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Time Travel is a concept heavily utilized in the story of Fire Emblem Awakening.

Story[]

From the ruinous future of Awakening, Naga sends Lucina and the children of the Shepherds into the past in hopes of stopping the resurrection of Grima who had laid waste to the future, putting it on the brink of destruction. Catching wind of this ploy, Grima utilizes the same power to follow the children and stop them. During the flow of time into the past, the children were separated from each other with each appearing at different points in the past. What is known is that Grima first appeared in the past shortly before the events of the Prologue and Lucina arriving in Chapter 1. While most of the children's arrival times are left ambiguous, Laurent notes that he has been present in the current timeline for several years by the time of his appearance sometime after the events of Chapter 13. The result of this ability caused a timeline split between the eventual peaceful ending of Awakening and the original ruined future timeline where the world was mostly destroyed by Grima.

In the Future Past saga of Awakening it is possible for the Shepherds to head to another future where the Fell Dragon has begun his final assault on the Shepherd's children of that world. The Naga of the current world sends the Shepherds to save them in hopes of sparing one future from Grima's grasp.

Overview[]

Mechanically, Awakening strays away from a unified future situation through the Bootstrap Paradox or Causal Loop situation where the children of the future are used to explain otherwise unknowable events that lead to the future events that would happen anyways. Lucina in particular shows that certain things can be changed with some differentiating effects. In this scenario, the future would not be changed, merely their presence fills in the final gaps of actions that lead to the original future in the first place.

The Many-Worlds Interpretation or Multiverse Theory of time travel paradoxes fits the situation of Awakening. The theory suggests that every possible future exists, even if we ourselves will only experience one timeline. Even though changes can be made through time travel, which vastly changes the sequence of events and outcomes from the original timeline, they do not affect the timeline of origin for the characters, hence why the children characters retain their knowledge of events of their timeline despite the sweeping changes occurring.

Because of this, the game also emphasizes the use of the Butterfly Effect, where changes to the past cause drastic changes to the future. Lucina vouches that certain events take place differently, some more vastly than others. The assassination of Emmeryn in Ylisstol, for example, was a success in her original timeline unlike the present where she dies at Plegia Castle instead. Her conversations with Chrom heavily indicate that she has many memories of spending time with her father as a child before his death while in the present timeline, her current timeline self is still an infant by the time the event that took Chrom's life occurs. Most notably, the game ends with the fall of Grima, of which greatly differs from her original timeline. It is unknown what happened to the original timeline, but given that Lucina and the other children do not disappear from existence upon the final changes, it suggests that the timelines are all considered different and independent from each other, hence the children created a peaceful future for an alternative version of their world, but not necessarily their own. The same happens during the events of the Future Past saga, but in reverse where the Shepherds travel into the future of another world to save that world's version of their children.

Timelines of Awakening[]

Within Fire Emblem Awakening, there are at least three established timelines. What is consistent between the three worlds is that the larger events of the Plegia-Ylisse War and war with Valm occur consistently.

Timeline A: Original Timeline[]

This is the timeline that follows the sequence of events of the ruined future the children of Awakening hails from and can be considered the first timeline and the sequence of events that came from knowledge of this timeline caused the changes in Timeline B. It can also be considered the original timeline as it does not have any meddling of the children in this timeline except when they are sent back in time.

After the death of Chrom, Grima was resurrected, leading to the destruction of the world. Most of humanity perished either to his Risen forces of Grima himself. All of the Shepherds are confirmed dead by their own children except for Robin who is simply believed dead by their non-determined children. It is implied that Lucina attempted to perform the Awakening, but was unable to do so as she was unable to completed Fire Emblem, resulting in a partially blessed Parallel Falchion.

It is unknown what happened to this future after the children left as that world's Grima left it to follow the children into the past to stop them from preventing his return. The Hidden Truths 1 story suggests that with Grima following them into the past, the world was spared, but left a desolate wasteland. As payment for their services to his plans, Anankos was able to restore the land and create gravestones for the fallen.

Timeline B: Current Timeline[]

This is the timeline that follows the sequence of events of Awakening throughout the game. Because Timeline A caused the events of Timeline B, it can be considered the second timeline. For intent of explanation, this is considered the current timeline as it is the one used for main narrative of Awakening.

Changes to the Timeline[]

The following are the notable differences in the sequence of events between the original and current timeline.

  • Robin has amnesia as a result of Grima attempting to overtake their present version. It is not known if the original Robin had this issue.
  • The incident in the burning forest after leaving Southtown involving Lucina entering the present and giving them the warnings of the future issues with the Risen.
  • Lucina becomes Basilio's champion by defeating Lon'qu. While not explicitly stated, it is likely that Lon'qu was the West-Khan's champion in the original timeline. Chrom still becomes champion of the East-Khan Flavia regardless and wins the tourney as was in the original tournament.
  • Lucina aids Chrom in protecting Emmeryn from the assassination attempt by the Grimleal. Without her warning, the assassination was a success in her original timeline. Validar dies in this encounter. Ultimately Emmeryn dies in Chapter 9.
  • Basilio faces Walhart in the northern regions of Valm to stall him while Chrom and his forces dispatch Yen'fay's in the south. In the original, Basilio dies. Due to Lucina's warning, Basilio is able to fake his death and survives.
  • The events at the Dragon's Table in Chapter 23 are stated to have happened much further in the Felled Timeline future as the Lucina in the present timeline is an infant while the future Lucina has some minor memories as a toddler with Chrom.
  • Chrom survives the events at the Dragon's Table where he died in the original timeline.
  • Grima is ultimately defeated, thus delaying the destruction of the world by Grima by having Chrom seal him or outright destroying him by having Robin sacrifice themselves.

Timeline C: The Future Past[]

This is the timeline that follows the sequence of events of the Future Past saga of Xenologues. The timeline seems to follow similar events to the Original Timeline up until the point where Lucina and the children plan on gathering the Fire Emblem and Gemstones. Due to the intervention of Naga, who desired to save one ruinous future from Grima, sent the Shepherds of the current timeline into an alternative future where Grima has nearly destroyed the entire world. Due to their intervention, all twelve of the children survive the final attacks by Grima and, with the alternative Lucina able to complete the Fire Emblem and perform the full Awakening, is able to seal Grima.

In this timeline, the Shepherds are still dead, but peace has been restored to the world as it rebuilds from the Fell Dragon's destruction. Lucina formally becomes the Exalt of Ylisse while the children revive the Shepherds under their leadership.

Project X Zone 2[]

The specific gate that Naga used to send Lucina and the future children back in time also make a somewhat prominent appearance in the Bandai Namco, Capcom, Sega and Nintendo crossover game Project X Zone 2 alongside other Fire Emblem Awakening characters and concepts. Here they are explicitly referred to as "Fractures" by several members of the games cast including Lucina herself who calls back to the one she used to arrive in Chrom's time. First making an appearance Chapter 13: The Second Coming of Valkyrie, they then make several subsequent appearances in the game.

Trivia[]

  • Fire Emblem Fates actually utilizes some form of time travel as well. In the Before Awakening DLC, this game's Corrin and their allies travel to before Chrom’s meeting with his tactician, to help them out. Laslow, Selena, Odin, Ophelia, and Caeldori all can speak to Chrom or Lissa here, despite how all of them are from the world of Fates where Odin, Laslow, and Selena entered after the story of Awakening was completed.
  • There are several characters in Fire Emblem Awakening that are hinted to be from separate timelines:
    • Yen'fay is from a timeline where he failed to protect Say'ri and she had perished.
    • Aversa that stole the Einherjar cards in the Champions of Yore series is said to be from a world that was heading towards ruin.
    • Morgan is stated in the epilogue ending to be from a different timeline from the other children. It is in fact strongly implied that Morgan may have come from the Future Past's timeline.
  • Gangrel, Walhart, Emmeryn, and Aversa's survival in the battles is strange, with Walhart even claiming that he was actually dead, but his body still moved. This could be that meddling in the affairs of time has caused some effects on reality, which allowed them all to have somehow survived.
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