. While Sylvain is genuinely a Nice Guy to his close friends and peers, he does display some cynicism and bitterness on the inside, especially in regards to his feelings on how much his Crest negatively affected his life.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: He leaves his uniform jacket and the topmost button of his dress shirt undone. He also has his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and has a semi-unique boot design (only Felix and Lysithea share this design).
• Noodle Incident: While scolding Sylvain for his skirt-chasing, Ingrid reminds him that he "made eyes at a scarecrow" when he was ten. Sylvain responds, "That was just an accident... a tragic, tragic accident."
• Obfuscating Stupidity: He wants people to see him as a brainless skirt-chaser, even though he's anything but. Perhaps best illustrated in his C-Support with Annette, where he instantly understands and is able to critique a book that she had been having trouble with and then tries to make up excuses about why he could, like pretending he'd read the book before or just got lucky.
• Parental Favoritism: Because their father values Crests so much, the moment Sylvain was born with one instantly made him the favorite over his older brother Miklan. Noticeably, however, Sylvain seems a bit sympathetic to his older brother, though he doesn't hesitate to state that he hated how selfish and egotistical Miklan would get over it.
• Playing with Fire: Learns Fire, Bolganone, and Ragnarok through Reason.
• Plotline Death: In Three Hopes, he’ll die trying to avenge Ingrid on Scarlet Blaze.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
  "I'm on it!" (pre-timeskip)
  "What's the plan?" (post-timeskip)
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  "Gonna need you to move!"
  "Don't underestimate me!" (Pre-timeskip)
  "Open wide!" (Pre-timeskip)
  "Take this!" (Pre-timeskip)
  "This'll do it!" (Post-timeskip)
  "Let's finish this!" (Post-timeskip)
  "Whatever it takes!" (Post-timeskip)
• Rain of Arrows: He learns Sagittae upon reaching B in Reason.
• Really Gets Around: Sylvain has a reputation for being a philanderer (his unique ability is literally named "Philanderer," after all), and according to the rumors his tastes are very broad. Ingrid won't forgive him for flirting with her grandmother when he was only eight and recalls a time where he made eyes at a scarecrow when he was ten. ^note This differs in the original Japanese version as it was stated that he flirted with a man dressed as a woman. In his support with Flayn, she accuses him of hitting on horses and chickens, although in fairness, Flayn's source are schoolyard rumors and she is exceptionally gullible. She also suggests he flirts with men too, which he doesn't deny.
• Recurring Element:
  • Three Houses overall downplays the 'Christmas Cavalier' archetype pioneered by Cain and Abel, but Sylvain has several elements of Cain: he's less serious and focuses on strength, but he wears green and some hints of red in his time-skip outfit, and he mostly wears black and red pre and post time skip, particularly in his classes.
  • He shares the Chivalrous Pervert traits from previous series' perverts (such as Saul, Sain, Gatrie and Inigo.) In this case, he's a complete fit to the archetype (but also deconstructing it in the same time)
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Played With. On the Azure Moon route, Sylvain is a loyal ally to the end, and if recruited on any other route, he remains with Byleth for the rest of the game. However, he is a Fallen Hero if not recruited on the Crimson Flower route, and on Verdant Wind, he follows a crazed Dimitri into battle, attacking Alliance and Imperial troops indiscriminately. Regardless, his generic class outfits are all black and red, and he wears dark armor with red accents after the timeskip. He is also one of the few units to ride a black horse instead of the standard brown and white horse for the Cavalier and Paladin class, respectively.
• Sad Clown:
  • In his supports with Byleth, Sylvain reveals deep feelings of cynicism regarding his eventual fate of "being forced into an arranged marriage with some random noblewoman," as well as his inability to be free from the burden his Crest places on him. He tends to cover his true feelings of resentment over his Crest with his jokes and philandering.
  • His final support with Mercedes begins with the usual flirting, but quickly changes with her revealing that she knows he hates women and comforts him over it, promising that she'll be there to protect him. It's so unexpected and heartfelt that she makes him break down in tears.
• Scarf of Asskicking: In Three Hopes, he sports a green scarf around his neck after the timeskip.
• See You in Hell: One his quotes post-timeskip after defeating an enemy in the Japanese dub is literal about it.
  English: Burn until we meet again.
  Japanese: I'll see you again in hell.
• Secret A.I. Moves: As an enemy unit after the timeskip, he can know Pass, a skill that he is unable to learn as a playable unit.
• Secret Art:
  • He's the only playable character to learn Black Magic Avoid +20.
  • Additionally, without the New Game Plus crest-granting items, he's also the only character capable of using Ruined Sky, the Lance of Ruin's combat art. It deals 13 extra damage, increases hit, critical, and avoid by 10, and is effective against dragons and flying units.
  • When not including Balthus, who is DLC, he's the only male character who learns Seraphim.
• Self-Destructive Charge: In chapter 14 of Scarlet Blaze in Three Hopes, when Felix has been beaten, he jumps in not only so that his friend can escape from the Imperial army, but also to try and get revenge for Ingrid. This ends with Sylvain getting killed.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Inverted, as while he's one of the tallest members of the Blue Lions (only Dedue and post-timeskip Dimitri are taller), he's also quite intelligent and rooted in logic.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: He calls Miklan out if you choose to have Sylvain fight him, as Miklan tries to blame everything that happened on Sylvain, who bluntly tells him it's his own fault and he's sick of being blamed for all Miklan's problems.
• Smarter Than You Look: While on the surface Sylvain is just another foppish flirt of which there have been several in the series, he is actually very intelligent and insightful when he wants to be.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: In his B-support with Dorothea, both turn on the superficial charm and flirtatiousness when they agree to go out to dinner together. Both end up needling the other, poking at the ulterior motives each has for agreeing to spend time with the other, but agree to go out to dinner anyway:
  Sylvain: And to be clear...the reason you chose to spend time with me is my family, yes? Or is it my Crest? Both?
  [...]
  Dorothea: Actually, I have a question of my own. Say I was a hoarse-voiced old hag... Would you still be flirting with me? Would you still want to hold my hand and whisper sweet nothings?
• Speak Ill of the Dead: He doesn't hesitate to call out Miklan as selfish and egotistical after his death, even admitting he should Never Speak Ill of the Dead, but his brother earned it for the hell he put him through in childhood.
• Spiky Hair: Sylvain's hair sticks out in many directions, especially before the timeskip.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Sylvain is the mischievous, joke-cracking wise guy to Dimitri's straightforward, strictly serious straight man in their support chain.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Post-timeskip, he looks like an unscarred Miklan with shorter and neater hair.
• Sympathy for the Devil: After Miklan's death, Sylvain has moments of reflection in which he feels sympathy for the way he was mistreated due to his lack of a Crest, though he retains some bitterness about the way he treated him.
  Sylvain: Thinking about it, life was probably a lot harder for my brother than it ever has been for me.
• Taking the Bullet:
  • Downplayed example, but in his A-Support with Byleth has Byleth visiting him after he took a blow for them in battle and got injured. Sylvain admits that despite being jealous of Byleth, he truly didn't want anything to happen to them and reacted on instinct when he thought they were about to be killed.
  • Does this again to Felix in their A+ support, which angers Felix since Sylvain could've been killed for it. According to Felix, he's been doing it since they were kids.
• Tareme Eyes: His eyes are somewhat droopy, to contrast Felix and Dimitri's Tsurime Eyes and matching Ingrid's.
• Tarot Motifs: Death, represented by the crest of Gautier. Sylvain represents the Reversed Death Arcana which symbolizes resistance to change. His support conversations with Byleth and Mercedes reveals that as much as he wants to change his life, he doesn't believe that he can change his way of life nor can he make the change in society. However, by the end of the routes, this changed to the Upright Death Arcana which represents change, as in many of his endings, it was stated that he was able to bring out the change that crest and relics are not necessary for society to move on with life.
• Together in Death: He and Felix promised that they would stay together until they die together. If paired on the Azure Moon route, their ending states that they pass away on the same day.
• Tranquil Fury: Sylvain despises male Byleth when encountered as an enemy on the Crimson Flower route, but he initially hides his contempt behind a friendly greeting, before admitting that he'll celebrate their death. By comparison, he expresses regret about having to kill a female Byleth.
  Sylvain: Professor! Has it really been five years? We ought to raise a glass to the occasion. Celebrate your return.
  Sylvain: Nah, I'd rather commemorate it with your death.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: His philandering began to show itself at a worryingly young age. When he was eight years old he flirted with Ingrid's grandmother, which she does not let him live down.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Sylvain ties for the second-lowest Dexterity growth and cap, and the lowest base Dexterity stat in the game. The Lance of Ruin's 22 Might and 65% base hit only emphasizes this, as Sylvain will do a ton of damage... if he actually hits. This is emphasized further by his only skill weakness being in bows, making it harder for him to get Hit +20 from mastering Archer, which would otherwise help. ^{For reference...}The only two characters with a lower Dexterity stat are Dedue and Hilda, who are still neutral in bows.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Ingrid. They have a typical Childhood Friends relationship for the most part, with Ingrid frequently expressing exasperation at Sylvain's constant philandering, Ingrid teasingly insulting Sylvain and Sylvain playing it off with jokes. Occasionally Sylvain takes it further and makes a pass at Ingrid, but it's mostly just (friendly) teasing. Other times, Sylvain is frustrated by her taking his genuine attempts at interaction as superficial flirting or teasing, and shyly asks to spend time with or be close to her, and Ingrid is gentler with him. This is resolved if they achieve A-support and get an ending together.
• Useless Useful Spell: He knows Pass as an enemy unit post-timeskip. While he can use it to get the jump on the player on Verdant Wind, it becomes functionally a wasted slot on Crimson Flower, as he cannot move.
• We Used to Be Friends: He's good friends with Dimitri, Felix, and Ingrid at the beginning of the game, but it's possible for them to end up on opposite sides of a war should you recruit him or his friends to the Black Eagles and side with Edelgard.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In his B-support with Hilda, Sylvain calls her out on using other people to do things for her and says that while he doesn't mind doing things for pretty girls, she needs to stop being so selfish.
• Youngest Child Wins: Because he inherited a Crest while his older brother Miklan didn't, Sylvain is the heir to his house.

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