Mercakete

I wound up joining Gullveig, but I'm not super invested in any of these guys. I already have the ones in this that I preferred to have. Still, I guess Peony or Gullveig would be the best for my barracks.

Actually, I would like a return of the picnic and hot springs themes. Though people might think they're boring or that (in particular) the hot springs theme was just to see people in towels, these are actually recreational activities revolving around relaxing and being unhurried in the present moment. Things like that are soothing, and I'd really like that. Another theme I've brought up in the past is a slumber party. (Heroes in pajamas!) We have a bunch of sleepy heroes who could qualify, too. Linhardt, Dweyer, Python, Haar, Mirabilis, Tiki, Freyr... I'm sure there are more, too. Dweyer's FB was kind of themed on this, but it would be fun to see what sorts of styles of pajamas everyone winds up wearing. (PJ's are about as varied as swimsuits, and IS has been really reactive with those. I'm artistically curious about what they'd wind up doing. Also, I bet they'd look soft and comfortable, and I need more calm stuff like that in my life.) I also thought of there being a farmer's market themed banner. So, people selling veggies, smoked meats, or handmade goods. There are a lot of heroes who do these sorts of things, and heroes who would like to shop there, too. For example, Oliver is a collector of art, and we have at least 4 heroes who make pictures: Shigure, Rosado, Ignatz, and Kagero (I love this aspect of Kagero -- her unique art -- and it hasn't really been explored despite all her alts.) This would be a fun place for Forrest and Rosado to team up as clothiers, too, or for Hisame and Clanne to sell assorted pickles together. There are some big eaters in the Order too, so they could visit the food stalls. Honestly, this theme has so much potential with mini sub-themes for different years. I think it would be neat to explore. Another theme I would absolutely love is a hanami (flower-viewing, particularly of sakura/cheery blossoms) theme. I know this one's really niche, but I adore this time of year, and have held hanami picnics for several years now. (It helps that my favorite flower is the cherry blossom, not to be confused with the flowers of cherry trees.) Obviously, Sakura would have to appear in one of these banners, but I don't see why we couldn't have a variety of heroes enjoying the trees and appreciating the people in their lives (since hanami is all about that and appreciating how things we take for granted could slip away at any time, so we need to appreciate them now while they're here.) Edit: @DefyingFates Actually, I love that idea! I do really like the fantasy garb everyone has, but like... Alfonse in jeans, a tee-shirt, and a hoodie would have a nice, relaxed vibe, you know? It would be fun to see various characters in more modern wear. Also, it would be neat to see a friendship festival between Nifl and Muspell, hosted by Leavatien and Hrid. I don't see them not inviting the Order to the festival since they were so instrumental in it. It could also be celebrating what progress they've made in restoring the two countries, even if they're not fully done with that yet. (Also, then we'd get a Leavatein and Hrid duo unit, which I keep wanting. They actually have a lot in common, even both being all "I will be the sword which (enter purpose here)" and being more serious/no-nonsense sorts of people who love their respective siblings. Speaking of which, it would be great if we could get a Hel banner too, just because I love the Hel designs (and I keep hating that there are STILL no resplendent options for F2P.) However, since resplentents are a thing, I don't really see this happening, unfortunately... And I've said it before: Summer Njordr trying awkwardly to bond with his kids (especially being all "fathers and sons bond over fishing, right? I'm a sea god. Freyr, get over here and appreciate the ocean so we can bond." and Freyr just wants to sleep.)

Man, I always forget that the bunny banners come before the kids banners. So.... Think we'll be getting Taguels this year? I know they were part of the lore way back when Bunny Bruno came into the game, but they did get new years versions just last year (2022, to be specific, but it was at the end of the year, hence about a year ago.) It would be funny if Ymir overheard Yarne fretting about going extinct or something and, being a life goddess, thought that would be the most horrible thing ever, and did something involving the bunny costumes. I don't know. But yeah, Mirabilis is one of the characters who would fit perfectly on this banner. She's all about those naps, and even non-sleepy heroes have talked about napping when they've been on these banners. Oh. Maybe Dweyer or Linhardt could show up, too, then.

Well, I spent as many orbs as I could to try to get Mark. Even at 10%, I didn't even get 1 focus unit...and I still need to try to get Ivy, Valentine's Ephraim and Valentine's Lyon. Well. Guess I'll just have to keep trying. Man, this upcoming kids' banner is going to be difficult...

I'll respond to this right now since it's too noisy right now where I am to play the chapter. First, thanks for being so considerate and for responding to my uncertainty! 🙂 I like doing both, but if I write up a play-by-play reaction, then it shows my steps on how I reached my conclusions, like you said. This way, I don't miss details in the chapter as I'm writing it. However, it's more casual and less easy to follow, probably (since it's not as structured in form.) Anyway, I'm just glad that there's still someone out there who appreciates what I have to say on these things. ^_^ I'll try to get to it sometime after rollover tonight (providing the internet doesn't crap out again.) Anyway, I appreciate everything you said here. Thank you! I'll read your responses in the rest of your post after I've played the chapter. 🙂 ---- Well, going through the chapter now. Kind of fun how the Black Fang theme is playing as Nidhoggr and Hrae are talking. I also find it fun how Hraesvelgr talks about "completing the operation" since she's designed after a surgeon. Huh. That's a new one... The map starts and the one with a meaningless thing to say is Sharena this time. Well, people keep saying they want her to get more lines in the main story (not that it's really any different from all the times she speaks in FB's...) Oh. Interesting. So, Veronica is aware of an assassination plot against her mom. "I will refrain from asking how they obtained their intel." Have to say, that's diplomatic of Anna not to push for the Curse Directive's intelligence networking, despite the tenuous situation. "The count at the head of their house would never allow the duty to pass to anyone else nor willingly accept help." Uhhh you're the next empress. Just overrule the guy. Hmm this plot point about "I'm afraid that my mom's going to be killed but no one will listen to me and my mom is cold toward me" feels a little... Hmm the story hasn't built up enough backing to support its weight, and it comes off as another "be sympathetic towards this girl -- this is sad. Trust us" thing. I get that the story hasn't quite followed Veronica individually much, but there haven't been any scenes showing the two of them and I feel like something like this needs at least 3 prior interactions or something to show it. It's just dumped on the reader otherwise. It also cheapens Anna not prying into the Curse Directive, making all this feel like rushed plot convenience. "This way, we don't need to develop how the Curse Directive got their intel. Also, we don't need to show Veronica and her mom or the innerworkings of their governing system." (Granted, the first half of Book 6 was basically all about this (without actually showing much of it at all, though.)) Too much tragedy without enough buildup makes a work cheap and overly dramatic. Sharena beginning to cry and stuff only made it worse. It just felt way overblown. Keeping the dialogue tense and strategic would have been a better move. This kind of chat, however, would be more fitting about a month after Veronica's mom died, not with impending doom. And you know what? Why not just go to the count who's not doing his job and slap what Order of Heroes intel we have down in front of him? We have the commander right here; she should be able to corroborate the Curse Directive's intel in order to convince the guy to beef up security. As it stands, this just feels too "we want tragedy so we're setting up for it." ............ Uh, Rosado? We're in Embla. At the very least, by the way, this is establishing that Veronica's mom is still alive and ruling Embla (though she's totally about to bite it.) Ugh, Anna's being really dumb. You already know that the goal of the enemy is to ruin peace between Askr and Embla. But you, Askrans, want to convince the emperor that there's a real threat...by making an attempt on the emperor's life (even if it's a fake one.) This is going right along with the goals of the enemy. All the Emblians would need to do is find out half of the truth and there go your peace talks. They'll shut their ears and open fire. They already hate you. The enemy may have even already anticipated that you'd do this and could be setting you up to act in this very way (unrealistic for it to be this specific, but I could see the plot going that way since the boss of the Healing Hands is supposed to be really good at foreseeing how things will go down.) They could even just raise the Emblians' awareness and blow your cover and make it look like you were behind all the issues with the peace talks all this time. Don't do dumb things. Just present your evidence and corroborate your testimony with the Curse Directive's. And then there's shock that the count was an agent of the assassins. Again, not enough buildup. If we'd gotten to know the guy over time instead of just "here's a list of qualities Anna knows about him and why this is shocking" it would have had a LOT more impact. It feels like IS was trying to do too much with this chapter without having properly set it up. At least they got some worldbuilding in and reestablished things like Rat's spy work. It was also good for them to include elements like the Curse Directive instead of letting them fall off the map. All in all, the chapter was shoddily built, but I kind of get why. The format they have for releasing chapters isn't very good for building a solid piece. However, again, they did a good job at giving us a better idea of how Embla's government is structured and how Askr and Embla interact (both in the present and historically.) It also gave some interaction between Veronica and the Askrans, but that could've gone a lot better. It was overdramatized. Veronica was being in character, at least (in how she was handling things in a measured way, even though she was sad and uneasy), but... Yeah... "No one listens to me even though I'm the next ruler. Oh how lonely I am. My mom is cold towards me and would only think I'm the one behind her assassination attempt. The whole world is against me and everyone should feel sorry for me. Poor, poor victim me. Don't you feel like you want to protect me?" Ugh, it just comes across like this without the story building it out properly. Like, spotlight one element at a time, and establish this with citable, shown instances over time. Anyway, I'm just waiting for Veronica to get poisoned now. Not because I hate her at all, but because that looks like the next thing from the trailer to happen. Now I'll read what other people wrote here. 🙂

Hmm so... I usually do a play-by-play reaction to the latest chapter as I go through it, but I don't know if anyone actually cares about it. It's fun to express what I think and I do manage to get more detailed impressions written that way, but if it's not something anyone enjoys or feels benefitted by, maybe I won't put as much effort into them as I usually do. The whole reason why I haven't played the latest chapter yet is that I haven't had the opportunity to write up my reactions (including impressions and theories) as I have them...but I really don't know if that matters or not. Do any of you even like them? Anyway, I don't intend to read anyone's comments on the latest chapter yet. Just trying to figure out how to go about this going forward. That said, I may still keep on writing my play-by-play reactions regardless just because I enjoy them and feel like it gives a more detailed record on things than general stuff like "huh, that was a good chapter" or "I didn't like this one." Like, what made it good? Could the writers have improved on their work? Where did they go wrong? Of course, I think critically (rather than being critical, mind you) about stories a lot, so this is just something I value and enjoy, even if no one else does (not saying no one does; just that there hasn't been enough for me to observe to say one way or the other.) So, yeah. I might even edit into this post my reactions to the latest chapter. Who knows? I was just thinking on this, so... Yep. Here's a post about me pondering stuff. XD

For sure yes on the magic, I don't remember if he used staffs or not, but I think so. I'd tell you more about him, but I don't want to throw spoilers around. The basics are that there are 3 major "forms" he has (I have "forms" in quotes since they're more like life phases/attitudes, I guess?) One would be good for a specific themed banner. The other two are basically "is he kind or isn't he?" That's the super surface version, but my point is that IS could pull from any of these. Still, I don't really see him getting into the game soon. Archetypically, he (and his counterparts) reminds me a bit of the rulers in FE8. Like, they're important and they're there, but they're not "close" enough to the player for IS to prioritize them getting into Heroes. (Heck, we don't even have Ismaire yet, which is surprising.)

I mentioned this in the new heroes banner thread, but I'd like it if the next legendary/mythic hero was Hyacinth from Engage. It would be fun having him and his daughters available all at the same time, especially with each being a different special kind of hero. (Mythic/Legendary, Rearmed, and Ascended.) Emblem Lyn also being around would make it feel like a complete set, too.

Okay. So, I guess I need Ivy because that new slot skill is amazing. By the way, did her VA change? She sounds different to me. Also, while I do note that this is an even split in the m:f ratio for this banner, it's kind of funny how Rosado feels like a compromise in that department. Well, good on IS for actually giving us male retainers in Heroes. With Boucheron and Louis still waiting to join their lieges, I'm a bit surprised that we didn't get Goldmary instead of Kagetsu (even though that would be both of Hortensia's retainers instead of one per princess.) Also, Hortensia getting an attacking special surprised me. Have we gotten a staff unit with one of those before? Anyway, grats to Engage for getting a bit more into Heroes! It feels like they're finally getting a presence here. ... I should actually finish Engage someday. (I seem to have a habit of almost beating a game and then just not getting back to it in...a while.) I wonder how much here is inheritable... Edit: Ooo Mauvier eh? He's cool. Glad he made it in. Further, ugh, Heroes has been merciless to my meager supply of orbs lately. Still trying to get Valentine's Ephraim, Valentine's Lyon+Eirika, and Child Mark, and now I'm going to want to get Ivy. I may have to skip this banner. Worse, we may be getting another Emblem unit on the next legendary/mythic/whatever banner, which I'm probably going to want to get, even if it's a character I don't really care much about. Who wants to guess it'll be Lyn or Lucina after this banner dropped? As for the legendary... Not sure. It would be fun if it was on theme, though. Honestly, I'd like it if we got Hyacinth to go with this banner. He probably won't show up for a long time, though, and when he does, it may be on Not that I'd be opposed to that, but it would just be fun to have the whole family launched at the same time.

I don't really care about any of them. I already have Claude and Dimitri... I guess Peony has the best utility among those I don't have? But I guess it might be nice to have Gullveig? I'm a bit worried that if Gullveig wins, though, that IS would take this as confirmation that we want more Seidr x Summoner stuff thrown at us...

No prob! I'm just doing my best to clarify where I come from or what I mean, since clear communication and being understood are important to me. No worries. ^_^

It's obviously focused on Ephraim, Erika, and Lyon, rather than an issue of point of view, but yeah, what ARMADS said, really. She's the only vassal, no matter how you look at it. It's not about romance or how close a character is, it's about the kind of relationship that is had. That is, that was what I was clarifying as the basis for Selene feeling out of place to me. Not saying that it's the only way to look at it or anything. Again, all I was doing by the post you originally quoted was clarifying why she seemed out of place to me. After all, it's rather obvious that it was thought that I was measuring it by a different standard (how often IS puts "mature women" type characters on banners for salability.) It was clarification as to my point of view. Not a debate.

It's not about it being "enough" or not. I was explaining why she seems like the odd one out to me since the one I was replying to didn't understand where I was coming from. All the other relationships are "close friend" or "family" but then you have only 1 random vassal in there. She "fits the theme" of valentine's banners, but she doesn't fit with the other relationship types permeating this specific group of characters.

I mean she's the only one in a different "friend group" to the rest of them. The best she has is her loyalty to Vigarde, though the focus is on Lyon and the twins being friends. Myrrh works since she and Ephraim have such a close bond, and Vigarde works since he's Lyon's dad, but Selena doesn't have especially close bonds with any of the focused characters.

Oooookay. Selena being there (again?) is kind of weird. She feels like the odd one out. Myrrh is adorable here. It's nice that Lyon's dad gets to be here, even though he wasn't featured in the trailer at all (except as a sprite.) It's a bit hard to pin down the theme, but it almost feels like the focus is on Lyon, not the twins (except that Myrrh is there and I don't think the two of them have a connection?) Anyway, cool. I'm a fan of Ephraim, but I'm a bit burnt out on him getting alts right now, so I'm not that excited. The only one I know I'd want is the freebie, so... *shrug* I guess we'll see how I feel once the banner goes live.

Actually, Sharena was there, she just didn't dress up. She appeared in the story, as I recall (I was a bit surprised at the time, so I'm fairly certain I'm remembering this right.) She's allowed to hang out without dressing up, you know. It's not nearly as bad as people keep saying. Regarding the mock banner I put together, I was mostly just throwing in characters who would fit, not listing ones I wanted specifically. Also, interesting thing: those tickets for free old seasonal heroes? I got 2 Valentine's Hectors and 2 Bride Lyns. I feel like the RNG ships them. (And I see them as a fairly canon couple, partially because the main story dialogue changes depending on if they're at A support or not at a certain point in the story, and partially because of Lilina. Lyn's family has a tradition of putting "Lyn" into the girls' names, and though the spelling is different in English, Lilina has "lin" (pronounced "leen" in Japanese, just like Lyn's name) in it. Madalyn, Lyndis, Lil(y)na... There's some evidence to support the theory built into FE7's writing there. Yeah, that was the conclusion I came to as well when I saw the silhouettes, but it could be Saleh on the left. The art is damaged, after all, as I recall. I wonder if we'll get Myrrh's dad. We might get Ewan and Tethys, too, if it centers on Myrrh (because Saleh is Myrrh's protector, Ewan is Saleh's student, and Tethys is Ewan's sister. So, chain reaction there, but I don't think it'll extend to Garrick and Marisa, especially if they're trying to do a focus primarily on the dragons.) It would be a creative way around doing the royals again (though Ephraim could still totally be there.) It's a theory, anyway.

You know, one thing I've been thinking IS could do for a while now is to have a banner that includes characters who could have reasonably been on other banners, but weren't. So, for example, bringing in Valentine's Sharena, Valentine's Bruno, Valentine's Ninian, Valentine's ... (I don't remember Zofia's king's name right now), and Valentine's Elena, for example. (Sharena and Bruno could be a duo unit using lances since Bruno taught Sharena how to use a lance.) And all their costuming would be designed to fit their group's theme, like Sharena and Bruno's outfits matching those of Alfonse, Henriette, Veronica, Gustav, Lif and Thrasir, while Ninian's would be styled off of Eliwood, Hector, Lyn, Roy and Lilina's. Sure it may not look super cohesive on the banner itself, but it doesn't really have to. (For example, just look at how the brides banner had all different styles of dresses last year.)

I can confirm that the sprite for beasts is the humanoid version. (Voted for Askr.)

Yeah, her.

Ah, I should probably clarify that I'd count a seasonal Elena as Elena being in the game. I don't care if she gets a base version in or not, since I don't count characters that way. To me, if a character only has 1 seasonal version, that character is still in the game. (The only one I'm iffy about regarding this view is Boyd since he's so much younger than he ever appears in his home games. However, he's still technically in. Since I reserved my resort for Griel's Mercenaries, though it's a bit odd having him walking around being perhaps even younger than Rolf, but I'm sure Oscar finds it adorable.)

Oh I would totally be down for that. I don't really like her as is, but if her writing was improved, I'd be really happy about it. There aren't many characters I sincerely dislike, but thinking about it, there's at least 1 I can think of who I still would like to see more work for (especially, filling in some ambiguous timeline stuff and showing HOW he developed the mindset he did. Like, actually watch that descent into...whatever the heck he became.) He's not a mom, though, so I think I'll leave that topic there. Huh, speaking of moms...actually, Almedha is kind of the mom version of Emperor Rudolf, huh?

Oh right, I meant to say it earlier, but this wouldn't be a bad spot to bring in the Dawn Brigade, actually, since they're Sothe and Micaiah's found family. I could see IS doing that, especially since the Dawn Brigade somehow still isn't in Heroes (apart from several iterations of Micaiah and Sothe.) Nolan, Edward, and Leonardo are still missing. I guess they could pad it out with...uhhh that one cleric whose name I can't remember right now, even though she didn't really join until later, I think (sort of like how Mia didn't join Griel's Mercenaries until just about the change in leadership.)

I think it could happen. Heck, FE5 is so about Thracia that it was named after it, and this would cover the last 2 ruling families, plus include the main character (Leif.) So, I think this could very well happen. That said, they could do a different focus if they wanted to, like putting the emphasis on Leif, Finn, Nana, Altena, Cuan and Ethlin. I could see them doing that. Edit: As for FE8, I'm trying to think of a theme they could hop on. I guess they could include all of the royal parents (it would go adorably well with the FE8 child units) but I don't think they'd lean on Ismaire that hard to carry the banner. That said, Valentia's Valentine's banner wasn't exclusively 1 family, so they could just bring in various others. Like, Joshua, Ismaire, Innes, Tana, their dad... It doesn't HAVE to center on the Renais twins, though this banner theme likes focusing on main characters, so... I don't know; it just feels like we have a LOT of Ephraim/Eirika already, and their child banner kind of already carries the theme that this banner would. And then there's Engage. We just got Mythic Lumera, and I feel like IS would want to focus on her with her two dragon children (plus maybe Veyle) for a Valentine's banner. Though, again, they don't HAVE to do this. In fact, Mythic Lumera could exist right now mainly because she's not on the Engage Valentine's banner, but this way she's still kind of "part of" it. We could honestly get any of the Engage royals, including the ruling monarchs. Or, it could have a total dragon focus, including Mr Cobra Dragon whose name is totally not in my brain right now. Ooo! Maybe we'll even get a seasonal Emblem unit! I know it wouldn't necessarily be popular with various SF people, but I think it could be fun depending on how it was handled. I guess IS could also run another Heroes banner focusing on a different family, too, such as the goat family, but that's typically what New Years is for, so I don't think it's all that likely.

Here's what I posted in the FEH channel thread on the topic, for people who wonder what ARMADS was talking about. That said, if they went with FE5, there's also a lot they could do, such as focusing on Altena's (Altina? I always get their names confused.) complicated family situation, between her biological parents+brother and her adoptive dad+brother (not sure if she got an adoptive mom or not.) If that's the case, then we could see Cuan+Ethlin as the duo, and Travant, Arion (I think that was his name?), and Leif as the other banner units and Alt...na as the TT+ unit. Or, they could throw Leif on the TT+ I guess if they want a more feminine presence on the banner itself and not repeat grail units.

Thanks, guys! Looks like her placement is on the uptrend! =D I see; yeah, number of votes is a better way of gauging that, isn't it? Thanks for the data! So, it looks like she yo-yo's rather than there being a consistent up- or downtrend (though her placement increases every year, which is encouraging!). Hmm it's hard to tell how IS will factor this data into their decisions when picking characters for banners. On the one hand, she's never gotten less than 100 votes, and has even gotten over 300 votes in a single year. That's not bad. Plus, as they run lower on characters they haven't brought into the game yet, she's a very strong contender with her plot importance for both FE9 and FE10, besides being a relative of a main character's. Additionally, quite frankly, she's female. Still, IS seems to like to ignore moms who don't partake in player phase combat, and she has such a wholesome look and background (while also not being eligible), which isn't their preferred way to market females. *sigh* Man, this feels like it's close to a 50-50 chance of her getting into the game, and the data here only strengthens it being such a "could be or could not be" kind of deal. Well! The good news is that she has people who gave her that many votes, so it means that there could very well be a year when she gets rallied behind! I'll just keep hoping for that year. ^_^ Thanks again, everyone who gave me data and who voted for Elena!