GrandeRampel

No, okay this is were I have to stop you my friend. I feel like this is the perfect moment to make absolutely sure that we make the difference between Sex and Gender absolutely crystal clear. Your biological sex is one thing, a thing that has to do with the type of body you have, such as which kind of genitals you have. Obviously a construct would have a non-binary sex. But your gender has nothing do do with your body and everything to do with how you see yourself. If Sonia sees herself as female, she is female. Instead of "gaslighted into believing she's a human woman" I would just say "gaslighted into believing she's a human" because it would be more accurate. The lie was that she was human, while in reality she is another kind of being entirely. The fact that she is a woman is no lie. In fact I would add that we have no way to know Ephidel's gender at the moment. It is possible that when they are added to hero they will use they/them pronouns, but it's also possible that she will use she/her pronouns, or he will use he/him pronouns. Simply being a morph offers us no clue for the character's gender. For characters that are robots, or dolls, or something there is no easy way to tell from a glance. See all the Transformers that choose to be male, female, or neither.

I mostly agree that FE has gotten better at LGBT+ representation in recent years, but it is nowhere near perfect. We could certainly use more strictly gay characters who are not bisexual/pansexual and also characters who aren't avatarsexual. A good step forward on that front is Dorothea who is proudly Bi/Pan no matter if you choose to romance her or not. But I seriously don't know what you guys are talking about when you call Leon and Heather one-note stereotypes. Heather isn't more one-note than any other character who is only in RD and Leon is a cool character with lots of personality. Anyway, while it's cool to have characters like Limstella who is agender (even in the japanese only card game) and Kyza who is a type of non-binary (we don't know how they identify themself at the moment), we could use some binary trans representation. But there is a problem with that, which is the same problem with asexual rep in FE. There is a character in Heroes named Plumeria who is clearly intended to be read as a sex-repulsed Ace who's also bi-romantic. This is because she can't go two seconds without reminding us that sex is disgusting and lewd things should be banned forever, but at the same time she longs for some kind of deep connection with... SOMEONE/ANYONE even the avatar character because she feels lonely and unloved. Everything about her characterization screams ASEXUAL but she doesn't count, apparently, because she never calls herself asexual. But the thing is... no character in the history of Fire Emblem has ever said the words Gay, Lesbian, Homosexual, Bisexual, Heterosexual or anything of the sort. They don't use modern terminology, we know they are gay simply because they have romantic feelings towards characters of the same gender. We only know some characters are non-binary because they use they/them. There is actually no evidence whatsoever in many Fire Emblem games that characters are cisgender. In games like Genealogy, Awakening and Fates, yeah almost everyone is confirmed cis because they have children with partners of the opposite sex. But in a game like Three Houses that has many characters whos paired endings don't mention having children? Who knows? How could we know? That's a fun thing to theorycraft. How do you confirm that a character is trans in a Fire Emblem game? Have a villain/abusive relative deadname them? Show a flashback like the one in 3H except kid Dimitri uses she/her pronouns in the flashback? And how do you confirm that a character is ace in Fire Emblem? Because apparently what they did with Ike and Plumeria isn't enough. Do you simply make them the only character without an S-support with the avatar? Which only works if they are Aro-Ace? It's an interesting topic to discusss for sure. Anyway for those that are keeping count of things, since noody has mentioned her yet I will say that Nifl from Heroes is canonically a lesbian and of course Plumeria is Ace as said above. Also I will say that some character that you COULD read as LGBT+ in their home games have been made more explicit in Heroes. Such as Ursula who you could read as a lesbian in FE7 since the only character she even cared about was Sonia, a woman, and then comes Heroes who makes it explicit that she wishes to "know her in a biblical sense".

Oh wow... I read many people argue that with Claude and Micaiah as carries the rest of the banner could easily have been lesser known characters (outside of the lead in the Duo/Harmonic) and it would have been fine. I agreed with that take and fully expected to see the Dawn Brigade or some other Golden Deer student. But no, they went with Dimitri, Edelgard and flipping Elincia! DAMN! They really don't want this banner to flop, we seriously went from rarely having lords on summer banners to ALL-LORDS summer banner, including a lord as the TT+ It would be hilarious if this banner flopped regardless, but it's impossible. The least popular character here is Altina that can be argued to be a similar case to Reinhardt and Igrene as a character that was made really popular by FEH and managed to sell well in the past. Edelgard seems to be the one female lord that they really don't want to sexualize. And I agree with them, since they were able to make her so popular with no sexuaization before they really don't need to start now. Mate, this is her second seasonal alt and also her second Harmonic. She was the lead of the Altina/Sanaki duo for Christmas.

Embla and Askr be looking very good. Let's just hope they give them to us at the same time. Double Mythic Hero Banners are a good idea that I don't want IS to forget. Especially since they forgot that having an OC on the banner makes an Ascended Hero not necessary to sell a banner 😞 Speaking of the banner, it is very cool (outside the unnecessary Ascended that could have been Wil, Lowen, Isadora, anyone...). Sain and Kent were a glaring hole to fill the FE7 cast. Now the most important character to get in the game is Oswin. And it's also cool that we get Limstella during Pride Month. Nah, we will get Ephidel first.

I hope it's Kronya, but even if it's Monica I hope Kronya still has a big role in the game. Because she doesn't kill her and steal her identity this time? It's like shipping Jaffar and Leila. Obviously in order for the ship to even happen it would have to be a Jaffar that realized Nergal smelled and run away with Nino before what happens in canon. And in this what-if alternate universe I would see nothing wrong with Jaffar teaming up with the good guys and becoming friends (or perhaps more) with Leila.

Wooo, I didn't think about that but Ascended Jill would be breathtaking. Now I'll be extremely disappointed when she doesn't happen.

You could make a whole book listing the things TMS lacks in Heroes compared to other games smh.

One of Leonardo/Nolan will have be booted off the banner to make space for Laura/Meg/Fiona tho. Otherwise no female character on the banner itself which has never happened.

Honest mistake I thought Gaius was still popular enough because he wasn't completely ignored (first an alt, now a resplendent) while Lon'qu was. I forgot that sometimes character are completely ignored by IS even if they have enough fans/votes for a really good placement in CYL. See Ayra.

1. The gameplay is fun. 2. The game is generous enough that you don't need to do SUPER well in the competitive modes to get enough materials for your characters. 3. The art is nice and the voice acting is really good. A lot of characters got an official voice actor for the first time thanks to this game. 4. It's got tons of Fire Emblem characters all together with a lot of interactions and fun stuff to do with them. I think I don't need to explain why the shippers in particular would love it.

She is like Nino, a character who while always popular (in the context of her own game) got the lucky chance of being added early on as a pretty decent unit with decent art which helped boost her popularity with new fans that never played an FE game before Heroes. Other characters like Rebecca, Raigh, Oboro and Lon'qu where popular but they were released as a pretty bad unit with questionable art so they probably lost their popularity as a result, instead of gaining more.

Pretty nice selection of characters overall even if it's kind of silly that Binding Blade gets so many brides while the more modern games which are more commonly associated with shipping get 2 brides (in the case of Fate and Awakening) or even 0 brides. I will definitely pull for that Roy and for Lilina. Screw it, I will pull for everyone. Sue got absolutely robbed tho. I hope they gave her a Bridal alt in the future to complete the collection. They probably went out of their way to give Larum the free unit spot because the only dancer option for Binding Blade specific content (such as Limited Hero Battles) is her base self who is super rare and not F2P friendly. This of course ignores the other games still missing a F2P friendly dancer (Thracia... Threee Houses...) but it's a start?

Well that's a pretty interesting banner. The only one I expected to be here is Rhea and it's starting to become kind of silly how many layers of alt-hell she is on. Seriously, that's 1-a backpack seasonal version, 2-a normal seasonal version, 3-a younger mythic version and 4-a fallen version all before her base version gets in. The only one in a worse situation is Veronica who has a good chance of getting a banner this year. Lilith was unexpected but after thinking about it more she is pretty notable for being possessed in a DLC just like the Morgans last year so we should have seen her coming more. Technically every character is possessed in the Fates DLC but they don't have a speaking role and are treated as a prop. Lilith is actually one of the Anankos puppets with some focus, just like Takumi and Garon before her, and there are three others in the same situation: Sumeragi, Mikoto and Gunther. If we add the two Kanas we have 5 potential years of 1 slot of the fallen banner being givem to a Fates unit. We are nowhere near out of options for Fallen. Ninian should have been obvious in insight since she is one of the last main characters who have something to base a fallen version on, together with Rhea (and both of them are also some of the last possible legendary options for female characters), but I guess Ninian being shafted so hard in this game trained me to expect nothing for her. Gustav was freaking out of nowhere and I didn't expect him at all. Does this mean dragon-Fafnir and red eyes-Veronica are now likely for future Fallen Heroes banners? That's certainly a way to get around the remaining candidates being "literal whos" for the average player in the future. Just use OCs instead. Still Gustav is kind of in a tricky spot. Technically this is an alt version, and there's a base alive version they could use in the future, BUT this is the version that made an actual appearance as a unit and the base Gustav would be pretty much a recolor so... do we count this as an alt or not? And finally Muarim surprised me. His fallen version is based on a 30 second long cutscene, which is the same as Celica and Ninian and better than what-if Ike but they are main characters so it makes sense to put them in even if the justification is a huge stretch (see also Dimitri). His inclusion makes other not-main characters with pitiful screentime like Rajaion and Sonya's sisters more likely which is great because I really want them. And it's also great to get Muarim in the game in some way since he isn't likely to be on a New Heroes banner soon. Both Elincia's retainers and the Dawn Brigade shoul get their own banner before Tormod and his gang. Sorry, not sorry. Anyway a bit disappointed to not see Greil, as well as Medeus' Maidens or one of the Deadlords but there's always next year. I will definetely pull on this banner and also spark.

To be fair this is not so much a dragon lady problem as it is an any lady problem with Fire Emblem. I can think of like 5 (named. So the random woman that appears if you visit a house doesn't count) women in all of Fire Emblem that look older than Duma: Hilda, Niime, the fortune teller from Elibe who I believe is named Hannah, that one female version of the old wise sage trope that is a friend of Saleh in FE8 and Hel. Consider that the series has 500+ named female characters this is not great. It's to the point that when they want a female character to be older for a specific reason they end up looking like Reina from Fates, who looks younger than Duma to me. And if they want a male character to be older for a specific reason they end up looking like Gunther from Fates. The double standard is real.

It's about time!!! Absolute win of a choice for a Mythic Hero. Now let's get Anankos in the game too. And Nergal. Let's finish all the final bosses.

Yo, it's pretty crazy to think that by 2025 we might exhaust the entire roster of two games. Or even sooner if they (IS) decide that being seasonal alts only is "good enough". I wonder what will happen after that. Will we just stop getting regular banners from Awakening and Echoes? I guess it had to happen sooner or later.

Urgh... this is so disappointing. Getting new units from Thracia is always a good thing, so in a way I am grateful that it even keeps getting banners but... What a waste of an Ascended. If there was any game that really can't afford losing even a single slot it's Thracia and I hoped beyond hope we would get a random OC, like Freyr 2 years late, so we could have a fifth new unit, but nope. And to make things worse it's Mareeta, who already had two versions in the regar pool and now gets the third one who is even the same move-weapon type as the others. Jeez, talk about choosing the worst possible option. Even Olwen or Reinhardt would have been better, at least they always get a different color. A sword Olwen/colorless Reinhardt would have been more interesting. And this might only bother me, but why did they pick Karin instead of Misha? We literally have Misha's mom already in the game waiting, come on the forging bond writes itself! You had ONE JOB! Speaking of which, what the heck is up with the descendants of Odr always color sharing with someone else on their debut banner? Ayra shares with Eldigan, Shannan and Larcei shared with each other, as do Galzus and A!Mareeta, and base Mareeta shared with Eyvel. They always colorshare with someone with a sword too, not even a red mage or something. You would think that for a family that is considered legendary for their sword prowess in lore, to the point that other sword users idolize/are scared of them they would know any other unit sharing with them would be overshadowed, so it would be pointless to share, they can carry the red by themselves on their banner. But no, apparently that makes too much sense, and that is why we ended up in this situation. I will never understand IS.

I feel you so much, except that for me it's Dorothy I was hoping to see. There's always 2023 I guess... Anyways all the characters added deserved to get in even sooner than now because FE6 is full of amazing characters. It's just too bad that we lost a slot to Ascended Idunn. I understand that with a banner of Cath, Niime, Hugh and Gonzalez none of them would sell but still. The next TT+ story arc can't happen soon enough. I can't wait to get an ascended OC again or perhaps some brand new OCs to sell the banners instead of the stupid main games ascendeds.

Going with Tharja.

I went back to check and Bramimond counts as Blazing while Elimine counts as Binding. Kind of weird to make such a distinction since the lore is obviously shared between games that are sequels/prequels of each other and if they can make Naga count as both Archanea and Awakening they could/should do the same for other characters but that boat has already sailed back when they made Yune only a Radiant Dawn unit. So what you are telling me is: flying staff legendary Elincia confirmed for a future Legendary banner very soon?

Oh yeah duh, brainfart. I guess Lilina and Fae were such unexpected choices for legendaries that my brain refused to memorize them as such. I wonder if that problem will get even worse in the future now that all lords minus Yuri, male Corrin and Elincia already have legendary versions so even more minor characters will get that title.

I mean sure, they could do interesting stuff with the four of them, but they could do interesting stuff with many other characters and we already have 2 mythics from TH and 5 legendaries from 3H, while Binding Blade for example has just 1 legendary and 1 mythic. Thracia only has 1 legendary... What I'm saying is that we can definitely wait a few years before getting other mythics/legendaries from that game.

I wonder if next year we will see Athos in the top 20 males for the first time out of the sheer desire from his fans to see him recognized in some way. Soren style. Tiki style. Touma style.

HAHAHAHAHA! Okay on one hand it's awesome that Elimine was finally freed from the Mario Kart jail, but on the other hand they really picked her just to not pick Athos... It's funny because they are close to running out of female characters who CAN be Mythics according to the current rules, so after they give us Hanon, Ashunera, Nada Kuya, Fjalar, Njorun and MAYBE Artemis they will have to give us Athos or another male mythic, right? Am I forgetting anyone else? They won't actually be such asshats that they will give us Mythic Cethleann, right?

In the end I gave 3 votes to Bernie, 2 to Dorothy and 1 for Ayaha and Elena. Now we wait and see.