Brother-Sister Incest/Video Games/Fire Emblem

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


This is a regular recurring theme in the Fire Emblem series, to the point that it could be perhaps a troop codifier, as some of its plots even revolve around incestuous relationships. Several of the girls in the player's party, well, admire their older brothers a bit too much, with or without some bits of censorship. Examples:

  • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War: Princess Lachesis and King Eltoshan of Nodion (she even straightforwardly says she won't marry a guy who's less cool than her brother), also Deirdre and Lord Alvis. Note that in the latter's case.... Having the two hook up and breed is actually a part of the Big Bad Manfloy's plan to create a vessel for his Demon Lord. And through Mind Control in Deirdre's part and Alvis not knowing they're half-siblings, it happens.
    • Yet another example for Genealogy of the Holy War are the High Priest Claude and the Dancer Sylvia, whom many fans believe are really brother and sister. They both possess the Blagi bloodline, and Claude once mentions that Sylvia reminds him of his sister, who disappeared many years ago (and Sylvia says she's an orphan). And yes, they can potentially marry each other and have children (who are playable characters in the second half of the game). Though an official book shows that they're distant cousins.
    • Genealogy of the Holy War definitely takes the cake for the King of this trope. If not paired with anyone else, Arthur and Tinny (children of Tiltyu) gets a special dialogue about her past and hinting that Arthur *may* have this kinda feeling to Tinny. Alternatively, cousins Aless (son of Eltoshan) and Nanna (daughter of Lachesis) can be predestined and have a special love dialogue which directly discusses the trope as it allused to elto and Lache's past. And if Ayra had kids from Lex, and you paired Lakche with either Johan or Johalvier, well... any familial relationship between them (that kinda makes Lakche and both of them distant cousins, actually) is instantly thrown out of window. Or simply pair Lakche with her cousin Shanan. And there's also the fact that Julia, daughter of Alvis and Deirdre, has a crush on Celice, son of Sigurd and... Deirdre, too. Must run in the family, dammit.
      • Actually in the case of Tiltyu's children, it is Tinny who gives the vibe of this one-sided feeling to her brother. Check her ending conversations:

Without Lovers
Celice : Tinny, you’ll be going with Arthur too, aren’t you?
Tinny : I, I want to be of some help to my brother, that’s all.
Celice : You and Arthur are really close to each other, eh?
Tinny : That’s because...I like him...
Lover Dead
Celice : Tinny, you’ll be going with Arthur too, aren’t you? Have you forgotten [character] already?
Tinny : Ummm, no, I don’t think I ever would, but I’ll just try to do my best at going on with my life. I’ve met a very wonderful brother after all, we’ll be trying our hardest together.*

  • (The translator is TRYING HARD not to make it sound like incest)
    • Celice and Julia don't really count since they don't get anywhere and their feelings are left rather ambiguous (this is before they even find out they are siblings). Plus, the game data is specifically designed to reduce their Relationship Values over time. (If they're not directly adjacent)
      • Except there are two methods that allows you to hook them up. Two of them, in fact. One is most certainly Not a Glitch: It's outright stated that love growths for Being Adjacent Occur if the characters are not of the same affiliation (Us, Them, Ally, Neutral). The natural love growth only occurs if both characters are of the same affiliation, on YOUR side, and neither is in the main castle. The other method's glitch state is debatable.
    • And oh, Celice's other Love Interests seem to feel bad (Especially Lana for Yuria should they engage in their "Lover Conversation" on the final chapter.
    • The most straightforward and strongest examples are still Deirdre and Alvis, they even have two kids together, and Lachesis and Eltoshan. In terms of the meaning of the word incest, then just Deirdre and Alvis, even if they are not aware that they are.
      • Actually, according to the designer notes, Alvis does know. Thing is, he learned that Deirdre was his sister after they got married and had kids. By that point, however, Alvis's life sucked so much that he decided to not care anymore, he still loved Deirdre and nothing woild change it at that point.
    • It's hinted that Eltosian still considers Lachesis his Most Important Person, though, even if he does love his wife Grahnye. Sigurd says in chapter 2 that he cares about his sister more than anything, and Lachesis's name is on his lips just before he dies.
      • The Oosawa manga makes this even more blatant, with them aknowledging in their last talk that they're in love ( with Lache almost asking Elto to be her first, but he refuses to not taint her, settling for an implied Last Kiss) and hoping there's a Reincarnation Romance deal out there... but sadly demonizes Grahnye by making her a Clingy Jealous Girl who only allows Lachesis to join Sigurd's trope in open hopes to get her killed in battle and is cold and indifferent to Elto's death unless it makes Lache cry, rather than portraying her as simply jealous and lonely as would be expected. (And let's face it, it'd be weirder if she was not jealous.)
    • And, because true Brother-Sister Incest and Kissing Cousins is not enough tropes for a game this screwed up, we have Areone and Altenna, the biological son and, er, "adopted" daughter of King Trabant of Thracia. And by "adopted", we mean Trabant killed her parents when she was 3 years old and took her as part of the spoils of war, so he had a member of the Noba bloodline to wield the legendary weapon her father had, the lance Gaebolg.
      • Remember that Altenna and Arion are descendants of the Crusaders Noba and Dain respectively, who were brother and sister. So they're technically Kissing Cousins, albeit very distant ones.
      • And not to mention, Altenna can't fall in love with anyone in your army due to her feelings for Areone, and she alone can recruit the guy into an allied unit for your group.
    • Special mention needs to go to the ability to pair up Lana and Lester with their cousins Faval and Patty. Their mothers are sisters, so from a social standpoint they're cousins. However, their mothers are actually Aideen and Briggid... who actually are identical twins, which means that from a genetic standpoint, they're half-siblings. It takes some skill to make two couples simultaneously fall under Brother-Sister Incest and Kissing Cousins. Oh yeah, both couples are also predestined and very easy to get.
  • Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade: Clarine of Reglay has a bordering-on-crush admiration on her brother Klein. She openly calls him "the most handsome in Lord Roy's crew" and he actually calls her out on it.
  • Fire Emblem: Lady Priscilla of House Carleon and Raven aka Lord Raymond of House Cornwell. They even had a sort-of Childhood Marriage Promise going on... and she intended to ask him to fulfill it. Too bad that he does love her... just not in that way, but is more intrested in marrying his "nagging wife" Lucius...
    • Here's an interesting case: In Fire Emblem it's possible to hook up Hector with one of the Pegasus sisters, Farina or Florina, and pair Eliwood with the third sister, Fiora. Note that Eliwood's son Roy and Hector's daughter Lilina can marry each other in The Binding Blade. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones: Ephraim and Eirika (which is actually Twincest as well). In a nice reference, though, Ephraim's unique weapon is the spear Siegmund, while Eirika's is the sword Sieglinde, twins who fall in love from The Ring of the Nibelung.
  • Path of Radiance had Reyson and Leanne, two siblings who along with their sickly catatonic father are the last herons left. Meaning for the line to continue, incest would be inevitable. Averted by the sequel, Radiant Dawn, where raven and herons can produce offspring of both races, so Leanne hooks up with the Raven King Naesala.