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It's a thread revival! To the Character Analysis thread, which was a reinterpretation of a very old thread Rath had back in 2006.

Except this time it's scheduled to have weekly updates every Sunday just like Best/Worst so it'll have new topic every week. Additionally, the character of the week will be from a different game every week as well, rather than switching games every three characters (so if you haven't played a certain entry, you'll not have to wait as long for one you have played!). The order will be simpler: FE13 downwards.

So please, discuss to your hearts content what you think of the character of the week as a unit, as a character, as they develop in supports, which supports you like for them and which you don't (with respect to gameplay and character), etc...

Also bear in mind that the purpose of this thread is to generate Fire Emblem-related discourse and dialogue for a guild about Fire Emblem regularly, and so it's highly encouraged for people to not just express their own thoughts and opinions once and be done with it, but ideally interact with what others are saying in this thread!




The first character of the week is Chrom!

Chrom, one of the main characters of FE13. I'll admit that I like him, but there are both good and bad things about him. Here's a personal break down of him.

Starting Off: Chrom starts off as a level 1 Lord. He has a Rapier and the Falchion. The rapier is nice but only has 35 uses. Falchion while having infinite uses, is an inferior Iron Sword. Once Chrom can use something higher than Iron Sword I would suggest going to the better weapons since the weapon also only counts as an E rank sword.

Growths: For the most part Chrom has great growths. His default res growth is 25%. Heck all but his Paladin reclass have 25% rest growth and the Paladin one is 30%. That low res growth is a glaring flaw in his growths.

Reclass Options: Great thing about Awakening is that Chrom doesn't ahve a set promotion time. He reclasses I'm 50/50 on. I like the Cavalier option, but I'm rather confused at the Archer option he has. His promotion to Great Knight makes him a walking Paladin since he gets Lances upon promotion.

Endgame: At the end of the day, Chrom doesn't look that almightly. He loses some flair when his own daughter Lucina looks better depending on her mother. The Exalted Falchion is great and it has infinite uses. Lord characters usually should be able to stand out, and he doesn't.

Overall: He's an ok lord, but only ok. I give him a 7.5/10

I could copypasta what I said in the last thread, but my opinions of Chrom have shifted a bit. Not too much, though.

I think that having the main lord's signature weapon available from the beginning (albeit in a weakened form) is a fun change up. Chrom's falchion has unlimited uses and is effective against dragons, but it isn't very powerful (until it gets its exalted upgrade, of course). So you are dealing with a weapon that has perks, but is not always preferable to better swords. Like his lordly rapier. His res can be a bit iffy, but overall his growths are pretty good and a notch above your average lord, though the growths in Awakening are higher overall. Making the Lord class a special class but still providing reclass options, unlike in FE11 and 12, means that Chrom is not depraved of reclassing benefits that other characters have, and has just as much potential to growth (outside of individual perks, of course). As Mel said, he also doesn't have a set promotion time, which eliminates the trouble that some lords have with promoting too late. His reclass options might not lend himself as well to postgame shenanigans, and there are far better class trees. But for the story mode and the beginning of the game, Chrom is a strong asset, and a good lord.

My running chrommentary has concluded by this point, but I still think of Chrom in largely the same way as a character. I think that Chrom definitely falls into the more impulsive, louder side of the FE lord spectrum. I think he had the potential to be far more interesting than he was, but during the first half of the game he is interesting, at least to me. Angry Chrom is Angry. A lot of people don't like this about Chrom, but I think that having a lord who is more emotionally similar to his warmongering father than his beloved and peace-preaching sister is interesting and not laid on too strong. We see him do terrible things that he sees as just, and we eventually see him question if he is worthy of his sister's ideals at all. He's a very angry man that is, for a while, incapable of seeing enemies as people like his sister does. Chapter 10 is pretty much the Chrom show, where everything comes crashing down and he realizes how terrible he is. But it's not like Chrom is incapable of compassion or completely irredeemable. His kindness in the scene where he finds out Lucina's identity is unmistakable. It's a great scene, and it's not like it comes out of nowhere. He is a very trusting man, after all. Perhaps moreso than he should be.

Too bad he's also dumb as a brick! Man does he have some really stupid support conversations. And MU cockblocks any serious character development he could have had, causing him to confront future conflicts with the all encompassing "FRIENDSHIP IS AWESOME!" excuse. It should have been with his daughter that he realized that he can be worthy of his sister's ideals, not with stupid dumb MU.

Awakening, you didn't know what a great thing you had until it was all gone. There was this great potential to be edgier with morals in a way that FE can be great with, but Awakening's toothlessness got in the way.

Still, better to have that potential then to never take any risks at all, I guess.

Here we are, We Know it's Too Late.
Hoping only to find some closure..!
Silently waiting, Hear the calling..!
Look into the wanting eyes, my Cherished!

Now we are here, We know its too late!
Hoping only to find some closure,
Silently waiting, Hear the calling!
Look into the wanting eyes, My Cherished!

Here we are, We Know it's Too Late.
Hoping only to find some closure..!
Silently waiting, Hear the calling..!
Look into the wanting eyes, my Cherished!

Now we are here, We know its too late!
Hoping only to find some closure,
Silently waiting, Hear the calling!
Look into the wanting eyes, My Cherished!

Here we are, We Know it's Too Late.
Hoping only to find some closure..!
Silently waiting, Hear the calling..!
Look into the wanting eyes, my Cherished!

Now we are here, We know its too late!
Hoping only to find some closure,
Silently waiting, Hear the calling!
Look into the wanting eyes, My Cherished!

I’m going to move on from what I said, so I apologize if I lost my cool. So let me drop my opinion on Chrom while I’m on here anyways.


Let’s talk about our buddy Chrom here. As a unit he’s actually not half bad his base stats are HP: 20 Str:7 Mag:1 Skl: 8 Spd: 8 luck: 5 Def: 7 Resistance: 1 but only as a level one lord. He starts out with an E rank in sword weapons. The only weapons he’ll be carrying with him as the bronze sword his own Falchion which has unlimited uses. But like the point that’s been made here already, It’s slightly less accurate and not as good as the other swords that you can gather in the game. The positive thing about it is that it’s great against dragon foes and does that extra bonus damage to them. The only time where it will start to see improvements when it gets an upgrade to the Exalt Falchion and that really starts to play a role when Chrom becomes a better class. Chrom will do stronger damage to foes with it in the later parts of the game as he rises.

But overall, I say he tends to get the job done fairly well. He does have dual strike which is useful when it does activate. His class options are fairly limited however. Lord/Great lord, Cavalier/Paladin/ Great Knight, Archer/Sniper/Bow Knight. Would I have liked to see more options available? Sure it’d be great. But for what Chrom has for going him I think it’s manageable. I found very little reason in class changing him into the archer/sniper class. But that’s because I haven’t played Lunatic+ nor do I plan on doing so at all. I think I generally find him well… slightly more efficient as a mount rather than the other classes. As he advances to Great lord he does gain Aether and Rightful King which are both fantastic skills to have altogether. As a paladin he’ll have access to Aegis, the only potential skill I’d say is good for him as a Bow knight is Bowbreaker. And last the Dread Fighter class gives him Aggressor and an extra resistance +10.

Now onto his personality. Chrom is the type that believes in what he believes in which isn’t really bad. He can be at times a bit TOO trusting which everyone knows what I'm talking about. I personally feel that Chrom actually had potential to be an interesting lord. It’s particularly in the Valm arc where any sign of his character development is completely tossed away. And really, it’s a shame because I actually do like him quite a bit in the first 11 chapters of the game. Especially in chapter 10(Still one of my favorite chapters of FE13) he just witnessed his sister’s death a chapter ago, even though it’s off screen death he saw IT happen. As what Tiki said, Chrom starts to express his anger and he’s really faced with blaming himself on what happened. And he’s conflicted with what are his options at this point? I just wished they’d explore with that a bit more and I think he’d be a much more interesting lord. It’s just so disappointing in the Valm arc. The scene with finding about his real daughter is Lucina is still rather emotionally touching though that’s really about it.

Marriages conversations however.. Are generally uninteresting in my opinion. There’s only two pairings that I legitimately like. Chrom x Sully and Chrom x Sumia. I actually like how the relationship is portrayed between Sully and Chrom. I like that both of them feel very natural when they’re around each other. Of course in their support conversation they both knew each other when they were kids. And you know what? I thought it was a nice flashback to for them reminisce. But I think I like the respect they show for one another. Chrom is a bit of a dunderhead in the supports, but I think how Sully acts at the same time sort of makes it interesting. Yeah, yeah the childhood friends relationship tends to be done plenty of times in other stuff, but I think this one kind of works in a way. I like the Sumia and Chrom more as an actual pairing rather than the conversations themselves. Why does the conversation revolve around freaking PIES? Though at the same time I’d be lying if it didn’t amuse me but still it‘s pretty dumb. The pairing itself is actually kind of nice. As I’ve said with the other pairings, I don‘t really care for them. The other supports are actually fairly enjoyable for the most part. He’s not my favorite lord In the series, but I do like lots of aspects about Chrom.

Marth. I do have a lot to say about him. I'm sure like many FE players today, I first knew of him through Super Smash brothers Melee. I developed my own head-canon for what his personality and back story were because I couldn't really make sense of the story I read on his trophy. I don't know why, but I was instantly drawn to him.

I pictured him a cold, calculating tactician who had a hotheaded student (Roy.) The two of them bickered but they were unstoppable when they worked together as partners in battle. It sounds like a great story until I figured out that Marth and Roy aren't part of the same game!

I didn't see the Fire Emblem version of Marth until FE 11. I actually liked FE 11, even though I'm a veteran of all the other localized FE's. While I realize FE 11 was essentially translating the dated dialogue of FE 1, I got to really know Marth throughout the story.

I really like him. As both a unit and as a character. His rapier destroys things, and then later on, Falchion = a non-limited weapon I can wreck dragons with. Tell me that's not awesome.

Character-wise, he's everything a leader should be. He is a good tactician (just not a cold and ruthless one), but he shows that he cares about his forces in general (the speech to his troops before they retake his homeland comes to mind.)

While he may not be as developed character-wise as the later Lords, Marth was the first and I think that's very special.