Tybrosion

Between today and yesterday, I bought two full pulls from Celica's banner to see if I could get anything interesting. And well... Yesterday's: 4* Saizo (+HP, -ATK), 4* Azama (+ATK, -HP), 3* Felicia (+DEF, -HP), 4* Oboro (+ATK, -SPD), 4* Sophia (+HP, -SPD) Today's: 4* Sakura (+HP, -ATK; new), 5* Boey (+ATK, -SPD), 4* Lucius (+SPD, -ATK; new), 3* Frederick (+SPD, -DEF), 4* Sophia (+RES, -SPD; ...) Firstly, I find myself getting a duplicate 5* / focus character for the first time since Blazing Shadows back in March where a duplicate Eldigan was literally the first unit I pulled from that banner. Boey #2 is also the 7th 5* I've pulled just in this month alone. Secondly, I'm legitimately excited that I finally got the only Hoshido sibling that I actually like. I couldn't care less that, even with the addition of Wrathful Staff, that healers aren't overly viable or that she's -Rezzy, Sakura has finally come home and can also give her eldest bro some much needed company. Acquiring my first Lucius was a nice bonus as well despite the fact that he's also -Rezzy. As for the rest, the Oboro could potentially put in work with a Brave Lance set if I cared enough about her to actually use her that is. Aside from her though, the rest are destined to end up in the metaphorical skill inheritance grinder due to having worse spreads than the preexisting copies of them that I have especially the Sophias due to them getting my hopes up that they would be Celica and for both being -SPD when her Speed is already garbage tier.

Except I'm pretty sure Wrys has an even bigger meme status.

I'll just leave this here.

Eh, while Robin (F) could end up as the clear favorite in this hypothetical gauntlet, I don't think her team would be quite as massive as the previous juggernauts. For what it is worth, Robin (F) didn't place within the top 10 in Choose Your Legends unlike Lucina, Camilla and Tharja.

Though I know the chances of it happening are next to none, I like the idea of June's gauntlet pitting the at that point eight released Grand Hero Battle characters against each other. They could be paired up according to the month where they were first released so we could have Narcian vs. Robin (F) and Ursula vs. Michalis on one side and Navarre vs. Zephiel and Xander vs. Lloyd on the other. I suppose instead of having banners, they could either re-run all eight Grand Hero Battles and/or offer quests that reward a copy of each character. Yes, I know this is very much a pipe dream but I think it would be a cool idea.

Though I know it's not an end all be all, but Tharja was the highest ranked non-Lord female in Choose Your Legends only behind Lyn and Lucina and also ranked 4th overall. In terms of the Smash Bros. FE characters, Robin only placed 7th (6th if you don't want to count Ike twice) so he is far from the most popular FE Smash rep according to CYL. Compared to Tharja, Robin was only the 8th placed male and placed 16th overall. Just some food for thought.

For all we know, it could be a Ditto or a Zorua / Zoroark.

I completely agree with this and also found that comparison very funny. This gauntlet was no different than the first two in that the ultra popular had far too many people backing them for there to be any chance of that character losing. All this "fix" did was to create the illusion of a close final match. Robin would've already been dead and buried 24 hours ago if the multiplier mechanic was never added.

Edit: *sigh*

Well, I for one I'm perfectly happy with this turn of events. Rest easy Leo, Grima's puppet no longer has any chance of claiming the victory that should've been yours. Yes, I know Leo wouldn't have been able to win against Tharja either but a guy can dream, right?

I suppose my entire case here boils down to the fact that, yes, I think that the wording they chose to use creates confusion on whether or not they want the gauntlet to be about actual competition where it's anyone's game or if they want the character with the biggest following to win, and only that character.

Hey, I hate Ephraim over here too.

My point in bringing that up was to show that there are multiple instances where their wording implies that the gauntlet is meant to be a popularity contest. If they want the gauntlet to be an actual competition, then they should just create more balanced match-ups instead of tweaking the mechanics of the event probably remove those instances of the phrase "most popular" to not leave the implication that they intend for the gauntlet to be a popularity contest and nothing else.

It's not just that. The in-game explanation of the voting gauntlet they have also has this: "Which Hero is the most popular?" Along with that is this: "The most popular Hero will be decided over three rounds, each lasting 45 hours." The fact that they repeat the term "most popular" makes it very hard for me at least to think that they intended for the voting gauntlet to be anything other than just a straight-up popularity contest.

"Which of these eight mages will prove most popular?" That is literally word for word from the in-game notification for this gauntlet. I don't think they would word it like that if the entire concept of the voting gauntlet wasn't intended to be a popularity contest, but that's just me.

This. If IS wants the gauntlet to be about determining which of its 8 contestants is the most popular, then the multiplier mechanic is an awful idea because it makes it possible for a less popular character to beat a more popular character. That defeats the entire point of a popularity contest when we have a less popular character win entirely thanks to a stupid mechanic when that character would have gotten crushed by the more popular character without the multiplier. The much better fix would be to, yes, pair characters of equal popularity with each other instead of having one character who is overwhelmingly more popular than the other seven. I just really don't like the fact that this mechanic has the potential to screw over characters who are actually more popular than their opponents in a POPULARITY contest.

Even though I begrudgingly use him as a buff bot for my Nino, I'm right there with you in despising Ephraim. To me, he just comes as a try-hard badass who simultaneously has a horribly bland and uninteresting personality. I dislike his sister for also being ungodly boring among other reasons. Why weren't Innes and Tana the main characters of Sacred Stones instead?

There's also the fact that Camilla's mother never truly loved her and saw her as nothing more than a pawn that could be used to gain her favor in the Nohrian court. Camilla says as much in her support with Niles. She chose dote on Corrin because she didn't want them to be without someone who would show them true signs of affection and love like what happened in her childhood. So really, her mind completely snaps when her target of affection (Corrin) chooses to betray her and all of Nohr when Camilla had been nothing but loving and caring to Corrin. That's all I'll say on it though.

With Camilla, it can implied that she already wasn't the most mentally stable person due to all the violence that went on in the Nohrian court when she was still growing up which she herself took part it IIRC. So when her beloved sibling Corrin betrays Nohr in Birthright, any semblance of sanity she had was shattered right then and there. That's just my take on her though.

He got the multiplier in the second to last hour of the round. However, it didn't matter because by that point in the round, Leo was unable to overtake Robin even when he did get the multiplier. It's like I just mentioned earlier, Robin was never in any danger of losing because he had enough people backing him to make the multiplier ultimately not matter in the end.

Yeah, I suppose in a match like Subaki vs. Beruka in the last gauntlet if the multiplier activates in the final hour, the team winning at that point could end getting screwed out of a win due to not having enough people on their team to compensate for the multiplier unlike juggernauts like Camilla and Tharja. It would be really dumb if a team down the line lost entirely thanks to the multiplier and it's all the more reason it should get axed sooner rather than later.

I may have said something like this earlier in this topic, but all the multiplier is really doing is giving the underdogs false hope that they can win when the reality is the favorite is still never in any danger of losing, it's just that the scores no longer reflect it. I also hope they trash this mechanic for the June gauntlet because if I'm part of an underdog team, I would rather figure out early on in the match that my team has no chance of victory instead of being strung along by false hope only to be disappointed in the end. That's just me personally.

You (or anyone else here on Team Tharja) can add me too if you want. I have my Fury/Desperation Nino as my lead at the moment. I also have Triangle Adept Soren (I'm not quite finished grinding SP for him so he only has TA2 as well as G Tomebreaker 2) and Death Blow Camilla as other options for green units if you would prefer them. My in-game name is the same as my username here and my code is in my signature as it usually is.

So revenge isn't a good enough motivation for you? I'm fighting on Team Tharja for that very reason even though I'm upset Leo lost again. If Leo can't win, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure his vanquisher can't either.

My score gave me rank 182 in Team Leo and considering that I don't have Leo as I said earlier, I would say I did pretty well for myself without those bonus points. Now it's time for my newly acquired 5* Tharja to put in some serious work. Leo, you will be avenged!