messier

There is a disconnect for me between disliking a design and disliking a character. Re: Camilla, I think her design is very silly but she seems to be a nice character overall. A bit too early to tell anything gameplay-wise.

They feel like allusions more than anything. Not so subtle ones, at that! If we are to consider FE:if's world and plot in a closed-state situation (barring outrealm equivalents), these characters might be initial Awakening references at first but be significantly different in other aspects. The premises of speculation are still littered with holes. I would not mind something like the above, though it would make me question why characters were essentially re-used. For that specific concern, I definitely am a bit suspicious of them. They may be completely minor characters, but if they are significant ones then there must be a reason behind the similarities. The world travelling idea is an interesting one, but the changed names and Odin's Dark Mage capabilities? It would be awesome, but it would perhaps be a different "world" to the one(s) in Awakening.

Pieri might be one of my favourite designs so far. It will be fun using Definitely-Not-Inigo-Despite-Similar-Personalities-Looks-And-Name-Etymologies. I suppose the connection between Owain and Odin might be a bit more tenuous.

This is the big thing. The world is filled with an endlessly rich assortment of cultures to be inspired by. As long as there is an avoidance of excessive stereotyping -- that is, the dynamic "real-ness" of these places is fleshed out -- then we might have some of the most unique cultural/political dynamics seen in Fire Emblem games. And some nifty new units as well.

Absolutely. A greater amount of meaningful diversity is wonderful in and of itself. That is, fleshing out the characters to be actual people rather than those that may be defined by singular traits alone.