# 8 - Sain and Kent (Blazing Sword)

              Sain and Kent: The best Christmas Cavalier combo in the entire series. Yeah I said it. If personal experience actually meant anything (which it doesn't for the record) I probably wouldn't have them on here since they've never turned out anything special for me. However, personal experience means nothing and more to the point Sain and Kent have been highly ranked on a consistent basis by just about every hardcore ltc Fire Emblem player so apparently these guys have a lot to offer that I'm just not getting.

          Well it all started when Wallace offered a simple Knight Crest. Little did he know that he was offering our Christmas Cavalier duo the road to greatness. On a more serious note Sain and Kent are this high up primarily due to Lyn mode. Sain and Kent will be your best units in Lyn mode (it's not like they've got actual competition here lol) and I have to say that having about 11 chapters of free training before the real quest even begins is a huge benefit. All the player has to do is get Sain and Kent to a reasonable level above 10, hand them the Knight Crest and then BAM! you've got an early-game mini-Marcus.

         Dondon151 and Mekkah have already provided the numbers on a silver platter which is great because I'm too lazy to provide the calculations myself. Mekkah shows us how dominant Sainadain (or Supersain) is:

   "How dominant are they? Well, using Sain as an example, at L12 he will have 28 HP, 14-15 Str, 8 Skl, 10-11 Spd, 8 Def. 

Promotion will make that 30 HP, 15-16 Str, 9 Skl, 11-12 Spd, and 10 Def.

L6 Archer w/ Steel Bow: 17 Atk, 25 HP, 4 Def, 4 AS. Even with an Iron Sword, Sain will ORKO, and in the meantime he gets 5HKO'd back. 

L5 Merc w/ Steel Sword: 16 Atk, 25 HP, 5 Def, 10 AS. Sain doesn't double, but with WTA he is getting 6HKO'd in return.

L5 Mage w/ Thunder: 14 Atk, 21 HP, 4 Def, 7 AS. Sain nearly OHKOs this with an Iron Axe and does so with Steel...not that he needs to, since he doubles. He does get 3HKO'd back but w/e.

There's some more jokes, like enemies with Iron Swords and Slim Lances. These do joke damage, like 2-3 dmg to his 30 HP. Sain doesn't even notice them."

(Source: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=29384&page=11#entry1800181)

            Usually Sain is the one that gets the Knight Crest in Lyn mode due to the fact that he's usually considered better than Kent. The reason for this being that Sain and Kent are usually pretty close to each other in terms of stats. However, Sain has the offensive edge over Kent and once Sain's speed is high enough to double attack consistently he'll be dishing out the KO's easier than Kent. Dondon151 provides some additional explanation when he says:

             "Sain's offensive ability comes from his high atk. 8 base str is above average, and 60% str growth is tied for the highest in the game. 

               Sain's str truly begins to shine later in the game, when his spd is also high enough to permit him to double consistently. While 16/4 Kent has trouble 2HKOing chapter 26 WKs, 16/4 Sain has no such problem, averaging 28.8 atk with an Iron Axe after WTA against 32 HP, 12 def. He'll also have 14.2 AS, enough to double even the higher end 10 AS Iron Lance WKs"

(Source: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=23766&page=4) 

          Their durability is about the same too (see the above link for a more detailed analysis). Also, these guys get the GBA paladin treatment which means that they have access to partial weapon triangle control before promotion and complete weapon triangle control after promotion.

      If this were Sword of Seals Kent would probably be considered the better one, but it's Blazing Sword, which is not only significantly easier but is also the game where enemies have crap for attack speed which means that having higher strength is more desirable.

               
                  

 According to Mekkah, Sain's growths are higher than the enemy's so Sain will become stronger than the HHM enemies. If you don't give them the Knight Crest in Lyn's mode they'll be one of the best units in the game, but they won't be anywhere near as high on this list as they are now. Both of these characters MUST be used in Blazing Sword if you want to beat the game within a reasonable time-frame.

# 9 - Jagen (Shadow Dragon)

                   Old man Jagen. The knight who began the long tradition of kick butt old men who lose steam towards the endgame. The interesting thing is that Jagen archetype characters usually are among your best units despite eventually falling off. As you would expect Jagen excels in the early-game where his base stats are superior to everybody else. He also has weapon ranks going for him (silver lance says hi). Jagen is also in a game where forges exist so giving him a forged Silver Lance or a Ridersbane is par for the course. Jagen will continuously one round KO stuff with said forges for a while. How long Jagen remains useful depends on which difficulty you're playing in. In H2 for example Jagen will still be useful up until Chapter 18. In H5 he drops off a little earlier but compensates for it by virtue of being in a game with significantly stronger enemies. If Warpskip is taken into account he's even better. Jagen also has access to reclassing to a wyvern knight which ups his durability and gives him access to axes.

         With all that being said Jagen WILL eventually lose steam sooner or later. Once the rest of your army builds up you won't have much use for him. Also, his growths are terrible:

HP - 40 %
Strength - 20 %
Skill - 35 %
Speed - 15 %
Luck - 30 %
Defense - 20 %
Resistance - 0 %

Like I said, terrible. That begin said, Jagen is still clutch early on and is still a major contributor to your army in the early game and probably will be one of your best units even in the mid-game hence the # 9 spot.

# 10 - Frederick (Awakening)

                    Have you ever tried to beat Lunatic or Lunatic + mode on Awakening without Frederick? No? Well now you know why Frederick is this high on the list. Frederick is so powerful that he makes the most unfair modes in all Fire Emblem (in my opinion) actually possible. Frederick has a clutch early game leading fans to start calling the harder difficulties "Frederick Emblem".

                     He starts the game off "with a D rank in swords, a B rank in lances and a D rank in axes which allow him to use 1-2 range from the get go." (JSND: Rate the Unit: Frederick - http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=40201&page=9#entry2409367) Frederick also comes with the Discipline skill so he's going to get high weapon ranks very soon. Like a good number of Jeigan / Oifey characters Frederick starts off with a Silver Lance and will either kill early game enemies in one hit or one round. In the meantime most enemies won't even scratch his armor (unless they have Luna + or a Hammer). 

                       Within a few level-ups Frederick gets Luna and if you really want to you could probably reclass him to a Paladin just to get his speed higher. He also is a great pair up partner for your army as he gives a + movement and defense boost. He's an especially good Pair-Up partner for Sumia and Cordelia as he gives them boosts in stats they want boosts in (strength and defense although they wouldn't mind extra movement).

Another factor to take into consideration are his growths. His Great Knight growths are greater than or equal to PoR Titania's:

Frederick

HP: 110

Strength: 65

Magic: 10

Skill: 55

Speed: 50

Luck: 40

Defense: 55

Resistance: 25

Titania

HP: 80

Strength: 45

Magic: 25

Skill: 60

Speed: 50

Luck: 45

Defense: 40

Resistance: 45


That's pretty dang impressive.

             So some of you may be asking why Frederick isn't higher up on this list. Well, Frederick embodies the negative that people associate Jeigan characters with. He has a fantastic start but his mid-game is shaky and his endgame isn't quite as good. His problems do have solutions though in the form of Second Seals, Pair-Up and stat-booster items. Nevertheless he will be outclassed later on by characters like Robin and Wyvern!Panne.

           Another issue that Frederick faces is that since his early-game is where he shines the most his usefulness varies by difficulty. In Lunatic and Lunatic + mode he saves your army from death and destruction. In "hard mode" he's not quite as useful and it's much easier for the rest of your army to surpass him. 

           Frederick also wishes that he had more speed as well. Great Knights are meant to be tanks on horses and aren't known for their speed. "Starting at 10 base is already annoying. Adds in the chance of getting Speed Screwed, and growth speed being absurdly low and it adds up. I already have problem with Stahl, but Frederick is basically Stahl, but worse when it comes to this problem. Basically IMO, the more speed screwed Freddy is, the faster he is forced as a Pair Up Fodder." (JSND: Rate the Unit: Frederick - http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=40201&page=11)

            Plus, keep in mind that Frederick has some intense competition on this list. Everybody else above him can trivialize their games even more without suffering from Frederick's problems. In addition to that he's # 10 for goodness sakes that's pretty awesomely high given how many powerful units he's passed up.

Anyway, Frederick is a great unit and definitely a clutch Jeigan character. The characters only get better from here.

# 11 - Finn (Thracia 776)

                  Before I begin talking about Finn's combat ability I'd like to give a shout-out to this guy. He survived both generations of Holy War and he kept Leif and Nanna alive from the greatest military juggernaut in the Fire Emblem series. Surviving the turbulent political maelstrom known as Jugdral actually means something since that continent holds the record for highest body count (percentage-wise) of named characters important to the plot. Not even the good guys always make it out alive in Jugdral so massive props to Finn for living long enough to see his homeland retaken and the mighty Grandbell Empire overthrown.

                   FE 5 Finn > FE 4 Finn. In Fire Emblem 4 Finn is one of your best units in the first generation but he starts out taking axes to the face and he eventually leaves your army. In the second generation he's less useful due to being completely outclassed by virtually all the kids (assuming that the player actually made good pairs for them) and the enemies being more powerful in general. In Thracia 776 Finn got a massive upgrade resulting in him being this high up the list.

               For starters Finn has great availability in this game. He's part of your beginning army in Chapter 1. He'll leave your army in chapter 4 but will rejoin in chapter 7. There's a gaiden chapter in there so he's actually gone for 4 levels but once he rejoins you he never leaves so his availability is definitely a plus for him.

              Another major plus for Finn is his prf ranked Brave Lance. Apparently that conversation that he had with Cuan is canon. If a FE 4 remake ever happens I.S. needs to make sure that if Cuan gives Finn a Brave Lance that the Brave Lance becomes prf ranked. Anyway, in Thracia 776 said Brave Lance has a + 10 luck boost which also significantly increases Finn's chances of activating Miracle (in addition to increasing his dodge as well). Finn's Brave Lance also turns him into a capturing machine which is a huge boon in Finn's favor because in Thracia 776 capturing enemies is your primary way of getting stuff. (See here if you don't know what the capturing mechanic is: http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Capture)

                Finn also comes with a leadership star in addition to a Leif and Nanna support. It's quite rare to see a cavalier with support utility like this so that's another little perk Finn has going for him. Nanna comes with innate Charisma in addition to supporting Finn so he's getting a major evasion boost which is always welcome. Finn also starts at 3 levels away from promotion and has some pretty good base stats too. He'll start as one of your Top 3 best units. One of the units who outclasses him leaves your army because (spoilers) while the other unit has to deal with the fact that Finn has a pony (and rejoins a chapter later).

              Finn however hates indoor maps where he's forced to be unmounted (and gets only 5 movement) and can only use swords, which he only starts out using a D rank in. Granted, he's 20 swings away from a killing edge or a rapier so it's not hopeless, it's just a big disadvantage since he won't have access to powerful weapons. Once the Manster chapters end Finn's viability will decrease a little as his competition will have increased but he's still one of the best units in Thracia 776 and definitely an awesome unit worthy of this # 11 spot.

# 12 - Cain & Abel (FE 1)

                    Cain and Abel: The original Christmas Cavalier duo. Cain & Abel, like Hardin, are basically at their best in Fire Emblem 1 so this is the version I'm going to go with. According to Ronaldo Villanueva: 

            “They are very good. Defensively they start as durable as Marth, so their start is not crap, and their damage output is good as well. They become some of the best combat units in your team. Kain is probably the better out of the two since he requires a str proc to start ORKOing unlike Abel, who needs two.”

                 No matter which game they're in they'll always have 9 movement which is always awesome. In FE 1 their availability is perfect for their game so they'll always be around to wreck things. I'm aware that their availability is just as awesome in Shadow Dragon but here's the major difference: The enemies in Shadow Dragon are actually pretty good (depending on which difficulty we're talking about) whereas in FE 1 they're not, so as a result Cain and Abel do better in FE 1 than they do in Shadow Dragon. It also helps that Caeda isn't a Wing Spear wielding wrecking ball of death in FE 1 and is instead just very good. Cain and Abel also don't have as much competition either (it's mostly just Marth and Jeigan that they have to compete with). 

             Fire Emblem 1 also affords Cain and Abel a couple of extra benefits that they don't get in Shadow Dragon. For starters, when they promote they are no longer weak to horse slaying weapons (I also brought this up when talking about the FE 1 version of Hardin). The other benefit, according to Fire Emblem Wiki, is that " promotion gains consist on giving the character as many points as necessary -the "x" value shown in the table- to reach the promoted class' base stats. If the character's stats are higher than their promoted class' base stats, they will not receive any bonus." (Source: http://www.fireemblemwiki.org/Cain) 

Class	HP	Str	Skill	Spd	Def	Res	Move	Weapon level
Paladin	+x to 22	+x to 8	+x to 7	+x to 11	+x to 9	--	+1	+x to 10

So your Cain and Abel got RNG screwed? Well no problem, the promotion mechanics in Fire Emblem 1 will increase their stats for you. They don't get to take advantage of partial weapon triangle control but they'll still get the job done.

 The only reason why they're not higher up on this list is because all of the higher ranked characters have a much bigger impact on their games than these guys do. Sure Cain and Abel are some of your best units in FE 1 but they share top tier with Marth, Jeigan, Hardin and several other units. That being said Cain and Abel are definitely some of the best units in Fire Emblem 1 and it would be unwise to not use them.

# 13 - Oscar and Kieran (Path of Radiance)

    

 Oscar and Kieran. One of the greatest Christmas Cavalier duos in the entire series (if we were to compare their personalities to all the other Christmas cavs Oscar and Kieran would be # 1). Between the two of them Oscar is the better unit since he joins way earlier but that doesn't mean that Kieran isn't awesome and doesn't deserve to be on the list too.

          I guess I'll start with Oscar and then talk about Kieran. Oscar for starters has some FANTASTIC availability in Path of Radiance. The only levels where he's not available are Chapters 3 & 4 so he'll be sticking around for basically forever. Oscar also has good base stats (he has the second highest defense out of your starting team) and basically doubles anything that isn't a speedy sword user (and he usually doesn't care about those units due to weapon triangle advantage, having a vastly superior defense and usually being able to 2 hit KO them).

          He also has the lolsy Earth affinity so he's going to be dodging A LOT. To go along with his Earth support he supports two other characters with the same affinity: Ike and Tanith. Both Ike and Tanith are among some of your best units so there's a high probability of Oscar getting a support bonus from both of them. He also happens to support Kieran as well who is another fantastic unit so the guy's definitely got options for good support boosts. 

           Oscar does have a similar problem that Cuan and Finn had in the first generation of Holy War: He's a lance knight who starts out in axeland. It's a tad rough for him, but it isn't as much of a problem for Oscar as it was for Cuan and Finn since the enemies will be using different weapons soon and unlike Cuan and Finn, Oscar will still be sticking around long enough to benefit your army. I only have one other nitpick about the guy and it's that his sub 50 % strength and speed growths lead to RNG screwage, but then again Fixed mode and bands fix that "problem" so it's not even a legitimate issue. So basically Oscar doesn't even have any real major problems.

        So to sum it up Oscar is a great unit that really doesn't have any major issues game-play wise. He's awesome as a unit and he even cooks too. What's not to love? 

 

                   (Not only are Oscar and Kieran great units, but they also have awesome supports together. Talk about icing on a very scrumdiddlyumptious cake. + 100 points to anyone who can tell me who originally coined the term without looking it up)

  

                 Now to Kieran. Kieran is one of my favorite characters in the Fire Emblem series ever! He's awesome on the battlefield and he's freaking hilarious! I love reading his supports. Another reason why I like him as much as I do is because of his wonderful combat prowess.

                 Kieran shows up later than Oscar, but his availability isn't bad. Kieran uses axes which in Path of Radiance are actually pretty good weapons unlike Sword of Seals where they suck. Kieran, like Oscar, will get to choose what extra weapon he can use after promotion so that's nice too. What stands out to me about Kieran besides his hilarious personality is his defense. Kieran's tanky, but unlike most tanks in Fire Emblem, Kieran also has actual speed so he can double things too.

              Speaking of speed, one minor nitpick I have with Kieran is that his starting speed isn't the best. It'll get better with additional level-ups (a 40 % speed growth ain't the best, but fortunately Path of Radiance enemies suck so Kieran WILL double enemies soon enough). I should also add that Kieran has access to the Knight Ward which gives him a 30 % boost to his speed growth in addition to giving him more defense and resistance so there's that. If you don't want to give Kieran a Knight Ward there are different bands that can help boost his speed growth too so the point is that Kieran's "problem" is minor and easily remedied.

                While Kieran's support pool and affinity aren't as good as Oscar's (the wind affinity isn't very good) he does support Oscar and Marcia so he's not doing bad. 

 

So to sum up why I like Kieran: "combine his in-game performance and his... *ahem* personality that knocks me off my chair laughing till I explode like a nuclear missile" (Lord of the Cactus - http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=31889&pid=1939382&st=0&#entry1939382 Rate the Unit: Kieran) and you have one fantastic and unforgettable character #Kieranfanboy 

# 14 - Franz (Sacred Stones)

                    You know, from the perspective of this list Franz and Lex have quite a bit in common game play-wise. Both cavaliers are the second best combat units in their games, both cavaliers have FANTASTIC availabilities from their games and both units are super outclassed by a godly unit in their respective games (Sigurd and Seth).

                    Franz is known by many Fire Emblem fans as "Seth-lite" and for good reason: Give Franz enough levels up and he will wreck face like Seth, he just needs some extra levels to do so. As I mentioned before he has most of the game to grow and he'll generally be your first unit to promote. The first Knight Crest you get is in Chapter 7 and it's basically got Franz's name written all over it. When it comes to Franz's early-game I found a particular quote from a page in the Serenesforest.net page that I think sums up how well Franz does in the early game:

                   "For a unit that joins in Chapter 1, his bases are decent enough. 7str/7spd isn't the greatest in the world, but he is 2HKOing fighters in his join map with iron sword, and ORKOs soldiers regardless of weapon. Against 24HP/4def brigands in C2 and C3, he still takes 3/8 of their HP off. Not bad. 
                   His durability is decent overall. 20HP/6def is getting 3HKO'd at worst by anything that isn't a boss, and has WTC in his favor to get himself out of fluke 2HKO's. 80HP/25def is about the same as Garcia and he can get full def from Gilliam, so it's not like he's going to be frail ever." (Smiley Jim: Rate the Unit - Franz  http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=30319&page=2)

Franz also has some pretty good growths too:
HP - 80 %
Strength - 40 %
Skill - 40 %
Speed - 50 %
Luck - 40 %
Defense - 25 %
Resistance - 20 %

                       His Defense and Resistance growths aren't the best, but everything else is alright. Like any GBA cavalier Franz starts out with partial weapon triangle control before promotion, and then will get access to the third weapon (axes) after promotion. (In this particular case it depends on which class Franz promotes to. It's still worth noting that even if he promotes to Paladin he still has partial weapon triangle control, high movement and awesome stats) That's a nifty perk if you ask me. Mekkah (a prominent, hard-core Fire Emblem veteran) also pointed out that Franz " starts ORKOing with just 2-3 Str + Spd procs (40% and 50% growths respectively)" [Mekkah - "Top 30 Fire Emblem Characters OF ALL TIME Countdown: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=29384#entry1781433)

                    I know I said this before but Franz's biggest problem is that Seth outclasses him so much it makes his contributions seem less important. Like the case with Lex this doesn't make Franz a bad unit at all. It just means that his contributions in his game compared to other units in their games doesn't seem as significant. I'll end by quoting Mekkah again in the same link from above:

               "In a run with Seth, Franz isn't really obsolete but even he has a very hard time getting ample level-ups to show his potential. But without Seth, he can usually eat more than half of the map on his own and sort of become Seth by himself, it just takes around eight chapters or so. And anyone that can kind of become Seth himself deserves a spot in this top 30." [Mekkah - "Top 30 Fire Emblem Characters OF ALL TIME Countdown: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=29384#entry1781433)

(^ Replace "top 30" with "top 20" and that's how I feel.)