HeoandReo

+Speed Azura!Kinu!Kanna and Setsuna!Kinu!Kanna have the highest speed caps possible iirc. They get a +10 modifier, which is not the highest mod possible, but in Nine-Tailed Fox with Beaststone+ they hit around 50 speed unassisted. For comparison, a Kanna with the highest speed mod(+11) in the highest speed class otherwise(Elite Ninja/Trueblade) hits 46. I'm inclined to favour Setsuna!Kinu, since the defenses are quite a bit better than Azura's, while all other offensive stats are matched. Setsuna has worse growths though, so it'll depend on if this is for the ingame campaign or PvP. It may be a bit of overkill, so depending on your purposes +Strength could work. The luck flaw prevents it from being as high as it could, but a +6 mod should work well. Instead of 50, they'll hit 46 with Beaststone+, so they'll still match the high speed non-fox Kannas.

Shinonome is my favourite Hoshido kid and possibly one of my favourite of the kids period. I like his design, I like his supports, and I like him as a unit. He doesn't care for any gimmicks, and I doubt that he'd even care who his mother is in a no-fun setting. Shigure is literally a Disney Princess and I love it. I also like that he's a guy who sings well and appreciates the fine arts. Kinu and Velour are cool too - the fox/wolf girl designs are very nice. Kinu has a fun personality, while Velour is a bit more awkward, but I find most of her supports to be kind of sweet in that way. Ophelia is my favourite female child, neck-and-neck with Velour. She may be a bit of a guilty pleasure, mostly because I like her design and looks. She has some good supports too though. Eponine is kind of in this same category, though as mentioned I do wish they did more with her character support-wise. The Nohr boys are great. Siegbert is like a boy scout. Foleo is a man's man dressed in woman's clothes. Lutz is a tiny luchador superhero. Ignis is cool too. Sophie is a fun character. I liked Cynthia in Awakening and don't mind seeing her revisited here. I like her design too. Soleil has a great design held back by really bad supports. She may be a case of a character that I'd have to like if I completely disregard everything that is said about her by the writers. I'm not the biggest fan of Kisaragi, but I like that he was born on July 4th and may use him as a unit based on that alone. (MURICA. Also his clothes are red, white and blue)

Azura has a better magic growth, so I'd give her to Odin and pair Lazward/Luna. Odin's base magic growth is quite low for a magic user, which hurts Ophelia quite a bit compared to other kids like Foleo or Shara. Shigure also appreciates getting an offensive proc in Vengeance, while Ophelia likes the speed boost and Swallow Strike. I'm inclined to think that Soleil can also stomach Luna's mods and growths a little better than Ophelia can - Luna's growths largely force a physical kid, and Soleil is better built for that than Ophelia.

My bet is Asyura, if only because Aqua's name has been localized to Azura and it would be really confusing if there was another unrelated character with a name with slightly different letters and almost no difference in pronunciation. It's a lot more confusing than something like Kent vs. Pent and Legault vs. Renault. Even if it's not who he's voicing, Asyura's name is not going to make it through the localization process.

This is most of the reason why I'm not a huge fan of Zero. Lewdness to adults is fine and dandy, but lewdness to kids/childlike characters brings up a ton of unfortunate implications, both for Zero's character, and for the portrayal of sexual minorities. It brings up the old stereotype of homo/bisexuals being attracted to children - a reference that we honestly don't need in this day and age. If I were a localizer, while his speech pattern would probably stay in most of his supports, I would cut it almost entirely with his supports with Elise/Nyx/Pieri/etc., because it's completely unnecessary in the narratives of any of those, and puts Zero in a really bad light. Zero/Nyx would be a good comedy support if the lewd comments were taken out or redirected to non-childish traits, and Zero/Elise is pretty solid up until the S, as has been discussed. People complained about Nowi, but in hindsight the localization handled her... as best as they could I suppose, making sure that she was absolutely of age. I don't see this happening with characters like Elise without a larger rewrite. What I've seen so far is promising, (Elise's English voice sounds much older than her Japanese voice, so she might have been aged up) and they could do something similar to Lissa where the age is just not mentioned, but we'll have to see how it turns out when it lands. Pieri I wouldn't predict would be changed too much. Her support with Arthur is really weird to a Western context so it might be rewritten. The dynamic between a justice-loving hero character and a bloodthirsty murderer could have a lot more going on than breast talk, so I could see the localizers doing work there. Her support with Leon is choppy, but I don't see anything that can't be handled through good translation. Maybe instead of Leon teaching her adult morals, give them a discussion on "Pieri's morals are X, while Leon's morals are Y and that's OK so let's get married." Good writing it ain't but it's probably the best way to faithfully localize the original. I could see her being given the Henry treatment, being made into a character who focuses mostly on violence. Making her writing a Harley Quinn reference would be funny, but she doesn't stand out as a character who would make significant changes through localization to me. Gregor was a painfully generic old man archetype in Japan but he was rewritten significantly to really good results. I don't get that vibe from Pieri. Even then Gregor might be more of a product of 8-4 than regular localization, so it's up in the air how Pieri will be affected. I think that Treehouse is capable of doing a solid job, but I could see them putting their foot down if IS continues to move in this direction. I feel like they've been blindsided a little bit by the direction the game is going, given prior announcements of Kamui fighting with their siblings but then later learning that Kamui could also marry them. I'd rather this not mean that future FEs stay in Japan because this is the direction that the game is going. It's probably too alarmist to think that, but I think it might be possible.

Haven't used Amiibos personally, but from what I'm hearing Marth and Lucina are both pretty good due to their classes and Ike is at best meh due to his really low speed cap. Jury's still out on Robin but I could see him working alright - his caps hurt him, but tomes are pretty good in this game.

The whole children thing is going to be rewritten. No way around that, since the whole time travel aspect of Awakening doesn't seem to be present here, given the problems established with characters like Elise/Sakura/Tsukuyomi/etc. Time travel to explain the kids would honestly make more sense than what we have now though, so I'd support that change. There will be some reduction or removal of the sexualization of children/childlike features. Again, no way around that since it's unacceptable to an international audience. I could see them repeating what was done in Awakening and raising the ages of characters like Elise and Lutz through voice-acting and support rewriting, or toning down or excising things like the lewd compliments in the Zero/Nyx support. I don't expect S supports will be removed - it would affect gameplay too strongly, and if time travel is used to explain kids it could work better. Probably. Avatar/Soleil will probably be rewritten, if not through the localization itself, then probably as a reaction from the outrage caused from that. I would expect that it along with some other supports are going to be rewritten whole cloth. The supports in general are going to be gone over and rewritten for consistency. There are actually a few plot holes with pretty unfortunate implications for the younger characters in the game present in them. Yeah, the localization is not going to like this job too much. If IS continues in this direction I'd expect more blowback from the international audience.

She can get it from A+ Oboro, which is what I meant.

It does kind of make sense in retrospect for Nohr to have a plot to reform a kingdom from the inside, although I realize in hindsight it probably would not have worked, given that the war between the factions takes away from the emphasis of reforming Nohr. Although I didn't consider it when the trailers were first released, it might have been better for a reformation plot to be standalone in one region, rather than one involving battles between different factions. Something more along the lines of the French Revolution within history. A plot with less focus on the alternate country and more focus on the single one. (RD might have that but I've never played RD so I wouldn't know) It could have been something that they did in Invisible Kingdom, but they didn't do it there, so that's a shame. I still hope they rewrite it a bit in the localization process, so that it feels more nuanced and less like Nohr is the inferior path. Well playing as an imperialist pig-dog sounds about as/more fun than playing as a rag-tag revolutionary

Mozume best girl. She's kind of like Charlotte to me. Wasn't expecting much from her at first, but when her supports came out she skyrocketed. Definitely not the standard demure villager archetype that I was expecting from her design and backstory. (I mean she hunts bears for crying out loud. And is confident enough that she knows she can do that. That came right out of nowhere and I love it.) Assuming I don't pair her with Avatar I pair her up with Xander. Similar to Thane I like the whole story of the peasant girl ending up with the strong and handsome prince, and the support itself is quite nice. Haven't seen her support with Ryoma but chances are I'll do that at least once. Also, she's one of the best moms PvP-wise thanks to +speed in a negative speed mod game along with a natural Extravagance/Line of Death combo. And Lance Fighter access, if the combo itself wasn't good enough.

Matoi I think can get Line of Death by herself since she inherits Samurai, so she would only need Extravagance to fulfill the combo. But Bows seem to be the best option of dealing with Generals I would agree, since they have WTA against lances and WTN against axes, the two weapons that Generals can use. Oboro!Matoi I think is a decent alternative, though she wouldn't get Bowfaire unless she marries Kisaragi. I'm personally doing this over Mozume!Matoi, so that I can get her natural LoD/Extravagance onto someone else. (natural LoD/Extravagance + decent mods means she's actually pretty high in demand as a mom. All Nohr kids love her barring Ophelia and maybe half the Hoshido kids do well with her too, Matoi included. Granted Oboro is high in demand too, but unlike Mozume she can't marry everybody.) Lazward would be my go-to in Nohr for Pegasus/Ninja combo, but I could see her working very well with Arthur and Benoit. She beats Belka!Lutz cleanly as a Swallow Strike user, and compliments Benoit's mods while fixing his problems so that Ignis actually has a small chance to go offense. Her Hoshido spouses aren't much to write home about, though. Matoi is good for lore, to cancel out Tsubaki's -2 speed and because lower strength is advantageous for Prodigy, but Hisame doesn't get enough from Luna for it to be worth it, since he gets Swallow Strike on his own either from inheritance or A+ Shigure and his mods/growths already start out mediocre. 1 speed and 4 defense is kind of cool though - he's one of the very few Hisames who get positive speed. Mod-wise, Luna is very much 'Rinkah but way better' due to her shared focus on speed and defense with lower penalties to offense, at the cost of having a somewhat worse skill selection. Swallow Strike is worth it on its own though. It's honestly the only thing I'd have her pass barring maybe Deadly Breath for kids who have or can get Pegasus. She also has a solid niche set for Deere, competitive with the Hana!Deere set mentioned ages ago. Lodestar Luna!Deere has roughly the same dodging ability as Trueblade Hana!Deere, and much better defensive mods. Deere certainly doesn't mind Swallow Strike either, mostly because he has a dearth of good skills since Deere's A+s aren't exceptional and Jakob's A+s are literally the worst in the game. (2 of them give a class he already has, and Bowman isn't much to write home about on its own)

Yeah, that's one of the downsides of Setsuna. Her mods are great, but her growths are bad. It should pay off once Kinu is maxed out, though.

Avatar is the only mother (or spouse) who can pass down War Priestess to Eponine, since no one can A+ with the Avatar themselves. That being said, Elise is probably a good choice. Her growths are really high in the magic department, so Eponine can work well with staffs.

I had something typed up but I lost it, so I'll just bullet points it. From order of most to least controversial. Overt sexuality that comes across as more uncomfortable than attractive, coming across in the designs, many supports, and My Castle. Embarrassing portrayal of sexual minorities. I thought that the Tharja clone, of all characters was the best-portrayed one of the bunch, which doesn't look good for IS. The plot is worse than I anticipated. Hoshido is good, but Invisible Kingdom is written even worse than Awakening, and the maps are a bit worse in that campaign too. Azura is also bad for the plot itself, because she is a pants-on-head idiot when it comes to military tactics. While it's nice that it returned from Genealogy, the marriage system simply is not going to work in this current gen of FEs plotwise. The presence of C-A rank GBA style supports for everyone means that couples will have poor chemistry because the game demands they have to marry. Keeping the first generation of units because of aversion to permadeath means we will have Outrealms to explain why the kids are there. Take out marriage for now, bring it back later when trends change, and focus on fewer but better written supports. Write the supports better. Have recently found out the process of how they were written in Awakening, there needs to be a movement away from the 'quirk A meets quirk B' paradigm that is often used in its writing process. Focus on organic interactions - characters are not individual traits, they are larger wholes. Avatar. It has never been handled well from New Mystery on and there is no indication that it will be handled well in the future. Take it out or soften its role, and take the focus away from player worship. It's a trend started by New Mystery that needs to die yesterday. (It's actually amazing how many bad ideas New Mystery started that we complain about, if you take a closer look at it) Would have liked voice acting in supports. Even something like Awakening's grunts and catchphrases would have sufficed. tl;dr don't pander, remove marriage

Hoshido has a solid story and cool classes. Nohr has aggressively interesting characters and I like the aesthetic. Supports are, uh, slightly improved from Awakening. Some stinkers in there, yes, but whatcha gonna do. I like the battle music for bosses and for the endgame map. Creative rebalancing of Pair Up. Rebalancing of the child system so that parents remain relevant. The Seal system, while very complicated, also helps for the first generation to be good. Removal of genderlock for classes. (Finally have that female Fighter) The return of Capture. The Personal Skill system. Arthur and Charlotte are the best characters. Xander and Ryoma's designs. Velour and Ophelia are very easy on the eyes. Shigure is literally a male Disney Princess™.

I got a 3DS for Dream Drop Distance (because there was literally nothing else at that time) and for Awakening when it came out. It's an interesting experience and I don't regret getting the console for DDD + Awakening at all. That being said, I think it's a good game, but it's not good at being a Fire Emblem. Pair Up gives Awakening more of a battle-of-stats feeling, kind like traditional JRPGs or things like Pokemon, rather than a focus on strategical elements. There are some elements that are similar, such as classes, terrain, setting, etc., but you have to keep in mind that mechanically, it plays very differently than even its immediate predecessors because of Pair Up. (And you will have to use Pair Up in the higher difficulties, so learn to love it) The story is not great but it's serviceable. IntSys has had difficulty trying to integrate Avatars well in the plot, and the child system is always awkward storywise in games other than Genealogy. The supports are in worse shape imo, since the method of their writing was basically taking a quirk from one character and pairing it with a quirk from another, so don't expect much quality when you're pairing characters off for marriage. The biggest issue that I have, moreso than the story or characters is actually the maps. Awakening has no variety in map goals - all are either rout or kill commander so if you kill everything you're good. Many of the maps depicting climatic battles are wide open fields with nothing going on, though there are some legitimately good maps scattered throughout. Chapter 5 is legit a very good map and probably my favorite one in the entire game, so if you pick Awakening up you'll play a good map early. It would be worth picking up some DLC, to extend the longevity of the game. Future Past is a must because it's legitimately written well, and has different dialogue depending on who each character marries. Apotheosis is good, since it's a map where you have to play very differently than how you played the game, but unless you really know what you're doing you need other DLC to do well in Apo. There are also a few challenge maps that are fun too.

I'm kind of curious as to what Nishiki and Mozume will give to their spouses/buddies now. It looks like that faction parallels only take place when it comes to child inheritance. So in this case, Flannel technically gets a set of Garou/Fighter(Outlaw), kind of like Azura's Singer/Pegasus(Rod Knight). The special classes are throwing a big monkey wrench in this thing. Oy, as if the faction parallel system wasn't complicated enough already...

I'd go Spellcaster for the best of both worlds - Access to Basara means Breaking Sky which can make for easier captures due to being a more reliable proc than Luna, and access to Exorcist for Tomefaire, in case Zero opts to go for magic. (He does have OK growths and mods for that, after all.)

Berserker I think is a good final class for Effie given her personal skill. She'll want to be in a class with high strength so that it's more likely for Super Strength to activate against an enemy. The crit evade penalty isn't enough for me to worry about personally. She would work well with Benoit or Arthur. Orochi!Gurei really does need Defensive Formation in order to function well because of that speed mod. Consider getting an A+ with Ignis instead and going Exorcist instead of Strategist if you're averse to using the Logbook. Most of the Hoshido dads have -2 speed mods - there's really no simple way around that, and at least one kid will have to deal with it. Oboro and Mozume are probably the best remaining moms for most of the other kids, so it'll come down to which ones you make a priority. Mozume can also pick up Lance Fighter herself from A+ Oboro, so that gives her some extra leverage for marrying a person who has another lance class like Silas or possibly kunai access like Kaze. Kagerou could work well with Mitama but Effie is better modwise and Oboro gives good stats and a great ending class at the cost of Herb Merchant overlap and thus an Extravagance/Copycat inheritance that another kid would miss. She could A+ with Kanna for a good physical class, but given that you're going Dark Mage I don't think Mitama could take advantage of that well. Aside from Mitama, I do like Kagerou on Arthur for 5 strength Lutz and giving Arthur some good skills and classes as an aura user. Puppeteer could also be a good class for Arthur personally to end in - access to kunai for debuffs, 7 move and good enough pairup bonuses, so he's basically a mounted kunai user with a comparatively uncommon weakness. (Only weak to units with Puppet Break) Elite Ninja has less movement but better bonuses so that's another option. Kagerou for her part gets 43 strength as a Berserker, which isn't a bad use of her strength mod either. Mozume is a good option here too - Lutz gets good offensive skills, Mozume likes getting Fighter herself for her own offensive skills, and I hear Arthur has some hit issues so Raven Strike from Mozume's Bowman could help. Aside from Arthur, Mozume/Nishiki could work. Stacks his speed, fixes his skill/defense a bit, and doesn't hurt his offensive stats. Oboro runs into some overlap with Basara, but the mods are a bit better. There's no really great use of Belka imo - it's the same problem as Rinkah in that her classes are underwhelming and no child wants her modifiers, except Rinkah is arguably better because she at least gives speed. I usually just have Belka as a dump mother for Ignis, but it's not all doom and gloom for her. Lutz could work due to Swallow Strike, and Mitama could probably do good things with her if she can inherit Axefaire from mom or Asama A+ Arthur. Belka does have one good A+ with Oboro though, which is enough to keep her afloat as a unit. Felicia is hard to pair, especially if Eponine/Gurei do not take magic mothers, mostly because Felicia's personal growth is bad for a magic mom(35%) and her mods lean too strongly to magic for other possibilities to work. Asama could work but their offensive stats don't play nice with each other at all. Magic growth is decent and 3 speed is alright, but Mitama won't be exceptional offensively. Felicia could A+ Hana and pass Line of Death so that Mitama gets Extravagance/LoD combo to make up for the offensive loss, or she could marry Hisame herself. Kaze could work too, though Felicia's magic growth is low enough to cause issues - Midoriko basically must take an A+ with Ophelia if she wants to get magic easily, hurting her flexibility. (She would really prefer Kinu for Breaking Sky or Kanna for whatever it is that Kanna will give her, depending on what second class Avatar takes)

Dark Flyer Elise!Ophelia hits 34 speed, which is a solid speed tier all things considered. Swallow Strike is a firmly player-phase oriented skill, so it would synergize nicely with Galeforce from Dark Flyer. Give her Lightning (the brave tome) or a high crit tome to help facilitate kills and I could see her being ferocious. The skill is a bit low, but that mostly has to do with the class itself - 43% Breaking Sky proc rate isn't bad, especially against high strength + low res classes like Berserkers.

I can't look as in depth as I would like since I'm in a hurry, but there's a few suggestions I can make. I might stick with Charlotte on Xander, if only because in addition to good stats, there's an underrated niche that Siegbert can occupy - male supporter. His personal skill gives +2 attack to any female he supports, and Charlotte gives him a few good classes for both Attack and Guard Stance, namely Berserker and Hero with a relevant faire for it. A +6 strength mod means that he'll hit things hard even with Dual Strikes, and +3 speed so that he stays relevant as a solo unit for attack stance. Best placements of Orochi imo are Gurei and Ophelia. Gurei becomes a good supporter while Ophelia focuses on crit builds. Shara could work too but she really wants to capitalize on that speed if she can, so Nyx is my recommendation if she's not being used on Eponine. I would do Zero/Pieri or Setsuna -> Tsukuyomi/Nyx -> Odin/Orochi if you want to preserve Saizou/Kagerou. Felicia is kind of in a hard place since she's a magic mom and most magic kids are taken, but I'll figure out something later.

It's actually not difficult to get Luna on most of the kids in Nohr. (Even so I think Luna is being given more credit than it deserves here because Breaking Sky has comparable damage and a better proc rate) I would argue that Belka is a bit more useful for Lutz than Pieri, if only because Swallow Strike is more valued and Great Knight access is abundant. There are tons of options for children to get Luna here. By my count, here's what we have who can pass Luna: Fathers(class set): Xander, Arthur, Benoit, Silas, Jakob A+s: Leon(Xander), Lazward(Xander), Flannel(Benoit), Kaze(Xander/Silas) Mothers: Effie, Pieri, Elise(A+ Effie), Mozume(A+ Effie), Nyx(A+ Effie), Luna(A+ Pieri), Charlotte(A+ Pieri), Felicia(A+ Pieri) Children(Natural): Siegbert, Ignis, Deere, Sophie Children(A+): Lutz(Ignis), Foleo(Ignis/Siegbert), Soleil(Sophie), Velour(Sophie) For the most part, this just leaves Eponine and Ophelia as the only kids who have to work specifically to get Luna, and even so they have easy access to other procs depending on their role. Ophelia can use Vengeance well, while Eponine can get Breaking Sky from Nyx, or they can just marry Siegbert/Ignis. I wouldn't be terribly concerned with trying to optimize for Luna as a result, just because of the sheer number of ways that the kids can get it.

Lethality actually synergizes fairly well with Flamboyant IIRC. Since its activation rate is very low by itself, and Flamboyant gives a flat +15 boost to activation rates, it should proc around 1 of 3 times on average. But yeah, that sounds like a good plan. You might not be able to get all of the skills unless you grind a bit, but it looks alright as a final kit. Keep in mind that Felicia's physical strength is very low, and combined with Kaze's negative mod, Midoriko might not hit as hard with regular kunai/shurikens. The Explosive Shuriken might be a good item to pick up. (Or whatever the magic shuriken is called. It should be obtainable in Nohr.) Also, if you have a shortage of staff and bow users, Asyura comes midgame and has some solid stats to work with.

From what I can tell, Smithy Skill + Flamboyant is not legal in Nohr. Stubbornness can be obtained from Kaze x Luna or an inheritance, but only one of Oni Savage or Spellcaster/Lance Fighter can be obtained through Avatar's secondary class or an A+ with Kanna. She also must marry either Deere or Foleo if she wants to be a Maid. Midoriko actually has quite a few options in Nohr route though. Nyx can mother her for 4 mag/6 speed mods, and she can marry Avatar or A+ with Kanna for the Spellcaster line. Kaze can pass Luna through an A+ with Silas/Xander so that she can pick up a proc. Lance Fighter and Oni Savage are also decent for her, though as mentioned she'd need Avatar to get them. Camilla gives good stats and Deadly Breath to serve as an offensive support. (Belka does too, minus the good stats) Elise can also work for a magical Midoriko as well - her high magic growth means that anyone she mothers is going to have at least a passable growth. Charlotte enhances Kaze's speed, repairs his low strength, and passes a class that Midoriko can take full advantage of given her mods.

I think that's a fair assessment. I think that Chrom/Maribelle could stand to be a little higher, but not by too much. 2 speed Brady is still alright - A Brady is still a decent Brady no matter what. Maribelle could also work with 100% Dual Strike with Celica's Gale. She won't have as much firepower as Sumia since she lacks a proc, but they could get the job done in a pinch. It could also be argued that Maiden!Lucina is slightly better mod-wise than Sully!Lucina, at least when it comes to what their purposes will be. (Female supporter - Sully!Lucina wins for classes, but Maiden!Lucina wins for strength. With Dual Strike+ she doesn't care too much for skill) Chrom/Sumia is definitely the best pair in the game by a large margin though. Sumia and Chrom compliment each other perfectly skill-wise, and both kids are in their best non-Avatar iterations possible. Chrom/Sumia is also the best possible pairing from an opportunity standpoint in my view. The opportunity costs that come from pairing them elsewhere are not insignificant and affect every member of the family. Putting Chrom elsewhere means that Sumia stands a risk of not getting married. Like you said, her other husbands are in high demand (Well except Frederick but Frederick is barely relevant as a father anymore except for Inigo) and taking one hurts a bunch of other kids. Hard supports and Galeboys will miss Henry, while Kjelle/Noire really want to have Gaius so that they can contribute to the team. Giving Sumia to someone else means that Chrom is stuck with a few issues: He can support Olivia, which means you either lose Dancer utility or a 100% Dual Strike. He can support Maribelle, who as mentioned earlier isn't quite as strong as Sumia damage-wise. Or he can support Sully, severely crippling Lucina and Kjelle and having a wife who cannot possibly take advantage of his assets. Lucina losing her 5 speed makes a bunch of her sets less viable. Cynthia... doesn't care one way or another unless they hurt speed, but she'll miss Aether, which is one useful skill to her she can't get from anyone else. You do discuss the opportunity costs a bit, which is good. It's just something that I notice isn't talked about too much by others, so further exploration on it might be good when looking at the other kids.