Dandy Druid

I don't think IS would create lord that would suffer from the game's mechanics right at the start of the game. Or would they?

I can see that. Edelgard's resolute "The crests are to blame" may be indicative of this way of thinking? Maybe it's not the crests, but those using them?

It's very confusing on what her class is. I don't think she's recruitable though because her 3D render looks generic and not unique. I'm going to say she's a dismounted Valkyrie if dismounting mechanics are coming back. If not, maybe she's just some new class.

Tbh, that would make it a lot more interesting from a story perspective. I do really hope the protagonists do get some sort of bad rep. Going against a church will most likely piss a lot of people/commoners off.

Yeah, it's a little early to tell, which is why I'm full of assumptions and guesses. I wish we had more info on our hands to inspire more discussions. I feel like the trailer showed a lot and a little at the same time, for some reason.

They may matter. We can try to interpret each of those meanings from what we know so far. Flowery, but hollow- Can refer to how the Church of Seiros makes grand ceremonies and promises miracles, but that isn't necessarily true. One criticism (not my own) of religion is that it exists just to make people feel better about what they don't know, so all of the religious ceremonies don't have much backing to them. Beautiful romance- Not a concept unknown to Fire Emblem. A romance blossoming amidst the chaos of war can be a good contrast. Plus, romance may also refer to something picturesque or artistic, so it can be a love for nature. Wasteful Life- Again, like the first thing, can be a criticism of a Church of Seiros. Although once good, has become corrupted, and has strayed from the path from which they once walked.

Edelgard: The thing I find most interesting about her is that she's a female AXE lord, making her the second AXE lord and a female unit wielding an axe at that, so she's definitely interesting. I'm not crazy about the bottom half of her design, so it may take some time warming up to it. In the Japanese name, "Snow, Moon, and Flowers" and her name meaning "Noble Garden" it's fair to say she represents Spring. Judging from the trailer, it looks very early on in the story. I'm guessing she's like Lyn, and she'll be the star for the first 10 chapters or so and then become gradually less relevant later on. Although the title hints at romance, I have a feeling she'll definitely be like Lyn and her romance options won't affect the story too much. Hell, it's probably going to Blythe/MU. Dimitri: He's definitely going to be the serious type, and he may have a ponytail but that's still up for speculation. He's a lance lord from my understanding, making his the second after Ephraim. I have a feeling his personality will be Leo 2.0- serious, but makes a clumsy mistake like forgetting to fix his collar. I have a feeling he's going to be a FOIL with Claude, with one of them being strong/weak in a certain aspect while the other being strong/weak in another. Judging from his color palette, he's most likely the "Snow" of the Trio. He's going to come off as cold, but he's not inflexible. Well, maybe. Claude: My favorite out of the 3 on first impressions. His pose shows some personality (fun loving, chill) and it'll be interesting to see how his character develops over the course of the game. Hopefully he's not just the comic relief lord. Also, he's the first tan lord and he's the first bow lord, so the dude has a really interesting set up. He's most likely of the "Moon" of the trio, which represents Autumn. Autumn and the Moon have a very interesting ambiguity; Autumn is the season of harvest and warm colors, but it's also a season where plants begin to wither and the days get colder. So while there's a sense of merriment with Autumn, there's also a creeping feeling of change that can be associated with it. The Moon also has this implications in tarot; The Moon Arcana is quite imaginative and changing. There's a light side (Full Moon) and a dark side (New Moon), so there's this dynamic of opposing ideas. My guess is that Claude will have a flirty and fun disposition, but may be a complicated character upon further inspection. He's someone that may face a great deal of stress and responsibility to be a leader, and knows his time to step up is drawing near. He may not feel he's ready. That, or there could be other issues going on with him. Claude has a lot of potential with what they set him up to be, so I hope it's realized. I'm not going to say much about Blythe, mainly because I don't think there's much to say. I like how they look, but I can't help but feel they're a MU. Isn't it interesting that IS released talking portraits of the other 3 lords but not Blythe despite his prevalence in the trailer? Some food for thought. (basically, I've convinced myself they're most certainly a MU. If they're not, that's some red herring IS came up with. Also, for red herrings, Kaga did that first too)

I'm only guessing Blythe is a MU because... they didn't talk, so they maybe more similar to a Persona protagonist. They have a pretty neutral color palette The wording on the Nintendo description said "your protagonist", which gives them a MU implication. Although a lot of people criticize avatars, it's still one of the more popular features of the series.

I thought the actual shape looks like Tellius itself. There's some obvious differences though. Granted, in order for this theory to stand, there's going to need to be some sort of wolf nation that Nailah hails from. Nailah came from her own kingdom right? Not just a tribe? Although I suppose this can change if this takes place in a distant time from Tellius. Borders and countries change over centuries, so it's possible that Nailah's kingdom may have already met a demise or hasn't risen yet, but there should be some sort of wolf kin there. I do want it to take place in Fates' world, mainly so it adds to Fates' worldbuilding. If Palmira to the east here is a desert (Palmyra in Syria is a desert area IIRC, which seems like the inspiration for the name) and we know that Fates has a desert to the southwest, so it would be Fates to the East and Fodlan to the West, with a desert separating them. Deserts often make great geographic obstacles, so it's not out of the question for there not to be any connection to the East without proper boats (it's unknown if boats are in the equation.) And we know there's a body of water to the west in Fates as well, and it matches up here.

I really hope they won't be present on every map, since not all battles should be of a grand scale. I hope we do get some missions that are more sneaky with an elite force like Lucia chapter in Radiant Dawn. So I hope all of the normies are only present when it makes sense for them to be there. As far special units, I could see a healer traveling with many other healers because someone needs to patch up the other generics. As for shifters, I could see them leading them a pack of other shifters, since they usually come from a tribe or a country, with the taguel being a special case. As for dragons, they can be standalone, since dragons are supposed to be fierce foes in lore. I could see a dancer being standalone. All it takes is 1 to lift the spirits of many. If not, they could lead a pack of dancers, like a dance squad or troupe. Or it could be a band with 3 or 4 defined characters making 1 unit on the battlefield. It could be interesting if you're allowed to rotate who takes the lead, with each member having a different bonus, i.e. Member 1 raises attack, Member 2 raises avoid, and so on and so forth. It would also be interesting to start with one member and rescue/gather more members throughout the game, and the more members you get, the more people you can refresh at a time. Like rallymen or a drumline? That could be cool. But I think from a visual standpoint, some sort of music troupe would be more interesting. But that's just me. I like the visual contrast of a music troupe; it's like a the saying/trope of beauty residing in chaos, with music being beauty and war being chaos.

This is a pretty interesting analysis. Although I thought some of this, I didn't realize the possibility that Mila 2.0 could be in fact, evil, and Berserker Rudolf will be an ally. This makes me a lot more interested in the characters of the story, because Fire Emblem has a tendency to make the pretty & flower-y characters good guys while the fire & brimstone types the bad guys. It's usually very obvious who's good and who's bad, but now I'm realizing that this may not be the case with this game. Furthermore, looking at some of the other enemy NPCs shown (Mercedes, Hilda, and some of the other guys), this definitely seems to be true. Because the more I look at the trailer, the less they look recruitable. This is pretty interesting, because this makes identifying recruitable enemies harder, and there's a lot more female enemies as well. The enemy definitely looks cartoonishy evil, so the characters seem enough to get excited about.

Tbh I'm starting to think that the story set up would probably be a lot more similar to FE7 than Fates. I wouldn't be surprised if Edelgard's story is the first 10 chapters than Dimitri/Claude take over for the rest of the game.

For Zelda, I can see Callista from The Last Story being a decent Echo choice. Micaiah/Julia from FE would also work. For Bayonetta, Jeanne (from Bayonetta of course) is an obvious choice.

I think it's supposed to be a giant wedding cake slicer.

So excited for this game! I'm not sure to play Ophelia's or Primrose's story in the demo! Oh shoot! I want Cyrus and Therion too.

Princess Zelda has always been my main, regardless of how low tier she's considered. and I'm going to be mad if "HI IM DAISY" doesn't make the cut.

I mean, it's hard to go with that conclusion based off a really small part of a conversation, so I think it's too early to tell the dynamic/relationship will evolve into that. However, I think your concern still stands, especially after FE12 Kris. I really hope this isn't Kris 2.0. Although, I do have a feeling it'll be like Robin- not a lot of brown nosing, but enough to be prevalent. I do think it's interesting though- since the majority of buyers will most likely be veterans, it seems like the game treats you as one. I know there's a mixed reaction to this, but I can this detail getting good reviews though from casuals. Good catch. I wonder where a character's choice of hangout will be random or intentional. Where they hangout can say a lot about their personality. It probably would've gotten delayed with or without Heroes. They're used to handheld software, so moving to a home console is another task. IIRC, Path of Radiance also took the team longer than usual to make, which is why they spat out Sacred Stones. I think it's going to be a worldwide release. If Xenoblade can get one, then FE should be able to. Let's just hope Spring 2019 means late March/April. So does that mean that battalion/squadron leaders all have some sort of face now? Maybe it's randomized? Could be interesting if they're all randomized with the same assets of a MU, so they could also potentially be what our avatars look like as well?

I'm going to go with yes, given as how each unit seems to be controlling a squadron of soldiers. Although it would be pretty funny if we picked up some Donnel/Mozu and handed them a group of soldiers to take care of. It would also be interesting to see how leadership affects some characters.

My guess is resources/money. It would just be an added expense. But thanks to the success of Awakening, Fates, and Heroes, I bet they feel more encouraged to experiment with the formula and do stuff they couldn't do before.

We're evolving as a fandom I'm beginning to notice a trend here. I'm #TeamClaude too Interesting design, first tan lord, first bow lord, and his portrait shows the most personality. He's winning me over the most.

I don't think so but if we do, watch how fast Claude's and Edelgard's copies would go. Poor Dimitri. I believe it was Edelgard, because her VA, Christina Vee, tweeted about it.

1. I think they all come from different kingdoms, but I don't think this like Fates. I think they may have a similar goal in mind. 2. That's the impression I got. It's all primary colors. 3. I hope the laggier ones get improved upon. The game still has less than a year to get polished, so there's time to fix it. 4. Agreed. I've said it before and I'll say it again; Claude's a hottie. Mekkah has a video out, I don't watch blazingknight, and Mangs is on vacation IIRC, so it'll be a while to hear what Mangs thinks of it. The tone definitely seems more serious this time, and the character art seems more conservative. If it really was the artist from Uta No Prince-Sama, who I believe is a woman, we probably won't have to worry TOO much about bad female design. We may need to worry about too many flower boys though.

Tbh there's no getting away with Kaga, as he was the creator of the series. Although he hasn't been at IS for nearly 2 decades now, he really left an impact on the company whether they like it or not. Plus Kaga seems to like brainstorming and coming up with tons of ideas to implement. I don't think they thought of Kaga for this idea, but it's probably something they've been wanting to do for years but finally have the tech to do it and meet their own satisfaction. If it goes well, hey, maybe Advanced Wars will come back. If not, maybe they're looking to buy Lagrisser or something.

It's too early to say. What would be cool is if instead of dying, the officer (playable unit) would get captured upon their defeat, and you have to free them from a dungeon later (i.e. a gaiden chapter). It does have an Advanced Wars mechanic and that's about it. Maybe if it's well received, perhaps they would revive Advanced Wars.

So does this mean that squad mechanics/visual is another thing to add to the "Kaga did it first" list?