Assuming you're implying that characters in the Fire Emblem franchise don't have much depth, I have to strongly disagree with this statement. As a long time veteran of the franchise, part of what I find so appealing about it is watching the characters develop, both through supports and the in-game story. Characters that appear only skin-deep are shown to be much more complicated the more you play. Awakening is one thing, as it clearly focused on the breadth of supports over depth. It's not necessarily a bad thing, considering the sim aspect the game was trying to accomplish, but I'd also firmly argue that this is the exception and not the rule for the franchise. 

I could literally write pages on this, but instead I'll post some of my favorite character stories as examples. I'll put it in spoilers, but if you want to read more, I'd recommend checking out the Fire Emblem Wiki or Serenes Forest. 

FE 6: Zephiel - Zephiel is a young prince, and is shown in FE 7 to be a kind boy who tries nothing else but to gain his father's acceptance. Despite all that, his father attempts to assasinate him under the guise of finally accepting him. He finally becomes disillusioned, blaming his father's actions on human nature, and decided to plunge the world into chaos. Hardin's tragic love story in FE3 has a lot of similarities to Zephiel's story, and if you've played Shadow Dragon you'll recognize the characters involved there.

FE 7: Hector - One of the heroes of this game. He's first introduced as a loud, rude, but honest man, essentially a shounen archetype, but through supports with Lyn (and some extra scenes involving the off-screen death of a close family member), he's shown to be much deeper than he appears. Even though he puts on a brave face, you can tell how hard it is for him, despite pushing on as if nothing happened. 

FE 7: Jaffar/Nino - These two have their story wrapped up in a gaiden chapter, but it's also one of my favorite stories in Fire Emblem. Nino is a little girl drawn to be similar to Zephiel, and like him, she's trying the gain acceptance of her adoptive mother. To this end, she takes on a mission to assassinate Zephiel himself. Jaffar is a silent mercenary introduced early in the game, basically introduced as a heartless demon, whose only bit of humanity is shown at a single point earlier in the game, when Nino saves his life after a severe injury. Jaffar is told to accompany Nino by her mother, and kill her if she hestitates in her mission. As Nino's getting ready to sneak into the prince's chambers, she hears the prince praying that his family will become whole, and that his father will accept him someday. Nino gets cold feet, realizing the prince's wishes are the same as hers. She tells Jaffar to kill her, being fully prepared to die, only to be shocked as Jaffar betrays the mercenary guild. Jaffar and Nino eventually have to confront Nino's mother. As you can tell by this block of text, I wasn't lying about liking this story XD

FE7: Nergal - Nergal's another villain that starts off with good intentions, only to descend into madness. His story has some huge twists that are only revealed by 100%ing the game, but I'll suffice to say that it's pretty astounding to learn what kind of man he used to be.

FE9/10: Jill Fizzart - Jill starts off as Daein soldier, and harbors a deep hatred of laguz, the game's non-human race. Story events force her to join up with heroes of the game, and over the course of it, she develops a more understanding outlook. Not only does she have to confront the deep sense of bigotry she was raised on, she also has to confront her family back home later in the game. 

FE 9/10: Soren - Soren's kinda similar to Nergal, in that you'll only learn his full story through side-events, but it's still worth of mentioning. Basically, he's a cold logical tactician that fights alongside the heroes, that is slowly revealed to have one of the more tragic pasts of the game. When he finally caves and admits who he is, it's one of the more touching scenes in the game. 

This is really only the tip of iceberg for me, but considering this is a thread about a divisive Final Fantasty character, I'll stop going off-topic.

TLDR: Fire Emblem has some great character development, if you put the time into playing the games.

We'll just have to disagree. I think just about every Fire Emblem character is absolutely paper thin, the strong point of the game isn't plot. It's gameplay.

I've played the two GBA games, Shadow Dragon, Path, and Awakening. There are plenty of characters I liked, but I wouldn't say any of the games had good character development. This'll be way off topic, but feel free to keep going over PM or wall convos if you want . I'll also say that telling someone they didn't look hard enough for something after playing and beating the game is a pretty terrible argument.

I also loathe Serene's Forest. I wouldn't force that place on anyone.

Sorry, that wasn't my argument, just a way to point out some of the character depth I mentioned (namely Nergal and Soren) is largely dependent on going beyond the requirements of simply completing the game. Support conversations themselves aren't mandatory, so making mention of putting time into the game is something I thought necessary in an argument about character depth. I got into a discussion with another user here about the necessity of this, and it's something I personally associate pretty closely with the franchise.

I suppose if you've played both FE7 and FE9 (my personal favorites), and still didn't find any characters that interested you, I can't really argue any further, as personal experience tells me this will just stray into personal opinion. I can only say that I'm of the exact opposite mind, and your original post isn't as all-encompassing as you made it sound. :P