What makes Fire Emblem a unique and fresh franchise are the gameplay features that grow over time. Genealogy of the Holy War introduced the weapon triangle, the Tellius titles welcomed beast units, and then there’s the avatar. Making its debut in Blazing Blade, the avatar system has evolved throughout each game they appear in. Mark, Kris, Robin, Corrin, and Byleth are who the player represents, for better or worse, and garnered a lot of fans.
They are how players can get immersed in the games as the avatar represents a tactician that commands their allies and themselves. Especially with Robin, Corrin, and Byleth, they are in extremely popular pairings, such as Robin with Chrom, Corrin with Azura, and Byleth with Edelgard, regardless of the gender. Their impact on the story varies and even if they have flaws, they still have their fans. What else is there to know about the five avatars? Here are some facts that you might not know about each of them.
15 A Unique Feature Only In Japan
Despite not having a big presence compared to Robin, Corrin, or Byleth, Mark from Blazing Blade is the first avatar to be implemented in the series. Even if the name choice is set to male, you can play as a female too, but it won’t make that much of a difference. By entering your birth month, your affinity that aligns with the playable units will give them a bonus towards their hit and avoid rate.
The Japanese version goes a step further by adding a blood type. For example, if you are born in January and have blood type A, then your affinity will be ice. As blood types aren’t as popular in the west compared to Japanese media, it was removed as a result.
14 Same Person?
Lyn’s connection to the avatar has not been talked about a lot, but it is certainly one of the cool aspects ever since Awakening introduced multiverses. At the end of the DLC, Xenologue 9: Smash Brethren 3, Lyn talks to the avatar, in this case, Robin, and believes that they and Mark are the same person. They do share similarities such as laying on the ground until their respective lords find them.
This is brought up again in Fire Emblem Warriors where Robin and Lyn have a support conversation together and reference what occurred in the Awakening DLC with the latter commenting on the similarities between Robin and Mark.
13 How Bramimond Got Their Appearance
Mark’s appearance has not been officially depicted, at least in art form (not counting sprites), but there are hints and glimpses of what they could look like. From the CG featuring Lyn noticing Mark waking up, they are shown to have brown hair. There are fan art that shows what Mark could look like, but the biggest indicator is when one of the Eight Legends, Bramimond, appears in the story of Blazing Blade.
Bramimond was originally male, but due to their consistent use of dark magic, their gender and form change to those they encounter. It is also emphasized as in Fire Emblem Heroes, they carry the voices of Lyn, Eliwood, Hector, and Alfonse, representing a nearly perfect reflection. So with that in mind, what Mark sees is what Bramimond looks like.
12 Male Kris Seems Likely More Canon
In many discussions on the internet, there is one that has fans asking which gender is more likely canon for the games that feature an avatar. Even if it is not exactly confirmed, it is widely believed that the male Kris is closer to canon. On the cover of New Mystery of the Emblem, Male Kris is shown alongside Marth and is slightly more popular than Female Kris.
When Heroes introduced both Kris’, the Forging Bond event showcases Female Kris being the only one that does not have anyone from her world appear in Askr, and is confirmed by Lena and Julian that they’re from the same world as Male Kris.
11 Their Unique Choice Of Backgrounds
Kris has a lot of issues as a character in an already established game, as you could take them out of the story and nothing would literally change unless it has to do with Katarina and the story around the assassins. They do offer variety in their customization, besides the obvious hair color, style, and class type.
One feature that was rather cool, but never made another appearance, was the background of Kris. You can have Kris be an orphan, a priest’s child, or a noble. Their future also depends on your choice, as you can make them be rich and famous (which contradicts the story ironically), live a peaceful and quiet life, or devote their life to services that benefit people.
10 Ironically A Horrible Cook
In New Mystery of the Emblem and Heroes, Kris is the one person you should never let cook for the army. As described by Caeda, it tastes like steel even with their best efforts. When both genders meet up in Heroes, they also acknowledged that they both share a flaw in cooking, but it makes Fjorm felt like her spirit left her body.
They resorted to help from Felicia, Jakob, and Oscar, with the latter especially being a big help into making their soup not taste like chopped laundry as Jakob puts it. It’s good to know that while they are great at fighting, both Kris’ are not perfect at everything.
9 Id (Purpose) Reflects Robin Perfectly
Id (Purpose) is already a fantastic theme in a game that features godlike music. The lyrics depict on Robin’s choice whether to finish off Grima, or put him to sleep where he will be awakened again in a thousand years. It is incredibly moving and remains one of the best final boss themes in Fire Emblem history.
It is believed that Female Robin’s seiyuu, Miyuki Sawashiro, was meant to sing Id (Purpose) from the Premium Arrange soundtrack, as Male Robin’s seiyuu sang his part as Grima. Most likely due to being on maternity leave, Miyuki couldn’t contribute, and instead, Lucina’s seiyuu Yū Kobayashi sang the powerful rendition in her place.
8 Possible Reincarnation
According to Hinduism, an avatar is a manifestation of a deity or released soul in bodily form on earth. This is also known as an incarnation, and it brings the avatar character and player together whenever they want to put themselves into a new world. Robin has been connected to other avatars like Mark, but Corrin has stronger evidence.
In the Japanese version of Rhajat’s support conversation, she believes that Robin is the reincarnation of Corrin. As Fates is believed to be in a completely different universe and takes place way before Awakening, it connects the games together once more, even if it’s already confusing to begin with.
7 Another “Voice” Option
The Japanese version of Awakening can lead to interesting experiences with the avatar creation. The voice options hold a lot of variety depending on the build you decide for male or female. The English version only has three voice options to choose from for each gender, whereas the Japanese have another where they don’t speak at all.
If the avatar is silent, the dialogue surrounding them is completely different. As that would lead to more time needed to localize the game, the silent option was removed in international releases. It would be interesting to see how the S rank support conversations would lead to if Robin is silent the whole time.
6 An Adorable Phobia
Similar to Kris, Corrin has a reputation for being a problematic avatar due to how Fates’ story portrays them, which could contradict the player themselves. As a character on their own, they aren’t that bad. They have flaws, but also carry endearing qualities that make them unique compared to other characters.
This is definitely true with female Corrin having a phobia of bugs as revealed from the Fire Emblem Fates Drama CD. Not only is that adorable, but also hilarious as she can turn into a ferocious dragon and still freak out at the sight of one.
5 Possible To Miss A Child Unit
Male Corrin lacks in popularity compared to his female counterpart, but he has his hardcore fans in the end. As Fates does the complete opposite of Awakening, the male characters are tied to their children. The only exception is Azura, as she will always have Shigure regardless of who she marries. If you play as Male Corrin, you have to be careful on who you choose as your potential S support partner.
It is possible to miss out on a child unit, so if you were to marry Oboro, there will be a male character that is able to have a child not able to marry thanks to the options unavailable. To prevent this, Corrin has to either marry a Corrinsexual (such as Scarlet or Flora) or marry a second-generation unit, which can come off as weird unless you want to make a powerful Female Kanna.
4 Behind The Scenes Look
From what we have seen so far, Corrin has been through a lot of design changes during the development of Fates. Their final outfit has mostly stayed the same, but has a Nohr color scheme to fit where they resided while growing up. They were originally going to have longer ears similar to that of Tiki, but that eventually was changed later on.
Then there is their hair color, in which the development team had trouble deciding what to go with. Their hair was originally black to reference the fact that Mikoto is their birth mother, but the designer and development team decided to go with their first choice, white.
3 Their Canonical Birthday
As a recent avatar, Byleth has been very popular amongst fans. They are mostly silent and emotionless, but if you know about the game’s lore, it makes somewhat sense. Since they are not customizable, save for name, birthday, and class choice, Intelligent Systems went back to how Mark was implemented, but with a higher presence in the story.
Speaking of their birthday, while it is still the player’s choice on what day and moon it falls on, their birthday is revealed to be on September 20, also known as the 20th of the Horsebow Moon in 1159. As Jeralt wrote his journies in a journal, this is the only time where an avatar has an official birthday, even if it is celebrated on a different month and/or day.
2 Immortalized Depending On The Route
It can be argued that out of all the avatars, Byleth seems to be the most powerful. Robin might have the brilliant mind of a tactician and Corrin might take on the form of a dragon, Byleth is the perfect vessel of Sothis and eventually becomes the progenitor god themselves.
This means that depending on the route you pick, Byleth can either be immortal or not. Azure Moon, Verdant Wind, and Silver Snow routes have Byleth take over as the archbishop of the church, while in Crimson Flower, Byleth loses their powers and the Crest of Flames. Even with the loss of their powers, their heart beats for the first time.
1 Controversial Voice Actor Replaced
Before the game’s release, Fire Emblem: Three Houses was free of any concerning controversy, which was needed when Fates had the skinship feature removed in western releases. But the original voice actor for Male Byleth, Chris Niosi, was caught in allegations about abusing his partners and breaking a non-disclosure agreement about him voicing the character.
Chris eventually came clean to both of these occurrences and his voice was replaced by Zach Aguilar in a patched update. With all of those burdens, it lead to Chris seeking help from many sources such as self-help books, counseling, and medication. Whether you prefer his voice or Zach’s, it definitely was a concerning time back then.
