Summary
Fire Emblemhas tried its hand at a number of player characters at this point. While the series used to focus on more standard main protagonists, featuring an avatar for the player to project on has become a staple at this point. These avatars have certainly had their ups and downs, but the nextFire Emblemprotagonist could get an edge by taking notes from an unlikely source.
Despite their differences, manyFire Emblemavatar characters have had a few notable tropes in common. Though some of these tropes are useful or even essential for any self-insert, they have also created some negative patterns.Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopesdeftly answered these concerns, andthe nextFire Emblemprotagonistshould learn some valuable lessons from each of its predecessors.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes Features a Model Protagonist for the Next Game
Fire Emblem Three Hopes and Three Houses
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopesmay be seen by some as a black sheep of the family. It’s the secondFire Emblem Warriorsgame but has nothing to do with the first. It’s posed as asequel toFire Emblem: Three Housesbut is really more of an alternate timeline. And despite its status as an alternate timeline, it provides essential context to the story and characters of its predecessor.
Fire Emblem Warriors:Three Hopesis worth playing, thanks in no small part to the game’s protagonist.Three Hopesstars Shez, who is somewhat of a rival toThree Houses' Byleth. Despite both being avatars for the player who works as a mercenary and hosts divine beings, Shez and Byleth couldn’t be more different. In fact, Shez makes up for many of Byleth’s biggest missteps.
The Major Pitfalls Of Fire Emblem Protagonists
Avatars have to juggle several factors at once, which will inevitably lead to issues for some players. For one, as the avatar is meant for a player to project onto them, they often have blank slate personalities. This is the reason avatars can also tend to blend with the silent protagonist trope, and Byleth is certainly guilty of both. If anything, Byleth leans into it so much so thatFire Emblem:Three Housestreats it as a point of comedy. However, Byleth also shares a slight issue with more verbal protagonists, and that has to do with how other characters treat them.
Players are meant to project onto heroes so that they might fulfill a power fantasy of sorts. Because of this, it’s all too commonplace for protagonists to simply be beloved by every character that meets them. This is certainly true for Byleth, but it’s even more blatant with Corrin and Alear fromFire Emblem FatesandFire EmblemEngagerespectively.
Despite their apparent differences, these issues create the same end result: avatars can wind up as less interesting to players. They have a personality that, though players may project onto, they certainly can’t relate to. Likewise, if all of their relationships are positive, it drains a lot of potential depth from their story.The nextFire Emblemprotagonist needs to represent playerswithout overshadowing other aspects of the game.
Fire Emblem Warriors Addressed Major Avatar Criticisms
Shez certainly avoids any pitfalls that come with a wooden personality, as they are one of the most expressive avatars to date. They are certainly more boisterous than Byleth, but dodge other flaws of their predecessors. After all, they are a pretty different personality type from Corrin and Alear, which certainly affects their role within the story.
Shez isn’t exactly the center of the universe either. It may simply be a side effect of sharing space with the returning cast ofThree Houses, but it certainly plays more to their benefit than not. Some protagonists run the risk of detracting from the rest of the supporting cast, andFire Emblem Awakeningwas belovedfor avoiding this. Although Robin was certainly important, they gave way for Chrom and Lucina to be the main heroes in their own right.
Fire Emblem Awakeningdid a great job laying the foundationfor compelling avatar characters, andThree Hopesproved that a better balance is possible. Shez brought a lot of personality to the table and did it without detracting from other characters or the story at large. As the most relatable protagonist to date, Shez is the ideal model forFire Emblem’s next hero.
