Tybrosion

Well, I suppose I should want Dimitri to win since the only other character I’ve never gotten here (Edelgard) is just going to get foddered ASAP if she wins. However, I’m at the point where my anti-Fodlan bias will probably prevent me from supporting Dimitri (who is a character I do actually like, keep in mind). Therefore, there is in fact a non-zero chance that I pick Peony just because I want Edelgard to lose again that bad. That did work out last year when I went with Veronica (though unlike Attuned Peony, I didn’t have Legendary Veronica at the time).

The last one was Faye back on May 10th, 2022 so it wasn't quite two whole years.

Yes, they did that way in the 2020 AHR. They have also never used that seeding again since the 2020 one.

That can happen in the second round if Peony and Gullveig both lose. If they don't change anything, it should be 1 vs. 8 and 4 vs. 5 on one side, 2 vs. 7 and 3 vs. 6 on the other side. So as far as the AHR banner is concerned, two of the possibilities are all green (Peony/Camilla or Claude/F!Alear/Dimitri) or one of each color (Edelgard/Camilla or Claude/Sanaki & Micaiah/Gullveig).

We have our participants for the A Hero Rises 2024 VG: 1st: Winter Edelgard; 8,319 votes 2nd: Legendary Camilla; 7,499 votes 3rd: Legendary F!Alear; 7,464 votes 4th: Gullveig; 6,893 votes 5th: Winter Dimitri; 6,889 votes 6th: Ninja Sanaki & Micaiah; 6,162 votes 7th: Wind Claude; 4,580 votes 8th: Attuned Peony; 4,474 votes Edelgard got first, quick act surprised everyone! If this VG is seeded like last year, then it should be 1 vs. 8 (Edelgard vs. Peony), 2 vs. 7 (Camilla vs. Claude), 3 vs. 6 (F!Alear vs. Sanaki & Micaiah), and 4 vs. 5 (Gullveig vs. Dimitri). This was the rest of the top 20 for the voting phase of AHR 2024:

They didn't give us Jedah as a GHB to pair with Rearmed Sonya and just flat out refuse to add Raydrik at all. They also waited until nearly the bitter end to add Validar (Excellus is pretty much the only remaining candidate for an Awakening GHB at this point). IS has always just done whatever with GHBs. They clearly don't care that much about their choices making sense. Rosado wouldn't even be the first male wyvern rider who got screwed over. Haar's CYL peak was 37th with 6,520 votes in CYL3. He was not only made into a (at the time) mediocre GHB unit, but they also dropped him alongside a group of characters (the Gallians) that Haar has pretty much nothing to do with.

Because I have nothing else to do right now, these are my sure to be incorrect predictions for the banner: If it's Shadow Dragon / (New) Mystery: If it's Fates: If it's Engage:

I’m not sure whether this is intentional or coincidental, but Archanea has actually never gotten a New Heroes banner before June. To date, Archanea was gotten New Heroes banners in: June 2017, September 2019, July 2020, October 2021, and November 2022.

Last Time Each Game Got a New Heroes Banner Tokyo Mirage Sessions: January 2020 Path of Radiance: November 2021 Shadow Dragon / (New) Mystery: November 2022 Fates: December 2022 Radiant Dawn: February 2023 The Sacred Stones: March 2023 Three Houses / Three Hopes: April 2023 The Binding Blade: June 2023 Engage: July 2023 Genealogy of the Holy War: September 2023 Shadows of Valentia: October 2023 The Blazing Blade: November 2023 Awakening: December 2023 Thracia 776: January 2024 So ignoring TMS (since that's exactly what IS does) and keeping in mind that the Tellius games are essentially treated as being one game for the purposes of the New Heroes banner rotation, Archanea has gone the longest without a New Heroes banner. So if we don't get Engage here, then it'll probably be Shadow Dragon / (New) Mystery or Fates (the other game that was last seen in 2022). I seriously doubt this will be Genealogy when it's only been five months since its last banner. If anything, the Thracia banner last month came too late and should've been in October 2023.

If that’s really their reasoning, then said reasoning straight up doesn’t work when you remember that Bride Sanaki is also an alt that they made. And remember, that was also specifically Path of Radiance Sanaki just for that extra layer of squick. That still hasn’t stopped them from using Sanaki multiple times since that alt. Oh, and there’s also the fact that Nowi dresses like a stripper by default (probably because that’s what she was literally made to do while she was enslaved).

Unless if your name is Nowi, then you just go ignored for literal years despite consistently placing better in CYL than other dragon lolis (like Myrrh, coincidentally). IS even had the gall to have Nah tease the possibility of a Spring Nowi back in 2021, and absolutely nothing has come of that since then. They could commit to six straight years of Macedon spring alts (only the first Spring banner in 2017 did not have a Macedon character), but couldn't even have Nowi follow up Nah. That's honestly pathetic.

Lyon also consistently places very well in CYL (more so in recent CYLs) while Nergal does not. Hell, Nergal has never placed above Idunn either despite her originating from an unlocalized game. I don’t like Lyon at all, but I totally get why they push him. He straight up is the third most popular FE8 character.

Not that I expected them to be here but damn, they really are never giving Marisa or Amelia anything else huh? But sure, let's give the FE8 female who only got 350th in CYL8 a second seasonal alt. Selena also ranked below Valter (321st) and Glen (229th) in CYL8. I don't care enough about Sacred Stones to dislike this banner, but I totally understand if you do dislike or hate this banner. These are ridiculously safe and boring character choices, and I definitely never want to see Lyon and that Prf skill in Pawns of Loki.

I don't personally see Saleh being the left character, though there is something to keep in mind. The silhouettes lately usually depict either the 4 Star focus unit (like Seadall, Reina, and M!Kana) or the TT unit (like Fuga, Claude and Hawkeye). So for I all know right now, the left character could be a less popular character like Saleh or Innes because I don't see Myrrh being anything less than a 5 Star.

Yeah, except for that time where it took weirdly long for Ephraim to get his first Resplendent. I wonder if Tana dev will join the fun here too. I also hope they don’t because I’m not ready for another Tana.

We have the silhouettes and.....it's Sacred Stones. The right one is 100% Myrrh while the left one is very likely Ephraim.

If they still used the old way, then the first units listed for each color would've been: Red: F!Alear, Summer Edelgard & Altina, Fallen F!Byleth, CYL Marth, CYL Seliph Blue: CYL Gullveig, CYL Dimitri, CYL Eirika, Peony, CYL Chrom Green: CYL Edelgard, CYL Soren, CYL A!Tiki, Legendary M!Robin, Seidr Colorless: Fomortiis, Fallen Edelgard, CYL F!Corrin, CYL F!Byleth, Rearmed F!Robin Honestly, Fomortiis (aka the winner of last year's AHR) being the first one listed for colorless might be the main reason they changed things. Also, that botter who is obsessed with Harvest Nowi apparently didn't bother botting taps for her over the last year. She got 38th last year, mostly because she was one of the first ones (if not the first one) listed for reds.

So even though AHR voting is no longer sorted by home screen tap counts (thankfully), IS gave us the top 30 tap counts (from 01/30/23 to 01/29/24, in Pacific Time) anyways: 1. Fomortiis: 1,182,507 2. CYL Edelgard: 1,127,561 3. Fallen Edelgard: 1,091,894 4. F!Alear: 801,488 5. CYL Gullveig: 797,821 6. CYL Dimitri: 706,617 7. CYL F!Corrin: 691,025 8. CYL Eirika: 636,962 9. Summer Edelgard & Altina: 636,771 10. Alfonse: 621,884 11. FEH Anna: 613,017 12. CYL F!Byleth: 599,788 13. Fallen F!Byleth: 599,002 14. CYL Soren: 540,454 15. CYL Marth: 534,552 16. CYL A!Tiki: 532,430 17. Rearmed F!Robin: 524,679 18. Peony: 504,292 19. Legendary M!Robin: 504,219 20. CYL Chrom: 498,788 21. CYL Camilla: 490,682 22. Seidr: 471,414 23. CYL Seliph: 465,750 24. Legendary Ike: 463,091 25. Lumera: 432,451 26. Nerbuz: 410,016 27. CYL M!Robin: 397,514 28. M!Alear: 388,206 29. Fallen Chrom: 381,302 30. Legendary Ninian: 359,282

Laevatein does has the same amount of alts as characters like Alm and Sigurd, so she’s eaten good regardless. Who needs a character arc or even a character at all when alts just drop onto your lap regardless?

In catalog order (Last Update: 07/30/2023), bold = new unit, merge level and/or asset/flaw Heroes [10 New, 2 Reobtained] Shadow Dragon / (New) Mystery [2 New] Shadows of Valentia [3 New] Genealogy of the Holy War [6 New] Thracia 776 [2 New] The Binding Blade [5 New] The Blazing Blade [6 New] The Sacred Stones [4 New] Path of Radiance [1 New] Radiant Dawn [9 New] Awakening [11 New] Fates [9 New] Three Houses / Warriors: Three Hopes [2 New] Tokyo Mirage Sessions [same as it ever was] Engage [4 New] Total: 830 -> 875 Total New Additions: 76 Yes, I know that doesn't add up. And that would be because... Total Subtractions: 31, plus Wind Claude and Winter Claude who were both obtained since the last update The Graveyard Care to take a guess as to which game in particular I have an entire skeleton's worth of bones to pick with these days? Oh yeah, and Brigand Boss and Matthis just piss me off in general so they're gone too. If I'm no longer going to keep a copy of each unit around for completion purposes, then I no longer have any reason to keep those dead weight idiots around.

No, you are remembering correctly. There was an offshoot A Hero Rises event that only featured Fodlan characters (but I believe it didn’t feature any War Phase characters) in June 2022, and Yuri was the winner of that. It was one of the things they did to tie into Three Hopes releasing that year. Edit: Oh yeah, I think Duos and Harmonics weren’t featured in that either, so units like Summer Hilda & Marianne and Winter Lysithea & Lute weren’t options either.

The previous winners (from 2020 to 2023) were, in order: Altina, Ninja Lyn & Florina, Ninja F!Corrin & Elise, Fomortiis. Though keep in mind, the AHR winner is only offered for about one month. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

I was thinking we were getting Archanea this year.....but then Emblem Marth happened. So instead, I'll guess that we are getting Magvel / Sacred Stones. Sacred Stones hasn't gotten any new units in general since June 2023.

I'd like to thank IS (yes, really) for changing the voting layout to be exactly like CYL's layout. The options no longer being sorted by home screen tap counts (of all things) has unironically made a big difference. Remember, we also had CYL Edelgard, in addition to Fallen Edelgard, get into last year's interim top 20. CYL Edelgard did finish in the top 20 last year too, at 20th exactly.

Hell yeah, Fallen Edelgard is right where she belongs: in the trash. Nature may well be truly healing. As long as some combination of the following makes it to the VG, I'll be content: Veyle, Nino, Seidr, Dimitri, Yunaka, Anna & Anna, Fjorm. The rest of them I already have (or had in Wind Claude's case).....except for Byleth & Byleth and Edelgard. If either of those two win the VG, they'll just be skill fodder.