Fire Emblem Akaneia/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Abandon Shipping:
    • Fire Emblem Gaiden:
      • Genny and Saber were often considered each other's Implied Love Interest in the original game due to being the only two characters to marry unnamed people in their endings. The remake revealing that Genny is only 15 and Saber is 34 caused a lot of people to jump ship. Additionally, other characters marry unnamed people in their endings now, and Genny and Saber get no supports while every Official Couple from the original did.
      • Lukas/Alm had a bit of a following prior to release, until a datamined leak revealed their ages: Alm is 17 and Lukas is 24. Needless to say, a lot of people didn't feel right about the age difference and jumped ship. There are still those who like pairing them, but most prefer a brotherly relationship.
  • Adaptation Displacement: Outside of Japan, Marth's much more well known for appearing in Super Smash Bros. than his own games; the release of Shadow Dragon didn't actually do all too much to dispel it, as it was a fairly quiet release.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: This is canon for Marth. He's always been noble and brave to a degree, but in the earlier games, he was decidedly naive and a bit of a bleeding-heart, apparently so much that the OAV adaptation pretty much removed the brave and noble part and upped the softness. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, he was something of a show-off. Finally, Shadow Dragon introduced a bolder, more serious version of the character.
  • Americans Hate Tingle: While the games in this timeline are loved in Japan with Mystery of the Emblem being heralded as the very best of the franchise, the rest of the world sees them as some of the weakest parts in the series. This is more or less due to the fact that by the time they were released overseas, they had been spoiled by better Fire Emblems and significantly more advanced turn-based strategy games, and that the remakes didn't do all that much to bring it up to speed with modern offerings (though in fairness, there would always be people who would've complained if they had, so they were damned either way).
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: The fandom cheered for any indication that New Mystery of the Emblem was more than a straight remake with minimal new content like Shadow Dragon was, and the fact that you don't have to kill off units to access the Gaiden chapters this time.
  • Anticlimax Boss:
    • In the first Fire Emblem, Gharnef is a mere check if you have the Starlight spell to break his Imhullu spell. Medeus from the same game is infamous for being in par with Idenn and Veld as the easiest final bosses in the franchise. If Marth scores a critical in the first attack with the Falchion against a full-health Medeus, the fight's over (on higher difficulties in the DS version, Marth will not be able to critical Medeus to death without a little Strength investment).
    • Michalis in the original and Shadow Dragon. Despite having an Iote Shield, he is disappointingly easy for a late-game boss. The Iote Shield is probably there just to prevent him from becoming a Zero Effort Boss. Mystery of the Emblem Book I tries to alleviate this by making him move from his throne to join his forces (thus making it more of a chore to get Starlight), but it only does so much.
    • Kannival has no ranged weapon, so you can take your time blasting him away with magic.
    • Larissa is disappointingly easy for this late in the game.
  • Awesome Art: If there's one thing most fans can agree on, it's that the new character designs by Hidari in Echoes are absolutely gorgeous.
  • Breather Boss: Roro is ridiculously easy to beat in Normal Mode, but even in the harder difficulties, he's still not particularly hard to kill. In fairness, there is a ridiculous number of him.
  • Breather Level: The Gaiden chapters in Shadow Dragon. Since they can only be accessed if you have less than 15 units, it's clear the developers intended them to be an opportunity to regroup, nab some free EXP, goodies, and a unit, and get your act together before everything goes pear-shaped again. On Hard difficulty, four of the five drop the quality of enemy weapons one grade (6x goes from Steel to Iron, 12x from Silver to Steel, and 20x and 24x from Brave to Silver), and the AI is far dumber to match.
  • Complete Monster: Lang of Adria, betrayed his nation to the Dragon Empire of Dolhr so he could rob from his own people. When Dolhr started losing, Lang defected back to Archanea. Taking advantage of the now Emperor Hardin's Despair Event Horizon, Lang gets himself appointed as Overseer of Grust, a defeated nation that in the previous war allied with Dolhr. The sadistic Lang commits various atrocities on Grust, including killing people that could oppose him, capturing young girls to rape and pimp, ordering the massacre of family members of those who participated in the rebellion, and executing the preteen heirs of Grust. When confronted over his actions, Lang tries to put the blame for his action on the Emperor so he could trick his foes into letting their guard down. Selfish, loyal to no one and willing to do anything to satisfy his own greed and sadism, Lang is among the worst Archanea has to offer.
    • Desaix is the chancellor of Zofia and the general of a rebellion to overthrow King Lima of IV and seize the throne for personal gain. He clandestinely murdered many of the children fathered in Lima's Royal Harem to keep away any and all rivals to the throne. When Sir Mycen tried to stop him, Desaix put the blame on him and had him banished. One particular instance involved a fire. During it, he ordered Slayde to kill both Princess Anthiese, better known as Celica, and Prince Conrad during the king and the royal guard's absence, as well as killing everyone else in the royal villa in order to avoid witnesses. By the game's beginning, Desaix conquered the Zofian castle and killed King Lima. Although the Deliverance was formed in order to oppose Desaix, he manages to capture the Zofian knight Mathilda, Clive's lover, to use her as leverage to force his surrender. After suffering a defeat from the Deliverance led by Alm, Desaix retreats to his fortress and announces Mathilda's execution as a show of power. When the Deliverance arrives, he orders his archers to kill her slowly and painfully. Although he claimed he could be a better king than the hedonistic Lima, Desaix is nothing more than a powerhungry, traitorous, and murderous man driven by personal ambition rather than the good of Zofia.
    • Jedah is the fanatical mastermind behind all the evil in the story, having corrupted the Duma Faithful into a Religion of Evil after exiling the previous leader Halcyon, as well as sacrificing two of his three daughters to the Mad God Duma. Acts 4 and 5 reveal Duma provided the Kingsfang for Rudolf to seal Mila and take her away. Jedah is aware of this fact and eagerly awaits Celica's imminent arrival. He lays the seeds of his trap by approaching Celica at Dead Man's Mire, demanding that she offer up her soul to Duma in exchange for him releasing Mila from the madness that plagues all Dragonkin. At Duma Tower, Jedah gleefully reveals what happened to Mila—instead of at the top, she's at the bottom on Duma's altar. She turned herself to stone along with Falchion. So Celica finally comes clean that her soul in particular is needed to revert the disaster. Before everyone protests, Jedah warps her group away and tells Celica to wait and watch the boy (Alm) suffer. After Cecilia submits to him, Jedah makes good on his promise to offer up her soul. Finally, when Celica begs Alm to kill her so nothing else bad comes to pass, Jedah sits back and gleefully watches the marvelous re-enactment of Duma and Mila's struggling. His ultimate goal is to start an age of fear and chaos cradled in Duma's shadow.
    • Gharnef became one after a Start of Darkness.
  • Die for Our Ship: You wouldn't believe the shit Caeda gets just for existing among the Marth/Roy fans (who more often than not have absolutely no knowledge of Fire Emblem beyond what they know from Super Smash Bros.)...
    • Elice is loathed by Merric/Linde fans.
    • By far the worst case is Est. She gets an unbelievable amount of vitriol simply because she and Abel got together after the War of Shadows. Not helping this is that they don't have a very happy ending in Mystery of the Emblem, and many fans decry this turn of event and say that Abel should've gone to Palla who has an unrequited crush on him, often saying that the former has "shit taste". This is ignoring the fact that Abel and Est were fine with each other's company before their endings and that their supports in New Mystery of the Emblem imply this was a case of Poor Communication Kills.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: While Berkut of Fire Emblem Gaiden has been well-received as a villain with sympathetic traits and Hidden Depths, some of his fans sweep his flaws and darker sides under the rug and try to either make him pass as a poor victim of the circumstances or blame Rudolf for everything he did.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: The Akaneia canon as a whole is easily the most popular and famous in Japan, in contrast to the rest of the world's view of them; Mystery of the Emblem, in particular, is beloved and heralded as the best.
    • Ogma is considered a great unit overall and even started an archetype that fits this trope.
    • Like Ogma, Nabarl started an archetype and is said to have inspired the Myrmidon class he would later be reclassed as in the remakes.
    • After Shadow Dragon, Wolf's good growths, Bishonen looks, and sympathetic background made him very popular.
    • Catria is one of the more popular characters from the Akaneia games.
    • Roro. Well, sort of. Among the Fire Emblem Game Mod community, he's a very popular character to insert into hacks.
    • A particularly odd instance: Vyland, among the Japanese fandom. Despite his dubious usefulness and utter genericness in a game with both far more developed characters and a billion better Cavaliers, he has a bizarre borderline-memetic following in the Japanese fandom.
    • Ditto for Wrys, seemingly due to his baldness. To the point where he can convince your My Unit to shave their head in New Mystery. It appears his recruitment quote ("I can't fight, but I can heal others with my staff") have reached borderline memetic status among the Japanese fandom, given how he repeats it word-for-word in New Mystery.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Eremiya, Kleine.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Palla/Abel is significantly more popular than the Official Couple of Abel/Est. Est's status as a Tier-Induced Scrappy, and the Downer Ending the couple get are given as reasons why Palla/Abel is preferred. There's also a rather small camp that prefers having Palla go with Abel's buddy Cain instead (or instead, Catria does that, seeing that she somehow has a support bonus with Cain despite not interacting with each other and her crush was on Marth instead).
    • Linde with Merric. Poor Elice.
    • Some fans think Catria's a better match for Marth than Sheeda. Miraculously, they're more often than not pretty civil to Sheeda herself.
  • Fan Dumb: Super Smash Bros. fangirls who hate on Caeda despite never even playing the game, even knowing the story. Just look at these comments.
  • Fanon Discontinuity:
    • People seem to be treating Michalis's optional survival in New Mystery of the Emblem as this. His ending isn't helping matters either.
    • A number of fans (old and new alike) openly prefer the European English and OVA spellings and pronunciations over the American English ones in Shadow Dragon: particularly for countries: Akaneia over Archanea, Doluna over Dolhr, etc.
  • Faux Symbolism: A standout case among Fire Emblem, in which this is normally the case: Morzas' name in the Japanese version is Moses, but he's got nothing in common, either as a person or in role, as his namesake.
  • Franchise Original Sin: Taking a quick look at Game Breaker and questionable mechanics in the first game should be enough to see the amount of issues that would be prevalent over the course of the series such as the advantage of superior mobility from the Paladin class, the side effect of having a Flier with superior stats spreads, the strength of mobility from the Warp Staff, and last but not least the extreme advantage of having really high base stats compared to a growth oriented unit, which surprisingly comes from Wendell instead of Jagen, whose archetype ended up being the poster boy for three games in a row later on in the series.
  • Game Breaker: Say what you will about My Unit as a character, but they will always tend to have insane stat growths, regardless of what class you choose. He/She will nearly always be a Lightning Bruiser, even if they're in an armored class.
  • Ho Yay: Rickard has a pretty blatant crush on Julian; he even ends his dialogue with hearts when talking to him.
  • Iron Woobie: Marth, especially in Shadow Dragon. His father is betrayed and murdered, his sister sacrifices herself to save him, his mother is murdered, his people get abused by Dolhr, and he just takes his punches and keeps marching forward.
    • Dear God, just read Ogma's second My Unit support in New Mystery of the Emblem!
  • Love to Hate: Desaix and Slayde of Fire Emblem Gaiden are scumbags without any redeemable qualities, but due to how they're written and acted, one can genuinely enjoy despising them, making them stand out in a series with often one note antagonists.
  • Memetic Mutation: In Dark Dragon, Marth's not wearing pants!
  • Most Wonderful Sound: In, Fire Emblem Gaiden, the spell Sagittae hits the enemy ten times in rapid succession when it lands. Land a critical hit, and you get to hear the glorious critical hit sound ten times in rapid succession too. For extra pleasure, play it in slow motion!
  • Narm:
    • In Mystery of the Emblem, Lorenz bites it in the first chapter. How is this represented? His sprite explodes. Clouds of fire, sound effects, the works. This was changed in the remake.
    • This piece of artwork for Shadow Dragon would be all well and good... except everyone's expressions (especially Ogma's) are really Off-Model, undermining any attempt to seriously appreciate it. Thanks for that, Shirow Masamune.
  • Non Sequitur Scene:
    • The Fear Mountain map in the original Fire Emblem Gaiden, where you fight Nuibaba, begins with an extremely Purple Prose-laden Opening Monologue. None of the other maps in the game have an Opening Monologue, so it feels like an omniscient narrator suddenly enters the story just to vanish immediately afterwards. Even more jarringly, this is actually kept in the remake, though the narration is also present at other points in the story to make it feel more natural for Fire Emblem Echoes' storytelling.
    • The Pyrathi chapter. Not because of anything that happens in it, which is all in the bounds of the game itself... but because Pyrathi is literally never even so much as mentioned again afterward, in any of the games. Hell, as soon as you clear the chapter, the ending cutscene doesn't mention anything that just happened, instead segueing directly into Catria arriving to deliver a message from Minerva.
      • Word of God says it's Ogma's hometown. Strangely this detail is never even brought up in the games proper.
  • Older Than They Think: Some fans who started with one of the non-Japan only games might be surprised that the series goes as far back as 1990. It's also quite surprising how many features that are considered a series staple were already in the first game.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Katarina was originally dismissed as random fan-service when first announced, but when she reveals herself as an assassin, it's actually quite unexpected.
    • While originally seen as a benchwarmer prepromote, Wolf's improved growths in Shadow Dragon made him really popular.
    • Jagen has technically been saved from the Scrappy heap a long time ago, since most fans of the series who know their stuff are aware that he's actually pretty great for the beginning, much like several later characters of his archetype.
    • Like Wolf, Sedgar got a massive popularity boost after Shadow Dragon improved his growths.
    • Arran's Character Development in New Mystery did this.
  • The Scrappy: Jagen, the iconically reviled Fire Emblem Crutch Character. On the other hand, there are plenty who like him when it comes to matters outside gameplay.
  • Scrappy Mechanic:
    • In the original game, staff users are unable to gain experience by using staves. They have to survive an attack, which is not conducive to their typically frail stats. This is rectified in the remake.
    • Weapon Level was kind of terribly thought-out; you either got a good run of luck with it and then found it pointlessly levelling up for the rest of the game (only a handful of weapons require a Weapon Level above 10), or you had a bad run with it and had your characters using steel axes at the endgame (many characters had growth rates of 30% or less). It was ditched fairly quickly for weapon ranks, and the remakes followed suit.
    • In Shadow Dragon, you have to kill off people to unlock the Gaiden chapters. This isn't seen as a good mechanic since it completely goes against a pretty universal player instinct to keep everyone alive if possible. Made worse by the fact that the game has a large playable cast and gives you characters left and right, yet most of these chapters require 15 or less people alive (including generic replacements) before reaching them.
  • Seinfeld Is Unfunny: Most of the criticisms towards Shadow Dragon can be attributed to this, being that it pretty much left the 18-year-old core Dark Dragon game alone and made only a few tweaks beyond the obvious presentation facelift.
    • The original games themselves really suffer from this. The Famicom's Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light started a genre, true, but as a result of being the first (and the game being on the NES) the interface practically qualifies as a war crime, animations are molasses-slow, especially on the map (and are unskippable), the plot barely exists, the graphics are ugly even for an NES game, and once a few certain characters promote difficulty goes out the window. Mystery of the Emblem on the SNES is somewhat better (see below), but it still lacks attack ranges on the map, the animations are still slow (armored Knights, Jesus), and while the plot is better, it still lacks some of the elements (like supports) that most modern fans would think of as defining Fire Emblem.
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Mystery of the Emblem to the original Dark Dragon. While the latter was a good game that helped establish an entire genre, it was plagued with a terrible inventory system, staves didn't give EXP, the graphics were rather bland, and the story was rather bland. Then the former comes and fixes most of the gameplay flaws as well as much-needed character and story development, and wraps it up with a more streamlined version of Dark Dragon.
    • Many fans consider New Mystery of the Emblem to be this to Shadow Dragon too. It takes the Adaptation Expansion route rather than being a straight remake, adds a support system for much needed character development, and you no longer need to kill off your own characters to get the side quests.
  • That One Boss: Camus in the first game (especially in the original version), Hardin in the second.
  • They Just Didn't Care: Michalis spends most of the time searching for Maria in Mystery of the Emblem. However, he can't talk to her or wake her up in the last chapter if he survives near the end of New Mystery of the Emblem.
    • Jagen's portrait in New Mystery of the Emblem. He's a tactician and advisor, is out of shape, and accordingly does not fight (prologue aside), so why is his portrait exactly the same as in Shadow Dragon, and he's still dressed in full battle armour? This was the case in the original Mystery of the Emblem, but it may be justified by limited space for superfluous portraits given that Jagen was properly playable in Book 1; New Mystery of the Emblem has no similar excuse, his role as a Prologue boss aside, and even that duty could've been passed over to any other character or he could simply have had multiple portraits like Hardin, who has three. Perhaps Jagen wouldn't seem like himself without his Spikes of Heroism?
  • Tier-Induced Scrappy: Only six classes could promote in Fire Emblem 1, automatically writing off most units who could not. Fire Emblem 3 slightly improves this by connecting four existing classes into lines, and the DS remakes feature lines introduced later, even going so far as changing certain mercenaries into myrmidons!
    • Jagen is probably the most affected by this. In the game's universe, he's considered a Cool Old Guy, veteran knight and tactician. In real life, he started an archetype of EXP THIEVES!
    • Wrys is surpassed by Lena in both growths and base stats, so he is not considered very useful despite appearing in the very first chapter.
    • Unlike the rest of the members of the Wolfguard, Vyland's never been good.
    • In both games and the remakes, Bantu starts out with pathetic stats and has possibly the worst growths in the game.
    • Boah is pretty much hated for having the worst growths in the game and being the weakest of the potential mages.
    • Rickard is usually considered inferior to Julian in terms of growths.
  • Uncanny Valley: The dialogue portraits for the DS remakes, which have an unsettling median between anime-inspired and realistic. Poor reception to the style likely brought the succeeding 3DS games back to an anime-inspired style like the GBA and Tellius games.
  • Unfortunate Character Design: As one can see on the cover of the original Fire Emblem Gaiden, Alm has a rather... elongated piece of armor situated between his legs, and he's posed just awkwardly enough to make it seem... inappropriate.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Marth was a pretty common subject of this among western Super Smash Bros. fans, as his design in those games seems to lend itself to making that mistake. In pretty much everything other than Super Smash Bros. though, it's hard to make such a mistake.
    • Rickard due to his long hair, big eyes and apparent crush on Julian.
    • Many have mistook Xane for a girl.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The Fire Emblem Gaiden remake has the production quality of Awakening and Fates, while improving on the quality of the character models and vastly refining the attack animations, even beyond what Fates did in that department compared to Awakening.
  • The Woobie: Wolf started out his life in slavery, is forced to choose between his hero/best friend and the right thing, and he never gets over Hardin's death.
    • Roshea.
      • Katarina.
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