Medeus

Didn't expect this set of characters for the next TH banner. There are still many very popular students ahead of them and Catherine in particular is not really that popular, so I figured they'd hold off on them for at least one more banner before getting to them. Not complaining at all though, I like Seteth and Flayn and I'm glad both seem to be very unique units so I'll try to get them even though Dheginsea ate my orbs.

I'm assuming they meant playable dragons because we are missing a few NPCs in Medeus, Anankos, Jahn, Morva (that's the FE8 dragon), and the Immaculate One. There is also the Fire Dragon from FE7, but I doubt they'll add it anytime soon since it's just a step up from a generic. As for Xane, he's a dragon but he can't turn into one as he threw away his stone so that's probably why Jotari didn't count him. Gotoh also falls into that same category as he is a dragon, but fights as a Sage.

I'm disappointed, but I'm also not surprised. As soon as I saw the "Beast and Dragon" transformation bit for Beast units I figured there was a good chance they'd just shuffle the Dragon Laguz in with the Dragon units, but I was hoping I'd be wrong.

Dragons can't learn Armored Stride, so poor Dheg's out of luck there.

...The Hell, why is Dheginsea's first debut in this game as a seasonal? That's like making Naga's first appearance a Christmas alt, it's so weird. That said, he does answer the question of whether the Laguz dragons would be treated as Beasts or Dragons units in Heroes. I would've preferred the former, but I expected they would do the latter after the Laguz transformation condition included both. As for the units, great to see Xane, though I'm a little disappointed they didn't do anything with his transformation mechanic. I'm guessing it'd be hard to do, but I still would've liked to have seen them pull off something unique. Grima is weird as we now have the genocidal dragon dressing up as a kitty cat and I'm not sure how I feel about that, Dragon's Ire does look interesting as a skill though. Already said by bit on Dheginsea, though I'll add that the dragon sprite looks great so that's neat. Tiki and Ninian are cute, but I really wish they'd throw a bone to Adult Tiki.

She'll be a Duo unit with Makalov. 🙃

Finally, Jill is here! Going to go all in for her as soon as the banner drops, maybe I'll pull a Shinon for his skill.

Veronica - She's really good in Dragalia Lost. Surtr- Probably the strongest established threat in the game as from beginning to end he's powerful and undefeatable until the last moments, and he keeps haunting the heroes steps for the majority of the story. The others either become friendlier as time goes on, leave the plot for half the story, or just grab the Villain Ball and don't take advantage of their power. Hel - Great design and has some funny comic appearances. Freyja - It's great to have a new Beast unit.

Ah, I must've heard wrong.

From what I understand, they even had Larcei's actress come back in for the new voice line. That's a bit much for a name that's been used for four years now and didn't really need to change. I wonder why now they had to change it.

Looking at the icon, I think it'll be flier only.

Honestly, I don't mind the Pirate banner. Two of the characters is entirely new, one is a different case but still nice to have, and the other two are alts just there to sell the banner. My only issue is that those three are going to get locked into seasonal hell even though these are basically their base forms.

They bothered with Duma and Branimmond, the former of which isn't close to Tiki popular and the latter is basically a lore character. Medeus would probably go over fine as a Mythic since he'll be a dragon (which usually are popular units) and he has appeared across multiple games.

Honestly, Eir's real parents and the Life Dragon bit was pretty much a footnote in the story. It only popped in at the final chapter as a cheap twist and even then it barely had an effect since Eir still saw Hel as her mother. It's not something that needs to be addressed further as the story did nothing to make it something worth going after, at least when compared to something like Loki's dragon research or drawing other storylines from Norse Mythology. That said, the aforementioned dragon research is something I can see pop up again. Loki was looking into that not too long ago and Askr/Embla are gods in the world of Midgar, so something will be done with them. In fact, it's possible that they may even be related to Jormungandr since in Mythology he is the World Serpent, so it would make sense for them to be connected.

It's possible that what Thorr is doing isn't to prepare the cast to fight her, but for a fight ahead. Jotunheimr is one of the last remaining worlds that FEH hasn't touched yet, and it's one that has a number of characters that either hail from it (ex. Þjazi, Þrymr, Utgard-Loki) or descend from it (ex. Fenrir, Jormungandr) that can make easy villains for FEH. What the story could do is that Asgard is trying to strengthen Askr and Embla's army to the point that they can help in fending off a future invasion from that world. This is a fair point, if the two had even an inkling of their past and it drove their characters then this backstory would be more meaningful. However, since they forgot it that means their actions aren't driven by this fact so it doesn't really add depth to them.

I was very surprised that they made Freyja into a Beast unit that's a Goat, but after thinking about it I'm glad they did it. It's unique from the other villains since they're very few Beast units in that category (the only one we got is Naesala if you count him) and she gives us another Mythic Beast unit candidate after Soan and Deghinsea. Also, according to some speculators it may be based on an insult the Giantess Hyndla called Freyja (Heiðrún, which may mean she-goat), which is a pretty cute reference if true. As for the chapter I'm glad they're fleshing out the villains a bit with these past two chapters. Triandra and Plumeria being from broken circumstances and Freyja similarly suffering great loss before the events that seems to be driving her makes them more interesting. That said, I also don't like that they're pulling the 'I'm so strong now, I'm just going to let you do stuff while I mess around' with Freyja, it's a poor trope and robs her of any cunning.

Pretty surprised it wasn't a Tellius Banner since Archanea hasn't gone on that long since its last one, that said this banner makes sense. Love them or hate them, both Kris have been at or near the top of their respective region, Julian and Lena have been odd omissions in the game for way too long, and Eremiya is one of the last major villains (the other being Medeus, who's probably getting a Mythic) not in the game. it's a good set for Archanea considering where its current roster is at this point in time. That said, this banner is a skip for me since I'm not a fan of Kris and Lena is the obvious demote so she's not high in priority either, so it's just Julian holding down the fort and he's not enough to get me invested in the banner.

Since Tellius has now gone on the longest without a new banner, I think it'll be that one this time, after that maybe Archanea.

For the most part I just want to see the remaining holes in the roster filled, but of the ones missing I'm hoping the most for Medeus, Duma, Dart, Isadora, and Helbindi. Thankfully it looks like they're going to try to get some of them filled with the remaining sets as those like Heath, Formortiis, and Kronya popped up in the stream, so hopefully that continues.

Nifl and Muspel seem to be treated as different realms as they needed a portal to get to the former and the latter needed Loki to get Naglfar to allow their forces to get to Midgar.

I mean, even Medeus appears from time to time, Veld hasn't been seen since that one old card from the early TCG. Honestly, at the rate things are going we may very well see Julia steals his tome for her next alt before we even get him. Then again, neither of them are getting in before the most beloved villain Brigand Boss.

I'd honestly be surprised if IS even remembers Veld exists. They already treat Thracia like a red-headed stepchild, Veld is the third cousin that belongs to the aunt no one likes.

Yay, Fallen Lyon! While I was hoping he'd be a Mythic as a stand-in for Formortiis, I've been waiting for that alt ever since they announced Fallen Heroes as a thing. He looks pretty fun too, so I'll definitely go for him. As for the others, Ike's great in that it shows that the 'What If" alts from Cipher are now on the table, M!Corrin I feel is only here to get alt parity back with F!Corrin (only took them over a year), and Julia is neat though I do agree it's funny how much IS loves giving her alts while Seliph and Sigurd are crying in the corner. I'm also glad to see Ashnard is finally getting into the game, it's strange how he's been ignored for so long.

Heh, not caring about those spoilers anymore are you IS? Green looks really good this time around and I have none of the characters in it, so I'll definitely be pulling there in the hopes of getting at least one.