Johann

Didn't think I'd be using this gif twice in two days Eir's pretty great though, and getting the HP/Res boost along with the healing is so nice for AR. She's not bad in other modes too! But then I'm speaking as somebody who has like no good ranged fliers, so...

Yeah, that's how it goes. Specifically, the unit has to attack a level 35 or higher unit at least once in 80 different battles (or 40 if you're doing it all over again), so the Chain Challenge 1 & 2 on Normal is great since it's 10 easy battles starting with level 35 enemies (at 4* even). I usually pair the unit up with an unarmed bulky healer or something and just trust autobattle to do the job, only takes a stamina potion or two while I'm making dinner or something. The trouble with Micaiah is also that there's the red tome dancer one, and people love her since she's amazing at killing Surtr and ignores Vantage. Still, there are even times where that works to your advantage: Hrid is so tough that it's easy to get a lot of units to do 0 damage, which can be a problem if they have Rally or Dance, as they'll only attack if they do at least 5 damage. Getting Dancer Micaiah's attack down to where she does like, 5 or 10 damage is perfect since it's not enough to hurt, but it's enough so that she'll make an attack even if there's someone she can dance. Res is pretty good since you can more safely get him into Desperation range. Mine's +Atk right now which is fine, but I'd prefer Spd cuz I gave him Flashing Blade

That's awesome! Wait, you have Eir though, right? It's possible to get to T21 with just one Eir but yeah you might need a clever Def map to secure that. You don't see the difference between investing in skills that boost your Arena offense score vs skills that might maybe help in AR defense some of the time? All the more reason to not go so hard into investing for something that might make zero difference. There are cheaper ways to get comparable results.

One good thing about passing around Summoner Support is that it takes half as much time to rebuild it if you've maxed it out once before. I usually pass it around between my best AR units (Fjorm, Robin, Hrid) since I've had strategies depend on them tanking all 6 units. Fastest way I've found to build it is to auto-battle Chain Challenge for Chapter 1 & 2 on Normal, takes 8 full runs to max out a new unit, or 4 if they've had S support before. Hrid should be a bonus unit in about a month (following Marth > Tiki > Eirika), so hopefully that lines up with Wind season too. I usually bring Gunnthra along with Ward Cavalry and Drive Res, and alongside all the other stat boosts, he can usually tank anything other than Micaiah. Pretty awesome seeing Reinhardt Moonbows do 0 to him, but that usually requires Panic, so having Aversa is huge for keeping him going. Atk Smoke is also one of the best skills here, and I'm really glad Hrid came with it, cuz I've only recently hit +9 on my Kaze (waiting for +Spd) so I didn't have any to spare (and I know you're a fellow Kaze fan so you know this struggle all too well).

Perhaps, but are you gonna use them on units with under 40 HP solely for AR defense? It's a pretty big investment for maybe getting some good defense results, compared to using those skills for any other mode. On top of that, many of these setups make sense in terms of unit builds, but leave some major flaw in their map setup, causing the whole thing to fall apart. Part of me also suspects that they might add some kind of Witchy Wand-esque structure or skill eventually. I do think a lot of people are going to make an effort to pull Halloween Mia when she returns if only to deal with these setups (interestingly, her banner ended the day Aether Raids were added).

I'd argue that Summoner Support works better on units who need all the stats they can get. BK, for instance, could always use more bulk, so he'd probably get more from it than Frederick, who's already a monster and doesn't have problems with the units he should be facing. Sucks to have to change Summoner Support so often though, so I don't blame you if you say nuts to that. Next week will be Wind/Light seasons, so if you bring Hrid on a team with Eir, he'll get the HP/Res/score boost. Hrid is amazing in AR if you give him Distant Def seal and buffs, since he can take out most units while taking a lot of hits himself (though to get the most out of him, you'd want Aversa). Just have to watch out for the Micaiahs, but at least Eir herself is a good counter.

On the contrary, I assume everybody making that kind of crazy investment is petty, or else they wouldn't have pooled so many resources into it. Like shit, if someone's spending grails for extra Marisas to give Infantry Pulse for the 38 HP Young Azura, they care more about getting Def wins than what those Def wins could potentially earn them.

What about the other 4 team slots? This is a hard week for bonus units since only BK is a free 5*, so I don't blame anyone for struggling to build a solid team. Do you give BK the boots? I'm no fan of armors in AR but unless the plan is to bait stuff successfully, that mobility can really important. March or Guidance can help too though, if you have them. Some players go all in on survival, so things like effective weaponry can go a really long way. Alternatively, the ol' DC Vantage trick works on a fair number of maps that aren't packing Hardy Bearing (or Dancing Micaiah, for that matter). Side note, next bonus unit line-up should be Lugh, Sue, Thea, Idunn, Rutger, Arden, Joshua, Legendary Tiki, Anna, and either Eir or the new Mythic. Hopefully Eir cuz otherwise I'm in a real pickle

Pulse Parties are the worst thing about this mode, and I'll be super happy if I pull a Mia at the end of the month. That said, whenever I see those builds, I think those players are making an extremely unnecessary setup and doing the mode a huge disservice. Beating them is a great way to send the message that it was all for nothing.

The more I use him, the more I realize how utterly amazing Null Follow-Up is. Thinking about how many skills in the game it shuts down makes me wish I had more of it to give out. What units are you usually using? In an off-week like this, I bring Frederick and his hammer of justice to pit against all those armors (Fury, WoM, Atk/Def Bond seal is what I usually leave him with). It's not a bad idea if you have a utility unit like Aversa with Axebreaker, too. Another good tip is to have a backline unit with Smite; if a unit is dropped onto a trap because of Smite, it'll activate, but they won't lose their turn. This can be necessary to make any kind of approach on some maps. Turn limit is there for replay purposes, I believe.

Players do as long as they're all in the starting line-up together. I don't think the opponents get them at all.

Clive! Just give him QR2, Bonfire, and maybe a Def refine on his lance and he's all set to wreck some chumps I can't count how many GC matches I've had where I've parked your Titania somwhere and watched the entire enemy team die against her, while she maintains full health. With how common and dangerous blue armors, dragons, and mages are, she's invaluable. Helps that I run Hrid and Gunnthra with her so she'll get that Wind Blessing boost alongside all the other buffs

Fjorm's so good though!

I'm really happy with this build, if only because he can do this

Cuz like all loners, deep down he neeeeds people

Captain Mist, Treasure Tracker

Hmm yeah, you're right, and I forgot about Sakura entirely

Not with any confidence. It will be Astra/Anima season when it rolls around, but that's probably not a good indicator since those seasons don't work like the Legendary seasons.

I suppose it's also possible that they cycle through Book II units again, but that mostly just fills out red and green. I definitely expect reruns of colorless some time soon though, cuz we've been getting like 1 new colorless per month (counting regular 5* and seasonals). The more I think about this banner, the less likely I'll put many orbs into it unless there's an Astra hero. I only spent 15 orbs on January's banner, which was nice since I could save for February, and I'd like to be able to do that again for April/May.

Uh, I mean sorta, Tana's swimsuit is pretty tight if I remember right, so it's more of a case of the outfit being given tweaked just a bit more. I've gotta get some sleep so I don't have time to look at them all right now though. For Rutger? Atk/Def Bond and Vantage, Vengeance. Little less than I'd hoped for, but whatever. More interested in how his voice sounds at this point. Try not to mistake an artist objectifying a character compared to a player objectifying them. What I typed up for Ice is referring to players objectifying characters. In your example, it's the artist objectifying Cecila. It's nothing at all like that. The social dynamic between white people an Asian people is completely different from the dynamic between men and women. Trying to compare them is going to get absurd statements like the one you made. That one really went over your head, huh? The point of the girl in the towel picture scenario is that, whether she were aware or not, if you had pictures like that, you have a form of power over her. Of course it's illegal, but illegal shit happens all the time, especially in the realm of sexual assault. That's part of it-- the nature of sexuality is not so concrete that we have universally agreed rules, which is why so many sexual assault cases are dismissed or ignored, even when there's proof. Ugh you're killing me dude. It's not about consent. There's none to give. It is simply the creators wanted to put them in revealing outfits, sexual poses, and/or scenes in which to worship the player. They have no fucking thoughts. It's just pictures and voices clips. You're completely missing the point again: Don't compare real people to fictional characters, they don't follow the same rules. what the hell does this have to do with anything nevermind don't answer, it doesn't matter and I don't care ================================================================================ Your argument is garbage and based on misconstruing my argument. It's strawman nonsense and shows you're not listening at all. I think the thing I hate most about you is how nonchalantly you downplay sexism Fuck off with this baiting me to post NSFW shit on this forum. I don't owe you shit, hop on Google and educate yourself It's not about attraction. It's about power. It's always been about power. It is about possessing women and treating them as objects to be used for personal gratification. Objectification exists in this way because men enjoy exerting power over women, from which they can get themselves off whenever they want. This desire to possess a woman is the reason people commit sexual assault, rape, etc instead of actually building a healthy relationship built on mutual respect. Creators drawing sexualized cartoon womens is them exercising that control on a different level. Those drawings are their possession. They can make their boobs as big as they want, and have them say whatever dirty things they want. It probably wouldn't be such a big deal if it weren't for the fact that this shit is everywhere. Hollywood, anime, games, everything, everywhere. Real women are treated like shit (cat called, assaulted, etc) just for being women, and they can't win; take too little effort in your appearance and you're an uggo who can't get any recognition, go all out and you're a whore who's doing it all for the attention. So maybe just for a moment you can stop and consider that there's some serious fucking imbalance with the way the world treats half its population and that these big ol' anime boobies are a symptom of that imbalance. Or you can just think "huh, women, so hard to satisfy, am I right fellas?" Also fuck you That's not implied at all and a ridiculous take. Not even close dude. I ain't typing all this shit over again. Go back and reread it or give up on this because it's apparently too complex for you. Terrible. I don't know why I'm bothering responding to you at all if you're going to keep pulling these dumb shit conclusions out of your ass. Fucking done with you.

Dude, I dunno how many times I gotta say this, but the only way I can give examples is by posting some NSFW shit that will probably get me in trouble. That I brought up yoai and boylesque should be enough to either give you a hint, or something to google. I can't believe how badly you're missing the point. There's a power dynamic present in every culture in society that on the whole benefits straight men over women and gay men. It's present in our social interactions, our media, everything. Even if an artist portrays a male character in his underwear, that's not enough to diminish that power dynamic-- in fact, many men feel sexually emboldened if they identify with that imagery. Conversely, portraying a woman in her underwear is often a means of exerting that power over the woman. The power dynamic covers the male viewer's reception of that portrayal. He has the power in the situation. Even if there is nothing submissive about the work or female character, she is still made an object for that male viewer to relish his power over. A social power. A sexual power. Do you understand any of this? Saying the matter is moot is a total failure to understand on your part, and if you're not gonna try to understand the discussion, then you should probably just move on. I'm not interested in explaining this to somebody who doesn't give a shit enough to listen and learn. The point is that when someone personally objectifies a character, they are reducing them to basically their physical qualities and little else. The mistake you're making is that you're assuming the female audience is also reducing male characters to their physical qualities and little else. And yes, you are making that up. Stop making shit up. Yeah some of the seasonals are so absurd that it slips into meme territory, but it's still objectifying all the same Any of whom? Sorry, I lost track of which characters we were talking about. See, there's the thing: Many women would be very uncomfortable with that degree of sexually charged attention, due to the fact that they don't know who this guy is. Maybe he's a bad pick-up artist. Maybe he's going to flip out and assault her if she rejects his advances. You have to consider that, from the perspective of women, a random man can be a dangerous person. That is the life most women have to deal with, and they sure as hell didn't ask for it. Men are constantly exercising their privilege over women, and women can't turn the tables by simply turning their own behavior back on them, because it would fuel those men. For the same reason, you can't really objectify men by the same means women are objectified because it has the opposite effect. Ugh, we're back to square one, huh? Objectification isn't about whether they're more attractive or less, it's about a power dynamic. Noire is given absurdly large boobs for her frame and makes a back-breaking twist to shoot her bow for no reason other than her artist wanted to draw her that way. Hinoka's in a towel and nothing else for the same reason. Presume you had pictures of an attractive girl you knew where she just got out of the shower, wearing nothing but a towel. Do you not see how this plays into the power dynamic between you and this girl? A common mistake in these kinds of discussions is to equate fictional characters with real people. Real people have the ability to make decisions. Fictional characters do not. Your friend can do whatever she wants because she's her own person. Cecilia and Kagero are images and sounds made by a group of creators, who made them that way because that's what they wanted. Cecilia and Kagero can't protest or change their mind or their clothes, but your friend can.

They don't have to scream "bedroom, now!" to be sexualized really, it's more like shoehorning sex appeal or some sort of fetishy thing (like Kagero's maid outfit) in a character that isn't sexual. Even regular Kagero is sexualized by virtue of her giant boobs with some deep cleave. Keep in mind also that none of these sexualized features play into the relationships these characters can develop in supports, etc. Off the top of my head, the Chrom/Female Robin supports in Awakening actually use sexual aspects of both characters without sexualizing either of them. Surprised you've never seen that take haha, check out the video I posted last page if you haven't Believe me, gay men definitely appreciate it when you're up front and honest about being straight. Exact same as if you were to tell a woman who's flirting you're not interested in them, you don't wanna lead 'em on, spare them the frustration

Yeah that's a good point. That they add sex appeal for a character that didn't need it (and was a free unit!) was pretty disappointing. I didn't dodge the question, you just didn't understand the answer. The point is that male objectification is a different animal from female objectification, and that you can't apply the same rules to both. Flipping it around is why a lot of guys assume Hawkeye is objectified when he isn't. I honestly can't think of an example of objectified male characters in FE, with the issue being that most of them are designed by and for straight men and with the issues I listed before affecting how those designs are received (even if unintentionally). Outside of FE, examples would be getting into sex games that I don't think would be appropriate for these forums. Leaning into more of the gay sexual culture (like perhaps yaoi stuff or boylesque acts) would probably get you some results if you consider that it's viewing men from the lens of men who are attracted to them. Yeah, that's also why I linked that video since it talks about how Kratos from God of War is not objectified, contrary to what a lot of dudes seem to think. I think we had quite a few Gaius fans when that banner first appeared. It's because giant bulky muscle guys are the kind of thing that generally men assume women like. Women who like Hawkeye are probably going to like him for reasons beyond his torso. The male summer heroes are a bit of a special case; even though the men are exposed, it doesn't necessarily make them more attractive. I recall one gay friend preferring original Xander over Summer Xander when I showed him some of the art for the game. I know for a fact that Ana appreciates a lot more about Frederick than just his summer art, as well. Looking at everything from the perspective of "how much skin do they show" is a bad approach, because that is applying the same logic about the objectification of women and trying to apply it to men. Consider this: If a random attractive woman, a stranger mind you, started acting very flirty and sexually suggestive towards you, how would you feel? More significantly, how do you think most men would feel? On the flip side, pretend you were a woman and the same thing happened, but it was an attractive man being sexually suggestive. How do you think most women would feel?

Let's try this: Who do you think he is designed to appeal to, and can you ask those people what they think about him?