Astellius

The main point I was trying to make was that the Heroes artwork (all of it) depicts Nino as a young child, and I don't like that because she wasn't a child in Blazing Blade. I feel the depiction of her as a child demeans her. You don't have to agree with that, but perhaps you might see where I'm coming from? Ice Dragon, you argued that Nino doesn't look like a child in Heroes. Nino definitely looks like a child in Heroes, and I provided objective arguments based on some objective characteristics to show why I think she looks like a child. The artist clearly designed her to look like a child. Compare it with the Blazing Blade portrait. Do they look like the same age? Perhaps you don't think that Nino looks like a child in Heroes, but at the very least, you would agree that she looks younger than in the Blazing Blade portrait? Now, to your complaints about bad proportions... Nothing I said had to do with those? All of Nino's pieces in Heroes have about the same proportions. I chose the attacking one because it emphasizes a ridiculously bad pose, but all of her poses have an excessive amount of stupid inward knee & toe pointing. I honestly think that all of Nino's portraits in Heroes were well drawn and are very cute. They're all very good, in terms of quality. But they depict her as a kid here, and I don't like that. Nino's a poetic character in Blazing Sword, but it doesn't work if she's 8.

To Arthur97's point, I did say the art was good quality, and she's cute. My complaint is the kid-ification, I hate it that they turned her into a loli (who appears obnoxiously chipper). She was 14 in Blazing Blade. To Ice Dragon, for comparison, I pulled the old art and put it next to her attacking portrait from Heroes. I stuck them in the spoiler, along with my analysis. Liking or disliking this portrayal of her is, of course, subjective. However, comparison of objective features shows that Nino in Heroes has a much more childish body. My point was that I really dislike that they took a character and redesigned her into a much younger one (specifically a loli-style one). This is my least favorite redesign because Nino was one of my favorites from Blazing Blade, and they took a good design and turned her into a kid. And I'm not too fond of kids running amok everywhere in FE. @pumpkinspice48 Yeah, Raigh looks too young as well, but I was pretty ambivalent towards him in the game, and don't use him. Probably why he hasn't been mentioned yet as well.

Eliwood and Rebecca really got shafted in the eye department, I mean, holy crap... But the rest of Rebecca's face is pretty busted too--I really hate how shiny her cheeks are, and how big and shiny her lips are. The overall coloring doesn't look good, especially in her hair. She perhaps takes the "least favorite redesign" award for me in terms of artistic direction. I think the art for F-Corrin is pretty bad, with bad anatomy, too sharp lines and pointy curves (chin, knees, elbows), and her hair looks like streams of paper or ribbons. Everything looks flat, in a bad way. She'd be a contender, although the art isn't as offensive to the eye as Rebecca's. As has been mentioned, both Roy and Lilina look way too young. I have Roy, and he looks like he was pulled straight from a shonen where the protagonist is, like, 10. Nobody has mentioned this yet, but Nino is an even worse offender in that department, she looks like she's 7-8. In previous iterations of her art, she actually looked about 14. But they loli-ified her. Grr!! So I give the "worst redesign" award to Nino. I absolutely hate the kid-ification, especially since I really like Nino. The artwork is good, and it's all very cute, but it also turns her into a kid. I find it's a really grating portrayal, especially with the ridiculously chipper attitude. I think they did that just to irk me.... Gordin was shota-ified, and his picture art is pretty grossly moe, but, oh well, it's just Gaggles. Nobody has mentioned the Spring Banner, are we just pretending like it didn't happen?

Minerva is SO CLOSE to doubling Subaki! COME ON GUYS WE CAN DO IT!! But don't use your flags, just spend every 30 minutes attacking him.

You could use a lower level unit. The random pairings are based roughly on your unit's stats/level, so your enemies and your random ally will be comparable. The ally you get from a friend, however, isn't chosen based on this, so you'll still get a lvl. 40 ally. So if you used a level 20 character, your team would be: your level 20, a level ~20 ally, your level 40 friend, vs. a team composed of enemies that are ~20. So that's a guaranteed win, if you're getting too tired of bad matchups.

I agree, that is an easy pick. Minerva all the way! Hauteclere 4ever!!

I think Anna will totally crush Anna, and Anna will be the new Alfonse. But that's just my annalysis.

This would've been more relevant earlier in the thread when we were talking about Anna, but hey, whatever:

I got Cherche and Beruka trying to get Minerva. The RNG Goddess designs it so that you don't get the one you specifically want.

I haven't used any flags yet.

I'll trade you Beruka for Minerva. I already have a Camilla.

It was worth the risk to try to get Minerva. Or maybe it wasn't, because I didn't get Minerva, and instead got both a 5-star Cherche and Beruka. I have every wyvern in the banner EXCEPT Minerva, wtf nonsense is this. And I would've married Minerva, but, you know, she wasn't in Fates.

WOO YES JOIN THE HYPE TRAIN YES YES YESSSSS ONWARDS TO VICTORY WE SHALL MAKE IT RAIN PAIN HAUTECLERE STYLE!!!!!1!11!1!1112 ...What do you mean slowly? I just used up the last of my orbs in an effort to summon the mythical Minerva... and instead pulled a 5-star Beruka. FML. F. M. L. DEEPLY.

Second ranking bracket from the top.

It matches you up based on your character. So you'll be paired with a random character who's about your level, your enemies will be about your level, but your friend's character will be whatever. So you could send out a level one unit, get paired with other level ones, and dominate because your friend's character is level 40. But I think it's more fun to play with my best characters.

I haven't spent any flags either. I might put in a small amount if it looks like I would need to in order to crack the 30k mark. It would only be like 5-20 flags. ...Giggity.

I use Sharena because she's the best character I have and has a lot of utility. Rally Attack & Fortify Def are useful even if she gets a bad matchup.

Adult Tiki as well, Palla (since what's on her legs looks pretty much like sheer pantyhose), Ursula, and perhaps Cherche. Yeah, it's free feathers if you're not putting effort into the gauntlet.

Yes, she's actually a true leader. And no Disney princess tropes either--no looking for romance or "True Love"! And Minerva is BEST. Tellius saga vs. Akaneia saga (Ike), PoR vs. RD (Ike again), Greil Mercenaries vs. Shepherds (the third Ikey-wike), Dodge vs. Def (Spd vs. Def, or something like Myrmidon vs. Armor) (Lyn would win). So plenty of possible themes, and I think that there will be a lot more gauntlets where one character just roflstomps the competition, which is annoying. I'm hoping they do some where there are JUST the extremely popular characters (so one where it's like Ike, Lucina, Roy, Lyn, Camilla, Tharja, Hector), and JUST cult favorites among the side characters (e.g., Nino, Jaffar, Mia, L'Arachel, etc.). But I sort of think they'll always put one character that's absurdly more popular than the other ones. It's a case of Schrödinger's panties.

Congrats to you both! Impressive rankings for you both.

*whispers* You have seen nothing yet...!

With Round 1 complete, it looks like Minerva alone (along with Camilla) will have more than 1 billion votes. Participation overall looks to be down in comparison with the first gauntlet, with a total of ~10.5 bn votes cast (vs. 12.9 bn votes in the first round of the last tournament). Minerva won by the most solid margin (except for Camilla), trouncing her subordinate almost 2:1. The closest match was Subaki vs. Beruka. It looks like each semi-final bracket will feature a battle of wyvern vs. pegasus knight. The best character in the gauntlet is indubitably Minerva.

But there is! Her name is Minerva... *has an enthusiastic seizure in support of Minerva*

@Arcanite If sleep is for this nonsense you call "humans", then why do I see my cats do it so often?