Best Avatar

[Samz707]

My favourite is Mark, they're the avatar with the vaguest personality so you can headcanon yourself what it is, they don't fight and they don't have too much Avatar Worship. (With Byleth in second and Shez in third.)

Least Favourite: Honestly it could be Robin or Corrin, Corrin (who I gave the vote) is worse on a conceptional level, with their magic not-kill-anyone pacifism and the extremely absurd amounts of worship they get but I've actually finished Awakening so I have alot more personal dislike towards Robin due to having spent more hours with them.

[NotYourKindOfPeople]

I love Three Houses but Byleth should not have existed, and instead the three lords could have been the protagonists of their respective routes.

[Magenta Fantasies]

On 6/22/2023 at 2:43 AM, NotYourKindOfPeople said:

I love Three Houses but Byleth should not have existed, and instead the three lords could have been the protagonists of their respective routes.

I agree, and that’s part of why Byleth is my least favorite avatar by a country mile. I hate the “silent protagonist that everything and everyone revolves around” trope with a passion. Also, I dislike that Byleth can’t be customized in any meaningful way. Not being able to change Byleth’s appearance was a huge missed opportunity (even if the hair color couldn’t be changed or would change on its own when the relevant plot point happened.) 

Corrin is my favorite avatar, my favorite character in the series and probably my favorite protagonist and character in all of gaming. She’s ridiculously fun to use whether reclassed or not, can pass on almost any class to her spouse, and is probably my favorite character as a unit.

I can see why people dislike Corrin, but I find her personality extremely endearing and charismatic and I enjoy the vast majority of Corrin’s supports. Speaking of that, I love how avatar S-supporting and marriage works in Fates. It doesn’t change the story or gameplay very much, yet it feels meaningful, and I love being able to interact after S-supporting. This is something I felt was lacking in Awakening. Corrin also has the best sidekicks/adjacent characters: Jakob, Felicia, Azura and the Nohrian royals. I love them all, and I’m also fond of Kaze and Silas.

[Arvis4Prez]

I'm one of those, but I think Mark is the best way to do an Avatar story in Fire Emblem (and honestly is probably the only true self-insert character out there). Mark doesn't fight, so you don't have to worry about game balance, he's a tactician, which is essentially what the player is, and best of all, he doesn't take away from Lyn, Eliwood, or Hector's stories. The reason I think a lot of avatars suffer is because the whole idea behind an avatar character is to put yourself in their shoes. To think that you are in control. When that connection between the player and the avatar is damaged, it's irreparable. For example, let's look at Fates and assume you pick Conquest. Now, we have a lot of evidence that shows that Garon is bad given to us before we make an official choice. So, in my mind, the best thing to say to the Hoshido crowd is something like "hey I'm sorry, but there's something wrong in Nohr, and since I was raised there, and these Nohrians are my family now, I need to go stop it. I don't want us to be enemies so please don't attack us." Like I'd want to give an explanation for why I'm turning my back on Hoshido. But there's no such option. Corrin won't say anything. Hoshido thinks we've been brainwashed, and so Conquest is spent killing people who never needed to die. Even if Ryoma and the others ignored Corrin and still said that they've been brainwashed, fine. But at least Corrin actually spoke up. Instead, we get nothing, and it's so lame. 

Also lol at Mark having tied both best and worst avatar haha

[Use the Falchion]

Voted Robin for best. Robin and Shez have actual personalities, which makes them both the best and worst Avatars. (Robin and Shez are also in a sweet spot when it comes to the story. They're relevant due to their powers/history, but they aren't the main force pushing the story onward. They're close enough to be important, but they don't rob the actual main characters of importance or screentime; they also don't randomly fade into the background either, which is nice.) Robin, Corrin, and Kiran are designed by Yosuke Kozaki making them instant-wins customizable, making them better than those that aren't IMO.* (Kiran has less of a personality and is more of a comedic Avatar in the Heroes comics, which at least gives them something.)

I voted on Kris for worst, because I felt like I needed to vote for someone so I went with the one I didn't know but haven't heard good things about. (Not a good thing to do, but alas...)

I personally don't think Byleth is that bad. Byleth's problem IMO is that Three Houses leaned too hard on the "silent-but-still-talkative" protagonist thing with the Ashen Demon, which prevented them from being a fleshed-out character.** That being said, in the truest sense of an Avatar, Byleth is both a success and a failure (story-wise at least). We can see that in Three Hopes, Byleth's personality does shine through a bit and it's interesting. 

Mark could be seen as the best or the worst, given one's criteria, but I think they do their role well. Mark is an aspiring tactician (like players) and would rather watch the story unfold than play too heavy of a role in things (also like the players). I personally have a problem with Mark's fade into the background towards the later parts of the game, but I understand it too. 

 

*I think Corrin may fail as a character (due to being the game's Lord, Avatar, and Manakete, and the game's writing not balancing that out well) but not as an Avatar. 

**I have a theory that this was done in a wayward attempt to recapture the popularity of Joker from Persona 5, given everything else they borrowed from that game/franchise. Had they given Byleth voice-over in supports, I think it would have gone a very long way for the character. 

[PostZordem]

For the Best Avatar, my vote's going towards Robin because, like @Use the Falchion said, he manages to be important to Awakening's story without taking away from Chrom (Time) or Lucina. As much as I love Three Houses, I kind of hate how Byleth steals Edelgard/Dimitri/Claude's thunder in each respective route. Same goes for Corrin and Alear. 

As for the Worst Avatar, I'm gonna have to say Mark because he's such a blank slate that you could straight up remove him from the game and nothing would really change. Mark's such a nothingburger that I forget he's even in the game sometimes, and I'm pretty sure Eliwood, Lyn and Hector did too towards the end of Fire Emblem (Blazing Blade).

On 7/31/2023 at 12:28 PM, Magenta Fantasies said:

I agree, and that’s part of why Byleth is my least favorite avatar by a country mile. I hate the “silent protagonist that everything and everyone revolves around” trope with a passion. 

Corrin is my favorite avatar, my favorite character in the series and probably my favorite protagonist and character in all of gaming.

I can see why people dislike Corrin, but I find her personality extremely endearing and charismatic and I enjoy the vast majority of Corrin’s supports. Speaking of that, I love how avatar S-supporting and marriage works in Fates. It doesn’t change the story or gameplay very much, yet it feels meaningful, and I love being able to interact after S-supporting. This is something I felt was lacking in Awakening. Corrin also has the best sidekicks/adjacent characters: Jakob, Felicia, Azura and the Nohrian royals. I love them all, and I’m also fond of Kaze and Silas.

I personally just hate silent protagonists in general (With a few exceptions like Link and Samus). Like, I can get immersed into a world with a voiced protagonist just as easily as I would with a silent one. I just prefer main characters that actually talk, really. Which is why I prefer Robin, Corrin, Shez and Alear as protagonists over Byleth (And I will forever be salty that Byleth actually talked in Three Hopes but not Three Houses). Y'know, I actually wouldn't have minded if Shez was the protagonist of Three Houses instead of Byleth. Would've been interesting to see how that would've worked, being a student at Garreg Mach instead of a professor.

Favorite character in all of gaming seems like a stretch considering how many great protagonists there are, but maybe I'm not seeing something in Corrin that you do. I mean, I don't hate Corrin, but the avatar worship paired with Fates' writing doesn't give me the best impression of him (I know you referred to Corrin as female, but I am way too attached to my tall, brown-haired Anakin Corrin that I can't see him in any other light. Except for that one time I did a FemCorrin playthrough and enjoyed it. Ah, screw it! They're both perfect options!).

I like how Awakening and Fates allowed for Gen 2 child units to be created through S-ranks, which made the S-Supports more special than in Three Houses. I personally prefer Awakening's execution with the children from the doomed future arriving to save the present (ALA Future Trunks) over Fates' rapidly aged children from those realm thingies, but that's just me.

I'd argue that Three Houses had the best supporting cast, but that would be best saved for another discussion entirely. I will say that I loved most of the Hoshidan cast, with the Hoshidan royals (Ryoma is my absolute favorite and he's a full-on gigachad. I WILL defend my extramostbestest boi at all costs), Saito and Kaze being my favorites of the Fates characters (The Nohrian royals are pretty nice and Arthur is bonafide Himbo material, but I've got a soft spot for Birthright so... yeah.). Silas is also pretty cool, too. He's got one of my favorite supports with Corrin (Even S-ranked him in my F!Corrin playthrough). 

[Florete]

Oh, I voted in this, but never posted.

Despite my general dislike of Three Houses as a whole, Byleth remains my favorite series avatar. She had just the right amount of presence for me; being important to the story, but not necessarily the central figure. I also felt like I got more of a personality out of her than most of the others despite the lack of lines. A lot of it was probably me transposing my own ideas onto her, but what works, works. Sometimes less is more.

The big problem I have with Kris, Robin, Corrin, Shez, and Alear is that they feel like they're trying to both be player-inserts and standalone characters at the same time, and doing neither very well as a result. Whereas Byleth is like 80% player-insert, so the 20% standalone ends up supporting the 80% rather than feeling like it's trying to fight for dominance.

Mark I think was a product of their time. When I was 12 and I first played the game I really liked being included in that way, but it's all nostalgia and being referred to so directly as an off-screen "you" just doesn't work for me anymore.

I don't even know what to say about Kiran. Kiran feels like less of a character even than Mark, yet they're shoved into the story so often and so awkwardly.

[Timely Rain]

Easily Corrin. Just kidding, he's awful. I second Mark. I wish he had more of a role in the story, but I would rather he be irrelevant than too relevant. I hate the pandering of the player's character that other games indulge in.

[Lemmy]

Best would be Byleth, player choices influence the plot to a high degree.

 

Worst would be Alear, makes me feels like a cult leader, it's a creepy feeling I never got over.

[Alastor15243]

Regarding Shez: I haven't played Three Hopes, but just on principle I'm not sure I'll ever be able to respect someone who needed divine intervention to survive someone who needed divine intervention to survive a prologue bandit.

[Samz707]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Regarding Shez: I haven't played Three Hopes, but just on principle I'm not sure I'll ever be able to respect someone who needed divine intervention to survive someone who needed divine intervention to survive a prologue bandit.

Clearly the takeaway is that Kostas is the strongest man in Fodlan.

IS are clearly saving him to be the final OP unit of Heroes.

[Alastor15243]

2 hours ago, Samz707 said:

Clearly the takeaway is that Kostas is the strongest man in Fodlan.

IS are clearly saving him to be the final OP unit of Heroes.

I mean in fairness, his title is apparently "The Iron King". That's pretty badass.