Fire Emblem Heroes General Discussion and Links

[Tybrosion]

4 minutes ago, Alkaid said:

I see 2 "summoning focus: new power" banners. Hmm, so maybe we'll get another wave of refines within just a couple more weeks? Guess I should conserve my remaining dew instead of splurging right now just in case.

That, or this coming banner could be highlighting the previous batch of refines. In other words, an all-red, all-Elibe banner of Young Lion Roy, Lilina, Fir and Karel.

Also, I like how there's exactly no break between this current illusory dungeon and the next one.

[Alkaid]

3 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

That, or this coming banner could be highlighting the previous batch of refines. In other words, an all-red, all-Elibe banner of Young Lion Roy, Lilina, Fir and Karel.

Also, I like how there's exactly no break between this current illusory dungeon and the next one.

Oh yeah, that's true.  I'd already forgotten about them.

I'm happy to see TT starts right when the seasonal banner does. Bless IS for the extra orbs right on time for it.

[EricaofRenais]

Oh good a TT+ so I can get more orbs, it is a shame I have to wait two weeks though.  I would guess it will be brides related and maybe we will get a free one.  I wonder if there is any chance of it being a grooms banner this time?  I don't think that will happen since IS seems to hate the thought of a banner with just guys on it even if it would be nice.  Well at least it looks like I can start saving orbs again until Vector comes back on a legendary banner.  The VG will probably be brides related as well, which means team Bridelia all the way for me.

[Humanoid]

So Grand Conquest gets run twice as often as Tempest Trials. *sigh*

Notably it looks like the only orbs we'll be getting (besides regular login and arena ones) during the duration of the current Genealogy banner are the tap battle ones, half the GC ones and the weapon workout quest ones. That's not many. The bulk of the orbs for the month will arrive the week after.

[Alkaid]

40 minutes ago, Lewyn said:

The huge bottom lip (most anime characters have thin lips), large nose (for an anime character at least), monkeyish ears, large mouth pearly white teeth just are all offensive.  He isn't dumb necessarily but not exactly smart.  He is also quite foul mouthed, and comes off uneducated...also a bad stereotype.  This is coupled with how few black characters one encounters in anime and Japanese made video games and how ugly the history of that generally is.  

I would think since this is a global phenomenon they would be a bit more careful in depiction of black characters.  

Isn't it way more racist to see features that are "monkeyish" and a lack of intelligence and think the character is supposed to be black?

Surtr, Laegjarn or Laevetine have a similar skin tone and I haven't seen them be considered black. They all just seem like just some toasty-skinned fire land people. As for his features and behavior, he just seems like a standard wild barbarian-type guy, not any kind of race caricature. Now Basalio is a character I think we can all agree is actually supposed to be black, and he's a cool dude.

[Vaximillian]

34 minutes ago, mcsilas said:

New calendar is out

@Vaximillian yay another TT+!

It’s too late. It won’t help me with Ishtar. The only thing that would is grand conquest, but that’s only 12 orbs instead of 42, and even these are very tedious to obtain thanks to the lances.

[Tybrosion]

6 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

It’s too late. It won’t help me with Ishtar.

They can however help you with Julia come June, though. They were even kind enough to schedule a seasonal banner after the FE4 banner so as to give you all the more reason to save.

[Alkaid]

4 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

It’s too late. It won’t help me with Ishtar. The only thing that would is grand conquest, but that’s only 12 orbs instead of 42, and even these are very tedious to obtain thanks to the lances.

Good luck. Sometimes last minute clutch pulls are the most powerful.

[Ivy Wife Supremacy]

Speaking of story I just notice something off I just realized...

Spoiler

-Ylgr somehow knew our name without even being introduce yet since Fjorm was coughing.

-She insisted on joining up with the group, and we didn't get a free unit out of it (which should make sense this time since she's supposed to now be with us right?)

-Not 1 single mention on her when we meet her on what happened to her big sister or brother since she was obviously so worried about them earlier.

-She somehow got away from enemy captivity all by herself....

-Anna is suspicious of her 

Case in point=she's Loki in disguise

Looks like its not looking more good for the real Yglr...

 

 

[Humanoid]

2 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

It’s too late. It won’t help me with Ishtar. The only thing that would is grand conquest, but that’s only 12 orbs instead of 42, and even these are very tedious to obtain thanks to the lances.

With the addition of tier 21-25, GC is 14 orbs in total, however since the banner ends during round 2 of the event, 11 orbs is the more realistic figure (subtracting 1 for the third round quest orb, and 2 for the tier 23 and 25 orbs which would not be realistically obtainable in two rounds).

Tap Battle might have a few extra orbs at least from new levels being added.

The last set of Weapon Workout quests were worth, umm, two orbs.

[Rukina]

45 minutes ago, Book Bro said:

I don't get why they're adding so many OCs this story arc. We have Surtr and his two daughters, Fjorm and her three siblings, Loki, and Helbindi. Am I missing anyone? That's a lot especially since book 1 only introduced Alfonse, Sharena, Victoria, and Bruno, and didn't conclude its story yet.

I think they decided to step up their game since Fire Emblem Heroes is performing so well.

[Kaden]

@Lewyn, I know I am willingly stepping on a landmine, but I have to ask: How? Why? And what?

I saw a comment on Reddit mentioning about Helbindi being a racist caricature and how ridiculous that was, but I did not believe such an idea would actually exist, instead, I thought it was some offhand comment. What even about Helbindi, design and characterization, is a racist caricature let alone a racist caricature of African people?

6 hours ago, Lewyn said:

He is dark skinned...

So far, every character from Muspell shown on-screen has brown-grey skin. Helbindi is no exception. There are probably people from Muspell with different skin colors, but if three Muspell characters have brown-grey skin, is it really out there for a fourth one to have brown-grey skin too?

6 hours ago, Lewyn said:

...with really exaggerated ugly facial features...

I'm going to skip the ugly part for now and return to it later.

It's a game and one with anime, manga, comic, cartoon art styles. Most art styles, including some realistic art styles, have exaggerated facial features and expressions or the opposite with understated facial features and sometimes expressions. In both cases, they can enhance how a character appears to us, the audience, either by emphasizing emotions, archetypes, and, yes, stereotypes, or by letting us fill in the blanks. For comics, animated films, and games that go for non-realistic, stylized, what have you art, this is important since they're going to need to give you as much information as possible and as close or relatable to humans as possible given they are probably not going to try to capture every single detail a realistic medium or art style would go for. Now, for characters like Helbindi, such as Eldigan, Hector, Raven, MG!Robin, and Surtr who are known as fierce warriors and fierce people, their facial expressions when they're angry are definitely exaggerated to not only indicate their anger, but also to magnify their anger which in my opinion, is a wonderful thing because they look badass.

6 hours ago, Lewyn said:

He is dark skinned with really exaggerated ugly facial features like how African Americans were depicted before the civil rights era in many trinkets and such

I have no idea how this is connected to African people. Actually, I do in the sense of where you're trying to get at, but I don't in the sense of I have no idea how Helbindi having dark skin and "really exaggerated ugly facial features" equates to him being like racist caricatures of African Americans before the Civil Rights era.

I already talked about this separately, but if I were to combine the two, then it would still not point to Helbindi being a racist caricature of African people. Dark skinned and ugly or ugly and dark skinned are things that humans have judged people before the notion of racism as we know it today. It was hierarchical and based on observations of what happened and appeared to be so. If you were dark skinned or tanned, then that probably meant you were some poor bastard peasant working out in the sun all day. You were probably ugly too because everyone knows that the fortunate can't be ugly. Your crappy situation is probably because you were a sinner in a past life or something, so your ugliness is a reflection of that. Dark skin and ugly would be equated with poverty and being in the lower class while the opposite, light skin and beautiful would be equated with wealth and being in the upper class.

Asia, Europe, and probably the rest of the world has those thoughts or similar to them. I can't pull up sources for Asia, but I grew up with people saying having light skin was a good thing and it not a European, Asians want to be white, racist thing. It's an Asian, a human, hierarchical thing. How about a look at how Japan portrays country folk in their media? Distinct accents that are played off as cute at times, but also mark them as being the other. And of course, darker skin than people from the city. The United States does the same thing. Southern folk talk mighty different from city folk and it don't matter if they black, white, brown, red, or yellow. Of course, the US also has stuff like southern belles where people from the south are considered beautiful, clean, and tidy, but then you think about how that's being categorized, marketed, and perhaps fetishized. Or the opposite where you have white trash, poor, dirty whites who speak improperly, are ugly, drug addicted, and probably inbred.

Considering Helbindi and a lot of stuff from Heroes and other Fire Emblem games are based on Norse mythology, how about a story that talks about hierarchy? "The Lay of Rig" is a poem about the god Heimdall who disguises himself as a man named Rig. He travels the realm and meets different people each pretty much representing different classes of society as it was seen, known, observed to be, whatever. The first people he meets are an old couple of great-grandparents who live in a farm hut without a door. They give him crappy food of stale bread and broth and when their first child is born, he is described as, and I quote because I have a goddamn book with the poem in it and had to read it for a class before, "a dark-skinned baby" and given the name of Thrall. A thrall is defined as a slave, servant, or captive. Thrall grows up to have "wrinkled skin, / knobbly knuckles, / thick fingers" and his face was described as "ill-favored". The great-grandparents gives birth to other children with similar descriptions. There's a couple other sections after that, but I'm going to skip to a later part of a child named Jarl, a jarl is basically a chief, being born who was "blond of hair, / bright of cheek, / he had eyes as piercing / as a young serpent's". Apparently this poem is available online. Here's a link to it: https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/rig.html.

Anyway, this poem, which I should remind everyone should not be taken at face value, was written long before racism, at least modern racism, existed. Now, people from the Middle East did travel to Scandinavia and Scandinavians did travel to the Middle East or lived near Turkey that very least -- look it up, it's fascinating --, but I doubt that Scandinavians or people in general way back then had the same notions of racism as people do now. They definitely had hierarchical perceptions of people, however. It was probably, "Hey, Olaf, there's a black guy over there. He's probably foreign. Oh look, there's Olav tending the fields as usual. He looks uglier than my ass's ass", rather than "Hey, Olaf, there's a black guy over there. He's probably some savage animal who's inferior to us. Also, Olav is uglier than Olga's mother." Helbindi being from Muspell would explain his dark skin, but if you really want to go further, then him being a poor person from Muspell or a poor person in general, would explain his dark skin, "ugly facial features", and shit life. His dark skin and "ugly facial features" do not, however, explain how he's a racial caricature of African people.

Would you like other examples of poor people who are dark skinned, "ugly", and from the country in Fire Emblem? Donnel, Niles, and Vaike. Donnel's not that noticeable, but he's tanner than most of the Shepherds and his accent while a defining trait of his and could be considered funny, cute, or attractive, becomes darker when you think about it as something that marks him as a country bumpkin. Niles and Vaike are poor guys who have dark skin just like Helbindi. Niles differs in that he chose crime to survive, but does have an element of "ugliness" in being permanently scarred by his missing eye. Vaike is closer to Helbindi as just another muscle for a ruling elite. Fighting is all they are told to do and know. They, like Helbindi, are just examples of long-held, widespread stereotypes of poor people being dark skinned, "ugly", and different.

In other words, humans are fucking assholes.

Man, if you want the opposite of this, I remember one of either Guan Yu or Zhang Fei's sons being described as having dark skin almost black or something and he was considered a hero. I would not be surprised if many other deities and stories from all over had heroes or benevolent figures with dark skin, so what does that really have to do with Helbindi? Rinkah and the Fire Tribe are basically the oni of Japanese mythology. Is she and the Fire Tribe a racist caricature of African people or minorities in general? What, with their dark skin, native clothing, and possibly an association with savageness?

6 hours ago, Lewyn said:

and he is even called 'savage scourge'

And Tobin is known as a "The Clueless One", so your point being? If Helbindi was light skinned, white, and had the same title, would it make a difference?

6 hours ago, Lewyn said:

and obviously not very smart

How the hell can anyone know this from one chapter featuring Helbindi? He had only several lines of text and none of them as far as I remember, indicated he was a blithering idiot. All I get from his text and current voiced lines is that he's a rough and tumble, blunt guy with a very pessimistic outlook on life. Actually, he kind of reminds me of Brady who's a delinquent with a soft side type of character. Seriously, what about him is unintelligent? If anything, I think he's pretty smart at least on the survival side of things. He advises Ylgr to live another day because that's what he's been doing all his life and for his family in a rotten world he's stuck in. Given a different, more pleasant opportunity, I would not be surprised if he jumped to it if he could take his family with him.

Fjorm said his cruelty or whatever was probably what got him up to the rank of a general. Perhaps he is cruel, perhaps he isn't. Nobody knows, but I do know that Fjorm judged him before he could say anything and even then Helbindi probably does not care. If anything, Helbindi's just a soldier being told what to do and when you're a soldier, especially one under a tyrant like Surtr, you do as you're told and you do not even think to question what you are doing. In other words, he is not going to be able to demonstrate any sort of intelligence outside of combat and tactical intelligence which given that he is a general of Muspell and that his weapon's effect to me implies he would try to keep his men and allies strong, so they can fight better, he's probably a decent and capable leader and tactician, but hey, it's only one chapter and he only appears in two of its maps.

6 hours ago, Lewyn said:

...African Americans... the design is very insulting.

What even about his design is African, specifically a racist caricature of African people, culture, whatever? He looks like any other berserker in Fire Emblem, but with a Heroes/Muspell style of armor. Wields an axe, has ridiculous strength, isn't fully clothed of which men are usually topless, and wears ragged armor. All of which could be considered sexualization of both men and women since Fates had playable female berserkers. Oh, look at that toned, muscled body of that savage warrior. Are there any elements of stereotyped African armor and clothing and if so where? For Helbindi, other than having dark skin of which I do not, I absolutely do not, have to remind anyone that people other than African people can have dark skin, what else makes him look like a stereotypical African man? Does he have some ridiculous afro, Jheri curls, or something? Do not start with me with dreadlocks when anyone can have that. That lip thing only appears in his idle art and it makes him look like he's trying to scowl in a ridiculous way. His attacking and injured art doesn't say anything with his lips belonging to anyone, but Helbindi.

And I leave it with that. For the record, I will not respond to you or anyone on this topic any further. I was already against the idea of even thinking to respond to what I think is an absolutely ridiculous idea because of how much it enraged me that such an idea even existed. Seriously? Helbindi a racist caricature of African people? He's just another goddamned thug with a soft spot archetype who happens to have brown-grey skin because he's from Muspell like Laegjarn, Laevatein, and Surtr. If he didn't or if the people from Muspell didn't what would he be? I'll pull one: a racist caricature of Europeans. Ditto for Bartre, Gonzalez, and other dumb meatheads in Fire Emblem and other games made by Japanese and/or Asian developers. Wouldn't you know it, but way back in the day, Japanese people thought of Europeans as uncivilized barbarians. Why? Because once again, humans are fucking assholes. Fucking burn this goddamned planet to the ground if we actually had dragons.

I am expecting to be banned at this point and I do not care because I am that angry at everything right now.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Kaden

[Medeus]

I'll ignore the design bit as I don't want to jump into that can of worms, but what about Helbindi makes it apparent that he's dumb? While he's not given any opportunity to show strategy, I wouldn't call him stupid as he shows a clear awareness of the world and people around him and how to respond to it. He knows that using his strength will get him to move up in the ranks and he uses that to get him and his sister in good graces for both of their benefits, he's not a fool and knows that Surtr will gladly burn him alive if he fails (and Askr likely wouldn't give him any sympathy since he's the enemy), and he also plays to Ylgr's hatred so that she would eat and remain healthy. Nothing about that indicates that he's a dimwit, if anything, it shows he's pretty smart as his actions are based on surviving and adapting to the environment around him. 

He is a brute, I agree with that, but nothing about the character indicates he's any dumber then most of the characters from the archetype he fits in. 

[Sunwoo]

4 hours ago, Sarracenia said:

We might have one less female oc by the end of this story arc since Fjorm used herself as an offering for the Rite of Frost and became ill afterward.  She might slowly be on her way out or sacrifice herself to protect someone before death catches up.

Being dead doesn't stop her from already being playable or summonable though, as already proven by another OC in the previous chapter.

[Alkaid]

1 minute ago, Sunwoo said:

Being dead doesn't stop her from already being playable or summonable though, as already proven by another OC in the previous chapter.

I like how Gunnthra gets put on the download screen rotation despite being dead. Maybe it's just since she's a legendary hero, but perhaps they could bring her back with some voodoo magic later too.

[Vaximillian]

@Humanoid: I legitimately get put off by how stubbornly they continue to push unwanted “game modes” like rival domains+ and tap battle. “You don’t like this crap we’re churning out faster than you’d think? Shut up, sucker, and grab your largest shitspoon, because we’ve prepared even more”.

So yeah, it’s only about a dozen more orbs or so. This banner was not handled the best. Early announcement of the Thracia peeps was a good thing, and they should have done this since forever and until forever.

@Tybrosion: Why would Julia come in June?
…Ah, the BHB, right. I did get Azura from her BHB’s banner last time, after all. But Azura isn’t a Jugdral girl, so she doesn’t hate me by default.

@Alkaid: Nothing left but the hope.

@Kaden: I could sign my name under every word of your megapost. Resorting to stereotypes to call racism is just as, or even more, racist. Thank you for expressing my thoughts.

[Sunwoo]

Just now, Alkaid said:

I like how Gunnthra gets put on the download screen rotation despite being dead. Maybe it's just since she's a legendary hero, but perhaps they could bring her back with some voodoo magic later too.

Pretty much, yeah. The main point being that a character being dead in story mode doesn't stop them from being playable, or even summonable, so even if Fjorm dies for good in the story, she's still a playable unit and unless the developers want outrage they won't stop her from being playable because she's dead.

[redlight]

1 hour ago, Jingle Jangle said:

For the new Calendar, I wonder if the Tempest Trials are going to have a free bride unit? 

Extremely strong possibility. I also noticed there isn't a VG banner, but I recall there being none on the roadmap for the spring rerun one

Seliph and Julia BHB might be the chance for me to get Leif merges. Fingers crossed there isn't much bait in next new heroes and special heroes banner

Edited May 11, 2018 by silveraura25

[Tybrosion]

13 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

Why would Julia come in June?
…Ah, the BHB, right. I did get Azura from her BHB’s banner last time, after all. But Azura isn’t a Jugdral girl, so she doesn’t hate me by default.

Yeah and if you're lucky, Deirdre might be the third unit on that banner. All the same, I'd go for that banner if I were you since it might take almost a year for Julia to get on another banner which is still better than Linde never appearing on a banner again, but still.

[Sunwoo]

Also, why is the illusory dungeon event so long this month? It's a month. An entire month.

[Vaximillian]

2 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Yeah and if you're lucky, Deirdre might be the third unit on that banner. All the same, I'd go for that banner if I were you since it might take almost a year for Julia to get on another banner which is still better than Linde never appearing on a banner again, but still.

That would be a dream come true, heh. In a week there will be the anniversary of Linde’s last appearance on the banner. At least she’s got some, unlike folks like Luke or Saber who’ve never had business staying locked…

1 minute ago, Sunwoo said:

Also, why is the illusory dungeon event so long this month? It's a month. An entire month.

Because someone on the team loves it excessively more than necessary for some reason.

[Sentinel07]

21 minutes ago, Alkaid said:

I like how Gunnthra gets put on the download screen rotation despite being dead. Maybe it's just since she's a legendary hero, but perhaps they could bring her back with some voodoo magic later too.

Well it worked for Ninian, so why not.

[Humanoid]

Julia is the only unit I've specifically paid for in FEH (during her Hero Fest), and given that I was recovering from surgery and hopped up on painkillers at the time, this will probably remain the case forever.

My only other spending was one pack to complete the final circle during the first Legendary banner, the BK pack, and possibly one more that I have no real recollection of.

1 minute ago, Sunwoo said:

Also, why is the illusory dungeon event so long this month? It's a month. An entire month.

Hopefully when they say they'll add more levels after day 4, it means they'll keep adding new levels regularly through the entire month, instead of a token one-off extra 20 levels or whatever.

Otherwise it'll basically add up to two extra weeks of 100 feathers a day. God, that's depressing.

[redlight]

If they made Illusory Dungeon over the top memey then I'd love it. That Bartre, Arthur and Dorcas boss fight was memorable. Right now it's very barebones

[Alkaid]

Do even rhythm game fans like tap battle? I've mostly seen those who actually play those games say it's pretty meh. The music's not really suited for it, nor do the enemies really match up to the rhythm on hard difficulty, which kind of defeats the point imo.