Top 10 Fire Emblem Awakening Characters

With Fire Emblem Fates being announced and Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem still alive, we want to take a look back at one of our favorite Fire Emblem games: 2013's Fire Emblem Awakening. We'll be grading units based on their designs, usefulness and mainly personality.

10. Gregor

"Yes! Gregor is swell-sword!" Gregor is the lovable and oafish mercenary with a laughter and wonder that hides a tragic past. Living under a harsh roof, Gregor's parents weren't easy on him and were killed by bandits before he grew up. He also made a mistake in combat alongside his older brother, which Gregor believes resulted in his brother's death. We also find out that Gregor was his brother's name and he goes by Gregor to honor his death. Despite this woe and tribulation, Gregor is one of the happiest characters you'll meet in Awakening. The Shepards encounter him turning on his employers and freeing Nowi, a manakete they had recently captured for show although Nowi doesn't see it that way when she sees Gregor's massive form. His rough and broken accent is also a delight to hear of all the proper speaking folk in the game. Gregor's starting class is the Mercenary, a swordsman who can deal damage and evade easily and take a hit. This perfectly embodies the experienced and older Gregor in many ways.

9. Lon'qu

"How well will you die?!" That's the fearsome Lon'qu for ya. A skilled swordsman hailing from Chon'sin, Lon'qu has a (yet another) tragic past. He fled the country when he was young due to the death of a close female friend. This imprinted a large phobia of women onto Lon'qu as he doesn't want to see another female close to him die. He fled to Regna Ferox, where he trained and served under West Khan Basilio. He is a gift from Basilio to the Shepards as the Khan's former champion. Lon'qu has a lot of potential and can be one of your heaviest hitters if you keep training him. He starts off as a Myrmidon, a swordsman with little defense but a lot of Skill. Skill in Fire Emblem calculates into your chance to hit and chance to crit, which is this class's specialty. Lon'qu also comes equipped with a Killing Edge which is a sword that bolsters a 30% chance of a critical hit and that's only the base. Couple that with Lon'qu's high Skill and you've got a beast that will slaughter left and right, a great unit for early on in the game.

8. Kellam

"Wait, you can see me?!" These words escape the silent knight Kellam. You would think that a tall man in a suit of armor two sizes too big would be noticeable right? Nope. Kellam's innate superpower is that he goes around relatively unnoticed by most people. From people thinking that ghosts are afoot because he moves around without being seen to everyone being startled as soon as he speaks. It wasn't always like this. In his backstory (and I'm noticing a tragic theme here...), Kellam came from a poor family of five brothers. Kellam would never share with his large family and would be a brat and they would start to ignore him, leading into his signature trait. Now he's a humble knight who serves wherever he can. Kellam is a member of Chrom's Shepards when you first meet him, but will need to be recruited on a future mission when no one realizes that he tagged along.  Kellam starts off as a Knight, a hardy unit with a lot of Defense but reduced movement. This is great early on in the game as he can take hits that would be fatal to other units, and that's useful in a game with permanent death like Fire Emblem.

7. Gerome

"Embrace your fate!" From Ylisse's desolate future comes Gerome, the potential child of Cherche and whatever guy she marries on a play through. Gerome is pretty much the Batman of Fire Emblem Awakening. Gerome was a happy, but shy child in his timeline until the death of his father and then Cherche soon afterwards. Cherche's wyvern, Minerva, came back to Gerome upon her death and Gerome became very attached to Minerva. When Lucina and the other future children decide to go into the past, the now distant Gerome only tags along because he wants to release Minerva into the wild since his future has no wyverns besides Minerva. He encounters Chrom, his army and his mother in the past before he can do this and join's Chrom's army. Gerome gets a lot of traits from his mother, so he'll always be a physical powerhouse, plus traits he gets from his father. Just like any Wyvern Rider, Gerome is handy with an axe and rides a fearsome mount so you better watch out.

6. Olivia

"Stop staring!" Olivia is a beautiful dancer and the shyest girl you'll ever meet, shy in most situations and nerve racked while dancing. Despite these traits, she's one of the most elegant dancers you'll ever feast your eyes on. Olivia is a part of traveling troupe and is so good that one onlooker planned to kidnap and marry her. This plan was stopped short by Khan Basilio himself and she's always been indebted to him. That's how she meets Chrom and the Shepards, by assisting the Khan in the war with Plegia. Olivia is a unique unit, the only Dancer in the game. She can use her action on an adjacent unit that has already acted to allow that unit to move and act again. This makes her a fragile support unit, luckily Olivia can be reclassed to make herself stronger. Allowing her to gain experience in one class before becoming a Dancer again will make Olivia one of the strongest units you'll have.

5. Cherche

"Rest in pieces!" Never thought you'd hear a house maiden say those words huh? You've obviously never met Cherche. Cherche has spent most of her life a vassal to House Virion, so she has many useful skills like cooking, sewing and mounted combat... wait, what? Cherche is also one of the fiercest wyvern riders you'll ever meet. She beat her own wyvern, Minerva, in unarmed combat to tame her. She appears in the campaign when the Valmese seek to conquer all the continents. Virion returns to Ylisse with Cherche in tow, telling of the Valm army that took Rosanne from them and joins Chrom's army. Cherche is definitely a force to be reckoned with, especially in combat. As a Wyvern Rider, Cherche has great Strength, improved Movement and mastery of the axe to back it up as well.

4. Vaike

"Teach just got tenure!" Vaike is the hot-headed and self appointed leader of the Shepards. Being Chrom's rival, he's constantly challenging him and trying to usurp him, in a friendly and simplistic way. Vaike was raised in the slums and even once led a small gang in his youth but that all changed when Chrom's older sister, the Exalt Emmeryn, came to his village and spoke to the people. Vaike then aspired to become the warrior of warriors. Vaike starts out as a Fighter, but without an axe. Someone must find and give it to him to teach the player how to trade between units. Vaike is very powerful and one of the few axe wielding characters you get early on. So if the opposing team has an abundance of lance wielders, it won't hurt you to send in good 'ol Vaike to clean 'em out.

3. Chrom/Lucina

"Anything can change!" "I challenge my fate!" Our first tie/these-characters-are-kinda-the-same-and-both-are-equally-awesome is between Chrom and his daughter Lucina, two of the three protagonists of the game. Chrom is the prince, and later Exalt, of the Haildom of Ylisse and leader of the band of vigilantes known as the Shepards. He meets your player character in a field and your long journey starts there. After the war with Plegia, he'll get married and father a daughter named Lucina. But how can that be? This Lucina is not a baby. The Lucina you use in-game is from the future, a desolate land where the Fell Dragon Grima reigns supreme and the zombie-like Risen populate most of the land. Lucina is able to utilize a spell to go back in time and brings along all the children of any of your married units. She wears a mask and masquerades as a man named Marth, as to not alert her father to her existence. These two will be your only and Lord units in Awakening. They both have access to the Falchion/Parallel Falchion sword, a sub-par weapon that has the great advantage of never wearing out. Unlike other weapons, both Falchions have unlimited uses and that means you can get good use out of these two.

2. Robin/Morgan

"Time to tip the scales!" "Time to even the odds!" I did say Chrom/Lucina was our first tie of the list. The second (and second place) goes to your player character (whose default name is Robin) and your adorable mini-tactican Morgan. Robin is left in a field and discovered by Chrom, Lissa and Frederick. With no memory and a knack for swordplay, magic and strategy; Robin finds their place within the Shepards fairly quickly. Their mysterious past is brought up form time to time, but being the Shepard's tactician throws all doubt aside from anyone. If you decide to fall in love with another unit, you'll be able to produce a little Morgan. Morgan will always be the gender opposite you and will start as the base class of your spouse. Because they are your child, they have access to your Tactician class and should be reclassed immediately after getting them or be allowed to reclass after getting to Level 20 to get even more stats. Since Morgan is your only other guaranteed Tactician, this is vital. You can have another Tactician if Robin marries a character who will have a child outside of Morgan, this means Male Robin has to marry one of the plethora of women that bear one and Female Robin only has Chrom as her option; then Morgan's sibling will be able to be a Tactician. Tactician's are super useful as they are a base class that starts with two weapon types, two diverse ones in fact. They can wield swords and tomes which is great because all other classes can only get a dual weapon opportunity upon becoming advanced units.

1. Donnel

"YEEEHAW" Sorry if you didn't see it coming, but Donny's definitely our favorite unit in Awakening. Donnel comes from a small village in the first Paralogue Quest of the game. His village is being attacked by raiders and he jumps into the fight at the last second to assist the Shepards. He can be difficult to recruit but an invaluable unit. Donny must level up with this mission to be recruited , which can prove difficult as a Level 1 Villager. Donnel spawns with the bad stats and only a Bronze Lance and he must kill 3-4 units to level up and join the Shepards. Why go through all this trouble to acquire a weak unit? As a Villager, Donnel gets the Aptitude Skill, and this is where is worth shines in spades. Aptitude adds 20% to a stat's odds of increasing upon leveling up. This means that Donny gets a huge chance of stat increases when leveling. This means the more you level him up, the stronger he gets and can become your strongest unit with enough time and patience. Reclass and level  him a few times and Donnel will become unstoppable. If that wasn't enough, his down to earth and desire to help the people attitude makes him a golden child. Donnel will always have a place in our army and in our hearts.