Fridge / Fire Emblem Heroes

Fire Emblem Heroes features many, many references to a unit's home game seen through a unit's base skill set, weapon choice, or even what type of unit they are.

Beware Of Unmarked Spoilers! You Have Been Warned.

Fridge Brilliance:

In General

• The red and green cavaliers that are in most games tend to be differentiate themselves by their stats. The red cavalier would usually favour swords and Str, while the green would usually favour lances and Spd. The red cavalier Cain, who wields a sword, and the green cavalier Abel, who wields a lance, fit these well. It's then sort of the opposite with the lance cavalier Sully in red armour and the sword cavalier Stahl in green armour. This is because the archetype made this switch after Blazing Blade, with the exception of the Tellius games.
• On many of the maps that are based on chapters from previous games, the player's units start in the position the enemies did in that chapter. Particularly noticeable in the actual story versions of the map, where you're fighting the people who would have been in that chapter.
• Why is Feh always asleep on her perch? She's an owl, a bird known for being nocturnal. This also explains why her videos all come out at night.
• An incredibly subtle Norse Mythology reference: how many universes are in Fire Emblem? Nine: Archanea/Valentia/Jugdral/Ylisse (Shadow Dragon, Gaiden/Echoes, Mystery of the Emblem, Genealogy of the Holy War, Thracia 776 and Awakening), Elibe (Blazing Blade and Binding Blade), Magvel (The Sacred Stones), Tellius (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn), unnamed world of Fates, Earth (Tokyo Mirage Sessions), Zenith (Heroes), unnamed world of Warriors, and Fódlan (Three Houses). How many worlds were part of Yggdrasil the World Tree? Nine.
• Several characters with Reprisal or Vengeance in their base kits (Dimitri, Rutger, Fallen Takumi, Fallen Berkut, and Valbar) are motivated by revenge in-story (Dimitri wants revenge on the ones who caused the Tragedy of Duscur, Rutger wants revenge on Bern for wiping out Bulgar, Fallen Takumi wants revenge on Nohr for killing his mother and brother and Corrin for betraying him, Fallen Berkut wants revenge on Alm for stealing the Rigelian throne from him, and Valbar wants revenge on Barth for killing his family).
• Several units who were non combatants became playable Heroes that can actually put up a fight. For Jorge, his weapon of choice makes sense: it'd be whatever his brother Daniel makes for him, in this case a bow. For Rinea, she uses a tome (well, a goblet as a tome), matching the theme of her seasonal banner. Tethys, Larum, and Merlinus all use daggers, being small weapons that they can quickly brandish to defend themselves in a pinch. Since none of them are used to combat, it makes sense that they'd all have ranged weapons: to help out from afar and stay out of the action.
• Several summer-themed Heroes are clearly holding inflatable water toys, even though such things hadn’t been invented yet in medieval times. At first it seems like Anachronism Stew, but Book V revealed the kingdom of Niðavellir, which is a technologically advanced Steampunk nation; it’s entirely possible that inflatable toys have been invented there, and are thus used by the summer-themed Heroes.
• Book VII saw the release of two separate Harmonized Heroes that paired characters up with different versions of themselves. Harmonized Bridal Adult and Young Tiki from Awakening and Mystery of the Emblem, Harmonized Halloween Anna and Anna from Awakening and Engage. It's pretty fitting then that Book VII itself also focused on different versions of the same girl, with Gullveig, Kvasir, and Seidr all being the same person at different points in time.

Zenith (Heroes)

• Fjorm, the Princess of Ice, has extremely high Resistance, which would greatly benefit her damage output if she decides to utilize Glacies or Iceberg.
  • Likewise, the Flame King, Surtr, has Ignis^note Blossoming Flame in the Japanese version as a part of his skillset when you battle him and the high Defense to utilize it, and he has Bonfire when he's summoned by the player.
• Why are players able to recruit Fjorm by playing the game, while her sister Gunnthrá has to be summoned? That's because Gunnthrá is dead in the prime timeline, so any summoned Gunnthrá is one from a parallel universe.
• There's a brilliance to Loki preferring to disguise herself as Anna when you realize that amongst all the identical siblings no one's going to be surprised or possibly even concerned by another Anna running around.
• As of version 2.0.0, there are three warring armies - Múspell, the kingdom of Fire; the Emblian Empire (the empire of the Emblem); and Askr, with the Order of Heroes.
  • There's more than that: originally, there were only two armies: Askr and Embla. Guess what the names of the first two humans in Norse Mythology were.
• Surtr is oft described as flame itself, and his Sinmara deals damage to enemies within two spaces of him, just as fire hurts anyone standing too close to it.
• In Norse mythology, Laevateinn was the weapon sealed by Laegjarn's chest. This corresponds to both Laevatein and Laegjarn's in-game titles, which, respectively, are Searing Steel and Sheathed Steel.
• Helbindi has different A-skills whenever he appears in the story, which reflect his actions in the story. In Chapter 9-1, he is directly attacking the Order of Heroes and possesses Death Blow (which increases his Attack when attacking). In Chapter 9-5, he is meant to intercept the Order of Heroes in the Fortress of Cinders and possesses Steady Stance (which increases his Defense if attacked). In Chapter 11-3, he is more determined to kill the Order of Heroes to survive and possesses Fury. And in Chapter 12-3, he is even more desperate to kill them or else he is dead; here he possesses Life or Death.
• With many seasonal units have unique or contrasting weapons and movement type combinations (with some of them being the first time they appear in the series), Alfonse's Hares at the Fair variant is an Axe Cavalier, which, while not uncommon, is slightly strange for him be as, considering his regular variant is a Sword Fighter. However, nearly a year later, his father Gustav is revealed to be an Axe Cavalier as well. Suddenly, that strange choice of movement and weapon type for Alfonse makes more sense.
• In Xenologue 4, Surtr is sent to Hel, a location in Norse Mythology where people who died from old age or sickness are sent. Why isn't he being sent to Valhalla, where those who died in battle, instead? Because Hel also houses Náströnd, where the dead who are sent there either committed adultery (not likely for Surtr), oath breaking (very unlikely)...or murder (countless by him, but two are known in-story: one off-screen, and one on-screen).
• In Book III Chapter 3, Hel curses Alfonse to have 9 days to live, resembling an illness after he was cursed. It may seem idiotic of Hel to not just kill him right away, but in Norse Mythology, people are sent to Valhalla when they die in battle and did not do anything heinous by Norse standards, while the rest who die go to Hel, including those who die of illness. She's not killing him right away because she wants to be certain that Alfonse goes to Hel when he dies.
• The effect of Líf's weapon Sökkvabekkr gives him +4 to all stats and a guaranteed follow up if he's near an ally, but injures said ally for 20 damage afterwards. This makes a lot of sense after the events of Book III Chapter 8. Líf is actually Alfonse from a future timeline who performed a ritual to stop Hel that killed everyone in Askr, hence his weapon draining a massive amount of HP from his allies. This effect also serves as a nice contrast to Alfonse's Folkvangr, which grants him +7 Atk and Def when he's injured. In other words, while Líf is willing to sacrifice and injure those around him, Alfonse just gets stronger in the face of adversity to help him protect his allies.
• Líf's skillset in Book III Ch 11-5 mirrors Alfonse's base skill set almost exactly. He's got the superior Death Blow 4 to Alfonse's regular Death Blow 3, Aether which restores health equal to damage dealt while piercing through an opponent's Def to Alfonse's Sol which simply restores health equal to damage dealt, and Líf also has Drive Atk, buffing his nearby allies for +3 Atk as opposed to Alfonse's Spur Atk which only buffs adjacent allies for +4 Atk. This is all because the two are one and the same, and this is also where Líf is seemingly at his most dire, planning to bring down the ruined Askr castle with him in an attempt to bring down Alfonse. In other words, this skillset and the location reflects Where It Began.
• Veronica's Elivagar tome inflicts the Panic status on any foe near her target. This effect was made into a skill and then some in Panic Smoke, which does the same thing, but it also affects the target as well. Panic Smoke was introduced with Thrasir when she became Promoted to Playable, which is notable since she and Veronica are one and the same, so while she wields a different tome, it's as if she still kept her old tome's effect and made it even better. This applies especially to Legendary Veronica, whose native C-skill is Panic Smoke 4.
• Thórr in Mjölnir's Strike has her allow the Order of Heroes, her enemies, to prepare for battle at Midgard's Shield, rather than just annihilate the Order of Heroes there and then. While this seems to be Bond Villain Stupidity, in actuality she's allowing them to go down fighting. In other words, send them to Valhalla, where Alfaðör rules all those who fell in battle, whom Thórr is serving under.
• Every Book's Arc Villain up to Book IV has been a green unit. Veronica, Surtr, Hel, and Freyja are all green, which is perfect for Alfonse to defeat, complete with his weapon even having a Triangle Adept refine to further increase his advantage.
  • Said Arc Villains also each serve as a representative for the four movement types. Veronica is infantry, Surtr is armored, Hel is a flier, and Freyja is cavalry.
• In Hel's Mythic Hero Battle, the Sword wyvern rider, Red thief, Blue tome cavalier, Blue Manakete, and Green tome flier all trigger a specific reinforcement, namely another Sword wyvern rider, Red thief, Blue tome cavalier, Blue Manakete, and Green tome flier, all the exact same weapon and class types as the units they're replacing, albeit with different weapons and skills. Hel's basically bringing her fallen mooks back from the dead to fight once more, as she has done with her servants.
• Hel's Reaper has a Miracle effect if she battles a non-Tome/non-Staff unit. The basic form the Breidablik is classified as a Tome weapon. Guess what weapon is used to defeat Hel at the end of Book III?
• In Book IV, both Freyr and Freyja transform into goats into battle, belonging to the caprines species, with Freyr portrayed as a Sweet Sheep while Freyja is portrayed as a Gruesome Goat. Both of them also have power over Dreams and Nightmares. Now, what do you usually count to go to sleep, and what is usually connected to demons?
• In Book IV Chapter 9, Freyja, the Lady of Nightmare, comes into the fray with a ridiculous weapon: Distant Counter, Spd-based Damage Reduction, Damage-Increasing Debuff and denial of enemy follow-up attacks if the user initiates combat, on top of having 3 Movement by default, ridiculous Atk and Spd, and multiple copies of her at the same time. Sounds like a nightmare to go against, right?
  • Even worse, it's not just herself that's a nightmare to face. Book IV Chapter 10 has her have control over the Brave variants of Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, and Lysithea, who are Purposely Overpowered compared to other heroes of their movement and weapon type and are usually considered High Tier Scrappies, best shown in the 10-5 map. So yes, she using her newfound power of Dreams and Nightmares to have control over few of the strongest heroes in the game.
• Triandra might have been 'shafted' in terms of her Freudian Excuse unlike Plumeria. However, if you recall, she's the one that handles Nightmares. Which may be why that rather than a sad, heart-tugging finale, her chapter ends with a Mind Screw-worthy scene of you defeating Alfonse, being revealed that you, the Summoner, is Alfonse in the dream and the real Alfonse was killed by Alfaðör for killing Hel. This sounds like a dream worthy of being called a 'Nightmare' and that would mean the last remnants of Triandra's powers doing its work before vanishing for real.
• Ótr's weapon Lofnheiðr allows him to gain +6 Atk during combat, inflict -6 Atk on the foe during combat, and deny any of the foe's follow-up attacks if he either initiates combat or is within 2 spaces of an ally. The -6 Atk and denial of the foe's follow-up attack is very similar to the standard Cavalry Beast effect when the user is transformed, where they inflict -4 Atk/Def on the foe during combat and deny any of the foe's follow-up attacks if the user initiates combat. In Norse Mythology, Ótr often transformed into an otter, so it makes sense that his weapon Lofnheiðr is similar to a beast weapon. It also makes sense that Lofnheiðr's effect is sometimes superior to the beast weapons, since he is bringing the best of both worlds by taking advantage of his inspration's Voluntary Shapeshifter, not to mention his Mini-Mecha is in a shape of a four-legged beast to give him better mobility and strength, whereas beast units have added restrictions to transform to gain those effects in Heroes.
• Notably, the primary colour of Plumeria's weapon is red, befitting of her being a Red Tome unit. Peony and Triandra, however, have green and blue coloured weapons, which are the opposite of what Tome colours they are... This is a hint to their true relationship as sisters.
• Dagr has a skillset that encourages getting up close and personal with her foes. If she gets debuffed, she gets stronger, her Atk/Spd Push 4 gives her more Atk and Spd to work with, Sun-Twin Wing lets her ignore skills that manipulate follow ups, letting her use her Spd without fear, while also dropping her foe's Spd and Def to effectively give her more power and Spd, and Even Tempest lets her move around a little more easily, being able to reach further away foes. Nott has a skillset that encourages more defensive play and tanking. You can't control when you get debuffed, but you can control when you get buffed, and Nott gets stronger with each buff. Her Distant Counter opens her enemy phase up to let her counter against ranged foes, Moon-Twin Wing lets her use her Spd defensively as it gives her Spd based Damage Reduction up to 40%, and it also drops her foe's Atk and Spd to effectively give her more bulk and Spd, and Atk/Spd Menace drops her foe's Atk and Spd even further while also buffing herself up, which is amplified further with her weapon. Dagr is an offense Mythic, and appropriately, has a more speedy, bruiser oriented playstyle and skillset, while Nott is a defensive Mythic, and fittingly, has a more speedy, tanky oriented playstyle and skillset. In other words, the difference between these two sisters with their base kits really are night and day.
• Dagr has a weapon that makes her stronger whenever she gets debuffed. What's the best way for her to get debuffed? By having Dagr fight daggers, of course.
• Ever wonder why Nifl, the patron dragon god of her eponymous kingdom, is not a Mythic unit? It's because she claims in her summon quote that she gave up half of her divinity and she doesn't care if she's being worshipped by her people, since Nifl considers herself to be as mortal as them.
• Nifl also initially presents herself with a distant attitude, refusing to show emotion—particularly any sort of attachment—due to her trauma of having to Mercy Kill former queen of the kingdom of Nifl, Hvergel, who had been grievously burned by Múspell. Yet Nifl, in spite of her outward coldness, possesses an exclusive C-skill—her Domain of Ice—that empowers allies that are near enough in proximity to her, as well as herself, betraying a lingering desire to once again achieve a bond with a mortal not unlike that which she once had with Hvergel. This desire is even more evident in her Lv.40 conversation as the Tropical Ice God—her summer variant (which also has Domain of Ice)—where she considers bringing Fjorm along to the beach she was at, even if she says she does not plan to return and she would only bring Fjorm along to "stave off the boredom".
• Look closely at the stone statue that summons Heroes to Askr during Summoning animations. The weird lines seen all around Midgard, as well as those that make up several realm insignias, end up making a pattern that resembles a tree on the patte. Summoning ends up bringing in Heroes from other worlds and universes. In other words, the summoning site is the Fire Emblem incarnation of Yggdrasil, the World Tree.
• It strikes as odd when Eir has the healing skills Mystic Boost and her Secret Arts, Sparkling Boost and its upgrade, Sparkling Boost+. When Ymir, the Life-Mother was added into the game, it suddenly made sense. The reason Eir has healing skills is actually a Foreshadowing to her true origins as the last living princess of the Kingdom of Ymir and her connection with her patron dragon.
• Freyja as a Light-elemental Mythic Hero confused many people, considering she was the queen of Dokkalfheimr, the Realm of Nightmares. However, this later turned out to be another subtle case of Foreshadowing, as Book VII reveals that Freyr and Freyja actually come from Vanaheimr, the Realm of Light.
• The goddess Embla being a self-secluded deity with a propensity to take control of those who possess her blood truly makes her a Lonely Puppeteer.
• There's a reason why Nerþuz is designed to be a Galeforce user. In Germanic myths, Nerþuz is a goddess of peace, meaning she dislikes conflict. So, if Nerþuz needs to fight, she needs to end the conflict quickly and decisively. What is one of the best Special skill to clear a map in one turn? Galeforce.

Archanea (Shadow Dragon and Mystery of the Emblem)

• Units and Loadouts:
  • Caeda was one of the units on the "Battling Navarre" banner back when Navarre's Grand Hero Battle debuted. To recruit Navarre in Shadow Dragon, Caeda must talk to him.
  • Bridal Caeda wields the Blessed Bouquet+. Out of the four debut Bridal characters, she's the only one who's canonically married to someone (Marth), so it makes sense that she'd have a wedding bouquet.
  • Sheena wields axes, and while Generals could not wield axes in Mystery of the Emblem or its remake, she was depicted wielding an axe in the TCG.
  • Why does Cain have Wings of Mercy as his default B skill? It's because of his Survivor Guilt; he's more than willing to jump to the aid of an ally that needs help, as he doesn't want a repeat of what happened before, when Cornelius ordered him to abandon the squad to their deaths and bring Marth the news.
  • The younger version of the Whitewing sisters show Palla (who looks like a teenager), Catria (who is significantly shorter than Palla), and Est (who is small enough for Catria to hold) as completely different sizes - which makes perfect sense, considering that kids develop more at certain ages compared to their teenage/adult years, making the size difference more noticeable.
  • All breath variants (young, adult, Fallen) of Tiki obtain an unique weapon (Breath of Fog) that is effective against other dragons. This stems from the Divine dragon stone that only she could use in the first game, Mystery of the Emblem, and their remakes.
    • Young Tiki has a skill that boosts her around allies; reflecting her desire to have friends.
• Brave Marth has Distant Pressure as his A skill, which acts as Distant Counter and Spd Push, granting +5 Spd if he's above 25% HP but at the cost of 5 HP recoil. It's a good skill, but the recoil can take its toll, even with his weapon's built in healing (which is conditional anyway). However, the [En Garde] status would remove this recoil damage, giving Marth a free +5 Spd without draw backs in addition to Distant Counter. The ironic part is, as of this writing, the only source of [En Garde] is from Medeus, meaning the Shadow Dragon is oddly a fitting partner for the Blade of Light.

Valentia (Gaiden and Shadows of Valentia)

• Units and Loadouts:
  • Celica's Ragnarok injures her after she gets to fight, and that's because in Gaiden and its remake, magic is Cast from Hit Points.
  • Alm's Falchion can be refined with a unique effect that allows him to strike twice in succession if he initiates combat with full HP, though he takes 5 damage afterward. This is in reference to the Double Lion skill he learns with the Royal Sword in Shadows of Valentia, although he takes 6 damage before he attacks.
  • Brave Alm's Scendscale A slot skill adds a percent of his high attack stat as flat damage but damages him. In Shadows of Valentia, Scendscale is a weapon art which has a hit point cost but a high damage modifier.
    • His kit in general seems to based on thriving in low odds (His Dracofalcion boosts his stats when there's more or equal enemies to allies and Threaten Atk/Spd 3 buffs him if enemies are by) and it striking fear (Chill Def 3 debuffs the sturdiest foe and Threaten Atk/Spd debuffs the Atk/Spd of enemies near him).
    • His weapon effect would be shared with Walhart who has some similar methods.
  • Genny comes with Wrathful Staff, which allows staff wielders to deal regular damage like any other weapon, helping them become more of a Combat Medic than strictly support. Her home game is one of the few where Clerics have any offensive capabilities thanks to the Nosferatu spell.
  • Delthea has Miracle, which acts as a Last Chance Hit Point. In Shadows of Valentia, she is equipped with the Prayer Ring, which grants her the Miracle skill.
  • Delthea and Sonya both have Dark variants of existing tomes, namely Aura and Excalibur. These are spells that they can respectively learn in Shadows of Valentia, and their weapons being Dark could refer to their connections to the dark arts that Duma's followers partake in, since Delthea was brainwashed by Tatarrah and Sonya is Jedah's daughter.
  • Mathilda has Cancel Affinity, which can nullify a disadvantageous matchup to a neutral one if the opponent has Triangle Adept. All battles in Gaiden lacked a weapon triangle to begin with, even in the remake.
  • Berkut has a weapon and a skill that can both grant him extra Resistance, and reference his Kriemhild's magical damage reduction ability. He also has Blazing Flame as his Special, which is fitting since he and his betrothed Rinea were fought near a burning cauldron whose flames would spread and heal Berkut and his allies every turn, while Rinea herself was wreathed in flames. His notable lack of Kriemhild itself can be attested to the fact that he was pulled from before he obtained the lance, as he is clearly sane and refers to Rinea as being alive.
  • Lukas comes with Fortress Def, a skill that boosts Def at the cost of some Atk. In his home game, he was a Soldier, which could promote into a Knight, a class known for their high Def.
  • Why does Brave Celica have Double Lion, even though that skill is associated with Alm? Because in Shadows of Valentia, Double Lion can only be used with the Royal Sword, which Brave Celica is using.
  • Thanks to the November 2018 update, Saber gained a new weapon in the Golden Dagger, which was what Celica paid him with to get him to aid her in her travels. However, unlike in Shadows of Valentia, the Golden Dagger cannot be equipped to any other unit but Saber due to it being a personal weapon in this game.
  • Why are Zofia's Call Catria and Valentia Palla wielding Swords despite fliers in Gaiden and Shadows of Valentia only wield lances (and magic for the DLC-exclusive Harrier)? Remember that they're from Archanea, and in Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem they can wield swords as well as lances as a Pegasus Knight, and in the remakes they can promote to a Falcon Knight instead of a Dragon Knight, where Falcon Knights in those games can wield swords and lances as well. So of course they would use knowledge outside of Valentia to their advantage.
• Boey's Attack and Resistance are shown to be quite low, especially compared to most other mages in the game. His in-game description mentions that he's not that great at magic, and he has the stats to reflect that.
• The Firesweep Bow is used by Faye, who comes from Shadows of Valentia. In that game, while she cannot be an archer of any sort, her bow emulates the effect of Bow Knights being able to attack at incredibly far distances, usually facing no counterattacks.
• Rinea by default comes with a weapon that gives a Distant Guard 3 effect to an ally within two spaces. Her stat spread also gives her somewhat low all around stats as a dancer unit. That makes her a unit who should avoid fighting but remain near an ally to give them support instead, just as she tries to do in her home game.

Jugdral (Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776)

• Units and Loadouts:
  • Lachesis wields the Absorb+ staff, which is in reference to her Earth Sword, as both weapons have a Life Drain effect. The Earth theme could also explain why she has the Solid Earth Balm, while that and her Spur Res skill could reference her Charm skill, which provides a stat buff to any nearby allies.
  • Tailtiu wields the Blárblade+ tome instead of something like Thoron+, which can seem strange considering her bloodline. However, in her home game, she promotes into Mage Fighter, which uses swords. Blárblade+ ends up representing both in a way, at least through name alone. While most damaged art has the character being scared or in panic, Tailtiu is scowling in frustration instead. This could be in reference to the fact that she was the first playable unit to learn the Wrath skill. Her TCG card also appropriately portrays her with that scowl. Wrath guarantees a critical hit if the user is at half their HP, and while Tailtiu cannot learn Wrath itself in Heroes, she's highly suggested with the skill Desperation, which also works only at low HP.
    • Tailtiu eventually received the Tome of Thoron, which has the Wrath effect built in (granting +1 Special charge at the start of the turn and +10 Special damage if the user is injured enough), referencing the Wrath skill.
    • Tailtiu's Drive Spd skill could be a portrayal of her personality. She's the type of girl who's very fidgety and can't stand still in one place for so long, in fact, her debut scene was about brazenly telling Claude to hurry up his conversation with Sigurd because she's bored. It's almost as if with Drive Spd, she's telling her allies to also move faster so as to alleviate her boredom.
    • Tailtiu's -Blade+ tome weapon makes her incredibly powerful with the right stat buffs, but this usually requires another ally to help give her the buffs she needs. This could also be a reference to her role in her home game as a sort of Magikarp Power archetype, how she needs assistance to grow from her low level and become decent. And if she's left alone, she can't unleash her full potential. This could also double as Fridge Horror as during her last days, she was separated from her friends that she couldn't muster more than enough strength to withstand Hilda's tortures until she died.
  • Quan's Gae Bolg grants him +5 Atk and Def against any infantry, cavalry, or armoured foe. While this is to show that he's skilled against many foes, this notably excludes fliers, which could be a reference to his demise at the hands of Travant, who rides a wyvern as a flying unit.
    • Quan's A skill is Steady Posture (Spd/Def +4 when attacked), Ethlyn has Spd/Def Bond (Spd/Def +5 during combat if next to an ally), and their son Leif has Steady Blow (Spd/Def +4 when attacking). Since they all are family, it makes perfect sense they share the same idea of increasing Defense and Speed, but each one makes sense with their character. Quan is the protector who fights to save his family and allies, so naturally he gets a skill that increases his defenses when he is being attacked, making him ideal as a wall. Ethlyn is the supporter who fights better when near allies, especially near Quan back in their home-game and in general works with her being supportive to both her husband, and her sibling Sigurd. Meanwhile Leif, as their son, is forced to fight to reclaim Thracia, so having a skill that increases his defense and speed as he attacks perfectly works with the story of Thracia 776, where he takes the initiative to fight for his home land, and gets stronger as the game goes as a leader. To further compound this, his Legendary variant has an A skill that boosts the other stats, namely Atk and Res with Atk/Res Push 4. As this version of Leif represents him at his peak, that skill would show that he's honed in on and focused on his other stats, and this is also his appearance as a Master Knight, which is a class that excels in all kinds of weaponry.
    • Related to that, Altena not having any skills that boost her Spd/Def make sense that she was taken at a young age and was raised as Travant's daughter, denying any knowledge of her true heritage until she reached adulthood, instead having Sturdy Stance 2 as one of her default skills, which gives her +4 Atk/Def if she is attacked. That said, she still increases her Def in battle, meaning she still has traits of her parents even if she is unaware of it at the time.
  • Sigurd's Divine Tyrfing and Crusader's Ward heavily mitigates damage taken from a range, like from mages, which is in reference to the massive Res boost that it originally granted.
    • For a bit of irony considering his fate, Sigurd is usually suggested to use Bonfire as his Special thanks to his high Def.
  • The reference to Eldigan's fate is a bit more subtle: He has the skill Fury. "Fury" is another term for being enraged. And someone who is enraged is prone to... losing their head, much like what happens to Eldigan if he returns to reason with Chagall one last time.
  • Arvis can outright ignore Sigurd's anti mage skills due to the way his Growing Flame Special works, meaning that he can still invite Sigurd to a barbecue. It's also Growing Flame rather than Blazing Flame, so it has a greater range, which is reflective of the implication of Arvis personally executing the rest of Sigurd's friends. It can also bring to mind the image of his Rotten Ritter squad raining hellfire and meteors on Sigurd's friends in a wide area. Arvis' personal B skill is the Recover Ring, which is an item he was equipped with in his appearance in the prologue.
    • Arvis' Valflame originally granted a great boost to his stats, meaning him quite a boss. In Heroes, he instead has Ploy effects, a Ploy skill, and the Res to use it with, letting him debuff his enemies instead, ultimately leading to the same result but in a less overpowered manner. Also, at Belhalla, Arvis was standing directly in a straight line under Sigurd's army, the same range that Ploys would be effective with.
    • On another note, Saias' Wargod's Tome is functionally identical to Arvis' Valaflame, even after they got refines. Why is this? Well, Saias is Arvis' illegimate son, but of Arvis' three children, Saias was the one who inherited Major Fjalar blood and is thus the next heir to Valaflame.
  • Arden's personal skill, Follow-Up Ring, is a reference to the fact that he is the only one who can find the extremely powerful Pursuit Ring in Genealogy of the Holy War.
    • Both Arden's Follow-Up Ring and Arvis' Recover Ring being locked to them could also be a reference to how items could not be so easily traded in their home game.
  • Seliph's regular Tyrfing allows him to survive any lethal attack as long as he's above 50% HP, referencing the Miracle skill that it originally had.
  • Shannan's Balmung grants him +3 Spd, and it grants him another +5 Spd if his foe initiates combat (or has 100% HP). He has Steady Posture 3, which grants him +6 Spd and Def when his foe initiates combat, and he's got Even Spd Wave which grants him +6 Spd on even numbered turns. This means that with his weapon and all of his skills active, he can gain +20 Spd, which is incidentally the same amount of Spd Balmung grants in its home game.
  • Julius' Loptous tome grants him a +3 bonus to Resistance, which is close to the +5 it gave him in his home game, and it inflicts -6 Attack on most foes, reflecting how it halves the attack stats of his enemies. In Heroes, the tome also gives Julius a weakness to anti-dragon weapons, which reflects how easily Julia is able to defeat him with the Book of Naga during his boss fight in their game.
  • Reinhardt's skills reference his abilities in his home game. His leadership stars are referenced in either his base version's Goad Cavalry skill, or his sword variant's Spur Atk Def. Both skills buff the stats of nearby or adjacent allies, much like how leadership stars in Thracia improved the stats of the user's army. Both versions of Reinhardt come with Vantage, just like his original self. His sword variant comes with Pavise and the Meisterschwert, a skill that he also had in the original game, while the Meisterschwert is the Master Sword weapon that he also wielded.
  • Nanna's Restore staff cures status effects because in Thracia 776, staff users inflicting status effects became top tier. She's anticipating status effects from the other side, just like in her army.
  • Ced having Winds of Silesse instead of Forseti like in Thracia 776 caused a bit of an outcry for some fans, but remember that Ced's father could potentially be a variety of candidates in Genealogy, not just Lewyn, making it intentionally vague on who his father is in this version of him.
  • Azelle having minor Fjalar blood compared to the major Fjalar blood holders Arvis and Saias is referenced in his default skills and Sparking Tome compared to Arvis' Valflame and Saias' Wargod Tome, as while Arvis and Saias can debuff their foes and boost their damage during combat, especially with their refined Valflame and Wargod's Tome, Azelle cannot do both at the same time without assistance, and even then it is not as effective as both of them in each individual aspect.
    • Azelle has Spd/Res Ruse 3, where he can inflict -5 Spd/Res and the Guard status to all foes within cardinal directions of him and his ally if he or an ally uses a Rally skill on him, meaning he needs to be active to "ploy" his foes, while the refined Valflame and Wargod's Tome can inflict -5 Atk/Res to all foe within 3 columns or 3 rows centered on the user at the start of the user's turn, giving them great utility right from the start and a large debuffing area.
    • Azelle's Sparking Tome allows him to inflict -6 Spd/Res on the foe during combat as well as reverse any field stat buffs on their Spd and Res during combat if the foe has 50% HP or more at the start of combat, meaning he punishes his foes further if they have any buffs on them and they are healthy enough, whereas the unique refine for Valflame and Wargod's Tome gives the user Atk equal to the total amount of field stat debuffs the foe has on them at the start of combat, even if they have buffs on the foe's stats and regardless of the foe's HP, meaning that their Tomes works most of the time.
    • Finally, even if Azelle can inherit the Ploy skills, his low Res means that he cannot even use them as well like both Arvis and Saias, who both have high Res to use them well alongside their personal tomes.
  • Lex's Axe Exp skill is a reference to how he naturally came with the Elite skill, allowing him to gain more experience per action. The Goddess Axe also allows double attack like a Brave Axe because he gained the Brave Axe from said goddess.
  • Lifis's Windsweep stops foes from counterattacking. He's a Dirty Coward who avoids fighting people who can fight back.
• Arden speaks in a loud, boisterous tone which makes it sound like he's yelling some of his lines — in other words, the type of voice that's used by someone shouting from a distance. What's Arden known for again? Lagging behind the other units due to his slow speed. Thus, it seems like he shouts because that's the only way he can communicate with his faster peers.
• Lewyn's scarf looks and moves a lot like a dancer's veil. He was the first Bard, which in later games becomes a refresher unit much like Dancers.
• In his status screen, Julius can say "I cannot stand the sight of Reinhardt." Fittingly, Julius is a red tome user, who often get decimated by Reinhardt's Dire Thunder before they can attack him. In Julius' case, however, the power of Loptous usually enables him to turn this around so he's more than capable of backing up his promise that "the next time he appears before me, he will die."
• Ares's cloak is reminiscent of a vampire's; it's black lined with red, and has the High Collar of Doom. Fitting, considering how he claims to feed the blood of his enemies to the Demon Sword.
• Julius, Julia's Legendary and Fallen variants, and Sara all share the same artist: sachie. Fittingly enough, they all have ties to the Loptr cult.
• The wielders of Astra, Ayra, Larcei, and Shannan, all have a variant of Astra that is exclusive to them. Ayra and Larcei have Regnal Astra, Shannan has Imperial Astra, and they all deal damage equal to 40% of their Spd. Even in their original game, they all learned Astra by default. Mareeta on the other hand, had no Astra by default, not in her home game or any of her first two versions. That is until she got her Ascended version, as this version is shown to be after she's learned Astra from Shannam (a fraud who Mareeta is somehow able to learn Astra from), and thus, she has her own version of Astra in Vital Astra. Unlike the others though, hers is actually inheritable, which actually makes sense: she learned this technique and would then be able to teach it to others, while the aforementioned three swordmasters have learned the ability inherently.
• August's Diplomacy Staff allows him to grant his support partner at the start of his turn +6 Atk/Def/Res, a status effect that grants a guaranteed follow-up attack if the unit initiates combat, and, if there is at least 1 defeated ally, -2 special cooldown and a status effect that prevents the foe from making a follow-up attack. While all of this is great on a Mighty Glacier unit, there is only one unit that can use all the effects to the fullest potential from his homegame: Legendary Leif, thanks to his Mighty Glacier statline, his Meisterbogen inflicting -5 Spd but always granting a double attack, and allowing him to nearly charge Njörun's Zeal to attack again every turn August is active on the field.
• The 33rd iteration of Grand Conquests, based on Genealogy, features three Silessean pegasus knights: Erinys, Annand, and Díthorba. Fittingly, Erinys' army is color-coded blue, seeing as she is the only one of these three who is playable in Genealogy. Likewise, the non-playable but allied Annand leads the green army, while the enemy Díthorba has the red army. Erinys and Annand even face off against Díthorba in the home screen banner for this Grand Conquests.

Elibe (The Binding Blade and The Blazing Blade)

• Units and Loadout:
  • Narcian and Lloyd have Vengeance and Pass; while their home games had next to no skills, they did have these skills in their Awakening SpotPass appearances.
  • Eliwood is a cavalier and Hector is an armoured unit, even though they start as regular infantry Lords in their home game and only come close to these when promoting. However, their first appearance was technically in Binding Blade, wherein they actually were a Paladin and a General respectively.
    • Eliwood comes with Axebreaker, which is in reference to how he usually bests the axe-wielding Hector in their sparring matches over half the time. In addition, Eliwood's Durandal grants him +4 Atk when initiating combat, which is pretty close to the +5 Str bonus it originally had.
  • Lloyd's Regal Blade has an exclusive refine that grants him +3 to all stats if there's an infantry mage near him. This references the sibling-like bond he has with Nino, which suits the two perfectly since Nino can be an infantry mage.
  • Narcian uses an Emerald Axe, which boosts the effects of the weapon triangle. He's an egoistical Dirty Coward; that axe allows him to prey on the weak, but forces him to run from sword users. Also, a vain person like him would love an axe made from a precious stone.
  • Ursula's default Special is Growing Thunder, a long range Area of Effect Special that can potentially reach a target from across the map. When she is finally fought in the map Battle Before Dawn in her home game, one of the tomes she possesses is the long range Bolting.
  • Each of Hector's other two axe-wielding incarnations have less HP, but higher overall stats than their predecessors. This is likely a nod to Durban's belief that Armads' immense power would eventually doom its wielder a violent death.
  • Rutger, who usually works alone and is anti-social, has Atk/Def Bond. While Atk/Def Solo would be more fitting to him, it's actually because that his support with Clarine and Dieck that he gains a large amount of Critical Rate whenever he is near them in battle.
  • Ninian's weapon is Light Breath, which can grant defensive bonuses to nearby allies. In her original game, she started with an item, Ninis' Grace, that had the same effect. The upgraded form of Light Breath can grant bonuses to all stats, which fits with how after recruiting her, she'd get items similar to Ninis' Grace for different stats.
  • Hugh and Farina's unique weapons give more stat boosts depending on how many Dragonflowers they've been given. This makes sense, since they're the Beowolfs of FE6 and FE7, respectively, with Hugh requiring 10,000 for his recruitment (though this can be lowered at the expense of Hugh's base stats upon recruitment), and Farina charging 20,000 gold to be recruited. Of course they need payment (in the form of valuable Dragonflowers) to be motivated to fight for you.
• Almost all mages are shown with their tomes open in the artwork whenever they cast a spell, since they need to read incantations from them. Nino (before her Resplendent attire) is one such exception, but for a good reason — she Never Learned to Read, and instead casts her spells from memory of Sonia's incantations.
• In her Heroes art, Ninian wears a belt with an ice pattern. Her specific breed of dragon is ice dragon.
• Raven's Red Baron title is Peerless Fighter. This isn't just a testament to his skill; it's referring to the fact that he's from a disgraced noble family. In other words, he was once a peer.
• All of Lilina's variants (Except her regular variant) are cavalry units. While it doesn't seem to make sense considering that her only promoted class in The Binding Blade is the infantry Sage and Mage Knights don't even exist in Elibe, it makes a lot more sense when you realize that she made mention of her owning a pony in the Extended Epilogue of the prequel, The Blazing Blade.
• On the "Love Abounds" banner, Lilina is a Green Cavalier, while Hector is using Berserk Armads, meaning they share the same orb color. If you roll for Lilina, you just might get Hector instead. Which, going by Hector's lines, is exactly his plan.
  • Which leads to Fridge Horror when you consider that Hector is generally considered to be one of the most popular and valuable Heroes while Lilina is a mid-tier Hero at best. In his reckless haste to protect her, he may have dumped Lilina on any summoners rolling for him instead.
    • Further Fridge Brilliance: The people who roll for Hector are specifically aiming for him rather than Lilina, so they probably won't be interested in her in that way, especially if she ruins their rolls, and thus send her back home or use her for skill fodder.
• During the battle against Surtr in "The King's Demise", the entire Black Fang gang fights the player's party. Of particular note is Jaffar, considered one of the top assassins of the group, who shows up out of nowhere as a reinforcement in the bottom right corner of the room. His colors help him blend into the floor and possibly catch several players unaware—just like what an actual assassin would be doing.
• Canas is oblivious to the fact that the Summoner is the player character. Of course, he was never summoned to begin with- he was a Tempest Trials reward instead.
  • His inclusion as a Tempest Trials reward can be explained by the theme of the Tempest Trials you get him from. The theme is "Feud of the Fangs", with most of the bonus units being the members of the Black Fang that Nino is closest to (as well as Karel and Karla, for some reason). In other words, it's focusing on the people Nino considers her family. Canas and Nino's support in The Blazing Blade suggests that Canas may be Nino's uncle by marriage.
    • Lloyd isn't a bonus unit in the Tempest Trials, which would be funny since he's Nino's stepbrother. Turns out in the closing cutscene, Linus states how he's glad that Lloyd is alive "in this world" and Legault brings up how he called him "disloyal filth" in their boss conversation in Cog of Destiny, meaning that the Lloyd version of Four-Fanged Offense happened in their universe and thus, he's already dead.
• Legendary Eliwood's unique skill, Vision of Arcadia, grants +6 Atk/Def to whichever unit on his team has the highest Atk, but only if a dragon or a beast unit is also on the team. It's intended to work along with his weapon, the Ardent Durandal, which also grants the Bonus Doubler status which further increases the effect of stat buffs. However, it works best when he's deployed alongside Ninian, whom he shares a close bond with. She fulfills the condition of having a dragon on the team, and because her Atk is really low, it all but guarantees that their allies who are more geared for battle will be reaping the benefits of these effects.
• In Lyn and Florina's Bound Hero Battle, the two Cavaliers represent Sain and Kent, while the Archer represents Wil. On the Infernal difficulty, there is a Green Tome Flier in there as well. Who is this random person, you say? It's Mark, the tactician that Lyn is with at the start of The Blazing Blade. First, Female Morgan is a Blue Magic Flier in Heroes, and her Japanese name is "Marc", which, alongside with Male Morgan, both are a Mythology Gag to The Blazing Blade's Mark. And second, what better way to command and lead your troops than to be on a pegasus and see everything from top down, like what the player is doing in many of the Fire Emblem games.
• Bramimond has four voice actors listed in both Japanese ^note Kosuke Toriumi, Makiko Ohmoto, Takahiro Sakurai, and Tatsuhisa Suzuki and English ^note Patrick Seitz, Wendee Lee, Yuri Lowenthal, and Ray Chase. The first three in each lineup voice Hector, Lyn, and Eliwood respectively. Bramimond mirrors the personality and voice of whomever speaks to them, and all three of the aforementioned Lords have all met Bramimond. The last voice actors in each lineup, however, voice Alfonse, who would most likely be the one to greet Bramimond into the Order of Heroes.
  • Bramimond takes on the appearance of Mark, clad in dark green robes, since Mark in The Blazing Blade is actually the player.
• Despite the Eight Legends being more prominent in Blazing Blade, Elimine is credited as being from Binding Blade, which may seem strange, especially considering she also grants the player special items in Blazing Blade rather than its sequel. However, the church named after her is more prominent in Binding Blade, as three playable characters in that game (Saul, Dorothy, and Yoder) are affiliated with it.
• Lugh has the Tome of Reason, which inflicts Atk and Res debuffs on the foe equal to 60% of the total bonuses of Def or Res he has on him. Like mother, like son, as his tome and Nino's tome are both reliant on a stat buff being active on the unit, and as a plus, his Tome grants +6 Def and Res to himself as well as nearby allies too, meaning he can support Nino greatly as well.
• The 2022 Bridal Blossoms banner has Hamonized Roy & Eliwood, both of which have endings in their home games that pair with other Bridal units:
  • Roy was also released with the Bridal variants of Lilina, Sophia, Cecilia, and Larum, but he also has Bridal Shanna from the 2021 Bridal Grace banner.
  • Eliwood, while not also released with a Bridal variant he has an ending with, has Bridal Ninian in the 2018 Bridal Bloom banner and Bridal Lyn in the 2017 Bridal Blessings banner.

Magvel (Sacred Stones)

• Units and Loadouts:
  • In Heroes, Valter wields the Cursed Lance. While he never uses said lance in his home game, it's mentioned in a support conversation that he became a violent Blood Knight after he used a cursed lance in the past. That lance could be the same as the Cursed Lance he possesses in Heroes, which also closely matches the lance seen in his artwork. Valter also has Luna, which references his class Wyvern Knight's skill Pierce, although Pierce ignored all of the target's Def rather than half.
    • Valter is introduced as a formidable enemy to Ephraim and Eirika, so it's fitting that he has Panic Ploy to turn the Renais twins' specialties against them.
  • Amelia can potentially be a Knight, which is considered one of her best classes. From there, she can promote into a General and become able to wield the axe Garm, which grants her a constant speed boost while she (who has a nice speed growth) wields it and could make her a Lightning Bruiser. Here, she is an armoured axe unit—just like a knight—and has an excellent statline that makes her a Lightning Bruiser in this game as well. Her art even has a chain to the axe as a nod to generals having such to their axes and spears.
  • Eirika received a variant wherein she wields the Gleipnir, a Dark tome. While she does become a mounted unit upon promotion in her original game, she could only use swords. This references a rather obscure glitch that allows any unit to use an enemy exclusive Dark Magic, allowing them to build up their Weapon Rank. This means that technically, any unit could work their way up to wield the Gleipnir. This is on top of the seeming tribute to Lyon.
• While Marisa's attack artwork has her sword in her right hand, her Special artwork has her wield it in her left hand instead. In one of Marisa's Support Conversations with Tethys, Tethys points out that Marisa poses as right-handed when she's actually left-handed.
• Joshua being a Tempest Trials reward fits perfectly as his title in both Sacred Stones and Heroes is the "Tempest King", despite being a notorious gambler.
• Ephraim has his famous Badass Boast about how he doesn't pick fights he can't win. Surely enough, every version of him has some form of guaranteed follow up attack, which makes up for his average to low Spd, and lets him use his high Atk to ensure that he'll live up to that boast. If he initiates against someone, he's likely going to come out on top.
  • And he learned his lance work from Duessel, who appropriately also has a weapon that grants him a guaranteed follow up. In many ways, Duessel is similar to Legendary Ephraim, and was the superior lance cavalier until Flame Siegmund got its refine. It does figure that the student would learn from the master.
• Orson's PRF effect activates depending on the number of allied units near him – it grows stronger as fewer allies are around him, reflecting his wishes to spend the rest of his days alone with his beloved wife.
• Winter Artur is a green tome unit in Heroes despite being a light mage (who are usually blue) in his home game. This prevents him from inheriting the Spider Plush(+) weapon, which is blue. Given that Artur is arachnophobic...
• Riev's Argent Aura inflicts the Stall debuff and a reduction to all four major stats when a turn begins. This may not seem too significant at first until one remembers that fellow Grado general Valter's refined Cursed Lance grants him extra stats (except Res) when in combat against a foe inflicted with a penalty like Stall. Additionally, while Caellach, another Grado general, doesn't have a preferred weapon, he does have the ability to inherit the Plegian Axe, which amplifies the debuffs of his foe in combat, which can be inflicted by Argent Aura. This gives Riev incredible synergy with both Valter and Caellach, who make up a Terrible Trio with him in Sacred Stones.

Tellius (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn)

• Unit and Loadouts:
  • Ike's base kit includes Aether, and the skill Heavy Blade, which hastens his Special charge if his Atk is higher. This is not only a way to make it more viable as it's a bit of an Awesome, but Impractical skill, but in Ike's home game, Aether's activation rate was equal to Ike's skill, the same rate as other skills like Sol and Luna. It wasn't until Radiant Dawn that the activation rate was cut in half, which would put it at the same rate as Astra, where it has remained ever since.
  • The Black Knight has Black Luna as his exclusive Special. It has the same charge as Luna, but pierces through 80% of the target's Def rather than just 50%. This references both his Luna skill in Path of Radiance and its much stronger effectively death sentence skill Eclipse in Radiant Dawn. He also has Wings of Mercy, which could reference his Warp Powder ability in both games. Most notably, it can only be used if an ally is in danger, and that's exactly what he does in Radiant Dawn to warp over to Micaiah and protect her a few times. When the Black Knight was the boss of the "Moment of Fate" Tempest Trials, he has the skill Guard instead, which deters enemy Special charges. This is in reference to his Nihil skill from Radiant Dawn, which prevents enemies from using their skills.
  • Sanaki's Cymbeline can be enhanced to grant her +5 Atk and Res but only if a flier is within two spaces of her. Sounds rather specific, but in Radiant Dawn, Sanaki's always with the Holy Guards to keep her safe, who are a squadron of Pegasus Knights, thus, fliers. The two that are the highest in command, Tanith and Sigrun, are especially loyal and close to Sanaki.
  • Greil introduces the skill Fury 4 to the game. This is a Call-Back to when he was driven berserk by Lehran's Medallion, causing him to accidentally kill his wife in his blind rage.
  • When Haar received a personal weapon in the September 2022 batch, it has the added effect of making him weak to blue tomes. In his home games, magic tomes deal effective damage on certain units: fire against beasts and cavaliers, wind against birds and fliers, and thunder against dragons and dracoknights. Haar's a dracoknight and thunder tomes are classified as blue in this game.
• Soren's Path of Radiance clothing has been updated from its original design to include more black and gold, longer pants instead of a full robe, and golden clasps along his chest. It seems minor, but it also reflects the same style of Goldoan royalty, hinting at Soren's nature as a half-dragon prince.
• Oliver's damaged art is both hilarious and brilliant. He isn't in a panic, nor does he even look hurt or in pain. He just kind of looks like he's accepting his fate. This iteration of Oliver is from Radiant Dawn, where he was brought back from the dead, and even mentions this in one of his quotes. He's already faced death once, so he looks like he's sure he can get away with facing it again. His refine (wings of mercy-like effect in regards to the Heron siblings) adds a possible extra context: He's taking the bullet for them.
  • Likewise, Zelgius looks almost pleased in his damaged art. All he truly wanted was a proper fight with his former master.
• Ike, particularly his Radiant Dawn iteration, is the Legendary Earth Hero. It just so happens that he's also both of those things in his actual game proper, being both of the Hero class and having the Earth affinity.
• The "Chaos Named" Tempest Trials is pretty aptly named, as it features a bunch of past Tempest Trials maps as well as Micaiah as the Final Boss, who is actually Yune in disguise. Yune herself is a goddess of chaos, while Micaiah is a host to her in her home game.
• Bridal Bloom Sanaki is implied to be a flower girl instead of a bride. Who is the bride, then? Her sister Micaiah! She starts with an A support with Sothe, and marries him if it's not broken, and on the Bridal Beloved banner, Micaiah even shows up as a Duo Hero alongside her beloved Sothe.
• Halloween Ilyana takes damage every time she attacks. She's starving, and fighting makes you hungrier.
• Altina is a Mythic Astra Hero. Her title is Dawn's Trueblade, just like the Trueblade class in Radiant Dawn itself. Said class wields the Astra skill, which explains Altina's element, and she even looks the part of a Trueblade as well, complete with absolute mastery of the sword.
• Jorge's Grand Hero Battle map is full of units, including himself, that have skill sets and placements that are, at best, poorly thought out. The bow cavalier has Spendthrift Bow+, which is incredibly powerful but has a big Special penalty draw back, discouraging if not outright disallowing longer Specials, and yet, has Growing Thunder, a 4 charge Special that will pretty much never fire off. Jorge and the green tome flier have skills that activate when next to an ally, and yet, they both start next to no ally. The reason for this haphazard map? Jorge plays a strategy game with his brother and he's pretty bad at it, which is why he asks Ike for some advice. Of course his debut as a playable unit would be filled with some questionable strategies.
• Shinon comes with a new inheritable Special in Deadeye, which doubles damage dealt and nullifies any damage reduction skills or abilities. Brave Ike is infamous for his Urvan's huge damage reduction capabilities, but Shinon, who isn't quite fond of Ike, can pierce right through that.
  • It also makes sense that Deadeye would pierce through damage reduction. It's the mastery skill for Snipers in Path of Radiance, and is exclusive to bows in Heroes, so it's as if the user can pinpoint and hit their target's weak points.
• Volke comes with a new inheritable Special in Lethality, which acts as a stronger Luna and nullifies any damage reduction skills or abilities, just like Deadeye above. Volke is in truth an assassin who was hired to kill Greil should he ever lose control again by way of Lehran's Medallion. That very same medallion is the reason why Fallen Ike exists as a berserk version of Ike, and Fallen Ike boasts Damage Reduction through his B skill, which Volke's Lethality pierces right through. In short, he can essentially pull off the job he was originally hired for.
  • Lethality piercing through damage reduction also makes perfect sense. Lethality is exclusive to daggers, and in the main series, is reserved for Assassin type units throughout the series, who are usually nimble, tricky, and precise. What's more precise than piercing through not only three quarters of your foe's Def while disabling any means of reducing the damage? An assassin would know how and where exactly to strike.
• Bertram is surrounded by purple flames like all Fallen Heroes. However, he wasn't added on a Fallen Heroes banner, and he's not considered a Special or Legendary Hero like both female variants of Grima or Halloween Male Grima, so his addition outside of a dedicated Fallen Heroes banner may seem strange at first. However, all Fallen Heroes have the same identities as their regular selves, and since Bertram is considered to be a separate identity from Renning despite being the same character, it would be harder to feasibly have a non-Fallen Bertram without it being Renning.

Ylisse (Awakening)

• Units and Loadouts:
  • Adult Tiki and Nowi wield the Lightning Breath+, which is a dragon breath weapon that has Distant Counter built in. That's because in Awakening, all dragonstones have 1-2 attack range.
    • Adult Tiki's Breath of Fog has a special refine: If she's by a sword user or another dragon she gets a stat boost. This references the two people most dear to her memories: Her guardian/father figure Bantu and Marth.
  • Cherche comes with the Hammer+, which references the Hammer that she joins with in Awakening.
  • Henry's default tome is the Rauðrraven+. A pretty fitting tome, considering he's a Pungeon Master involving ravens (using "caw" as appropriate", he appears surrounded by black birds when he's introduced, and he has a map quote where he wonders if he can pull off turning into a raven.
  • The three brides from the first Bridal banner (aside from Caeda) wield a lance (Charlotte), a bow (Cordelia), and a staff (Lyn), all three weapons that the Bride class in Awakening can use.
  • Base Fredrick's kit is highly about coming to others quickly and assisting them, a nod to how he considers himself Guardian of Chrom and Lissa with his weapon being best against armored lance users who would give Chrom trouble.
  • Summer Frederick hurls seashells at enemies; the seashells are classified as daggers. In Paralogue 8-3, Frederick specifically notes that he picked them up so that no one (Robin in particular) will step on them during combat. It's a very similar case to the Before Awakening DLC map in Fates where Frederick hands Corrin a Pebble that he picked up earlier, which are also classed as daggers.
  • Nowi is a witch in the first Halloween banner, which makes sense as she can reclass to a Mage in her home game. Mages in Awakening even wear pointed hats that are extremely reminiscent of typical witches.
  • Winter Lissa being an Axe Knight is not really out of place; in her home game, Lissa can promote into a War Cleric, a class that uses axes.
  • Male Fallen Robin, also known as Grima, is a green armour dragon, and there are good reasons for that. It makes him extra vulnerable to the Falchion, having both a color disadvantage and a weakness to it. In Awakening, it's explicitly stated that Grima's biggest weakness is the Falchion itself, which is proven in gameplay in both Awakening and Shadows of Valentia. Also, the Future Past DLC of Awakening shows that Robin is constantly Fighting from the Inside against Grima, so it's possible that he intentionally made Grima green in Heroes as one last middle finger to him, so that Chrom and Lucina can Mercy Kill him easily with their Falchion. The fact that he's an Armored unit also references the fact that he's a Stationary Boss in Awakening, as well as his special "Dragonskin" skill that gives him immense bulk, not unlike most Armored characters. As a bonus, he has Ignis, just like in Hard Mode of Awakening.
  • Walhart's Wolf Berg grants him +4 to all stats if the number of allies are equal to or fewer than the number of foes near him. This contrasts with Chrom's refined Falchion effect, which grants him +4 to all stats when adjacent to an ally. This contrast fits both of their characters perfectly; Walhart takes to the battlefield and rules by strength, relying on his own power, while Chrom has The Power of Friendship on his side, even outright stating that his bonds give him strength in one of his Special activation quotes. This is fitting as he's largely taking after Alm, whose Brave version has the same weapon effect.
  • The exclusive refinement for the Robins' Tactical Bolt and Tactical Gale enable them to grant +4 Atk/Spd/Def/Res to all allies within two spaces, provided the number of those allies' movement types is no greater than 2, including that of the Robins' themselves. As Grandmasters, the Robins could learn Rally Spectrum, which grants +3 to the stats of all allies (barring movement) within 3 spaces.
  • Male Morgan is an infantry unit while Female Morgan is a flier. In Awakening's The Future Past DLC, they are also an infantry and a flier respectively, though Female Morgan rode a wyvern and was a melee fighter.
    • Male Morgan wielding Grima's Truth as his personal weapon is a reference to him not only being Validar's grandson, but also to the fact that he was a Sorcerer, one of the two classes that can use said tome, in the Future Past DLC.
  • Legendary and Duo Chrom’s exclusive weapons Randgríðr and Destiny's Bow are effective against armoured foes on top of the standard flying effectiveness all bows have. Now, what movement types do the two versions of Grima in Heroes represent? Armoured and Flying. Randgríðr and Destiny's Bow are designed specifically to defeat Grima.
• In the version 2.2.0 update for the game, all Falchions can be refined. The Awakening Falchions have a special refine skill that grants the user +4 to all stats barring HP if they enter combat adjacent to an ally. They are basically like the Bond skills, and may very well be a reference to a skill activation quote that Lucina and Chrom share^note "Our bonds give me strength!" On top of that, it also references the Pair Up mechanic from their game, in which an ally can help boost another ally's stats by pairing up with them, or in this game, simply being next to them.
• In the Labyrinth of Despair Tap Battle dungeon, Chrom is the boss of the first Extra Stage. Joining him is female Robin, who wields a Gronnowl+ tome, which she can obtain but doesn't come with normally. It boasts a similar effect to Chrom's Falchion when refined, granting her a stat boost when she's next to an ally. As she and the other main characters of Awakening put it:
  Our bonds give me strength!
• The 2022 Valentine banner seem to break the tradition of the "dead father" theme that usually follows with the previous Valentine banners, but it still fits in the same category, since the banner not only features a dead father, with it being future Lucina's Chrom for her, but also features a dead mother with it being Future Owain's Lissa for him as well, and on a technicallity, their dead potential mother and father for both Lucina and Owain in their Bad Future, with Female Robin potentially being the dead mother for Lucina and Male Robin potentially being the dead father for Owain.
• Legendary Chrom's weapon allows him to nullify any debuffs that are present on him, which is a pretty helpful ability to have. Duo Chrom has an ability that allows him and any nearby allies to acquire a status that effectively reverses any debuffs into combat buffs, while also debuffing Chrom and said allies to take advantage of the effect. Going from simply stopping debuffs to becoming even stronger while debuffed sounds like a pretty [Grand Strategy], doesn't it?
• Legendary, Valentine's, and Brave Chrom all have a unique Assist in To Change Fate or A Fate Changed (for Brave Chrom). They all act as Reposition but can grant Chrom an Extra Turn after using it, and in Brave Chrom's case, he also acquires any [Bonus] active on his target ally. Not only does this allow him to get his allies out of danger so that he can take to the front lines, A Fate Changed in particular can let Chrom get status buffs he normally can't get like Legendary Claude's Fallen Star or Brave Seliph's's +1 Mov, Null Follow Up, and +6 Atk/Spd from Heir to Light. To quote Chrom himself from Awakening: anything can change!
• The 2023 Bridal banner features Adult Tiki (with her younger self), Anna, Say'ri, and Flavia. At first it seems like an odd choice of women to put on the banner until you look at who the Tempest Trials unit is: Male Robin. All four women are characters that only Male Robin can marry.

Fates

• Units and Loadouts:
  • Kagero comes with Daggerbreaker, which references her personal skill from her home game that allows her to deal return damage to her attacker if they hit her with a shuriken or dagger.
  • Effie comes with Wary Fighter. The skill made its debut in Fates, and has helped armour units be the tanky, Mighty Glacier types that they are. Effie also learns Smite, which pushes an ally two spaces away, as well as Death Blow, and both skills could reference her incredible strength.
  • Takumi learns Close Counter, a reference to his Point Blank skill from Fates, which allows him to fight up close with a bow or a yumi. He also learns Vengeance, which is what he has equipped in Ch 23 and the Endgame of Conquest.
    • His fallen variant wields Skadi, just like he did when he was possessed and served as the Final Boss of Conquest. True to its ability from its original game, Skadi has the ability to do long range area of effect damage after a few turns. He also has Vengeance, just like his regular self does here, and also just like his Final Boss self from Conquest does on harder difficulties. Finally, he's also got Fury, just like his retainer Hinata. It's also fitting because he is furious over Corrin's choice to return to Nohr, thus he's filled with nothing but hatred for them.
  • Felicia, a member of the Ice Tribe, learns Glacies, an ice based Special, and she also has high Res for her to take advantage of it.
  • Jakob and Felicia were able to serve as a Combat Medic in Fates, but here, they're strictly dagger users. Despite this, they do learn some skills that are capable of healing that both fit their character. Felicia, who tries to be as helpful as she can, learns Breath of Life, which allows her to heal her allies. On the other hand, Jakob, who only mostly cares about himself and Corrin, has Renewal, which only heals himself.
  • Both Corrins have low Res, making a potential target for mages. Felicia and Jakob, who both serve Corrin, have measures against this. Felicia has her high Res and Felicia's Plate, which can prey on a mage's lower Def stat, while Jakob has Rally Res, which can help Corrin take a hit from a mage better. Both seem to be designed to help Corrin where they are weakest.
  • Beruka wields the Killer Axe+, which speeds up the Special charge (this concept itself in reference to Critical hits) is in reference to her eponymous Beruka's Axe, which grants a high Crit rate and more Crit damage. This also fits her profession as an assassin.
  • Bridal Charlotte wields a spoonful of cake as a weapon. In her home game, many of her supports bring up that she's a Supreme Chef.
  • Odin has Moonbow, the shortest combat activation skill, so that he can shout his move names more. In addition, a tome named Blárblade is definitely the type of weapon Odin would use. A spell that uses swords also fits how he is both a swordsman (as Owain) and a mage (as Odin).
  • Summer Leo's Special is Iceberg. In Fates, Leo has a weapon named after him called Leo's Iceblade. Also, he uses the Tomato tome, which dumps a storm of tomatoes onto the opponent. In Fates, Leo would often use Brynhildr's magic to grow tomatoes for himself and others.
  • Rhajat is a green mage who comes with the Keen Gronnwolf+ tome. As she states in one of her voice lines, she's a member of the Wind Tribe, so it makes sense that she would be a green mage in this game. But why does she specifically have Keen Gronnwolf+? In Fates, the Hoshidan Diviner class (which Rhajat is a part of) uses magical Scrolls to cast their magic, rather than tomes. These scrolls typically create a projection of an animal to hit the opponent. The -wolf series of tomes (including Keen Gronnwolf+) does exactly that, creating a projection of, well, a wolf, to attack, making it the closest equivalent to the Hoshidan Scrolls that Heroes has.
  • Camilla's Axe grants her an Attack and Speed boost when she's near cavalry and flying allies, and it can be refined to grant those allies a boost as well. All of Camilla's siblings have cavalry-based default classes in Fates, and two of her retainers had access to a flier or cavalry class originally (Beruka by default, while Selena could promote to a Bow Knight). In addition, two of her siblings are able to reclass into flying units via the Heart Seal in the game.
  • In a similar vein as her Nohrian counterpart, Hinoka's Spear grants her an Attack and Speed boost if near infantry and flying allies, and her refine works as a Guidance for these allies. Hinoka's siblings and retainers all have infantry-based default classes in Fates, while Takumi, her younger brother, and Setsuna, one of her retainers, can Master Seal into the Kinshi Knight class, a flier class.
  • Kaden's personal weapon gives an in-combat buff to nearby allies equal to all visible buffs running on him. This goes with his tendencies to return the favor when someone helps him; in this case, he returns the buffs given to him to his allies.
  • Soleil has a really high Atk stat, which matches her high Str growth in her home game.
  • Bunny Kagero has Live For Honor as her B skill, which is pretty fitting as her vanilla variant is dubbed the "Honorable Ninja."
  • Azama is considered one of the worst Staff users in Heroes in terms of healing and offenses, but is great at being tanky. This exactly is how he was in Fates where he has low Mag growths, but high Def, HP and Str growths, making him a Crutch Character in healing on the front lines, but a great combatant if he was equipped with a proper physical weapon.
• Three of the four Children of Fate characters (Soleil, Siegbert, and Rhajat) all say "It's good to meet you." upon being summoned. At the end of the Heirs of Fate DLC story arc in Fates, all of the children characters promise to use that exact phrase as a Trust Password in case they were to ever meet again. But why does the fourth character, Shiro, not say that phrase? It's possible that he doesn't come from the Heirs of Fate timeline, since in said timeline, he's reclassed into a Swordmaster instead of his default Spear Fighter class, which he has in Heroes, whereas the other three Children kept their default classes in both Heirs of Fate and Heroes.
• Tap Battle: Kingdom of Hoshido:
  • Thieves, also known to some as ninjas, appear in this Tap Battle and leap in the air before entering one of four red "critical attack" spaces, which may have caught players off guard. Even Kagero and Kaze, who appear on floor 20, the former being the floor's boss, do this. Enemies leaping is a gimmick that has not cropped up in any other Tap Battle than Festival of Heroes—in the third Extra Stage to be exact, whereas the very first enemy that appears in Kingdom of Hoshido is a ninja. In other words, these ninjas are using the element of surprise, just as they should.
  • Floor 40's boss, Sakura, after making her first attack, will bide her time until the mooks and her retainers Hana and Subaki have attacked before she attacks again. Sakura is a very meek girl who doesn't typically like fighting, but since she has to in this case, it's only natural she would need to work herself up before she charges back into the fray.
  • Sakura, Takumi, and Hinoka fight alongside their respective retainers, but Ryoma does not. Kagero is her own boss at floor 20, whereas Saizo is the first boss that players will fight on floor 100 before they fight Ryoma. In Chapter 25 of Conquest, Ryoma locks himself in a room with Corrin, biding his time for a certain amount of turns before he attacks, unless he is attacked. If the player wished to unlock the room where Ryoma and Corrin are, the player needed to defeat Kagero and Saizo first^*on any difficulty other than Normal, that is; the player can get away with defeating one or the other otherwise.
• It seems odd that Midori is a red bow, considering her name means "Green..." That is until you remember what colour red has an advantage against in Heroes.
  • The weapon Midori comes with, the Spendthrift Bow, has a great effect, but a big drawback in it's reverse Special Spiral effect, granting the user +2 Special charges after combat. This references the Spendthrift skill, which allowed the user to deal +10 damage and mitigate -10 damage taken at the cost of a Gold Bar in their inventory. The effect is similar in Heroes, as the bow grants Midori +7 Atk and debuffing the foe for -7 Atk, and the cost here would instead be that Specials are a little harder to activate without any kind of acceleration. Additionally, the bow also references how most powerful weapons in Fates often had some draw back to prevent them from being overused.
  • It may also seem odd that Midori is a tanky Mighty Glacier when her dad Kaze is a nimble Fragile Speedster. However, Midori did start out as an Apothecary, and said class is known for being a more defensive, slower, but stronger alternative to archers.
• Takumi gets a Resplendent version where he dons a Hel styled outfit. As Hel is the land of the dead, this is not only a nod to his fate in Conquest, it also makes sense on a meta level. At the game's launch, he was greatly feared thanks to his Close Counter, but as the game went on and stronger archers came into the game, with better stats and capabilities, Takumi just became known as Close Counter fodder. A unit that gets summoned just to be sacrificed for their fodder? Pretty appropriate for Hel.
• The 2023 Valentine, following the 2022 Valentine Banner, also break old trends of Valentine banners of Heroes of not featuring a dead father in the banner, but it still follows the trend of a dead close one nonetheless, where for Leo and Effie it's Elise from Birthright, where she died shielding Corrin from Xander's attack, and for Sakura it's Takumi from Conquest, where he initiatlly died jumping off the border wall, then his possessed body dying in the endgame.

Fódlan (Three Houses and Warriors: Three Hopes)

• Units and Loadouts:
  • While Edelgard is an Infantry Axe like in Three Houses, both Dimitri and Claude are Lance and Bow Cavaliers, respectively, instead of Infantry like Edelgard. This seems to be a weird decision on the developer's part, but there is some brilliance here:
    • After the Time Skip, all three gain their personal classes; Edelgard is an Armored unit, Dimitri is an Infantry unit, and Claude is a Flying unit in Three Houses, so making their pre-timeskip version have lower base stat total than their post-timeskip version make sense from a development and plot standpoint, as they have grown into more powerful people, as revealed in their Brave and Legendary variants, as well as the Fallen variants of Dimitri and Edelgard.
    • Both Dimitri and Claude have a strong proficiency in Riding, so pre-timeskip they can easily reclass into the Cavalier and Paladin class (although Claude is better off being an Archer and Sniper), while Edelgard pre-timeskip has more gain as a Brigand and Warrior, Infantry classes in Three Houses.
  • Many players found that Regular Dimitri's unrefined Noble Lance is unreliable to activate a guaranteed follow-up attack since he and the enemy aren't typically on equal terms; the conditions of activating the Noble Lance are that both he and his enemy both have either full HP or less than full HP before the start of combat, meaning that if it's active he most likely wins, but if it isn't, he would most likely lose. It's also difficult for Dimitri too from a story point when he tries to act chivalrous where beating opponents outright is far easier if he exploits its activation requirement like Savage Blow, or replaces his lance for a more reliable one and abandoning his Noble Lance (and his chivalry) in the process, like his post-timeskip version in the non-Crimson Flower routes of Three Houses. The refined version changes it so that he gets the guaranteed follow-up attack and additional buffs if either he is not at full HP or the foe is at 75% HP or above at the start of combat, hinting his vengeful path as well as he gets stronger if either he's suffering or his foe has either not suffered enough or at all, something not noble of him to do.
    • Related to that, Fallen Dimitri's weapon and Secret Art Murderous Lion does not have any form of Damage Reduction, unlike his Brave and Legendary variant with Blue Lion Rule and Areadbhar, respectively, and his default skillset does not have any way to either increase his Def and/or reduce his foe's Atk. This is because Fallen Dimitri does not care if he dies or not so long as he kills Edelgard and so is reckless in battle, whereas his Brave and Legendary variant cares about his own life and is his life to live instead of just for others and revenge in the Azure Moon route in Three Houses.
  • Regular Claude's Cunning Bow allows him to get more stats during combat if the difference between the sum of his buffs and the sum of all the enemy debuffs is greater than or equal to 10, highlighting his cunning, scheming, and opportunistic nature in both Heroes and Three Houses. Even better: one of the skills in Heroes that can help Claude is the Ruse skills, where he can get the buffs while any enemies get debuffs if they're in the cardinal directions of both Claude and the Rally user. What better way to ruse your opponents than to lure them into the right positions in his (and his partner's) line of fire?
  • The post time skip alts of the three lords show their situation/character development in their kits.
    • Legendary Edelgard has high Res, complete with Atk/Res Solo and an entire skillset that emphasizes that she works alone, and that she opposes both the church (who are lead by Dragons, who fight against the Res stat) and Those Who Slither in the Dark (who are lead by powerful mages). This reflects her headstrong nature, as well as believing that only she alone can bring about change in the world. Raging Storm allows her to punish Beasts and Dragons, which represents how she believes that the Church, ruled by dragons themselves, should no longer have such a great influence across the land, as well as how she intends to eradicate Those Who Slither in the Dark, who control Demonic Beasts.
    • Brave Edelgard is post game where she actually has embraced working with others, as nothing in her base kit requires her to be alone. Her skill set instead focuses on having her near her allies with her extra Mov and warp ability, allowing her to be both their sword and shield as she can function on either phase and can counter against magic attacks.
    • Legendary Dimitri reflects his journey in Azure Moon. This Dimitri is one that has struck fear into his enemies with his onslaught, and thus he has a very player phase focused build with Sturdy Impact and Odd Tempest to reach his foes more easily, and is all about inflicting big damage. While this Dimitri is right as he finally regret his bloodshed, he's still an incredibly fearsome warrior. His stats are pretty much spot on to his stats in 3H, complete with his low Res, which reflects his ignorance of Those Who Slither in the Dark, the real villains behind the scenes.
    • Brave Dimitri reflects his post game self where he becomes more of a defender, favoring enemy phase and Def a bit more. His weapon and Special allow him to stand fast against most threats, and his Atk/Def Unity skill shows that even against adversity (in this case debuffs) he'll still stand strong to protect his friends and his people. His Res is still low though.
    • Legendary Claude is right as he's ready to leave Fódlan, but leaves Fódlan in the hands of Byleth and the Alliance. His summon quote states that he no longer introduces himself as either Claude or a Riegan. To ensure that his plans come to fruition, he always has to stay one step ahead of anyone trying to stand in his way, and the best way for him to do this is to shield himself with his Fallen Star ability, granting him immense Damage Reduction, but also impairing his opponent's movements. His Atk/Spd Catch skill capitalizes on his enemies that are subject to his schemes (in this case the Gravity status inflicted by Fallen Star) and Spd/Def Rein ensures that his arrows will leave a mark.
    • Brave Claude is post game where he leaves Fódlan to claim his birthright as the King of Almyra, hence a natural reason why he wouldn't have a "Golden Deer Rule skill" as he no longer leads the alliance. To reflect his more active mindset, his kit now has a considerable amount of self sufficiency but still shines best with some allies close. And he would be clever enough to somehow make his self functionally a modified Aether that trades in raw defense piercing power for quicker activation and 50% max HP healing. His having Fury 4 is a nod to how some of his endings imply overworking himself to an early grave and to reinforce not charging ahead recklessly (which almost ended disastrously in Azure Moon).
  • Some people called foul when Mercedes was revealed to not have Live to Serve as one of her skills in Heroes because her Three Houses version has it as her personal skill, but she actually has a skill that heals her when she is damaged when she heals someone: the Martyr+ staff.
  • When the Gatekeeper was added as a Brave Hero, he gets the personal skill Detailed Report, which acts like an amped-up Obstruct: on top of the usual effect on melee foes, ranged foes would be stopped sooner, while foes cannot warp beyond their usual range to within 4 spaces from him, effectively rendering skills such as Wings of Mercy obsolete. Remember in Three Houses during Flayn's disappearance when he said "Nothing gets past this guard!"? He wasn't kidding.
• Mercedes being on the "Changing Winds" banner makes sense when her half-brother was released as a Grand Hero Battle unit 5 days later.
• The "Three Houses" and "Changing Winds" banners actually have representatives of all four routes in Three Houses, even if it looks like it represents the most on one: Claude and Hilda represent the Verdant Wind route, Dimitri and Mercedes represent the Azure Moon route, and Edelgard, Hubert and Petra represent the Crimson Flower route, while (Female) Byleth would be a fit in all of them, but in actuality, both Byleth and Petra represent the Silver Snow route, where both Edelgard and Hubert abandon the Officer's Academy and leave your class (and roster) to initiate the war on the Church of Seiros, and lose them forever if players chose to side with the Church and branch off to the Silver Snow route where the remaining Black Eagles students remain loyal to Byleth and by extension to the Church, including Petra.
• The Death Knight not being as powerful gameplay wise is more of a choice that did not pan out, but it does make sense from a story perspective. In his home game, nobody has faced anyone as strong as him, and he becomes The Dreaded because of how strong he is, so naturally when he's fighting fresh students, he is incredibly powerful. However, in the world of Heroes, where other similarly powerful fighters like Zelgius, Valter, Zephiel, etc exist, he looks much less impressive because he is still quite young compared to them. Without that same ability to strike fear in people, he is much less impressive.
• Hubert's Infantry Hexblade allows him to grant a Sorcery Blade like effect to nearby allies, and he can debuff the Res of his enemy with Chill Res. He essentially makes a great support for Edelgard because of this, allowing Edelgard to attack her foes weakest stat while he weakens them from behind the scenes, just as he does best.
  • It also fits with Regular Edelgard's default skills and weapon and how it contradicts with Hubert's one. Edelgard works better alone with her Victorious Axe, Atk/Def Solo and Rouse Atk/Def, while Hubert's Infantry Hexblade needs an Infantry unit to be adjacent to him in order to activate its effect. Basically, Edelgard intends to work alone to achieve her goal, while Hubert works behind her back to make sure she achieves her goal if she faces a problem if it is too much for her as well as taking out troubling foes before she even faces them in combat, like how it is in Three Houses.
• Putting Sothis on a Christmas banner with characters from The Blazing Blade (as well as the iconic Marth) seems out of place, until you realize that Winter Sothis sounds an awful lot like Winter ''Solstice'', which was around the same time that banner was released.
• Sothis' high BST is justified in that she's basically at a fraction of her full strength which was enough to easily decimate an entire magitek civilization.
• Despite being the "Noblest of Nobles," Ferdinand is very easy to obtain, having been a 4-5 focus on his debut banner and demoting to 3-4 rarity after. However, his supports in Three Houses reveal that Ferdinand is very dedicated to helping the commonfolk. Hence, him being of a lower rarity allows him to help more people.
  • He also lacks the Cichol Crest regalia, the Spear of Assal and the Ochain Shield. This is because the Spear is associated more with Seteth, as Seteth's paralogue allows the player to obtain it. While the Shield is more associated with Ferdinand due to it being a reward for his paralogue, that paralogue is post-timeskip (and only if the player is not on the Crimson Flower route), while this Ferdinand is pre-timeskip.
• Legendary Edelgard's map has a sword fighter with Bowbreaker and a green mage with Lancebreaker, seemingly geared to fight Edelgard's two biggest adversaries, Claude and Dimitri.
• The Legendary versions of the three Lords do not have a single effect that relies on an ally. Edelgard is the prime example of this with all of her skills working if she's alone, while Dimitri and Claude's weapons just have an HP threshold, their unique skills impair foes, and their C skills only really mostly help themselves. These versions of the Lords are all from their respective paths where they alone have won. In contrast, the Brave versions of the Lords all have skills that rely on allies: Edelgard's weapon lets her warp to a nearby ally, and she has Joint Drive Res to boost her and her ally's Res, Dimitri's Atk/Def Unity activates when an ally is nearby, and Claude's weapon either activates when an ally is nearby or if he initiates combat. While both sets of Lords are incredibly powerful, these Brave versions helps show what could be done if these Lords just all worked together, helping one another, towards a new future.
• Legendary Byleth is fully geared to fight the three Lords of Fódlan and Seiros, which represents how one way or another, whichever path he takes, he's ready to follow it to the bitter end. His tome has Null Follow Up built in, which gets past the follow up manipulation from Seiros, Brave Dimitri, and every version of Edelgard. Sublime Heaven deals immense damage to Dragons and Beasts, destroying Seiros (who is a blue unit) and Fallen Edelgard. It also completely ignores Damage Reduction skills, which a good amount of them all rely on. ^{Such as...}Fallen Edelgard's Armoured Wall, Seiros's Dragon Wall, Brave Dimitri's Blue Lion Rule, Legendary Dimitri's Areadbhar, and Legendary Claude's Fallen Star. Every version of Dimitri and Claude, as well as regular Edelgard, also have low Res, and it's extra painful for Dimitri since every Dimitri is blue. Finally, his Atk/Def Ideal and Lull Atk/Res ensure that if he must, and if they somehow live the first Sublime Heaven, he'll be able to exchange blows pretty well.

Elyos (Engage)

• The base kits of Alcryst's retainers, Lapis and Citrinne, have great synergy with each other. Lapis's base kit consists of Sorcery Blade, which lets her deal damage based on her opponent's lower defensive stat when adjacent to a magic ally, and Spd/Def Oath, which grants her a bonus to Spd and Def when she's adjacent to an ally at the start of her turn. Her fellow retainer, Citrinne, is a green mage with Atk/Res Oath 4 by default, which can grant her a buff to both stats and a warping status effect, and her unique Tome of Luxuries allows her to share those bonuses with nearby allies after start-of-turn effects trigger. Under the right conditions, this means Lapis will obtain a bonus to all of her stats at once when her turn begins and attack foes' lower defensive stats with Citrinne's help.
• Additionally, Lapis being a 3 and 4-star unit off the bat can be seen as a clear reference to her humble upbringing as a country girl who managed to make it big as a royal soldier of Brodia. Citrinne being green and not blue is an interesting choice given in Engage, she's best off utilizing Thunder-type tomes alongside the Bond Rings that best facilitate them, but green is the color most associated with money.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

• Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE is a game with a major emphasis on singing and music as part of the storyline, and was developed by a studio well-known for fiendishly hard video games. Naturally, they have the hardest Tap Battle to date.
• Kiria's primary weapon is her microphone which in game acts more like a magic staff both in her home game and in Heroes. So what happens when she uses a tome instead? It acts like a music sheet instead.

Others

• Banners displaying damaged art:
  • Two banners that feature Heroes with Vantage are unique in that the focus Heroes (barring Mia in the second Vantage banner) are in their damaged art instead of their standard, attacking, or special skill art. Vantage requires its user to be at or below a certain HP threshold to activate.
  • The Countering Skills banner had its focus heroes^*Ike, Hector, and Takumi shown in the same manner. Countering skills only activate when being attacked, and Vantage works quite well with these three Heroes (and were major recommendations for Hector and Takumi).
• Berkut's character arc in Echoes: Shadows of Valentia involves his inability to come to terms with his inferiority to Alm. Fittingly, in Heroes, he is widely considered to be almost completely inferior to another unit: Camus, who appears in Echoes under the pseudonym Zeke.
  • The same applies to Lyon, who in his home game had an inferiority complex toward Ephraim. Here, he is largely considered slightly better than Sophia, one of the least popular red tome users.
    • Also a bit of Fridge Horror with Lyon: if his special activation quotes are to go by compared to his other ones, he's tapping into the Demon King's power to boost his strength, with a bit of Demonic Possession slipping in.
• Most playable villains are introduced as Grand Hero Battle units. Exceptions (barring Fallen Heroes) include Eldigan, Ishtar, both non-seasonal forms of Reinhardt and Idunn, Sacred Stones Selena, and Mustafa, who are part of the permanent summoning pool. Fittingly, none of them are evil per se.
  • Related to this; Xander, Camus, and Fallen Takumi are all Anti Villains like Eldigan and Reinhardt, but aren't available in ordinary summoning banners. Unlike those three, Reinhardt can be spared and Eldigan can be stopped from fighting thanks to his sibling, both of whom came into Heroes with them; meanwhile, Camus and Xander will always fight the player regardless of how hard you try, since nobody is able to pull them back. As for Takumi, he can't be pulled back because he's fully possessed by the end of the Conquest route, and technically already dead.
• The special maps themed after Warriors are a bit unusual, gameplay-wise — instead of a few enemies, each posing a considerable threat to equally-leveled heroes, they feature a horde of respawning, terribly weak mooks that serve only as EXP fodder, with only the boss being somewhat challenging. Not unlike Warriors games themselves.
• The tool the Summoner uses to summon Heroes is called Breidablik, which comes from Norse Mythology. It is the home of Baldr, and it's said to be a place that only the purest of souls can live. Suddenly the fact that nearly all of the Heroes obtained through Grand Hero Battles are antagonists makes more sense.
  • With the Fallen Heroes banner seemingly contradicting this, you could say that it still applies because of the name: Fallen Heroes. Robin fell victim to possession because of the circumstances of his birth, Celica was possessed because she wanted to save Alm, and Hardin still maintained enough of his personality that he was able to die as his true (heroic) self.
• Why are Henry and Jakob's Halloween versions classified as Armored units, despite the fact that neither of them are wearing heavy armor? In Henry's case, he's carrying a massive coffin, which could work well as a makeshift shield, but wouldn't be the easiest to lug around for someone as scrawny as he is. As for Jakob, he's wearing a costume based on Frankenstein's Monster, who is usually depicted as a slow but durable creature, not to mention the ball and chain attached to his leg, which would obviously be a detriment to his movement.
• The "Carrying the Flame" Tap Battle has the Fire Emblem be connected to the bosses in their home game:
  • Arvis represents the Fire Emblem for the Jugdral Saga, where the Fire Emblem is the family crest of the Velthomer House of Grannvale, which is descended from the Mage Fighter Fjalar, a crusader that is known to wield fire, more notabily Valflame.
  • Roy represents the Fire Emblem for the Elibe Saga, where the Fire Emblem is the seal of Bern for the Binding Blade, a sword that ignites into flames when attacking even from afar, which is needed to unlock it from its pedestal to be wielded by Roy.
  • L'Arachel represents the Fire Emblem for The Sacred Stones, where Grado's Sacred Stone is the one the Demon King's soul is sealed in, and later in Rausten's one, which L'Arachel's uncle holds, due to it being the only one left, and is noted to burn like fire.
  • Mist represents the Fire Emblem of the Tellius Saga, where Lehran's Medallion, in which Yune is sealed in, burns a blue flame whenever chaos is abrupt on the continent, and is known to make those who hold it and not possess a pure heart go berserk.
  • Chrom, and later Legendary Marth, represent the Fire Emblem of Archanea and later Ylisse, where it is the Binding Shield (renamed the Fire Emblem after losing the 5 Gemstones) that seals away the Earth Dragons who went insane in Shadow Dragon and Mystery of the Emblem, and later called the Pedestal of Flame with the 5 Gemstones to allow the Falchion and its wielder be powered by Naga to be powerful enough to fell Grima in Awakening.
  • Corrin represents the Fire Emblem of Fates, where the Yato, also called the Seal of Flames, is powered by the 4 other sacred weapons (Siegfried, Brynhildr, Rajinto, and Fujin Yumi) and the Rainbow Sage and transform into the Omega Yato, showing a fiery design, allowing the user be able to slay gods with it.
• The bath-themed units all have mounts. They're fighting in a bathhouse; it's too easy to slip and leave yourself open.
  • The Hoshidan units all have flying mounts, but Elise rides a horse. Japan, Hoshido's model, has a strong bathing culture; Medieval Europe discouraged it. The Hoshidans know how hard it is to walk and run in a bathhouse, but Elise doesn't, and assumes a horse can make it!
• Isn't it rather peculiar that the Bound Hero banners that were reran for the game's second anniversary weren't reran in the order they were released? That's because in this case, they were reran in the order of when the games the Bound Hero Battles were based on were released. The Minerva & Maria banner represents Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Alm & Celica's represents Gaiden, Seliph & Julia's represents Genealogy of the Holy War, Ishtar & Reinhardt's represents Thracia 776, and so on.
• Fallen Hero banners:
  • All four heroes from the "Fallen Heroes" banner, as well as Legendary Robin, were playable at one point in their home games before they become enemies, and as such, were once considered heroes. Hardin was a playable Cavalier in Shadow Dragon and Book I of Mystery of the Emblem, and Celica was a protagonist in Gaiden/Shadows of Valentia. Both Robins, who would later turn out to be the Hierophant and not the main Robins, were playable in the Premonition of Awakening. Takumi, however, wasn't really playable in the majority of the Conquest route in Fates, but before the route split, he was a controllable ally in the Prologue of all three routes.
  • With the exception of Berkut, all the "Darkness Within" heroes have their fallen variants be playable or at least gain a new trait after their fallen phase: Mareeta wielding the Shadow Sword (Darkness Blade in some translations) that allows her to be possessed and forced to attack her mother figure and is recruited after the sword was later purified by Saias in Thracia 776, Fallen Female Corrin controls her dragon power and gains her dragonstone when Azura calms her down when she went berserk after losing her mother in Fates, Fallen Young Tiki can be taken out of her trance inflicted by Gharnef after Bantu speaks to her in Shadow Dragon and is awakened and recruited by Marth after assembling the Starsphere in Mystery of the Emblem, and Fallen Delthea can be recruited if she was spared and her controller Tabarrah is killed at the end of Chapter 3 of Gaiden. Berkut, meanwhile, dies giving his mother's heirloom to Alm and gives his blessings to lead Valentia after being comforted by the spirit of his love Rinea and realising the error of his ways, and would have potentially been recruited had he not died and joined his love in the afterlife in Shadows of Valentia. This is reinforced with their Accessories have the first one be corrupted while the EX versions be the purified versions.
  • While everyone on the "Dark Burdens" banner are (mostly) heroic characters that has their darkness reverted after a certain point, with Fallen Male Corrin calming down after hearing Azura's song and gaining his dragonstone in Fates, Lyon going back to his former self before dying in The Sacred Stones, Julia regaining control after Seliph and his army fells Manfroy in Genealogy of the Holy War, and Ike can regain control of himself if someone of pure heart can take the Lehran's Medallion away from him in the Tellius games, Ashnard doesn't revert back to his former self (since he is already insane to begin with) before he dies with Lehran's Medallion in Hard/Maniac mode in Path of Radiance, but his mount Rajaion was a warped feral Black Dragon Laguz before reverting back to his real self by Reyson and Leanne singing the Galdr of Rebirth, which is seen regardless of difficulty.
  • Everyone on the "Forces of Will" banner has their darkness, to a certain point, be irreversable. Fallen Dimitri is unable to let go of his hatred to Edelgard and stays reckless to the end in the Silver Snow and Verdant Wind routes in Three Houses, both Morgans stay loyal to their parent and Grima even after being made to leave if the player Robin stops next to a space to Morgan in The Future Past DLC in Awakening, Edelgard chooses to become a Demonic Beast to become powerful enough to uphold her ideals and defeat Dimitri and his forces, and defies him to the end in the Azure Moon route in Three Houses, and Orson betrays Renais for Grado in order to have his wife Monica be resurrected and be overly obsessed with her and will protect her at any cost while also neglecting everything else, even going against his former comrades and Ephraim in The Sacred Stones. This is reinforced with their Accessories not have their EX versions be purified versions of the normal ones.
    • Related to that, out of all the Fallen Heroes, Fallen Dimitri is the only one where his eye is not red, as well as his dark flames be slightly smaller than the other Fallen Heroes. This is hinting that he is not as fallen as the other Fallen Heroes, with him being only just murderous and slightly insane, but has the chance to change to a better person, like in the Azure Moon route. This is also reinforced with his accessory, where the ordinary one is his broken Noble Lance, while the EX version is the broken Vengeful Lance. The broken Vengeful Lance accessory is also another Fridge Brilliance: his Fallen variant has the Vengeful Lance, but when Byleth meets him again after the Time Skip in Three Houses, he does not have it, meaning that he somehow broke that and potentially be free from that lance's possible influence.
  • Everyone on the "Beyond Control" banner fell victim to circumstances beyond their control, are more tragic than antagonistic and had to be defeated/killed by playable characters in their home game. Lilith was only acting out of loyalty to her father until her defeat by the Awakening Trio and Anankos's sane half in the Hidden Fates DLC; Ninian had lost control of her dragon form and was accidentally killed by Eliwood in Blazing Blade; Gustav was unwillingly resurrected by Hel and was defeated after being forced to fight his own children in Heroes, and Rhea needed to be cut down in the final chapter of the Silver Snow route of Three Houses after she used up too much of her power and went berserk.
• Both Tiki's Breath of Fog has the same effect as any of the refined Falchion (That being Renewal 3 and Dragon effectiveness). Considering that the Falchion is stated to be made from Naga's fang, as well as Tiki being the daughter of Naga, of course the effects will be the same.
• Most Grand Hero Battles feature villains, antagonists, or recruitable enemies. Female Robin stands out, as she's neither of those, being a main character. However, she acts as a stand-in for Grima, the Big Bad of Awakening.
  • Another exception to the antagonist rule is Navarre. While he is recruitable, he starts off as an enemy and has to be convinced to join by Caeda. He also doesn't seem to have many issues working with bandits until they do something that goes against his moral code. He's also a Blood Knight who is really only interested in seeking strong opponents. Navarre isn't an antagonist, but he is an Anti-Hero.
  • Takumi, while a heroic character in two of the three Fates routes, is fully possessed by the end of the Conquest and has to be brought down.
  • Male Kana is another exception, but it's particularly notable in that his only antagonistic role was in Heirs of Fate III: The Changing Tide as one of the Vallite bosses. This contrasts with Female Robin (who's villainous when her body is used as Grima's personal Meat Puppet) and Fallen Takumi (who's villainous due to Anankos' More than Mind Control and his corpse becoming a Voodoo Zombie). Kana, however, is a boss due to Anankos using his illusion powers to make the protagonists fight each other; from his own perspective, he was actually defending himself from the enemy "Vallites". Likewise, from the perspective of the Hoshidan gang in the aforementioned Heirs of Fate, he's an enemy Vallite himself, so it still technically makes him an antagonist at that time, and thus qualifies for the Grand Heroes' trend to be villainous.
  • Panne is another exception as she spends the entire game on your side, though her mistrust towards humans (or in her words, "man-spawn") is a factor that makes her a Grand Hero. In Chapter 6 of Awakening, when she is introduced, Chrom had to be told to let her be despite her chiming in that she'll get her hands dirty dealing with the humans involved.
  • Rutger is driven by revenge towards Bern for the massacre of his home. He can only be recruited in Binding Blade when Clarine mentions that Roy's army will be fighting Bern. Much like Navarre before him, he's an Anti-Hero rather than an antagonist.
• The final maps in Tempest Trials often reference moments in the main series where villains or antagonists are fought. The final bosses usually aren't antagonists but they do reference critical moments in their game's stories.
  • Celica being the Final Boss of the second Tempest Trials (after Veronica in the first) might be a reference to a certain scene added in Echoes: the moment when she's possessed by Duma and forced to fight Alm. As an additional reference, the final map of this Trial is based on Duma's altar, where Alm's party fought Berkut and Vestal Rinea.
  • Sonya is the Final Boss of the third Tempest Trials, a reference to her fate at the end of Shadows of Valentia where it's implied that she succumbs to becoming a witch. In addition, it may also be a reference to the choice you have to make upon fighting her or Deen which the character you did not choose to fight will become your ally.
  • In the "Genealogy of Light" Tempest Trials, Julia was the final boss. This references the final scenario where she was Brainwashed and Crazy by Manfroy and sent to attack Seliph's army, hoping that she would be killed and access to book of Naga, one of the weapons that could easily decimate Loptous, lost forever. The map also took place in where she was deployed in that state: Velthomer Castle.
  • The "Less than Heroic" Tempest Trials feature Brave Ike as the final boss, which doesn't seem like a reference considering it's Ike. However, there was one particular battle in Radiant Dawn where the Dawn Brigade, who were the army the player had to use at the time, had to face off against the Greil Mercenaries, with Ike being the boss of the chapter. Brave Ike was used as his outfit closely resembled his Hero class in Radiant Dawn, the same class his father had in Path of Radiance. In addition, the Heroes mainly featured here are mostly mercenaries (except Lute who's just a quirky mage), so it may make sense that the boss here is someone who runs his own mercenaries group.
• Tap Battle: History Unveiled has the theme of either Long-Lived and/or Dragon characters that have a lot of their continent's history in their knowledge in their home games. While there are straightforward examples such as Tiki and Myrrh, there are others that are not obvious at first, but all of them have someone they represent going beyond themselves:
  • Adult Tiki is known to live at least 3000 years by the time of the events in Awakening, but Young Tiki is a bit of a gray area, but she could represent Naga, Bantu, or even Gotoh from Shadow Dragon and Mystery of the Emblem, all which have lived longer than her.
  • Myrrh is said to have lived around 1200 years, but she be actually representing Morva, her father figure, in The Sacred Stones, who is much older than her and has much knowledge of the history of Magvel.
  • At first, Gunter's appearance makes no sense, since he's not the oldest character from that game, until you realize that it's the Gunter from Revelation Chapter 26 - the time when he was possessed by Anankos, one of the First Dragons in Fates and has knowledge on the history of Hoshido, Nohr, and Valla. By extension, Anankos may even represent the Rainbow Sage, who is also one of the First Dragons and has much knowledge of the history of Hoshido and Nohr.
  • Sothis is a bit straightforward, but her amnesia makes her leaning towards a grey area, so she might actually represent Rhea/Seiros from Three Houses, as she has currently much more knowledge of Fódlan than Sothis has during the events of that game.
  • Fallen Berkut represents Duma, as he was possessed by him after making a large sacrifice to gain power, and that Duma and Mila were the ones that progressed Valentia into the state that it was in during the events of Gaiden and Shadows of Valentia.
  • Bramimond seems to be a bit straightforward, but their isolation from the surface world by guarding the seal of the Legendary weapons in Elibe puts him into a more gray area, so they might actually represent Athos, who is also Long-Lived and has more knowledge of Elibe's history than Bramimond in The Blazing Blade, even though the both of them are no longer alive during the events of The Binding Blade.
  • Yune seems to be a bit straightforward, but her slumber by being sealed in Lehran's Medallion makes her go into a grey area, so she might represent Sephiran/Lehran, Dheginsea, or even Ashunera, the former two knowing much of Tellius' history in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
  • Lewyn represents Forseti, who Lewyn wields the tome named after him, as Forseti is a dragon that used to take observation role in Jugdral, and is the only dragon to take an active role in helping mankind oppose Loptous and his Sect in the events after the Time Skip in Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776 by possessing Lewyn after his death in the Battle of Belhalla.
• The Fallen Male Robin (also referred to as Grima) and Fallen Female Corrin Bound Hero Battle features the two despite them never having actually fought alongside each other due to being from different games. However, they're similar in a few ways:
  • Both are the customizable Avatar character of their respective games.
  • Both have a lineage that connects them to the Big Bad of their respective games, in fact, Robin is even possessed by his game's Big Bad.
  • Both of them have a lineage with the blood of dragons flowing through their veins, and are even classified as dragon units in Heroes.
• Joining Fallen Male Robin and Fallen Female Corrin's banner is Fallen Celica. A bit of an odd, random choice, but her inclusion makes sense, as she was also under possession by her game's Big Bad like Robin, begs to be put out of her misery like Corrin, and is also from a 3DS Fire Emblem entry like the other two.
• The "In the Moment" banner features ninjas, featuring Lyn and Florina, Hana, Laevatein, Navarre, and Zihark. With the exception of Laevatein they all have something in common: They're Fragile Speedster Myrmidon types who are already used to moving swiftly, so these new speedy weapons would feel right at home with them. Doubly so for Hana given that ninjas are part of her homeland of Hoshido.
• The heroes who received Resplendent attire from the world of Heroes often will match up with what their alignment, ideology, or connection to the elements of the matching locations. Some examples are obvious, but some require a bit of reading into.
  • Heroes in Askr attire mostly embody Light Is Good, Wide-Eyed Idealist, and are the rulers of The Good Kingdom in their home game.
    • Cordelia wearing Askr attire is partially a Brick Joke because in one of her voiced lines, she expressed a desire to join the Order of Heroes, in which she got what she wanted with her Resplendent attire.
    • Olwen wearing Askr attire relates to her being the the White Sheep of not only her family, but of the Friege territory in Thracia 776. Similarly, Reinhardt also dons Askr attire to highlight his Anti-Villain status, and to match his sister.
  • Heroes in Embla attire mostly embody Dark Is Not Evil, are the rulers of The Empire in their home game, are sometimes lonely or isolate themselves, and some are either Older Than They Look and/or a Little Miss Badass.
  • Heroes in Nifl attire are connected with ice, water, and wind, as well as being gentle and sincere.
    • Lyn wearing Nifl attire relates to both her connection to the winds and her friendship with Florina, who is from Ilia, which is the cold region of Elibe.
    • Roy wearing Nifl attire relates to how he can be the potential son of Ninian in the Elibe saga, as well as being potentially be the son of another woman who came from Ilia.
    • Leif wearing Nifl attire relates to Fjorm, the princess of Nifl, who was motivated by Revenge against Surtr, who invaded and murdered her mother, with Leif also being motivated by Revenge, this time against Travant, who murdered his parents and invaded his home Leonster in the Jugdral games, as well against Raydrik, who was one of the generals of Leonster but betrayed Leif's father to serve Travant and later become the Duke of Munster.
  • Heroes in Múspell attire are mostly connected with fire, being Hot-Blooded, passionate, living in a desert area/region, and believing in Might Makes Right and Asskicking Leads to Leadership.
    • Sonya wearing Múspell attire not only references her being a Ms. Fanservice, or in other words, hot, but also her connection to Vestals in Shadows of Valentia, who are rare ancient priestesses who were sacrificed to the dark god Duma that are Wreathed in Flames and have the same animations as Witches, which Sonya is only as an enemy in Gaiden as well as implied what she became in her ending in Shadows of Valentia.
    • Roy, Lilina, Lyn, and Hector in their Múspell attire alludes to the fact that they all descended from Roland, who wields the fiery Durandal, alongside the fact Hector and Lilina's homeland, Ostia, houses said sword.
  • Heroes in Hel attire are connected with death, Revenge, and Dark Is Not Evil, and some have a connection to the main villain in their home games, or the antagonistic/villainous side of their home games.
    • Male Robin wearing Hel attire relates to his connection to the Fell Dragon Grima in Awakening.
    • Takumi wearing Hel attire relates to how his corpse was possessed by Anankos in the Conquest route of Fates.
    • Eldigan wearing Hel attire relates to how he wields Mystletainn, called the Demon Sword, which demons are commonly associated with Hell, as well as his unavoidable death in Genealogy of the Holy War.
    • Micaiah having Hel attire relates to her connection to Yune, the Goddess of Chaos.
    • Raven wearing Hel attire relates not only his revenge against House Ostia and living between life and death as a wandering mercenary, but invoking That Man Is Dead since he was formerly Lord Raymond of Cornwell and abandoned that name to blend in to take down House Ostia in The Blazing Blade.
    • Florina wearing Hel attire relates to how she can potentially be Doomed by Canon in The Binding Blade if she has an A support with Hector in The Blazing Blade.
    • Karla wearing Hel attire reates to how she lives on the edge of death due to being a swordswoman like her brother Karel, as well as her being Doomed by Canon during the timeskip between The Blazing Blade and The Binding Blade.
  • Heroes in Ljósálfheimr attire long for the past and have strong, positive desires.
    • Lucina wearing Ljósálfheimr attire, along her desire to set a better future in another world, relates to how she is strongly connected to butterflies.
    • Celica having Ljósálfheimr attire alludes to her initial role in her home game, as she was running away from her status as the princess of Zofia, and living a false life, not unlike how many of the fairies in game were normal people who were taken aware from their old lives to become something new.
  • Heroes in Dökkálfheimr attire are connected to nightmares, loss or victims of Mind Control.
    • Delthea wearing Dökkálfheimr attire relates to how she was mind controlled by Tatarrah in Gaiden/Shadows of Valentia, and after Tatarrah's defeat she breaks free as if she was just in a nightmare.
    • Deirdre wearing Dökkálfheimr attire relates to how she was living another life while being Mind Controlled by Manfroy and being married to Arvis instead of Sigurd in Genealogy of the Holy War, similar to how the other Álfar once live normal human lives before becoming Álfar themselves and nearly forgeting their old lives in the process in Heroes.
  • Heroes in Niðavellir attire either also believe in Asskicking Leads to Leadership, are Weak, but Skilled, have an interest in studying magic or are loyal servants and/or are closely bonded to their homeland's ruler.
  • Heroes in Jötunheimr attire also believe in Might Makes Right and the Good Old Ways. In particular, Ishtar wearing Jötunheimr attire links her to Nótt where Ishtar's love life has led her to the side of villainy and making rash decisions, similar to how Nótt's love life led her to in Book V (albeit temporarily in Nótt's case).
• It seems oddly strange that Harmonizied Bridal Catria & Thea lists Catria as being from Shadows of Valentia, but it does make sense since in the "Common Virtues" Forging Bonds, which focuses on characters from Shadows of Valentia, has Zofia's Call Catria as one of the characters there, and even has both Thea and Zofia's Call Catria have a conversation with each other and develop a strong bond with each other due to being Birds of a Feather.
• On the Perilous Seas banner for 2021, Surtr, Hinoka & Camilla are Dressed to Plunder alongside Naesala, Vika and Lifis. While this seems a bit strange for the former three to be dressed as pirates, it makes sense on what they did in their home games:
  • Surtr follows the Rape, Pillage, and Burn aspect of pirates in Book II of Heroes, only to entire kingdoms instead, and making his connection to the Tempest Trials+ "Ice & Flame 2".
  • Hinoka & Camilla dressed as pirates has the both of them be connected to the previous Pirate banner with Xander, as well as the both of them experiencing battles on ships in Fates.
• The Of Lost Kingdoms banner has everyone on the banner actually connected together in the same way: lost or forgotten realms or rule.
  • Nailah from Radiant Dawn is the queen of Hatari, that is forgotten by those in Tellius.
  • Karla from The Blazing Blade is one of the last of her tribe in Sacae after her brother Karel slaughtered everyone else that has intentionally avoided contact with other tribes.
  • Xane from Shadow Dragon/Mystery of the Emblem is one of the last remaining Divine Dragons and as a result one of the last alive from Naga's realm, but has intentionally never taken a dragon form again.
  • Azura from Fates is one of the last remaining alive of her realm Valla, which is also ruled by the Silent Dragon Anankos, sometimes known as the forgotten god.
  • Leanne from Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn is one of the last remaining Herons and of her kingdom Serenes Forest alive, with her kingdom all but gone since the Serenes Massacre.
  • Deen from Gaiden/Shadows of Valentia is the Sole Survivor of his house after the attack on his mansion, forced to slay his wife after she has transformed.
• When the Attuned Caeda and Ascended Merric banner was first revealed, many pointed out that the former looks very similar to Lucina, with the tiara and shades of blue being present on her outfit. While this might come off as a coincidence at first, since her outfit is supposed to be based on her husband Marth, Caeda actually is one of the Ylissean royalty's ancestors, making her resemblance to Lucina more clear.

Fridge Horror:

• The AI's logical routines, Artificial Stupidity included whole, applies not only to the enemy teams you face, but also your own squad if you decide to activate auto-battle. For example, getting stuck in a loop of repositioning using movement assist skills like Shove or Draw Back, pursuing weapon triangle advantage regardless of the unit's stats relative to the enemy's own (which can result in such gems like a weakened, single-digit-HP Ryoma or Amelia engaging in combat with an Axe or Lance Knight who can survive a full hit and kill them with a counterattack), or even banking on said weapon triangle advantage to expect non-frontline units to survive a hit (Ike's about to die and there's a Sword Flier chasing him down? Welp, better have Azura and/or Ninian go out of position to body-block said attacker, even though he has a special attack primed!). Since there can be no manual input from the player during auto-battle except to stop it through menus, it can be assumed that this means the squad you deployed are, "lore"-wise, acting on their own. And this AI applies even to the Askr trio (and especially Anna, the commander), who are supposed to be the top dogs of the Askran military. Usage of the Breidablik (summoning artifact) notwithstanding, no wonder Askr was losing the war against Embla before the summoner came. Reinhardt sums it up neatly in one of his Castle quotes:
  Reinhardt: Please take care of yourself. This group would be doomed if it lost your keen sense of tactics.
• Tailtiu's Castle lines at the first sight might be just her being in a Genki Girl phase, but a particular line where she apologizes to her father for staining her family name can shed a more heartwrenching side during her last days: Not only did her own family abuse her for staining the family name, deep down she blames herself for that, and when her daughter Tine was also affected with the stigma, she would've thought that it was also her fault that her children suffered, and so the best she could do was to take the abuses directed to Tine because she thought it should be directed to her, the one whom she thought shamed the family name. All in all, it makes a lot more sense how in the latter days, there hasn't been a single day without Tailtiu crying, probably towards Tine, apologizing for all the misery she brought to her daughter.
• Halloween Nowi is very excited to tell you that in the past there really were witches. Awakening is set in the same universe as Echoes, the one where a witch is a Humanoid Abomination that has lost all sense of self and exists only in the service of a mad priest.
• A lot of fans were disappointed with Lloyd's artwork, as it seems off and not that similar to his original The Blazing Blade incarnation. But look a little closer, and there are two things that stand out — his weapon is the Regal Blade, which his resurrected form wields in the final endgame, and his eyes are just a little too light brown. In other words, the difference and weapon could be indicating that it isn't Lloyd at all — it's his Morph. If you're thinking it couldn't be, because his Morph didn't talk... well, guess what, some Morphs did gain the ability to talk (like Limstella), so it's as if the summoning process just improved his speech ability, but it's still a Morph.
• The Enduring Love gauntlet has Tharja, Rhajat, and Faye in it: two nasty Stalkers with Crushes and an in-universe Satellite Love Interest who never gets over Alm after he's married and may or may not have PTSD. And they're all in ONE wing along with poor Priscilla, whose quirk is just as much that she has a huge crush on her own brother. Hoo boy...
• At the end of Book II Chapter 5, Laegjarn offers to spare the Askrans and treat them kindly if they surrender. The problem, as Garon so brutally taught Corrin and Xander in Chapter 22 of Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, is that there is no guarantee Surtr would actually honor her promise. One can only imagine what would have happened if they had surrendered...
• The last map of Book II Chapter 7 gives us the sight of Surtr killing Gunnthrá in front of the Order of Heroes. However, what's more horrifying is that unlike the last battles with Surtr which either had generic Emblians or his commanders fight alongside him, the Thracia crew is fighting you as well. Makes you wonder how bound these heroes are to their contracts (considering that Veronica and Surtr obviously have different goals).
  • A Fridge Brilliance can be found in this: Thracia 776 is notorious as one of the hardest and most unfair Fire Emblem games ever. So naturally, the contract is most likely the most severe and hardest to break in spirit of the game itself.
• The festival in which the women (and Marth) of both Bridal Blessings and Bridal Bloom participate in competes for a Bouquet that is said to guarantee a happy marriage. Tharja is participating. What is she planning for Robin?
  • Sanaki's presence is scary for the opposite reason—she fears an Arranged Marriage with the Begnion Senate, and likely wants the Bouquet as an emergency countermeasure.
• Surtr doesn't come across as the type of guy to be a ladykiller in looks or personality, so how did he manage to sire two children? Option A: He was once a more reasonable fellow before becoming the walking personification of slaughter he is today. Option B: Someone is actually in love with this lunatic. Option C: Child by Rape. Option D: He kidnapped them for some nefarious end. None of these ideas are pretty.
  • Laegjarn implies in her confession that Surtr has more children than just her and Laevatein. The only problem? She says that Surtr was willing to kill many people, including his own children. Um.
• Legendary Marth is The Dragonslayer. There are no exclusive enemy dragon units outside of generics; just other hero units summoned for the other side. The problem is, several of these dragons happen to be young children (by dragon standards at least). Oops.
• For an artifact that's connected to the dragon who wants nothing more than the destruction of the world, Grima's Truth has strange effects. It protects the user by boosting their defense instead of their attack, takes away enemy power rather than doing more damage immediately, and supports teammates to boot. However, considering Fallen Male Robin's confession line and the name of the tome, the artifact might actually hint at Grima's true personality or more accurately, the being that it once was.
• The "Heir of Light" Tap Battle has you defeat a Genealogy of the Holy War character, after which their child comes out to challenge you to the real battle. Keep in mind the circumstances for why this happened in the original game...which, combined with some of the quotes the children have, implies that you've killed the parents and their children are avenging them. Uh...whoops?
• In a similar vein to the above, the Tap Battle "Labyrinth of Despair" mirrors the events of Awakening's The Future Past. Lucina, Owain (accompanied by Laslow and Selena, also known as Inigo and Severa), and Gerome are doing their damnedest to escape from the hell they are trapped in—but then you and your team come along and prevent their escape. Afterwards, on a somewhat brighter note, you also happen to run into and defeat the probable reasons the aforementioned three were trapped in the first place—Female Grima, as well as the Morgans, who are under mind control by her.
• Right after "Labyrinth of Despair" came "Kingdom of Hoshido", which can be thought of as a reenactment of the invasion of Hoshido as seen in Conquest, complete with Fallen Takumi as Extra Stage 1's boss succeeding Ryoma as the true boss of floor 100. The Hoshidan royals are even fought alongside their retainers^*barring Ryoma since Kagero is floor 20's boss, and Saizo has his own fight preceding Ryoma's, a couple of pre-battle quotes are borrowed from Conquest, and all bosses talk in their pre-battle dialogue as if they are fighting to the death. All for the sake of a hot spring.
• If the story of Heroes is following Norse Mythology, there are many signs that Ragnarok is about to happen (not Regular Celica's exclusive tome, mind you: the battle including the death of the Gods).
  • The characters and theme of Book II and Book III includes Surtr leading his forces for invading Askr, Hel leading hers, and the light dying in Book III. The only thing missing is the moon dying as well, the three year winter Fimbulvetr, and Fenrir, Jörmungandr and Níðhöggr appearing.
  • A character by the name of Níðhöggr finally appears by the time Book VIII has rolled out, and she is not a force for good, ordered by Læraðr to, along with her sister Hræsvelgr, to prevent the peace between Askr and Emblem from being finalized.
  • The Røkkr from Røkkr Siege introduced in update 3.6.0 in June 2019 is not helping with the implications of Ragnarok coming, with "Røkkr" being Norse for "twilight", as in, from "twilight of the gods", the translation of Ragnarok.
  • In Book IV, Gullinkambi is a horn that is used to bring the Order of Heroes out of the Dream Land. Gullinkambi, in Norse Mythology, is one of three roosters that when it crows, Ragnarok is about to start.
  • In the Forging Bonds event with Yuri and the Ashen wolves has theme stumble on a book in Askr's secret library revealing Askr being the center of "battles of the realms" and other plans by the heavens. Loki even tried to silence them for this. if Ragnarok is going to happen, Askr will be ground zero.
• Alfonse killing everyone in Askr to stop Hel is bad enough...but then you realize. Everyone in Askr. As in, it's entirely possible that the Heroes themselves were among those sacrificed. Uh...
• Hel's weapon allows her to survive any attack from a non-magic wielder at least once per combat as long as her HP is above 1. If she's given Mystic Boost, she could restore HP after combat, making this effect active again, meaning the god of death could cheat death itself. What makes this a horrifying prospect however, is that to get Mystic Boost, one will have to inherit it from Eir, alluding to how Hel has killed Eir tons of times to power herself up. ^note Well, one could also inherit Mystic Boost from Duo Bridal Micaiah or anyone else who comes with it too, or even just give the Mystic Boost Seal to Hel, but still.
• Adrift Azura has a traumatic past and desires to remain in the dream world in Paralogue 27, which makes her a perfect target for her becoming a Ljósálfr by Freyr and Freyja from Book IV. Considering that all the álfr are Flying Dancer units, we already see what Azura is capable of with her Legendary variant. It was a good thing that Regular Azura was able to stop her making a deal with Loki in the same paralogue.
• In Book V Chapter 3, after Fáfnir defeats the Order of Heroes due to being a powerful Invincible Villain, he gloats on how he would feed Sharena's eyes to Alfonse and rip the Summoner's heart out before Eitri rescues them in time. Who's to say that Fáfnir didn't do this kind of thing to others before when he invaded other countries, including the one he finished invading during the same chapter.
• Fell Exalt Chrom's appearance looks markedly similar to Marth's by way of him wearing his great lord attire and having its color changed to more closely take after his ancestor...Given how much of a sick bastard Grima is, who's to say it didn't deliberately make Chrom look like his ancestor when it revived him as a twisted way of mocking both him for failing to protect his kingdom and his ancestor Marth with how his bloodline ended up down the road?
• Brave Gullveig. The main villain of Book VII won the female side of Choose Your Legends 7 primarily due to fanservice; since the playerbase had little information about her background or motivations. But by the time of the Brave Heroes’ release, we found out the truth: Gullveig is Seidr’s future self, trapped in an eternal cycle of despair and destruction. And her Brave variant wear Seidr’s clothes, reminding her of what she once was, but can never be again. All because you, the playerbase, wanted a Ms. Fanservice. You Monster!
  • This part can be mitigated somewhat thanks to the ending of Book VII where Kvasir and Gullveig were given second chances to live on as spirits within Seiðr after their untimely demises, showing that even Gullveig in her present form can be allowed to have some semblance of freedom from the Golden Serpent's curse.

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