Magenta Fantasies

I just looked at the Meet Some of the Heroes categories and you’re right. Male Robin/Grima is not a Legendary, but Female Robin/Grima is. That’s incredibly bizarre. 😵‍💫 It becomes even more bizzare now that I realize how many years it took for Male Robin to get a Legendary alt. Perhaps there is hope for Male Corrin yet…

At least Karel has more fans than Azama and Gordin, who have both had Resplendents for a while. As far as Blazing Blade characters go, I’d say Karel is middling in popularity. He’s no Ninian or Nino, but he’s not rock-bottom. Karel is fairly high on my wishlist, but I’d be torn about him getting a Resplendent. The stats would benefit him, and I’ve invested in him considerably so far. On the other hand, Karel has some of my favorite art and dialogue in Heroes and I’d be sad to see those replaced by art and dialogue that will probably be worse. Even losing Karel’s special art/dialogue in exchange for Galeforce was bittersweet. In other news, next we have Resplendent Legendary Male Robin/Grima. I can’t say I’m surprised that Legendary characters are now getting Resplendent alts—this is something I’ve been wondering about for a while—but I’m definitely disappointed. At least his outfit and art are excellent. I never liked Legendary Male Robin’s original art, and this is a definite upgrade. I must admit, I’m surprised by the number of people who have already responded. It’s just before 7 AM on a Thursday where I live, and new Resplendents (amongst other things) are announced at 2 AM. Those time zone differences…

I have my fair share of complaints about the localization of Fates, most of which XRay mentioned. Even still, the localization is just a minor stain that doesn’t stop Conquest and Revelation from being my favorite Fire Emblem games by a substantial margin. I’ve been a Fire Emblem fan since 2009, and I agree with XRay that a lot of those things are part of Fates’ appeal. Last night I was playing Path of Radiance (I might start up my old playlog again…) and I couldn’t help but think about features from more recent FE games. It would be amazing if the barracks weren’t just a set of menus but a physical area where you could interact with your allies and even customize like My Castle, and I also found myself wishing I could S-support Soren. Come to think of it, that’s probably why I S-supported Jakob in my first Conquest playthrough. I saw a lot of the same things that appeal to me about Soren in him, and they’re both my favorite characters in their respective games.

It is true that it’s pretty easy to ignore most Fire Emblem characters you don’t like. That is probably why I don’t dislike that many Fire Emblem characters. I’d struggle to name 20 I actively dislike. While I agree that Gaius is less popular (but also less polarizing or disliked) than Tharja or Cordelia, he’s probably the most popular male Awakening character after Chrom and Robin and maybe Owain and Inigo. Robin and Chrom aside, Gaius is by far the most popular first-generation male. Personally, I prefer this topic to the “minor character appreciation” thread. It’s more interesting for me to think about which minor or obscure characters I dislike than about which ones I like.

I forget who Nagi is and what game it is from, and I have a great memory for characters and lore, so that probably says something. As for minor/obscure characters I dislike, Geitz from the Blazing Blade immediately comes to mind. For such an obscure, minor, difficult to recruit character, he is so deeply obnoxious and unlikeable. He’s by far my least favorite Blazing Blade character. While less obscure, they are completely optional characters and can be missed whether by accident or on purpose, so I’ll count Dwyer and Yarne. I hate their personalities and attitudes, and hate even more the fact that they’re the sons of two of my top five favorite Fire Emblem characters.

I really hope Shura is summonable on a banner and not as a GHB. He’s one of my favorite Fates characters and it’s a shame he only had two supports. A Forging Bonds conversation would be wonderful for him. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be devastated if he were a GHB as long as he had decent skills, as it would make him easier to obtain and he is a character I would definitely +10. I was expecting a Birthright/Hoshido-themed banner, but the roster is different than I expected. I’m genuinely surprised to see Mozu and Yukimura on this banner (and as 5-star units!) but no Scarlet. I’m quite happy to see Hayato finally in Heroes, as he’s one of my favorite Hoshidan characters. Too bad his art is terrible. At least he looks like a decent demote unit and great fodder. Attack/Speed Ideal is a welcome addition to the 4-star pool (if it wasn’t added recently) and I really hope Rauorlantern is inheritable. While Attuned Azura killed my dream of an Attuned Jakob with a Corrin theme, at least I like her design. Her skills seem less impressive than Mozu and Yukimura, though. There is also a non-zero chance of an Attuned Corrin with a Jakob theme, which would be awesome as well. The GHB choice is weird (still no Shura, and if not him I was expecting Kotaro for a Hoshidan-themed banner) but I actually like Candace and I’m curious how Heroes will handle her character. That’s one thing I love about Heroes: it adds a lot to characters who didn’t get to do or say much in their games. I really enjoyed how Heroes handled Brigand Boss, who is about as minor as Candace.

The Black Knight’s art is amazing! He has some of the best art of any Resplendent alt. I was really hoping we’d get a Muspell Resplendent and a GHB Resplendent soon, so I’m happy to see him. There are a lot of GHB characters I’d like to see have Resplendent alts, so I hope this trend continues. Still, I think I’ll let my FEH Pass expire because I don’t use the Black Knight and his original art is also fantastic. What other GHBs do you speculate will receive Resplendent alts soon? I was thinking about this a couple days ago. The ones I want most are Panne (Jotunheimr), Naesala (Embla), Xander (also Embla), Navarre (Muspell), Michalis (also Muspell), Oliver (Vanaheimr, whenever we get Vanaheimr Resplendent outfits) and Berkut (Muspell.) However, I think Lyon, Xander, Berkut and Narcian are most likely.

I’m disappointed (but not surprised) that Michalis lost to Lindhart, although I’m more surprised Lindhart won against Bernadetta. Is Lindhart actually popular, especially by Three Houses standards? Maybe people didn’t want to vote for Bernadetta because she won CYL this year. Now onto Team Karla/Freyja. They were my second choice.

I have most of these characters, and Michalis is both the highest leveled and the one I like the most. In the likely event he loses, I wouldn’t mind switching to Karla, and Bernadetta is a third choice.

Capturing in Fates was a very fun game mechanic and I liked its implementation better than Thracia’s. Getting to keep and use enemies you fought is such a cool concept. However, I almost never use it because I have plenty of units already (including many I already don’t have time to raise or deployment slots to use.) I’d rather use characters I like and build supports between them. Not having supports is a deal breaker, so I virtually never use Einherjar or captured units. If games like Shadow Dragon (no supports,) Radiant Dawn (minimal supports,) New Mystery and Shadows of Valentia (relatively few supports,) and the GBA games (supports are a pain in the neck to get) had enemy capturing as a game mechanic, I would absolutely use it.

I just visited your My Castle (your Your Castle? Your Castle?) and gave you a bath towel. The bath towel always takes me a long time to get and it elicits some hilarious reactions from the characters when you give it to them. Somewhat related question: can the rewards for battles and visits only be claimed once ever or can they only be claimed once per game file? I'm debating if I should claim them or not, because I'm worried they'll disappear if I don't, but if they only can be claimed once ever, I don't want to claim them on files where I've completed the game.

As always, I’m hoping for a Northern Fortress themed child banner. The optimal lineup would be either (or most likely both) Corrins with Jakob as the demote, Felicia and Flora as the duo and Silas as the Tempest Trials character. Female Corrin won CYL last year, but I don’t think it’s impossible that she could get another alt in April. It’s also entirely possible that only Male Corrin will appear. They often, but don’t always, appear on banners together. However, that would make Felicia and Flora the only girls on the banner, and I doubt IS would do that. Azura already appeared as a child on the Adrift banner years ago, so it would be redundant for her to appear again. My personal preference would be Peri. She isn’t connected to the other characters on the banner, but it would be fascinating (and adorable) to see her as a child and I’d like to see her get an alt at some point. More than likely, I’m expecting Shadows of Valentia. As long as we get Faye and/or Kliff, I’ll be happy with the results. They’re my favorite SoV characters. Faye seems pretty likely, but Kliff has more competition for a spot on the banner from Gray, Tobin and Boey. Celica and Alm are givens.

This sounds like fun, and I set up my Conquest My Castle (my most developed one with my strongest Corrin) for this only to realize I jumped the gun and didn't read your rules at all. 😅 I don't feel like creating an all-new Corrin for you to use, but you're welcome to use mine or even just visit my My Castle.

Coming up next, we have Hana wearing the first Jotunheimr outfit in seven months. I really like her art, although I have mixed feelings on her as a character and wish that one of the many Fates characters I like more (several of whom are on my wishlist) had been chosen instead. It doesn’t help that Hana comes after Selena and Azama, who I’m also not crazy about. Come to think of it, it’s a little strange that we would get two units of the same type (infantry sword) from the same game (although to be completely fair, Selena is from Conquest and Hana is from Birthright, although Heroes usually classifies all three as “Fates”) almost consecutively.

It looks like my predictions were absolutely wrong, although Marth-themed Attuned Caeda is an Attuned alt I hoped would happen. It’s really odd to see Yuliya without Yubello. I wasn’t expecting Arlen, but he’s a fitting choice along with Ascended Merric. Speaking of which, I dislike having two Ascended/Rearmed/Attuned characters on the same banner. Not only do they compete with each other (one becomes much more popular than the other, e.g. Attuned Peony vs. Triandra) but it takes away a slot for a new character to be added. I don’t see why Merric couldn’t have been saved for a future banner. Castor is a pleasant surprise. While I genuinely like Castor, him being an infantry bow GHB makes me concerned about the chances of Shura being on the next Fates banner. We’re almost certainly getting Fates next month (unless it is pushed off until June because of the Fallen banner and the possibility of being the child banner theme.) There aren’t many bow GHBs and I doubt two would happen in a row.