Fanfic / Shattered Reflection

In one world, Robin died abandoned by those she thought friends, with the sword of her lover driven into her chest. In another world, a young man with no memories of his past was trusted to guide Ylisse in war. Given a new chance, the broken queen will take a new name and make sure this young tactician survived, no matter the cost.

A dramatic Fan Fiction based in one of the many outrealms of Fire Emblem: Awakening. Shattered Reflection is written by Natzo and hosted on FanFiction.Net (here) and Archive of Our Own (here), and has quickly become a popular retelling of the Awakening storyline since its beginning on October 23, 2015. Fans are especially drawn to the unique portrayal of the Shepherds, and the main character, Rose, whose Dark and Troubled Past both delights and traumatizes readers.

The story has been on hiatus since August 2021.

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Shattered Reflection provides examples of:

• Above Good and Evil: The power of Grima can overwhelm Rose and make to think this way, briefly leading to truly horrific results before she manages to snap out of it.
• Abusive Parents: Validar definitely counts. Even if you don't include the fact that in both universes, he had one of his own children killed in a sick ritual of blood. This makes his eventual death and soul binding at the hands of Rose especially enjoyable.
• Accidental Pervert:
  • Chrom, much like in the original game, interrupts Rose's Bathtub Scene by walking in on her. And just as she's rising from the water to reach for her Modesty Towel. This time, instead of having a Naked Freak-Out or entering Pervert Revenge Mode, Rose decides takes full advantage of the situation in order to get some petty revenge. Acting coyly and not bothering to cover herself, she teases him about ogling her and then asks if he wants to help her wash her back. The insinuation is enough to cause Chrom to flee out of the tent in a panic, while she burst laughing.
  • Happens again after Emmeryn's wedding when Chrom, Robin, and Gaius blunder into Rose's room to find her stark naked. Along with Phila. The three are lucky to make it out alive.
• Accidental Pornomancer: Without meaning to, Robin not only manages to charm and bed Devola and Popola at the same time. He also manages to exhaust them and they both compliment his skill and stamina the morning after.
• Action Girl: The majority of female characters, with special mention going to Rose herself. Being a late-game character essentially playing through again puts her at a much higher advantage than anyone else in the story. Being part demon-dragon doesn't hurt, either.
• Adaptational Heroism: Tiki screws over Excellus' attempt to use Say'ri as a bargaining chip, and Yen'fay remains with the heroes. In addition, she convinces Pheros to remain a priestess of Naga and an ally of Ylisse.
• Adaptational Jerkass: A few of the Shepherds are far more racist and unlikable than they were in canon, especially Vaike, Sully, and Frederick.
• Adaptational Karma: A bit downplayed, in that he did eventually die in the original story, but Validar's fate in Shattered Reflection tends to be seen as much more satisfying.
• After-Action Report: After the downright humongous battle in Ylisstol, the characters take a moment to take stock of everything that's happened and how it will affect how they go forward from there.
• A God Am I: Rose goes into this when she really starts to draw on Grima's power.
• Always Someone Better: The Shepherds in the current timeline are starting their story and most only have experience against bandits. Rose is an end game unit with strong magic at her disposal and decades of experience. Currently, she outclasses all the Shepherds. She is still vulnerable since her body is still mortal and hasn't regained all her Fell Dragon powers.
• Amazonian Beauty: Rose has a strong physique thanks to her time as a mercenary but still retains an air of femininity.
• An Ice Person: Grima, and by extension, Rose, are retconned to use Ice magic, including their signature spell Expiration and the A-rank spell Extinction.
• Alternate Timeline: Four so far. This diagram explains it far better than words can (read it from bottom to top), but here's a brief overview:
  • The first, where Rose's first incarnation married Chrom and had their children Lucina and the twins Morgan and Marc (male!Morgan going by their Japanese name), only to be possessed by Grima and destroy the world. The future children, as well as Morgan and Marc seen in the third timeline actually come from here. They went to the third timeline by accident thanks to F!Grima being stopped by her human part.
  • The second, where Rose's second incarnation was betrayed and murdered by Chrom, only to merge with the Grima possessed first incarnation.
  • The third, where the story takes place.
  • The fourth, which is a future version of the third. The future children seen in the second timeline actually come from here and just arrived in the wrong timeline.
• Always Someone Better: Rose and Robin's mother Morgana turns out to be this to Rose herself.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Miriel gets one in Chapter 24 when Sully demands that they convince Chrom to kill Robin and Rose; Miriel points out that Naga has directly shot down that idea already.
  Miriel: It would be his word against that of Naga herself.
• Backup Twin:
  • Rose killed Validar ahead of schedule and sealed his soul for good measure? Not a problem. Grima just whips out the Validar from his future to replace him.
  • Thorn, and by extension Rose, are literally backup twins for Falchion and Robin respectively since Thorn was made as a backup in case Chrom or Robin were to fall.
• Ballistic Discount: It doesn't actually come to this, but Rose goes around Ylisstol and seizes the stores of several smugglers while basically daring them to object. However much they may not like it, they know her and her capabilities and instead choose to leave without a fight.
• Bar Brawl: Rose. Repeatedly.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Brought up by Morgan. While she and Lucina aren't focused on looks, both of them acknowledge that their bodies beneath their clothing have scars from battles due to the lack of staves and signs of malnutrition due to shortages in their timeline.
• Bedmate Reveal: After Emmeryn's wedding, Rose and Phila wake up naked together in bed. Their reaction is priceless.
• Big Damn Heroes: Chapter 22 has the first generation save the second from a giant horde of Risen on Carrion Isle.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Walhart has been reduced to nothing more than Morrigan and Grima's thrall.
• Breather Episode: Chapter 16, appropriately titled "Downtime." In terms of being a break from the dramatic action for the audience, and a moment of peace and calm for the protagonists. After the end of the Plegian War, the triumphant heroes finally get a chance to recover emotionally from all that's happened. After everything they've gone through, it's quite refreshing that the biggest problem they end up having to face is 'how will I get a date for the victory ball?!'
• Broken Ace: Rose. Two lifetimes of experience and Fell Dragonhood means she's leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else, but also left her sad, lonely, and untrusting on the inside. She even calls herself broken in a slip of the tongue.
• Brought Down to Badass: Rose normally would be a Physical God as the Fell Dragon, but the circumstances behind her resurrection have left her greatly weakened since she has almost no draconic power since most of it is still in the second timeline, where it's currently wreaking havoc without her to control it. She's still a level 20 second tier unit in a part filled with first tiers at best.
• Brought Down to Normal: The Naga from Rose's timeline was so disgusted with Chrom's murder of Rose that she took away his, Lucina's, and Owain's holy blood, both versions of Falchion, and the Fire Emblem.
• Butt-Monkey: Samuel the black market arms dealer who exists only so Rose can screw up his life. First Rose steals all his weapons and his house before kicking him out of Ylisse. He moves far away to some farm in the middle of nowhere, only to get robbed again by Rose and her mother Morgana. This time, he decides to move another continent away to Valm, and gets robbed again, this time by Morgan and Marc, her children from the first timeline. Dude just can't catch a break, not that he deserves one. And that's after Rose broke his leg so badly it never healed right and Morgana cursed his manhood to implode in response to being groped.
• Byronic Hero: Rose definitely counts, being a very rare female example. Emotionally damaged? Check. Extremely intelligent? Check. Dark and cynical? Double check. Attractive and charismatic? Of course. Intense drive and determination? Oh yes, check.
• Call-Forward: Henry's crows give his son Owain a prophecy about his daughter Ophelia.
• The Cameo:
  • Corrin and the Hoshidan royals show up at the end of Chapter 12, where Grima stops Mikoto's assassination to reclaim some old weapons of his.
  • Kris makes an appearance in a flashback to Tiki's youth.
  • In Chapter 24, after Owain hears a prophecy about his daughter Ophelia, the story cuts across time and space to her sneezing.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Morgana is as strong as the superhuman Rose despite her age because of all the farming she did on her own.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: Lucina, Morgan, and Marc from the first timeline were mentioned to be missing. The twins eventually show up in the third timeline, but the first timeline Lucina is still unaccounted for. It's eventually revealed that she arrived in the third timeline along with the rest of the first-timeline future children, having been redirected there due to Rose fighting back against Grima and inadvertently switching the destinations of the first and third-timelines future children.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Even though she vehemently denies it, Rose still holds feelings for Chrom despite the betrayal and trying to move on from him for two years. She doesn't react well whenever she sees him with another woman, and inwardly calls Arianne (who she thinks stole Chrom away from her) a whore.
• Continuity Nod: During chapter 19's explanation of the Grimleal's backstory, Forneus and his experiments are brought up.
• Covered in Scars: Rose has several nasty scars spread across her body.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • During the battle for Ylisstol, the Shepherds account for anything that could reasonably happen in order to repel the invading army. Their back-up plans wind up having back-up plans, and all of them become necessary.
  • Grima here is much more prepared than in canon. He's got a pocket dimension filled with back up tools he brought from his future including Risen versions of the first generation including Validar and the Fire Emblem complete with all five gemstones.
• Crutch Character: Defied. Rose refrains from singlelandedly killing everything the Shepherds run across so that the rest could still gain experience.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Rose vs Chrom. Rose vs Lucina. Fell Dragon!Rose vs the Plegian Army. Grima vs Sumeragi.
• Cutting Off the Branches: While both male and female versions of Robin are major characters in the story, Corrin is definitively female and Kris is definitely male.
• Cynical Mentor: Rose takes it upon herself to mentor Robin. And she is very cynical of his allies and encourages him to be as well. Despite this, she's very supportive of his abilities and does her best to help raise his self-confidence. She is also not above training the Shepherds since they are needed to win the future wars despite the risk of them turning on Robin.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Rose. Hands down the most tragic part of the story and what lends most of the drama is her past and how it has tainted her perspective of those around her.
• Dark Shepherd: Rose has absolutely no faith in the heroes' ability to make the moral and rational choice in regards to her brother, so when confronting Lucina, her tone comes across as this.
• Dead Guy Junior: Lon'qu's second child Ke'ri is named after his deceased childhood friend.
• Death by Adaptation: Downplayed by Iago, Zola, Hans, Validar, and Excellus, who meet their demises far earlier than in canon.
• Divine Right of Kings: The Exalted family of Ylisse rules because of their blood bond with Naga. Similarly, the Fellbloods are the royal family of Plegia. Chrom in the second timeline is in a precarious position because of this, since Naga rescinded the blood bond, and the nobility is arguing that they no longer have a right to the throne.
• Dramatic Irony: Owain hopes his daughter won't become a dark mage, worried about her prancing about in an outfit as revealing as Tharja's. Anyone who's played Fire Emblem Fates knows Ophelia is, in fact, a dark mage, and her outfit is actually a little more revealing than Tharja's.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Robin and Rose work their tails off to win battles for the Shepherds and do everything they possibly can to keep as many people alive as possible. Nonetheless, due to their Plegian origins, very few of the initial Sheperds offer them the approval they've earned, either being blatant and unironic racists, or just showing utter indifference to their efforts and the troubles they're going through. They have, for the most part, just gotten used to it. Fortunately, most of the Shepherds have been getting better about it. At least for now.
• Et Tu, Brute?: After years of working beside and trusting her comrades, all Rose got out of it was a sword through the heart from the man she loved, with her daughter crying tears of joy at watching a demon be slain. Though to be fair, that Lucina wasn't her daughter to begin with.
• Everyone Can See It: Morgan points out that just about everyone knows Luncina and Gerome have eyes for each other.
• Everyone Has Standards: Vaike's distaste for Rose is enough to where when they are contemplating how to deal with her (as he believes that even if she isn't their Grima her power could bolster his if killed by the Fell Dragon), he makes a suggestion to use her children as leverage. Miriel immediately gets on his case for even thinking of finishing the suggestion and Frederick, who has made it clear he doesn't trust her, even finds the notion distasteful.
  • Naga normally is the epitome example of God Is Good in the setting and an utterly benevolent patron, but cross what she believes is the Moral Event Horizon and she's utterly merciless. She leaves the timeline where The Shepperds killed Rose to it's inherent self-destruction, going as far as utterly removing The Royal's Family blood connection to her.. The Shut Up, Hannibal! she gives Frederick in the current timeline when he argues that the Fellblood (Rose and Robin) should be killed is so cold than everyone can feel her anger at the idea
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Rose herself has good intentions, but she risks going rampant when using her Fell Dragon powers because of its inherently evil nature.
• Evil Me Scares Me: Lucina is horrified and disgusted when she learns how her alternate self betrayed and murdered Rose. Likewise, Yen'fay is disturbed to learn that without Rose's machinations, he would have sold Chon'sin out to Excellus to save Say'ri.
• Evil vs. Evil: At the end of Chapter 12, Grima takes a trip to Hoshido to screw over Anankos for plagiarizing the whole "zombie army" thing.
• False Soulmate: Arianne the generic village girl to Chrom. The second timeline Chrom chose to marry Arianne over Rose despite loving only the latter because of Lucina's interference, which marked the point when his world went straight to hell. Several years later, Chrom is trapped in a loveless marriage still pining for Rose and there isn't a moment that goes by without him thinking what could have been if he had chosen differently. Even the third timeline Chrom notes that while he is attracted to Arianne, he also feels meeting her was a bad thing.
• Fantastic Racism: Robin and Rose are Plegian, biologically. This causes some friction with the more militant Shepherds, specifically Frederick, Sully, and Vaike, who don't trust them and make sure to let them know it. Frequently. And with lots of mean words. While they get better about it over time, much to Rose's surprise and disbelief, the reveal that they are also Fellbloods reignites the friction.
• God Is Displeased: Naga is furious with Second!Chrom and Nasty!Lucina over their betrayal of Rose, even if it did make sense to both of them at the time. She punishes them by withdrawing her blessings on their bloodline (including Nasty!Lucina's version of Owain) and taking back both Falchions and the Fire Emblem.
• Hard Truth Aesop: No matter how hard you try to do right by others and support the people you love, there will still be individuals who treat you like shit for completely arbitrary reasons. You should try to do the right thing anyway.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: The history books leave out the fact that Katarina was once an assassin who tried to kill Marth.
• Honorary Aunt: Sumia to Severa and Cordelia to Cynthia.
• I Did What I Had to Do: The Chrom from the second timeline tries to maintain this regarding his murder of Rose, but it's clear he's just telling himself that so he can sleep at night.
• Impoverished Patrician: Robin, Rose and their mother, Morgana, are of Plegia's royal family. At the start of the story, the former two are mercenaries and the latter is living in a farm in a far off village.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • Robin and Rose are called "Little chick" and "Little flower" by their mother, Morgana. Lissa even teases Robin about his nickname in one chapter.
  • Since Rose is in the mix now, Gaius has given her the nickname "Snowflake".
  • Lucina is given the nickname "Little light" by her mother, Rose.
• Internal Reveal: Chapter 23 drops the big reveal about Rose and Lucina's origins on the Shepherds.
• In the Hood: Rose. While both she and Robin have hoods on their robes, Robin tends to keep his down while Rose constantly has hers up, on top of enchanting it to further obscure her face.
• Irony:
  • In the second timeline, Lucina tried to change destiny by killing Grima while making sure it also stays on course by making sure Chrom marries her mother Arianne instead of Rose. This meddling ends with the Zombie Apocalypse right on schedule, with Old Hubba noting that had she not interfered so much, the world would have been saved.
  • As revealed by Natzo's diagram for the timelines ROSE is responsible for her own tragedy. When F!Grima tried to stop the future kids from going to the past, Rose, then still F!Robin, tried to stop it. Unfortunately, the clash caused the children to get thrown off-course and end up in the third timeline. If F!Robin didn't fight so hard with F!Grima, the children would've ended up in the right timeline and the game's events would follow smoothly.
• Kick the Dog:
  • After the big Internal Reveal, Frederick actually suggests killing the Fellbloods.
  • Vaike has an even worse one in Chapter 24 when he suggests going after Rose's children to neutralize her as a threat.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Being betrayed and murdered by those she thought as her friends has left Rose very bitter and cynical. She still tries her best to do the right thing, though she'll cut corners and work alone if she feels the need to.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Played for laughs in Chapter 24 when Priam proposes to Say'ri; Yen'fay has to be physically restrained from mauling the poor dude.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The Naga from Rose's timeline was so disgusted by Chrom's betrayal and murder of Rose that she relieved him, Lucina, and Owain of their holy blood.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Chrom, Robin, and Gaius agree to this after walking in on a naked Rose and Phila.
• Mad Scientist: Grima's picked up right where papa Forneus left off, experimenting on his Risen to churn out even worse abominations.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Rose and Robin, despite being alternate versions of each other, fit into this. Rose is aloof, cynical, and a serial tavern wrecker while Robin is naive, self-doubting and nice to just about everyone he meets. Physically, both are similar in overall features and hair color, but Rose is taller, more muscular, wears extra armor over her tactician's robes, and usually has her hood up, cutting a much more intimidating figure.
• Me's a Crowd: There are three Morgans running around, though they all have different names to identify them. There's Morgan and her brother Marc (who is male Morgan in canon renamed), from the first timeline where Rose married Chrom. Then there's another female Morgan named Morrigan from the future of the third timeline, where Robin married Tiki.
• Mirror World: In Rose's timeline she was the only survivor of a set of twins, with her brother being stillborn. In Robin's timeline, both survived but Validar sacrificed his sister to Grima.
• Mum Looks Like a Sister: Robin and Rose's mother Morgana looks the same age as her children, and Chrom stupidly flirts with her in an attempt to prove he can charm women.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The Stahl from Rose's timeline comes to regret being party to her betrayal and murder.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • The generic village maiden Chrom marries as a last resort in the game is named Arianne.
  • The dragon who blood-bonded with Hezul in Jugdral's ancient history is given the name Kalameet.
• Nom de Mom: Rose uses her maternal grandmother's maiden name as an alias.
• Not Quite the Right Thing:
  • Second timeline Chrom murdering Rose under the justification that he needs to end Fellblood lineage and sever Grima's ties to the world made sense, but horribly backfired in the long run. Naga ends up taking back her blessings, including the Falchions and the Fire Emblem. And since Rose survived, her power as the Fell Dragon did too and is now mass producing Risen automatically since she's no longer there to control it. Killing Grima and Rose has left the world in the same Zombie Apocalypse situation as before, only now instead of having two solutions as in canon, they have none.
  • Miriel uses this to try to explain why they should avoid trying to kill Rose or Robin in the third timeline to her husband, Sully, and Vaike. One, if they screw up they'll antagonize everyone else, including Naga and Tiki, who both warned them against it. Two, in his current vessel, Grima could still amass magical energy in a different manner or father new vessels. Three, Robin is essential for killing Grima for good.
• O.C. Stand-in: Morgana, Robin and Rose's mother who was mentioned in a throwaway line in canon. There's also Arianne, the village girl Chrom marries in the game as a last resort.
• Off with His Head!: How Yen'fay deals with Excellus.
• Official Couple:
  • Rose was married to her timeline's version of Chrom, and Lon'qu and Olivia are already a couple before the story proper begins. In addition, Chapter 17 reveals all of the official pairings of the story: Robin/Tiki, Nowi/Donnel, Lissa/Henry, Maribelle/Ricken, Libra/Tharja, Anna/Gregor, Frederick/Miriel, Vaike/Panne, Sully/Kellam, Gaius/Sumia, Cordelia/Stahl, Virion/Cherche, Basilio/Flavia, Priam/Say'ri, and Emmeryn/Aedan.
  • In Rose's timeline, Chrom takes the village maiden (here named Arianne) as his second wife, while Stahl and Olivia are each other's Second Loves after the deaths of Cordelia and Lon'qu.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Miriel is normally a stoic woman, but when Vaike goes as far as to threaten Rose's children, she actually starts yelling at him.
• Original Character:
  • Aedan, one of Emmeryn's friends who, in the original timeline, died in the fall of Ylisstol.
  • Samuel the black market arms dealer.
  • Chapter 20 introduces more future children: Sun'fey, son of Say'ri, Jocasta, daughter of Basilio and Flavia, Alann, son of Gregor and Anna, and Ke'ri, the daughter of Olivia and Lon'qu as well as Inigo's younger sister.
• Pals with Jesus: Rose is on friendly terms with Tiki. This helps Emmeryn and Phila believe her story and its more outlandish claims since the Voice of Naga is vouching for her.
• Pet the Dog: In Rose's timeline, Sumia, Stahl, Olivia, and Virion suggested that Rose be exiled instead of executed.
• Pyrrhic Victory: The second timeline where Chrom murdered Rose.
  • Much of the world has been devastated by the wars; Frederick's questionable tactical competence has gotten many of the rank and file and some of the Shepherds killed (with Ferox in particular losing many of its soldiers), Valm is being torn apart by many nations seeking to fill the void left by Walhart, and Plegia lost a tenth of its population as a sacrifice to bring back Grima and has turned back to banditry in desperation.
  • Ylisse, despite being in the overall best condition is still in danger, being managed by Chrom who is way out of his depth as Exalt and stuck in a loveless marriage because he still loves Rose despite murdering her. In addition, the nobility is starting to move against the royal family because he lost Naga's blessing while many others are disgusted by his treatment of Rose.
  • Worst of all, when Rose merged with Grima and left for the third timeline where the story takes place, she left behind the bulk of her power which is now running rampant and creating Risen without anyone to control it, meaning the Zombie Apocalypse is still going strong. And since Naga took back the Falchions, the Fire Emblem, and her divine blood from the Exalted family, there's nothing Chrom and the remaining Shepherds can do but wait for the slow demise of their world.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • Chapter 19 reveals that Gangrel is a bastard child of the Plegian royal line, while Validar is a branch member and Morgana was the crown princess. In addition, Aversa is a sister, Tharja is a distant relative, and Forneus is explicitly stated to be the first Grimleal and a distant ancestor of Robin. Finally, it's mentioned that one of Robin's ancestors married a descendant of Jugdral's Hezul line, making Robin the heir to Mystletainn and a distant descendant of either Eldigan or Lachesis.
  • Chapter 20 reveals that Kris and Katarina eventually married, and they are also Robin's distant ancestors.
• Right Through the Wall: Rose is unable to sleep when Insatiable Newlyweds Robin and Tiki occupy the room next to her and keep her up all night.
  If only the walls on this godforsaken ship were thicker. She would accept a storm, but life wasn't fair. The weather was goddamn perfect. A boon to their fleet and torture to those that had the only room next to those rabbits in heat? Now she had to deal with Tiki relieving three millennia of pent-up sexual frustration.
• Rotating Protagonist: The series mainly focuses on Rose and Robin. However, all the Shepherds get a chance to have a moment to shine with many of them getting segments written from their POV.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: In addition to the canon examples, Morgana was once the rightful heir to the Plegian throne, and was personally responsible for keeping Chrom's father out of Plegia during the early parts of the first war.
• Schrödinger's Player Character: Used to explain the two possibilities for Robin's gender. In Rose's world, her brother was stillborn; in Robin's world, his sister was sacrificed to Grima.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • Initially, only Tiki and Morgana knew the full truth about who Rose is, while Phila, Emmeryn, and Robin know an abridged version that omits the fact that the Shepherds were the ones who betrayed and murdered her. It stays that way until Chapter 23.
  • Only Robin, Rose, Phila, and Emmeryn know that Morgana is the rightful heir to the Plegian throne until Chapter 24.
• Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: An In-Universe example. It turns out that Robin, a Plegian who acts all nice and supportive and genuinely helpful to Chrom, eventually shows his true colors. As a friend who is nice and supportive and genuinely helpful. And doesn't even hold all that Fantastic Racism against them. What a guy!
• Shoot the Messenger: Defied; Walhart assures a messenger from one of his vassals that he won't be punished for bringing said vassal's concerns to his attention.
• Shout-Out:
  • Two minor supporting characters are twins named Devola and Popola.
  • One scene in Chon'sin has an archer named Han'zo.
  • Not only that but the Pegasus Knights are named after various familiar female names like Lena and Angela. Lena even shouts "The cavalry is here!".
  • Aedan and Emmeryn's son is named Jon.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: A variation in that the "Hannibals" in these cases are more like Nominal Heroes.
  • Naga to Frederick when he suggests killing the Fellbloods.
    Frederick: Pardon my insolence, Lady Naga, but I must ask! How can you trust her? How can we trust them? Isn't she the Fell Dragon? Is Robin its vessel too? Should we not eliminate the Fellbloods, like Exalt Au–
    Naga: Do not finish that sentence, knight.
  • Miriel to Vaike when he suggests hurting Rose's children.
    Vaike: ...We could take matters into our own hands. Her kids... they are her weakn-
    Miriel: Do not finish that sentence! I am willing to discuss intelligent plans, but I will not lower myself to such actions!
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Emmeryn, Phila, and the Pegasus Knights. Most of Ylisstol. Mustafa.
  • Grima saves Mikoto just to screw over Anankos for using his magic without his permission.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Henry can communicate with his pet crows, and his child Owain inherits his ability.
• The Spock: Miriel prefers cold logic over emotion. Unusually, she is portrayed as being more morally sound than Frederick, Vaike, and Sully, who are letting their racial prejudices against Plegia get the better of them and letting their emotions cloud their judgement.
• Superpowerful Genetics: Robin and Rose. The Avatar of Grima was bred to have the best characteristics of the Fell bloodline, which is why they can grow faster and stronger than other units.
• The Team Benefactor: Anna and Gregor's son Alann uses his mother's financial acumen to finance the future children.
• Twice Shy: Lon'qu and Olivia. In an odd example, while they still do act like this, they've long since developed a relationship and are actually Happily Married.
• Twin Threesome Fantasy: After Rose gives him a confidence boost, Robin charms and beds both Devola and Popola.
• Villainous Rescue: At the end of chapter 12, Grima rescues Mikoto from her assassination in order to screw Anankos over for stealing his undead minion ideas (although he indicates he also feels some genuine empathy for Corrin's situation).
• What the Hell, Hero?: The Naga from Rose's timeline was not pleased with Chrom for murdering Rose. He paid for it with his holy blood, the two Falchions, and the Fire Emblem.
• Wham Line: The ending of chapter 18.
  Morgana: I have been so worried something happened to you since you left the farm. Then you just stop writing home and I have to hear from a wandering merchant that my son is now a war hero after slaying the Mad King?
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Vaike, Sully, and Frederick all believe that they could stop Grima's plans just by killing Robin and Rose. Miriel, on the other hand, points out that Grima still has his vessel from the future and could father new children through him or grant his bloodline to some other guy, and he's simply had too long to set everything up to be undone by an inconvenience like the deaths of the current Fellbloods.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: As it turns out, Rose killing Grima in her universe ends up with her effectively gaining total control of Grima's powers for herself. Unfortunately, just like Grima, going back in time drains her of those powers as well.

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