What are your 3 favorite characters in 3 personality wise or development wise

[End of time]

For me, it has to start with Lysithea. 
She is viewed on paper as a brat who explodes for little reasons, and I had some issues with her with it. Until my 2nd GD run, I realized why

Starting from her advice box, she feels like everyone is treating her like a kid, and asks the professor to help her make it stop. Her getting mad for being treated like a child stems from her being ruffled by it, subtracting the effort and work she puts into herself and gets offended by it. She seems to be highly insecure easily more so than someone like Ignatz, in examples of jumping the gun whenever she thinks someone is talking low to her, because who knows how many times it ally happened. It made me realize why she went after Ignatz in the first place because Insecure people tend to put others down who have it just as bad or even worse than them, and it's a common reason on how bullies are made. Seeing her try to build the moral up with Ignatz in her A that she tore down in their C and B was kind of heartwarming, same with Raphael in his A and later B.
She feels like just a very insecure young teen who has socialization issues, a few examples like Leonie, Hilda, and Catherine, as she showed problems correctly expression what she wants to say. She even comes off as strange and awkward to a few chars like Hilda after their C and Leonie in their B. 
After Post, she seems to be less insecure and doesn't really jump the gun and is overall more mellow as a person. Able to talk more generally to others, have more extensive conversations with people, an example is Ferdinand in their Paralogue. 
Seeing how she learns lessons about her behaviors at the end of her b support with Ignatz, with Raphael, Lorenz, Marianne, Hilda etc made me realize she is actively developing slowly out of her terrible personality traits, and that makes for good progression since most of her supports were revolving around it. 
She overall became more a pretty significant person who grew out of her apparent insecurities, though she still gets mad about being called a child with people like Claude, it's more tame and different than how she reacted pre. 

She represents one of the people alongside people like Ignatz who have a hard time fitting in with the rest due to many restrictions that came into her life. And she gives a good rep of some of the defining traits of insecurity which was one of the major flaws she had to overcome.

Edited 6 minutes ago by End of time

Edited December 24, 2019 by End of time

[Dark Holy Elf]

Edelgard, Dimitri, and Dorothea, though I could swap in Hubert or Claude depending on my mood easily enough.

Edelgard is the soul of the game. There is a reason that discussion as to whether she is justified has been passionate and ongoing pretty much ever since the game was released. I also like how so much of her worldview and personality can be traced to her backstory and how credible she is as a trauma survivor.

Dimitri's character development is just great. He's both a product of the toxic culture of Faerghus and (again) the trauma he underwent in the years leading up to the game. I love watching his mask crack, watching his madness, and the struggle to bring him back. And his voice acting is amazing.

Dorothea is a character who just adds so much to the setting. Through her we see the class divide in Adrestia/Fodlan, gender politics, and more. She has a different, meaningful interaction with pretty much every character she supports with, and I love her biting personality. And her voice acting is amazing.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Lorenz is my favorite character because without him I don't think it would be possible to buy into why the people of Fodlan believe in crests and nobility. All the time you get dialogues with other characters and especially the three Lords stating plainly that a person's birth doesn't dictate their worth and that nobility ought to be abolished. And if the whole game were like that then the writers would have failed miserably with the setting of Fodlan. Then in comes our savior, Lorenz. His supports are filled to the brim with the awkwardness we never see between social classes in Fodlan. Not only does he believe every word about nobility, he STILL thinks there's merit to social classes in post-time skip. Asking Lorenz to give up nobility would be like asking any religious person to give up God. People don't accept a new world view so blindly, and certainly not when it's forced upon them. And it makes sense he would support the Empire over Claude as Edelgard never makes it known publicly what world she's intending to create. He's getting duped in a way only Lorenz could. There's also a hilarious moment near the end of Blue Lions similar to this. In the explore session, Lorenz expresses outrage that the Alliance is now part of Kingdom territory saying something like "a noble would never give up their principles so easily", to which Byleth can point out Lorenz had already set aside his principles when he rejoined our group at the brink of death. He is stunned into silence. 

I can't think of a character as interesting as Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, rightful leader of the Alliance. But if I had to choose two more, I think Seteth has impressive range in his portrayal even if he's constantly relegated to mentor/foil material in supports. And...I dunno, Catherine? Her backstory is interesting yet she never dwells on it which is refreshing. I just wish we got to see her confront her family in Blue Lions but it all happens off screen. 

[Sid Starkiller]

Edelgard, for what Dark Holy Elf said.

Dorothea. She's not just hot, she's super sassy and fun to be around (her and Caspar's B support is my favorite individual support conversation in the game). Her struggle to deal with conflict and the death of loved ones throughout Part 2 is very well foreshadowed in Part 1. By the end of it all I just want to hug her and tell her it will all be okay 😭

Ferdinand. At first he just seemed like the stuck-up noble, then I got to see in his supports that he really does want to do right by people, despite his overinflated ego. Then in Part 2 he gets a reality check: Where once he thought himself superior to Edelgard, he finally learns that in truth he just doesn't measure up. But he understands that that's OK, and that what's important is that he does what's right, not that he gets credit for it.

[Kiran_]

Hmm. This is is difficult. I feel like so many characters had so much depth and revelations that made them more than the sum of their parts.

I'd say Edelgard. Her personality is so realistic and on-par with mine. She knows what she has to do and does it. She will do anything to abolish the nobility and I admire how she cares about what someone is worth for their actual talents, not because of 'who' they are. I love that she believes in a world where those that are strong pull themselves up, with so little care for the weak-minded. She's a dictator. Willing to kill. Willing to lie. But she does it because she believes she's right and I admire that and see myself reflected in a lot of it.

Then Sylvain. There's so much bitterness and fear and pain in his story. So much that his flirty attitude masks and I just found myself SO drawn to him and his backstory. His development and pain was I think very well done and very powerful. His backstory is actually the reason why I sided with Edelgard. Playing Blue Lions as my first play through, and hearing how much the system had hurt him, made me feel so sad to be taking Dimitri's side because I wanted to join Edelgard's army because I knew her worldview would help with my precious BL babies. 

Dorothea is probably my 3rd. There's so much to her, in the same way there is to Sylvain. Her hatred of nobility. Of fighting. She's so real. She's so human. Fighting because she believes in it, but hating every moment of it. Hating killing those she went to school with. Hating fighting against her friends. It's powerful. Her post time-skip dialogue is so painful for me to hear/read, but so powerful I think.

Honorable mention goes to Dimitri. He's only not up there due to a certain thing where he blames a little girl for a great tragedy, which seemed entirely forced and really silly especially while playing. Otherwise his character development is I think, very powerful and incredible to watch. 

[eclipse]

. . .another copy-paste job. . .

Anyway, this goes to Sylvain, Felix, and Bernadetta.

Sylvain's the obvious one - he starts out as a shit in his paired supports (not sure about Felix), then slowly works out his issues.  His ending highlights how he's changed, and that he stuck to the change.  Pretty impressive IMO.

Felix doesn't always drop the prickly act, but under certain circumstances, he will.  Or he'll make someone else better, like Bernie.

Bernadetta's supports start out similarly enough, but she branches out a bit as time goes on.  The change isn't permanent like Sylvain's, but given what she went through, it's somewhat understandable.  At least she tries to grow, even if it doesn't fully stick.

Normally, Ashe would be on the list, but he starts awesome and stays that way.

[Geenoble]

Dedue is easily my Favourite Three Houses character, and probably second favourite Fire emblem character behind Soren.

Dedue is an intimidating looking man, with a calmful demeanor. He feels he has a debt to Dimitri and swears unwaveing loyalty in order to help Dimitri achieve his dreams of getting Revenge and creating a better Faergus. Despite the tragedies he has suffered, arguably worse than most other characters in the game, including Dimitri himself, he stands strong with a firm goal in mind, living on so his Mother, Sister, and the Deceased people of Duscur can live on with him. I really like his paired endings with Mercedes and Ashe, as he basically saves and immortalizes Duscarian culture through either food or religion.

Second would be Ashe. He always strives to do the right thing to make up for his criminal past. He wants to live up to the Legacy of Lonato, and doesn't want to leave his past behind. He has a personal grudge against the church, but tries to not let his feelings get in the way of his duty, only truly showing them in his paralouge and Catherine support when prompted. Much like Dedue he doesn't want the dead to go off to some far away afterlife, and wants them to stay with him.

Third would either Dimitri, for the reasons that Dark Holy Elf listed. or Seteth, for completely subverted my expectations of his character, Thinking he was going to be some Gotoh or Athos like character. and then being a super chill guy who isn't afraid to speak his mind against whats being taught.

[Jena]

Rhea carried the whole game for me. She doesn't appear as much as other characters, but her scenes and the mystery surrounding her was enough to make me quite interested. The answers to all of the questions I had about her lived up to my expectations, so I ended up very satisfied. And knowing her whole story, she was easily the best antagonist (CF) for me in this game. 

Linhardt is my second favourite because I think he is a good representation of would be a gifted child in real life (at least from my experience, with the people I've met). Characters intended to be like that are always portrayed as very intelligent, but that's it, the writers never explore the behavior and personality these people usually have. Founding some of those characteristics in Linhardt's personality was what made me appreciate and understand him. 

My third favourite is Felix, because I love his concept and "development" in non-AM routes. "A hightly empathetic person changing because of the death of his brother and  the glorification of his culture towards it" was a really good base and the writers used it correctly. His personality and way of thinking portrays pretty well his past. I also adore how, after all, if he leaves his country he is going to be unhappy, no matter the ending. I think they could have given more importance to him in AM when "you know who" dies, but apart from that he was a nice opposition to Dimitri's madness. 

[End of time]

17 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

Lorenz is my favorite character because without him I don't think it would be possible to buy into why the people of Fodlan believe in crests and nobility. All the time you get dialogues with other characters and especially the three Lords stating plainly that a person's birth doesn't dictate their worth and that nobility ought to be abolished. And if the whole game were like that then the writers would have failed miserably with the setting of Fodlan. Then in comes our savior, Lorenz. His supports are filled to the brim with the awkwardness we never see between social classes in Fodlan. Not only does he believe every word about nobility, he STILL thinks there's merit to social classes in post-time skip. Asking Lorenz to give up nobility would be like asking any religious person to give up God. People don't accept a new world view so blindly, and certainly not when it's forced upon them. And it makes sense he would support the Empire over Claude as Edelgard never makes it known publicly what world she's intending to create. He's getting duped in a way only Lorenz could. There's also a hilarious moment near the end of Blue Lions similar to this. In the explore session, Lorenz expresses outrage that the Alliance is now part of Kingdom territory saying something like "a noble would never give up their principles so easily", to which Byleth can point out Lorenz had already set aside his principles when he rejoined our group at the brink of death. He is stunned into silence. 

I can't think of a character as interesting as Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, rightful leader of the Alliance. But if I had to choose two more, I think Seteth has impressive range in his portrayal even if he's constantly relegated to mentor/foil material in supports. And...I dunno, Catherine? Her backstory is interesting yet she never dwells on it which is refreshing. I just wish we got to see her confront her family in Blue Lions but it all happens off screen. 

I do love the big development characters.