Medeus

Worst: Anankos, he doesn't fit Fates' themes, and ends up doing more harm then good to the story even with the DLC desperately trying to patch him up. Gameplay-wise, while I will give credit for the multiphase boss idea that the stage had going, it doesn't end up being effective since the enemies he throws at you are easily avoided/defeated while his parts aren't hard to take down. Runner-up would be Veld for being unmemorable in every way, I can barely remember a thing he does in the story and his boss battle is laughable. Best: Ashera, she had a fun map, good build-up, and pretty good lore.

My prediction would be Lilith or a Legendary Hero (either Tiki or Corrin), particularly the latter if it's supposed to come sooner rather then later. Dragon Laguz are also options since even though they're supposed to share the Thunder weakness, you could theoretically forgo that since there are three subgroups that can be split across colors. In terms of the final bosses, Medeus, Idunn, and Anankos could work, but at the same time they can be shuffled off into separate colors as well.

Chrom: Meh, nice to have Falchion on a horse, but I really don't care for alts. F!Morgan: I'm happy to see her in the game and I'm even more happy she comes as a mage flier and with a new tome that's rather useful. I may try to pull for her with a free summon if I can. M!Morgan: Also glad to see him in the game, though I'm a bit less excited since I usually got F!Morgan. I'll probably avoid him though since he shares his color with Chrom and my luck is horrible when it comes to units sharing colors. Gerome: I'm surprised they're bringing him into the game, considering how many kids are more popular then him I figured he'd sit out for at least another two banners. With that said, it's nice to get him and I'll pick him up as soon as his TT rolls around. Colorless Dragon icon: I'm looking forward to seeing who will get this icon. The manaketes in general can easily be sorted out into different colors so it wasn't really necessary, so it's interesting that they decided to add it into the game.

Saias would be a good choice, a lot of people who played the game do remember him for the torture his 10 stars caused, and as a character he seems likeable enough, so I could see them go for him. If they're willing to stretch things a bit, Travant could also work since he easily has the biggest connection of the Jugdral villains to Leif and Finn, but in that case it'd be more background related since Travant only appears a few times.

Wait, can it be? Leif is finally coming home!? Thank Naga, it took them long enough to do it. They announced Ike at least a month before his release on Twitter IIRC, though in that case it was just a name drop and a voice clip.

Order of preference this time: Blue>Green>Red>Colorless. Blue I don't have any of the three and I'd like to have Ephraim, so that's high priority for me. Green I'd only need B!Ike for fodder as I have two Guunthra's and don't care enough about Dorcas, Red V!Ike's already on the way and I don't really care about the other two, and Colorless I don't care about any of the three. With that said, I probably will stick to just the free summon and leave it at that as I want to pull from the other banners first.

Grima for his expanded lore in Echoes and getting a bit more fleshed out characterization in Heroes. Corrin in Warriors since the more consistent direction with the supports allows them to bounce off the other characters better then in Fates. Additionally, Caeda and Marth, while already likeable characters in the Archanean games, also get more time to shine in the Warriors supports. Finally, reading some of the supplemental material on the site also made me like characters such as Michalis, Medeus, and Nolan more then I did then when playing their respective games on their own.

Garon/Anankos and Ashnard would be my guesses for being next as there aren't that many villains in their respective games that would be prioritized over them, and they would be unique options for units that fans would pay attention to. Medeus and Julius I could also see from a unit perspective, but only after Gharnef and Ishtar/Travant respectively since I think IS would go for those villains first.

The problem with that assessment is that it ignores the fact that each depiction of those avatars are separate as far as the representative 'characters' are concerned, both internally and externally. We don't have a Summer Lancer M!Robin nor an Armored female one, it's just one version for each particular gender and regardless of whether Robin can be either has no effect on those particular variations. So in all practical sense, the Robin we have here is Male, can only be male, and is the only one (currently at least) depicted as a Dragon/Manakete unit, and thus would still be a trend breaker in the sense that he's the first male unit that can turn into a dragon.

Also, as an aside, with Grima/Robin's introduction brings us our first male Manakete/Dragon in the game, abolishing the trend of them being female only beforehand. To be fair to Robin's case, with the way the story works in Awakening Grima would be 99% in control of his body, so you could argue it's a different character in that sense. There's little excuse for Celica though.

No Thracia, my boy Leif is never coming home... Personally, I kind of like the idea of this banner. This would be the best way to get in Grima, and Hardin is a nice surprise considering most of us thought he'd be a GHB. Celica I could take or leave, but at least her artwork and voice acting are great.

Redundancy, questionable implementation into the story (especially with the last few games), and lack of innovation/deviation in their roles. Having just one of these issues would be a problem, but having all of them together makes it worse as it feels like IS is using them as a clutch and is not doing anything to evolve the concept further so that it's more cohesive with the story. The fact that examples like Anankos exists also doesn't help as you can easily argue that he's a detriment to the story, and thus completely unneeded to make the plot around him work.

Y!Tiki is nice, a little simple, but I think it works for her. Fae is adorable, it does look like a chicken, but I think it fits her so well. Ninian fits her perfectly, elegant, beautiful, and serene. Myrrh is a classic dragon and it looks great, but she does have a few proportion issues. Nowi and A!Tiki I don't really like how the Awakening dragons transitioned into Heroes. While not my favorite, in Awakening they looked better since they were in flight as that allowed for the leafy sea dragon look to work better, here since they're just standing around it looks awkward. Corrin could be better, I do appreciate going in a different direction by trying to incorporate a Kirin into the concept, but it doesn't work too well due to some odd quirks with the design. So with all that said, Ninian gets my vote for having a strong design and good sprite work. To be honest, I can see us getting Nils before getting Ena. The Tellius dragons don't seem to be very popular based on what the CYL polls are showing, and based on recent trends IS seems to be getting even more skittish about adding less popular characters. So it doesn't bode well for her unless IS does a theme that allows her to sneak in, and even then you could make the argument that Kurthnaga or Nasir would be stronger choices. Nils seems to have a good amount of popularity and would have Blazing Blade familiarity behind him, so I can see IS being more willing to put him in as a result.

If Nintendo had a strict '1 million or you're done' policy, then Pikmin (which hasn't sold a million since the first), Xenoblade (which only recently got a million seller), Star Fox (which hasn't sold a million since Adventure), Metroid (which had Zero Mission outright flop before Other M was a thing), Fire Emblem (didn't sell a million before Awakening), and a few other series would've been dead a long time ago, and series like Mother/Earthbound wouldn't have been allowed to be completed and they wouldn't help keep Bayonetta going. Additionally, some of those franchises (like Metroid) have had pretty bad failures that the company has allowed for them to bounce back from, so it's pretty clear that such a thing is not a clear cut criteria to make Nintendo care about you. I think you're letting your bias show a bit here. Nintendo does sometimes have lofty expectations like every other company (though thankfully they're not Capcom in that regard), but they do understand that just because something doesn't reach a certain number that it is automatically a failure. They have and still do continue lower tier franchises that are never going to reach the numbers of Mario or even Kirby, and I'm pretty sure it's because they understand that some franchises are more niche then others and can be successful in their own right.

Just beat Infernal with Olivia, Valter, Arvis, and Julia. Took a few tries since with that team very particular positioning and movement skills were key, but once I got my strategy down I was able to do it.

Wow, Reinhardt jumped a lot, he was basically at the bottom before Heroes and now he's Top 5 in the entire franchise. I guess memes and being a top tier meta threat can really do wonders for your popularity. Similarly, I'm surprised the Fates Shapeshifters are doing so well, I definitely was campaigning among others for those type of units (Ranulf, where are you?), but I didn't think the three of them would break top 20 considering the best only placed around 50. I guess this will clearly send the message: Add Beast units IS! As for personal favorites, I'm happy Leif is doing well, the poor kid is so overlooked as a lord.

His Legendary Tome is a bit underwhelming, but considering I haven't invested in a Raventome at all, having one that's easy to build up without heavy investment is still a nice asset. So I'll still 5 Star him and make him into the most ideal Red Mage I can.

Ranulf and Leif are getting some love, thank you Japanese Twitter.

Eirika getting a variant with Gleipnir baffles me (particularly since there are a number of characters to still go through for SS), but we finally got L'Arachel and Myrrh so that's great. I'll definitely be pulling for Myrrh since I want her for my Dragon Emblem team, L'Arachel depends on how many orbs I have left over afterwards.

Male: Hector and one of Marth, Ephraim, or Chrom. Female: Tharja and one of Camilla, Eirika, and F!Corrin. Going by the last poll, these were the ones that made up the remaining top 6 (7th for males due to RD!Ike) for each category and I don't think anything has happened to give either of these characters a significant enough hit to drop out of the top 10 completely. Hector in particular I feel is a solid lock since alongside his previous popularity, he's a character that has remained good in Heroes and will likely inherit some of Lyn's voters now that she's not an option. Tharja to a lesser extent is also similar, though she does lose a bit for not being as strong a unit. Other characters I could see jump into the top 10 are Ninian, Nino, Celica, and Alm. Ninian is an odd choice, but considering she was the clear favorite in the Voting Gauntlet (which included characters like the Corrins and Tiki), her being a popular choice for Summoner Support (she got 11th, beating Camilla and Tharja), and Blazing Sword fans likely voting for another character alongside Hector from the game now that Lyn is out, she could get a significant enough boost to place highly. Nino is similar, she got 9th on that same Summoner Support poll and was already in the top 20 for females, which makes her a possible candidate for top 10 as well. Finally, Celica and Alm could inherit Fates' recency bias and get a large chunk of the votes themselves, which depending on how liked they are among the more casual fanbase could be enough to have them jump into the higher tiers.

Just put my vote in for Ranulf (PoR), I'll cycle through Lief, Jill, and Lyon for the next three days.

Assuming that the top 4 are taken off the poll, my votes will go to Ranulf, Jill, Lief, Kaden/Keaton, Nasir, Cormag, and Lyon.

It should be noted that he also risked it because he foresaw an earthquake that would result in the deaths of many people in his country. No matter the magical world there's not many solutions to an earthquake devastating your country, and that compounded with the death of his father would explain him taking the more desperate action and exploring the dark arts.

If they do another SS banner, I hope it's L'Arachel, Myrhh, and Cormag. Cormag is completely bias on my part, but L'Arachel and Myrhh I think would be fun to see since the former could use either of Rausten's Sacred Twins for a unique weapon type and the latter could give us our first flying Manakete (not to mention our first Manakete in months). In terms of unique units, I feel they have a lot to give so at the very least I hope those two will be present.

Yes, finally Lyon will be in the game, I've been waiting for this since Valter!