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Explaining my reasoning in this post, followed by my opinion on why Jeigan is worse than Zealot.

For best: There are a LOT of Cavaliers/Pallys/Great Knights to consider, and plenty of good ones. But Seth, Aless, Sain, Oscar and arguably Titania are in a substantially higher tier. I think Seth wins it all, however, because he has literally perfect availability, is technically your best unit for a very long time, and has incredible growths for being the prepromote you receive at the beginning of the game. His growths are so good, he's essentially the most balanced Paladin you'll have if you compare all the 20/20 stats of every potential Paladin in that game. Only, in a serious runthrough without messing around to baby people in skirmishes or the tower, not everyone will hit 20/20. They'll likely hit 20/10. But Seth WILL be likely to be at level 20. Good support options, good unit to support, good affinity, etc… the only thing that could possibly make him more perfect is if Pally's had full Weapon Triangle Control still.

For worst: Jeigan has the absolute most hideous stat growths I've ever seen for someone you get immediately. It's Jeigan, and well, the archetype, right, but holy s**t. It's ridiculous. Other "Jeigans" at least have the bases that make them superior to everyone else initially. Jeigan? Same starting strength as Kain, and only 1-2 more points in various stats then either Kain or Abel. If you wanted to use a Jeigan for the sake of blocking things more effectively than other units would or meatshielding or something, there would be no real reason to actually use Jeigan for that job because he's hardly any better than the rest of the people you start with anyway. His only redeeming quality is the fact that he can instantly use a Silver Lance, and that's only of any value on HM5 or something.

Concerning Zealot… Zealot is obviously not competing for being the best Cavalier/Pally in the series. Heck, not even in his own game. But he's usable. YES, he's usable. He's in a game with actual supports, and can provide support to various units, is actually quite an asset on ranked runs thanks to his relatively higher than the rest of your party stats for a decent portion of the game and has good weapon ranks (A in Lances). Jeigan's just trash. Even if you JUST used Zealot for the sake of providing support bonuses to other characters (and he can be used for more that just that) he's being far more useful than Jeigan will ever be.

And for that, Lolwut, FD, I appreciate your arguments.

Buh, a class (classes?) of units I tend not to use once I get to about the halfway point, when everyone starts/should start classing up. Personal preference, that's all. Nevertheless, my votes go to:

Best: Bah, this is hard because I just don't use these types of units. I don't think I've ever taken any of them to endgame (except maybe Oscar once in FE 9). However, I'm going to say Seth (FE 8), mainly for the reasons FD mentioned. He's there from the get-go (Seth, not FD, sadly); his growths are fairly decent; as a prepromote he does not suck like Marcus, even in a game that is pretty much broken when it comes to ease of maxing stats; good supports (and he can pair up with Eirika so no one else *coughcoughEphraimcoughcough* has to). So yes, Seth has my vote.

Worst: Jeigan/Jagen (FE 11). Only usefulness is to be the mandatory sacrifice, nevermind being the one who game the name to the archetype.

Actually, Rath, while I disagree with your choices to an extent (for them being hyperbole of best and worst, at least: Treck is definitely bad and Oscar is definitely good, I just don't think they're the best and worst), you've caused me to reconsider my own choice for worst. Because I forgot just how shitty Fiona is. She's so bad, when I was trying to think of every candidate for this category, she didn't even come to mind because she's that useless. Jeigan can use a Silver Lance I suppose, but Fiona? Absolutely horrendous starting stats, especially considering that by that time, you should be well on your way in developing the units you actually want to use from the Dawn Brigade. Plus, even if you decide to user her (which, the only reasonable way to do so is to dump all your bexp onto her), she can't traverse the swamps come Chapter 3-6, which limits her access to experience in one of the few exp-heavy chapters the Dawn Brigade has in Part 3. And if you think she has decent availability, think again. She's only around for two chapters in Part 1 (this is the reason she basically MUST be bexp-fed to even be considered usable later on), 3 (but really 2) in Part 3, and 2 in Part 4 before endgame. That's HORRIBLE for a Tier 1 unit. Scratch that. That's horrible for just about anyone, but the fact that she's a Tier 1 unit and has basically no availability means she's ********. You'd think she had at least Est-like growths, but they're nothing particularly special. They're good enough, but so are the growths for just about everyone else.

On the other hand, she has good enough averages, and she hits the magic Spd number of 34, allowing her to double all Spirits. She also provides an Earth Affinity, though I have no idea when she's supposed to actually develop a support with someone, considering her horrible availability, but it's there and I guess it can eventually be effectively capitalized upon (for like a chapter or 2). She also comes with some nifty skills, but she's not entitled to them by any means, so she doesn't really get credit for that.

So who's worse? Her or Jeigan? I'm starting to lean towards her, though I'm not sure what value can be inscribed to possibly providing an Earth affinity to support with, even if she'll suck when fielded, and even if the support could only really be capitalized upon for a couple of chapters at best. That requires fielding her every chapter she's available, however, and her taking up a slot almost certainly better used by someone else. And really, it's kind of laughable to even seriously expect her to be at a decent level, since getting her to one through bexp will reduce her stat gains overall and mean you'd have a LOT less bexp to make the rest of your party broken with. So while she has certain things to offer if given enormous favoritism and resources, giving her such things results in a net negative.

Fiona may very well be worse than any of the people we've all been mentioning. Thoughts?

In all honesty, I thought about the fact you get her in part one and that she has earth affinity and all that, but in the end it didn't matter how I tried rationalizing her not being worse than Treck. I have an inescapable bias of loving her character design and the fact that she's black which, yes, makes a difference, especially in Fire Emblem. It makes me WANT to try using her. She is unique; I guarantee most people made an effort at utilizing her upon their first playthrough because of her class, character (possibly including the events leading to her recruitment, which includes the gameplay), or appearance. There's nothing about Treck that makes me want to try him at all. He is grossly in the background and unimpressive. If people had to choose between him and Noah, I bet close to 9/10 of people would choose Noah instead, if only because of his pairing with Fir and relative handsomeness.

Treck and Matthis are at least usable without going to extreme lengths though. And when used, they turn out decent enough (and if someone's dying to many times, wouldn't that presumably be the tactician's fault?). Treck's growths make for a perfectly capable unit once he catches up (and both he and Matthis come early enough to be integrated into the party without too much hassle), while Matthis could arguably be considered the Lowen of FE11 when looking only at units who start as Cavaliers - 90% HP and 30% Def growths are higher than Cain, Abel, Frey, Hardin, Roshea, and Vyland. Matthis also has the same 40% Str growth as Abel (the Str-based one of his pair). Additionally, once they join, they don't decide to back out for various chapters unlike Fiona, so their early joining times are actually meaningful, which can't be said of Fiona. If someone tries using Fiona their first time, it'll only end up hurting them in the long run. Not the case for Treck or Matthis. Yeah... I think I'm gonna change my vote to Fiona.

Best: Fire Emblem 7.

Worst: Fire Emblem 8. Why? Demon King is a noob.