Book Bro

I will just point out that Seiros is a made up religion and doesn't really seem similar to any real religion with what we know. It may be criticizing religion as a whole and you can dislike that obviously, but it doesn't seem like it's based on any one specific religion. Also worth pointing out that, until we know more, it could be a critique of religious institutions (which are just as prone to corruption as any other kind) and not the religions themselves.

I'm on board with all of this.

As Vincent pointed out in his analysis, it reminded me of Shulk from Xenoblade's visions. I'm pretty sure Byleth is going to have some sort of foresight and it may involve a turn rewinding mechanic.

I'm hoping Edelgard's story will be less conventional and maybe something like what Conquest was supposed to be, since she's from the Empire and the heir apparent, and Empires tend to be not so good. But Claude looks very appealing and I'm sure his story would be something about finding a unique solution to the conflict. Dimitri will probably have a more typical FE story, being from the "good kingdom", and he's the least interesting design so I'll probably save him for last. Then again I could be wrong and the fact that it's the Holy Kingdom might actually mean they're the bad guys if the Church is actually evil. None of the other characters made an impression on me so I really can't say which group I'd prefer aside from the leader. I'll probably choose Edelgard or Claude first depending on who has the more interesting story premise. That's assuming they each have a different story of course which isn't confirmed.

Simple, so it's easier for Sakurai to add another Marth inspired fighter.

I love these every time there's a new game, and this time is just as good, Vincent! Your breakdown of the rapid fire scenes at the end is comforting, that's for sure. I feel a little less bummed out after reading it. Hopefully we don't have to wait too long to get more story/lore details for those of us worried about the anime school stuff.

That's fine but why not have an avatar who is just a secondary character and not the star of the game? This approach just means they can neither be a completely fleshed out character nor a true blank slate for the player. Robin is popular for sure but Corrin? For being the star of the Fates games they sure don't feel that popular, the royals (especially Camilla) seem to me to be more popular in general. And from the pre-release cycle for Three Houses, people everywhere seem to be more interested in the three lords (especially Edelgard) than Byleth.

Maybe it's premature to complain about this, but I can't get over Byleth being the main character and avatar again. I know it was speculated as very likely since the first trailer, but I just will never get the why an avatar is apparently so necessary to a lot of people that we're now forcing established characters to play the role just so we can pretend we're in the story. It's like, why can't Byleth just be a character from that world, why do we have to pretend he's the player? Corrin already showed us why this isn't a good combination. FE doesn't work with avatars in a main role. And while I hate to say it, since I generally liked Fates, it just makes me think they didn't learn anything from the criticism that game received, unlike what happened from Awakening to Fates to SoV. I really hope it's not the case but the general feel of this second look at the game just feels like SoV was actually a bone thrown to quiet down fans of "old" FE instead of the bridge between old and new we thought it was.

Honestly the character designs apart from Edelgard and Claude aren't doing it for me. They seem so generic. Its not even just the uniforms, the faces and hairstyles are all so... boring.

Ehhh I was feeling the first trailer much more than this one. I don't like the anime school approach at all, and I was hoping there would be one path, but it looks like there's three. On top of that Byleth is being presented as basically Corrin 2.0 with his own personal loli waifu... I really hope I'm wrong but I have a bad feeling about the story, and the gameplay didn't seem particularly exciting either. Hopefully this is the start of a more steady stream of news because damn, this still looks rough even after the delays.

Sigh. First of all, do some research if you're going to discuss the topic, because there's been tons of analyses and discussions on what evidence there is for Ike and Soren. It isn't fans shipping them randomly like your example of Camilla and Hinoka. Second, if you claim there's no evidence for Ike being gay, how can you say he's clearly straight when he - never displays attraction towards any women - actively rejects women seeking his attention - has no paired endings with women Is it because you assume straightness is the default? Because if anything there's a ton of evidence that, at the very least, Ike is asexual. But there's nothing in his character that suggests he is attracted to women, and a lot to contradict it. And I agree with you that it's offensive to change his sexuality just for ships, which is why it's frustrating that despite all the hints and having two paired endings with men, people like you still label him as straight just because he isn't covered in rainbows. Also, as was pointed out, no one in this topic ever said he and Soren are canon. What happened is people rushed in to declare him straight at the first mention of the possibility of the pairing.

Not necessarily, gay people can have straight sex and have heterosexual relationships, especially if they feel the need to hide their sexuality. If Priam is his direct ancestor I'd expect the answer is closer to that than him and Soren getting a surrogate mother. If anything Priam being canon points to Ike not getting a happy ending. It's interesting that some people are more willing to accept a bonus character in an unrelated game (which butchers lore from its own continent btw) as canon rather than two entire games worth of character development for Ike and Soren though. No offense, but your OCs aren't proof of anything. I can make two OCs based on Alm and Celica who are gay best friends but that doesn't mean the characters I based them off aren't straight.

Whether Priam is canon or not doesn't even matter tbh. Gay people can reproduce. Bisexual people exist. Mist exists. But people will latch on to anything to discredit Ike being gay while moaning about how people who point out the subtext and all the hints and him being in a Valentine's banner with Soren are grasping at straws. It also doesn't seem to matter that RD came out in 2007 when queer rights weren't as socially accepted as today, and that all the "obvious" queer characters people reference came after, in the 3DS era. Heather was the most obviously queer character before that and even she never outright said "I'm a lesbian". It wouldn't have gone over well to have the main character be any more explicit about it back then, and it doesn't fit Ike's personality to go around saying it anyway.

And yet, threads don't get derailed and people don't get weirdly offended when other pairings are brought up. And it's pretty strange to come into a Valentine's Day banner thread demanding people stop talking about the possibility of it being about romantic love. I don't remember people trying to shut down Roy and Lilina discussion last year even though the theme was also family and friendship. I already explained why I, and pretty clearly many others based on reactions here and elsewhere, are excited for this pairing in this banner, and it isn't as simple as "shipping". Sucks that some people would rather we don't express it or dismiss it as crazy fantasies, but meh, won't stop me from being happy about it.

1st problem: assuming anyone who likes Ike/Soren likes the pairing because they're a horny teen girl with a fetish. Do people who ship Chrom and Sumia also fall into "crazy fantasy" territory or nah? 2nd problem: no, not all non-heteronormative FE characters are yelling about their sexuality constantly. And insisting that that's the only way to write one is extremely shallow minded. This is why we can't have nice discussions, people.

Love this too, and it sucks that whenever anyone brings up Ike/Soren we immediately get people going "but actually". Personally, I like the pairing because of reasons that go much further than shipping and OTPs. It's positive queer representation from a conservative developer, but apparently since it isn't in your face and outright stated, much of the FE fanbase will deny it's even possible as long as IS keeps being subtle about it. Hopefully this thread doesn't get derailed with people arguing about this though. Let's all just be happy that we got such a cool seasonal banner.

Okay, this is awesome. More than awesome, this is amazing! I hope I can get a couple if not all of them with the few orbs I have.

How's the campaign for anyone who bought this? I'm curious about it but I'd like to know if it's fun all the way through. I watched the first few chapters and it seems cute, and with a decent enough cast and world.

Sigurd and Deirdre is like a Disney "love at first sight" thing, which definitely feels lacklustre, but it's something I expect to get more developed in a remake showing them gradually getting to know each other. After all there are weeks if not months that go by between each chapter in Genealogy.

Their Pantsless Marth is incredible

I just want to put this out there, the axe guy's hair also reminds me of Matthew, and him and Leila would fit the tragic love theme if the other pair is Sigurd/Deirdre or Eldigan/Lachesis. I don't think it's actually Matthew though, that axe wouldn't be a very good weapon for a spy haha.

That's clearly because it's "Rose-Bunch Tyrfing".

Isn't that Tyrfing? So Sigurd or Seliph? Hope the other one isn't Ike, Valentine's Day doesn't fit him. Unless it's a looser interpretation of the holiday like with Love Abounds.

I think it's worth keeping in mind that a character might rank lower than expected in part because most votes are concentrated in the top 10. So characters who aren't lords or main characters aren't getting all the votes they probably would if it was limited to one vote per character. For example, I ended up leaving Jaffar, Black Knight, and a couple other characters off my ballot because I used those votes for Micaiah instead. There's also stuff like people voting for characters who aren't in the game yet (like Leif last time) over characters who are, or voting for NPCs (Lìf and Thrasir) mainly to have them playable. And finally, memes like Brigand Boss, who I'm positive isn't actually anyone's favourite FE character, also skew the results. Outside of the top 10 of each sex, maybe top 20, I wouldn't put much stock in the results as an accurate determination of popularity.

I'm voting Leif and Seliph next year for sure.