History VideoGame / FireEmblemTheSacredStones

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Colm, but only to Neimi. Also Innes, though sometimes he's just an outright {{jerkass}}.

* MusicalSpoiler: Averted with Joshua's recruitment. The recruitment music doesn't begin playing until after he announces that Natasha won the coin toss.

** Tana and L'Arachel share TheChick role as both as characterized by their femininity and for being emotionally grounded. Tana is a more traditional PrincessClassic while L'Arachel is a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} ChurchMilitant.

** Jehanna's Sacred Twins does not follow the ThemeNaming of pairs. Audhulma is named after the primodial ox that accompanied Ymir, the first giant. Excalibur, however gets its name from Myth/KingArthur, making it one of the OddNameOut.

* 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, there is an infinite amount of experience to be gained so you can just get it better.

** Wyvern Knights have two glitches attached to them in the English version. You can crash the game if they attack with a javelin or when they trigger Pierce and attack again while the HP bar is scrolling. The Pierce bug is fixed in the European version.

Chapter 14: Carlyle (Eirika's Route) & [[spoiler:Vigarde]] (Ephraim's Route)\\

* SchrodingersGun: It doesn't matter if you chose Eirika's route or Ephraim's route, you will always encounter the same recruitable characters.

* StalkerWithACrush: Valter develops an ''extremely'' creepy obsession with Eirika after a while. He also seems to devote attention to [[DepravedBisexual Eirika's]] ''[[DepravedBisexual brother]]'' Ephraim, according to some, although he mostly discusses his desire to [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence hunt him down and kill him brutally]].

* CuttingOffTheBranches: During the Creature Campaign, [[spoiler:Orson]] joins you as a SecretCharacter with the inventory he had as a boss on Ephraim's route instead of Eirika's.

* PantyShot: Played with in one of Eirika's support conversations. Forde questions the [[LampshadeHanging practicality of wearing a miniskirt on a battle field]], Eirika pretends to flash him as a joke. Though it's all text.

** Tana also shows shades of this, but more towards Ephraim. She's much more dere towards Cormag [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship and Eirika]].

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: Chapter 5x has the player controlling Ephraim and his knights despite taking place before Ephraim's route proper.

** Your party eventually obtains members from every nation on the continent to fight Grado [[spoiler:and then the Demon King]].

** Among the [=GameBoy=] Advance titles, this game uses a darker and more saturated palette for the official artwork and in game. The reason for this is that when ''The Sacred Stones'' came out, the frontlit SP was around for awhile, allowing the designers to get away with using slightly darker palette (especially evident in the menus, which are a lot darker brown.)

* BittersweetEnding: Eirika and Ephraim manage to end the war with Grado and [[spoiler:prevent the Demon King's return]], assuming leadership of Renais afterwards. But their father was killed in the conflict, and they had to [[spoiler:fight and kill their [[BigBadFriend best friend Lyon]], who was responsible for starting the war and causing the Demon King's revival. [[note]]And not only is it implied that he's the one that killed their father, but their friendship with him is strongly implied to have contributed to his StartOfDarkness by fueling some of his insecurities.[[/note]]]] Several countries have been devastated by the war, including Renais and Grado; and many people have lost their lives. Then Grado is further devastated by an earthquake shortly after the war.

** In the prologue, an enemy Necromancer and General appear in the throne room of Castle Renais just before Fado dies.

** At the start of he game, Seth is injured by Valter while trying to protect Eirika. Throughout the rest of the game, Seth's wound is mentioned several times, making it clear the wound has not fully healed during the events of the game. This serves to explain why Seth is a CrutchCharacter at the start, while still being able to be a strong unit: him healing is him leveling up.

* GenkiGirl: L'Arachel, Tana

* GovernmentInExile: With the fall of Renais, the loss of the King, and refuge in Frelia, Eirika and Ephraim are this.
* 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.]]

** Weirdly, both [[spoiler:Innes and Lyon]] love Eirika, and they feel ([[spoiler:Lyon]] in a flashback and [[spoiler:Innes in his support conversations]]) that they have to compete with Ephraim, her ''[[IncestSubtext brother]]'', for her hand.

* MagikarpPower: The Trainees. L'Arachel is a more traditional late game arriving Est, despite being a healer.

* SealedEvilInACan: The Demon King.

* SuperpoweredEvilSide: Lyon in Ephraim's path, which arguably makes him less sympathetic in Ephraim's path: [[spoiler:Everything he did, from killing Fado and Ismaire to shattering the Sacred Stones, he did of his own volition rather than the Demon King's.]]

** Tana and L'Arachel share TheChick role as both as characterized by their femininity and for being emotionally grounded. Tana is a more traditional PrincessClassic while L'Arachel is a CloudCuckooLander ChurchMilitant.

* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Lyon to Emperor Vigarde and Fomortiis to Lyon.]]

* TragicMonster: [[spoiler: Lyon, who [[DemonicPossession falls under control of the Demon King]] while trying to save his country (on Eirika's route) or [[SuperpoweredEvilSide becomes so addled from suddenly gaining phenomenal cosmic powers from the Dark Stone]] (also while trying to save his country) that he may as well have been possessed (on Ephraim's route).]]
* TraumaCongaLine: Grado. Yes, the entire country. Besides having its army completely obliterated and the entire ruling family wiped from the face of the earth, it suffers a massive earthquake some time after the events of the game epilogue.

* YouCantFightFate: Lyon had a vision of an earthquake that would destroy Grado sometime in the future. [[spoiler:This vision prompts him to start messing with Grado's Sacred Stone for the purpose of preventing it. He ends up starting a war instead and the earthquake happens in the epilogue, which is viewed as Grado's divine punishment for starting the war.]]

* BadassBeard: Garcia, Gilliam, Dozla, and Duessel sport some awesome facial hair. Gerik has a nice goatee too.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Still present (all of the protagonists look beautiful), yet subverted at the same time; many of the human bosses range from homely to almost as good looking as the heroes, three of the heroes are mildly [[{{Gonk}} Gonkish]] (Garcia, Dozla, and Gilliam), and the truly "ugly" opponents are undead monstrosities. However, to tell which of Grado's top generals are morally firm and [[AxCrazy which have nary a screw left in their head]] is pretty easy to tell: Valter, Caellach and Riev all look like they haven't slept for a month, and they have creepy facial expressions to match (''especially'' Valter, combining with his [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil lust for Eirika]]).

** Marisa appears in a village in Chapter 10 of Ephraim's route, two missions before she is recruited. She leaves behind a Hero Crest, saying she can't use it yet. [[SlidingScaleofGameplayandStoryIntegration She joins at Level 5]].

* EndGameResultsScreen: {{Averted|Trope}} for the first time after it was introduced in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Genealogy]]''.

* PowerUpLetDown: Snipers have a randomly-activating skill that results in an auto-hit... but snipers are the most accurate unit in the game already. Likewise, Generals have a skill that nullifies damage, but their defense is so high that anything but magic or a hit from a boss will bounce off anyway. Although, if you promote Amelia into a General, she ends up shrugging loads of damage due to the skill, even though she does not have that high HP or DEF/RES gains, and is one of the main reasons why she is a damn good LightningBruiser.

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

''Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones'' is the eighth ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' game, released on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance in 2004 following ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade''.

The story takes place on the continent of Magvel, as the southernmost country, Grado, attacks Renais. Renais had been allies with Grado for years, and was caught completely off guard. The game itself starts with Renais' princess, Eirika, fleeing from her castle as it is overrun. She then goes off in her search for her twin brother Ephraim, and her childhood friend, Lyon, the Prince of Grado, in hopes of finding out why Grado attacked, and how to stop the war.

The game shares some mechanics not seen since ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'', the biggest of which is the ability to traverse the world map. Instead of going to the next story point immediately, the player can fight the monsters roaming the map, or can visit monster-infested areas. This allows for LevelGrinding, a luxury not available in most other ''Fire Emblem'' games. Additionally it has a unique branching class tree, giving almost every unit multiple class options for promotion.

* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Joshua, Gerik, Tethys, Marisa, Rennac and Caellach. Erikia pretends to be one, and Gerik leads a company of them.

** Renias' Sacred Twins Sieglinde and Siegmund are long-lost twin sister and brother, respectively, from the opera ''The Ring of the Nibelung'' by Richard Wagner.

* RetiredBadass: Garcia still is one damn fine warrior, even after several years of retirement.

** This is pretty much standard for Paladins in the ''Fire Emblem'' series. They are very powerful in the beginning or when they join you, then slowly become more balanced with the rest of the party.

* {{Oculothorax}}: One of the monster from the Demon Hordes is the Mogall and its upgraded form, the Arch Mogall, they are floating eyes with tentacle that attacks with dark magic.

* {{Oculothorax}}: The Mogal and its upgraded form, as part of the Demon Hordes.

* OurNudityIsDifferent: The [[http://www.serenesforest.net/fe8/support/011.html L'Arachel/Ephraim support conversations]] have L'Arachel panic at the sight of Ephraim's bare shoulder (which he exposed so she could heal an injury to it).

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: This is par for the course for ''Fire Emblem'', but here, one of the main Lords is the princess of Renais, and her two closest friends, Tana and L'arachel, are the princesses of Frelia and Rausten, respectively. That's three princess of three of Magvel's major countries.