Celica

Celica
Information
Species	Human
Homeworld	Valentia
Series	Fire Emblem
Affiliation	Female Lords Syndrome
Gender	Female

“	My, my. Look at all this pirate booty. Heh.	”
—Celica

Hoo boy, here we go. One of the most controversial lords in the series, both in her own game and in Warriors. Is that even possible? Anyway, just let me warn you right now that from the next sentence on, this page is gonna be filled with spoilers. Basically, Celica, whose real name is Anthiese, is the princess of Zofia and one of the two main characters of Fire Emblem Gaiden and Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia... even though Alm is the main protagonist and undisputably the main character both times.

In Shadows of Valentia

Prologue

Basically, Celica lives in Ram Village with her cousin Alm, Gray, Tobin, Kliff, Faye, and grandpapa Mycen. They're in the village for several months, probably, and while she's there, she and Alm grow close. Thing is, the reason she's in the village is because ten years ago, Desaix staged a coup and tried to kill her. so she had to flee for her own safety. So now, some knights from Zofia Castle ride in one day, and one of them is Slayde, a minor antagonist the game forgets about after the first act and then haphazardly inserts into the fourth act (in the remake) to tie up a loose end. Slayde recognizes Celica's birthmark (she has a mark on her hand, Alm has a similar mark on his. Hey, I sure wonder if that means something), and though he can't kidnap Celica, she has to flee so that Desaix doesn't get another shot at her. She's taken to Novis, where she's raised by Nomah and makes new friends: Mae and Boey. She also gets a pet sheep, but said sheep isn't relevant at all, so that's not important.

Act 2

So now Celica's older, about a teenager, I think (the other wiki says she's older than Alm, who I'm also pretty sure is a teenager), and she stops hearing from Mila. With Mila's divine protection no longer there, she panics and goes on a pilgrimage to see what's wrong with the goddess. Along the way, she meets Saber, some random merc who's a pretty decent guy and ends up basically being Ogma if he appeared in more than two chapters, and she kills some pirates. She also learns that some of the Duma Faithful want her, but she's not sure why. Then she finds Alm, who's liberated Zofia, and she gets really mad because even though it's okay to kill pirates, it's not okay to kill soldiers from an imperialistic kingdom when they threaten yours. Although she's also mad that he unknowingly insulted her father. Isn't it great that their first time seeing each other in years ends in her getting mad at him? Oh, and a masked knight follows her. It's not that important.

Act 3

So Ms. "Please find a peaceful solution" learns about the bandit Grieth and decides to go out of her way to kill him. It's part of a Whitewing subplot, sure, and he's a bad guy, but he's portrayed as just as bad as the Rigelians, who've already invaded Zofia, and there's no actual story justification for her going there. She has to rescue someone for the story to progress, but it's still possible to skip the Whitewings, who provide the reason to go there. 

Moving on! She reaches Mila's temple and learns that the goddess is long gone. Also, it turns out that she's really the princess, yada yada. Everyone knew this already.

Act 4

Jedah, the main antagonist of her route and the head of the Duma Faithful, and he tells Celica that Mila's dead, but with her soul, he'll be able to reawaken Duma, who can keep watching over Valentia. Considering there's nothing strange about Jedah being blue in a world where blue people exist, his argument makes sense to the point that even he seems to believe it (save one out of place battle quote), and Celica's spent a long time at the priory and relies entirely on Mila, it really isn't unreasonable for her to submit her soul to save Valentia. Of course, what is unreasaonable is keeping to herself and pushing her friends away for this. In the original game, this wasn't an issue since it was to save Alm from necrodragons, but they cut that because no one liked being stuck on a perma-ambush map.

Also, the masked knight is her brother Conrad, surprising absolutely nobody.

Act 5

Alm reaches the basement of Duma Tower, which is connected to Castle Rigel, and reunites with Celica. He rushes to save her from Jedah, but by the time he arrives, her soul's already been taken, so he has thrust his Falchion into her. Mila resurrects her or something, no one really knows what was going on in that scene, and reunited, both groups go to put Duma down once and for all.

And then in the ending, Celica, now queen of Zofia, marries Alm, now king of Rigel, and Valentia is unified under another hero king.

There's also a field trip to Archanea in act 6, but that's pretty obviously non-canon.

In Awakening

The weird part is it doesn't even look much like her Gaiden artwork.

Like Alm, Celica was a DLC unit in Awakening. She used magic exclusively, and she was drawn by a hentai artist, which shows in how she's really not even wearing a shirt. That's about it, really.

In Heroes

I dunno, this is some of the more popular art in the game, but I just don't see it.

Celica, Mae, Boey, and the sheep were added to Heroes for Echoes' western release and got the second post-release main story chapter (sorry, Celica, but Ike's got you beat there). She's pretty good and even served as the boss for the second Tempest Trial and a main character for the third. People seem to love her art too, but honestly, it just seems like nothing special to me.

In Warriors

And here, we have her most controversial appearance yet. While in Echoes, people call her an for making a decision that they likely would've as well in her shoes, she still has her fans there. Not so much with Warriors. Why? Let's count the ways...

• She apparently got in over main character Alm and more popular characters Ike and Roy
• She uses a sword despite being portrayed as a predominantly magic user in Awakening and Echoes
• She appears to be a Marth clone
• She is the producer's favorite character
• She has a sword in a game that's already polarizing because the lords having swords was given as the reason for the focus on Awakening and Fates over popular characters from throughout the series. She is the tenth character with a sword revealed while there are still only three lance and axe users each
• If she's in the main story, she's a Brawl Sonic at best
• No history mode potential for her
• Solidified a leak that Lyn already confirmed by showing that Shadow Dragon's likely getting the shaft
• Like quite a few Warriors characters, she looks weird. It's mainly the face being off and the hair being too light.
• She's probably the least popular female lord due to being flawed in a series where no women are allowed to be flawed and headlining a game released now that the series is mainstream. While Eirika and Micaiah are also controversial for this reason, they're far more popular for different reasons, and the most popular female lords, Lyn and Lucina, aren't exactly flawed. Basically, Eirika would've been better received. While Micaiah appears to be more popular, going by CYL, she likely would've been the only character who would've been received even worse than Celica due to getting in over Ike
• She's criticized by Xander for her beliefs in her home game... even though Warriors Celica is actually a gross perversion of Gaiden/Echoes Celica. And also, Xander. You know, the absolute last character in the series who should try to ert moral superiority.

Trivia

• While it's been stated that Corrin being flaws in Revelation would be fine if he ever actually learned from it, Celica's hated for her flaws, making the validity of this statement uncertain.
• While Echoes does have several hiccups with its writing, Celica's actually one of the better written characters and is a pretty good lord. Honestly, the fact that only the women and Corrin (whose female version is more popular) are criticized for their flaws, regardless of whether these flaws play to their character strength, brings up some interesting implications about the fanbase. Then again, considering Tharja and Camilla are two of the most popular characters in the series, ism in the fanbase really shouldn't have surprised anyone.
• Celica likes cats.
• Despite how controversial she seems to be (worldwide, even, as Japan apparently doesn't care too much for her), she placed first CYL 2 as of the mid-results, above even Camilla, Tharja, female Corrin, and every other female in the series not named Lyn or Lucina, neither of whom is any longer an option. Maybe it's just a vocal minority that hates Celica after all.