History VideoGame / FireEmblemTheSacredStones

* AmbitionIsEvil: While Valter and Riev are a BloodKnight and demon worshipper respectively, Caellach is simply an ex-mercenary who will stop at nothing to become a king.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: With a hefty dose of DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything, Grado possesses a predominantly blond populace which uses its extremely large army to attack a former ally without provocation and nearly wipe out all the other nations by surprise.

* KingIncognito: Eirika, L'Arachel, possibly Ephraim during the early chapters, and [[spoiler:Joshua]]. The last one to be revealed was the longest and most successful.

* TheRemnant: While called that, The Grado Remnant are still led by the Prince after the Emperor's death and are not a really straight example.

* WackyWaysideTribe: Some have claimed this about Eirika's half of the LetsSplitUpGang sequence, as Ephraim [[spoiler:saves General Duessel, sinks the ghost ship, and conquers Grado among other things]] while Eirika [[spoiler:fails to save Jehanna's Sacred Stone and is rescued by Ephraim when they reunite]]. However, this is a rather unfair interpretation as Eirika did learn about Carcino's treachery, rescue Prince Innes, and participated in some of the more dramatic moments in the game (which only get a HandWave mention with Ephraim). Besides which, even Ephraim didn't realize Eirika was going to run into ''all'' of that trouble--her original mission was only to make it through monsters and mercenaries to warn Rausten while he was specifically aiming for most of the crises he was involved in.

* ChekhovsGunman: Saleh appears in the early stages of the game, asking Eirika and Seth where Myrrh is, and politely disappears. He doesn't show up again until the characters have to climb the mountains to Rausten.

* CrutchCharacter: Seth, but of the Oifaye subtype rather than the Jeigan (meaning that while he does hog experience early on, he has good growths making him viable later in the game.) Averted in that even though he ''does'' take experience, thereis an infinite amount of experience to be gained so you can just get it better.

* DemonicPossession: [[spoiler:The Demon King attempts to possess Lyon through the Dark Stone, how succesful he is depends on which character route you chose. During Eirika's route, he completely controls Lyon and devours most of his soul, occasionally mimicking the Princes' softer personality to emotionally manipulate Eirika.]]

* GlassCannon: [[SquishyWizard Casters]] like Ewan and Lute tend to have high power but bad to downright terrible HP and defence (and some, like Knoll, can't even dodge well on top of that).

** 3rd Story Arc: Lyon (Final Chapter)

* CameBackWrong: [[EmptyShell Orson's wife]] and [[DamagedSoul Emperor Vigarde of Grado]] both died and were resurrected with the power of the stones. Vigarde promptly crumbled to dust when Ephraim defeated him. And the less said of [[NightmareFuel Monica]], the better.

[[caption-width-right:250:[[RunningGag No]], [[MarthDebutedInSmashBros the man isn't Marth.]][[hottip:*:[[ViewerGenderConfusion Neither is the woman, for that matter]].]]

* '''[[LargeHam LARGE HAM]]''': '''[[NoIndoorVoice L'ARACHEL, PRINCESS OF THE DIVINE THEOCRACY OF RAUSTEN]]'''.

** BadassFamily: Ephraim and Eirika, Innes and Tana, Vanessa and Syrene, Forde and Franz, and Tethys and Ewan.

* GuestStarPartyMember:[[spoiler:Orson, who performs a WutaiTheft on you. In fact, his stats compared to the rest of Ephraim's group should be a dead-giveaway that he is the traitor mentioned at the start of chapter 5x.]]

** This is probably ''most'' played with [[spoiler:Orson, who performs a WutaiTheft on you. In fact, his stats compared to the rest of Ephraim's group are a dead-giveaway that he is the traitor mentioned at the start of chapter 5x.]]

* GoodPowersBadPeople: Riev, who is a Bishop.

** This is probably ''most'' played with [[spoiler:Orson, who performs a WutaiTheft on you.]]

* NiceHat: Joshua, though it's mostly in the fandom's view.

** BadassTeacher: Saleh (as Ewan's magic instructor)

* FiveBadBand:
** BigBad: Lyon
** BiggerBad: Fomortiis
** TheDragon: Riev
** TheEvilGenius: Caellach
** TheBrute: Valter
** TheDarkChick: Selena
** SixthRangerTraitor: Duessel and Glen
** TheMole: [[spoiler: Orson]]
* FiveManBand: The characters who consistently appear in-story make one rather effectively:
** TheHero: Eirika and/or Ephraim, depending on the route. The other twin serves as SupportingProtagonist.
** TheLancer: Seth, who apparently was this from ''before'' the game started.
** TheBigGuy: Myrrh (KillerRabbit version: she's a tiny little girl with wings... and you KNOW what that means in FireEmblem)
** TheSmartGuy: Innes (TheStrategist ''and'' the archer, handles the spy network of Frelia and sends out Peg Knight messengers to keep all of their allies communicated)
** TheChick: L'Arachel (a WhiteMagicianGirl as well as TheHeart of the group, who [[spoiler: pulls Eirika out of her HeroicBSOD]] and once this is done, offers shelter in the Rausten palace.)
** SixthRanger: [[spoiler: Joshua (no one knows he's the RebelPrince of Jehanna until the end of Eirika's route, and it's strongly implied his identity is ''not'' officially revealed in Ephraim's.)]]
*** [[spoiler: Joshua's WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue reveals his identity in Ephraim's route too, if he isn't paired with Gerik or Marisa.]]

* Nice Hat: Joshua, though it's mostly in the fandom's view.

** TheSmartGuy: Innes (TheStrategist ''and'' TheArcher, handles the spy network of Frelia and sends out Peg Knight messengers to keep all of their allies communicated)

* LuckStat: Standard for the series, but Knoll, whose base luck stat is ''zero'' is [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration certainly unlucky in other things.]] You recruit him when you conquer a castle and search the dungeons. He initially assumes they moved his execution date up a few days after you let him out of his cell. Joshua is the ''second'' most unlucky person.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: L'Arachel is obviously BornLucky. Naturally, she maxes luck without supports. The reverse is also true for poor Knoll, who starts out with '''zero''' luck. Joshua has the second lowest luck, but he's mostly played for humor as he is a [[TheGamblingAddict Gambling Addict]].

* '''[[LargeHam LARGE HAM]]''': '''[[NoIndoorVoice L'ARACHEL, PRINCESS OF THE DIVINE THEOCRACY OF RAUSTEN]].

** One of the houses in chapter 15 does give you the general idea of what happened to [[spoiler: Glen and Selena; they both died. We're not told ''how'', though: that's only seen in Eirika's route.]]

* WackyWaysideTribe: Eirika's half of the LetsSplitUpGang sequence between her and Ephraim begins to feel like this when you compare her achievements to those of Ephraim's. She [[spoiler: fights some mercenaries, some monsters, fails to save Jehanna's sacred stone, queen, or royal castle, and ends up being saved by Ephraim when they meet up again]]. By comparison, Ephraim [[spoiler: wins over one of the Empire's Generals, kills another, sinks the Ghost Ship, sack the Imperial Royal City, and kills Emperor Vigarde, pretty much neutralizing most of the Grado Empire as a threat and with five chapters still to go.]] (In-game, there's some discussion upon which route is the hardest: some say Eirika's, some say Ephraim's.)
** FridgeBrilliance: Ephraim is a studied soldier and military tactician, since he's the eldest twin and the future King so he's been ''raised'' to fight and reign when it's time. Eirika's skill has always been in politics, which mean little when dealing with an army driven by an ancient demon; and even more so, her fighting skills are much more fresh than Ephraim's, since she only started traning few years ago. Of course it would be more difficult for her.
** Also noteworthy is that everyone, including Ephraim and Hayden, thought that Eirika's route was actually going to be relatively ''safe'' and didn't expect her to run into more than bandits and monsters. Her job was to warn Rausten; nobody knew that Carcino had defected or that Jehanna was in danger, and she basically runs into those crises while they are happening, rather than aiming specifically for them like Ephraim was. (And she does achieve something by saving Prince Innes from Carcino.)
** On the other hand, going by Ephraim's route completely [[HandWave Hand Waves]] some of the game's more dramatic scenes, such as [[spoiler:Glen's murder and Cormag's rage]], and [[spoiler:Joshua being revealed as the prince of Jehanna]].

* IncestSubtext: Eirika and Ephraim. Though never explicitly spelled out, the {{subtext}} is thick enough to cut with a knife and the hints don't seem to be lost on some other characters.

* NothingIsScarier: The fact that you never see Monica's face makes her much stronger scarier.

* WeaponTwirling: Several characters do this as part of their critical hit animations.

* ThanksForTheMammary: In the first chapter, Seth apologizes for grabbing Eirika (and I quote) "So... brusquely" as they fled the castle. He was rushing, injured, panicked, and sitting on a horse. Not much of a stretch to assume that this was what happened.

** Also Eirika and Ephraim's [[EleventhHourSuperpower holy weapons]] are called Seiglinde and Seigmund respectively, named after [[BrotherSisterIncest incestuous siblings]] in NorseMythology.

* WackyWaysideTribe: Eirika's half of the LetsSplitUpGang sequence between her and Ephraim begins to feel like this when you compare her achievements to those of Ephraim's. She [[spoiler: fights some mercenaries, some monsters, fails to save Jehanna's sacred stone, queen, or royal castle, and ends up being saved by Ephraim when they meet up again]]. By comparison, Ephraim [[spoiler: wins over one of the Empire's Generals, kills another, sinks the Ghost Ship, sack the Imperial Royal City, and kills Emperor Vigarde, pretty much neutralizing most of the Grado Empire as a threat and with five chapters still to go.]] Despite this, Eirika's route is generally agreed to be the more difficult one in terms of [[GameplayAndStorySegregation gameplay]]. [[hottip:*:One thing that also helps Ephraim is that even though his caps are poor; he has a powerful-enough weapon to carry him through the game until he gets his unique weapon]]
** FridgeBrilliance: Ephraim is a studied soldier and military tactician. Eirika's skill has always been in politics, which mean little when dealing with an army driven by an ancient demon. Of course it would be more difficult for her.

** One of the houses in chapter 15 does give you the general idea of what happened to [[spoiler: Glen and Selena; they both died.]]

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Averted. While Jehanna is obviously proud of its 95% mercenary population, to the point where its widowed queen has an A-level in swordsmanship, the Jehannans are the most casual and friendly characters. The only person who does act like this is seen as really weird.

** Innes can be seen as a male {{Tsundere}}, too.

** A woman in Chapter 2 mentions that she received help from a man who dressed like a mercenary but acted much more elegantly than expected. The player assumes it is Ephraim, who appears in Chapter 5x, and it makes a nice counterpoint to Eirika's own mercenary disguise. However, 1) Ephraim is dressed like a prince with princely weapons, 2) he's been in Renvall for a long time, too far to do anything about the village, and 3) no one ever refers to him with a fake name. [[spoiler:In Chapter 5 proper, the poorly-dressed but charming Joshua is recruited in Serafew, which is much closer to the village.]]

** FourStarBadass: Ephraim, Eirika, and Innes are by virtue of commanding their nation's best fighters and by being the ranking combat worthy nobles. Duessel was already one when he joins your cause.