Pre Banner Discussion Thread: Bridal Banner 2024

[ARMADS!!!]

Ok, so I haven't been doing these threads for a while as I haven't been very active here on the past month or so, but anyway:

 Now It's about the upcoming Bridal Banner, which is probably my favorite seasonal theme, so I had to come back (both for the forum and for the game) for this! 

We still don't have a specific date for the banner but it should drop around the 19th, if it goes as on the past two years. The next Event Calendar should be released soon telling us the exact date anyway.

 

 Without further ado, what are your expectations, theories and wants (or not wants) for the upcoming banner?

[Etrurian emperor]

I think the safest prediction is that I can save my orbs. Even if my favorites enter I often think this banner to be beneath them.

I'd like to see Mae and Boey in more interesting banners such as Halloween, beach or even valentine but as an official couple a bridal banner is always a possibility for them.

I think Celine might possibly get an alt since aside from Ivy she seems the royal most likely to attend such parties. And if she's there it be a good chance to add louis. On the other hand maybe they'll save those two for the tea banner.

I wouldn't like seeing Hapi on such a banner but her cynicism might make a fun contrast between all the lovey dovey behavior. 

My favored addition for a bridal banner would be an Erk and Serra duo hero...with Erk having a ball and chain on his leg so he can't run away. It also explain why they'd be an armor unit. It be having a bit of fun with the concept as well as give more time to the wacky duo. 

[Acacia Sgt]

An Engage character for sure is showing up. It is the current trend. I do agree Céline could be a good fit.

I think I mentioned this last year but... Eirika. As the one who more or less debuted the actual Bride class the series once used, it's kinda baffling she has never been chosen for the Bridal Banner. Maybe I'm clinging to some reaching hope, but with the recent addition of an Ursula alt, who shares the same Japanese VA as Eirika, there's a non-zero chance an Eirika alt could be possible somewhere (not necessarily in this banner)... so who knows.

Edited May 10 by Acacia Sgt

[Jotari]

Only character I really want on a Bridal Banner is Maiden from Awakening. Other than that I would rather do away with the banner entirely and move on to something else. It lost the novelty quite a while ago.

[Florete]

I don't - and won't - get mad at any individual character appearing (or not appearing) on the banner. I'm far past that for this game. But this is the one banner theme that has shown it can still upset me to some degree. The whole male character + female romance options they've had going for the past two years is not cool, especially last year's where it was a male avatar. I don't care what they do with the banner or who is on it, as long as they don't do that again.

[Etrurian emperor]

Oh yeah....Bridal Camilla and Groom Corrin is likely always somewhere on IS's mind. Maybe a bridal banner with Corrin and all his sisters 🤮

[ARMADS!!!]

12 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

An Engage character for sure is showing up. It is the current trend. I do agree Céline could be a good fit.

I think I mentioned this last year but... Eirika. As the one who more or less debuted the actual Bride class the series once used, it's kinda baffling she has never been chosen for the Bridal Banner. Maybe I'm clinging to some reaching hope, but with the recent addition of an Ursula alt, who shares the same Japanese VA as Eirika, there's a non-zero chance an Eirika alt could be possible somewhere (not necessarily in this banner)... so who knows.

 Eirika was on the valentines banner so maybe the voice lines were for that one (and Ursula's voice lines are the ones being released a bit later). I would be a bit disappointed if Eirika showed up on the two loved themed banners in the same year, but if it was in another year I wouldn't mind (Althought I take Eirika over the "lord + romantic options" thing any day), but maybe that's just cause I'm not Eirika's biggest fan too.

 

15 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I think the safest prediction is that I can save my orbs. Even if my favorites enter I often think this banner to be beneath them.

I'd like to see Mae and Boey in more interesting banners such as Halloween, beach or even valentine but as an official couple a bridal banner is always a possibility for them.

I think Celine might possibly get an alt since aside from Ivy she seems the royal most likely to attend such parties. And if she's there it be a good chance to add louis. On the other hand maybe they'll save those two for the tea banner.

I wouldn't like seeing Hapi on such a banner but her cynicism might make a fun contrast between all the lovey dovey behavior. 

My favored addition for a bridal banner would be an Erk and Serra duo hero...with Erk having a ball and chain on his leg so he can't run away. It also explain why they'd be an armor unit. It be having a bit of fun with the concept as well as give more time to the wacky duo. 

I'd actually like Boey/Mae or Serra/Erk a lot! They could take the opportunity and add groom Hector too(I mean, we already have Lyn, Eliwood and Lilina, groom Hector would be pretty awesome), I'll be free to die in piece when they do this.

 

 With people mentioning the lord + romantic options thing and bride Camilla, I remembed how odd I always found that Camilla and Azura don't have bridal alts yet... I truly hope they won't do a "Corrin + Romantic options" thing (in which we could also expect F!Corrin using a bridal dress that somehow shows both her inner tights and her feet lol). That'd be the absolute worst scenario for me...

 I'd also like Dorothea, as in alt hell as she is, she does fit the theme, would be one more good refresher unit (probably) and I feel like they'd give her a nice sophisticated dress (the dresses are half the reasons why I like the bridal banner so...). 

 Also, something I mentioned in a thread looong ago: I'd really like bridal Nótt and Ótr (whether they're a duo or just both there), in a post book V scenario where they detest each other and both have different priorities (like Ótr wants to get out of the festival and see if Fafnir was summoned to Askr or something while Nótt keeps gushing over other men at the festival, but having Ótr there pisses her off) but were forced on the festival together so they keep fighting, It'd be absolute comedic gold (and I also think they'd look nice on wedding clothes). That's not very likely to happen of course, but maybe just Bridal Nótt is possible since she fits the theme.

 Wish they start to add canon couples and characters that are related to the theme again instead of the tiring lord + romantic options thing...

Edited May 11 by ARMADS!!!

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

 Eirika was on the valentines banner so maybe the voice lines were for that one (and Ursula's voice lines are the ones being released a bit later). I would be a bit disappointed if Eirika showed up on the two loved themed banners in the same year, but if it was in another year I wouldn't mind (Althought I take Eirika over the "lord + romantic options" thing any day).

Oh, right, I forgot Sacred Stones was this year's Valentine's/Devoted Banner.

Well, there's always(?) next time. I'd still find it puzzling if the game reaches EoS and they never did Bridal!Eirika...

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Well, considering the last two years have been Roy + Roy's potential wives and Male Robin + Male Robin's exclusive potential wives, I half expect them to keep up that pattern with another male character with multiple marriage options. I suppose that means:

-Hector. Serra, Florina, Farina as his potentials. Maybe Sue and Rath to round out the banner as a Harmonic unit, just to give Roy his final potential bride who happened to be left off on his banner.
-Ephraim. L'Arachel and Tana (Dozla or Innes as potential Duo partners?)...with Eirika and Myyrh tagging along as non-romantic options.
-Chrom. Sumia, Sully, Maribelle, Female Robin, random villager.
-Corrin. Who are Male Corrin's exclusive potential wives, again?
-Byleth. I have no idea who else they'd pick since any of the women can marry Byleth.
-Alear. As with Byleth, I have no idea who they'd pick. Celine, Ivy, Yunaka (she'll be the new Dorothea!), and...eh, someone.

Sacred Stones was just used as the game focused on for the Valentine banner, Awakening was used for this year's Anniversary/child banner, Blazing Blade just got a heavy focus on the Fallen banner, and we just got a Fates banner. I suppose that means Three Houses and Engage are a little more likely to be focused on than any of those. Unless, of course, they don't care and use something like SS anyway, or if they break the pattern of the last couple years and throw something like Mystery of the Emblem or Genealogy of the Holy War at us.

[Tybrosion]

If I had to bet on an Engage character appearing on this banner, that character would be Goldmary. She very likely lost her chance of debuting on a New Heroes banner this year, so if Goldmary were to debut this year it'll probably be here or one of the summer banners.

2 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

-Corrin. Who are Male Corrin's exclusive potential wives, again?

Reina, Scarlet, Flora and Anna.

That is exactly enough for a banner, though I seriously doubt IS would make a second bride Anna.

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

-Chrom. Sumia, Sully, Maribelle, Female Robin, random villager.

Hm? Not Olivia over the Village Maiden?

2 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

-Corrin. Who are Male Corrin's exclusive potential wives, again?

Flora, Reina, and Scarlet. Well, there's also the resident Anna, but I doubt they'd do that again. They might put Azura even if she's not an exclusive choice.

2 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

-Byleth. I have no idea who else they'd pick since any of the women can marry Byleth.

Well, Edelgard is a given, for starters.

I feel if there's a game they could forgo this route, it could be this one. Though they'd probably just do "Both Byleths + House Leaders" instead, as it's the "safe" lineup.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

4 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Hm? Not Olivia over the Village Maiden?

Not gonna lie, I forgot Olivia existed. And so has IS, apparently.

[Jotari]

22 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Oh, right, I forgot Sacred Stones was this year's Valentine's/Devoted Banner.

Well, there's always(?) next time. I'd still find it puzzling if the game reaches EoS and they never did Bridal!Eirika...

That is very strange considering Bridal Eirika is the only default Bridee class we have in the entire series.

[ARMADS!!!]

2 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

Not gonna lie, I forgot Olivia existed. And so has IS, apparently.

And we used to have the Olivia dev back in... Until 2018 or 2019, I wonder what happened to him, was he fired? Did he become the Ursula dev? We'll never know.

2 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, Edelgard is a given, for starters.

I feel if there's a game they could forgo this route, it could be this one. Though they'd probably just do "Both Byleths + House Leaders" instead, as it's the "safe" lineup.

They could pick a House too (probably Black Eagles since It's where Edelgard is, + Dorothea fits the theme and they'd love to add Petra for the ethnic clothes) or maybe they'd just pick the most popular options, I mean were the brides from last year all of Robin's options? Didn't they just pick the options they wanted too?

2 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

Well, considering the last two years have been Roy + Roy's potential wives and Male Robin + Male Robin's exclusive potential wives, I half expect them to keep up that pattern with another male character with multiple marriage options. I suppose that means:

-Hector. Serra, Florina, Farina as his potentials. Maybe Sue and Rath to round out the banner as a Harmonic unit, just to give Roy his final potential bride who happened to be left off on his banner.

 Actually, Hector can't marry Serra, their support is platonic (but I'd be happy with bride Serra either way, I could see them adding her for the laughs), I could see them adding Matthew and Leila too or (or maybe Rath and Sue as you said, since Rath is one of Lyn's options and Sue is one of Roy's, or maybe Fiora and Florina since Fiora is the only of Eliwood's romantic option to not have a bridal alt and Florina has ship teasing with Lyn, and also because they seem to like bridal pegasus sisters, a "duo" with the 3 FE7 pegasus sisters as brides would be pretty neat).

 I actually wouldn't mind a "Hector's potential wives" banner since I already want Groom Hector anyway, and he has only 3 romantic options (and one of which is Lyn, who already got her bridal alt), and neither a "Seliph potencial wives" one since It'd mean both a decent FE4 banner and alts for the gen 2 FE4 characters, every other banner of this type would disappoint me.

 Since I spoke of pegasus sisters before, I think that - assuming they stop the "lord + harem" thing- Est and Palla might have a chance too. Also, I'd kill for bride Nyna and groom Camus.

[Acacia Sgt]

58 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

They could pick a House too (probably Black Eagles since It's where Edelgard is, + Dorothea fits the theme and they'd love to add Petra for the ethnic clothes) or maybe they'd just pick the most popular options, I mean were the brides from last year all of Robin's options? Didn't they just pick the options they wanted too?

That could be an option too, I suppose.

Yes, they were all the non-Spotpass Robin-only brides.

58 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

 Actually, Hector can't marry Serra, their support is platonic (but I'd be happy with bride Serra either way, I could see them adding her for the laughs), I could see them adding Matthew and Leila too or (or maybe Rath and Sue as you said, since Rath is one of Lyn's options and Sue is one of Roy's, or maybe Fiora and Florina since Fiora is the only of Eliwood's romantic option to not have a bridal alt and Florina has ship teasing with Lyn, and also because they seem to like bridal pegasus sisters, a "duo" with the 3 FE7 pegasus sisters as brides would be pretty neat).

It's curious how they never did a "duo trio" again. Would certainly be neat to see that happening again, even if it's again with a Pegasus Sister Trio.

58 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

Also, I'd kill for bride Nyna and groom Camus.

Oh man, now imagine if Nyna was in a duo with Tatiana.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

That could be an option too, I suppose.

Yes, they were all the non-Spotpass Robin-only brides.

It's curious how they never did a "duo trio" again. Would certainly be neat to see that happening again, even if it's again with a Pegasus Sister Trio.

Oh man, now imagine if Nyna was in a duo with Tatiana.

Is there a set pattern for duos or harmonics? Because Nyna as a duo with Hardin could actually be great in how much it actually subverts happy newly weds.

[Etrurian emperor]

6 hours ago, ARMADS!!! said:

Actually, Hector can't marry Serra, their support is platonic

To the relief of all of Ostia I imagine.  

[ARMADS!!!]

19 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

To the relief of all of Ostia I imagine.  

But unfortunately she can marry Oswin, I'd rather if Hector was an option to her than Oswin (although I do like Hector/Serra's support as it is, It's just that it is... Completely bizarre that she can marry Oswin).

[X-Naut]

No harem pandering theme, no harem pandering theme, no harem pandering theme...

[Acacia Sgt]

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

Is there a set pattern for duos or harmonics? Because Nyna as a duo with Hardin could actually be great in how much it actually subverts happy newly weds.

Hmm, not that I can think of.

Eh... I'd rather not. Would be unlikely, anyway. It goes against the spirit/concept of the banner.

2 hours ago, ARMADS!!! said:

But unfortunately she can marry Oswin, I'd rather if Hector was an option to her than Oswin (although I do like Hector/Serra's support as it is, It's just that it is... Completely bizarre that she can marry Oswin).

Wait, what's the problem that Oswin is one of her options?

[EricaofRenais]

I wonder if it will be a duo or harmonic this year?  The last 3 years have had harmonics, though I personally would prefer for this banner to be a duo since I like seeing canon couples together.  Personally I would like Rath, Sue, Naesala, Leanne, Mae and Boey in some type of combination.  I miss the bridal banners that had several different games on them and not the guy and his harem like the past 2 years.  I would be really happy if Sue and Petra ended up on it because I love it when the "bride" is not in a western style dress for a change, I get tired of the boring white dresses that all honestly look the same save for some minor details.

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, EricaofRenais said:

I wonder if it will be a duo or harmonic this year?  The last 3 years have had harmonics, though I personally would prefer for this banner to be a duo since I like seeing canon couples together.  Personally I would like Rath, Sue, Naesala, Leanne, Mae and Boey in some type of combination.  I miss the bridal banners that had several different games on them and not the guy and his harem like the past 2 years.  I would be really happy if Sue and Petra ended up on it because I love it when the "bride" is not in a western style dress for a change, I get tired of the boring white dresses that all honestly look the same save for some minor details.

You'd think every bridal banner would be duos so they can put actual married couples together. But I guess any two random woken paired up from across the series has better sales metrics.

[ARMADS!!!]

13 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Wait, what's the problem that Oswin is one of her options?

 I mean... It's not like It's the worst romantic option in the series but It's a generally disliked one (must be the only possible pairing from FE7 that I've never seen anyone defend or actually ship), first because she's 16 and he's on his 30s and that's even acknowledged during the support (sure, it doesn't matter for them as much as it does for us since It's a medieval setting, but It's a bit akin to Roy-Cecilia or to Oifrey's options in FE4), second because the whole support seems like an everyday conversation between the two with zero romantic undertone (even if Serra does say things like "Oh, you so love me!" some times, it just felt like how she talks to everyone) but then they suddenly get married in the epilogue (and to top it, it's because Serra annoyed Oswin into marrying her until he accepted), they don't even have any chemistry at all, so it feels odd they chose them as an option for each other at all, from all the cast. They could even have just scrapped that epilogue and left the support as it was, cause It's an alright support by itself.

22 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Yes, they were all the non-Spotpass Robin-only brides.

It's curious how they never did a "duo trio" again. Would certainly be neat to see that happening again, even if it's again with a Pegasus Sister Trio.

Oh man, now imagine if Nyna was in a duo with Tatiana.

Ah! Ok, they're Robin-ONLY brides, I thought they were all of the options for Robin to marry and found it odd cause I was sure he had more options.

 Yeah, I don't know why not, maybe it worked with the pegasus knights as kids cause Est was a toddler so they only needed to fit two people into the screen anyway (Palla as the main unit and Catria (holding Est) as the backpack) or something, but I'm not sure, maybe I'm just trying to think of a justification where there's none... In any case, I hope they do it again someday.

 That'd be pretty sick, I'd like a Nyna/Tatiana duo! That could be a nice excuse to put Mae and Boey (or just more non Alm/Celica/Whitewings SoV characters in general, they need alts) into the banner too.

 

 Well, we just had the Awakening child banner so I think I can safely bet on it not being Robin's options, one threat is out of the way, now they just have to not make it about Byleth's or Corrin's harems too and I'm gonna be sorta alright with almost anything. Although, as much as I don't want it to be about 3 Houses and as much as I'm tired of Edelgard's alts, I always thought that a bride Edelgard would look good using something remembering her post timeskip crown (also Dorothea fits the theme and I'd admitedly would like Petra cause I like the "ethnic" bridal dresses) so I might even not mind too much if It's Byleth's harem, even if I still prefer it to not be anyone's harem and to have canon couples and characters related to the theme like we used to.

[Acacia Sgt]

14 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

 I mean... It's not like It's the worst romantic option in the series but It's a generally disliked one (must be the only possible pairing from FE7 that I've never seen anyone defend or actually ship), first because she's 16 and he's on his 30s and that's even acknowledged during the support (sure, it doesn't matter for them as much as it does for us since It's a medieval setting, but It's a bit akin to Roy-Cecilia or to Oifrey's options in FE4), second because the whole support seems like an everyday conversation between the two with zero romantic undertone (even if Serra does say things like "Oh, you so love me!" some times, it just felt like how she talks to everyone) but then they suddenly get married in the epilogue (and to top it, it's because Serra annoyed Oswin into marrying her until he accepted), they don't even have any chemistry at all, so it feels odd they chose them as an option for each other at all, from all the cast. They could even have just scrapped that epilogue and left the support as it was, cause It's an alright support by itself.

Hmm, I see.

14 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

Yeah, I don't know why not, maybe it worked with the pegasus knights as kids cause Est was a toddler so they only needed to fit two people into the screen anyway (Palla as the main unit and Catria (holding Est) as the backpack) or something, but I'm not sure, maybe I'm just trying to think of a justification where there's none... In any case, I hope they do it again someday.

This reminds me we have a duo that's Hector and Lilina as their Blazing Blade epilogue selves. So young child Lilina, which Hector is carrying all the time. Could've had the same logic there and had a third person. But yeah, hopefully they do a trio again.

14 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

That'd be pretty sick, I'd like a Nyna/Tatiana duo! That could be a nice excuse to put Mae and Boey (or just more non Alm/Celica/Whitewings SoV characters in general, they need alts) into the banner too.

Yeah, can work if it's mostly Valentian representation. It's worth pointing out Valentia has no appearances yet in the Bridal banner... technically. Catria is considered her Valentian self in her Bridal duo with Thea, but that's kinda cheating.

14 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

 Well, we just had the Awakening child banner so I think I can safely bet on it not being Robin's options, one threat is out of the way, now they just have to not make it about Byleth's or Corrin's harems too and I'm gonna be sorta alright with almost anything. Although, as much as I don't want it to be about 3 Houses and as much as I'm tired of Edelgard's alts, I always thought that a bride Edelgard would look good using something remembering her post timeskip crown (also Dorothea fits the theme and I'd admitedly would like Petra cause I like the "ethnic" bridal dresses) so I might even not mind too much if It's Byleth's harem, even if I still prefer it to not be anyone's harem and to have canon couples and characters related to the theme like we used to.

Or even just have it be random selection across multiple games, as it was in the earliest banners. But I'll admit I like it better when banners are themed.

[Jotari]

25 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Or even just have it be random selection across multiple games, as it was in the earliest banners. But I'll admit I like it better when banners are themed.

Theme it around diaster couples.  I've already suggested Hardin and Nyna, but we also have Prince Ashnard and Ameldha, Brendan and Sonia, Sombron and Zephia (though those latter two probably weren't married). Maybe an engaged Julius and Ishtar. Or even Alvis Deirdre couples. Actually,no, give us real fanservis. Cigyun and Victor.

Edited May 12 by Jotari