Hana

Biography

Hana is the daughter of a renowned samurai who served under King Sumeragi. As a noblewoman and a distant relative to Hoshidan royalty, she spent her early years playing with the king’s offspring in Castle Shirasagi. She developed a fast and lasting friendship with the youngest princess, Sakura, and was also a frequent playmate for Prince Takumi. At some point, Hana’s father died while protecting Sumeragi from his enemies. While Hana mourned her father’s passing, she saw his example as the ideal to strive for - as a samurai who laid down his life to serve his master. Because of this sentiment, she eventually chose to follow in her father’s footsteps to become a samurai warrior too.

Her impeccable skill with the katana stemmed from a variety of interrelated reasons. She sought to model her fighting style after that of High Prince Ryoma, who she (and many others) considered to be the strongest samurai in all of Hoshido. She also exhibited a strong work ethic by sticking to a punishing training regimen, by practicing her katana skills all day long and sometimes forgetting to eat because of said regimen. And just as importantly, she received some serious motivation to prove herself when a male samurai trainee once dismissed her due to her gender. From that point onwards, Hana wanted to show that she (and women in general) could be just as capable in battle as the rest of her male colleagues. Her hard work paid off when Sakura appointed her to the role of retainer.

Yet despite her incredible prowess as a fighter, Hana proved to be a relatively difficult colleague to work with. Her bluntness and short temper made her difficult to approach, and she occasionally voiced her displeasure towards her male colleagues who she thought were not as hardworking as her. In battle she often broke ranks to fight enemies by herself, thus leaving the rest of the troops vulnerable. The skills with the blade came at the expense of having virtually no grasp of either strategy or tactics. Hana also competed with Subaki, Princess Sakura’s other retainer, over who the princess trusted the most. Nevertheless, the rest of the Hoshidan army admired her work ethic and seriousness towards her role as retainer and samurai.

Birthright and Conquest

Hana’s role in Fire Emblem Fates is a minor one, since her main role is to serve Princess Sakura regardless of the chosen story path.

In Birthright she makes an early debut in Fort Jinya, where she is tending to some wounded soldiers with Sakura and Subaki. She shows her difficult side when squabbling with Subaki over who is Princess Sakura’s best retainer, only stopping the feud when Sakura asked her to. With the help of the player character, they repelled an attack from a small Nohrian force that attempted to surround the installation. And after the battle, Hana joins up with Corrin’s forces and follows them throughout the rest of the campaign.

In Conquest she makes a later appearance in Chapter 22, when the Kingdom of Nohr launches its full invasion and begins its campaign at Fort Jinya. Hana fought in the battle with Sakura and Subaki, only to fall to the player character’s Nohrian forces. But unlike some other Hoshidan retainers, she survives the war after entering into Nohrian captivity alongside the young princess and her other retainer.