Do you think they will break the pattern of Spring Macedonian alts this year?

[GrandeRampel]

It's already that time of the year again. The time when they release a Spring banner with characters dressed as rabbits and hares to celebrate a festival.

But the Spring banner comes with a certain tradition. Another one of the infamous "patterns" that the developers like to play with and break when you least expect it.

The first Spring banner only had characters from Awakening and Fates, which makes some sense as those were the only games at the time that established certain festivals connected with the passing of seasons existed in their world.

Nothing proves that such festivals don't also exist in Tellius, or Jugdral, or Magvel, or anywhere else. But in Ylisse and Nohr they were confirmed to exist already, so it made sense to pick certain characters from there to introduce the concept of not only Sping Heroes, but Seasonal Heroes in general.

One year later they started to branch out more and allow characters from games other than Fates and Awakening to receive seasonal alts. In the case of the Spring Banner they picked the macedonian Catria to be the only "older" character in the banner. Then one year later, they gave a Spring alt to her sister Palla, and the year after that was her other sister's turn.

They could have stopped there and simply settled with giving all the siblings a Spring alt so they could celebrate the festival together, but they kept going and gave Minerva and then Maria a Spring alt. Two sisters who are connected to Catria, Palla and Est, but most importantly they all just happen to come from the same country of Macedon.

So the developers clearly established a pattern of giving a Spring alt to a character from the kingdom of Macedon (only one character) every year.

And there are only two things they can do with patterns: maintain them, or break them.

So do you think they will finally break the pattern this year and give us something completely different?

Or will they maintain the pattern? And in that case, which character will get an alt?

Explain your choice in a comment, and if you'd like to you can also theorycraft the unit in question and guess what kind of unit they will be: premium, demote, Harmonic (are we getting an Harmonic Lena/Natasha perhaps)?

 

My gut tells me that they will keep this particular pattern for a few more years and that it will most likely be Michalis as a premium healer, both to reference his connection to Maria and to keep the streak of powerful new healer skills going.

Second most likely pick is Lena, also as a powerful 5* healer. But honestly I believe that her, her brother and Michalis are all guaranteed to get the bunny alt and it's just a matter of figuring out which one will get it first. It's Warren and Ymir that worry me. I think it is more likely for them to become a throwaway demote on a seasonal banner rather than on a New Heroes banner, but on the other hand it is even more likely that IS will forget about them entirely.

And I don't think Iote will seriously happen, but if he happens... I'd laugh so hard that he would become one of my favorite units in the game, no joke.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I don't see them breaking the pattern this year, especially after the entire story behind it last year was Maria hoping Michalis would join in on the fun. I can definitely see Michalis getting in on it this year, almost certainly as a demote. After that, I see Lena, Matthis, and Julian all joining in, should Heroes last that long.

[AnonymousSpeed]

I, for one, am ready to see Matthis in a bunny suit.

[Humanoid]

I like Michalis and he's definitely due an alt. I wonder if he'll be afflicted by seasonal freebie-itis though. Actually it wouldn't be a terrible result if he was the TT unit for me, since I can't afford to summon on this banner. As long as he's not an axe infantry of course, I already have my hands full with, uh, Hans, alongside Effie and Shez.

From a selfish perspective though, I'd be happy if the trend ended after that as I know next to nothing about the other characters named above.

[Othin]

Gotta do Michalis now. Lena and Matthis could be fun for future years, though.

[Ice Dragon]

Michalis seems to be the most likely contender for this year's banner. After that, I don't think they'll continue the theme. They'll have done the Whitewings and the Macedonian royals, and I think that's enough to call it a wrap.

[Tybrosion]

Honestly, I'll be actually angry if they don't give us Spring Michalis on this next banner. They've committed to this Spring Macedon bit for literally five straight Spring banners (out of six total). IS better not back out of it now that have to give us a male character.

That said, supposedly the the lineup for the Spring TT banner leaked and, if true, it will have [SPOILERS]:

Spoiler

Karla, Bernadetta and Minerva.

I can see no other reason for Minerva being on the TT banner other than her being a stand in for Michalis (who can't be on the banner due to be a GHB unit).

[Fire Emblem Fan]

1 hour ago, Tybrosion said:

Honestly, I'll be actually angry if they don't give us Spring Michalis on this next banner. They've committed to this Spring Macedon bit for literally five straight Spring banners (out of six total). IS better not back out of it now that have to give us a male character.

That said, supposedly the the lineup for the Spring TT banner leaked and, if true, it will have [SPOILERS]:

  Reveal hidden contents

Karla, Bernadetta and Minerva.

I can see no other reason for Minerva being on the TT banner other than her being a stand in for Michalis (who can't be on the banner due to be a GHB unit).

Yep, Michalis. I'm not surprised. No comment about Bernadetta. But, Karla? I know Blazing Blade is due to be a Harmonic lead, but...Karla? I guess since Bartre and Fir both got spring alts, it makes sense. But there's so many other far more popular Blazing characters who've gotten next to nothing. Matthew, Rebecca, Florina, Sain, etc. Eh, at least Blazing gets something, I guess.

[Sunwoo]

That spoiler.

Guys, is Karla even actually popular? Because I certainly don't remember her being popular before Heroes. I just remember people saying she was a late, Hector's mode only unit that forced you to fucking use Bartre and wasn't even that good when you got her. Is there a Karladev or something? Because unless she's a backpack I see no reason why she should get a spring alt when the Hatari banner wasn't that long ago and a lot of FE7 characters have only their shitty base form. I don't like Serra and she'd probably be a better fit for this than Karla.

[Ether]

Karla isnt a particularly popular character, no. Shes hovered slightly above 300 the last few years. One thing in her favour is that Fir and Bartre have both gotten spring alts before, but more likely than not they have data saying that Karla is a popular character among whales, which would counterbalance low overall popularity.

[Tybrosion]

19 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

That spoiler.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Guys, is Karla even actually popular? Because I certainly don't remember her being popular before Heroes. I just remember people saying she was a late, Hector's mode only unit that forced you to fucking use Bartre and wasn't even that good when you got her. Is there a Karladev or something? Because unless she's a backpack I see no reason why she should get a spring alt when the Hatari banner wasn't that long ago and a lot of FE7 characters have only their shitty base form. I don't like Serra and she'd probably be a better fit for this than Karla.

 

Spoiler

Karla is not particularly popular at all. Among about twenty other FE7 characters, Uther ranked higher than Karla in CYL7.

Besides Fir and Bartre being used for this theme already (albeit three Spring banners ago), the only guess I have as to why Karla might be on the Spring banner is convenience. She shares her Japanese VA with Elise (who of course just got an alt herself).

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by Tybrosion

[Sunwoo]

8 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

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Karla is not particularly popular at all. Among about twenty other FE7 characters, Uther ranked higher than Karla in CYL7.

Besides Fir and Bartre being used for this theme already (albeit three Spring banners ago), the only guess I have as to why Karla might be on the Spring banner is convenience. She shares her Japanese VA with Elise (who of course just got an alt herself).

 

I guess that makes a bit more sense if it's really the Fir and Bartre connection, and having the same VA as Elise. But if that was the case I kinda wish they had picked someone else besides her for the Hatari banner.

Also, it's kind of weird that both Bartre alts we've had have been old Bartre. Not sure how we got two Bartres without at least one of them repping FE7. Unless IS conveniently wants certain people to forget that Karla married Bartre or something because of waifu reasons.

[XRay]

I can see Michalis this year. I am assuming he might not get an exclusive Weapon this year, since it seems like exclusive Weapons skip a year.
Catria: Spring Whitewing got Huginn's Egg.
Palla: Eldest Bun-Bun got Pegasus Carrot+.
Est: Springtime Flier got Eagle's Egg.
Minerva: Verdant Dragoon got Spring Lance+.
Maria: Sunny Smile got Pastel Poleaxe.

It would be nice and pretty cool if they can do Iote next year though. Neutralize all effective damage would be nice, and giving that as a status effect to allies would be cool. Maybe turn him into a flying Far Save unit that can protect allies within three spaces.

[Tybrosion]

23 minutes ago, XRay said:

I can see Michalis this year. I am assuming he might not get an exclusive Weapon this year, since it seems like exclusive Weapons skip a year.

Michalis isn't going to get a Prf weapon because he's a dude that isn't mega popular. And even if you are a very popular and/or important male, you might still not get a Prf weapon (see: Summer Lyon and Masque Sothe last year). 

[Sunwoo]

Heck, even Minerva didn't get a prf weapon on the spring banner (and was even a 4-star).

[Troykv]

I voted for Michalis because I'm expecting him to be the next Macedonian, but I would love if Lena also appeared.

[X-Naut]

If it ain't Michalis then I will... not finish that line because I don't want to be held to anything stupid if I'm wrong.

For real though, bring him on. Gotta complete the second sibling trio and there's a "grouchy sibling who hates being dragged into this" slot with his name on it!

[Mercakete]

I really hope we get Bunny Michalis. No idea if IS considers him part of the group, though (but if they included Maria, then they really should. The only reason they wouldn't consider him part of the Macedon Party is that he's a guy, since that's basically the one thing separating him from the others.) That said, I really like the idea of Iote coming to FEH someday. This would be a hilarious way to do it, too. (Not before Michalis, though.)

Edited March 3, 2023 by Mercakete

[Ice Dragon]

@Sunwoo

Spoiler

Old Bartre at least has his "annoying, doting dad" gig going on, whereas young Bartre is basically just a sentient brick.

 

[Sunwoo]

7 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

@Sunwoo

  Hide contents

Old Bartre at least has his "annoying, doting dad" gig going on, whereas young Bartre is basically just a sentient brick.

 

I actually have a soft spot for his younger version, where he apparently forgot Karla was a woman because he saw her as a formidable and worthy rival above all else