Favorite Blazing Blade Character Tier List

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I've been going through Blazing Blade, my favorite game in the series, and ranking its playable cast, from my favorite to my least favorite, and organizing them in tiers from S (highest) to D (lowest). I thought it'd be fun to share what my final ranking is and to see how other lists would look. This is entirely based on how much I like them as characters, not on how good or bad they are as a unit. I'll talk about some of them a little bit, too.

• S-tier: Lyn, Eliwood, Hector, Nils, Ninian, Nino
• A-tier: Matthew, Lucius, Isadora, Heath, Fiora, Canas, Pent, Legault, Jaffar, Rebecca, Florina, Kent, Sain, Oswin, Raven
• B-tier: Wil, Athos, Renault, Rath, Louise, Karla, Farina, Priscilla, Dart, Bartre, Karel, Wallace, Geitz, Harken, Dorcas, Erk
• C-tier: Hawkeye, Serra, Vaida, Guy, Lowen, Marcus
• D-tier: Merlinus

I think it's pretty well-known around here that Lyn is my favorite character in the series, so her placement is self-explanatory. For Nino, she's a character that I've always liked, but she's steadily climbed higher over the years. She's got good supports that dive into some interesting things, such as her natural talent with magic and her illiteracy, and I really like her character arc and role in the main story.
Going down to A-tier, I put Lucius and Isadora as high as I did because I think they're two of the most interesting characters in the game. I like how varied their supports are, and I like how layered they are. For Lucius, one of his most memorable supports is the support with Renault, that one goes pretty deep and feels genuinely sad for both characters.
In B-tier, I struggled a little bit to rank Louise. I knew I definitely wouldn't put her above certain other characters, but I wasn't sure about the rest. Where I ultimately placed her feels right. I don't think she's super deep or anything, at least not with what they show us, but I also think she's just kinda cool. So, yeah, putting her where I did feels right. As for Karla, I hate that she's only available in Hector Mode and that she comes so late, because I think she's similar to Lucius and Isadora in that she has some really interesting supports. I like how odd Vaida finds her, and her support with Karel is probably the best one for the both of them.
On to C-tier, Hawkeye is sort of like Louise in that I just feel like he's kinda cool. As for Lowen, this might be a little unpopular, but he's kind of...boring? He's fine, and I like him, don't get me wrong, but compared to almost every other character on your roster, he's one of the least interesting.
D-tier only has one character, and it's Merlinus. Yes, I'm fully counting him. He gains levels and promotes, he gets supports, and he even gets a platonic paried ending with Marcus. He counts! Anyway, similar to Lowen, in a cast full of so many characters that I genuinely find cool and/or interesting, Merlinus isn't as interesting to me. He's my least favorite on the roster.

This was a very difficult ranking to make. Blazing Blade is my favorite game in the series, and I do like every single character on the roster. This really is one of those games where I like EVERY character. Ranking them was hard! But I did it, and my ranking feels very right and true for me. So, what about you? What's your list look like?

I made the tier list here: https://fe-tier-list-maker.github.io/

 

 

Edited February 9 by Fire Emblem Fan

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I know I shouldn't double-post, but with Blazing Blade coming to Switch now through the Switch's GBA catalog, this feels relevant.

[alapacaso]

You have much the same taste in the cast as I do

[Etrurian emperor]

I'm still waiting to find a tier list maker including both heroes and villains, and isn't a pain in the butt to use before being able to partake. 

[Fire Emblem Fan]

5 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I'm still waiting to find a tier list maker including both heroes and villains, and isn't a pain in the butt to use before being able to partake. 

You can do exactly that with where I made mine, I just elected to only rank the playable characters.

[Etrurian emperor]

Oh I did't realize. In that case.

[Magenta Fantasies]

I created tier list topics for Fates and Awakening a year or two ago on their respective subforums, so it's fun to see a new topic like this.

I’m playing through The Blazing Blade for the first time now. As of posting, I’m more than halfway through the game. Several of these characters I’ve recruited at this point, but I’ve read virtually all the supports and also know many of them from Heroes. The Blazing Blade reminds me of Awakening and Fates in that while the story and worldbuilding have noticeable flaws (though not as much as Awakening and Fates) I really like the cast (though not as much as Awakening and Fates.)

I’ll see if this list changes when I finish the game. I formatted it the same way as my Fates and Awakening tier lists.

I hugely enjoyed Karel’s supports and overall personality. Judge me as you will (and to add additional judging fuel to fire, I really like Peri for some of the same reasons, too.) There’s something incredibly fun about having characters like that among your mostly virtuous allies and the ensuing personality dynamics and interactions. Karel’s bloodlust and general demeanor lead to some very entertaining supports with other characters, and his support with Karla develops them both well. It’s also interesting to see Karel in contrast to how he is in the Binding Blade, where he has since turned his life around and mellowed into a disciplined and wise hermit. I liked that there were hints of this transformation in a few of Karel’s supports. Also, if this were a “best hair” tier list, he would top that as well.

It seems I am the only person here who likes Guy. I get definite shonen anime/manga protagonist vibes from him, and that’s an archetype I usually like. I enjoyed all his supports and find him very endearing. In general I have a big soft spot towards characters with that sort of excitable, youthful energy and wide-eyed enthusiasm (eg. Caspar, Kiragi, Rickard and Percy.)

There are a fair number of characters I’m indifferent to, but I don’t dislike many characters from this game. I’m not crazy about Eliwood, but I put him under Neutral because I wouldn’t say I dislike him so much as I dislike the fact that everything focuses on him, but his arc is the least interesting part of the plot. Lyn and Hector are much more interesting main characters. Bartre rubs me the wrong way. 90% of the time he’s annoying rather than funny, and he’s not an endearing or entertaining idiot like Raphael, Vaike or Keaton. I dislike everything about Geitz: his personality, his constant angsting about his life and lack of direction, his supports, and even his design.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

21 hours ago, Magenta Fantasies said:

I created tier list topics for Fates and Awakening a year or two ago on their respective subforums, so it's fun to see a new topic like this.

That's actually part of what inspired this, the other part simply being me playing through/reading through Blazing Blade and its supports at the time. I love Blazing and it was fun doing this topic, but also very tough actually ranking the characters since it's my favorite cast of FE characters.