Johann

The thing is, fascism isn't defined by a coherent doctrine like communism is; it's more of a varied phenomenon than Mussolini's brand and is certainly not defined by a distinct economic policy. Consider-- Today's fascists are not going to praise fascism itself due to most people agreeing it's bad and have plenty of evidence to know so. Instead, the fascists will praise/support/not condemn people and acts inspired by fascism, like the "very fine people" who wave Nazi flags at a rally defending a Confederate statue. Likewise, they aren't going to demonize democracy, which is largely seen as a good thing, but undermine it. This includes questioning the legitimacy of an election's numbers, engaging in activities that interfere with elections, and undermining the power of other elected officials. In terms of suppressing the opposition forcefully, while Trump has not explicitly ordered any violent actions, his rhetoric has incited violence directed at various media entities & high-profile Democrats, and inspired alt-right (fascist) groups to engage in violence. Some of the common qualities of fascism are emphasized harder than others, while some qualities barely at all. Sometimes these qualities are deliberately disguised, hidden, or downplayed in order to fool others. If you make a checklist for qualities and only agreeing that a person is a fascist when they hit all the boxes, then you might be giving a literal Nazi the benefit of the doubt. Historian Robert Paxton writes the following in his 2004 book Anatomy of Fascism: "Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion." -(pg. 218) Trump's brand of fascism matches this loose definition. The ideology and praxis are more fluid than what you're claiming it to be, and you may want to read Paxton's words from the bottom of page 218 to 220 of the book for a more educated take than I can give without plagiarizing. I think it's important to remember a few things: one, Trump is not a smart person. Just because he's not a clever fascist doesn't mean he's not a fascist. Two, the political landscape and government of the US today are not like Italy or Germany 80 or 90 years ago, or other places & times where fascists and other dictators seize power. Our vulnerabilities are different, as is the extent of what political power can actually do. Media is nothing like what it was back then either, and yet Trump has been given as big a platform as one could hope for without having to completely control the media. Why (let alone how) would you nationalize the media when you have Fox News handling spin, Twitter to say whatever whenever, and every other news source giving you the spotlight (frequently without real criticism)? The thing is, Trump's inner circle has a lot of in-fighting whenever he does something dumb like instigate a trade war, and it's precisely because many of them are neoliberals clashing with his fascist friends over their priorities. Neoliberals have a lot of things they don't like about China, and the protectionist policies are pretty low on the bar. China, along with Russia, is USA's fiercest rival for not only trade, but global influence, and that's about as big a threat to profit as it gets.

The fascist state's interest is simply consolidating and reinforcing power by any means. Economic regulation (or a lack thereof) under fascism resembles neoliberalism with an emphasis on targeting specific groups. Nationalizing the media or any industry isn't necessary when the government and the owners of those industries have shared interests. Trump is a fascist, he's in it for the power, but much of his inner circle and appointees are neoliberals who are there for personal profit. The bottom line is always about maximizing profits. The things Shob listed like minimum wages, etc are opposed by the right because they are seen as having a cost, so they're against regulations that protect workers. Competition from the Chinese is primarily a threat to profits, so they're for regulation to reduce that threat. A claim for national security is just convenient packaging.

Weird that it's been a few months since a green unit got a new weapon

Got my run out of the way early with a score of 940, using Cain, Felicia, Roy+Robin, and Hawkeye+someone's F Corrin. Had paired Roy up with Fjorm at first, but the respawn locations were messing with my ability to reach everything safely. I ultimately figured that the only unit you wanna bait at start is Innes, since the real trick is to keep your team together. Don't get carried away trying to kill too many at once, sticking together means you can use the mountain to your advantage to avoid most of the enemies since there are only a few possible fliers and they're not guaranteed. It's definitely better to work your way north so that when the last wave spawns in the south, you'll have time to finish off the others. Yeah it's super weird, but at least Helbindi is still a melee. Odder still that they'd dilute red with more swords and just use two generic colorless units. It also occurred to me that there'll never be generic staff users, probably due to the time restriction. For what it's worth, I'm not running any blues for scoring, except Fjorm in Water Season, and since there are 3 reds this week, it might be better to use blue units from friends

I'm guessing this next week will be Sacred Stones with Legendary Ephraim as the lead, meaning we should see the following enemies: Regular Eirika Maybe horse mage Eirika Seth Amelia (guaranteed) Myrrh (guaranteed) Legendary Ephraim (guaranteed) Regular Ephraim Tana L'Arachel Lute Innes (guaranteed) random generic colorless unit (guaranteed) so unless they add a generic green mage in there, reds won't need DC

Yeah, I use him in Anima season since his ability to crush armors is frequently needed (you know those maps, where people put 2 Dumas and a bunch of other armors in a corner). Mages are probably the most common threats though, which is why I've been so big on sturdy mixed-phase units like Hrid and Robin.

Do you use Fred in AR much? I rationalized giving Summoner Support to other units (right now, Legendary Robin) because AR is so frustrating that I want every bit of help I can get. Ike would benefit greatly from it as well, since he wants all the stat boosts he can get. I'd probably be using him this week if I didn't have Robin (I just like her more). And yeah, it's Dancing Micaiah's weapon. I don't see many regular Micaiahs but a lot of Dancing Micaiahs, probably because people were tired of losing to Surtr.

Basically yes, but to get super crazy maximum points, you wanna get those kills with anyone who's paired up as well (whether the base unit or swapping in their partner). If you don't have Roy or Alm, just do your best getting weapon triangle kills. Prioritize kills that use the paired units since they get a little score boost, but accept that you probably won't be able to get every kill this way since you only have one unit slot to pull this off with, and there are too many enemies coming at you too fast If you DO have Roy and/or Alm, use one of them (whoever gives you a higher base score). Even if they're well below your Arena core in terms of potential points, use them because the paired kill bonus will outweigh your base score from stuff like BST/merges/etc. Pair up units to cover more colors. If you have Roy or Alm, you can have all 4 colors shared between paired up units (for example, Roy+Fjorm and Surtr+Friend's Eir). Since it's +10 points for weapon triangle kills and +5 for killing using a paired up unit, each kill has the potential to add +15 points. If you can cover all 4 colors with paired units, then you can kill every unit this way, while the other two units on the team (who have no partner) can support somehow.

Keep in mind, however, that little scene is basically a best case scenario; not only was it Wind + Light Season, so Hrid got +10 Res, but he also had +6 from Azura, +2 from Summoner Support, Warding Stance seal, +1 from dragonflowers, +3 from being +Res, and most importantly of all, Aversa was there to Panic Ophelia. That said, this sort of strategy works amazingly if you have the means to safely approach the enemy and can survive everything they dish out. Legendary Ike is another good choice for this since he can spam Aether to keep his HP up, and unlike Hrid isn't weak to Dawn Suzu (which is a common threat), but he generally has lower Res than Hrid (though that can be advantageous in some situations, such as if the enemy has Chill Res). It'll be Earth season all month long too so Ike will get the HP/Res boost from Eir for a few Light seasons. Lemme know if you want a few build suggestions to try.

Depends on what that other hero brings to the table. Eir's not perfect, but running two of her means you get +10 HP/Res (which is amazing considering how many people use mage-heavy defense maps) and +20 HP recovery every round to whoever has taken the most damage (unless the Eirs are the most hurt, of course). Being a flier who can also debuff and safely fight dragons and Wrathful Staff users is also pretty handy. I post this gif a lot, mostly because I love watching it, but to give you an idea how important that kind of Res boost can be:

What I did this last season was run Roy (with my unmerged Legendary Tiki paired up) alongside Fjorm, Felicia, and Sheena (my highest scoring Water team). Sheena was paired with whatever colorless I could use (lots of Legendary Robins on my Friend List), so between Roy, Tiki, Sheena, and say, Robin, that's all 4 colors covered, and all are pretty solid, so getting the +150 points from bonus kills strictly with those 4 was doable. It does require a bit of luck though, since the red and blue units are randomized, but their spawn locations/time by color are fixed. Anyway, if I were to run out of colorless friends to use, I could swap around the other units a bit (notably Tiki and whoever is getting the Friend Unit) to make sure I'm covered. The other units are just there to support and maybe weaken foes or take hits, so it didn't really matter what color they were. I'll probably run Cain, Hawkeye, Roy, and Sheena next week since Cain and Hawkeye have Fire Blessing. Cain and either Hawkeye or Sheena (probably Sheena since Wary Fighter is good) can just be support while Roy, Hawkeye, and whoever I pair them with will do all the killing.

Actually, the best thing for your score is to rely on your friend units, since anyone Paired up gets +5 points per kill. Getting as many kills as you can from Paired Up units is bigger than even using a +10 unit. I shattered my old score by swapping out my +10 Cain for +1 Legendary Roy, even though Cain gives like 10 more to my base score. The bonus per kills added up and meant I could get like 20 or 30 more points from kills. Of course, if you don't have Roy or Alm, then you definitely want to field the best scoring units you can, but you'll still want the paired units to be getting most of the kills if possible. Worth noting that for this past week, the enemies were fixed to be 2 red, 3 green, 2 blue, and 3 colorless, so people without Roy or Alm could get +130 as a maximum possible score, though that would require a red and colorless unit paired up together via friends and everybody getting their proper kills in.

Lemme know next time, I can field my +10 DC Hawkeye if ya need

All good choices, though I don't use any of them. Went ahead and gave it to Sharena anyway, I think it'll work out well for her.

Thinking of giving Sharena Blue Flame + Wrath, but I'm reluctant since I don't use her much except when she's required (like Arena, quests, or sometimes in AA). Can't think of anyone else who can use Blue Flame like she can though.

Yeah I tried again today with bringing my Roy (and giving him some SP boosting skills), was able to get a super clean +150 from bonus kills and brought my score to a whopping 937. Definitely worth putting him in over even a +10 super decked out unit. Also I only now realized I could set the unit I send out to everybody and that it doesn't have to be my greeting unit. Really hope they change it in the future to you can lock sent unit by event, that'd be amazing.

We don't know for sure, but I'm inclined to say the order of likelihood is Blue > Green > Colorless > Red. Check the WHO'S THAT NEW HERO section for some reasoning behind this, which basically boils down to "seems like there's not a lot of blues lined up" Yeah those two seem like the most likely unless they deliberately want to spread them out to other games. As for the naming thing, the counterpoint is that people are looking at these threads as part of a series, and that changing the naming scheme after so long could also confuse people. Also I'm lazy.

It's more nuanced than that. The most common perception of anarchy is that concept of "every man for himself" sort of government-less chaos, but it's not even defined by being strictly anti-government. More accurately, it's an ideology of resistance against power structures, which can be applied to varying aspects of society and in a multitude of ways. Being anti-capitalist, for instance, is a form of anarchy, but it doesn't necessarily mean being against government, or even the exchange of goods/services for money, for that matter. Brief introduction on the subject:

NEXT MONTH'S THREAD: Please use the most recent thread if you intend to make posts about future banners. Feel free to use this thread for analysis of trends, etc.

NEXT MONTH'S THREAD: Please use the most recent thread if you intend to make posts about future banners. Feel free to use this thread for analysis of trends, etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is going to be a big banner for a lot of people, since it'll be the first chance to get an Astra hero. I myself will have saved up like 900 orbs or so, having largely passed on other banners since the February cavalry Roy banner. LEGENDARIES/MYTHICS: The following are confirmed based on the notifications: Legendary Eirika Hrid Legendary Tiki Legendary Lyn Duma New Mythic Hero (Unknown color, Astra type) Since this month should be 6 heroes and they didn't increase it for April, I suspect we'll see 12 heroes total again. SEASONALS: Moving on to the NY heroes, we're a bit backed up with reds. There's been very little room thanks to Roy's repeat appearance in April, and with there being both Hrid and Gunnthra as sword users, I think they're going to be making room for reds for a while. NY Gunnthra - Good odds, between him and NY Hrid for the red slot. With both to get through, one of them is sure to appear. NY Hrid - Good odds, shared with Gunnthra, though I feel like they won't put him on the same banner as his normal self though. NY Fjorm - Very good odds, next green in line. NY Laevatein - Very good odds, next colorless in line. HS Elise - Extremely low odds, they've gotta get through Hrid and Gunnthra first. HS Ryoma - Low odds, he's the next blue seasonal in line. I think there's not going to be enough space though and they want to save him for his diversity. HS Hinoka - Very low odds, preceded by Fjorm. The only thing I could see shaking that up is if they decided that they didn't want two green archers on the banner. HS Sakura - Very low odds, preceded by Laevatein. REGULAR 5★ HEROES: Sticking to the assumption that it's staying 12 for at least May, red is backed up pretty bad. Adrift Camilla - Very low odds, rounding out the Adrift banner, but there probably won't be room. Lots of red seasonals to get through and unless they bump up the number of units on the banner overall, not really much room to get to her. Owain - Very low odds., see Camilla. If there's any room, I think it'd between him and Camilla. Tibarn - Extremely low odds, Camilla and Owain should be appearing before him. He might take a while to show. Brave Roy - Extremely low odds. No room, and they don't seem to want to put him in these banners. Brave Celica - Extremely low odds. No room, and my impression is that they're going to give her the Roy treatment and never run her again. Kaden - Good odds. Next green in line. Curious that he was skipped over for Sue though. Lugh - Low odds, I think the thing with Sue was a unique occurrence and not a sign that Kaden is being skipped. Brave Ike - Decent odds, I figure they would have run him in April were it not for the Golden Week Hero Fests. Note that him and Brave Ephraim are the only possible axe users for a while, meaning they may have a chance to get some weapon diversity. Brave Ephraim - Decent odds. No other possible green armors lined up until Greil, which might be worth noting if you consider movement type diversity to be something they factor when making these banners. Ylgr - Very good odds, the sole remaining Book II hero. She was very likely skipped in April due to her VG appearance. Selkie - Good odds, she's the next blue in line. We actually don't have any other non-seasonal blues waiting to debut after her since Thea and Mordecai both demoted. Brave Lucina - Low odds, unless there's no blue mythic I'd expect Selkie first, unless they intend to save her to extend the shallow blue pool. Brave Hector - Low odds, see Lucina. Brave Veronica - Decent odds, there's a limited amount of colorless to pick from. I'm also inclined to think we won't see another colorless Mythic since that'd be 3 out of the 4. She's the same unit type as MY Laevatein though, which I think might hurt her chances. Velouria - Good odds Next colorless in line, and the only colorless after her is Caineghis, which is likely far too soon (but then there are no hard rules). MY PREDICTED LIST: This is my own guess based on everything above. Legendary Eirika Legendary Hrid NY Gunnthra Legendary Lyn NY Fjorm Brave Ike Legendary Tiki Ylgr New Mythic Hero - Ashera (blue tome) Duma NY Laevatein Velouria WHO'S THAT POKEMON NEW HERO? First Astra Mythic hero, no known color, though I suspect it won't be red or colorless since red is packed and colorless has been done to death for Mythics. Blue may be a strong contender since green has many more units to get through. Anyway, their stat boost is almost certainly going to be +Def. Mila: Appearing as a counter to Duma, this would make sense, as it would mean they are in direct conflict regularly. I dunno if they wanna add yet another Echoes character so soon though, but of course there's nothing saying they won't. Flexible color since she's a dragon. Ashera: A potential blue (Light) tome user, the Heaven affinity is analogous to Astra, so that much adds up. However, if she does appear as Astra, it wouldn't contrast Yune's Dark type, which I suspect they intend to do thematically. Naga: I'd sooner suspect they'll save her for Light, but Astra would work too, cuz there are no hard rules. Lewyn (Forseti): The more I think about it, this is one I really hope they do at some point. Green tome user, and could pass as Astra. I think they'd add someone who's more openly a god first though, so maybe not now. FUTURE ANALYSIS: June: Ryoma, Gunnthrá, Yune, Ephraim, Lucina, Robin, New Legendary (unknown color) July: Ike, Marth, Fjorm, Azura, Hector, Eir, Alm, New Mythic (unknown color) June brings us to 7 L/Ms, and July to 8. While I did anticipate a bit too soon the idea of them increasing the total number of heroes in April, I suspect that it may happen this summer. With CYLs 1&2 making a special return for Golden Week, it's no surprise that we didn't have any CYL heroes at all for April. I do suspect they'll return again in May and beyond, though the reduced number of available slots will complicate things. @Othin speculates June's hero will be red (due to there being only one now) and July's being green (due to being fewer than all other colors). I agree with this prediction and it will affect my thinking for those months. Special thanks to @TheTuckingFypo and @Othin for collecting some of the info for me and providing some good insight for this month's thread Previous threads:

Thems the facts. Y'all gotta understand, it's less "is he a Fascist™?" but rather "is he performing fascist acts and spreading fascist ideology?", which is definitely yes.

It scores similarly to Arena, in that the usual things like merges, BST, SP total, etc matter, but since the foes are fixed, you can tweak your builds and see exactly how it'll affect your base score. Taking a tiny hit in your base score to ensure that you don't lose anyone and have an easy go of it is worthwhile, since you'd giving up like 2 points to more reliably earn a potential 10 or more. The friend unit doesn't affect your base score though, so it's ok to use anybody who's available. My best run was with an underbuilt Black Knight ally, everything just happened to fall into place (which I attribute more to the enemies that popped up than anything). If you want, I can field my Legendary Robin for a colorless. It always fields Mist, Sothe, and an archer, so I think units like Robin and Caineghis are going to be great choices for that. Hyper offensive units like Dazzling Wrathful staves and Firesweep/Brave Bows are good too, provided you have a clean shot of course.

Got a score of 913 using my best Arena dudes, though I was willing to take a mere 2 point loss by swapping out double Rallies for positioning skills, which was definitely worth it. I like that this mode doesn't demand much from you, and that the rewards are good but not groundbreaking, so I don't have to feel like I need to be the very best like no one ever was. Since they're currently only using Tellius characters (seemingly excluding dancers, GHBs, and the most recent banner), the blue units are assured to be either Micaiah, Oscar, Nephenee, or Nailah, and Titania handles them effortlessly. Thani is no match for Draconic Poleaxe, TA and gem weapons are a really good choice here if you can manage the positioning and get lucky with the right foes appearing. However, I goofed my run with your Titania so I didn't get to use her.

Next week will be Earth/Fire/Light/Dark, so you could, for instance, run Legendary Ike alongside Eir on offense and he'll get the HP/Res+5 (per Eir) and score boost. Likewise, your Def map could have Yune and Ike and he'd get the HP/Spd boost and also count towards the Lift loss reduction. I forget what else you have for Legendaries but any Earth and Fire Legendaries are going to count as having both Light and Dark blessings next week. The new Legendary on Saturday will also be Earth, so that might help.

Yeah, takes half as much effort to get S Support back if you've done it already. Myrrh is an excellent choice for it. Quickened Pulse is a good choice since there are many maps without melee units, or situations where a ranged unit is your ideal target. There may be maps where that kind of flexibility gives you the win, I know it's been that way for me with Cain (though his situation is different since his sword is now sometimes a Brave weapon). Other than that, it's pretty flexible based on what shortcomings she may have or strengths you want to enhance. Fury is always a good call, especially in AR where getting into WoM range is realistic in many situations, and very much worth capitalizing on when you can do it. I honestly think Fury, Deathblow, WoM, and Atk Smoke are the most valuable 4* summonable passive skills. Between the two of them, you should be able to figure out some kind of build. Just know that stacking up Res and crashing the enemy's Atk is pretty much the only strategy the slow bulky units can use. With Hawkeye, I use his Slaying Axe, Glimmer, DC, QR (just in case), and Atk Ploy, and I usually end up with HP/Res seal since the more premium Res seals are in use by people with crappier Res. Maybe that can give you some ideas. All of my other tanky units are either fast enough, or getting the most from a skill like Gjoll. I use bunny ears! White on Drawby and the summertime one on Smitey.