Fire Emblem Tellius



"In days long past, a young man strode the lands of Tellius. He was simple yet true, his deeds brave and noble. He reunited two races long at war, and healed the heart of . Ask any you meet be they young or old, beorc or laguz, of a hero named Ike and you'll receive a warm smile and a tale or two of faith, courage, and honesty."

- Epilogue to Radiant Dawn

The ninth and tenth games in the Fire Emblem series, comprising its fifth canon and timeline. The Tellius games were the first international releases to appear on a home console, and are something of a return to the style of the last console games by way of implementing many features not seen since the Jugdral games and their darker art styles and plotting.


 * Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (Game Cube, 2005) stars mercenary Ike, the first non-noble main character of the series, as he aids Princess Elincia in reclaiming her kingdom of Crimea after its fall to the suddenly-aggressive nation of Daein. This game reimplemented the anima magic triangle and the skills system in full, in addition to implementing new features like the base menu, bonus experience and the laguz, a Petting Zoo People whose combat revolves around transforming into animals.
 * Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii, 2007) is a direct sequel to Path of Radiance, taking place three years after its beginning. The game is divided into four parts, each starring a different main character. The first arc features Micaiah, the leader of the Dawn Brigade, in her work to liberate the country of Daein from its abuse at the hands of its post-war Begnion occupation, an act which instigates the conflict to come. Following arcs feature Elincia, now queen of Crimea, dealing with rebellious nobles, and Ike and his mercenaries aiding the Laguz kingdoms in a war against an apparently corrupt Begnion, with the final arc bringing all the characters together in order to avert the destruction of their world.

"Numida: Wh-who are you? Stefan: I am the desert, and I brook no intrusions. Make peace with your goddess."
 * Absurdly Youthful Mother: Going only by appearances, Almedha appears to be a beorc woman in her early or mid thirties, a bit too young to be the mother of Pelleas (who appears to be in his early twenties). Subverted in that, and . Even so, nobody called her or Pelleas out on it before they figured out the above spoilers.
 * Even if, she did still.
 * Aerith and Bob: A mercenary group with characters such as Ike, Mist, Oscar... who later finds characters with names like Sothe, Zihark, Haar, etc. Somewhat justified, considering the party consists of people from several in-game countries which probably have their own naming customs, but then you have Crimeans named Brom, Renning and Kieran, as well as Daeinians named Jill and, in Radiant Dawn, Edward and Nolan.
 * Alas, Poor Villain: Bryce, Zelgius, Shiharam, Dheginsea, Levail, and to a lesser extent, Jarod and Hetzel are all people you might feel bad about killing. Possibly Petrine too, given her death quote.
 * And Now for Someone Completely Different: You spend most of Radiant Dawn switching between various different parties, though the most abrupt case is early in Part 2, where you play through the prologue as Elincia, then switch to Nephenee for Chapter 1. Also sudden is the single chapter in Part 3 played as Geoffrey.
 * Animorphism: All the laguz.
 * Artifact of Doom: The titular Fire Emblem, also known as Lehran's Medallion..
 * Asskicking Equals Authority: The Royal Laguz are selected as the strongest in the tribe. To get the throne, you must fight the king or queen and defeat him.
 * Ashnard also has this attitude... and takes it way, way too far.
 * Attack! Attack! Attack!: Skrimir starts off exhibiting this mentality, going so far as to actually utter the phrase "Advance! Advance! Advance!" at Fort Flaguerre.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: Played with with Elincia, who is a useful unit in Fire Emblem 9 due to healing, but isn't terribly useful in combat. In Fire Emblem 10, however, she got a lot better. Of course, this is when she's ascended from princess to Queen Crimea.
 * Back-to-Back Badasses: Technically, you can do this with any units you feel like setting it up with, but Ike and Gatrie do it in a cutscene.
 * Badass: Nearly all of the playable characters, as usual. Ashnard as well, who before becoming king basically spent his free time singlehandedly murdering other armies in border skirmishes.
 * Badass Boast: Stefan gets one in Radiant Dawn if you have him battle Duke Numida.

"Volug: (...Hey. You ever wonder what would happen if I just ate everyone we fought? Would the rest keep fighting?) Leanne: ____... Be... Be safe. I want to... stay with you, (now and always. By the way, can you cook?)"
 * The Battle Didn't Count:
 * In Radiant Dawn, if you manage to defeat Ike in Chapter 3-13, he merely says that you've held out longer than he expected before being informed by one of his soldiers that his forces have breached your defenses at another location. The wounds that would have resulted in a Game Over were he under your control don't seem to bother him much.
 * The same holds true for any of the battles between Ike's forces and Micaiah's: If you're playing as Ike, none of the PCs in Micaiah's army actually die, or vice versa.
 * BFS:
 * Ettard, Ragnell and Alondite.
 * Impressive by the fact that Begnion's first apostle, Altina, wielded BOTH Ragnell AND Alondite.
 * Big Brother Instinct: Ike and Soren's relationship in three words or in five: Ike is Soren's big brother.
 * Big Damn Heroes: At the end of Part 2 of Radiant Dawn,, with Queen Elincia looking on helplessly. Just as in such a heroic fashion that it really counts as Crowning Moment of Awesome as well.
 * Big Eater: Ilyana, who remains thin as paper throughout the game and spends all of her support conversations either on the point of passing out from hunger or chewing on Mia's shoes. She also is a twig, and uses her looks to charm food out of guys. A common fan theory is that she has a tapeworm. Her death quote in Radiant Dawn even has her complaining that she's dying on an empty stomach.
 * Not as pathological as Ilyana, but the beast laguz and to a lesser extent the hawk laguz are known to eat a lot. Special note goes to Skrimir, as mentioned in an info conversation. In that same conversation, the characters compare Ike's appetite to a laguz and conclude that they're going to need a lot more food for the journey.
 * Bilingual Bonus: The ancient language is a fairly simple one-to-one English cipher (spoken, it's just backwards Japanese), so players with a key can read exactly what various characters are saying. While the translated dialogue is usually fairly serious, Volug and Leanne's support conversations are actually rather funny, since both of them know nobody else speaks their language.

"Soren: Magic comes from interaction with spirits. If you let one into your body, it will give you tremendous power... for a price."
 * Birthmark of Destiny: The Branded, as well as those with the Spirit's Protection.
 * Black Knight: Current page image.
 * Blessed with Suck: According to a support conversation, some mages can invite a spirit to enter their bodies, allowing it to consume said mage's soul in exchange for essence (i.e. power).

"Jill: ...Ashnard... Ashnard!! ASHNARD!! I... will never forgive you! NEVER!!!"
 * Book Ends: An inversion regarding the Fire Emblem Theme. Path of Radiance seems at first like it might have discarded the iconic tune, until.
 * Boom! Headshot!: What Shinon does to save Rolf in Chapter 2 of Path of Radiance.
 * But for Me It Was Tuesday: Variation: if you have Jill fight Ashnard, he'll say he doesn't even know who her father is, even though he's one of Daein's generals . Unfortunately for Ashnard, this pushes Jill's Berserk Button.

"Ranulf: I'm Ranulf, right hand to Gallia's future king. (Morphs into cat form) Will that do?"
 * The Caligula: Daein's new rulers (Pre-Pelleas) are really really not so interested in actually running Daein so much as suppressing it...
 * Call a Rabbit a Smeerp: In Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, normal humans are referred to as "beorc", though beorc usually refer to themselves as humans, while laguz (the game world's other humanoid race), who dislike beorc, use the word "human" as an insult. Meanwhile, the beorc use the term "sub-human" to refer to Laguz, and again, this is meant to be an insult.
 * Call Back: In an info conversation in Path of Radiance, Ike and Soren discuss how neither one of them likes to pack unnecessary items, and they both travel light. In Radiant Dawn, Soren's support ending with Ike mentions that he "lightly packed" before leaving with him.
 * Character Development: Path of Radiance had many conversations for each character, and they can be found on www.serenesforest.net/fe9. However, as usual for a Fire Emblem game, each character could only have 5 conversations per playthrough (many characters have over 10 conversations, so it takes a while).
 * Chekhov's Gun: Ragnell is first presented in this way, during Greil's battle with the Black Knight. Over a much longer period of time, so is Urvan.
 * The Chessmaster:.
 * Lekain thinks he's this, but he's actually just another one of the true Chessmaster's Unwitting Pawns. What's more, he's pretty much.
 * A Child Shall Lead Them: Sanaki, the 10/13 year old empress of Begnion.
 * Child Soldiers: Leonardo, Rolf, Mist, Tormod, Sanaki, Sothe in Path of Radiance, Laura and Edward.
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: "You mean Naesala's betrayed us? Again?"
 * Eventually justified in Radiant Dawn: ...
 * Crutch Character: Zig-zagged, unusually for a Fire Emblem game. Several characters play the role of Crutch Character like Titania, but have decent enough growths for them to remain feasible throughout the entire game (in Radiant Dawn, Titania's even a popular end-game choice). In Radiant Dawn, the characters generally alternate between this. In Part 1, Sothe and Nailah play this role. In Part 2, Elincia plays this role (as she actually starts in the third tier of promotion). However, unlike others, they remain pretty feasible throughout the game.
 * Cutscene Power to the Max: In Radiant Dawn, Kurthnaga forced a ceasefire by virtue of being as large as a castle and able to blow it up. When he gets on the battlefield, however, you find out he's only around level 20 (halfway to his max), his accuracy is subpar and he's incredibly slow. Most people use a lot of their BEXP to get him to a decent level so he doesn't die all the time.
 * Deconstructor Fleet: Radiant Dawn pretty much goes on a pretty big deconstruction in Parts 1 and 2.
 * Part 1 pretty much shows that while Ashnard was certainly bad, Begnion wasn't much better.
 * Likewise, Part 2 shifts focus to a rebellion in Crimea. As a Let's Play put it, Path of Radiance pretty much went like a fairytale for Crimea. Radiant Dawn shows that when they were no longer united against Daein, they decided to go back to petty power squabbles, and the new queen couldn't just take her throne and rule in peace.
 * Ike being THE hero and inspiring others? Sounds great, but it also meant a lot of young people got the idea in their head that they too could start a rebellion and become a famous warrior.
 * Micaiah being an All-Loving Heroine who would easily lead her kingdom to safety and honor? Nope. War Is Hell, and she can't do anything to curb Daein's racism.
 * The famous hero getting the girl and becoming an honorable king through marriage? Ike greatly resents nobility and has zero romantic interaction with Elincia.
 * The chaos god that everyone feared? Also allowed living beings to thrive and evolve.
 * Decoy Protagonist: Micaiah is set up as the main character of Radiant Dawn, but by the end of the game, it's clear that Ike is meant to be the main character (again), relegating Micaiah to Supporting Protagonist status at best.
 * Deliver Us From Evil: Almedha's backstory implies that she was as belligerent as Ashnard before the birth of their son.
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything:
 * Parts of Path of Radiance's Dummied Out content included plenty of indications that, such as.
 * Also as mentioned in a Let's Play,.
 * The game also includes several unused names, such as.
 * There are numerous conversations in Radiant Dawn which are nearly impossible to see—including a death quote for the Black Knight in Part 1, where nothing can physically harm him (incidentally, his death is also programmed to trigger a Game Over).
 * Greil's combat animation looks a bit... weird... compared to Ike's or Boyd's in the prologue of Path of Radiance: his sword-arm looks rather stiff, and his backhanded swing doesn't look very forceful compared to Ike's and Boyd's fore-handed swings. Not only was Greil deliberately holding back on that fight, but.
 * To defeat.
 * Double Entendre: The battle conversation between is one giant one... and it's practically an Easter Egg, given how hard it is to trigger.
 * Duel Boss: The Black Knight, in both games.
 * Early-Bird Cameo: Several characters, such as Lekain and Hetzel, make minor appearances in Path of Radiance, but aren't relevant to the plot until Radiant Dawn.
 * Easter Egg: Overlapping with The Dev Team Thinks of Everything, on the final map in Part 3 of Radiant Dawn, there are numerous interesting battle conversations that can be had between all of the important people taking part in this battle. The problem is that the relevant enemies are all the way across the map, and it is extremely likely that the chapter will end before you are anywhere close to them. It takes some real finagling in order to see most of them.
 * Easy Mode Mockery:
 * An unintentional example, overlapping with Game Breaking Bug: When attempting to transfer data from Path of Radiance to Radiant Dawn, the game crashes if your memory card has any Path of Radiance saves on Easy Mode, unless you arrange to have your disc fixed so that Easy Mode saves are safely read. Or are European.
 * Another example: in the Japanese version, the dialogue was cut-down in Normal Mode (English Easy), and you missed out on quite a few plot details. Unfortunately, the English version was based solely off the cut-down script.
 * Egocentric Team Naming: The Greil Mercenaries.
 * Eleventh-Hour Superpower: The Laguz Royals, if you're on a second save. If they're RNG Blessed, Sanaki and Pelleas can also be this too.
 * Emotion Bomb: The Daunt skill is described as the fear variant and has the effect of lowering enemies' hit and crit chances. Makes sense on the enemies that it's exclusive to in Path of Radiance; not so much when anyone on your squad can use it in Radiant Dawn.
 * Everything's Better with Spinning: Critical hits, again, as well as every other winpose in Radiant Dawn.
 * Expecting Someone Taller: Ike's first meeting with the apostle of Begnion. He also says something along this line in Radiant Dawn when facing Pelleas.
 * Expy: Sothe resembles Joshua Bright from Legend of Heroes VI Sora no Kiseki SC, I mean, just take a look at them! Palette Swap, and you barely notice their differences!
 * Eyes Always Shut: Oscar has this expression. Lampshaded at one point (at least in the English version), when Kieran calls him, among other things, "Squinty".
 * Fantastic Racism:
 * The various shapeshifting Laguz tribes are called "sub-humans" by many beorc/humans. This is not limited to your enemies: some between chapter dialogue has your own characters referencing your own laguz characters as sub-humans. And it goes both ways too... a laguz calling a beorc 'human' is the same as a beorc calling a laguz 'sub-human', and it happens more than once. Most characters eventually get better... except Shinon, who is a Jerkass and remains unrepentant even throughout Radiant Dawn.
 * And let's not get started on what hybrids between the two have to put up with.
 * While Lethe learns to treat beorc better, she still makes sweeping generalizations about them, implies they are inferior in their customs, and the word "human" escapes her lips sometimes.
 * Ike notably averts this. Not only doesn't he exhibit any hatred of other races (he does use the slur "sub-human" once, out of ignorance, but afterward sticks to "laguz"), he doesn't really seem to understand what the fuss is all about. When, Ike's reaction is basically "So what? Why should that even matter to me?".
 * Fantastic Slur: Halfbreed and hairball are also used to refer to laguz.
 * Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The general plot of Path of Radiance seems has some parallels with World War II, particularly in the roles of many of the countries. Daein/Germany is a bigoted, militaristic aggressor nation, Crimea/France is a cultured nation invaded by said agressor state, Bengion/Britain is a powerful, aristocratic empire to whom Crimea/France appeals to for help, and the Laguz/United States are isolationists who come to join the Allies when they realize Daein/Germany threaten them. To top it all off, the leader of the allied force is called Ike.
 * Fielding Old Men and Boys: The Daein Liberation Army.
 * Fog of War: Only in hard mode for Path of Radiance; Radiant Dawn adds braziers that are basically infinite-duration stationary torches that can be lit/extinguished by units.
 * Foreshadowing: There's some pretty effective foreshadowing in these games. For example, when Pelleas mentions that he was tricked into a blood pact by Lekain, he tells of what Lekain tells him. Now, much much later, . Likewise, some early cameos serve as foreshadowing too.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: When you recruit Makalov in Path of Radiance, Ike mentions that they paid all of his debts back. Nothing happens to your current inventory of gold, meanwhile.
 * Gay Option: Ike and Soren or Ranulf's supports, either that or Heterosexual Life Partners.
 * Genki Girl: Mia.
 * Guide Dang It:
 * Want to obtain the few bits of Character Development in Radiant Dawn? Good luck. A conversation detailing Soren's past requires a second cycle, transferred stats from Path of Radiance with an Ike/Soren A support, and requires Ike to engage a foe that he would easily be killed by with normal leveling in a timed chapter. Another requires one of the three brothers to visit a specific house in a specific timed chapter and give up a useful item to get a bonus conversation before the next chapter.
 * Support conversations in the GBA games previously fell into this, but it's averted in the Tellius games.
 * Supports in Path of Radiance are built up by simply bringing supporting units into chapters together. After enough chapters, you get a support convo at the base. No more, no less... although some characters take quite a while to build up supports . On the flip side, a handful of them require 0 chapters to unlock, as long as you get any lower-level supports first.
 * The system is roughly the same in Radiant Dawn, although you can speed up the process by having supporting units perform actions next to each other (attack, heal, ect). You can actually have almost every unit support another in Radiant Dawn; unfortunately, this came at the expense of the conversations themselves, which now amount to little more than scripted in-battle blurbs with each other.
 * Want to recruit, one of the best characters of the first game? You can only do it in one mission, by sending one of your laguz characters to stand on a single square that's so far off the beaten path they pretty much won't be participating in the fight. There's nothing in-game to tell you this, or that even exists, though a few players might find the area you need to go conspicuous, seeing as it's a massive detour that leads to a dead end.
 * The same applies to recruiting him in the second game, although now Micaiah can be added to the list of characters capable of recruiting him. In the same chapter, there's a Laguz Gem, an item that will be immensely helpful in the endgame, that can only be found by.
 * Re-recruiting in Path of Radiance, to a slightly lesser degree. You have to talk to him with Rolf, then kill him with Ike. Yes, you have to kill him to recruit him (well, more like thrash him into submission). And if you do it with anyone but Ike, or Rolf hasn't talked to him, he doesn't join. Furthermore, there's no real indication that Rolf would need to talk to him, as prior to that point the two characters have had no (onscreen) interaction, and even if you check the Convos list,  can talk to several characters, so Rolf doesn't stand out. More than a few players missed him on their first playthrough because of this.
 * From the second playthrough onward, Path of Radiance adds equippable armbands to the game that slightly boost a unit's level up growths in one or two stats. Does the game tell you which stats each band increases? No. It's either guesswork or "Guide, Dang It!" for you!
 * Hair Color Spoiler: While he slightly shares the same hair color of his supposed father,.
 * Harder Than Hard: Maniac mode in the Japanese Path of Radiance and Hard mode in Radiant Dawn. The first act with the Dawn Brigade is particularly hard. Your characters die easily, you don't get very many usable people, and you can't level up characters that would otherwise be useful due to an alarmingly thin EXP pool.
 * Healing Hands: Micaiah's Sacrifice ability. It was even called that in the Japanese version.
 * Heroic Lineage: Three notable ones:
 * Sanaki are direct descendents of Altina, one of Ashera's three heroes and the first queen of Begnion..
 * Rajaion, Kurthnaga and Almedha are the children of the second hero Deghinsea..
 * Stefan is heavily implied to be descended from the seldom referenced third hero Soan, who was also the second king of Begnion.
 * Hidden Elf Village: The Branded village in Grann Desert where Stefan comes from. The dragon kingdom of Goldoa is a partial example, as most know where it is, but they are isolated from the world, rarely leaving or allowing others to come. Despite what it seems, this is not due to being xenophobic (they are one of the few laguz tribes with no signs of prejudice towards beorc or other laguz) or due to being uncaring about what happens outside their borders, but rather due to.
 * Hot-Blooded: KIERAN, LEADER OF THE FIFTH PLATOON OF THE CRIMEAN ROYAL KNIGHTS!/SECOND COMMANDER OF THE CRIMEAN ROYAL KNIGHTS!
 * Husband Husbandry: Micaiah found Sothe as a child and raised him, but due to her long lifespan, she looks younger than Sothe in the current game. However, they are so far ahead of everyone else as a canon couple that they start out with max support for each other. You HAVE to go out of your way to make them not end marrying each other.
 * I Am Your Opponent: Ranulf, before challenging Zelguis to single combat:

": If you are stronger than those around you, you should benefit from your strength. This is why I will use my strength to remake this world. Class and rank will not matter. Human and sub-human will not matter. The strong will possess everything. The weak will submit to their will. Is this not the meaning of peace? Reyson: Are you saying that the lives of those without strength have no value?
 * I Found You Like This: In Path of Radiance, Ike's patrol comes across Princess Elincia half alive in the shrubs. Her convoy was attacked by Daein soldiers as she attempted to flee Crimea. Awakens inside the Greil Mercenaries' base.
 * I Let You Win: Two examples:
 * in Path of Radiance, according to a Woolseyism.
 * And Greil to Ike, at the beginning of Path of Radiance. Ike could tell that Greil had let him win, but.
 * Informed Ability: Izuka's actions all contradict the claims he is a brilliant strategist (His proposed solution to liberate a POW prison is to poison the water, which is noted that it would kill the prisoners). May be a Justified Trope, as only Izuka and the guy he has eating out of his hand ever say he is such.
 * Interspecies Romance: Mostly in the background, but almost all of the game's events can ultimately be traced back to the relationship between.
 * In the Blood:.
 * Irony: There is superstition about branded having special powers but the only benefit they really get has the drawback of making them easily spotted by enemies. Amusingly, some of them survive Radiant Dawn's end game because the enemy overlooked them.
 * Item Crafting: You can pay out the nose to create better versions of generic items in both games. Fire Emblem 9 practically expects you to forge weapons regularly—indeed, forged silvers are the best weapons you could wield in the game, and you have Money for Nothing else. Fire Emblem 10 inverts this: though the potential is greater on its own merits, you often don't have the funding to justify its use instead of stocking super-sized weapons.
 * Jack of All Stats: Elincia becomes this in Radiant Dawn. As a Let's Play put it, she is a very effective healer, but can also be an effective tank or damage-dealer. She starts off as a Crutch Character in Part 2, but unlike others, remains feasible late-game.
 * Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: The Tellius bilogy has arguably one of the most complex yet compelling scripts ever written by Nintendo.
 * Joke Character: in Radiant Dawn, who is likely outclassed by the time you recruit him, but has plenty of special dialogue with bosses and other characters, much of it hilarious.
 * King of Beasts: Caineghis is a very literal one.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia.
 * Last Chance Hit Point:
 * Mist starts with a skill called "Miracle" that halves any lethal damage, making it possible to survive with or close to 1HP. Of course, if even half damage isn't enough...
 * In Radiant Dawn, with the new Skill system, anyone can use Miracle now.
 * Late Arrival Spoiler:
 * The Black Knight's identity was revealed in an Nintendo produced fact sheet before Radiant Dawn was even out in English!
 * Strangely inverted too with the identity of "Kurth" in the early chapters of Radiant Dawn. Anyone who had played Path of Radiance could tell who he really was within a few chapters at least, though it wouldn't be as clear to those who hadn't played Path of Radiance. Early Arrival Spoiler, I guess?
 * The concept of being Branded, explicitly mentioned in only three (including two that featured an extremely obscure character) specific support paths in Path of Radiance, is part of the main plot in Radiant Dawn from early on. And the game assumes you know is one.
 * Leader: Several given how many countries and factions there are. Notably:
 * Micaiah of the Dawn Brigade as a type IV. She was later recruited to use that persona be a morale booster for the Daein Army, was just so endearing she became the general of the army and later queen of the country. of course she took on more type II qualities as the story went on.
 * Both Skrimir and Tibarn come off as type III's of their respective armies.
 * Ike matures into a type II for the Greil Mercenaries and Crimean Army in the first game. In the second, he becomes a type IV for the entire continent even among other generals, strategists, empresses and kings because he's the only one everyone respects enough to listen to.
 * Lord British Postulate: In one chapter of Radiant Dawn, appears on the field for a couple turns, and then leaves. During the time they're on the field, it is actually possible to reach them and kill them. They simply retreat upon being defeated.
 * Lower Deck Episode: Part 2, Chapter 1 in Radiant Dawn has the player controlling minor character Nephenee from Path of Radiance.
 * Luck-Based Mission: The fight in Path of Radiance. If Ike has his relevant stats maxed (almost impossible for him not to if he hasn't been left out of the action), you still need Aether to activate at least once before the battle ends. If it does, you win! It doesn't? Too bad (unless Ike's strength is capped, Mist is tough enough to survive the mooks and heal him, and he hits the Black Knight on every single blow; to be fair, you're more likely to get a single Aether than all of that).
 * MacGuffin: Lehran's Medallion in the first game.
 * Magikarp Power:
 * Elincia can be this in Path of Radiance, before becoming a Crutch Character in Radiant Dawn (at least during Part 2; she still remains feasible all the way to the end of the game).
 * Sanaki in Radiant Dawn joins very late, has some low stats in some areas, a very powerful weapon, and has the lowest health in the game... but also has the highest growths in the game, arguably the entire series.
 * Mist also applies to a lesser degree. Although she never catches up with the top tier characters, her Combat Medic status can be extremely useful, and even be a total life saver during if you have been training her properly.
 * Vika also competes with Sanaki in Radiant Dawn for this (being an "Est"). She has one of the highest growths for a Laguz, and if you invest the time, you can actually make something usable out of her. A Let's Play demonstrates this.
 * Marathon Level:
 * The third part of the Endgame of Radiant Dawn. So many dragons... When you finally reach Big D, he's the first boss to constantly regenerate and is immune to all but a select set of weapons. The good news is that you get to choose those weapons. The bad news is that you don't know about his defenses until after you made the choice. The other good news is that you can use a few characters to get some cheap damage. The bad news is that you don't know who they are until you try.
 * Also in Radiant Dawn, there's 4-5, "Unforgivable Sin". It's twelve of you versus a horde of feral laguz that, at least in hard mode, seem to never stop spawning. The good news about this stage is that while the first few levels have you struggling to stay alive, if you play your cards right, you finish the stage with a group of powerful units who can take on anything. The bad news is that while the boss here is not hard like in the above example, he also runs away to the other side of the map. And it's a swamp level, so chasing him is not easy for your ground units. You do have, however.
 * A Million Is a Statistic: Micaiah feels this way when, during a battle, . "Individual lives taken before your eyes weigh more heavily than the many lives taken during the chaos of war. If that life is someone dear, the burden is even worse.".
 * Mini Boss: Nedata in the "Gallia" level, a hilariously stereotypical pirate.
 * Moral Dissonance: At one point, Shinon is scolded for disrepecting the dead when he is caught taking weapons off them. However, you are not only able able to take a whole bunch of stuff from various enemies when you kill them, you just leave their corpses laying on the ground to decompose. You can also outright steal their stuff when they're alive. Plus, it will most likely seem rather silly for Soren to berate Shinon for looting corpses when their team is the one making them in the first place. It was only this to Shinon's point of view: he thought he was being judged, but Soren was only annoyed that he was wasting time.
 * N-Word Privileges: Beorc refer to themselves and each other as "human" without a second thought (perhaps because they don't know that laguz use it as an insult), but if a laguz says it to one, it's meant as an insult (though it's not always effective). "Sub-human", on the other hand, is always malicious.
 * Nintendo Hard: Both games are fairly difficult, but Radiant Dawn takes it to levels not seen since Thracia 776.
 * No Hero Discount: Taken to absurd levels in Radiant Dawn, where.
 * No Kill Like Overkill:
 * Most of the Tier 3 mastery skills in Radiant Dawn. Many of them, like deadeye and stun, have effects to put enemies to sleep or paralyze them, but there's a good chance the player will never see these effects, since they're also effectively critical hits and almost always kill before their effects take hold.
 * Eclipse gets a special mention, in that it not only negates defense but multiples strength by FIVE. It activates on his skill stat, so he always has a fixed 40% chance to rip his opponent apart to the tune of 208 damage, which even the final boss couldn't live through. Ye gods.
 * No Pronunciation Guide: Let's just say the Spanish dubbers seem to actively be trying to get every name wrong and leave it at that. The voices are very decent, at least.
 * The worst case is Ike's name, which instead of been pronounced "eye-k" (like in English), it's pronounce "ee-keh" (like it would be read directly with Spanish phonetics), which sounds "off" to say the least. Sadly, that pronunciation was carried over to the Super Smash Bros Brawl Spanish dub.
 * Congrats, because the German dubs both pronounce the names oddly and the chosen voice actors just don't seem to sound good or well-chosen.
 * Nostalgia Level: Chapter 3-11 in Radiant Dawn is Chapter 23 from Path of Radiance, only your army is moving from Crimea to Daein and not vice-versa.
 * Older Than They Look: Possibly Mist. A conversation with Caineghis early in Path of Radiance reveals that her mother had been killed "more than ten years ago", and, meaning that Mist was about 13 or 14 in Path of Radiance and 16 or 17 in Radiant Dawn. That said, Mist does look her age, if you're used to anime artwork, so people thinking she's younger may be merely a form of Small Reference Pools and Values Dissonance.
 * All laguz are older than they look. Deghinsea, for example, looks like a regular man entering his 50s yet is really over 1000 years old. Though this is because certain laguz races have longer lifespans than others. Presumably, the order would be: Dragons > Herons > Hawks and Ravens > Beasts, but we can only infer the certainty of the first two for sure.
 * Branded also seem to inherit this gene to some degree. looks not a year older in Radiant Dawn than he did in the flashback scene to 13 years ago in the same game, and  is outright stated to be older than she looks. Given the chronology, she has to be between 24–27 years old whereas she looks like a girl in her mid-teens. Stefan spells this out in his support conversations with Soren, who looks like he just started puberty in spite of being 19 when that conversation happens.
 * Old Save Bonus: Data from Path of Radiance can be transferred to Radiant Dawn. Characters that have reached the level cap and capped at least one stat in Path of Radiance gain a + 2 bonus to that stat in Radiant Dawn (or in Sothe's case, his exact stats if they are higher). A-supports in Path of Radiance become bonds and can unlock additional conversations.
 * "On the Next...": Radiant Dawn has this at the end of the first three parts.
 * One-Dollar Retainer: In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Volke, a master assassin who charges for everything, demands only 3000 gold (small even at the start of the game, and explicitly noted by another character as "negligible") to kill in the final level before the game's finale. By contrast he demands 100,000 to reveal why he set this low price. Why?  To make the 3000 gold even more negligible, paying him unlocks a scene in the next level where he gives a refund for a previous job he never got to complete  for a net profit of 17,000 gold.
 * Outside the Box Tactic: The Black Knight/ can easily be defeated in the final chapter by forgoing use of Ragnell in favor of a common hammer.
 * Panty Shot: The 3D models for battle result in a few, primarily Ilyana (dark blue) and Mist (Black and light pink).
 * Pet the Dog: Hetzel, the one Begnion senator who wasn't necessarily evil. He did indeed purchase Rafiel as a slave, but did so to nurse the heron prince back to health, and he later sent him to Serenes Forest to be free. He regrets fighting you when you do, and does so out of fear of Lekain and the other senators. There were even implications that he could have been spared.
 * Plot Armor: Like most Fire Emblem games, most characters who are important to the plot will retreat when killed injured, removing them from gameplay but allowing them to stay around for the story. Unlike the previous games, however, many of the characters who normally have Plot Armor (such as Sothe, Soren and Titania) can actually be Killed Off for Real in Radiant Dawn's final chapter.
 * Puppet State: Crimea was suzerain to Begnion in Radiant Dawn.
 * Put Down Your Gun and Step Away: A bandit takes Rolf and Mist hostage early on in the first game, and tells everyone to do this. Titania, seemingly grabbing the Idiot Ball, tells everyone to comply, after which the bandit simply decides to kill them anyways. Turns out that Titania was just stalling for time to let Shinon get a clear shot.
 * Rapunzel Hair: The Heron tribe have hair between waist-long (males) and feet-long (females).
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: Sanaki becomes this in Path of Radiance, although at first, she appears to be a spoiled little kid (which, well, she is... she's eleven).
 * Regional Bonus: The PAL version of Radiant Dawn fixed the Game Breaking Bug in the Old Save Bonus, and fixed a few name inconsistancies with the first game and a couple of utter Blind Idiot Translations (like the infamous "Heart of Fire").
 * Retraux: The icon for Path of Radiance save data.
 * Sadistic Choice: A rather gripping one in near the end of Part 3 in Radiant Dawn..
 * Secret Character:
 * On a New Game+ in Radiant Dawn, and  can be recruited if the player performs certain actions.
 * Oliver also counts in Radiant Dawn, due to an extreme amount of Guide Dang It and a Violation of Common Sense (why would you put a defenseless Heron right in front of a boss?).
 * Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: In a non-divination example, the boss of "Solo" takes unarmed priests hostage and uses them as human shields in an attempt to survive because he thinks the invading army (you) won't let some mercenaries that were on the opposing side before the army took the capital (him) surrender peacefully (when this is exactly what Ike would do given his character), so the only reason Ike kills him is his attempt to prevent him from doing so.
 * She's Got Legs: Nephenee when she upgrades from Halberdier to Sentinel (and ditches the Zettai Ryouki look she had).
 * Shout-Out: An early pair of bandits in Radiant Dawn share the faces of another Dual Boss pair of bandits from the seventh game.
 * Which were themselves a shout out to a dual boss pair from the sixth game.
 * In Path of Radiance, there is one support conversation between the three Pegasus knights; they are training, and Tanith shouts "DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER!". Coincidence? We don't think so.
 * Ship Sinking:
 * Radiant Dawn is merciless about this. You can choose to ignore it in favor of your own little fantasies but canon is canon.
 * Before Radiant Dawn, Astrid tells Gatrie she can't be with him because she's engaged (something she doesn't mention to Makalov).
 * Soren and Geoffrey sink their ships with Stefan and Calill respectively in roughly the same way: a line or more in the A support that explicitly mentions a preference for the rival—the only other support option either has.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: Elinicia delivers an awesome one to Ludveck at the end of Part 2 in Radiant Dawn. It's even more awesome in the Japanese script, which has extended dialogue.
 * Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer: In the Japanese previews of Radiant Dawn, Ike and the Greil mercs were nowhere to be seen despite Ike been a major focal character in the latter half of the game.
 * Social Darwinist: Surprisingly, fits this mold pretty well, though the only way to find out about it is through a boss conversation he has with... Reyson, who probably won't survive the ensuing battle due to his pathetic defenses.
 * That is the natural order. The only way for the weak to survive is to cling to the strong."

"."
 * Standing Between the Enemies: Elincia tries to prevent the Begnion Army and the Laguz Alliance from fighting. It doesn't work, but at least she could convince the Laguz that not all Humans Are Bastards.
 * Stay in the Kitchen: Mia's backstory. Leads to the hilarious Mia x Largo supports.
 * Unusual Euphemism:
 * Radiant Dawn presents us with gems such as "Moldy onions!" and "Hornet hairs!".
 * Marcia loves this trope. She swears... using food. "Oh, crackers!"
 * Wasted Song:
 * "Repose of Souls", a beautiful piece that only plays briefly in one cutscene, and it's easy for the player to go through the dialogue and miss most of it.
 * Earlier example from Radiant Dawn: "Echoes of Daybreak", a very unusual and interesting map theme that you'll hear in the first two chapters, and then never again. Very easy to forget about it too, as Radiant Dawn has a massive soundtrack.
 * Water Source Tampering: In Radiant Dawn, Micaiah rejects this as a tactic to take out a well defended enemy base when it's suggested. Rather than point out the questionable ethics involved, she explains that people would see it as a questionable act, and start to question their motives, maybe turn against them. More importantly, the base is a prison camp they are attempting to liberate for manpower, and this would hit the prisoners as well.
 * Weapon Tombstone: Greil's axe, Urvan. In Radiant Dawn, it comes back as the Infinity Plus One Axe.
 * Wham! Line: While it was rather heavily foreshadowed, when reveals his intentions near the end of Radiant Dawn, it completely drops the jaws of players who hadn't picked up on it earlier:


 * Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?:
 * SERIOUSLY Micaiah? You really thought that Jarod is the kind of person who would rather bury his friend rather than leave his corpse behind and try to hold onto his position by any means necessary? After he tried to murder you after being exposed? That's why you didn't let either the Black Knight or Sothe subdue him?
 * Lampshaded by Lethe in a base conversation Part 2 regarding Ludveck. That would be how the laguz do it, anyway... but beorc have these things called trials that require evidence.
 * Worthy Opponent: General Zelgius, most notably when he averts a major battle between Begnion and the Laguz Alliance by challenging Skrimir to a duel, and when he refuses to aid Valtome in attacking Queen Elincia.