WMG / Fire Emblem Fates

Wild Mass Guessing for Fire Emblem Fates.

Pre-Release

The international release will combine both versions and the DLC into one cartridge

While Japan is more tolerant of the One Game for the Price of Two trope, non-Japanese gamers have been having very mixed feelings about the news Japan will be getting two separate versions containing a different story with no opportunity to use the much touted branching path system (unless one gets the downloadable version, or the other story as pricy DLC), with a third scenario being made DLC not long afterward, and the Limited Edition of the game containing everything for about $80 American. The extended wait that non-Japanese gamers have to put up with (waiting until 2016, while Japan gets the game in Summer 2015) might be the result of not just localization, but also for the US and PAL branches of Nintendo to combine all of the content into one cartridge, with Japan eventually getting its own "Fire Emblem Fates International" release not long after that does the same thing, in a move similar to other other RPGs of the past.

• Alternatively, the game will be released as a whole for the New 3DS.
• Jossed at E3 - it looks like the international release will be split as well.
• Jossed, unfortunately. The game will be split into Birthright (for Hoshido) and Conquest (for Nohr), with only a combined special edition being the only version with all 3 versions on on game card.
• Confirmed for the Special Edition! According to its description on Amazon, it "also [features] the Revelation path, all on a single game card, included exclusively in this special edition". Unfortunately, it's currently sold out.

The song in the first trailer will be the song used in the introduction

The main reason for this is that there isn't a clear loop state for the song to be in and I believe the only song in "Awakening" that didn't loop is the song used in the introduction.

• Though it can also be the music for the final chapter for the game if the loop state isn't a problem.

The game will be known as Fire Emblem: infinity in the west.

To preserve the 'if' moniker without sounding too awkward to western ears.

• Or the game will be called Fire Emblem Kingdoms, since the full Japanese titles include the word Kingdom and the warring kingdoms are the main focus.
  • Jossed. It'll be called Fire Emblem Fates

The game is set in another world or universe with no ties to past Fire Emblems, especially Awakening

Every past FE setting has been wrapped up. Awakening in particular had no loose ends to be resolved in a sequel, and had too many variables to account for (Who married who, was Grima sealed or destroyed?).

• The amiibo support suggests that this is Jossed or that the amiibo support is non-canon.
• Confirmed; It IS set in a world separate from past games...except that this same world is inhabited by characters from Awakening, namely Odin/Owain, Lazwald/Inigo and Luna/Severa; they are specifically said from Another Dimension and have access to and back.
• It seems the Amiibo are from the Smashverse, and not their respective games.

The game is a Prequel to Awakening set on the continent of Valm.

The variables mentioned above are irrelevant if they haven't occurred yet. Plus, this installment seems to have more Japanese cultural influence, possibly marking a return to Chon'sin.

• Interestingly, the dancer's necklace does resemble Naga's mark, as shown here◊.
• Since Owain, Inigo, and Severa return under different monikers, there's a good chance this is Jossed, as they never existed prior to Awakening.
• Curiously, if Rhajat dies in Classic Mode, she claims to see a desert country, where she says that she and the avatar "will meet again".

The dancer and Marks are Chrom, Lissa, and Emmeryn's parents.

Many have noted the dancer's resemblance to Lucina, and she and Marks are blue-haired and blonde, respectively.

• Evidence against this theory: the resemblance between Lucina and the dancer may just be up to sameface syndrome. Also, what's the Ylisse siblings' father doing in Chon'sin?
  • Well, the siblings' father is of royalty; he might be there for diplomatic reasons.
  • Considering how Aqua is revealed to be a Nohrian princess who was captured by Hoshido, this seems to be incredibly unlikely.
  • Jossed, as recent developer interviews place Fire Emblem Fates in a completely different setting.
    • Double Jossed with the reveal that Luna, Razwald, and Odin are in fact, Severa, Inigo, and Owain under different names.

The game is secretly the Shin Megami Tensei crossover teased a while back.

• There seem to be two major warring factions, which could represent the conflict of Law Versus Chaos that shows up in many SMT titles.
  • Marks is more clean-cut compared to the wild-haired Samurai he fights. Maybe their appearances fit their outlooks on life.
• This game has more of a Japanese flavor to it. All the main SMT titles have you wandering the ruins of Tokyo, so the Japanese themes may be an extension of the Tokyo setting.
• There was a game called Shin Megami Tensei if....
• Ambiguous, but the golem shown in the trailer certainly wouldn't look out of place in the horde of freaks and geeks that is the SMT demon roster.
  • Jossed, the first trailer for that game came out at the same time as the second trailer for this one.

The player will have to choose between the Eastern-looking samurai faction and the Western-looking roman faction.

There's notes about how choice will be important this time. Past games have sort of dipped their toes in Multiple Endings and extra routes, but they're rarely of any major impact. Maybe this time they'll dive deeper into feature and have two very different recruit-able characters and endings depending on which side you pick.

• Confirmed; choosing between the two nations results in two very different stories.

Felicia, at one point or another, will break down.

It seems such a waste to have such an adorable maid without having her go through dark times. Whether it be from an ally or foe, in a support conversation or the main story, and from a recent or past tragedy, she will have some rough times. I don't fully expect this to happen, but it would be interesting.

• Well, she gets to see her sister kill herself by immolation in the Birthright path and has to fight her father in the Conquest path. Does that count as confirmed?

If Kamui is the Avatar of this game, then either one or both of their parents will not be seen at anytime during the game.

Since the Avatar has a customizable appearance, this can circumvent the potential problem of Kamui not resembling one or both of their parents.

• Assuming the game is even set in the same universe as Awakening. Just because it has the same art style and graphics engine doesn't necessarily mean they're connected. And even if they are, and Kamui is Robin's son/daughter, who says Robin can't appear in their default appearance?
  • The above guess doesn't seem to be saying they have any relation to awakening, it seems they're saying that if Kamui is an avatar, they will have a customizable appearance. To keep it from clashing too much with any family that shows up, at least one parent will be missing so that Kamui can be explained as looking like their missing mom or dad if the player made them look too different from any family members that show up in the plot. (Sort of how Awakening's avatar had a missing mom that we never saw so it explained why they looked nothing like Validar.)
• It's been revealed that Sumeragi, the Hoshidan king, has passed away before the game begins. It remains to be seen whether or not he will appear in flashbacks.
  • The man we've seen getting turned into pincushion in the second trailer is likely him. This is likely jossed.
  • The "both" part is definitely jossed. The mother is seen in trailers and there's a scene in which the Avatar meets her. We're yet to know whether or not this will be jossed entirely.
• Jossed entirely. You meet Kamui's mother in both paths and Kamui's father in the Third Route. It's not Sumeragi.
  • Though on the other hand, you never see exactly what Anankos's human form looks like, because he never takes off his hood. So... somewhat jossed, somewhat confirmed?

There will be multiple endings, and possibly a New Game Plus.

The game is called Fire Emblem if in Japan, after all. Since there will be bigger choices, it makes sense that they would lead to bigger, more radically different endings. The New Game Plus would allow the player to access the other endings (And maybe even an extra one) without going through the hassle of starting the entire game over.

• Jossed. You can get the other sides via DLC, and all 3 have a set ending.

The blue haired Dancer is Ninian

They both have light blue hair and red eyes, and they have an ice motif. Or she could be related to Nils.

• Given that her name seems to be Aqua, I think we can safely say she's not Ninian.
• Jossed, she's a new character named Azura (or Aqua in Japan).

The dragon seen transforming into a humanoid form in the trailer is Kamui. Or is otherwise connected to them.

Kamui's clothing resembles the shapshifter's dragon form. The trailer was careful not to show the shapshifter's humanoid face, akin to how Awakening's trailers avoided showing the Avatar's face in any CGI cutscenes. And finally, Kamui has red irises.

• Confirmed; gameplay footage in the new trailer shows Kamui shapeshifting into a dragon-like form and making usage of a special ability called "dragon's vein."

This game is the reason why the SMT x FE crossover got delayed.

Well, it would explain why they're so secretive about it and the last we heard about it was last summer.

• Jossed. It has been confirmed that Atlus is the one developing the crossover. Not Intelligent Systems. This game did not impact the development of the crossover whatsoever.

The dancer lady is in fact a manakete.

From her prominence in the trailer, she looks to be pretty relevant to the story. The last time we had a plot important character in the role of a dancer was Ninian.

• Jossed. She can't transform into a dragon, though she DOES have dragon ancestry.

The player will have the choice to join the faction the monsters are part of.

Complete with playable monster units. This route would have Kamui as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, at best.

• No playable monster units, but the monsters are indeed a Nohrian creation.

Hoshido carries a dark secret, while Nohr is trying to fend off a bigger evil or prevent a calamity.

Both sides are a bit too Obviously Evil or Obviously Good looking. I can see a subversion of those roles coming at some point to add more intrigue.

• It has been revealed that Azura was kidnapped from Nohr by Hoshido and raised as a member of their royal family, similar to Kamui, while Garon's intention for attacking Hoshido is a Genghis Gambit to help his ailing country. Make of this what you will.

On the Third Path.

It has been confirmed that if will have a 3rd path as DLC. What hasn't been confirmed is how it will go. Here is a list of possible directions:

The game will feature a lot of parallels and counterpart comparisons to Code Geass.

• A Japanese-expy nation is being invaded by a European-expy nation that prides itself on glory-seeking, a trait that's shared and endorsed by Britannia. Not only does the presumed leader of Nohr look like Charles Zi Britannia, but also sounds like he will be voiced by Norio Wakamoto. An occupation might also be featured at some point in the story.
• The player character, Kamui, seems to share a lot of elements of both Lelouch vi Britannia and Suzaku Kururugi; someone who grew up in Nohr, raised by a royal family no less, and yet shares ties with Hoshido similar to how Lelouch use to spend time with Suzaku in Japan long ago when they were kids. Siding with either of the two nations seems to play homage to Lelouch and Suzaku's differing goals; siding with Hoshido to push back Nohr sounds a lot like the Black Knights trying to push Britannia out of Japan, while siding with Nohr will be about reforming the nation from within, like how Suzaku wanted to change Britannia. Kamui would also embody both of Lelouch and Suzaku's strengths, being an excellent leader, strategist, tactician, and a skilled, competent fighter.
• The mysterious dancer might play a similar role as C.C. in regards to Kamui, enlightening them to the bigger picture and likely to assist them from the shadows. It's very prominent since the beginning of the second trailer is asking if you can change the world, much like how Code Geass' trailers asks the same thing, and if the dragon aspect is anything to go by, the player character would indeed have the power to do that.

Apart from the Avatar, there will be other Defectors From Decadence who will join him to the opposing country

• One of the maids, Felicia, is on the cover of the Hoshido version.
  • Confirmed: There are characters on both sides (Felicia among them) that will side with you no matter what.

In either path, the Avatar is forced to kill her family of the opposing nation

If Kamui joins Hoshido, well then he/she will have to defend it from the aggressors, but if she joins Nohr, then she will still have to deal with Hoshido's attacking in self-defense (and probably some Poor Communication Kills); either way, she will be put into conflict with her birth or adopted family, a conflict that the family oppsing Kamui cannot be guaranteed to survive.

• Sadly, confirmed. Marx/Xander and Elise die on the Hoshido route, and Ryoma and Takumi die on the Nohr route.

The third act will be a mix of both stories, with characters from both sides helping Kamui

However other characters, some what would have joined them if she committed to one kingdom, would instead oppose the party. There will also be a Greater-Scope Villain.

• Confirmed with the leaked third route. The Greater-Scope Villain is Kamui's biological father, a Hydra dragon, with the reveal that the Hoshido kins are all step siblings to Kamui.
  • Er... the Greater-Scope Villain is not "a Hydra dragon". Hydra is his name (in the English version, anyways). It's a pun on "hydro", as in "water".

"You'll be forced to revolutionize an unruly kingdom from the inside"...

.... means the Nohr path will have Kamui use his or her ties to Hoshido to bring it down.

Assuming Nohr is an expansionist empire, and Hoshido is a nation under Nohrian occupation or is under threat of invasion, Hoshido could fit as an "unruly kingdom to be revolutionized" from Nohr's perspective. The plot doesn't branch until Chapter 6, where you'll have to decide on your route in the digital copy. As such, even if you stay with Nohr, you will probably have to spend at least some time in Hoshido to be acquainted with what that path would have in contrast to Nohr. It might be the path split comes in the form of deciding whether to play your role as Nohr's infiltrator, or truly siding with Hoshido.

• ....Resisting urge to object to this objectionable idea. It's pretty clear from all gathered evidence that they mean you'll have to revolutionize Nohr during the war with Hoshido. Otherwise you're telling me that choosing Nohr makes me evil, and I will not be lured by sex appeal to the dark side.

Kamui is a Half-Human Hybrid.

• Specifically, half-manakete, judging by how the male and female Kamuis have actual pointed ears (a manakete trait) that no other human character shown thus far has, and how they apparently have access to a "Dark Prince" class that is capable of using Dragonstones as well as swords. This dual heritage may be used as a parallel for their dual allegiances to both Hoshido and Nohr.
  • Close enough, though it's not a "manakete" per se; rather, a different kind of dragon.
  • ...Which is a manakete. Confirmed anyways.
• Alternatively, Kamui's the result of mixing Manakete, Taguel, and Human bloodlines, their quadrupedal (and rather different from its Awakening's counterparts) transformation being the result of their diverse ancestry.

Kamui is a Royal Bastard.

Tying into the WMG above, since no other human character seems to share Kamui's physical characteristics, it may be that Kamui is also a bastard member of the Hoshido royal family, though obviously an acknowledged and legitimized one. This might also explain why despite being born in Hoshido, they were sent to live in the court of Nohr, being neither the first-born child or a full-blooded member of the royal family (and may help explain why Kamui would ultimately choose to side with Nohr rather than Hoshido since their ties to the country aren't as strong as a full-blooded Hoshidan's would be).

• If this is the case, then it'll be revealed by another character related to Kamui, such as their birth mother or a sibling/half-sibling. As in Awakening, this relative will share the Avatar's hair color.
• Confirmed, due to Interspecies Romance between their mother and a draconic spirit. As for the latter part as to why they're raised in Nohr, that's Jossed; they were kidnapped by Garon, so it was never voluntary.
  • Not exactly. He's not a bastard, but rather the prince of a third kingdom, though he's also stepsibling to the Hoshido royals as his mother is the former king's second wife.

Time Travel Hijinks will come back and serve as a justification for the multiple campaigns.

Both the Nohr and Hoshido campaigns will conclude with Downer Endings, thus giving Kamui the incentive to use the Time Travel Magic introduced in Awakening in order to fix History by siding with the other country the second time around: when this fails, the now much more experienced, savvy (and considerably stronger) Kamui will use Time Travel again, this time using their accumulated knowledge to reject the initial dilemma and carve a History which doesn't end up in tragedy.

• So...Kamui is the Fire Emblem version of Homura Akemi?
• This...Is actually a really cool idea! It would be interesting to play the story in this manner. Though I personally don't like the idea of being forced into a screwed up ending twice before a real, good ending.
• Sadly jossed. It would've been interesting to play that way, though.

Hinoka is Kamui's childhood friend

She seems really happy to see you again.

• She could be another of your blood relatives.
  • The two aren't mutually exclusive: She could be a cousin.
  • Original poster here, this seems to have been Jossed. It seems she actually is your sister.

Kamui is actually Not Blood Related to either family.

• If nothing else, it'd help with the question of whether or not he/she can date the main cast.
  • Given the reveal that Ryouma, Hinoka, Sakura, and Takumi are all apparently your "blood" siblings, despite the fact that Ryouma is a brunet, Takumi a blond, while both Hinoka and Sakura are red-heads (but with different shades of red), I have to wonder if it's just Kamui who isn't blood related.
  • Jossed. Kamui is confirmed to be related by blood to all four of them.
    • Turns out they were stepsiblings to Kamui, and Mikoto is their stepmother, so the "jossed" has been jossed, making this WMG confirmed. Confused yet?

The Nohrian ruler took Kamui to replace a lost child.

One video apparently shows him taking the infant Kamui and running off, and the Nohr path is going to be more morally complex than average (think Radiant Dawn or Jugdral). And it's a common trope for bereaved parents to kidnap others' children to fill the void in their lives. Nohrdaddy was married but his wife and child both died in childbirth, so he took Kamui and convinced himself they were his baby. But it wasn't enough, and the grief drove him mad. He may not have been the sweetest guy beforehand, but he likely wasn't as corrupt as the trailer implies.

• If the Famitsu scans are telling the truth, Kamui might have been abducted to replace Aqua.
• Seems to be the opposite; Hoshido kidnapped Azura after Corrin was taken away. The guess about Garon being less corrupt before the events of the game seems to have been confirmed, however.

This would be difficult to figure out the chronology of, obviously, since the Nohr royal family has a daughter younger than Kamui. But Nohr daddy could have remarried at some point, after taking Kamui.

• From recent information, Garon was confirmed to have taken Kamui before Elise was born. But either way, the recent reveal also shows that Garon was replaced with an impostor and was killed sometime after Elise was born.
• Well, the Nohr royals are all half-siblings anyway, with only Xander being born to the queen. So chronology isn't really an issue here.

Regardless of which family you choose, both you and your chosen family will feel guilty

If you choose Nohr, your family will feel guilty about making you fight your blood relatives. If you choose Hoshido, they'll feel guilty about making you fight the people that raised you. The Take a Third Option path might have you make a What the Hell, Hero? towards both families for trying to make you choose at all.

• Probably jossed. The kingdoms are at war, and everything this tropette's seen points to them not giving a crap at the moment.

The Dancer Lady will become the leader of a third faction.

I say this because Marx and Ryouma face off at the end of the first trailer, yet she is shown in between them as a major player. The art◊ on the official site also has her standing between Hoshido and Nohr while raising a spear to the sky. Her first appearance is dancing for Garon with a bleak expression on her face; it suggests she may be held captive and forced to entertain nobles for their amusement. Depending on the history of this world, her and her allies may have suffered greatly due to either side's actions (or both). According to her song, Kamui will be the key to turning the tide of war. She will join Kamui because she believes they can help her. Your choices will determine her fate. If you betray her trust, she will turn against you, rally her forces, and become your enemy (which is why she's seen strangled by Kamui). One alternate ending could be Kamui splitting off from Hoshido and Nohr to join her side.

• Some more of my speculation is that she originates from the distorted realm briefly shown in trailer one, which could be an entirely separate area from Hoshido and Nohr. She may be on the side of various monsters shown (such as the stone giant and Nosferatu creature). Perhaps she is the same species as Kamui (manakete) or both have ties to that place, which is why she seems to feel connected to Kamui.
  • She's a princess of Nohr who was brought up in Hoshido. She still joins you regardless of which side you take, though. She will crown you the king of the Invisible Kingdom, the third path.
• Confirmed if you marry her on the third route. You rule Valla together.
• Also, she is the true princess of the Invisible Kingdom until she abdicates the throne in the end.

Garon is the Big Bad and he kidnapped Kamui when he/she was a child.

In the trailer there's a scene of a man who looks similar to Ryouma taking the brunt of a volley of arrows, and then a first-person perspective of Garon reaching out to cover the perspective character's face. His exact words during this scene were, "I'll let you live to do my bidding!" We know that later cutscenes shown in the trailer are certainly a first-person perspective from Kamui's eyes. Kamui and the Ryouma lookalike were likely in Nohr territory, likely on a diplomatic mission, but were attacked. Garon found Kamui to have potential and had them raised in Nohr for this reason.

• English version of this scene has Garon say "You're my child now", so the part about kidnapping them is all but confirmed.

The third path will not be the Golden Ending

In a game placing as much value on choice as this game seems to, making one choice inherently better than the others takes that choice away; why would anyone choose another path if it's not as good? Instead of the third path having Kamui unite both nations to fight a greater threat (which has been speculated), Kamui will still be unable to get them to work together. Unlike the other paths, where they choose a side, they will decide to take matters into their own hands...by murdering both royal families, using their heritage to seize control of both countries, and becoming Emperor/Empress Kamui. They will then go on to successfully defeat the "greater threat", but at the cost of both Their families and possibly their reputation as well. Basically, they'll be a successful Walhart.

• The game would likely take cues from Shin Megami Tensei in not trying to present any path as inherently better than the other, and would instead allow players to decide for themselves which path is more worth it.
• Alternatively, the third path will be concluded with a Bittersweet Ending, better than the two alternatives, but still rife with tragedy. Mixing things with previously mentioned guesses, perhaps the final path will show a time traveling Kamui who not only grew stronger and savvier, but also became much more cynical and ruthless, and convinced that the best way to deal with the crisis at hand is to pull a Leto II, building a military dictatorship to deal with whatever threat the two realms will face down the line while mercilessly slaughtering anyone standing in their way and accepting that they'll be remembered as despicable tyrant.
• The Third Path could have Kamui join the faction the monsters belong to. Considering how he/she is a shapeshifter, he/she might become disillusioned with both kingdoms. Garon kidnapped them while Hoshido might turn out to have a dark secret. Rejecting the two kingdoms, and perhaps the human world, Kamui embraces their draconic heritage and joins the monster faction.
• It should be noted as a possible point against a team-up between Hoshido and Nohr that Fire Emblem Cipher will represent If with three decks. The decks consist of one for Hoshido, one for Nohr, and likely one for the Third Path. Now, if the third path was Hoshido and Nohr coming together, would it really need to have its own deck?
• Jossed. The third path is the Golden Path, as it's the only one where the true enemy is defeated and the only one on which Azura gets to live.

One of Male!Kamui's English voice actors will be Johnny Yong Bosch, and Aqua's English voice actress will be Kate Higgins

Because the parallels to a certain other show are too good to pass this up.

• Additionally, another one of his voice actors will be Yuri Lowenthal. Is Male!Kamui Lelouch, fighting a threat from the outside, or Suzaku, trying to reform a nation from within? The answer: both.
  • Jossed, Azura will be voiced by Rena Strober.
  • Partially Jossed and partially confirmed for the male Avatar. One of his voice actors is Yuri Lowenthal, but the other is Cam Clarke, not Johnny Yong Bosch.

There will be path exclusive classes

Certain classes will only be available to units you get on a certain side because of different cultures and military styles, except for the avatar if they can change to any class like Robin, an obvious one would be you can only get myrmidons if you chose Hoshido, possibilities; feel free to add more.

• Hoshido
  • Myrmidon
  • Pegasus Knight
  • Ninja (could be Thief or possibly a new class)
  • Villager
  • Griffon Rider
    • Ninja and Villager are confirmed. Myrmidons and Pegasus Knights are identified as Samurai and Pegasus Warriors, respectively. Griffon Riders aren't in this game, but the closest analogue, the Kinshi Knight, is a Pegasus Warrior promotion rather than a Wyvern Rider promotion.
• Nohr
  • Cavalier
  • Knight
  • Wyvern Rider
  • Dark Mage
  • Sorcerer
  • Dread Fighter
  • Soldier
    • Cavalier, (Armor) Knight, Wyvern Rider, and Dark Mage/Sorcerer are confirmed. Dread Fighter is still a DLC-only class, and the closest analogue to Soldier is Hoshidan.

Kamui will have a rival of the opposite gender

I don't think it's impossible for this to happen, as Morgan in Awakening was the opposite gender of your own Unit.

• Not sure, but there wasn't a rival. But the child of Kamui would still be the opposite gender.

Much like the previous Fire Emblem games, Fates will have a lot of Dub Name Changes (particularly with Marx and Leon)

To avoid the Unfortunate Implications of communism in regards to Nohr, a lot of the character names in the Nohr side will have changes. In particular, possible name change for Marx include Marcus, Mario, Marco, Mark, Marc and Leon's name change would either be Lyon, Lion, Leonhart, Lionheart.

• Confirmed: Marx will be referred as Xander and Leon as Leo in the English release.

Class Possiblities, alongside Maid, Butler, and Shinobi

• Mime (Perhaps learning a skill about copying other skills for a couple turns)
• Tamer (Bonus damage to and from riders and shapeshifting classes)
• Selkie (Sing to boost stats of surrounding allies for one turn)
• Werewolf (Another shapeshifting class with high speed)

• Well, it appears right about the werewolf!
  • Ironically, the other beast unit type, Kitsune, has a unit named "Selkie".

Threesome Support conversations

Three units will be able to bond with each other, gaining extra points if they are the same class.

• Jossed, it's still set at 2 people to a Support conversation.

Felicia's fellow maid will only join you in the Nohr campaign

She'll be the female (and Nohrian) counterpart to Saizou. Whereas Saizou is a Red Oni that only joins in the Hoshido path, she'll be a Blue Oni that only joins in the Nohr path.

• Not only is this confirmed, but she's even Felicia's older twin sister!

Camilla's mount will be a Dracozombie

Her class is translated as "Revenant Knight", which was unusual since her overworld sprite had her riding what looked like a wyvern. Maybe it's an undead dragon and she's tamed it?

• Jossed, it's a wyvern.
• Actually, it is confirmed. The Revenant Knight class rides an undead wyvern, and similar to the Dark Fliers from Awakening, they use magic along with axes.

ALL of the royal siblings are foils to the opposite side in different ways, not just their counterpart

They're also foils to their counterparts in more ways than one.

• Ryouma is said to be charismatic and welcoming, in sharp contrast to Marx, who is taciturn, but honest. When the time comes for the Avatar to make their choice, however, Ryouma takes the Avatar choosing Nohr far more calmly than Marx handles the Avatar choosing Hoshido. Incidentally, Ryoma insists on taking you back to Hoshido even if you choose Nohr, whereas Marx gives up on that after Chapter 6, likely because of Garon's orders.
• Camilla seems more... generously endowed than Hinoka. She's also much more feminine than the Tomboyish Hinoka. At the same time, however, neither woman is afraid to express themselves to the Avatar. Camilla shows her more ruthless side by saying she's willing to kill whoever gets in the Avatar's way. Meanwhile, Hinoka flat out cries into the Avatar's chest, showing her more tender side.
• Leon and Takumi both seem to be the least affectionate of the royal siblings. We haven't seen Leon interacting with the Avatar yet (though they are apparently close), while Takumi is flat-out stated to be suspicious of the Avatar. Leon is stated to be a genius, while Takumi is described as diligent and hard-working.
• Sakura and Elise both seem to be the most affectionate toward the Avatar, with both of them calling out to them when the time to choose comes. Like Leon and Takumi, the contrast is in their personalities: Sakura is shy, while Elise is peppier.

The game takes place ages after Awakening.

A character named Luna who looks almost exactly like Severa was shown in a recent trailer, and Tsukuyomi is an Expy of Ricken. He is also part of the "Wind Tribe"; wind is the element Ricken is most commonly associated with.

Luna and Tsukuyomi might be descendants to the aforementioned Awakening characters.

• Jossed. Luna actually is Severa, and this takes place either long before Awakening or after it. It's confusing.

Luna is Severa

...but under a different name. The cast of Awakening, after the game's events, decided to give their children different names to differentiate them from their adult counterparts—Lucina excepted, since she'd already been born. Thus Luna is the main timeline's Severa, who went exploring through the Outrealm Gates and stumbled into Hoshido/Nohr.

Supporting this is that she mentions Kamui looks like someone she knows (a line the franchise uses to reference previous Avatars), and that Severa's Japanese name, Selena, shares a connection to the moon, or Luna, in Roman mythology.

• Don't forget that she has Cordelia's hair color and judging from her sprite, seems to be a mercenary like Severa. There is also an Inigo lookalike.
• Leaked images from the June 4th Famitsu have revealed that she "hates to lose" and "has to be the best at everything". If she isn't Severa, she's at the very-least a clone of her.
• Also, lookalikes of Inigo and Owain — named Lazwald and Odin — have been revealed, and are pretty much identical to the first two in personality.
  • Confirmed along with Lazwald and Odin being Inigo and Owain under different names.
    • And then taken to a meta level by renaming her Selena in the American version. "Under a different name", indeed.

Kamui's siblings join much earlier in the Hoshido path than the Nohr path.

Barring major changes in even the returning classes, with the exception of Ryouma, all of the siblings in Hoshido seem to be from unpromoted classes (Hinoka's Pegasus Warrior is probably the gender-neutral Pegasus Knight, Takumi is an archer, Sakura is a priestess), while most of the Nohr siblings seem to be in promoted classes (Leon is a Dark Knight, Marx is a Paladin, and the new Rod Knight and Revenant Knight classes of Elise and Camilla sound promoted too). This suggests that the Hoshido siblings join early in the game, while the Nohr siblings join much later.

• Except all evidence points to Rod Knights promoting to Strategists, which have have all but been confirmed to be non-sex locked versions of the Valkyries.
• Plus Marx has been explicitly compared to other early-game paladins throughout the series, implying that he's of the Oifey archetype (solid earlygame paladins who stay good if you use them). You also have a full six chapters with your Nohr family regardless of path, and it's been teased that some Nohr-exclusive characters would leave your party permanently if Hoshido was chosen after that. If anything, you'll have your Nohr siblings significantly earlier.
• Ultimately confirmed. Birthright gives you Sakura in chapter 4, Hinoka in chapter 8, Takumi in chapter 10, and Ryoma at the end of chapter 13 compared to Elise's 7, Camilla's 10, Leo's 14, and Xander's beginning of 16 on Conquest. For even more confirm points, the Hoshidans even join faster than the Nohrians in Revelation; Sakura's 8 and Takumi's 10 to Camilla's 12 and Elise's 14, and Ryoma and Hinoka's 16 to Xander and Leo's 17.

Aqua will transform into a dragon. Possibly as the final boss of at least the 3rd Path

It has been revealed that the Hoshido and Nohr My Castles can have statues of a Light Dragon and a Dark Dragon erected. Aqua is the princess of Nohr who was taken to Hoshido. Both of the royal lines of Hoshido and Nohr have dragon blood, enabling all of them to use the Dragon Vein. Since Kamui has been confirmed to be the birth child of at least Mikoto, their draconic looks and shapeshifting have to come from one of the following:

1. Both Kamui's mother and father had dragon blood, with Kamui winning the inheritance lottery. This would be like the Holy Blood from the Judgral games.

2. Kamui is really a half-sibling and their birth father was a dragon.

3. Kamui's looks and shapeshifting were inherited the same way as the Brand from the Tellius games.

The games seem to have a motif of foils and parallels. As such, one could expect Aqua to transform into a dragon considering her heritage. This could occur in the Third Path, where Aqua is coerced or conviced to transform.

• Jossed. Aqua lacks the ability to turn into a dragon herself. And Aqua stays an ally even in the third route.

As seems to be the norm for this series, incestuous pairings will be an option.

And perhaps more explicitly than ever before. While the series has dabbled with incestuous subtext between siblings on multiple occasions and has allowed Kissing Cousins on multiple occasions (though they censored it in Awakening, and in fairness the way the child system works means that most of the pairs of Kissing Cousins you can create could also end up not being related to each other if you make a different set of choices), they've never really given you the outright option to create a romantic bond between siblings. (Aside from some glitches in Genealogy of the Holy War that could've easily been avoided if they'd simply disabled the ability for anyone to gain love points with Julia, who you really have to go even more out of your way to marry to someone else than you do to marry her to Seliph.) Here, however, you have a unique opportunity: an Avatar who was taken from their biological family as an infant and raised by the royal family of a rival nation. On the Nohr side, Not Blood Siblings applies, which by usual fictional reasoning makes your opposite-gendered siblings on that side more likely to be included as valid love interests. On the Hoshido side, you have full-blooded siblings that are essentially strangers to you, which makes an attraction far more likely by real-world rules. Either way, there's an opportunity for the series' memetic fascination with incest to reach unprecedented levels.

• Confirmed. You can S-rank your Nohr siblings AND Hoshido siblings.
  • That said, it turns out that none of the siblings are related to the Avatar by blood, so at the very least, there's no ACTUAL incest involving the Avatar in either game.
  • THAT said, Azura and the Avatar are revealed to be cousins.

Aqua is the true antagonist.

I can't be the only finding this girl suspicious as hell. She's been trapped in Hoshido for years, but unlike Kamui, she obviously remembers her true origins. And yet, instead of facing the same conflicting loyalties as he/she does, the only one she gives a damn about is Kamui, the one person she knows the least. So, if you side with Hoshido, sure, she's game for going back to her abductors. And if you side with Nohr, where she claims to hail from, it's implied her outfit changes, complete with a veil to obscure her face and probably hide her identity.

Even ignoring that bit, there's still the trailer where it appears that Kamui, in dragon form, is trying to strangle her. However, as we catch a close-up of Aqua's pendant in the fall, their transformation is shattering, turning Kamui back into a human.

Couple of things Aqua could be up to:

1. She's bitter as hell about her situation and hates both sides, leading to her siding with Kamui in a twisted perception of "Us against the world", where she tries to insist on Kamui striking them all down in vengeance for their messed up lives.

2. Just like Kamui is unique in their abilities and was possibly bred for them, she was bred for hers. Only, she was designed to deal with Kamui's dangerous abilites, and she's now carrying out her purpose by sticking as close to them as possible and waiting for a moment of weakness to occur.

3. She's not actually who she claims to be. She only claims so to gain access to Hoshido's inner workings through the guise of a "prisoner". When she learns about Kamui, she switches tracks, because what better way to get at the royals than by playing the part of a bargaining chip. When she actually meets Kamui and observes their standing with both royal familes, she figures that the best side to be on is the special little child both royal families would do anything for. Whether she's got her own motives or is acting as an agent of Garon is up for debate, though.

Personally, I'm liking the first option best.

• Takumi's dialogue about not trusting Kamui or Aqua, even though he's known her for years, could imply that the Hoshidans never treated her as family, just a hostage. In that case, she'd have plenty of reasons to go with Kamui to Nohr...though it does make the question of why she'd go back to Hoshido even more suspicious. I'm not certain she's the true antagonist, but she's definitely hiding something.
• Aqua's singing powers are even mentioned to be great and mysterious. And since Kamui was strangling her underwater, maybe Kamui doesn't even trust her themself, and is trying to actually kill you, but then somehow Aqua convinces Kamui to apologize to her, (how they get out of the water, it's impossible to say for sure) she weasels her way out of danger. I feel like Aqua is a parasite whom likes to use those close to her for her own purposes. We can't be too far off. She must be hiding at least ONE thing.
• The new introduction trailer has her telling Kamui to "come back to your senses" right after getting pinned to the ground by dragon!Kamui, implying that she's being strangled not for being an antagonist, but because Kamui can't control the dragon form just yet.
  • Jossed as of third route leaks. Aqua stays an ally.

Mikoto has a Dark Secret

Just to mix up the moral ambiguity of the game. Like how Garon is the Big Bad with sympathetic motives, she's the Big Good with a shady past. To me, her face looks way too calm and serene to be anything but a mask. Maybe she bred Kamui to be a war machine. Maybe she was a Mata Hari who seduced her way into her position. Or heck, the game mentions her husband's "unexpected death", maybe she had him murdered so she could take the throne.

• It turns out that her 'dark secret' was that she once had a relationship with Anankos, with the resulting child being the Avatar. Funnily enough, her death was caused by the reanimated corpse of her husband.

Suzukaze is the one who takes you to meet the Hoshido royal family

The screenshot on Elise's page shows him behind Kamui while a surprised Elise says Kamui's name. The color of the text box suggests this is before you make your choice. This may be where he takes you to meet the Hoshido royal family.

• You were so close... It was him AND Rinka that took you to Hoshido. But it wasn't at the time he was behind Kamui.

Kamui was kept in the dark about their true origins

Elise's profile suggests that the Nohr siblings knew you were adopted (which makes sense, seeing as the default name is Kamui, a Japanese name), but one of Mikoto's screenshots has her telling a male Kamui that he's a Hoshidan prince. Garon likely told his children that Kamui was a Hoshidan orphan that he took in.

• Confirmed. Your Nohr family never said anything about your Hoshidan origins.

Garon is secretly the Big Good, and Mikoto is the true Big Bad

If the assumptions that the plot will not be as black and white and that the Hoshido side is not as innocent as it seems are true, then it's not unlikely that Mikoto as a Dark Secret, like the previous WMG states.

We know that Hoshido values peace, but how far will its rulers go to maintain that peace? It's already given that Aqua is more or less their own kidnapped enemy child like Kamui. Maybe Hoshido is actually a pretty totalitarian regime; while Nohr is poor and suffering, Garon grants his people many rights and freedoms. Conversely, Hoshido's economy, weather, and quality of life may be solid, but its people don't dare to cause a ruckus or sully the queen's good name, lest they face the risk of joining their king...

• That's still way too black and white for a plot that's supposed to be more complex, to lump either character into Pure Good or Pure Evil. My guess is Nohr was once benevolent but let power go to its head while Hoshido committed a sin in the past and is now The Atoner.

• Somewhat jossed. Because Garon is apparently dead and the one we see is a fake.

Marx and Ryouma will die in their respective routes

Right now it's looking like Marx and Ryouma will assume leadership positions in the Nohr and Hoshido paths with Kamui acting as their Lancer, despite being the main character of the game. So at some point during their respective routes, Marx/Ryouma will be fatally injured and die, passing on the role of leadership to Kamui, who has shown great promise as a leader (Camilla and Hinoka are the second eldests of their families, but probably don't have or don't want the same leadership potential), so they can become the actual leader of their forces (and may also end with Kamui becoming the ruler of whatever country they choose to stand with).

• Confirmed. At least two will die no matter what you do to prevent their death. Marx and Elise if you chose Hoshido and Ryouma and Takumi if you chose Nohr.
  • No, it's Jossed. Ryoma and Xander remain the heirs to the throne in their respective routes, with male Corrin completely unable to take the throne and female Corrin only doing so if she marries them. Corrin being the leader of the forces doesn't necessarily mean he/she has to be the ruler; in fact, it's quite common for FE protagonists (though other than Ike, who was never a noble to begin with, all previous protagonists of this ilk eventually succeed to the throne—Hector, Ephraim (who barely even counts since his father dies right as the game begins, but it's implied that he would've rather been Renais's head general and left the succession to Eirika), and Chrom, with Sigurd only failing to qualify because he barely outlives his father.)

Kamui can't control their dragon form

The new "introduction" trailer includes a scene of dragon!Kamui attacking Aqua, who beseeches them to come to their senses. Since Kamui doesn't seem to start with their dragon form, this can be assumed to be the first time they transform and, for whatever reason, lose their mind and attack the first person nearby — Aqua.

• E3 trailer features a scene where transformed Kamui attacks Aqua, and she asks him to kill her "as yourself", so it's quite possible.
  • Partially confirmed: first time the transformation occurs, Kamui does lose their senses, and spends the entire map in that form. However, Aqua doesn't get attacked until she confronts dragon!Kamui and tries to bring them back to their senses.

If Hoshido has a dark secret, it involves Mikoto's husband Sumeragi

Much like Emmeryn tried to atone for the sins of Ylisse's past ruler by being overly peaceful and refusing to fight, Hoshido's king did something terrible (perhaps being the one who kidnapped Aqua; it's never said how old she was when she was taken) and Nohr taking the Avatar was their revenge as well as Sumeragi being killed. Mikoto was left to pick up the pieces.

• This seems unlikely. Based on what we've seen from the leaks, Sumeragi was a pretty cool guy who accepted and loved you as his own child simply because you were the child of the woman he loved.
• Jossed. He was a normal, loving guy.

In the Nohr campaign there will be a Coup d'état by the children of the royal family to overthrow Garon and stop the war

It's highly likely that Marx and the other royal children will desert with any other forces loyal to Kamui after Garon attempted to execute Kamui shown in the Fire Emblem Fates: June Introduction trailer. It's possible that Garon was aware of Marx's plans to change Nohr from within and has order him to execute Kamui as a show of his loyalty to see if this true or not.

• Add to the fact of the state of Nohr in the trailers, Nohr looks miserable from the so-called "glory-seeking" wars they are doing and has likely drafted hundreds of people from all over their country to fuel their war machine, to the point no one was growing food and widespread famine and poverty started to happen across the kingdom, and prince Marx is aware of the possible collapse of the kingdom and is planning an Coup d'état with his sibling with Kamui as their figure head.
  • Confirmed, sort of. The older children recognized that Garon had grown crueler, though it took Kamui and Aqua to show them that Garon's actually been dead all along.

Fates is supposed to be Awakening's answer to Thracia 776

Just as Awakening took after Genealogy of the Holy War in particular, Fates seems to be taken after Thracia 776. From the war between two kingdoms, with one expansionist yet struggling with resources and the other green yet noble (at least outwardly). To the Lord having been born into Hoshido's royal line yet taken by Nohr's king into his family. And the Capture system.

• This also includes the more brutal difficulty, unless you're playing Birthright.

Lilith will be way more important in the 3rd Path

Nothing we've seen of the Hoshido and Nohr Paths points to Lilith or the monsters being important. It's been confirmed the 3rd Path won't have Kamui side with either of the kingdoms, and since Cipher has 3 decks for Fates's chatacters the 3rd Path won't have Kamui leading an army made from the two kingdoms' forces otherwise the 3rd Path wouldn't have the exclusive units to warrant its own deck. Lilith will be a link to a faction opposed to the two kingdoms, possibly as its leader.

• Jossed. She's Putona Bus after chapter six. That said, we do find out just who she is in the Hidden Truth DLC.

Aqua's necklace is this world's Fire Emblem.

During the E3 trailer, when dragon!Kamui attacks Aqua, you can see her necklace glowing and floating, so it's probably tied to Kamui's dragon powers. I believe that this necklace is some sort of key to control the dragon power - or maybe unlock its full potential - and because of this, both Nohr and Hoshido will try to get their hands on it, possibly kickstarting a war.

• For extra points, the Emblem's power might be controlled only by Aqua's song, since I don't believe they would put so much emphasis on her singing if this wasn't a case.
• Apparently jossed. It was Kamui's Yato sword.

The Avatar is actually related by blood to both families...

But so distantly that it doesn't really matter. They're Really 700 Years Old. Mikoto and Sumeragi found you (maybe after suffering the loss of an actual child) and told their Ryouma and Hinoka that you were their sibling.

• Jossed. Kamui is the step child of the Hoshido royal family and Mikoto is the step mother. The Nohr family stays an adopted family.
• The jossed is jossed, actually. The Avatar is blood-related to both families (Hydra is their ancestor and Hydra is the Avatar's father) but it is so distant, it doesn't even matter. Mikoto is the Avatar's mother, through.
  • Actually, Hydra/Anankos is not the ancestor of the Nohr and Hoshido families. The Dawn and Dusk Dragon, respectively, are their ancestors. Thus, the jossed jossed is jossed, making it the WGM false anyways. Confused?

Garon and Mikoto will have the option to hook up on a Support path.

They're both apparently going to join on both story paths, and they're both widow/ers raising families and ruling nations without significant others. They have more in common than not. They're probably around the same age, despite Mikoto's improbable good looks, because they have the same number of children at the same ages. And maybe Garon won't look quite so Obviously Evil after whatever plot twist reveals he isn't the real Big Bad happens. Having the two nations unite in a marriage alliance would be a cool support ending with a heavy setting impact too.

• Jossed. Mikoto and Garon, in fact, cannot be recruited, as Mikoto dies early on, setting the game's main choice in action and Garon is a villain.

The real Big Bad is Iago.

With Garon having been revealed as joining in both paths, it appears that he'll have a Heel–Face Turn and attempt to reconcile with his adoptive child. His advisor Iago◊, on the other hand, looks just a bit too Obviously Evil.

• In addition, Iago's influence is what leads Garon to wish to kill the Avatar. He may not have been the best father already, but he probably didn't intend to have them killed until recently.
• Partly jossed with the third route.

Garon is suffering from some sort of mental disease.

He's shown to be extremely neglectful towards Avatar, tried to kill them, yet considers them to have betrayed him and Nohr when they survive and suffers from a severe case of paranoia. His consul with Anankos may actually be a voice in his head, and he speaks to himself about how he will punish them for betraying Nohr despite having clearly chosen Nohr and siding with them.

• Jossed. The real Garon was Dead All Along (killed shortly after Elise's birth) and was replaced with a slime monster controlled by Anankos.

The blue haired maid will be your assistant on the third path.

Her name still hasn't been revealed, and it's been confirmed that Felicia and Jakob are gender-locked (for the male and female Avatars respectively). A third servant would seem otherwise out of place.

• Jossed. Her name is Flora and she's Felicia's sister. She's Conquest locked.
  • Jossed the jossed. She also joins on Revelation

Kamui is actually the bastard child of the Hoshidan king and Garon's wife.

Because apparently there's not enough family drama as is, what if the reason why the Hoshido kids look nothing alike is because their dad couldn't keep it in his pants. And one such person was the late Nohr queen.This could be why Garon is so fixated on making Kamui suffer, but considers himself the victim; the bastard child of his unfaithful wife must clearly have inherited her traitorous heart, if not the inherent weakness in their Hoshido blood.

• Jossed. Several leaks revealed that the Hoshidan queen had once bonded with a Hydra dragon, which was why Kamui was able to transform into one themself. Also, Mikoto marries Sumeragi when Sumeragi's first wife had died (Possibly after Sakura's born but that's another thing for now.)

Arthur will have his name changed in the English localization

Seriously. There's Arthur from Genealogy, and Artur from Sacred Stones. One-Steve Limit is in effect throughout the series, so there shouldn't be more than one playable Arthur.

• Why not? We have two Arans (Aran in Radiant Dawn, Arran in Shadow Dragon).
• Besides, "Arthur" is already localized; his name in Japanese is "Harold."

Kamui will have an ending with Azura no matter what gender you choose

They'll be the Chrom and Robin of this game times ten.

• Jossed and confirmed. Jossed because Azura dies at the end of both Birthright and Conquest, confirmed because she lives in the third route, where she serves as your advisor when you become king/queen of Touma or the queen if you marry her.

Garon and Sumeragi were longtime enemies and he's taking it out on Corrin

He had Sumeragi killed (or did it himself) and took Corrin solely to psychologically abuse them as revenge on Sumeragi for whatever he did to piss Garon off. (Likely kidnapping Azura)

If the Avatar chooses Hoshido, Garon will be shamed into making a Heel–Face Turn

Likely by the Avatar themselves, either delivering a passionate Calling the Old Man Out speech or kicking his ass in a special battle cut scene.

• Jossed, because the Garon you face at the end of the Hoshido route isn't even the real Garon. He's a servant of Anankos masquerading as Nohr's king.

You'll get all the characters in the third route

Considering the fact that player will need to get the Hoshido and Nohr royal families to join forces against a bigger threat, it's very likely that the player will get all of the characters, including their retainers.

• Partly confirmed. While you get all the allies in both side, there are still permanent and unavoidable deaths. But not with your sibling allies.

Mozume will have a "super villager" class if the player completes Hoshido, Nohr, AND the third route

Considering Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones allow you access the "super trainee" class if the player completes both Erika's and Ephraim's routes, it's very likely the player will have access to a "super villager" class for Mozume as a "hard work" reward.

• Jossed.

Azura (Aqua) will be voiced by Cristina Valenzuela (aka Cristina Vee), since she has done some fandubs of songs in the past before becoming a full-time voice actress, and Azura sings

• Jossed, it's been confirmed that Rena Strober will be voicing Azura instead.

Post-release

"Canonically", Corrin tried both routes before going with the third via a Reset Button

Both the Birthright and Conquest routes are rather bittersweet; whichever one they took first, Corrin disliked how events played out, and used a form of magic to reset time before they made their fateful choice — perhaps transporting their mind alongside to ensure they didn't make the same one. Except the other path didn't end any better, so they used the Reset Button again and took a third option.

• This is supported by how, in Azura's confession to Male!Corrin on the third route, she tells him that she somehow feels as though she's loved him a long time. That could seen as suggesting Love at First Sight...or it could be seen as suggesting they fell in love on the other two routes, and she very vaguely remembers that.
• Additionally, Male!Corrin S-supporting Azura on all three routes makes sense, since it gives a him an extra layer of motivation — to save the woman he loves. He fails the first two times, but succeeds the third.
  • So Corrin is Homura Akemi?
• The Big Bad of the third route is essentially a god like Naga, who also had control over time. Given that he foresaw his own descent into madness and evil, it's possible he set up something like a time loop in advance to help Corrin defeat his future, evil self.
• It wold explain Corrin's reluctance to kill on Conquest if they went through Birthright first—those are the people they previously fought with, grew to knew and became friends with. Of course they'd want to keep them alive if at all possible, you don't stop caring for someone just because you're on opposite sides.
  • If this is true, it's supported by the fact that it seems the developers wanted players to go Birthright-Conquest-Revelation when playing, as Birthright was advertised as the "easier" path, and Revelation outright tells you to do the other paths first when starting it up. This would add an extra story layer in-universe to help Corrin mirror the players.
• Additionally it could explain why Kaze can live or die depending on his support rank with the Avatar on Birthright.

Acting for Two will be used a lot in the English dub for Fates

Due to the fact that there are actually more characters for Fates in comparison to the previous Fire Emblem games, and the fact that both routes have different set of characters the player can recruit, it is very likely that the English dub will have voice actors voice a character from Hoshido and Nohr. A possible example may be Matthew Mercer voicing both Ryouma and Xander.

• There might be some. For instance, it's been confirmed that Brianna Knickerbocker is voicing both Sakura from Hoshido and Charlotte from Nohr.
• There was plenty of that in both versions of Awakening and the Japanese version of Fates. Why wouldn't it be in the dub?
• Confirmed on Matthew Mercer voicing Ryoma, though jossed for Xander. Otherwise, the rest of the original guess is correct; there seems to be even more cases of shared VAs this time around.

Fates will act as the second game along Awakening in this Fire Emblem duology

Most of the Fire Emblem games aside from the original three starring Marth and Sacred Stones have been part of a duology of two games taking place over the same settings. While Awakening was originally meant to be a single story, and Fates obviously takes place in a different world altogether the two games and stories will be linked in some manner so that they in some way reflect off of one another forming a new duology.

• Most likely confirmed. Fates is getting Awakening DLC, and after the battle, Chrom mentions he's heard of Hoshido and Nohr in legends.

The Nohr Royal Siblings are based off of recruitable enemies in previous games

This is only going by superficial appearances. Fine, maybe not based off of, but they are a bit similar.

(Not sure about Xander)

Camilla seems like Aversa, but also seems a bit like Vaida, in that both are rather buxom and infamously powerful wyvern riders (not the class, just the fact that they ride wyverns).

Leo comes across as similar to Eyrios, for some reason. Both are mounted mages who don't seem like they are easy to get along with (though you really can't tell with Eyrios since there aren't any supports).

Elise seems like Nino. Both are magic users, younger sisters to powerful bosses, and are very sweet girls.

• Xander is definitely a Camus expy. And Camus was recruitable as Sirius in Mystery of the Emblem, so he fits the pattern.
• Corrin's story is also very similar to Altena. Both were royal children from a fertile country that was opposed by another, less fertile country (Leonster and Hoshido, Thracia and Nohr). Both were kidnapped when the prince/king was out of the country (Quan in Yeid, Sumeragi in Cheve), and the prince/king was killed by the king of the opposing country (Travant, Garon). The murdering king adopted the child and raised them alongside an older brother (Aereone, Xander). When the royal child grew up, they met their siblings (Leif, the Hoshido siblings), who implored them to join them in their cause, even if it meant going against their adopted family. Altena also the option to talk to either a subordinate of her adopted father (Hannibal) or a subordinate of her biological father (Finn), much like how characters loyal to their country are route-exclusive in Fates. Altena's choice somewhat reflects the Revelation route: she runs off instead of joining either, demands answers from her adopted father, and ultimately joins her biological brother. Finally, she persuades her adopted brother to join her against the true enemy in the end.

Siegbert was Chrom's previous incarnation

With it being highly hinted that Rhajat, Asugi, and Caeldori are previous incarnations of Tharja, Gaius, and Cordelia with their birthday just a day prior, to say nothing of their names. Siegbert was born a day after Chrom's and has similarities to Chrom's situation. He had a father (or in Siegbert's case grandfather) that wanted to wage war with another kingdom as a preventative measure for or against an evil dragon's plan, he will inherit a supernatural sword from his father, Siegbert is insecure of being a good and fair ruler compared to Xander as Chrom was with Emmeryn.

Azura is Lucina's previous incarnation

Because why not? They have similar faces, similar coloring, similarly reserved personalities, play a similar role in the plot, and are the Implied Love Interest of the male Avatars (who apparently are the incarnations of each other as well, adding Reincarnation Romance on top of this).

• Lucina isn't a Mysterious Waif. She's mysterious until the reveal, but she's far from a waif. Also, the male Avatar in Awakening doesn't have an Implied Love Interest the way Chrom does with a female Avatar or Sumia. The only major impact Lucina x Male Avatar has on the plot is that it changes the dialogue in Lucina's Judgment.
• She's a waif in that she's estranged and can't return to her home (timeline), and shares Azura's role in filling in plot details. And she kind of is Male Avatar's Implied Love Interest, given that she gets Ship Tease outside of support convos and their relationship impacts the plot, even if just in that one scene.
  • When did male Robin and Lucina get any Ship Tease? 1 scene really can't be said to 'impact the plot'. And I really don't think Lucina could qualify as a Mysterious Waif mostly since she doesn't join you until there's no mystery left.
  • Ship Tease can be found here. "Impact" was probably the wrong word, but a plot scene does change depending on their relationship, which in Fire Emblem is usually a sign that the two characters are Implied Love Interests — look at Eliwood and Ninian, for instance. I'll concede that most of the mystery is gone by the time Lucina joins, but she still has the other qualities a Mysterious Waif needs.

Azura is the previous incarnation of Chrom

To go with the above. Both bond with their respective Avatars quickly, both are the Implied Love Interest of their opposite gendered Avatar (or heck, even the same gendered). Both have the Fire Emblem blue-hair of relevance (though Azura's is a lighter shade than Chrom's), both seem to be their Avatar's pillar of support as much as it is the other way around. And if you want to take into account the above WMG about the Avatar resetting time to try and save Azura, it does remind a person about Chrom's death in Lucina's timeline and what results of it. You could even compare her necklace to the Falchion. And they both refer to their Avatar as their other half.

• You forgot that both are the only characters of their gender (other than a same-gendered Avatar) to have a fixed child.

My guesses for Ryoma's voice are either Sean Schemmel or Marc Diraison

From the way he says "No more games! To the death!", he sounds kind of similar to Lucario (voiced by Schmmel) in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Plus, Sean now works in L.A., nowadays. It could also be possible that Diraison is the voice, because I think it also sounds a little similar to Guts from Berserk.

• Jossed. It's Matthew Mercer as Ryoma.

Mikoto didn't have Corrin willingly

It wouldn't be too far off to imagine that Anankos forced himself on Mikoto, and it would explain why he wants Corrin dead; he doesn't want his illegitimate child to challenge his right to rule the Invisible kingdom.

• Somewhat jossed. In the final part of Invisible History DLC, Anankos heart admits to loving her, Corrin, and Lilith, apologizing to them in his final moments and trying to stop his insane half. He also asks Mikoto not to tell Corrin their origins.

Kaiji Tang, Liam O'Brien, and Julie Ann Taylor will return to voice characters in Fates

It's been established that Odin, Lazward, and Luna are Owain, Inigo, and Severa, respectively, so it makes sense for their Awakening English voice actors to reprise their roles.

• Confirmed. They're all coming back for this game.

Pieri's English voice will be by Erin Fitzgerald

Considering that she voiced Genocide Jill, who, like Pieri, is blood thirsty and Ax-Crazy, I think Erin would be a very good choice for Pieri, using her Genocide Jill voice.

• Jossed; it's Elizabeth Daily.

Cherami Leigh will be voicing Sakura in the English dub

In the e3 trailer, which also confirmed that the game is getting English voice clips, one of the samples was Sakura screaming "Mother!", which, does sound a little similar to how Asuna from Sword Art Online screamed Kirito's name when he was impaled by Oberon in the second to last episode of Season 1.

• Jossed; Brianna Knickerbocker voices Sakura.

Azura went to Hoshido (somewhat) willingly.

Pure headcanon, but the more you learn about her life in Nohr the more likely it seems Azura could have been a bit too cooperative when she was taken. It doesn’t seem that out there to believe that Azura saw her own abduction as a blessing in disguise to get away from everything in Nohr, if only for a little while had the trade gone as planed.

• Possibly confirmed? Apart from the fact that she was just as broken by Nohr's Decadent Court as the other Nohr kids were, Azura comments to Corrin that if she was in their situation, she would most likely pick Hoshido. (Really, the only reason she ends up with Corrin in Conquest is because she got captured.) This is despite knowing that she was actually kidnapped. So even if she did grow to like them more eventually, Azura was probably at least hoping that that's what would happen.

Azura's final appearance in Conquest was a trick by Anankos

More specifically, he was dangling his newest minion in front of Corrin and mocking them for thinking she might be alive, or that the conflict had ended.

• This could be true in Birthright as well, since Azura's final scene there plays out similarly.

The localization will use the If It's You, It's Okay trope for Soleil's supports.

By now I'm sure most of you have heard that they're changing her support with the Avatar to get rid of the skeevy potion/gay conversion-esque bullshit. But they need something to replace it with. My guess is they'll use this trope, as they still need a way to get Soliel to hook up with the Avatar.

• Okay, for the first and last time: that's not what the support was about at all. There was no Cure Your Gays involved in the original support, and in the original Japanese version Soleil identifies herself as bisexual (see: her support with Forrest). They won't need an If It's You, It's Okay because she's already attracted to guys.

Corrin figures out who their father is on their own.

At least in the third route. Similarly, they at least realize their father is a dragon in Birthright if they marry one of the Hoshido siblings.

The game makes it very clear while they're trustworthy, a bit naïve, and maybe a little innocent, Corrin isn’t stupid. They were able to deduce that Gunter was the one who attacked them and killed Scarlet. And they didn’t trust Anthony but were hoping he’d make the right choice in the end. Given that both Corrin and Anankos have a clear water motif, and the fact that Anankos is one of three NPC dragons featured in the game, I find it a little difficult to believe that Corrin wouldn’t put two and two together after the fights with Mikoto and Sumeragi and realize that their father is the same dragon they’re trying to kill.

• It doesn't help that both Mikoto and Anankos all but outright say "he's your father."

There were other Nohrian children...

We know that Anankos uses More than Mind Control on Takumi, so why not use that on Garon as well? In fact, that sounds like a nice disaster catalyst for allowing Anankos to eventually override his personality and replace him with a slime puppet. Garon was always a stern father (You have to be to survive in this court), and had lost several children trying to make them into the badasses required to survive... and the grief of this allowed Anankos to enter his mind. Camilla and Leo imply that they were the survivors... which is highly possible, since they don't share the same mothers. Garon's adopting of Corrin and having them sheltered could have actually been a strange way of coping - before Anankos entirely removed his personality and made Corrin into a Tyke Bomb. When Garon told the Avatar "You're my child now", there was still a bit of Garon in him.

In the English version of Revelation, Mikoto and Arete will still be sisters

But they'll be adopted. It removes the possibility of Kissing Cousins while also making an interesting parallel to the Avatar and their siblings.

• They are still sisters, but the game never mentions if they're actual sisters, or just adopted/step-sisters. So partially confirmed, partially Jossed?
• While it's not said one way or the other whether or not they're adopted/step-sisters, it would explain why the two of them look next to nothing alike, and why Mikoto looks so Hoshidan. It's hard to say whether this is confirmed/jossed, but it would make sense.
  • The problem is, Mikoto spent over a decade taking care of Azura and most likely never told her their relationship while she was in Hoshido because it might have invoked the curse. One has to assume Mikoto only really brought up her relationship with Arete so someone could tell it to Azura later. It seems like if they were anything but biological sisters, Mikoto would have said something. And this game clearly runs on anime-genetics, like Takumi coming out with silver hair despite Hinoka's red hair and Sakura's pink hair, and his brother and father's dark hair. And, while the Avatar does bear a resemblance to Mikoto, they have an array of hair colors that neither parent has. And in Awakening, Robin looks nothing like their father, so genetics probably don't mean all that much.

Mikoto is more morally ambiguous than we originally thought

Had Hoshido abducted Camilla, Leo, or any of the other Nohrian children that may have still been alive at that point they may not have had the luxuries and freedom Azura had growing up with the Hoshido royals. Because they weren’t Mikoto’s niece. Perhaps Azura only had the happy life in Hoshido solely because she was the daughter of Mikoto’s sister. Oh, sure, if it had been anyone else they probably would have been treated better than Corrin was with Garon, but they still would have been a prisoner proper. Azura was a prisoner in name only.

• The fact that she even held Azura prisoner at all kind of lends some support to this idea. Sure, Corrin was kidnapped first, but considering how much Hoshido is painted up as peaceful and all-loving, that still sounds a bit contradictory. It's quite possible that Mikoto simply justified the kidnapping with the fact that Azura is her niece to feel better about it.

Mitama has narcolepsy.

She always having trouble waking up, and is constantly sleepy and sometimes falling asleep or napping during the day, it would make sense that she's narcoleptic rather than just really lazy (not that she isn't lazy too.)

Mikoto foresaw a romance between the Avatar and Azura/Ryoma

If only because the game never outright says it. She foresaw the romance between the Avatar and the other Hoshido siblings so who's to say she didn't with Ryoma and Azura? They just never got a letter because Ryoma already knew of their true relationship, and Kissing Cousins probably isn't seen as that big a deal in the world of Fates.

Anankos' human face looks like the orb in his dragon form.

Which is why the hood never comes off. Perhaps when Mikoto first found him, he looked more human, but the instant his memory came back, it broke an illusion (like the Rainbow Sage disguising himself in Revelation) and his true face returned.

Flora was made to correct the mistakes made with Cordelia.

When one looks at the trope the fanbase loves to talk about, these two characters seem fairly similar. But their love situation is handled vastly different. Most of Cordelia’s S-supports can be summed up in ‘you like this guy, but since that ain’t happening, marry me instead.’ You could count on one hand the guys this doesn’t happen to. Her solo ending references her crush on Chrom, and her name and birthday are supposed to reference this. It's really hard to talk about Cordelia’s character without bringing up Chrom. This trope is so prevalent in Cordelia’s character everything else plays second fiddle and her issues feel more like they were tacked on, and the fandom's tendency to treat her like that's all she has character-wise doesn't help matters.

On the flipside there’s Flora. Her issues are always present in her supports, from admitting jealousy towards Felicia, to wishing for the Female Avatar’s wish to come true while not knowing they wished for her happiness. When she levels up she’ll ask point-blank, ‘who’s stronger, me or Felicia.’ Her crush on Jakob could be cut out and you’d miss nothing, compared to Cordelia, where you cut hers out and you’re left with a lot to rewrite. For Flora, her crush seems like it’s there just to add more to the tragedy of her situation. Yes, as the Spooky Scramble DLC shows there’s still a chance for flubs, but even then Flora only has one S-support and is over all handled so much better than Cordelia. It’s really hard not to see Flora as the character Cordelia should have been, a girl with her own issues who needs a good support system. You could say Caeldori, the more obvious Expy, does something similar, but it's way more noticeable with Flora.

• Also, while it's probably just a fun coincidence, Flora and Cordelia do share an English voice actress. It's likely at least a reference to Cordelia, and possibly an emphasis on the "correction" theory?

Shigure is the Female Avatar’s Implied Love Interest.

It’s easy to brush the notion aside since the second gen could really be cut out and nothing is missed. And Shigure doesn’t really have the importance of Lucina… in the main game anyway. But his supports with the Female Avatar start out fairly romantic right off the bat, with a support chain that came straight out of a Disney movie, complete with beautiful scenery and singing. By the time the player gets to the A Support, it's piratically screaming JUST S SUPPORT ALREADY.

He even tells her that he gets a little embarrassed about singing in front of others, but he doesn't mind doing it for the Female Avatar because she likes it when he sings. And there’s the added bonus of Shigure being among the second gen characters to have a parental conversation with Male Kana in the Hoshido Bonds DLC and in Revelation their marriage means Azura’s bloodline is still on Valla’s throne. Really makes one wonder if they're supposed to be the Male Avatar/Lucina to Azura and M!Corrin's Female Avatar/Chrom.

• Shigure is the Female Avatar's nephew, so it's highly doubtful this is the case. Plus, at least in Awakening Lucina and the Male Avatar had the "Lucina's Judgment" scene where she stops herself before she kills her husband. Shigure has nothing like that with the female Avatar, or any significant Ship Tease with them outside the supports.
  • Um...nephew? What? They're cousins by default. And if Azura and the Male Avatar marry the game's script doesn't change the way it does for Chrom/Female Avatar in the aforementioned "Lucina's Judgment," the reunion scene, the scene at the end of Chapter 11, and the reveal they had a baby during the timeskip. The closest thing Fates gets is a new support and confession per game, and given the situation they both grew up in, it's kind of necessary.
  • To be fair, no pairings change the plot's script in Fates (also, the only thing to change for Chrom/Female Avatar specifically is Lucina's Judgment; the other scenes have variants for all his potential wives). Given that the Avatar doesn't have any changed supports or confessions with the other neutrals despite them being available on all three routes as well, the devs were capable of coming up with one-size-fits-all-routes supports. So the additional Male Avatar/Azura supports and confessions actually weren't necessary and were something the devs included for no reason other than favoring Azura.

In Birthright, Midori is conceived from Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex

It would certainly explain why her Paralogue only unlocks after her father has safely survived Chapter 15.

• The actual answer is probably just that the writers didn't want to have to add extra dialogue for Chapter 15 or Midori's Paralogue depending on whether you do it before or after Kaze's potential death. Besides, it's also completely possible to not have Kaze S-Ranked with someone until well after Chapter 15, anyway.

Shigure is the reincarnation of the first king of Valla, Ryuurei/Cadros

This was probably discussed somewhere else, but in the dialogue in the Heirs Of Fate DLC, Anankos says "Every other version of you died before piercing the barrier. But your spirit remained true ... Cadros, First King of Valla." while talking to Shigure, who doesn't seem too surprised. In the japanese version, Anankos says "Your soul was the real deal" . Also, Shigure says the king that Anankos was friends with had passed a long time ago, something that is a pretty odd choice of words if he was only someone physically similar to him.

• It helps that Anankos continues to call Shigure "Ryuurei/Cadros" even after Shigure corrects him, and then Shigure just goes with it after that.

Orochi was involved in Azura's kidnapping, too.

Why else would she have "Capture" as a personal skill, when it makes little sense for a spellcaster from the peaceloving Hoshido to have that? She certainly didn't do much of the dirty work though - that was all Shura.

• Well, she did apparently serve Mikoto directly. Plus, as a Diviner, it's possible that Orochi could have used her skills to predict a good time to kidnap Azura, good paths to take, etc. That would be a good way to involve her while leaving most of the "actual" work to Shura. The only problem I can think of with this is that it would likely put Orochi's age at a fair amount over the rest of the cast's, and she doesn't seem that old. (Though admittedly, her unspecified age could also be argued in favor of this.)
  • Actually, she used to babysit Takumi, apparently (according to their supports). So that patches up the only real issue with this guess, and makes it even more plausible.

Izana faked his death in Revelation.

At least in the localization. Given the… unique personality the localization gave him, Izana certainly comes off as the sort who would fake his death if it got Takumi to listen. And he would do it often if it means getting what he wants.

• He does seem pretty casual about the fact that he's dying. Also, while Izana does actually get Takumi to listen, it still kinda comes out of nowhere compared to some of the other deaths in this game. It's hard to say one way or the other, but it would be entirely in-character for Izana.
• Another thought as to how this happened. In Revelation, he asks a much bigger favor from the gods than he did in Birthright. The price for his message wasn't his life, but actually it was for him to not interfere with the Avatar's journey. He is able to join Corrin in Birthright and Conquest because he never made such a divination, ergo he wouldn't be bound by a non-interference agreement like he was in Revelation. The faked death is, of course, his own way of trying to get around having to explain this to the Avatar, and to get Takumi to join them. After all, him dying without having an apparent heir does leave a lot of Fridge Horror into things. (Izumo is a duchy run by a title inherited by blood - for obvious reasons.)
  • Possibly supporting this is the fact that the divination was already fairly vague (only telling them to "go find a dragon" or something along those lines, iirc). That was probably all Izana was allowed to tell them as is, and if he joined them, then Corrin's group would probably expect more details... which, of course, he wouldn't be able to give them.
  • Or, as an alternative reason for why he would, is that Takumi was being pretty stubborn about not helping the Avatar. Izana, knowing he did need to help the Avatar or the world would be doomed, decided that guilt-tripping him by pretending it was his dying request was the best way to get him to go along.
• Additionally on this - The Avatar is on good terms with Fuga on all three routes, but Fuga stays behind to help lead the Wind Tribe. Why the change of heart in Revelation compared to Conquest or Birthright? Easy - the one thing that changes that is none other than Izana - Fuga joins in Izana's place because Izana told him to - that's his way of helping. Izana himself could not help, but ain't no rule saying he can't go ask the Wind Tribe's chief, who he probably knows personally, to go help in his place. It sounds in-character for him to do this, too.

Azura's story is a reference to Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid.

While Azura herself is not a mermaid, her powers are water based and the main elemental motif of Fates is water. Her not being able to tell anybody about the kingdom of Valla due to a curse could remind some of how the mermaid couldn't speak because of her tongue being cut out due to her deal with the sea witch. And Azura fleeing with her mother to Nohr before she was taken to Hoshido seems to me like her "transitioning" from the underwater kingdom to the surface. Lastly, Azura's death scene at the end of Birthright seems eerily reminiscent of the way the mermaid dies in the original fairy tale, with her dissolving into sea foam (or just water in Azura's case).

Percy's whole existence was a result of his phenomenal luck.

Look at his father. No matter what Arthur does, the most unlikely of coincidences seems to happen just to make his life miserable. You'd think that this would extend to his love life, and in some realities, it does, but he manages to find a nice wife most of the time and start a family with her. This could be attributed to Arthur's charming earnestness and skill in wooing the ladies, but who's to say his unborn son's luck didn't help counteract his own awful fortune in this respect? Weirder things have happened before.

Zola's Fatal Flaw is his cowardice, and he was near a Heel–Face Turn in Birthright

He comes to respect the Avatar at least in Birthright, and admitted he only took the shot for Takumi because there was a healer nearby. But by then, Zola had known that yes, something was up with Takumi but he couldn't see it - he wanted to figure out what it was. He was still working as The Mole for Nohr, but was too afraid to outright abandon it for some reason... yet he kind of was. (Perhaps Garon had his arms twisted by threatening to kill his family if he disobeyed?) Had he survived the events of his death chapter, he would have happily joined the Avatar and tried to warn them that Takumi's mind may have been messed with. His actions were another attempt to take the bullet - because he feared that the Avatar might kill Takumi if they knew that Takumi was in fact The Mole.

• Alternatively, Zola perhaps thought that the best course of action would be to bring Corrin back to Nohr and that's why he was still working as The Mole for Nohr. It's also why he begged Garon to spare Corrin's life.

Flora’s crush on Jakob is a form of self-deprecation.

When you get down to it, Jakob’s a bit of an ass in the original Japanese script. And given Flora can’t support him and allow things to develop it sometimes comes across as What Does She See in Him?. But looking a few tropes associated with Flora makes one wonder if she only liked him to begin with because she feels she won’t find anyone better than that. Yes, there’s the Spooky Scramble DLC but DLC’s like that are usually pandering to the fan base.

• On the other hand, some of Selena, Laslow, and Odin's dialogue proves that the scramble pack from Awakening is canon. So the fact that Flora does at least try with Jakob kinda debunks the "not letting it develop" idea. Though, her flubbing the convo and not saying much about it in the main game could be a sign of self-deprecation.

The reason Anankos couldn't become a spirit was because he was too attached to the people of Valla.

The other dragons maintained a certain amount of aloofness from the people they guided, which was what allowed them to easily let go of the world and become spirits when their powers became too great for meat brains and bodies to handle. Unfortunately for Anankos, he allowed himself to become too close to Valla and its people and as a result, couldn't detach from them enough to leave the physical world. In short, the ultimate root of Anankos's madness was that he loved humanity more than any of the other dragons

One of Elise's retainers were intended to be from Ylisse but was changed for reasons.

Elise is the odd one out of the Nohrian four - she's the only one without a Ylissean retainer. But, perhaps early in development, Kjelle, Cynthia, and/or Gerome were considered to be her retainers and were replaced with Effie and Arthur. Kjelle could have been replaced with Effie because they didn't want to cause potential continuity errors with the Before Awakening DLC compared to Gerome's rather no-nonsense personality that they put him in development.

• Additionally, this could possibly explain why there are some similarities between Kjelle and Effie (both of them being female knights obsessed with strength and training).

Shigure's character is a metaphor representing the perfect combination of both nations' cultures.

More specifically, it's obvious that Hoshido draws its cultural inspiration principally from Japan, but Nohr's heritage is a more general amalgamation of Western cultures, including some Roman influence. It seems a great many of Nohr's naming conventions come from French, however ("Nohr" is close in spelling and pronunciation to the French "noir," meaning black; there is a region called "Cheve," which could come from the French "achever," meaning to achieve, accomplish, or succeed, and which follows French tradition in its adjective form ("Chevois," much like "Chine" becomes "chinois;" and the city of Notre Sagesse, which is simply a French phrase meaning "our wisdom.") What's the connection to Shigure? Well, in addition to the fact that much like Kana, he can be the product of a marriage between a member of one of the warring nations and any member of the opposite country, note that Shigure is a painter. Now, this may be a stretch, but that's what WMG is for: in the mid- to late nineteenth century, Japanese art became incredibly popular in France and effectively started the impressionist movement, because many French artists were bored by the strict rules and unchanging landscape of their home. That could be related to how many Nohrians are downtrodden due to the sorry state of their homeland, which is devoid of the natural splendor of Hoshido. Moreover, Shigure's supports with his father culminate in him putting on an art show for the whole camp. If there are Nohrians in said camp, this would likely be their first time being exposed to the work of a (technically) Hoshidan painter. Of course, this is all reaches critical mass if Shigure is Corrin's son, thanks to the symbolism of both parents being children of two worlds—he's literally the result of two cultures uniting equally.

• It helps that there's already some grounds in canon for this idea. Even if Azura marries one of the Nohrian men, Shigure has a Hoshidan name as well as the Hoshidan Sky Knight class as his default. He's already somewhat of a blend between the two nations, so why not go all the way with it?

Mikoto isn't her real name

Among the Vallites, excluding the Avatar, Mikoto's name stands out in particular. She probably was born under a different name altogether, and started calling herself Mikoto when she arrived in Hoshido to better fit in and draw less attention to herself. And if the Avatar has a very non-Hoshidan name Mikoto probably made up some sentimental reason for it.

As an alternate to the above, Mikoto is her real name; she and Arete are simply of mixed Vallite-Hoshidan descent

Looking at the generic enemies in Valla, they're made up of Nohrians and Hoshidans, so Valla may have actually hosted people from both countries. Having a parent native to Valla's culture (likely the monarch, as otherwise Arete wouldn't have been able to use the pendant) and a parent either descended from Hoshido or who traveled there from Hoshido would explain why their names are of different cultures: their parents wanted to honor both their homes. It would also explain why they look nothing alike—Mikoto took after their Hoshidan parent in appearance and Arete their Vallite parent, which can and does happen in real life biracial families.

Iago killed the real King Garon

My feeling is that Iago was a servant/worshiper/cultist of Anankos who was tasked with corrupting the King and the Court of Nohr to serve as his pawns. Queen Arete realized this and moved to stop his influence, most likely while working with Mikoto in Hoshido to bring peace between to two countries so they can ally against Anankos. After Arete dies trying to tell Garon about Valla in order to convince him to reject Iago's false promises. Garon is moved to do exactly that by her sacrifice. Iago, realizing that all his work is about to be undone, kills Garon and summons Anankos to turn him into his familiar.

• That's kind of giving the genius who declared he planned on killing the Avatar in front of Nohr siblings, and admitted to indirectly causing Lilith's death, a little too much credit, don't you think? Iago's even a little put off by Garon's order to make the Avatar suffer as much as possible. Seems a bit out of character for him if he was a servant of Anankos. Given that the Avatar's the only one who can kill Anankos it seems like Iago would be on board with that order without hesitation.
• It could be that Anankos was the one laying out the plans and Iago was just the muscle to carry them out. Additionally, Anankos was the one who wanted the Avatar to suffer as much as possible; Iago might have been surprised not by the cruelty of it, but that Anankos wasn't just killing his only threat and getting it over with.

In Birthright, Elise does not die.

You can say this is crazy, but there's enough evidence to support this theory. I've written an entire essay on it, but if you want a summary, here it is.

• The only action was one slash from Siegfried. There is no way one sword slice can kill her, and there is no Clothing Damage or wound in her body. Also, she did not express a desire to die, unlike the other siblings who deliberately wanted to die.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation is not something Nintendo does. Assuming the party's strength, Elise would be just as strong as all the other characters. As such, one attack cannot kill her.
• Her death is not explicitly confirmed. The only characters who say she died only said it in the heat of the moment, or weren't there to see it. Not to mention, since Lilith brought back the Avatar to the living, we can assume Lilith can do the same for Elise, too. There's also no funeral or any other statements of her mortality, further proving she could survive.
  • Except, you know when she appears alongside the rest of the deceased characters on the final chapter to provide advice and explicitly tells the Avatar to say goodbye to Leo and Camilla in her place. Considering the Avatar was right at her side, the only reason that Elise appears there is that the Avatar confirmed that yes, she had died after the duel with Xander.
  • Also, Lilith is the last one who Corrin talks to, but she doesn't quite "bring them back from the dead." They were near-death, not actually dead, and she was just the last one they talked to. So, I don't think she'd really be able to resurrect Elise.
  • Not only are there plenty of Gameplay and Story Segregation examples. (Elise and/or Sakura are always the one(s) Corrin calls for immediate healing even if they’re not a healing class for starters.) But by the logic of ‘no blood = not dead,’ and taking the lack of Clothing Damage into consideration, then Elise wasn’t even hurt and everyone was just being pointlessly dramatic (of course there‘s also the fact that Elise was in Xander‘s arms and likely would have been able to tell if and when she stopped breathing). ‘No blood = not dead’ is not a good mindset to have, it’s really not that unusual for video games to have a lack of blood regardless of how logical it is. And the fact that Elise ran right in front of Xander’s sword clearly says she was prepared to die. Not having a desire to die does not mean you get a free pass. It does set you up for another trope though.
    • Yeah, Mikoto didn't show any blood or Clothing Damage either. Heck, RYOMA doesn't in Conquest. So there's definitely precedent for Gameplay and Story Segregation within the game. Bloodless Carnage is clearly in full effect with Elise.
  • Also, if you look closely at her map sprite at the end of Chapter 25, Elise is using her Troubadour map sprite (brown horse) instead of her Strategist map sprite (white horse), and it wouldn't be unthinkable for Xander and co. to keep Elise off the front lines to avoid losing another sibling. Giving her the very generous assumption of Lv. 20, she would have an average of 23.5 HP and 6.25 Defense. On Normal difficulty, Xander has 18 Strength, 11 might from Siegfried, 2 might from Chivalry, 3 might from Elbow Room, and 2 might from his sword rank, for a total 36 might. That is enough to one-shot Elise, and that's before you take into account that by the time we see Xander's stats, he has completely lost the will to live.
    • Not to mention that Elise pretty much drops out of the war entirely in Birthright, so it really wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that she's nowhere near that level in the first place. Xander would be able to kill her even more easily with that in mind.

The unknown soldier to see the Rainbow Sage was Kellam.

His name was lost to history, after all.

Candace and Nichol were intended to be playable characters under normal circumstances

They're the only capturable characters with cut-ins. My guess is that they were intended to be part of the story and recruitable, but were demoted to capturable boss characters for unknown reasons. Likely because their presence would skew the amount of characters to Nohr, even since they could probably have been recruitable on any path. (Hence why their paralogues are tied to characters who join on all three routes). My guess is that Candace would have been a "legendary" explorer who would go along with you for reasons, whereas Nichol is probably a Nohrian boss who is a Death Seeker but the Avatar sees the good in him and spares him. Of course things change on route...

• Conquest: Candace is encountered in Hoshido exploring and goes along with the avatar. Nichol still works for Nohr and is assigned to accompany the Avatar at some point (maybe with Cheve). However, Hans's cruelty surprises even Nichol, and he would have sided with the Avatar because even though he is a jaded, sees that the Avatar has some hope.
• Birthright: Candace is encountered earlier, maybe around Wolfskin mountain where she reveals she was looking for stuff around there. Nichol is also encountered later as a boss, who doesn't care what the avatar does to him, and is surprised when the avatar spares him.
• Revelation: Nichol is fought with Hans and Iago, but either surrenders or can be talked to by a Nohrian royal. Candace also is found wandering around and of course, since the avatar needs allies, is more than willing to take some "legendary explorer" they've never heard of.

As an alternative for Nichol, as a reverse Shura:

• In Conquest, after a skirmish he meets with the main group and Xander recognises him as his former comrade or even maybe one of the two retainers he mentions they died on the backstory holding some enemies; and Nichol immediately joins the party, in a similar way Shura joins after meeting Ryoma and revealing to have been a former Hoshidan ally.
• In Birthright he appears as a boss on a reworked Dragonfall Fort chapter, and you get to choose to spare him or eliminate him, with the rest of the royals split as to whether or not trust him after what happens with Zola.
• In Revelation, he is one enemy on Chapter 17 who must be talked to with the Avatar or Xander to get him join your party.

The Fujin Yumi was inherited from Takumi's Aunt/Uncle

Would make sense because

• If the two brothers (Takumi and Ryoma) have the two Hoshidan Divine Weapons who's to say Sumeragi and his brother/sister didn't wield Rajinto and Fujin Yumi respectively?
• If the Fujin Yumi inheritance was between Aunt/Uncle and Niece/Nephew, it'll insure the Royal family will have one who wields the Rajinto and another Fujin Yumi for generations.
• It's never stated in Takumi/Kiragi's supports that Kiragi is the one to inherit the Yumi, and Kiragi only inherited the Yumi in Heirs of Fate because Ryoma died with only one child.

Selena, Odin, and Laslow were in Nohr for three years before the game starts.

Because the real-world time between the release dates (Japanese and international) of Awakening and Fates was three years.

• Makes sense anyway, considering how in Hidden Truths it's stated that the First Blood Anankos gives them will run out in "a few years," yet they don't look much different than they did in Awakening.

There is no Vallite curse.

It was a rumor created by Anankos to stop Vallite citizens from telling Nohrians and Hoshidans what was happening to them. It makes more sense than believing in the Vallite curse, honestly. Azura essentially says that if a person who knows about Valla tells anyone on the surface world about it, they'll disappear, or dissolve, or... something, but how would Anankos know? He clearly is not omniscient, despite being very powerful, because he is unable to foresee the Avatar thwarting his plans in every route. Further, what defines "telling" someone about Valla? Can you write a note? What about drawing a diagram? Can you point in the direction of the Bottomless Canyon and raise your eyebrows? This kind of "curse" would be unenforceable by anything other than pure plot magic. Throughout the course of all three paths, we never see physical evidence of the curse happen. Although Azura dissolves at the end of Birthright and is said to disappear at the end of Conquest, we know for a fact that it isn't because she told anyone about Valla, because she knows about the curse, and she never tells anyone in either path. Rather, her pseudo-death in Birthright is implied to be a consequence of using her pendant, supported by the Heirs of Fate DLCs, where she doesn't want Shigure to have the pendant, because it confers onto him the responsibility of self-sacrifice in order to vanquish Anankos.It's much easier to believe that Anankos merely started the rumor of the curse himself and made it seem real by killing those who left Valla to seek help from Nohrians and Hoshidans because Anankos knew that if the Nohrians and Hoshidans joined together with the Vallite remnants, they could very well overpower him. Alternatively/Additionally, Anankos created the rumor of the curse to make the rest of Valla suffer like he did internally: Forced to fight and kill the ones they loved without being able to explain it to anyone else or warn them.

• Except Azura states that her mother was killed by the curse while trying to warn people about Valla. The vagueness of the curse isn't proof of its nonexistence; there have been other similar curses in media (such as the curse on Voldemort's name in Harry Potter) that had unclear limitations, but had very real consequences nonetheless.
  • This is why I say that there is no "physical" evidence of the curse. The one and only example of the curse's apparent effects described in the game is delivered via hearsay. Azura says in Chapter 6 of Revelation that her mother "lost her life protecting Nohr," but Azura was a child at the time, and it's never stated that Azura was there to watch it happen. It could very well be that Azura simply woke up one morning and realized her mother was no longer around, and when she heard about the curse, she assumed the connection. After all, Arete is one of the people Anankos would be keeping a lot of tabs on, so, if she tried to reveal anything, Anankos would definitely go after her, and quickly. It could even be that Arete deliberately baited Anankos by announcing a plan to tell the Nohrians so that Anankos would ignore Mikoto and let her escape safely.
  • There's no physical evidence, but in the Hidden Truths DLC, Anankos tells Severa, Owain and Inigo that he can't say anything about his home until they set foot into Valla. If he'd truly made the curse up, he could just tell them about Valla right then and there since he knows it's not real. Also, this is perhaps a bit off-topic, but Arete couldn't bait Anankos with a plan to tell Nohr since she and Mikoto escaped at the same time.

Gunter is Silas from the future.

Same hair color, class (sort of), color scheme, and devotion to the Avatar above all else.

He's also clearly a Time Lord, a Spark, a Stand User, Force-sensitive, and the heir to the Monado.

• Small nitpick: their hair colors are actually slightly different, which can be seen a bit more easily on male Kanas fathered by them.

The plots we see are actually dramatizations or stories based on historical events

This addresses questionable characterization, questionable events like the Vallite Curse, and the Black-and-White Morality in the war between the two kingdoms. The games are the following:

Conquest: The closest to history. What happened was that Corrin was indeed the child of Sumeragi and Mikoto (a noblewoman from one of Hoshido's regions Sumeragi took for a wife) who was abducted by Garon after a Nohrian ambush aided the invasion of Hoshido and helped to depose Garon. The portayal of Corrin we see in Conquest is an attempted rehabilitation of his reputation as a shameless toady. Garon was just a brutal yet over-the-hill king, not a pawn for a genocidal dragon god. Xander was a willing conqueror who spearheaded a coup against his father once he showed how unfit to rule he was. Camilla was promiscuous and doted on her younger siblings, but she was never incestuous with claims otherwise being from slander.

Birthright: An alternate history where Corrin sides with Hoshido (similar to alternate histories in our world like where the Nazis or Confederates won their wars). The story was written by a Hoshido sympathizer/apologist hence the lopsided Black and White conflict.

Revelation: A fantasy using a conspiracy theory akin to the Illuminati. In the "actual" Fates World, Anankos is a legendary figure who has been claimed as a patriarch by more than one royal house (whether he ever lived or not is open to debate) while Valla is a tall tale land like Atlantis. The Vallite Curse is merely an urban legend.

Either: The Outrealm shenanigans like the Awakening Trio (who were never there, instead there were 3 totally unconnected retainers forgotten by history) are just the story tellers playing around. The 2nd Gen ranges from those who were actual children of 1st Gen characters (like Arthur's son, considering he does look old enough to have a son that age) to relatives being listed as offspring out of confusion or ease of storytelling (like Shiro, who was just a cousin instead of Ryoma's son) to just imaginary (Azura's son Shigure, who was claimed later on his life to be so despite her obviously being too young to have a child his age).

Azura is imaginary

Working off of the above WMG, this one proposes that Azura never lived and was invented to serve purposes for the story (remove Corrin's responsibility for his role in Nohr's atrocities, represent something about war). It's telling that her so-called siblings in Nohr show little awareness of her outside of stuff like a battle convo, the Hoshidan siblings in Conquest don't seem bothered about her being ran out of Hoshido then joining their sworn enemy, and Shigure's epilogue notes how he was the only evidence historians had his supposed mother was ever alive.

So, when Corrin aids Nohr in its conquest of Hoshido he's doing it out of conviction that it's best option to end the war now instead of letting it draw on. Not out of some ridiculous scheme to get Garon to sit on a chair.

Felicia is Canadian.

She's polite, overly apologetic, her voiceover says "eh" quite a bit, and what do I even need to say about her being from the Ice Tribe.

If Percy returns in a future game that has the marriage/children system...

His child would be representative of a third type of hero different from his father or grandfather. Personality wise, Percy's child would be an Anti-Hero - both Percy and Arthur are rather heroic and noble; it would make sense for Percy's child to buck the trend. As for what type of hero (As in what the inspiration would be for fighting style and costume), we take another look at Percy and Arthur - Arthur comes across as someone you can look up to, whereas Percy comes across as someone you can relate to (and as Linkara has pointed out, DC heroes come across as the former, whereas Marvel heroes fall in the latter category). Both of these are American heroes. So, it would make sense for Percy's son to be a type of hero that originated in another country - a Henshin Hero, such as a Kamen Rider.

Azura is a Death Seeker

Admittedly, this is way out there and there's very little evidence to support it, but this troper has seen conversation supports where she sings her song when she doesn't have to (in fact, there's even her intro cutscene where she's singing it seemingly at random). Furthermore, that song is explicitly stated to eventually kill the singer after enough times. So Azura may be using it as a means to kill herself...

• Actually this could explain why Azura dives into cutscene battles that would be a bad idea in proper gameplay...
• It would also kinda explain why she thought that having Corrin actively fight both countries would be a good idea in Chapter 6 when Revelation is chosen.

The reason Takumi's bow is called the Fujin Yumi

If you shorten the first word, you get the F Yumi, and Takumi gives a lot of F Us to the bad guys on Birthright and Revelation and to you on Conquest.

Tsubaki's name has always been Tsubaki

Corrin just doesn't know how Japanese (or Hoshidan in this case) spelling works, due to living their whole lives in Nohr, so they think it's spelled without the T.

• Alternately, they're pronouncing/hearing it wrong the whole time, since "tsu" and "su" would sound slightly different, but someone who's not listening closely could easily miss it. And Tsubaki just doesn't correct them because he thinks he has to be polite and tries carefully not to say something that would call out their mistake.

Arthur is cursed by the gods but not, as Azama suspects, because they're jealous of him.

Rather, Arthur is a Job-like figure. The gods constantly pour misfortune on him and place obstacles in his path to mould him into the ultimate hero.

"Rejoice in Love" is a Vallite entrancing song that locks people into contrived romances.

How else do two units who can't possibly belong together end their S supports on arbitrarily happy notes.

Corrin is a quarter manakete, not half

Half manaketes (like Nah, Sophia, Nils, and Ninian) age slowly, but quarter manaketes (like Roy if Eliwood married Ninian) age normally. Quarter manaketes like a Nah-mothered Morgan can still transform.