Mozu

Mozu (モズメ Mozume in the Japanese version) is a playable character in Fire Emblem Fates and an ally on all the routes. She is voiced by Juri Kimura in the Japanese version, and by Karen Strassman in the English version.

Profile
Mozu is a villager from Hoshido.

In her Paralogue, her village is attacked by the Faceless, killing everybody else in the village. As Mozu and her mother nearly make it out of the village, her mother is killed by one of the Faceless. As luck would have it, she would be rescued by the Avatar and their army, who were looking for survivors, of which she was the only one. Faced with little options, since she is by herself and has nothing of value anymore, she joins the Avatar's army, and strives to be useful to their cause and to make up for everyone else's sacrifice.

Personality
Often portrayed as a meek character with low self-confidence, Mozu is hesitant to attempt new things that she is not particularly adept in. Her supports depict her as such, where she requires the encouragement of her conversational partners in order to pick up skills that are useful to her on the battlefield. Despite this, she is actually physically robust. As revealed in her supports with the Avatar, her life as a villager is one that demands her to engage in manual labor, like crop cultivation and boar hunting for subsistence.

Mozu's low self-esteem is exclusive only when she is faced with picking up new skills; her supports reveal her to be in possession of a blunt, unabashed personality, where she does not hesitate to point out the mistakes committed by others and their flaws. She is also one of few female characters in S supports who consistently and proactively ask for her love interest's hand in marriage.

Mozu is also known to possess a humble spirit, not valuing any wealth or luxuries and preferring a simplistic lifestyle as opposed to an extravagant one. This is made evident in her supports with Oboro where, in response to Oboro cheerfully remarking that her endearing appearance will be enhanced with the right clothes and makeup, she quietly states that they will not obscure the fact that she is, at heart, a country girl.

One of Mozu's more recognisable talents is cooking. When taking shifts in the Mess Hall, if she cooks food of a good quality, she will proudly mention that back home, the villagers often asked her to cook, a clear indication of their appreciation of her cooking prowess. Mozu's cooking talent is further confirmed through her supports with Saizo, where her cooking reminds him of the food native to his home village, stating that he prefers it over the heavier food commonly served in the capital of Hoshido.

When neither Mozu's skills on the field nor her simplistic lifestyle is mentioned, it is often noted that she attempts to move on from the trauma she has suffered in order to be of use to the Avatar's army as a soldier. Her supports with Silas particularly support this fact, as she not just takes the initiative to request him to train her, but also overcomes her lack of self-confidence in order to better benefit from her combat trainings.

Mozu's birthday falls on 6 October.

Growth Rates
◾ Note: Growth Rates are based on the character in their starting class.
 * 50%
 * 60%
 * 15%
 * 60%
 * 75%
 * 75%
 * 55%
 * 40%
 * }

◾ Note: Growth Rates as a Master of Arms
 * 60%
 * 65%
 * 15%
 * 70%
 * 75%
 * 65%
 * 55%
 * 40%
 * }

◾ Note: Growth Rates as a Merchant
 * 60%
 * 70%
 * 15%
 * 70%
 * 70%
 * 70%
 * 55%
 * 45%
 * }

Max Stat Modifiers

 * 0
 * 0
 * +1
 * +1
 * +1
 * 0
 * -2
 * }

Standard Sets

 * }

Friendship Sets

 * -|Birthright/Revelation=


 * }
 * -|Conquest/Revelation=


 * }

Partner Sets

 * -|All Routes=


 * }
 * -|Birthright/Revelation=


 * }
 * -|Conquest/Revelation=


 * }

Special Classes

 * }

Supports
Romantic Supports
 * The Avatar (Male)
 * Jakob
 * Kaze
 * Silas

Nohr

 * Xander
 * Leo
 * Benny
 * Arthur
 * Odin
 * Laslow
 * Niles
 * Keaton

Hoshido
Other Supports
 * Hinata
 * Azama
 * Saizo
 * Hayato
 * Kaden
 * Subaki
 * Ryoma
 * Takumi
 * The Avatar (Female)
 * Effie
 * Nyx
 * Oboro
 * Mozu's children

Base Class
Mozu is the Villager character of Fates. She starts off with extremely low stats which puts her at immediate risk during initial training, especially during Conquest. However, Mozu can become an incredible unit if time is put in. This is mostly due in part to her base class' starting skill Aptitude, which boosts all of her growth rates by 10%, making all of her stat growths, minus Magic, a base 50% or more chance of increasing when leveling up. As she promotes, she will carry on these strong growths and is likely to have multiple capped stats by the time she reaches level 20. When trained up to Level 10, she learns Underdog which increases her hit and avoid when battling higher level opponents, which Mozu will have to deal with most likely as she trains. Once properly trained, Mozu becomes a potent offensive unit and a master of terrain thanks in part to her Personal Skill, Forager, which gives her 20% health regen at the start of the player's turn if she is standing on a Mountain, Forrest, Plain, or Waste tile. If time is put into her, she can become one of the most powerful units in the game and is worth the initial struggle to bring her to a usable level.

Unlike the Villager class in Fire Emblem Awakening, it now has two promotions and both still retain usage of Lances, so training her with lances are not lost upon class changing. The Master of Arms class highlights versatility, having access to Swords, Lances, and Axes; making her the Hoshidan equivalent of a Great Knight, offensively. While it does not have standout stats to cement her in a particular role, there are advantages. Seal Strength can cripple high damage enemies and, if she has proper defense stats, set up safer kills for other units. Life and Death is a risky skill that gives herself and her opponent more base damage. If willing to use this skill, expect high risk for high reward. Her other option is the Merchant class, which emphasizes utility. While its stat caps are a little more lackluster than Master of Arms, it adds Bows/Yumis into the mix, and its two skills are built around each other. Mozu's high luck makes her a good user for Profiteer, which gives Mozu a chance (based on her luck stat) to obtain a Gold Bar for the first 7 turns of the map. Spendthrift allows Mozu to expend a Gold Bar when attacking to increase her damage by 10, while reducing damage taken by 10. It is a much more beneficial version of Life and Death, though Mozu must have Gold Bars readily available to utilize it. If the player has other characters with the skill, they can utilize them to help Mozu acquire Gold Bars and vice versa. Alternatively, having a stockpile in the Convoy can work as well, but the Avatar must be on the map in order for that to work.

Secondary Class
Mozu's secondary class is the Archer class. If it were not for the fact that Takumi has the Fujin Yumi, Mozu could potentially be the best Archer unit in the game. That aside, bringing Mozu into this class is mainly to benefit her Merchant class. Archer provides Quick Draw, which increases Mozu's damage by 4 when initiating combat. Although you will be removing her Lances, promoting to a Sniper makes her excellent for taking down enemies with high crit rates and skill activations if she has any. It also gives her Certain Blow to increase her Hit Rate when initiating combat, and Bowfaire to add more strength to her Bow attacks. The Kinshi Knight class could be considered an Aerial, glass cannon version of the Merchant class as it has the same weapons, but now with more mobility and emphasis on Speed and Skill. Even if Mozu is not kept in this class, Air Superiority can give Mozu good presence as an anti-aerial unit, good for some of the late game, heavily Aerial enemy maps, and Amaterasu to give her allies a Regen zone.

Friendship Class
Mozu has three Friendship Units: Oboro, Effie and Nyx
 * Oboro - Oboro provides the Spear Fighter class, a class whose main weapon is something she is very familiar with. If looking to maximize Mozu's lance prowess, this is the class to be. She first learns Seal Defense to cripple high defense targets like Generals and Great Knights. Swap can be used to give squishy units cover in case the player overextends too deep. In the Spear Master class, she learns Seal Speed as another means to cripple targets and is good against high speed units like Ninjas, Samurais, and Outlaws. Lancefaire gives her lances more sting. Because it can reach S in lances, she can be a deadly user of the Waterwheel given her strong growths that can make her outshine Oboro herself. Alternatively, Basara gives offensive adaptability with access to Tomes and Scrolls, though Mozu's strength in Magic is slightly lacking. Nevertheless, she retains her lances and the class provides Rend Heaven, a solid attacking skill against high Strength enemies. Quixotic is there to boost her activation rates of skills, which can help out generating Gold Bars for her Profiteer skill, or give Rend Heaven that extra percentage to activate.
 * Effie - Effie provides the Knight class, another class whose main weapon is within Mozu's specialty. Mozu can grab many good defensive skills to give her better lasting power. The class provides Natural Cover, which reduces damage taken when Mozu stands on a tile with terrain effects. This compliments her Personal Skill, as she can reduce damage taken on those tiles and then regenerate health after tanking hits. The General class provides Wary Fighter, which can further increase her tankiness by denying higher speed enemies from doubling on her. However, the skill will prevent herself from doubling, which could be troubling, as her speed growth is relatively high. Pavise is useful for it can shave off damage from direct weapons. The Great Knight provides Luna, a great attacking skill that ignores half the enemy's defense stats when attacking, and Armored Blow to further add tankiness when she initiates.
 * Nyx - Nyx provides the Dark Mage class, a class that does not benefit Mozu as much. Mozu's personal magic growth is 15% with Aptitude, making her not ideal for magical classes. However, she can still collect the more useful skills from the Dark Knight class. The class provides her with Seal Magic and Lifetaker, which Seal Magic could decrease magical damage while Lifetaker could provide emergency healing if the healers are unavailable. The skills from the base class (Heartseeker and Malefic Aura) could be useful for allies, but it could not directly benefit Mozu as a unit, such as Heartseeker helping to decrease enemy Avoid when Mozu already have no problem hitting and Malefic Aura increasing magical damage when Mozu would not be dealing magical damage to begin with. The Sorcerer class provides Vengeance and Bowbreaker. Vengeance would not be useful for Mozu's rather low Max HP even after promotion. Bowbreaker could be proven useful in Conquest for the large amounts of Bow-using enemies.

Quotes
Refer to Mozu/Quotes.

Possible Endings
Mozu - Rural Power (田舎娘 Ianka Musume lit. Country Girl)
 * Mozu returned to her village and began rebuilding all by herself. Inspired by her efforts, nearby villages began their own rebuilding efforts. Mozu was eventually hailed as a local hero and humanitarian.


 * Mozu and Kaden
 * Despite marriage, Kaden continued to travel, returning favors. Later he served as chief of his village. His wife, Mozu, meanwhile, was a constant source of support and a humanitarian in her own right.


 * Mozu and Saizo
 * Saizo disappeared from official records after the war, but no doubt he served the royal family forever. His wife, Mozu, meanwhile, was a constant source of support and a humanitarian in her own right.


 * Mozu and Silas
 * Silas served loyally as a knight of Nohr. He was beloved by trainee knights for his great patience. His wife, Mozu, meanwhile, was a constant source of support and a humanitarian in her own right.


 * Mozu and Keaton
 * Keaton returned to his homeland. He frequently visited old friends and got lost on the way home. His wife, Mozu, meanwhile, was a constant source of support and a humanitarian in her own right.

Etymology
Mozu is the Japanese word for a shrike, a Eurasian species of bird.

Trivia

 * Mozu is the first playable female Villager in the Fire Emblem series.
 * Mozu shares many similarities with Donnel from Awakening, as they are both Villagers, share similar speech mannerisms, and are recruited in the first paralogue of their respective games. They also both share the skill Aptitude. Unlike Donnel, Mozu has the option to still use lances/naginatas after promoting into an advanced class (Weapon Master, Merchant) whilst Donnel could not use them outside his Villager class.
 * Mozu was voted as the 25th most popular female on Nintendo's official Fates character poll.
 * Mozu shares her English voice actress, Karen Strassman, with Hana, Anna, and Olivia from Awakening. She also shares her Japanese voice actress, Juri Kimura, with Nyx.
 * In the North American localization, Mozu's profile in the Unit Roster says that she is from a village in Nohr.