The Best Characters to Represent Fire Emblem Games With Multiple Lords/Leads

[Randoman]

So regarding Fire Emblem Games where there's multiple lords/lead characters, in cases where they're only able to pick one lord to represent each Fire Emblem Game, which lord/lead do you think best represents each Fire Emblem Game, and why? Note that I was only able to put 5 questions max on the poll, so I cut out Radiant Dawn and Three Houses (though I feel like the rep choices for those two are pretty clear cut).

Please try to be as objective as possible, and don't just choose based on your favourite characters.

Also, you do not have to go based on what Nintendo/IS has gone by in past games. For example: just because Lyn was the Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword rep of the Smash Bros. series (well, in a sense, with her Assist Trophy status in the past 3 games and Eliwood and Hector not getting similar treatment), Fire Emblem Warriors, and Fire Emblem Engage, if you personally believe that Eliwood is more important and central to Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword than Lyn, and deserved to replace Lyn in those games, feel free to list Eliwood as the best character to represent Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword.

For Fire Emblem Gaiden, I feel like that should go to Alm, with him being the first lead character you control, him getting more chapters/battles than Celica (Chapter 1, 3, 4, and 5 has Alm playable, while Chapter 2, 3, 4, and only the last part of 5 has Celica playable), and Alm being essentially mandatory for defeating the final boss.

For Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, I'm actually really split on if it should be Sigurd or Seliph. Sigurd is the first lead character you control, but Seliph is the lead who finally ends the conflict. They both get exactly the same amount of chapters that they're playable in (from what I recall). I'm personally okay with either character being the representative of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. Though for poll purposes (the polls won't let me vote unless all questions are answered), I'll choose Seliph since as of the time of this post, Sigurd is winning the poll, and I want to even things out with my vote to represent a neutral vote of sorts.

For Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword, I feel like Eliwood should be the main representative. Even if Lyn is the first lead that shows up and is playable, the game's main story heavily revolves around Eliwood, his journey that he undertakes, and his losses, so I feel that he should be the one representing Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword. Sure, Hector Mode exists and the story becomes much more focused on Hector there, but with that being a mode that's only available after defeating the game, I don't consider it as canon as Eliwood's story.

For Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, I feel Eirika is the one that best represents the game. Even in Ephraim's route, she's playable in 15 of the 23 chapters, mandatory in at least 10 of them, and still plays a huge story role in Ephraim's route. In her own route, I really don't think I need to argue how central she is in her own route. Compared to Ephraim, even in his own route he's only playable in 15 out of the 23 chapters, and in Eirika's route he's only playable in 9 out of the 23 chapters. Given those statistics and the fact that Sacred Stones heavily focuses on Eirika during the first third of the game (while giving Ephraim one side chapter for the first third and that's it), Eirika is far more prominent in Sacred Stones presence-wise and story-wise than Ephraim, so I'd consider her to be the better representative.

For Fire Emblem Awakening, I'd say Chrom is the best representative for that game, with the story essentially revolving around him and his kingdom. Even though both Chrom and Robin are playable in all the chapters, Robin's stakes in the story and the game's events are nowhere near as high as Chrom's. I really don't think Lucina is as important to the game as Chrom and Robin, given she's only playable around the second half of the story, her appearances aren't too frequent in the first half of the story, I'm pretty sure she's only mandatory to use in one chapter, and she's allowed to die without giving the player a Game Over. That last one really shoots down her importance in my eyes, since no other lord/lead has that distinction. Plus, she's not mandatory to use in the final chapter, while all other games with multiple lords/leads force all the lords/leads to be used for the last battle (barring Sigurd, because, well, he's dead).

Edited February 11, 2023 by Randoman

[Troykv]

I imagine things are very clear cut out with Radiant Dawn and Three Houses anyway; considering in the case of Radiant Dawn the two main characters can each represent a game on their own, and with Three Houses there is a clear neutral option (Byleth).

About the other characters, I feel like prioritizing the women makes sense depending the idea of the game, like in Engage feels appropiate considering the fact the game is very serious in having a near 50/50 distribution of playable characters and the games have to deal with the fact 4 of the chosen characters are gonna be guys by default regardless of how you stretch things (Marth, Sigurd/Seliph, Leif and Roy).

So I overall like the approach that Engage took in the context of the game, but besides the cases where is the logical choices for other reasons (Micaiah, Female Corrin), I want to highlight Eirika as the character that needs to represent Sacred Stones, not only is she the first character that you get in Sacred Stones, she also has the distinction of being the only female lord that is playable the whole main game that isn't an Avatar.

She is a better figure to represent Sacred Stones than Ephraim for anything besides weapon type (though, she being the swordie of the two also connects her even more with even the main lord of the two).

[Azz]

For Gaiden/SoV, while I personally prefer Celica and do think she is a better rep due to not being sword locked and bringing something unique to the sword-packed group that is FE lords, I do think Alm is portrayed as the primary hero (mainly due to their story being a fantasy story written in the 90s tbh). He is playable for most of the game, is the first lord you use and is the one who defeats Duma at the end of the day. But I do think that in general, I would prefer to have both around to rep their games since Alm and Celica are supposed to be two sides of the same coin that balance one another.

For GotHW, Seliph imo. While Sigurd is the more interesting character, Seliph represents what GotHW is all about, the next generation repairing the damage done by the previous.

For Blazing Blade, Eliwood. Story wise, Eliwood is the main character. Lyn and Hector have their own arcs that are explored in their routes, but the story primarily revolves around Eliwood, getting revenge for his father, his story with Ninian and so on. I don't mind Lyn being the designated rep for Blazing Blade since she is so much more well known (and I do sometimes enjoy her route as a little self-contained story sometimes), I do think Eliwood is thee Blazing Blade lord.

For Sacred Stones, I do think Eirika is the better rep. Much like Alm, she is around much more and I think she has a better arch than Ephraim. Again tho, like Alm and Celica, I think having both is important tho.

Finally, for Awakening, I think Lucina. As much as I love Chrom and Robin, I think they work better as a duo, whereas Lucina is well able to rep Awakening on her own. Her story of coming from a ruined future to change the events of the past is much more interesting and she represents the themes of Awakening much more easily on her own than Chrom or Robin do.

[lenticular]

It depends. For instance, are they representing the game to people who have already played it, or to people who they hope might pick it up in the future? If the former, there's an incentive to go with the most popular characters that will trigger good nostalgia feelings (eg Lucina), but if the latter then it might be better to emphasises characters who appear prominently early on in the game (eg Robin). It also matters whether the game is being presented on its own or as part of the series as a whole. For instance, if we were just picking out a Radiant Dawn character in a vacuum, then Ike would be a pretty reasonable pick, but if we were picking two characters, one for Path of Radiance and one for Radiant Dawn then hardly anyone would have Ike as the PoR representative. This is especially important when there isn't that much of a difference between different characters. Either Alm or Celica work well as a rep for Gaiden/Echoes, so which one gets picked should definitely come down to surrounding circumstances.

[Sunwoo]

Alm > Celica. Much as I wish Alm and Celica were more equal to each other in SoV, they're not. The narrative clearly favors Alm, who ends up with the dragon-slaying Falchion and saves his supposed co-lord at the peak of the game. Celica gets about half the screen time, but the conclusion of her part has her giving herself up to the bad guy and then she has to be saved by Alm. If we are picking purely the best game representative, with no regards to gender and weapon balance, it's Alm.

Sigurd ≥ Seliph, I guess. If your game was focused solely on FE4's 2nd gen then obviously Seliph would be the correct choice, but I think if you're representing all of FE4, Sigurd is a fairer choice. He shows up first and his half of the game sets up the plot.

Eliwood>Hector>Lyn. Look, I don't care that Lyn was the West's first lord. It's skippable after the first playthrough and Lyn herself isn't really relevant to the main part of the story, Eliwood and Hector's modes. In terms of story, Lyn is lol. Eliwood gets precedence over Hector because Eliwood mode is the default, and the main story is kicked off by his actions of leaving Pherae to find Elbert.

Eirika ≥ Ephraim. These two are pretty evenly matched and have basically equal importance (and are what Alm and Celica should've been). But if I had to pick one, Eirika gets precedence for showing up first and being around for more chapters.

Chrom > Robin > Lucina. Again, I don't care how popular Lucina is. As an actual lord her importance is pretty bad. I'm pretty sure you can even kill her off in classic mode and not get a game over, which should automatically disqualify her from any discussion of "who amongst Chrom, Robin, and Lucina is the most important?" Chrom gets precedence over Robin because Chrom is billed as the main lord, not Robin. Even if Robin steals the spotlight for the last 5ish chapters, Chrom gets the first 1/3 or 1/2 as the focal character and is presented as the lord.

I hate IS's recent trend of scrambling for "gender balance" and "weapon balance" for things like spinoffs for lord reunion games instead of just using either the best representative or all the best representative options. Don't tell me that Lyn is as important to her plot as Marth or Ike were to theirs. Don't tell me that Celica is as equal to Alm as Eirika is to Ephraim. Don't tell me that Lucina should be on the same level as Roy or Seliph, when Lucina still had *a* version of her father in the party keeping full responsibility off her shoulders.

IS should've created a female solo lord in the vein of Marth or Roy or Ike a long time ago who never has to share her spotlight. Lifting up Celica, Lyn, and Lucina over male characters whom THEY wrote as being more narratively important to the plot because IS suddenly doesn't have enough female characters is just deflecting from the real problem here.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I basically agree with all of Engage's choices. Gender balance is important. Yes, it would have been better if Intsys wasn't sexist as they were in the 90's (who thought Jugdral having three lords and all of them being male was okay) and to a lesser extent the decade that followed, but that's not the reality we live in. I think Engage going six and six is a laudable goal.

The only change I might have made is Celica -> Alm (since he is pretty clearly the main lord, much as I wish they'd been equal) and male Byleth -> female Byleth (since they're obviously equally important, but she is more popular). But I understand wanting to split the avatars, I suppose. I also understand wanting a canon tome-user besides Micaiah, although really Corrin could have had them too, thanks to her Nohr promotion (as well as staves from her Hoshido promotion).

Lyn as the Blazing choice is a no-brainer, in my opinion. I can't imagine Intsys spent much time debating that one. She's the west's first lord. She's the most popular character from the game, and was the most popular female character in the series prior to 3H judging by CYL1. And I think for whatever reason people like to understate her importance, or pretend her route doesn't exist. Yes, you can skip her route on replays. You can also skip Eliwood's or Hector's routes - in fact I know plenty of players who never played Hector's route at all.

[AnonymousSpeed]

My apathy towards gender balance is exceeded by few things, among them my apathy towards Fire Emblem lords in their own games. I demand Makalov.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Gaiden/Shadows of Valentia: I think I'll go with Alm here. Celica is great and all, but I feel like a lot of what makes her important was added in the Shadows of Valentia remake. Despite the split routes, Alm was definitely the main character in the original game, and I don't think that changed in Shadows of Valentia. He's the foil to multiple antagonists (Rudolf, Berkut, and Duma), not to mention the beef Fernand takes with him, and he's the one who gets Valentia's Falchion. He should be the representative here.

Genealogy of the Holy War: I feel that Sigurd and Seliph are both pretty equal in terms of their importance, but I also feel that Sigurd is a better representative of this game. You start with him, you see firsthand his entire journey and the fate of him and his allies. What happens to him is the entire reason Seliph gets the second half of the game in the first place.

Blazing Blade: It's well-known here that Lyn is my favorite character in the series, but setting that aside, I still have to say that it's definitely Lyn. She was specifically designed to be the west's introduction the the entire franchise, that alone elevates her above Eliwood and Hector regardless of her role in the story in Eliwood Mode or Hector Mode. She's the first character your intrduced to in this game, you start with her and her allies, and her story is not something you can skip on your first playthrough. She's incredibly popular to Ike levels, and she's simply a very important character to the franchise as a whole. It's Lyn, no question.

Sacred Stones: I'm going to say Eirika. She's the one you see for the entire first third of the game, Ephraim doesn't come into genuine play until they split routes. And even if you pick his route, you get Eirika back just a few chapters later, and she's there for the rest of the game. You don't see important things with Duessel, Knoll, or Myrrh on Eirika's route, but so too on Ephraim's route do you not see important things with Joshua, Cormag, Innes, or Saleh. Tana probably makes more sense joining on Ephraim's route, if only to bulk his forces if not for anything else, but Gerik and his crew arguably makes more sense joining on Eirika's route, as do L'Arachel and Dozla, and Ewan.

Awakening: This one is a closer contest, in my opinion. Lucina isn't playable until halfway through the game, but she is present for mostly the entirety of it, and she's an important character regardless of issuing "Game Over" upon her defeat or not. But Chrom is just as important, probably more so, and the majority of the game feels like it's his story. It isn't like Blazing Blade where you're first introduced to Lyn with an unskippable story that introduces you to the franchise, you don't get that her for Lucina. You start with Chrom. But, before the story even begins...you create Robin, and Robin is present with Chrom in that opening segment, and then found unconscious by Chrom immediately after as the main story begins, and they (Robin) have probably the most important role as the main villain's vessel and the secondary main villain's son. This one feels pretty even...but I think I'll go with Chrom.

As for Radiant Dawn and Three Houses, I'm just gonna say Micaiah for RD and Byleth for TH, no explanations.

Edited February 12, 2023 by Fire Emblem Fan

[Jotari]

It really depends on the medium you're talking about. Eirika is a bigger protagonist than Ephraim in Sacred Stones. Despite Ephraim doing the heavy lifting of the narrative by near single handedly toppling Grado, Eirika is the one who is focused on in the prologue, Eirika is the one who has more sensible character recruitments and Eirika has the more central interaction with Lyon in the final chapters. You could demote Ephraim from lord to major character with no real changes to the story (other than a really bizarre off screen victory), and that's honestly what you do if you play Eirika mode. The same isn't true for playing Ephraim mode.

BUT

Ephraim uses lances...and yeah, that super matters. Because these aren't books. Their video games. And  gameplay super matters. Ephraim being different in a conventional fighting sense makes him more unique and thus more suitable for some kind of ensemble best of album. So no contest if any of the two of them should get into Smash Bros. it should be Ephraim. And yeah, I really think Ephraim should have got in over Eirika in Engage, and I think they knew that with their paltry attempt to make him seem present.

So, yeah, if we're talking about some kind of crossover comic or just a simple cameo, then the obvious narrative case is Eirika. But anything where the appearance will have a functional impact on gameplay, then Ephraim is likely the much better choice. You have similar cases with Alm vs Celica or Eliwood vs Hector vs Lyn. Or even Robin vs Lucina/Chrom. Gameplay matters, yo. And the ones who can distinguish themselves more easily from their peers are the ones who are going to make the better game.

Course we all know IS isn't choosing based on either of the above metrics, they're going by who's sexist.

Edited February 12, 2023 by Jotari

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

In Echoes, I'd say it's Alm. He has Act V almost all to himself, he wield the weapon needed to beat the Big Bad, and through his exploits he unites Valentia. I wish Celica had more to do, but she doesn't. 

In Genealogy, I very reluctantly gave it to Seliph. Sigurd is very important, but his son is the one who finishes the mission he started. He's the one who saves the world from crerpy cultists. Also, he technically exists in both generations. 

For Blazing Sword, it's Eliwood. He wields the titular Blazing Sword (which is a very dumb name for Durandal, and an even worse name for the game, but... still). And his mission to save his father is what sets the main plot into motion.

As for Sacred Stones, I'm giving it to Eirika. You spend more time with her, getting to know her and her band of allies better. If you play her route, Ephraim hardly exists.

Not in the poll, but in Radiant Dawn... I'm choosing Ike. He gets the last blow on the final boss, and he gets the personalized ending card. Again, I wish Micaiah got more, but them's the brakes.

Finally, when it comes to Awakening, my pick is Robin. They don't seem super important to the plot in the first couple arcs, but they prove pivotal in the Big Bad's plans - including, canonically, making a choice that changes the ending.

[AnonymousSpeed]

On 2/12/2023 at 1:09 AM, Jotari said:

Their video games.

My games.

On 2/12/2023 at 1:09 AM, Jotari said:

they're going by who's sexist

Fire Emblem Engage preparing to put me and the boys in the game:

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

My games.

Fire Emblem Engage preparing to put me and the boys in the game:

Dang...I meant sexiest. Curst you letter i. You always were the lesser of the vowels.

3 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Not in the poll, but in Radiant Dawn... I'm choosing Ike. He gets the last blow on the final boss, and he gets the personalized ending card. Again, I wish Micaiah got more, but them's the brakes.

This is so true. Aside from the criteria of "First character you play as", there's really no reason to choose Alm over Celica for Shadows of Valentia, but Micaiah over Ike for Radiant Dawn. Micaiah just seems the obvious choice for Radiant Dawn because we can already choose Ike for Path of Radiance. But in reality Ike is just as much the protagonist if not more so. Would be very convenient for this sort of thing if we had a second Valentia game for Celica and Alm to share. Though Valentia does strike me as one of the more contrived titles in the series to and write a sequel for given there are no enemy nations left or dangling plot points to latch on to. Unless Alm and Celica want to go to war with Jessie and his mercenary nation (or hell, let's just go full nonsense fanservice and have Alm invade Archanea to spread his peaceful ways with violence!).

Edited February 14, 2023 by Jotari

[Yexin]

as far as " what main character represents his/her game the best" goes, if "representation" is intended as "the most important character", i think my picks are quite predictable:

Gaiden/Echoes: Alm
Genealogy: Sigurd
Blazing Sword: Eliwood
Sacred Stones: Eirika
Awakening: Lucina

but i must admit, i picked Robin over Lucina because they're the most important Awakening main character for the FE series as a whole, as they're the most popular and recognizable avatar in the series, although not necessarily the most important character for Awakening's plot

Lyn could be intended as the "frontwoman" of Blazing Sword, but only for the same reasons which led IS pick Camilla as a dlc emblem for Engage instead of literally anyone else
the "first western FE lord nostalgia" point might be thrown in and it'd be solid, but then again this goes back to the "attractive, busty, not-entirely-dressed female character" discourse which in retrospect made IS think shafting Eliwood in favor of Lyn was the optimal idea for better sales overall... which in the end i think is the OP's question's whole point

[Etrurian emperor]

I really like Alm, and I'm annoyed Celica has it so much better than him. But, I think Celica really is better suited to represent Echoes then Alm is. The vast majority of lords are sword wielding males so Celica being a girl and primarily a mage makes her a more varied pick than Alm. Also the story of Echoes has a lot to do about the gods, and on that topic Celica has a much clearer stance than Alm.

I think the tragedy of Eliwood is that he doesn't really bring much to the table that Roy doesn't already. They're both gentle, sword wielding red heads, and Eliwood having a pony upon promotion only does so much to differentiate them. I'd say Lyn is a solid pick for a FE7 rep. Her more nomadic appearance makes her stand out, and its easy to give her a bow in order to prevent the ''too many swords'' problem. Part of Lyn's prominence has to do with her being the first western lord, but if being the first is enough to give Marth a special status then that should apply to Lyn as well.

For the twins I'd say Eirika is the better pick. Partially because female lords are in short supply, and partially because of the entirely subjective opinion that I find Ephraim boring. 

In the past I'd say Lucina would have been the best Awakening rep because she was a real phenomenon when she was introduced. But that status has decreased somewhat and now I think the Robins are the better option. Switching between magic, weaponry and Grima based powers gives them the best tool kit of the three lords. 

For Three Houses I have the controversial stance that IS should stop being timid and just say its Edelgard. And if they don't want to they should stop being timid and say its Dimitri, or Claude. Byleth is a boring compromise candidate. Fans of the two lords that didn't make the cut may grumble, but even to the fans of those two the winning candidate would have more to offer than Byleth. With Byleth none of the house supporters lose, but absolutely none of them win anything meaningful either.  Just pick one of the trio to have a Three Houses rep that's engaging and meaningful. Of those I personally think Edelgard would fit best. Because she featured the most in the marketing, to the extend the game's main theme is about her. And because as a lord who has more similarities in designs with other villains rather than other lords makes her very unique. 

 

[Jotari]

4 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

For Three Houses I have the controversial stance that IS should stop being timid and just say its Edelgard. And if they don't want to they should stop being timid and say its Dimitri, or Claude. Byleth is a boring compromise candidate. Fans of the two lords that didn't make the cut may grumble, but even to the fans of those two the winning candidate would have more to offer than Byleth. With Byleth none of the house supporters lose, but absolutely none of them win anything meaningful either.  Just pick one of the trio to have a Three Houses rep that's engaging and meaningful. Of those I personally think Edelgard would fit best. Because she featured the most in the marketing, to the extend the game's main theme is about her. And because as a lord who has more similarities in designs with other villains rather than other lords makes her very unique. 

Byleth doesn't just have the advantage of neutrality, they're also the only lord that can conceivbale represent Brawling Arts. Well, I guess Alear can now too, going forward since they have it as a sub weapon (even if it's freaking useless on them).

[lenticular]

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

Byleth doesn't just have the advantage of neutrality, they're also the only lord that can conceivbale represent Brawling Arts. Well, I guess Alear can now too, going forward since they have it as a sub weapon (even if it's freaking useless on them).

On the one hand, yeah, it's nice having someone who can use brawling/arts/whatever they call it going forward. But on the other hand, Engage managed to use Micaiah and Leif to represent knives, and I don't think that was terrible, so I probably wouldn't have minded if they'd just decided that (for instance) Edelgard and Ike were Arts users now.

[Fabulously Olivier]

I think the choices Engage made were largely fine, but Ephraim > Eirika and Azura > Corrin.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Fabulously Olivier

[joeygreedy]

I'll chime in for Awakening

Awakening I think, honestly, Chrom. 

Lucina is the driving factor behind the plot, appearing in 2 to save Lissa, 4 to fight in the arena, chapter 6 to prevent Chrom getting injured and Emmeryn getting stabbed, appears in chapter 9's ending to drop a line, is born in chapter 12, and joins after chapter 13 and saving Chrom from a Risen.

Then I'll be honest we get the Walhart arc where both she and Robin are kinda irrelevant. 

Then back to chapter 22 and Lucina's judgement, in an attempt to prevent Chrom's future death, but in Chapter 23, Robin doesn't stab Chrom, chapter 24, 25, 26 is all 3 of them fighting their way to awaken the Fire Emblem and kill Grima. 

Chrom is proactive through most of the game, with Robin acting as his tactician.

Roughly speaking, I honestly think their plot importance can be split 3 ways

Chapter 1-11 is Lucina and Chrom's, working their way to stop Emmeryn's death ( and failing ), with Chrom being the POV character and Lucina interfering often to guide the future.

Chapter 12-20 is Walhart, Chrom and Robin get the front row seat to the invasion force, while Lucina is kinda there.

Chapter 21-26 is where Robin and Lucina take front row, while Chrom is pushed back a bit since it's now inverted, Lucina preventing the Dark Future and Robin outwitting Validar and ( I assume ) killing Grima at the cost of their own life ( for a few minutes ). 

All 3 could be the rep TBH, but I'll be real, Chrom and Lucina are gameplay-wise identical, while Robin is a standout for using Sword+Tomes, with the Levin Sword being his 'signature' weapon. 

Storywise, I'll say Chrom, but it could be any of the 3 and I'll be happy. Personality-wise I prefer Lucina but that's subjective.

 

[Seazas]

I like Alm more but it's just a fact that he's too derivative of Marth to be a worthwhile choice. Celica and her struggles are more emblematic of the game as well, Alm is designed around being a disconnected steamroller of armies. Celica has more issues with being a princess of Zofia and the main theme of gods. Celica further showcases humanity's folly with her even being a direct victim of Desaix and his greed: a main antagonist in Alm's route. Alm just kinda solves everything without getting in the mud too much and that makes a very uninteresting unfitting choice of Gaiden/SOV and its themes.

Sigurd and his campaign is significantly more memorable and better written than Seliph's. He best represents FE4 and what made it standout.

Lyn has been described as Marth for the West. She kinda has to be prioritized if it came down to one FE7 rep.

Intelligent Systems hit a sweet spot with Eirika. Having her and Ephraim double team with Eirika being the face for extra diversity was optimal. Just have Ephraim occasionally chime in like Robin does and you're golden. Sacred Stones stands out better this way.

Chrom and Lucina are a toss-up. They're about tied in being prioritized over one another. Chrom is the best though but Lucina isn't too bad.

Edited March 31, 2023 by Seazas

[Florete]

I'm answering in a "no specific context" sort of way. Basically, what would be the first choice before any other considerations. I like what Engage chose, but they clearly wanted a gender balance and maybe made some concessions for it. I'm not worrying about that here...though only one of my choices ended up different.

Echoes: Celica. I think she would have made more sense as the main protagonist to be begin with, as I think she represents its themes better and has a better character arc than Alm does.

Genealogy: Sigurd, though really, it's a tough choice, and there's not much specific reasoning behind it.

Blazing Blade: Eliwood. This one kind of hurts for me, because I really love Lyn, but it is Eliwood's story, as much as I think people tend to unfairly downplay Lyn's involvement. No way it would be Hector, though. Hector is a great supporting character, but even in "Hector mode" he doesn't qualify as a protagonist.

Sacred Stones: Eirika. She does end up treated somewhat poorly in the narrative, but she has the strongest ties to the relevant characters and plot beats in the game. Lead Eirika with supporting Ephraim just makes more sense than lead Ephraim with supporting Eirika.

Awakening: Lucina. Awakening actually does a pretty good job of balancing its three, imo (and the poll results reflect this), but Lucina is the one who really allows everything to happen. It's the one option here where I think the best representative isn't necessarily the one I see as the best protagonist.