Dedue

Dedue is a playable character in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. He is 18 years old at the start of the game. Early life

Dedue was the first born son of a blacksmith from Duscur, a region northwest of the Faerghus capital Fhirdiad. His homeland was destroyed in 1176 during the Tragedy of Duscur, when the people of Duscur were blamed and persecuted for the assassination of King Lambert and other kingdom nobles. Dedue lost his whole family following the resulting pogroms against the Duscur people. After being saved by Dimitri, Dedue repaid Dimitri's kindness with a life debt, becoming his retainer even though many people of the Kingdom distrust and dislike him. Academy Phase

Dedue enrolls in Garreg Mach Monastery Officers Academy in Imperial Year 1180 and joins the Blue Lions as Dimitri's retainer. With a stern face and stoic demeanor that belies a calm, gentle nature, Dedue is of few words, rarely speaking unless spoken to, but is polite and understanding of others. Due to his background from Duscur, he is used to the disdain many people have towards him, and is generally unfazed by their words. During his supports with Ingrid, when she realizes that he is not the evil person of Duscur she had thought him to be and asks why he didn't speak out, Dedue in turn states that he does not know the full details behind the Tragedy, and even states that while Duscur had both good and bad people just like anywhere else, some of them may have been involved in the plot, and as such, her beliefs may or may not have some truth to them. He also warns Byleth to avoid associating too closely to him, especially during ominous events such as Flayn's kidnapping or when rumors of an assassination plot arise. Despite his calm attitude, there are hints that he resents Faerghus more than he lets on, such as when he states that he finds Faerghus abhorrent during his supports with Dimitri.

Due to Dimitri sparing him during the Tragedy of Duscur, he owes him a life debt and is completely loyal to him. In his supports with Felix, when asked if he would obey any order given by Dimitri, he stated that he would and would give his life to protect him, regardless of how heinous the order may be. Dedue also cares for his allies, protecting them to ensure that Dimitri remains happy, noting their service to him. His devotion to Dimitri even leads him into willingly transforming into a Demonic Beast to protect his lord.

As a result of his life debt to Dimitri, Dedue appears to have difficulty when not by his side; in both Silver Snow and Verdant Wind, a soldier comments that he had a look of loneliness on his face should he survive the battle. In Azure Moon, should Dedue obtain an S-Support with female Byleth, he tells her that he resigned as Dimitri's retainer, which he found unusually troublesome even though Dimitri gladly accepted his resignation.

Dedue is also an experienced cook. In his supports with Ashe, he states does not have any formal training, having cooked with his mother and sister at home. Cooking is one of the few things Dedue truly appreciates, as he fondly recalls his time in the kitchen with his family, and it's how he can honor their memories; in his ending with him, he frequents Ashe's inn and offers constructive criticism. In his supports with Flayn, he teaches her the basics of cooking, and in their ending, Flayn becomes a talented chef due to Dedue's knowledge and patience.

He likes flowers and gardening, but dislikes anyone who would dare harm Dimitri. Dedue will be the primary defensive wall for the Blue Lions and is only available if leading that class. With a primary focus on Defense and HP, he is virtually untouchable against physical units save for units or weapons that deal effective damage against his class. His Strength growth is also quite high, dishing out reasonable damage as it grows. His growths leave a lot to be desired for his other stats, especially Resistance and Speed, both of which make him extremely vulnerable to Mages. His Personal Skill, Staunch Shield, grants him a bonus +4 Defense for selecting the Wait command, letting him further shut down incoming physical damage.

Dedue excels mainly in physical oriented classes, with a primary focus on becoming a Heavy Armor unit such as an Armor Knight and Fortress Knight as his strengths lie in that as well as Axes, Lances, and Brawling for his preferred weapons. Mastering these two classes will provide Armored Blow, increasing his bulk when initiating combat, and Pavise to further shave damage from direct attacks. He will have issues with movement as the naturally low movement range of armored classes means that he will lag behind allies when moving to new battle zones on a map, but if he is set up properly in certain places, he makes for an excellent physical choke-point to wall off other enemies from entering a location while ranged units can pummel them. Flayn and her Rescue spell can be an excellent partner for him as not only can she increase his movement range with the staff, but she also gives him support bonuses. Movement can also be solved by making him a Great Knight, helping him retain his bulky nature, but his subject weakness in the Riding makes it difficult to reach the appropriate proficiency, and Flying being his only other subject weakness movement-wise provides little for his overall potential.

Dedue can excel as a Brigand or Brawler and their Warrior and Grappler promotions as well given his weapon strengths. He lacks Caspar's Speed growth but is much better at taking hits. Brawling makes excellent use of Dedue's good Strength and mitigates the downside of his pitiful Speed by allowing him to make follow-up attacks, and is his best option for defeating enemy Mages before they have a chance to attack him. Spending time particularly in the Brigand line will provide Death Blow to improve his damage when initiating combat, and later Wrath which pushes his Critical Hit rate by 50 when under half health. While Grappler can be strong in its own right, reclassing to it only for Tomebreaker is largely unrewarding as it only activates when equipped with Gauntlets, which do not synergize well with the abilities of Dedue's defense oriented class options that would benefit from extra Avoid against tomes. However, Grappler and Warrior do provide another unique benefit to Dedue: they raise his HP growth rate to 100%, ensuring he always gets some extra HP when he levels up. War Master is the final class of the Brawler line and is great for a purely offensive Dedue. Most importantly, the class has one of the most beneficial skills for him, Quick Riposte, which guarantees a follow-up attack so long as his health is over 50%. Perhaps more importantly, it prevents enemies from performing follow-up attacks on Dedue while it is active, so with his large HP pool he can survive just about any one hit. With this skill on hand, he is an extremely punishing physical bait unit and can smash through hordes of enemies who dare to initiate on him. War Master also shares the benefit of giving Dedue a 100% HP growth rate, making it good for leveling purposes.

Dedue's options outside of the above classes either have issues with developing his stats in order to take the Certification Exam or simply having no real synergy or use as a permanent option. The skills desired may take effort to use the class and even more to master, but taking time to develop him provides some skills that help him. In particular, Bishop has Renewal for self-healing (acquiring Bishop also raises his Resistance to a minimum of 15, likely higher than he would get through his terrible growth rate) while Paladin has Aegis to shave damage from ranged units, particularly against Mages.

One problem does arise for Dedue post-timeskip: he is unavailable for Chapters 13-15, and will only reappear partway through the Chapter 16 story battle if his Paralogue was completed pre-timeskip. This will result in him losing some training time, which could hinder his continued usage (this is more of an issue on Hard or Maddening due to their limited number of auxiliary battles).

Overall, Dedue is probably the best physical tank in the game, only contested by Gilbert. Though slow and vulnerable to magic, he will often shrug off any physical blows that come his way, baiting in attackers to allow his allies to take them out.