History YMMV / FireEmblemAwakening

** [[EvilSorcerer Validar]], the [[TheHeavy leader]] of [[Characters/FireEmblemAwakeningGrimaAndTheGrimleal the Grimleal]] cult and the ArchnemesisDad of [[PlayerCharacter Robin]], desires nothing less than to bring his draconian master, Grima the Fell Dragon, into existence. Eugenically breeding his child to be an ideal vessel for the evil god, Validar's plots were initially foiled by his wife, who spirited the baby away, causing him to decide to lie low for more than a decade. He takes over the country of Plegia following the apparent demise of its ruler, King Gangrel, and promises aid to Ylisse, Plegia's traditional enemy in whose army the now-grown Robin serves, against TheEmpire of Valm; secretly, [[ManipulativeBastard Validar only does this to corrupt Robin and eliminate Valm's threat to himself]]. Once Valm is defeated, Validar betrays Ylisse and steals its holy relic, the Fire Emblem, to use to unseal Grima. Validar takes over the minds of the majority of his country's population, forcing them to march on foot toward a Grimleal holy site and then tries to make them [[PsychicAssistedSuicide commit a mass suicide]] to offer their souls to the Fell Dragon. Throughout the game, the one human he appears to be close to is his right-hand woman Aversa, but it is eventually revealed that when she was a young girl, he massacred her family and then [[MindRape edited her memories]] to cause her to believe he had saved her life after their murders.

* CriticalDissonance: ''Awakening'' is by far the most popular ''Fire Emblem'' game worldwide, and received universal critical acclaim — even meeting Wiki/TheOtherWiki's strict criteria for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_considered_the_best its list of games considered the best ever]], and being one of the most frequent choices for "best Fire Emblem game of all time" by mainstream outlets along with ''VideoGame/FireEmblemBlazingSword''. Fans, however, are more divided (if not as much as with its FollowTheLeader successor ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates''), due to many changes in the formula and writing as well as less coherent map and mission design than many of its predecessors and successors.

*** Speaking of Olivia, she's easily the biggest example of this problem in practice: like we said, no S-Support before Chapter 12. If all other options are taken, then the only way to prevent Chrom from marrying Olivia is to ''kill her off''. This might seem appealing if you're trying to invoke DieForOurShip, but you might change your tune when you recall that Olivia is this game's ''dancer''.

* {{Squick}}: Nowi's design has been subject to controversy, due to the fact that she is a Really700YearsOld manakete who, despite taking the form of a child, is wearing a {{Stripperific}} outfit that can gross out mostly anyone in the fanbase. As a result, this led to many fanartists giving her outfits that are way less revealing. Her dragon form has managed to escaped this fate, though.

* WhatAnIdiot: Prior to Chapter 2, after Maribelle (the mounted healer) leaves the room in disgust after Vaike's epic burp, Chrom enters the room to deliver the news about the expedition to Regna Ferox. No one decides to look for Maribelle and invite her to join the expedition. If they did, she wouldn't have been kidnapped when the Plegians attack another area of Ylisse, Themis, she wouldn't have been falsely accused of being a spy, and the Ylissean-Plegian war wouldn't have started sooner! And on top of that, [[spoiler:Emmeryn probably would've lived and not had to commit HeroicSuicide (like in Chapter 9)]]!

* MagnificentBastard: Walhart TheConqueror was born in the small country of Valm. Through sheer {{determinat|or}}ion, single-minded will, and his own natural power, Walhart cultivated the fealty of people after people under his cause of uniting the world through force. Seen as a god among men because of his charisma, Walhart spent the gathering his army and resources. He makes his first appearance singlehandedly decimating the northern forces of the alliance against the Valmese Empire before seemingly killing Khan Basilio. When confronted by Chrom and the Shepherds, Walhart shows no desire to listen to lesser men and readily attempts to have them squashed. Yet, in defeat and death, he congratulates Chrom. A man out to conquer the world not out of malice, but to actually unite people in a way no religion ever could, Walhart would have then annihilated the Grimleal, but his short-sighted lack of compassion and companionship proved to be the conqueror's sole weakness.

** Lucina, in an understated way. Many fans can't help but find her adorable due to her [[{{Adorkable}} social awkwardness]], her CryCute moments, her affection towards her father Chrom and the rest of her family, and her [[Creator/YuuKobayashi pleasant]] [[Creator/LauraBailey voice]].

** NTR'd/cucked by Chrom [[labelnote:Explanation]]Just before the halfway point, Chrom will be forced into a marriage in order to continue the story. Depending on how you build Chrom's supports with the eligible women and if you're intending to romance one of said eligible women, it's entirely possible to suddenly get your intended partner for your avatar stolen away.[[/labelnote]]

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Chrom and the Avatar, if they don't end up together. Many of their interactions in the latter half of the game seem way closer than just friends, regardless of the Avatar's gender. In particular, Chrom's dialogue defending the Avatar in the Lucina's Judgement scene describes the two of them as having a special bond, and being "two halves of the same whole", which is something most people probably wouldn't say about anybody besides their spouse.

** The main plot device that is commonly known is [[spoiler:the identity of "Marth"]] and, on a related note, [[spoiler:the children mechanic]]. Lucina's presence in the fourth ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' and constant WolverinePublicity in spin-off titles isn't helping matters.

* ItsEasySoItSucks: A very common complaint against the game's regular difficulties, mainly due to the plethora of level-grinding spots and [[GameBreaker/FireEmblemAwakening hilariously broken mechanics]]. On the other side, the hardest modes are guilty of [[NintendoHard "It's Hard, so It Sucks"]] due to high concentration levels of FakeDifficulty ''and'' LuckBasedMission . Mainly thanks the fact to the trollish, frustating skills the enemies have at random.
* ItsPopularNowItSucks: Many veteran ''Fire Emblem'' fans are unhappy with the title overshadowing the rest of the series. ''Awakening'' also receives disproportionate focus in merchandising, cross-over games (like ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Super Smash Bros. for 3DS & Wii U]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/ProjectXZone Project X Zone 2]]''), and it has influenced [[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates its immediate successor(s)]], to the point that [[spoiler:a few characters from ''Awakening'' appear in ''Fates'']]. The [[ItsEasySoItSucks generally-lowered difficulty level]] is a common point of attack. Things got even worse with ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors'', since the game disproportionately favors the newer games to the detriment of the older ones, and fans accuse ''Awakening'' as the main culprit for being the game that popularized the series in the mainstream.

** [[spoiler:Walhart]] for [[SarcasmMode best Father of the Year Award.]] [[labelnote:Explanation (spoilers)]]Should a female avatar marry Walhart, Morgan's father-child supports with him is either [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood all kinds]] [[CrossesTheLineTwice of hilarious]] or [[AbusiveParents simply]] disturbing.[[/labelnote]]

* MemeticLoser: Chrom, thanks to Lucina and Robin's character reveal trailer in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' has him spent 90% of the time lying down on the ground after getting beaten up by [[VideoGame/FZero Captain Falcon]]. This has died down now that Chrom is revealed to be a playable character for ''Ultimate''.

** Fans forget that [[BrokenAce Cordelia's]] [[HeroicSelfDeprecation massive]] [[SurvivorsGuilt issues]] go beyond [[UnrequitedTragicMaiden her unrequited love for Chrom]]. This is especially the case for [[ShipToShipCombat those who oppose Sumia's (who's only known to them as the one who took what they believe to be Corderlia's rightful place by baking the above-mentioned pies) status (in this game only) as Chrom's]] closest thing to a canonical wife via game mechanics and cutscenes.

** Tharja's swimsuit's SceneryCensor in the American version of Summer Scramble, to the point where it's caused the entire Fire Emblem fandom to be ''extremely'' paranoid about censorship in future games.

* VindicatedByHistory: When ''Awakening'' first came out it was seen by many as a ContestedSequel that had mostly sold on overused Anime tropes seeing the game as rather shallow with an ExcusePlot and one-note characters. In recent years however, with many having played the other games like VideoGame/FireEmblemFates, [[VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden Fire Emblem Echoes]], and VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses, many have begun looking back at Awakening, seeing it as a fairly solid game. Many citing the interesting ways to [[GameBreaker break it]], generally enjoyable moments with the characters, and a inoffensive plot with many little {{CallBack}}s to the previous games.

** Pairing Basilio and Flavia together is much more popular than their only possible in-game pairings with the Female and Male Avatar respectively. Their LikeAnOldMarriedCouple interactions throughout the entire game made everyone who played the games to scratch their heads when they saw their supports can only go up to the A Rank.
** When it comes to HoYay, there's plenty of Maribelle/Lissa, Gerome/Inigo, Owain/Inigo, Kjelle/Severa, Henry/Ricken, and a lot of same-sex Avatar pairings, most notably Chrom/Male Avatar & Lucina/Female Avatar.
** Lucina's most popular support is Inigo. Many people like their support and it helps that it's ''Inigo'' who confesses to being in love with her instead of the other way around with most of his romantic supports. Also, many fans find it amusing how the future princess of Ylisse ends up with the resident HandsomeLech who also has the worst luck with girls. In ''Fates'' if [[spoiler: Laslow]] meets up with Lucina's amiibo, he'll call her beautiful and ask her out for tea. She responds back that she feels flattered and will accept if he wins the battle.
** Among yuri shippers, Lucina/Severa is a fairly popular ship, despite the fact that the two can't support during the game.

* UncannyValley:

* {{Narm}}:
** Chrom's line whenever the Avatar is killed in battle.
--->'''Chrom''': No! Not you, {Avatar's name}! Open your eyes! ''OPEN YOUR EYES!''
** The localized names of the Deadlords. Yeah, everything sounds more ominous in Latin, but if you actually ''understand'' it, some of their names sound quite silly, like "Gallus" (Chicken), even if they are [[GeniusBonus named after the]] EasternZodiac.
** It's hard to take the Risen's surprise attack on Chrom at the end of Chapter 13 seriously when the combat forecast shows that the Risen wouldn't be a threat to Chrom even if Lucina hadn't saved him.

** "It's Vaike time!" seems well on its way to becoming this.

*** GIANT KILLER RABBITS!
*** There's also Yarne's statement, "Don't mess with a bunny!"

** "[[MarthDebutedInSmashBros Marth]] [[RunningGag is in this game]]?" "Which Marth?" This question is brought up by fans when comparing them to the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight original Marth]] or Lucina.
*** There's also the variative interpretation of DLC and [=SpotPass=] Marth Pr. or King Titles.
** Kellam? Who's that?[[note]]For those who don't get it, the game makes a RunningGag out of the fact that Kellam hardly ever gets noticed by the other characters, despite being TheBigGuy of the Shepherds.[[/note]]

** I WANT TO BE MANHANDLED! [[labelnote:Explanation]]An out-of-context quote from Inigo [[HoYay to Gerome]] during Supports.[[/labelnote]]

** [[PreMortemOneLiner Pick a god and pray!]]

*** Potentially lessened by [[spoiler:the revelation in a [=SpotPass=] Paralogue that Emm survives the ordeal, [[TearJerker though not by much]].]]

* LoveToHate: Gangrel and Excellus get a sizable amount of this.

* AnnoyingVideoGameHelper: There are some cases where you, as the player, ''don't'' want your allies to support attack, such as if you want to keep a recruitable enemy alive or to stop enemies from repeatedly attacking a certain character.

*** If you somehow managed to marry off all possible candidates ''and'' let Olivia die, Chrom ends up marrying [[GirlNextDoor a random villager girl]] instead. This villager is as generic as they come, down to having no combat experience -- which means ''no skills from the mother's side'' to give to Lucina. This is very bad because [[CharacterSelectForcing she's a Lord and is thus forced to be on every mission onward]]. Enjoy playing the game with no dancer ''and'' [[TheLoad a force-deployed deadweight]]!

** Lucina's most popular support is Inigo. Many people like their support and it helps that it's ''Inigo'' who confesses to being in love with her instead of the other way around with most of his romantic supports. Also, many fans find it amusing how the future princess of Ylisse ends up with the resident HandsomeLech who also has the worst luck with girls. It's get turned UpToEleven in ''Fates'' where if [[spoiler: Laslow]] meets up with Lucina's amiibo, he'll call her beautiful and ask her out for tea. She responds back that she feels flattered and will accept if he wins the battle.

** Chrom and Male Avatar can especially come off this way. Their Supports have Male MU fulfilling the role of "nagging wife." It's not helped by how [[spoiler:in ''The Future Past'', the dialogue in which Grima!Avatar says "the one in this body loved Chrom" to taunt Lucina does not change if the Avatar is a man]]. The Drama [=CD=]s [[UpToEleven just add fuel to the fire]].

*** [[UpToEleven There are now fan-remixes for]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YGR5SNXYCw characters who aren't even in Awakening.]]

** Fans forget that [[BrokenAce Cordelia's]] [[HeroicSelfDeprecation massive]] [[SurvivorsGuilt issues]] go beyond [[UnrequitedTragicMaiden her unrequited love for Chrom]]. This is especially the case for [[ShipToShipCombat those who oppose Sumia's (who's only known to them as the one who took what they believe to be Corderlia's rightful place by baking the above-mentioned pies) status as Chrom's]] ImpliedLoveInterest.

** Chapter 10, although at first was widely beloved, with time a split started to appear. The divide towards this stage depends practically entirely on one specific element: [[spoiler:Emmeryn's death in the previous chapter]]. Fans consider it not only the best chapter in the entire game, but also one of the most [[TearJerker heartbreaking moments in the entire series]], both because of how it affects the main characters and because, to make things worse, the enemy is presented in a very sympathetic way, making you feel bad for every single thing happening in the chapter. Detractors however, [[spoiler:consider that Emmeryn was way too one-dimensional and underdeveloped as a character, [[EightDeadlyWords so they find impossible to care about her death in the slightest]]]], thus making the whole chapter fall completely flat on its face. Some go as far as to argue that fans were only tricked into caring by the outstanding "[[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Don't Speak Her Name]]".

* LGBTFanbase: As if the gay fans weren't prominent enough (just check out the amount of Tellius, particularly laguz art out there), the male and female cast is bringing the community out in full force. [[EvenTheGuysWantHim Granted, it's not just gay]] [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer and lesbian fans falling for same-sex characters]]. (And don't forget bisexual fans!)

** Tharja. While initially one of the most popular characters after her release, she's become incredibly polarizing as time has gone on. For some, Tharja is one of the best characters in the game, due to her attraction to the Avatar, being a good unit, and being a CreepyGood character with HiddenDepths. Her HotWitch design also makes her popular for fanservice reasons. On the other hand, some find her stalker like crush on the Avatar to be creepy, her personality not very interesting, or that her CreepyGood role is greatly hurt by her being an AbusiveParent to Noire, something the game seems to somewhat tip-toe around. Her status as the games MsFanservice also leads to some fans disliking her because of the fact that she seems to now be used just for that. The fact that Tharja would go on to become the basis for a new recurring character type, further made the divide worse.

* VindicatedByHistory: When ''Awakening'' first came out it was seen by many as a ContestedSequel that had mostly sold on overused Anime tropes seeing the game as rather shallow with an ExcusePlot and one-note characters. In recent years however, with many having played the other games like VideoGame/FireEmblemFates, [[VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden Fire Emblem Echoes]], and VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses, many have begun looking back at Awakening, seeing it as a fairly solid game. Many citing the interesting ways to [[GameBreaker break it]], generally enjoyable moments with the characters, and a inoffensive plot with many little CallBacks to the previous games.