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Favorite Awakening Character Tier List


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Lately, I’ve been on an Awakening kick. I’ve been reading many supports and I started playing the game again. Some time ago I created a favorite Fates character tier list topic, so I thought I’d create an Awakening version.

Like the Fates version, this is meant to be a subjective list based on personal likes and dislikes rather than somewhat more objective traits like functionality as units. I ordered mine in order of preference within each tier, but I don’t expect everyone to do that. Also, I count male and female Robin and Morgan as different characters, but I don’t count Masked Marth and Lucina as different characters.

Share your favorite character tier lists as well!

1044180683_FireEmblemAwakeningTierList.jpg.f46bdc4c641f3d86abb5c781e34bdd34.jpg

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S-Tier: Chrom, Lucina, Tiki, Gregor

A-Tier: Lissa, Stahl, Lon'qu, Virion, Sumia, Libra, Cherche, Olivia, Flavio, Basilio, Inigo, Owain, Brady, Noire, Cynthia

B-Tier: Say'ri, Robin (both), Frederick, Emmeryn, Gaius, Maribelle, Vaike, Donnel, Laurent, Miriel, Ricken

C-Tier: Nowi, Kellam, Yarne, Panne, Morgan (both), Yen'fay, Gerome, Priam, Aversa, Anna, Sully, Cordelia

D-Tier: Kjelle, Severa, Walhart, Nah, Henry, Tharja, Gangrel

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Just like I did in that Fates thread, I'll list the tiers, with the order within the tiers being in no particular order (it'll be characters that are playable and characters who made a big impression).

The Big Three

Luceebo (I actually got a Lucina amiibo and this is what I call it, lmao), Owain Needs No Aid, You Betrayed the Law(rent)

The Grand Council

Sumia, Inigo, Thotja (I've fallen in love with this dumb, derisive nickname, lmao), Henry, Gregor, Google Chrome, Robin the Bank (both of them), Morgana (both), Virion, Cordelia, Maribelle, Lissa, Cynthia, Nah, Frederick Please, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (feel free to spam my DM's with all the AMKs in the world, Turks), Tiki, Noire, Tom Brady, Olivia, Cherche, Basilio

The Conscripts

Gaius, Sully, Miriel, Kjelle, Vaike, Nowi, Libral, Lon'qu, Say'ri, Severa, Panne, Geromeno, Gangrene, Walmart (and his entire gang, for that matter), Phila, Emmeryn, Yen'fay, Aversa, Stahlin (our leader, with faith in the people), Validar, Anna

The Convicts

Ricken, Donnel

 

So I have some things to say about the characters I bolded (as well as some of the more controversial characters and the two convicts), but lemme just go over my overall assessment first.

Numbers as far as characters I like are much better than those in Fates.  The thing I've found is the characters in Fates are a lot more polarizing for me than in Awakening, for both better and worse.  I love Oboro, Takumi, and Mozu... so much so that I think I may even love them more than Lucina.  Though I also dislike Corrin and others I put in the "convicts" section of the Fates counterpart to this thread a lot more than I dislike Ricken and Donnel.  The fact that there's only two characters in the "convicts" section is a good sign, but there are still signs of the... questionable direction casts would go in the future among this cast.

Here's the thing about the characters I bolded; simply, they're wasted potential.  They are characters who show up and maybe could've had some sort of interesting role, but simply fall flat.  Phila could easily be replaced with a generic, faceless NPC, and there'd be no impact.  Walhart's henchmen aren't amazing, but their issue is I think they focused too much on making Sat AM cartoon villains - they're amusing, but I think their gimmicks and gags take away from Walhart's role and impact.  Walhart was to serve as a mirror to Chrom - what solving all problems with the sword would look like at its full and worst extent.  But they do little to capitalize on Walhart as a character - his arc is cut short in favor of the Grima plotline.  All in all, I think these, as well as the Robinsexuals, were a sign of things to come - we got a taste of wasted potential in Awakening, then in Fates we got a banquet of the stuff.

As for the "convicts"... I am just not a fan of the shota archetype in Ricken's case.  I dunno, I just really don't like it.  I don't mind having a childlike character (or just have them straight up be a goddamn child, Christ almighty these Japanese media companies playing risky with this crap), but such characters can be more than just "hey, I'm not a kid!"  Maybe I just haven't explored enough of Ricken's character, but I don't really care to.  As for Donnel... unfortunately it has little to do with him as a character and more with just all the memeing about him - it's kinda soured my opinion of him, sadly.

Two other characters I wanted to talk about are Tharja and Nowi.  I honestly just like Tharja's creepy hex witch vibe.  Like, it seems like a lot of people complain about how she does morally abhorrent or questionable things to her allies, but... like, she never seemed like she was supposed to be a paragon of virtue?  She only joined because she figured that if she fought for the Plegians she'd just die for a feckless king and she doesn't really have much loyalty towards either side - seems like it's more a matter of "whichever side will keep me alive the longest", and she seems to figure her chances are better under a trusting prince than a psychotic king.  She's like the darker side of Miriel, where she likes experimenting and research, but in darker and more grotesque fields and with not-so-ethical means.  I guess I can understand people not liking such a character, but somehow such a character appeals to me just fine.

In regards to Nowi...  I almost feel like I probably should've put her in the "convicts" section because I find her kinda grating, but I just don't care much about her?  Not even all the... questionable people I met online with questionable "causes" who associated themselves with her were enough to make me outright hate her.  I dunno, she's just kinda... whatever for me.

All in all, Awakening has an overall better cast than Fates IMO, but Fates has some stars that shine brighter for me than any in Awakening.  Though I understand if people disagree with this assessment, as it's all subjective in the end.  The biggest challenge for me was deciding which among the "Grand Council" to put as my third choice among "The Big Three".  I feel like Laurent has always just been a character that's appealed to me.  He's like a more humanized version of Miriel - an intellect with his own share of scars and more overt emotions.

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Here's my tier list, plus a list made with the this FE sorter game thing. (I linked it in the other thread for Fates as well)

awakeningtierlist.thumb.png.65db8b15f6c2b768b19da1f0e239e920.pngFESorter_Awakening.thumb.png.4d8bcf4a357db95994a0a68a38c3f0b6.png

Under the watermark is Gerome and Lon'qu haha. I just finished a playthrough of Awakening not too long ago, and I modded the two Morgans to switch around with each other (so that I got male-Morgan as male-Robin), and I absolutely love him LOL.

I honestly think the reason why I put Chrom so high is because he's my husbando lmfao (tbh I only ever played the game with the gay marriage mod). That aside, I think I would put Gaius over Chrom. Strangely enough, I felt indifferent towards Asugi in Fates lmao.

Everything in the image tier is ordered by preference except for "Indifferent" because idk how I can say I'm "more" indifferent about one character over another lol

The sorter game doesn't separate the Morgans and Robins, and only has male-Morgan and female-Robin, but I didn't realize it until halfway through. Male-Robin would have been at the top of the list though.

At first I kind of disliked Noire and Kjelle, but after watching the Drama CD, I actually found that I actually kind of like them. Kjelle's support with Lucina does sour my view of her a bit though, so my feelings with her are a little conflicted--like I liked her a lot in the Drama CD, but disliked some of her supports in the game. I heard terrible things about Nah's S-support with Inigo, so I watched it on YouTube--and yup, don't like her LOL.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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My favorites tend to be the ones I use the most in my Awakening playthroughs. It's why most of the kids and NPCs are ranked lower because I almost never use them anymore nor do I watch the cutscenes so I don't really see them much anymore. Top 8 are still probably some of my most favorite Fire Emblem characters overall.

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  • 8 months later...

In preparation for the Nintendo 3DS E-shop closing next year, I bought all the Awakening DLC and I’m playing through it. There’s an amazing amount of dialogue and character interactions (which make me lament that Festival of Bonds DLC for Fates was never released outside of Japan.) It changed my perspective on a few characters, and there are some I’d shift around (for example, I’d probably switch Lucina and Cynthia.) 

These tier list topics are incredibly fun! I love seeing the variety of responses. I’m considering starting another one with a different theme at some point in the future.

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On 1/7/2022 at 9:41 PM, Fire Emblem Fan said:

S-Tier: Chrom, Lucina, Tiki, Gregor

A-Tier: Lissa, Stahl, Lon'qu, Virion, Sumia, Libra, Cherche, Olivia, Flavio, Basilio, Inigo, Owain, Brady, Noire, Cynthia

B-Tier: Say'ri, Robin (both), Frederick, Emmeryn, Gaius, Maribelle, Vaike, Donnel, Laurent, Miriel, Ricken

C-Tier: Nowi, Kellam, Yarne, Panne, Morgan (both), Yen'fay, Gerome, Priam, Aversa, Anna, Sully, Cordelia

D-Tier: Kjelle, Severa, Walhart, Nah, Henry, Tharja, Gangrel

So, my opinion has changed somewhat since this. I re-examined all the characters and the supports and such, and my list looks more like this:

S-tier: Chrom, Lucina, Gregor, Tiki
A-tier: Lon'qu, Lissa, Cherche, Stahl, Noire, Sumia, Cynthia, Owain, Virion, Gaius, Flavia, Basilio
B-tier: Robin, Gerome, Laurent, Inigo, Frederick, Donnel, Olivia, Libra, Say'ri, Brady, Emmeryn, Maribelle, Kellam, Morgan, Vaike, Miriel, Ricken
C-tier: Cordelia, Yen'fay, Yarne, Nowi, Anna, Sully, Aversa, Priam, Panne
D-tier: Kjelle, Tharja, Walhart, Gangrel, Severa, Nah, Henry

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  • 1 month later...

My list is based on character more than practicality, but it felt weird to put characters on it that I hadn't used in game yet. Honorable mention goes to Virion: his supports are excellent and his back story is great, I just don't use archers.

S tier characters: they're actually written well. Frederick's genuinely made me laugh several times. Libra and Lonqu aren't defined by their gimmick and have detailed backstories. Cherche likewise (bar a few supports that focus heavily on Minerva)

A tier: I really like these characters but they're not necessarily well written. I love Owain's theatrics, and I like Nowi's hidden wisdom (in the supports where the writers didn't lean tok hard into the "childlike" gimmick anyway).

B tier: I like these characters mostly. They don't stand out to me, in a good way; they're archetypal but still feel like they've got some depth.IMG_20221116_233812.thumb.jpg.b499b17837dfef87841d4498f43dd09f.jpg

C tier: These ones get on my nerves. Henry's weird introduction (at least Tharja explained she was defecting. Henry just... appeared.) and over the top blood obsession is grating. The rest are very dependent on their gimmick and don't develop past it. Ricken and Sully are the best out of this group and probably bordering on B.

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