Face here! Today, ladies and gentlemen, is May 5th. Which makes it the birthday of one of my favorite gaming characters ever, Morgan, from Fire Emblem: Awakening!

Yeah, these two are both Morgan. See, just as Lucina is Chrom’s daughter, Morgan is Robin’s child. Male Robin will have a daughter, while female Robin will have a son. And since you can choose Robin’s gender in Awakening, there are two Morgans!

Morgan inherits quite a bit from Robin, too, by the way. An awesome coat, a gift for tactics, and, strangely, amnesia.

…Making Morgan’s past a complete mystery. What was Morgan’s future like? How and why did they come back in time? What about the other Morgan? What did they do before being picked up by the Shepherds?

And that’s where I come in. It’s time for another round of theory crafting with Professor Face! Fire Emblem: Awakening spoilers throughout! Both main game and DLC!

…And yes, I’ll stick a TL;DR at the end. This is a big writeup.

So, first off. I’m going to be sticking with female Morgan throughout, simply because I’m more used to female Morgan in my playthroughs, but also because this.

Dear Naga that line is just perfect.

Now… Where to begin…

The first clue we have to Morgan’s identity is her solo ending. “Morgan’s memory never returned, but she didn’t seem to miss it. Later, scholars would speculate she had come from a different future than the other children.”

We will assume this to be the canon origin for the Morgan you recruit. Not only because the solo ending hints it, but also because Morgan can be the child of characters who are canonically dead in the future of the other children, or characters who are time travelers themselves.

…We’re going to need to differentiate these timelines somehow, aren’t we?

Okay, so we know we’re dealing with three worlds here. The first is the world Lucina and friends are from, in which Chrom and co. failed to prevent the rise of Grima, aka Dragon Satan, and everyone died. We’ll call this the “Lucina Timeline.”

The second is the world in which Lucina comes back and saves the day. The timeline the main game takes place in. We’ll call this the “Main Game Timeline,” because we’re super creative.

The third is the timeline Morgan’s from, in which we have no idea what happens. We’ll call this the “Morgan Timeline.”

Think of it like Back to the Future, only more convoluted.

I am so good at MS Paint, you guys.

Now, we’re going to drop the Morgan Timeline for a bit and come back to it later.

We know those aren’t the only three timelines. For example, the “Future Past Timeline” exists, and is shown in three DLC episodes. This timeline is a world in which Grima rose, just like in the Lucina Timeline. However, there are subtle differences. In the Lucina Timeline, the gemstones on the titular Fire Emblem have been lost. Long story short, this means that in the Lucina Timeline, Grima can’t be defeated, leading to time travel. In the Future Past Timeline, the Fire Emblem remains intact. Unfortunately, Grima also has more power than ever. He’s able to flat out kill his good counterpart, Naga, which is stated to be completely impossible in the other timelines.

All hope is not lost, however. You see, in the Lucina Timeline, the Main Game Timeline, and the Future Past Timeline, Grima comes to power by possessing Robin. But we see varying degrees of possession in the three Robins. In the Lucina Timeline, Robin is lost completely. Grima has taken complete control, and in his dialogue, Lucina Timeline Grima states that the Robin in his timeline actually chose to become Grima.

“It’s really quite simple. I am you. Our only difference is the decisions we’ve made… …You were supposed to choose godhood over your pathetic band of servants.”



In the Main Game Timeline, Robin completely refuses Grima and is actually able to resist an attempt at possession through both sheer force of will and his bonds to his friends.

How does Future Past Timeline Robin fare, then? Well, better than Lucina Timeline Robin and worse than Main Game Timeline Robin. Future Past Timeline Robin is able to maintain limited control over his body and is shown occasionally wresting control back from Grima. Which indicates that Future Past Timeline Robin was either more determined than Lucina Timeline Robin, or he had closer bonds to his friends.

Recap.

Main Game Timeline: Robin able to completely resist Grima’s control, Grima is killed.

Lucina Timeline: Robin is unable to resist Grima’s control, everyone but Naga is killed.

Future Past Timeline: Robin is able to partially resist Grima’s control, however, everyone and Naga is killed.

What does any of this have to do with Morgan, you ask? It’s quite simple. My proposal is that Morgan’s timeline is in fact the Future Past Timeline. Furthermore, the Future Past Timeline is what happens when Lucina and pals come back in time but fail in their mission, and the Morgans are actually twins.

Let’s go over the Future Past Timeline a bit more. See, in the Future Past Timeline, both Morgans actually serve as bosses under Grima. So great is their dedication to Robin that they will serve him even after he’s been possessed by a demonic dragon god thing. The fact that both male and female Morgan exist in the same world is a heavy indicator that they are twins, or at least siblings.

Now, if you end your turn with male Robin next to male Morgan, Morgan will recognize Robin, become overcome with emotion, and refuse to fight him. “Could he be some emissary of Naga’s sent from another world? That damned dragon has no right meddling with my heart. But it is too late. I cannot knowingly fight him.” That’s definitely the kind of reaction one would expect from someone forced to fight a close relative. Like, say, a father.

But male Robin next to female Morgan gives us a bit more interesting bit of dialogue. Robin gives her one of his favorite books, and Morgan’s response is the following: “I already have this book. You gave it to me long ago. The notes and dog-ears are all exactly the same.” Keep that in mind, that’s very important.

Let’s take a look at a bit of dialogue from another DLC chapter, shall we? This time from Hot Spring Scramble. This Morgan, by the way, is the one on your team.

Morgan: “It’s finally time to put this annotated strategy tome of Father’s to use!”

Cynthia: “Whoa! You literally just pulled that out of your sleeve! I’ve never seen anyone do that. It looked totally awesome! Very ‘secret weapon.’”

Morgan: “Y-you think? Thanks. I was hoping it would look kind of neat. Heh heh… Truth be told, I also have something in this one! …YOINK!”

Cynthia: “Wooow! Another strategy manual from the other sleeve?! Wait, no, it’s…the same one again? Um, Morgan? Why do you have two copies of the same book?”

How about that? Morgan has two copies of the exact same book. Her father’s annotated strategy tome. Now, why would Robin annotate the same tome twice? Unless he didn’t. Unless two different Robins gave her that same book.

So, we now know Morgan comes from the Future Past Timeline and has a brother. What we still don’t know is what the origin is of the Future Past Timeline and how Morgan makes it back in time. After all, Naga is dead in the Future Past Timeline, so she couldn’t have sent Morgan back in time. The answer to that one is rather simple. Future Past Robin does it. After all, he clearly demonstrates the same power in Future Past 3, when he wrests control from Future Past Grima to send Main Game Robin and pals back to their own world. Future Past Robin, at some point between Future Past 2 and 3, wrests control from Future Past Grima to send one Morgan back in time. We don’t know how, exactly when, or what happens to the other Morgan, but that’s the solution that makes the most sense.

As for the origin of the Future Past Timeline? As I said before, I think it’s a failed version of the Main Game Timeline. My reasoning for this is the fact that Future Past Robin is more in control of his body than Lucina Timeline Robin, and therefore, Future Past Robin is clearly closer to his comrades. Lucina’s time travel is explicitly stated to have brought the Shepherds closer together in the Main Game Timeline than they ever were in the Lucina Timeline. I direct you to this quote from the main game, from Chrom to Lucina. “Lucina, aren’t our ties stronger here now than they were in your future? You said so yourself.” Conveniently, this also explains how Morgan can be the child of characters confirmed dead in the Lucina Timeline or of travelers from the Lucina Timeline.

Whew, that was a long writeup! If you stuck around for the whole thing, I applaud you. Seriously.

Basically, here’s the final conclusion. Morgan comes from the timeline seen in the Future Past DLC. She at one point served Grima and has a twin brother, male Morgan, but probably named something else in that timeline, who did the same. The Future Past Timeline is a version of the Main Game Timeline in which Lucina and friends travel back, but fail. And finally, Morgan was sent back in time by a Robin that temporarily wrested control from his world’s Grima.

Happy birthday, you adorkable little goddess of death!