One of the most memorable aspects of Fire Emblem Awakening is the child units who return from a doomed future to aid their parents. Players can pair up units however they like, passing down different skills, classes, and growth rates to create some truly powerful characters, while also getting to play matchmaker with the first generation.
With the right planning and investment, every second-generation unit has the potential to be strong, and many can even surpass their parents thanks to greater access to skills and strategies. However, some require more effort to become effective, which makes them strictly worse from a gameplay perspective, regardless of how optimal their parentage may be.
13 Kjelle Is Cursed With a Bad Class
Armor Knights Aren't Very Good in Fire Emblem Awakening
Kjelle is the battle-focused daughter of Sully, though unlike her mother, she’s an armored knight instead of a cavalier. Armored classes like knights and generals are infamous in the Fire Emblem series because they’re routinely terrible. Their high defenses are held back by poor movement and speed, making it hard to place them anywhere, and they very rarely can double late-game enemies. They’re also especially vulnerable to mages.
So even before anything else, Kjelle requires work to be usable in Awakening, which is made worse by her naturally low resistance. That means she’ll have to reclass out of knight if there’s any hope the nearest mage won’t blow right through her. All the children can inherit something useful from their fathers, but none make Kjelle game-breaking or help her stand out, especially for players who want to keep her in her canon class line. She’s just hard to use.
12 Laurent Is a Missable Unit
He Also Feels Redundant in the Awakening Roster
Laurent is a studious mage like his mother Miriel, and this actually hurts him overall. Players have access to a lot of good mages in Awakening, so many won’t find a use for him. They won’t miss him if they fail to recruit him either, something that’s very easy to do because he’s the only unit in the entire game who can be recruited from a village. That means players have to use Chrom or Miriel to visit the village near the start of the map, and it has to be them specifically, as there’s no way to revisit a village once it’s been visited.
Because there’s no indication beforehand that that’s the case, or even that Miriel should be on the field, it’s very easy for players to miss Laurent completely. And again, all the child units are good, but even with Robin as a father, it’s not necessarily worth restarting a save just to recruit him, and that instantly knocks down his usability.
11 Brady Joins the Awakening Roster Too Late
A Base Class Healer This Far Into a Fire Emblem Game Is a Huge Investment
Brady is a wonderful character, being the rough-faced son of the noble Maribelle. She also passes down several female-only skills to him that can make him a very good healer. However, there’s one practical issue that makes him hard to use: he’ll end up significantly behind everyone else because his paralogue is so late. Brady’s paralogue can’t be directly accessed from a chapter until Chapter 16 of Awakening, while Inigo and Morgan’s paralogues can be unlocked to recruit them after Chapter 13, like everyone else.
That means even in the best-case scenario, other units have probably had more time to level up and battle, and he’s going to be significantly behind any other healers, especially since healers are hard to train. Once recruited, Brady can be great, but many players might not think the effort is worth it if they’d rather progress the story.
10 Noire’s Stats Don’t Match Her Class
This Fire Emblem Unit Needs Reclassing or the Right Father to Be Gamebreaking
Noire is the daughter of the dark mage Tharja, which is a problem since it means she has a middling strength stat as an archer. On her own, Tharja provides good skills like Lifetaker and Vengeance, which Noire can activate very easily. However, what this essentially means is that for Noire to be good as an archer, players will need to invest in a father who boosts her strength or reclass her into something that allows for using magic weapons or outright spells.
The result is a character that requires a lot of time investment to be good and may not be worth it if the player would rather spend that time raising other units. Pairing up units in Awakening is a fun mechanic, but for some players, Noire may be more work than she’s worth.
9 Cynthia Has Limited Options Compared to Other Awakening Units
Her Potential Fathers Can Negate Sumia's Boons
Cynthia, like her mother Sumia, is a pegasus knight with great skill and speed. She can benefit a lot from her mother’s growths and class lines, but where she can fall short is in her limited options for a potential father. Unlike other Awakening characters who have a range of options, Cynthia only has five potential fathers, with one of them being Male Robin.
Players who aren’t attentive can accidentally lock themselves out of Cynthia, and even then, Frederick and Henry aren’t great fathers for her, as their growths cancel out Sumia’s. The end result is that Cynthia is harder to build efficiently compared to other children and has a more limited skill pool when considered alongside everyone else.
8 Gerome Is Fine, But Isn't the Best Awakening Child Unit
Cherche's Son Gerome Isn’t Great or Terrible
Gerome is Cherche’s son, inheriting both her wyvern and her class, Wyvern Rider. By default, his best attributes are speed and strength, while his worst is resistance, with every father except Libra and a Robin with the right boon giving him a negative modifier to it. That means Gerome has good movement and hits hard, but without major time investment in boosting his resistance, he’ll be knocked over by a light gust of wind, though this can be mitigated by having Cherche pass down Resistance +2 from the Troubadour class.
Overall, Gerome is a solid unit if kept in the Wyvern Knight class line or moved to Warrior. However, the Priest line is less useful. With the right father, players can either capitalize on Gerome’s strengths or mitigate his flaws, resulting in a solid unit no matter who his father is, but nothing outstanding, placing him firmly in the middle of the pack.
7 Owain Is Surprisingly Good
Despite a Class Mismatch, Lissa Passes Down Good Growths
Owain seems like he should be worse, given he’s a Myrmidon and his mother Lissa is a Cleric, but while she doesn’t pass down an amazing Strength growth, she does pass down good Speed and Skill that Owain needs to excel in the Myrmidon class. Lissa can also pass down Galeforce to Owain, an otherwise female-locked skill, allowing him to perform hit-and-run attacks on enemies.
Most fathers will benefit Owain, either letting him succeed as a physical attacker, and by default, he’s very good at activating different skills. He also has a personal weapon in Misstletain, which is essentially a modified Steel Sword but works very well on him.
6 Inigo Can’t Become a Dancer
He Still Has One of the Best Mothers in Fire Emblem Awakening
Inigo, being the son of the Dancer Olivia, can access a lot of exclusive skills as well as his mother’s strong growths. While it might be useful to pass down the Dancer-exclusive Luck +4, he’s another male unit who benefits from inheriting Galeforce from her. On her own, Olivia is a good unit if sent through her other class lines outside of Dancer to help with her bulk, and she passes those down to Inigo.
Thanks to this setup, Inigo is able to be effective in the Mercenary line and is a solid hitter capable of activating skills frequently. The Mercenary class also means, by default, Inigo gets Armsthrift, which makes him a good choice to use legendary and powerful weapons, as they last longer. Other Fire Emblem moms stand out for story reasons, but Olivia sets Inigo up for success.
5 Severa Is Full of Potential
Cordelia's Daughter Can Excel Regardless of Father
Despite Severa’s insecurities about not being as good as her mother, Cordelia, she inherits her mother’s best stats and can do well in any of her three class lines. She’s a capable attacker as a Mercenary, strong and fast as a Pegasus Knight, and gets healing from the Dark Mage line via skills like Lifetaker. Regardless of who her father is, Severa is a good unit, and with someone who complements Cordelia’s growths, she’s amazing.
The one downside is that Severa’s recruitment is rather difficult, with the game expecting players to keep her alive as an Allied Unit while she travels to speak to another NPC on the other side of the map, something that can be very difficult. It’s worth it, though, given her raw potential.
4 Yarne Is a Better Version of Panne
Boosted Stats and New Skills Let Yarne Surpass His Mom
Yarne can be even more of a cavalier killer than his mother Panne, thanks to boosted base stats and classes. Yarne and Panne are both rather frail and rely on dodging enemy attacks rather than having high defenses. However, their incredible speed, movement, and access to the Beastbane skill make them very useful against the many mounted units players encounter in the late game.
For Yarne’s part, he naturally has access to Counter for occasions when the enemy does land a hit, and passing down Lancebreaker from Panne will let him survive the occasional Beast Killer lance. He’s another character who can work with any father, especially if they can pass down a healing skill or something defensive.
