When you realize that Edelgard is the only female lord not to make the cut.

[Azz]

I always forget about that line about Finn being Nanna's father, though I thinks it because of the headcanon/hinted at fact by some kind of FE4 side material that Beowolf is Diarmuid's father while Finn is Nanna's.

[Jotari]

8 minutes ago, Azz said:

I always forget about that line about Finn being Nanna's father, though I thinks it because of the headcanon/hinted at fact by some kind of FE4 side material that Beowolf is Diarmuid's father while Finn is Nanna's.

It's less side material and more that Diarmuid can use the Beo Sword (in addition to Beowulf's kind of weird conversation with Rachesis in Chapter 5 of Holy War). There does seem to be internal text saying Nana is adopted by Finn, but that brings into question why only Nana is referred to by the villains as Finn's daughter despite both her and Leif being royals in their own right and both being functionally adopted by Finn. As well as Nana having a sword rank but being unable to use the Beo Sword...so yeah, it's weird, but they are canonizing something in their ambiguous way.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Jotari

[AnonymousSpeed]

lmao

get rekt edelfans

get what you deserve

2 hours ago, JimmyBeans said:

Me and a friend talked about how funny it would be there was an evil ring to summon a villain from every game, and we joked about what an outrage people would have if Edelgard was on the villains side as the 3H rep. Could you imagine that? It honestly would be cool imo, but people would be so mad about that haha.

Oh yeah, now that'd be great. I'd be down for that. I'd honestly like to see rings go to people without necessarily matching their "heroism status", like a villain consciously choosing Ike's ring because he wants to bring unity, or the protagonists using the powers of Jahn or Manfroy.

[Jotari]

5 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

lmao

get rekt edelfans

get what you deserve

Oh yeah, now that'd be great. I'd be down for that. I'd honestly like to see rings go to people without necessarily matching their "heroism status", like a villain consciously choosing Ike's ring because he wants to bring unity, or the protagonists using the powers of Jahn or Manfroy.

Glorious 5'7 (towers over Edelgard) is possible the best thing that has ever come into existence as a result of Fodlan XD

[vanguard333]

3 hours ago, King Marth 64 said:

Second, it wouldn't make sense just to slap Edelgard without Dimitri nor Claude in it since Three Houses players do play Dimitri's and Claude's route as well. Sakurai did choose Byleth over the House Leaders in Three Houses due to other players who aren't into replaying Three Houses merely just play one route and just done with it. Byleth makes a lot more sense to pick since Three Houses plays Byleth a lot.

I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure Sakurai didn't choose anyone; Nintendo gave him the list of characters to make into DLC fighters without his input. Sakurai even argued against making Steve from Minecraft into a DLC fighter on the grounds that making the character a fighter while staying true to its Minecraft roots would be difficult, and Nintendo just told him to try anyway.

 

1 hour ago, Azz said:

I highly disagree with the idea Edie is the most suitable character from TH. She is the protagonist of one route. Byleth is present and a main protagonist of all four. Regardless of her arguably being the main mascot of the TH, Byleth makes the most sense, because of their role in the story and more than likely they will be written in a way that makes what route or who they join in TH will be as ambiguous as possible.

Byleth's role in the story is basically to act as witness and moral support to the house leaders' journeys in every route except Silver Snow.

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

A character who drives the plot? Yes (like most villains). A mascot? No. Pretty much objectively no.

Three Hopes' box art doesn't count as that's a warriors spin-off with an entirely different plot. You make a decent case with the mention of Heroes and the Three Houses box art, but there is evidence in favour of Edelgard being Three Houses' mascot. Here's two examples:

1. The game's theme song is about Edelgard (and is even sung from her perspective). This is especially convincing as the only other game to have a theme song like this was Fates, and its song was about Corrin.

2. The first trailer focused more heavily on Edelgard than on Dimitri and Claude and only contained Rhea's and Edelgard's dialogue, with Rhea's being the dialogue about the Church of Seiros' teachings, while Edelgard's is the "the Crests are to blame" speech, the line "do you dare to walk this path with me? One misstep and we fall to our ruin, so take your first step; it's now or never!" and, finally, "I will return here someday, my teacher. Promise me that you won't forget me."

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Besides; at least it would be better than Byleth: the choice that pleases no one and does not really represent Three Houses.

I am literally playing as Teach. They are the PoV character, who I walk around the monastery and teach students as.

 

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Besides; at least it would be better than Byleth: the choice that pleases no one and does not really represent Three Houses.

2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Favouritism? It's not favouritism to say that Edelgard was the mascot of Three Houses. She isn't just one of the house leaders; she's the character that drives the plot. That's not favouritism; that's just how the plot of the game was made.

And how would Engage including Edelgard have made made you "feel wrong for choosing to fear the deer"? Including Edelgard would not have been picking one house leader over the others or playing favourites; it would've been FE Engage picking the character that actually represents Three Houses.

On a similar token, we could call Rhea the main character of Three Houses. She started moving the plot into action before Edelgard was even born. She functions as the antagonist on one route, and the player's main motivation on two other routes.

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

She gets a dedicated printable box art from Nintendo's website. But so too do Claude and Dimitri

 

Just learned about this! A shame the Claude cover is upside-down, though...

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

As funny as I find it to recast Roy as some kind of dragon racist based on his legendary's C skill in Heroes, that really isn't his character in Binding Blade. He meets on good terms with the dragons of arcadia, spares Idunn and isn't even all that eager to fight Yahn. How he deals with Yahn and also the venture to the western isles also shows he's not easily mislead, with a keen desire to understand his enemy and a refusal to fight for a conflict he doesn't believe in. If Roy were to turn up as an enemy he'd be an Olwen type who is quickly discovering the truth and joining the player (and getting most of his gameplay milage out of a prf weapon!).

 

That is fair, I don't think that Roy is racist against dragons. Just that he was put in a position where he had to kill a bunch of dragons.

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Favouritism? It's not favouritism to say that Edelgard was the mascot of Three Houses. She isn't just one of the house leaders; she's the character that drives the plot. That's not favouritism; that's just how the plot of the game was made.

And how would Engage including Edelgard have made made you "feel wrong for choosing to fear the deer"? Including Edelgard would not have been picking one house leader over the others or playing favourites; it would've been FE Engage picking the character that actually represents Three Houses.

Technically it was called the "Knight Killer" back then. I have to wonder if it's gonna be retconned into the far superior "Ridersbane" in the inevitable remake?

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

That's the kind of stuff I wish we were seeing in Heroes and what makes me a bit hopeful about Engage. Classic Fire Emblem characters actually having agency and motivation and, well, plot presence. Summoning Edelgard only to have her betray you and go on some kind of crusade recruiting the likes of Nergal and Zelgius would be epic.

 

Edie rolls up with Hardin, Arvis, Zephiel, and Walhart. Getting the band back together.

[Jotari]

53 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure Sakurai didn't choose anyone; Nintendo gave him the list of characters to make into DLC fighters without his input. Sakurai even argued against making Steve from Minecraft into a DLC fighter on the grounds that making the character a fighter while staying true to its Minecraft roots would be difficult, and Nintendo just told him to try anyway.

 

Byleth's role in the story is basically to act as witness and moral support to the house leaders' journeys in every route except Silver Snow.

Three Hopes' box art doesn't count as that's a warriors spin-off with an entirely different plot. You make a decent case with the mention of Heroes and the Three Houses box art, but there is evidence in favour of Edelgard being Three Houses' mascot. Here's two examples:

1. The game's theme song is about Edelgard (and is even sung from her perspective). This is especially convincing as the only other game to have a theme song like this was Fates, and its song was about Corrin.

2. The first trailer focused more heavily on Edelgard than on Dimitri and Claude and only contained Rhea's and Edelgard's dialogue, with Rhea's being the dialogue about the Church of Seiros' teachings, while Edelgard's is the "the Crests are to blame" speech, the line "do you dare to walk this path with me? One misstep and we fall to our ruin, so take your first step; it's now or never!" and, finally, "I will return here someday, my teacher. Promise me that you won't forget me."

That doesn't make her the mascot of the game. That makes her the narrative driving force. The first trailer for TMS showed nothing but jpegs of Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei characters, but that doesn't mean the final product was not an rpg set in the present day revolving around idols. Edelgard is the character that provides the driving force of the story. But she is in no way shape or form the mascot of the game. If she were then she would have been in Smash, she would have been in this game and she would have been the character icon in Heroes. It's not a case that she keeps getting snubbed as the mascot, she just simply isn't the mascot.

[joevar]

57 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

That is fair, I don't think that Roy is racist against dragons. Just that he was put in a position where he had to kill a bunch of dragons.

its a bunch of war dragon. not sentient dragon anyway. as much as sentient dragon goes. Roy pretty much trying to reasons with them whenever possible

------------------------------

like someone already said. 3H is hornet nest. cant pick a side without making the discussion feels like free-for-all war. lmao

 

2 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Oh yeah, now that'd be great. I'd be down for that. I'd honestly like to see rings go to people without necessarily matching their "heroism status", like a villain consciously choosing Ike's ring because he wants to bring unity, or the protagonists using the powers of Jahn or Manfroy.

that would be cool, but we all know thats not going to happen. im sure the villain would choose comically evil villain so they could laugh together like a clown they are. Best thing could happen is Zephiel is among the summoned villain while retaining some of his overbearing persona

Edited September 16, 2022 by joevar

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I, for one, am glad that Byleth was chosen for the mural over Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude, and some of the conversations about it in this thread are exactly why.

And yes, I do fully expect Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude to be in Engage in some capacity.

[Seazas]

Edelgard would've been the wrong choice to rep 3 Houses. She is ultimately the protagonist of one route and it'd push prominent Black Eagle love when Byleth and Sothis are easy picks that rep all routes.

[Maimishou]

I'm going to have to agree with those saying Edelgard is the best choice. It doesn't matter if she's only the protagonist on one route and an antagonist otherwise.  The first trailer is from her perspective. The theme song is sung by her and is from her perspective. She's basically the most important character in the game and her being the mascot is undeniable. I'm not against Byleth getting in, but Edelgard 100% deserves to get in more than the other two lords.

[Seazas]

I could never agree with the deserve idea. If you're going to market the game with three distinct routes, treat them right or don't rep them at all. Pretty much shoving Edelgard to the stage and ignoring the other two is punishing numerous groups who didn't prefer or play Black Eagles. And alienating players in a huge way like that goes against Intsys' entire design philosophy. Stick to Byleth especially when we spend the entire game through Byleth with the theme song also being directed to Byleth as well.

Byleth reps all factions even the Church. It's foolish not to choose Byleth and prioritize route fairness.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Seazas

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Maimishou said:

 and her being the mascot is undeniable.

Oh it's very much deniable. I deny it. Because it is not true. Like, at all.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Jotari

[joevar]

5 hours ago, Maimishou said:

The first trailer is from her perspective. The theme song is sung by her and is from her perspective.

really now, we start dismissing second and third trailer? inb4, Vander is the actual Protagonist of Engage since he's doing exposition talk in first trailer while alear dialogue mostly from menu and battle. also Edelgard VA and singer of theme song are different person 

🏃‍♂️

[DefyingFates]

15 hours ago, Jotari said:

Sigurd can use Risdersbane in Genealogy of the Holy War. He has lances from base. He even got a lance named after him in Awakening.

Oh I was just using Sigurd's weapons as an example of Emblems having multiple weapon types in Engage, that's all. I know Ike could use Axes in RD and Lucina could technically use bows in one of her secondary classes, but I still hope Engage takes inspiration from FEH alts to diversify everyone else. Even if they gave everyone just one extra weapon type, the Emblems could be much more useful, even if it's just for the Engaged forms.

14 hours ago, Azz said:

I love how even now that we are moving on to a new game, we still cannot escape the never ending Three Houses discourse sigh

Exactly why Byleth was the best choice~

11 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Just learned about this! A shame the Claude cover is upside-down, though...

This meme is never going to die xD

 

[Jotari]

10 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Oh I was just using Sigurd's weapons as an example of Emblems having multiple weapon types in Engage, that's all. I know Ike could use Axes in RD and Lucina could technically use bows in one of her secondary classes, but I still hope Engage takes inspiration from FEH alts to diversify everyone else. Even if they gave everyone just one extra weapon type, the Emblems could be much more useful, even if it's just for the Engaged forms.

Exactly why Byleth was the best choice~

This meme is never going to die xD

 

That's actually why I hope all the Three Houses Lords show up. As I want to see how they use the three houses classes in the traditional weapon system. It'll probably just involve giving them all swords since Dimitri's class already has sword proficiency and Claude has a prf sword (and even Edelgard uses the Sword of Seiros as a prop), but I still kind of want to k ow for sure. They might expand it a little more (or he'll they might even stay true to three houses and let them use all weapons).

[PrincessAlyson]

7 hours ago, Seazas said:

I could never agree with the deserve idea. If you're going to market the game with three distinct routes, treat them right or don't rep them at all. Pretty much shoving Edelgard to the stage and ignoring the other two is punishing numerous groups who didn't prefer or play Black Eagles. And alienating players in a huge way like that goes against Intsys' entire design philosophy. Stick to Byleth especially when we spend the entire game through Byleth with the theme song also being directed to Byleth as well.

Byleth reps all factions even the Church. It's foolish not to choose Byleth and prioritize route fairness.

All of this. I love Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, and Rhea. But none of them represent all the routes. Byleth does. I hope the other four will be DLC, but Byleth is the correct choice as the 3H representative. Intsys purposefully avoided a golden or canon route for 3H. There is no reason for them to shove one of the faction leaders at us, trying to claim one route is canon over the others. They are all equally valid.  

[Maimishou]

10 hours ago, Seazas said:

I could never agree with the deserve idea. If you're going to market the game with three distinct routes, treat them right or don't rep them at all. Pretty much shoving Edelgard to the stage and ignoring the other two is punishing numerous groups who didn't prefer or play Black Eagles.

As I and others have pointed out Edelgard is the posterchild for the game. Would it suck for Claude and Dimitri fans if she got in over them? Sure. That doesn't change that she deserves to get in over them and Byleth though.

4 hours ago, joevar said:

really now, we start dismissing second and third trailer? inb4, Vander is the actual Protagonist of Engage since he's doing exposition talk in first trailer while alear dialogue mostly from menu and battle. also Edelgard VA and singer of theme song are different person 

🏃‍♂️

Nobody's claiming Edelgard is the true protagonist. She can be the mascot of the games and most important character without being the main character. Byleth is the main character but Edelgard still got an entire trailer and song told from her perspective and she's still the driving force of all four arcs.

3 hours ago, PrincessAlyson said:

Intsys purposefully avoided a golden or canon route for 3H. There is no reason for them to shove one of the faction leaders at us, trying to claim one route is canon over the others. They are all equally valid.  

Edelgard exists and is the driving force of every arc. Making her the representative in Engage over Byleth in no way makes Crimson Flower canon over any of the other three arcs.

[Azz]

If we're talking mascots, Sothis is clearly more of a mascot for Three Houses by IS standards considering she's on the title screen and used in Heroes as the icon for Fódlan heroes.

If we're taking songs into account, Mila should be there for Valentia cause she has Heritors of Arcadia, which is about her.

Even then, all twelve of the characters on the mural are heroes in their games. Byleth is the hero in all routes, Edelgard is the antagonist of three. She may be the driving force, but if we're determining who gets included by them being the driving force, most of the lords on the mural shouldn't be there because most of them couldn't be considered the driving forces of their games since 9/10 FE stories are people reacting to events happening around them.

Is Byleth an amazing option? To most, no (I personally like Byleth but regardless). However, they are a better option compared any of the three Fodlan lords because at the end of the day, they are the only one who is a hero 4/4 times and its very clear IS considers them to be Three Houses main character and representative as based on Heroes (where they were the only TH character to appear in literal Leads summoning banner for the 30th anniversary), Cipher and by their inclusion in Smash Bros.

At the end of the day, I really don't see why we are debating this because Byleth is there, none of the three TH lords are, and if they aren't already in the game, they will probably be added by DLC so I don't get the issue.

[Rose482]

16 minutes ago, Azz said:

and its very clear IS considers them to be Three Houses main character

Okay, I don't really have much to add to the conversation that I kinda started by accident, but I do want to quickly point out that I don't think IS cared enough to only add the characters they consider THE "main character" to the roaster we got  cause Lucina is there, and I doubt she could be considered more of a "main character" than either Robin or Chrom, but she's still one of the "main characters" which is what I believe mattered when it came to picking a character from each game. 

Edited September 16, 2022 by Rose482

[Azz]

6 minutes ago, Rose482 said:

Okay, I don't really have much to add to the conversation that I kinda started by accident, but I do want to quickly point out that I don't think IS cared enough to only add the characters they consider THE "main character" to the roaster we got  cause Lucina is there, and I doubt she could be considered more of a "main character" than either Robin or Chrom, but she's still one of the "main characters" which is what I believe mattered when it came to picking a character from each game. 

I both agree and disagree.  Definitely there are some choices there that wouldn't make sense if we were to solely pick THE main character of each game (I mean Lyn is there and not Eliwood or Hector). However, aside from wanting to probably have an equal gender ratio when picking which characters we got on the mural, I feel like they wanted to pick who best represented each game, which for Awakening, always kind of ended up being Lucina (or Robin, but Lucina has always been prominent).

As well as that, I feel like Three Houses and its lords are in a weird place in the franchise. They are the lords, but not of the same story. With every other game that has multiple MCs, they all take part in the same story, ala Chrom, Robin and Lucina or Lyn, Eliwood and Hector. You might have some occasions where one is more prominent than the others, but they are effectively on equal footing as far as the narrative is concerned, they are a group of heroes working together. Edie, Dimitri and Claude can never be the lords together, thus picking one of them over the other just wouldn't make sense when trying to represent Three Houses as a whole.

[GrandeRampel]

Just give it time. If she isn't the very FIRST DLC announced for this game (with Dimitri and Claude right after) I will eat my hat.

All FE games since New Mystery had DLC and all FE games since Fates (or Awakening if you count the spotpass characters like Priam as free DLC) had DLC characters.

There is no way they won't give us DLC characters and there is NO WAY they will give priority to ANYONE, even the likes of Tiki, Azura, Alm and Chrom, over the House Leaders.

They are so much more popular than any other character that it's not funny and IS certainly doesn't dislike money. I will tell you this, if they decide to sell the characters individually and they do a decent amount of DLC characters (like 10-15) I fully expect the sales data to show that the Claude's DLC sold more than all the other chracters DLCs (who aren't also from 3H) COMBINED.

 

[Seazas]

3 hours ago, Maimishou said:

As I and others have pointed out Edelgard is the posterchild for the game. Would it suck for Claude and Dimitri fans if she got in over them? Sure. That doesn't change that she deserves to get in over them and Byleth though.

Nobody's claiming Edelgard is the true protagonist. She can be the mascot of the games and most important character without being the main character. Byleth is the main character but Edelgard still got an entire trailer and song told from her perspective and she's still the driving force of all four arcs.

Edelgard exists and is the driving force of every arc. Making her the representative in Engage over Byleth in no way makes Crimson Flower canon over any of the other three arcs.

Sothis and/or Byleth are the poster children. They are the ones who are in the center of 3 Houses' box and best represent all three-four routes. There's a reason Sothis is used as the Fodlan icon while all the lords are usually used as the icon in Heroes. 

That's not a good enough reason to prioritize her when Byleth is still the central character and the one we directly play as and see the world through in all routes. Even then, Sothis best fits the mascot label. She directly has the design of a mascot type character and exists to help push our protagonist forward. Sothis has been used as a mascot countless time. Along with that, Byleth best represents everything about 3 Houses to the point they are the teacher and have exclusive mechanics centered around them that Edelgard doesn't get. She gets no exclusive gameplay mechanics around her. Again, the song you mentioned is directly sung to Byleth from Edelgard. So it still ties into Byleth and her getting an entire trailer is nothing new. Byleth got a focus before too.

It literally is. It's directly favoring Black Eagles because Edelgard only reps Black Eagles and she's going to be placed among the lords. You're not repping all the other prominent houses. It's obvious what she'd be repping, she's only a lord of one route only to be placed among other FE lords. You are indirectly (or directly depending on your point of view) favoring the Black Eagles and their route.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Seazas

[Sunwoo]

Slightly tangential to the topic, but this is what I hate most about FE games that try to represent all the previous games to some extent. Very rarely are the characters chosen done solely based on who is billed as "the main character".

If that was the case, I would very much protest Lyn and Lucina being on here. Lyn is a tutorial mode. And Hector's mode is unlocked only after you play through Eliwood route. Even if he's technically the least loved of the three, Eliwood is the main character of FE7. Playable Lucina also never gives you a game over and after she joins you mostly sits back so Chrom and Robin can direct the plot. Between Alm and Celica, Alm undoubtedly is the one who is more "main". Eirika and Ephraim are so equal to one another that it's unfair to choose one as the "more important" lord. This is coming from someone who likes Eirika and doesn't care for Ephraim.

If IS wanted to celebrate the series accurately, they'd include everyone who could be considered a lord. So Alm, Seliph, Eliwood, Hector, Ephraim, Chrom, m!Corrin, and f!Byleth at the very least. With some wiggle room for the Robins and the three house leaders. But that's not what they did. Is it because they didn't want more work to do? Is it because it would be "unfair" to games with only one lord? (Personally, I don't think it's unfair but whatever.) I also don't like the idea of giving avatars of previous games a set gender either. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just choose whether we wanted male or female Corrin/Byleth at the start of the game to begin with?

I legit have an issue with f!Corrin getting picked for all the spin-offs because f!Corrin is associated with Nohr in almost all of IS's promotional materials. The original box art of Fates, the majority of Cipher cards, the drama CDs, and even Heroes itself heavily associates f!Corrin with Nohr and m!Corrin with Hoshido. As someone who hates Conquest even now and disliked f!Corrin more than m!Corrin, I am consistently disappointed with Fates representation outside its own universe.

As for the house leaders specifically, either put in all three of them or none at all. There is enough drama about 3H already, we really don't need an absolute firestorm of people gloating because Edelgard is in while the guys are not and thus makes her "canon" or people raging over the fact that Edelgard made it while the guys didn't and being equally toxic or crying about how IS hates men. And if all three of the house leaders gets in, then there's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't have Eliwood, Hector, Ephraim, and Alm too.

tl;dr IS doesn't pick character based on who "deserves it more" or is "most important to story". They pick characters based on arbitrary representation things like not wanting a cast full of males and who is most popular with the fans. (Which kind of goes to tell you that they really SHOULD make a solo female lord without an avatar attached. 😐)

[Jotari]

6 hours ago, Maimishou said:

As I and others have pointed out Edelgard is the posterchild for the game.

Can you show me a literal poster of her that doesn't have an equivalent with Claude and Dimitiri? 

2 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

Slightly tangential to the topic, but this is what I hate most about FE games that try to represent all the previous games to some extent. Very rarely are the characters chosen done solely based on who is billed as "the main character".

If that was the case, I would very much protest Lyn and Lucina being on here. Lyn is a tutorial mode. And Hector's mode is unlocked only after you play through Eliwood route. Even if he's technically the least loved of the three, Eliwood is the main character of FE7. Playable Lucina also never gives you a game over and after she joins you mostly sits back so Chrom and Robin can direct the plot. Between Alm and Celica, Alm undoubtedly is the one who is more "main". Eirika and Ephraim are so equal to one another that it's unfair to choose one as the "more important" lord. This is coming from someone who likes Eirika and doesn't care for Ephraim.

If IS wanted to celebrate the series accurately, they'd include everyone who could be considered a lord. So Alm, Seliph, Eliwood, Hector, Ephraim, Chrom, m!Corrin, and f!Byleth at the very least. With some wiggle room for the Robins and the three house leaders. But that's not what they did. Is it because they didn't want more work to do? Is it because it would be "unfair" to games with only one lord? (Personally, I don't think it's unfair but whatever.) I also don't like the idea of giving avatars of previous games a set gender either. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just choose whether we wanted male or female Corrin/Byleth at the start of the game to begin with?

I legit have an issue with f!Corrin getting picked for all the spin-offs because f!Corrin is associated with Nohr in almost all of IS's promotional materials. The original box art of Fates, the majority of Cipher cards, the drama CDs, and even Heroes itself heavily associates f!Corrin with Nohr and m!Corrin with Hoshido. As someone who hates Conquest even now and disliked f!Corrin more than m!Corrin, I am consistently disappointed with Fates representation outside its own universe.

As for the house leaders specifically, either put in all three of them or none at all. There is enough drama about 3H already, we really don't need an absolute firestorm of people gloating because Edelgard is in while the guys are not and thus makes her "canon" or people raging over the fact that Edelgard made it while the guys didn't and being equally toxic or crying about how IS hates men. And if all three of the house leaders gets in, then there's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't have Eliwood, Hector, Ephraim, and Alm too.

tl;dr IS doesn't pick character based on who "deserves it more" or is "most important to story". They pick characters based on arbitrary representation things like not wanting a cast full of males and who is most popular with the fans. (Which kind of goes to tell you that they really SHOULD make a solo female lord without an avatar attached. 😐)

I think Hector is the most sensible choice for Binding Blade despite Eliwood being the main character. Because armoured axe knight is just more diverse than Lyn. Course Lyn has boobs so I'm not surprised on that front. If there is any reason to put Edelgard in I'd base it off of weapon diversity. Course her competitors also have weapon diversity and even Byleth is interesting with Enlightened one having magic and brawling prificiencies. Weapon diversity clearly wasn't something they were majorly concerned with though, aside from giving Lucina a bow and stuff, otherwise we would have got Ephraim over Eirika (and sure they might give Eirika lances, but in lore it makes more sense to give Ephraim swords as he's the one who trained Eirika in them).

Edited September 17, 2022 by Jotari