Mercedes von Bartels

**Mercedes** is a playable character who appears in *Fire Emblem: Three Houses* and *Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes*. She is a student at the Officers Academy and a member of the Blue Lions. She possesses a minor Crest of Lamine. She is 22 years old at the start of the game, and 27 at the end of the time skip. She is the elder half-sister of Emile. She uses Bows and Magic as her main weapons, is a healer, and uses the Heroes Relic **Ichor Scroll**, the sacred weapon **Tathlum Bow**, and holds the **Rafel gem**.

## Mercedes von Bartels

### Relatives

Lamine (Ancestor)Baron Matritz (Father)Unnamed MotherBaron Bartels (Stepfather)Unnamed Adoptive FatherEmile (Younger Half-Brother)Unnamed Half-Siblings

## Appearances

### Appears in

Fire Emblem: Three HousesFire Emblem: Three Hopes

### Early life

Born a noble in the Adrestian Empire to Baron Martritz, Mercedes' house was abolished when her father died in the year she was born. Her mother remarried Baron Bartels, and they had a son named Emile a year later, who bore a Crest. However, this proved to be her and her mother's undoing, as both began being treated as if they were expendable since her stepfather solely wanted a child with a Crest. Thus, in 1167, at the age of 10, she and her mother left House Bartels to live in a church in Eastern Faerghus.

Mercedes was eventually adopted by a merchant from Fhirdiad and grew up as a commoner, though her adoptive father wanted her to marry well and have a child with a Crest. Before attending the Officers Academy, she attended the Royal School of Sorcery in the capital and befriended Annette.

Sometime after leaving House Bartels, Baron Bartels desired to have another child with a Crest to expand his influence. He eventually decided on Mercedes as their mother was past childbearing age, along with the fact that she had a minor Crest of Lamine, eventually learning where they were hiding. Mercedes was not aware of this, as Emile killed him before he could do anything.

Mercedes is also a childhood friend of Constance, who graduated from the Royal School of Sorcery just as Mercedes arrived.

### Academy Phase

Mercedes enrolled in Garreg Mach Monastery Officers Academy in Imperial Year 1180 and joined the Blue Lions. She is slightly older than the other students. She is a close friend of Annette, whom she met at the school of sorcery.

## Personality

Mercedes is a very religious person. Having spent much of her youth in a church, she found enjoyment in praying. She has a motherly personality, and so can't ignore people in need, being always prone to help her friends if there's a problem. She tends to let people tell her what to do, rationalizing this to be the will of the Goddess. Thus, her reason for heading to the Garreg Mach Monastery and her decisions later during the war were the first time she chooses to act for herself, defying the wishes of her adoptive father.

Despite all the tragic events that happened to her in the past, she is able to stay positive. While she can be normally calm she is still capable of getting angry, as seen in her supports with Lorenz, Annette, Dimitri, and Ferdinand. She also has a great dislike of Crests as they have brought her misery through her life and the many marriage proposals her adoptive father attempt to place on Mercedes. This allowed her to bond with Sylvain and Ingrid due to similar circumstances. She is also best friends with Annette since their time at School of Sorcery.

She also enjoys baking sweets, as seen in her support with Annette and Ashe. Mercedes' other likes are needlework, ghost stories, adorable things, painting, reading, and fragrant flowers. However, she dislikes spicy foods and exercise. She admits that she can be scatterbrained and clumsy.

She also holds a deep regret for leaving her younger brother Emile and being there to support during his time at House Bartels. Even when he became the Death Knight, she was still able to recognize it was him by the time of the War Phase. In Azure Moon Route, she comforts him as he is slowly dying, lamenting on the circumstances she could have prevented.

In the Crimson Flower route, Mercedes is relieved to see Emile again. She still has guilt for leaving him alone, as she knows that both her and their mother's departure caused his Death Knight persona to manifest. Though she is correct on this, she believed that it was wrong to abandon him, in which Emile corrects her in that he stayed behind to protect them from Baron Bartels. Despite his violent Death Knight persona coupled with the fact that Emile could accidentally kill her, Mercedes still sees him as her younger brother.

Also, exclusive to this version of Mercedes, she has jokingly created a similar persona to Emile's Death Knight, known as Mercedeath, where instead of a scythe, she wields a dirty shovel, and puts on a skull mask. That's it.

## Relationships

### Emile von Bartels

*Once those who slither in the dark were finally defeated, Mercedes left home and opened a small orphanage in the Faerghus region with her mother. After many years of kind service raising children who had lost their families, she received a letter bearing familiar handwriting. Its author, a prisoner in Enbarr, expressed his sincerest well-wishes to Mercedes and her family. Still more time passed until, one day, the man who wrote the letter paid her a visit. With joyful tears in her eyes, Mercedes smiled, took Emile by the hand, and at last welcomed him home.*

## Trivia

* Mercedes shares her English voice actress, Dorothy Elias Fahn, with Rinea from *Echoes: Shadows of Valentia*.
* Mercedes is one of the characters who can have S-Supports with both a male and a female Byleth. The others are: Edelgard, Linhardt, Dorothea, Gilbert (platonic), Alois (platonic as well), Rhea, Sothis, Jeritza, and Yuri.
* Mercedes stands at 169cm (or about 5’7”).
* Mercedes has a unique post-timeskip battle model as a Monk, Priest, and Bishop.
	+ Otherwise, she uses white colours for her classes.
* Mercedes is the oldest student at the Officers Academy; she is 22 years old at the start of the game.
	+ If Balthus is included, then Mercedes is the second oldest student, beaten by five years.
	+ It also makes her older than Byleth, who is supposed to be 20/21 (depending on the player's birthday).
* In the E3 trailer, Mercedes is originally shown with chestnut hair.
* Mercedes shares her Paralogue with Caspar but, differently from the other characters with a shared Paralogue, the two cannot support. The same goes for Ferdinand and Lysithea, Linhardt and Leonie, and finally Anna and Jeritza.
* As an enemy, Mercedes can gain access to the Faith spells Abraxas and Seraphim, spells she cannot normally learn.
* Ferdinand, Felix, Sylvain, Mercedes, Ingrid, Lorenz, Alois, and Shamir are the only characters that, if not recruited in certain paths, are needed to be killed.
	+ In Mercedes's case, she must be killed during Field of Revenge if not recruited in Crimson Flower, along with Sylvain.
* In a survey conducted by Famitsu Magazine, Mercedes placed 6th for females and 10th overall with 721 votes in the character popularity poll for *Fire Emblem: Three Houses*. She also placed 9th among S-Supports chosen in the first playthrough with 120 votes.
* In the fourth survey conducted by Nintendo DREAM Magazine, Mercedes placed 19th in the character popularity poll for *Fire Emblem: Three Houses*. The male-female vote ratio was 1:4. She ranked 19th among those who completed the game with 35 points.
* In the fifth survey conducted by Nintendo DREAM Magazine, Mercedes placed 15th in the character popularity poll for *Fire Emblem: Three Houses*. The male-female vote ratio was 1:4. She ranked 15th among those who completed the game with 6.6% of the vote.