Othin

What's the cap on refining stones? I'm getting close to 10k.

Does that datamine rule out the possibility of also getting a Dark mythic?

It's not just that, but also the matter of the existing ones all having been dumped into the same color. But yes, alts will likely end up needing to be part of it. In addition to seasonals, I imagine we'll eventually get a Rearmed Three Hopes Fallen Edelgard, who can help fill in as well as offering the relevant Arcane weapon. And I do think Fallen Dedue is likely to show up eventually - he's part of a dwindling number of house students to have only a base form. (The others are Hubert, Petra, and Linhardt.)

If I'm counting right, the missing weapon/movement type combinations are: Red/green bow armor Blue dagger armor Red bow cavalry Blue dagger cavalry Red/blue/green beast armor That's 8 out of the 96 possible combinations (24 weapons and 4 movement types). The lack of variety of beast armors is the most striking, and I hope they add more at some point.

Veld is kind of a joke, but I like him anyway. Or in part because of that, I guess. I want all the major villains to get in, and I found Veld to be a particularly delightful surprise.

Yeah, Naga was the first Astra mythic and the last element to get its first hero.

I think Athos would most likely be Anima, since he's primarily known for fire magic. (Even though in FE7 everyone has him use Aureola instead.) Sothis was the second Dark mythic - are you thinking of Naga?

Right, yeah, thanks. Interesting consequence of Dark being the only element to get five original style-mythics, while Astra got only three - and now they've changed places.

Lombard!

Let's take a look at previous mythic elements: Light (10): Eir, Peony, Mila, Freyja, Dagr, Ullr, Ash, Askr, Gotoh, Nerthuz Dark (9): Yune, Sothis, Bramimond, Hel, Triandra, Nott, Medeus, Embla, Kvasir Astra (11): Naga, Altina, Plumeria, Reginn, Ashera, Thorr, Elimine, Seidr, Heidr, Veyle, Ratatoskr Anima (10): Duma, Thrasir, Lif, Mirabilis, Seiros, Otr, Arval, Fomortiis, Freyr, Gullveig It looks like Dark has fallen weirdly behind the other elements, and meanwhile Light is the one that's gone the longest without a new unit. So I'd say the most likely elements are Light, Dark, or both of them. Which... doesn't say much, given that element assignments have become rather unpredictable. I think it's points in favor of Nergal, but against Athos. Nergal+Lehran could fit nicely, though.

I'd be delighted by Nergal+Athos, although looking at last year, Gotoh and Fomortiis were from different games with no apparent reason to go together. Veyle being the most recent rerun does suggests at least one blue mythic here. No idea who, but I'd love to get Lehran. Fafnir will probably be later this year, since we'll be doing a Book 5 TT story. Might be in July like Freyr, or on the Fallen banner like Gustav. Or both, since he does have two versions.

Thing about Thracia is that it has a lot of playable characters who appear as enemies. Raydrik was already the only missing villain out of FE5's CYL lineup going into the latest banner, but that didn't stop Perne from jumping in ahead of him - and remaining candidates include Dalsin, Shiva, Troude, Ilios, Misha, Xavier, Amalda, and Conomor. Meanwhile, the missing bosses among FE4's CYL lineup are Andrey, Emperor Arvis, Bloom, Brian, Chagall, Cimbaeth, Danann, Ishtore, Kutuzov, Lombard, Manfroy, Munnir, Reptor, Sandima, and Scipio. That's 15 - and Aida, Chulainn, and Hannibal could also have strong claims to GHB spots. Arvis and Manfroy are probably near the top of the options for Gen 2 banners, but those only show up once every two cycles, and they've made plenty of surprising calls already.

Way I see it, Zombie Gustav is the "regular Gustav" - it's the form he takes in battle in his source game. The fact that he appeared in the story beforehand doesn't change that. We did already get an alternate alive version of him, and he could get a legendary alt as well using his established talk sprite, but on a practical level, he has the same kind of playable presence as other Heroes bosses, particularly ones that appeared as New Heroes like Helbindi and Letizia.

To clarify, the complaints regarding Brave Tiki were the fact that her outfit was inspired by Young Tiki, since fans of Adult Tiki saw it as continuing to sideline her in favor of Young Tiki in spite of Adult Tiki being the one who got votes. That might be what you were thinking of. If you don't count Laslow, it took over six years for Inigo to make that leap: late September 2017 to early December 2023. Noire hasn't taken quite that long yet, although at this rate she should get in about a year from now. After Noire, I think the oldest standing might be Bruno (March 2019) and Wolt (July 2019) - am I forgetting anyone?

One silver lining to seasonal-locked characters is that they do have the chance to show up in Forging Bonds, without as much focus on the seasonal theme. I'm glad he finally got something, at least.

Wendell Jedah Safy Lara Linoan Raydrik Elffin Athos Nergal Franz Glen Kieran Tormod Edward Volug Vaike Scarlet Sophie Fogado Rosado I'll take it.

I'll take it. Hawkeye's weapon looks like a lance to me.

I like Altina, but what are they going to do with this version of her? Finally give her a new weapon? Make her a sword cavalry this time?

Fascinating. Seeing the top 20 had me thinking Alcryst and Rosado were Sigurd's biggest competition, but Engage's top 5 shows they're both below Diamant and Alear M. And I really don't expect Alear M to win. I'm going all-in on Sigurd here, I think he has a real shot.

I'm patient.

Bloom, Raydrik, Lombard, and Reptor should all already be in the game. IS has been sleeping on Jugdral so much. Tellius, too. Speaking of which, I hope Alder somehow gets in eventually. I've always been a fan of him.

It's possible that Sommie will get enough advocacy for them to take notice and adjust next year. They may have stopped retroactively adding characters to pre-Engage games, but they've had chances to see the responses to those games' rosters, while Engage hasn't had that chance yet. I picked Raydrik for my first vote, but I may change course if Sigurd seems to have a shot at victory.

Huh. I was curious if two of those overlapped, but it turns out that Khadein is just north of the area that became Plegia - while Altea did end up as part of Plegia. Interesting how that played out.

Rerunning past years' seasonal banners is standard procedure, it doesn't say anything about whether or not the theme will change. They've been changing the August and September themes, and from what I remember,they kept running the past years' banners for those months regardless. I don't particularly care about the desert theme, so I'd be fine with a new one.