Othin

I don't think they're categorically unwilling to have dragon units be GHBs, so much as that most of the candidates have been a big enough deal for them to want to market other ways. But ones like Morva and Jahn seem like good fits for GHBs. Ullr and Elimine didn't really have usable ingame visuals, so that's reason for them to not have their additions be preceded by a CYL appearance. And while it's true that three Sacred Stones banners will take years, IS probably already has a good idea of what they want them to look like. So I'd expect them to already have an idea of where they might want to go further down the line, and be adding relevant units to CYL now in preparation.

Yeah, I had the same thoughts about Morva: that he theoretically could work as a Fallen unit, but that the GHB pool is low enough as-is. I feel like if they were planning to consider adding those other bosses, they would have added them to CYL by now.

That's fair. I was thinking in terms of a single "dad" slot, but the original Valentine's banner had both Hector and Eliwood. The math is a bit weird. The Sacred Stones characters on CYL8 who don't yet have a regular version are: Franz, Moulder, Garcia, Artur, Forde, Kyle, Dozla, Saleh, Fado, Glen, Hayden, Ismaire, and Morva. That's 13, so if we get three batches of four, someone will be left out. Which I guess would probably be Hayden?

Ismaire is at least likely to get into Heroes elsewhere. I guess Vigarde has the benefit of showing his alive self? Funny parallel to Gustav in that way. But I was really hoping for Fado.

What a waste. No Fado, and the only character who hasn't already gotten a seasonal is Vigarde. I guess it's nice to see Lyon getting a duo (and a proper seasonal in general), but also it's hilarious that it was the exact duo people predicted just based on the logic of "FE8 royals duo that wouldn't conflict with any previous duos". Also holy shit Lyon's effects look busted.

I'm curious about what the other two 8% seasonal banners will be like. Remaining candidates: Red: Desert Nino, Valentine's Hana, Spring Ashe, Anniversary Eliwood, Bride Freyja, Wind Dagr, Halloween Seadall, Ninja Sanaki, Winter Byleth, NY Kana Blue: Desert Byleth, Anniversary Mark, Summer Shamir, Summer Tharja, Tea Sigurd, Wind Catria, Halloween Timerra, Ninja Zelgius, Winter Edelgard, NY Seidr Green: Spring Karla, Anniversary Hector, Bride Anna, Summer Ephraim, Summer Ivy, Wind Claude, Halloween Anna, Ninja Reina, Ninja Heather, Winter Dimitri, NY Kvasir Colorless: Valentine's Elise, Spring Triandra, Bride Tiki, Summer Ymir, Tea Lysithea, Wind Kagero, Halloween Flayn, Winter Yunaka, NY Nerthuz The first one made the surprising move of putting two duo units in the same color and having a total of four units in that color, while also having colorless just get two 4*s. It also only focused on the Jan-August banners, not touching the later five. Given that there's 52 seasonals total over the course of a year and only 36 units being featured on the banners, it's possible that they won't go all the way through the year, but that's hard to assess at this point. Say, which seasonals are still awaiting their Double Special Heroes appearances? I wonder if that might correlate to the cutoff point.

Yeah, I always think of merges as a scam. If they work out, they work out, but I have never summoned for them deliberately and will never do so.

Seasonal summons so far have been Halloween Timerra for the recent event and: Dancer Berkut Anniversary Palla Valentine's Lyn Festival Olivia Picnic Lukas Bride Lyn Winter Sephiran Summer Cordelia Ninja Lyn NY Laevatein Desert Tharja Summer Frederick 7/12 new units from the revivals, which is great, especially since my actual missing-unit percentages on all but the first of those summons were in the 30s.

Neat! How do you view that? I've been poking around the sheet and couldn't figure it out.

Greil and Elena could help sell an Attuned Ike banner or something. It could happen eventually! We should assume completed casts will be removed from the rotation. The next Awakening New Heroes banner will complete its CYL cast, and unless they increase its presence on CYL (which they don't seem interested in doing), it would make no sense for it to ever get another one. And an increasing number of games are only a handful of banners away from completion, which will shorten the rotation faster than new games will grow it. We can never be sure that IS won't do something stupid, but even just decreasing the New Heroes space given to completed games would work. For example, suppose they start doing a yearly "Attuned and Rearmed Heroes" banner where all the banner slots go to alts of units from games with completed rosters. And even that would still need a GHB!

All four new characters on the recent FE5 banner had below 500 votes on CYL7, and only one of them got above 100. Elena has much more competition, but I don't think we can rule anything out, especially without knowing the game's lifespan.

Additional problem with having Titania join Oscar+Boyd+Rolf: we already got Valentine's Titania in 2019.

Laura? She joins in Chapter 2, a couple of turns before Sothe, but after Micaiah, Edward, Leonardo, and Nolan.

FE8 probably won't be a while either way, since it was previously in March and the current rotation seems to be over a year long. Sigurd+Arvis would be fun, but would probably take away the chance for Gen 2 Arvis. Travant+Altena+Arion is a combination I was thinking as well. I'd love it, but I get the impression none of them are popular enough to make it likely.

That FE4 banner would be fascinating. Julia+Julius could be the duo, and Arvis could work as his Gen 2 form. Magvel does seem more "open" in terms of the banner lineup - its next New Heroes banner will probably be well into this year.

So far, all the Valentine's Day banners have focused on a single setting, with no overlap: Elibe, Tellius, Valentia, Heroes, Ylisse, and Fates. If that pattern continues, the remaining options are Archanea, Jugdral, Magvel, Fodlan, and Elyos. (Radiant Dawn could also fit, since the previous Tellius visit only focused on Path of Radiance, and specifically the Greil Mercenaries.) Personally I've been hoping for a Jugdral Valentine's Day banner for years, and it would certainly get back on the theme.

AHR midterms are out! And thankfully no one from the normal pool. Color breakdown: Red: 4 (Elincia, Sanaki, Byleth, Fjorm) Blue: 4 (Veyle, Edelgard, Igrene, Seidr) Green: 10 (Alear, Anna, Camilla, Dimitri, Ivy, Nino, Altina, Claude, Lucina, Peony) Colorless: 2 (Gullveig, Yunaka) Unfortunately for me, none of my favorites are among the greens. Maybe I'll switch course from Kvasir to Seidr.

Fascinating! Highest average vote percentages, with CYL winners in bold: Gatekeeper (10.44%) Edelgard (6.80%) Dimitri (6.33%) Claude (5.45%) Ike (4.03%) Gullveig (3.93%) Lyn (3.90%) Lysithea (3.87%) Lucina (3.78%) Marth (3.71%) Byleth F (3.46%) Bernadetta (3.28%) Marianne (3.07%) Chrom (3.01%) Hector (2.72%) Camilla (2.71%) Veronica (2.55%) Eirika (2.49%) Felix (2.48%) Yunaka (2.42%) Roy (2.27%) Micaiah (2.22%) Alm (2.22%) Ivy (2.19%) Alear F (2.01%) That's everyone with an average of at least 2%. Yunaka has the highest of the non-winners, with Ivy and Alear F joining her on this list. The winners not to make the cut are, in order: Ephraim, Corrin F, Celica, Robin M, Eliwood, Tiki A, Soren, Robin F, Seliph, and Alfonse. Interesting trivia: it looks like Chrom is the only character to have an instance of getting over 5% of the votes without winning, in 2021, and therefore is the only character to get over 5% of votes multiple times.

Huh. There's currently 33 units more recent than Brigand Boss in the Grail shop, and six of them are axe infantry: Fargus, Fuga, Donnel, Linus, Effie, and Hans. That is a surprisingly high number!

I used your numbers. And yeah, that would be a really interesting thing to look at more, which should be pretty simple to generate with spreadsheet formulas.

Great finds! Out of curiosity, I calculated the percentage of votes that went to Felix over the past few years. In 2022, he got 19117/611762=3.12%. In 2023, he got 16365/430944=3.80%. In 2024, he got 11612/414150=2.80%. So his relative popularity did increase from CYL6 to CYL7, then dropped in CYL8 after he got his regular version, but he won anyway due to weaker competition.

In fairness, Greil already has a version, while Elena does not. Oifey is listed with "(late story)" above "(early story)", so his Gen 2 version got more votes. Results page: https://vote8.campaigns.fire-emblem-heroes.com/en-US/result/

I don't remember anything about Feh Pass ever affecting inheritance slots.

Stefan Tormod Edward Volug Boyd Leonardo Brom Elena Kieran Meg Janaff Almedha Skrimir Aran Greil That's all the ones with 200+ votes. Meanwhile, for Thracia, counting to 100 votes: Linoan Homer Machyua Misha Amalda (tie) Carrion (tie) Marty Cain Fergus And Genealogy, also to 100: Oifey Chulainn Lana Dew Coirpre Edain Brigid Beowolf Naoise Midir

I voted for Embla and I still don't have her. shakes fist "EDELGAAAAAAAARD!"