Special Heroes: No Matter Where

[Fire Emblem Fan]

The trailer for this month's Special Heroes dropped, and uh...uh! Ahem, we get Hector, Eliwood, and Rebecca, as expected. But then, we get Lucius as the TT+ unit, and...holy heck, a Duo of MARK and Lyn, with MARK as the lead. WHAT?!

[Acacia Sgt]

Ascot, is that you?

Seriously, he looks quite a lot like Ascot from Rayearth. XD

[Aedan7479]

MARK?! When I first saw the thumbnail I thought it was a young Brammimond for some reason, but no it's MARK. Timeline shenanigans aside, that's kinda cool?

[Sunwoo]

... Mark couldn't fight even as an adult. Heck, this art of Mark makes them look male even though players could choose Mark's gender. And since they couldn't give Mark a voice ... it's basically Lyn doing all the talking? This feels dumb.

Promoting Mark to a fighter reminds me of the irritating thing Heroes is doing by trying to pretend that the summoner-tactician, who apparently isn't a fighter according to the earliest Heroes, is capable of fighting. And apparently tacticians are all somehow good at magic (looking at you guys too, Robin and Soren and Saias). Just why.

On the bright side, Rebecca comes with atk/spd finish 3.

[Some Jerk]

That is not the duo I expected.

I will not be rolling. The Mark idea is cute and that Duo Skill is insane, but my priorities lie elsewhere and nothing on the banner interests me.

[Acacia Sgt]

1 minute ago, Sunwoo said:

Promoting Mark to a fighter reminds me of the irritating thing Heroes is doing by trying to pretend that the summoner-tactician, who apparently isn't a fighter according to the earliest Heroes, is capable of fighting. And apparently tacticians are all somehow good at magic (looking at you guys too, Robin and Soren and Saias). Just why.

Well, FE has long tied magic with intellect. At least with Dark and Anima magic. To the point it's Reason Magic in Three Houses. Thus, to have the intellect to be a tactician, you have the intellect to wield magic. At least, it seems to be the logic they're using. I think.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

This makes me wonder what they're going to do when we get the next New Heroes banner for Blazing Blade, because now Mark is apparently an option.

[Sunwoo]

Just now, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, FE has long tied magic with intellect. At least with Dark and Anima magic. To the point it's Reason Magic in Three Houses. Thus, to have the intellect to be a tactician, you have the intellect to wield magic. At least, it seems to be the logic they're using. I think.

If that's the logic they're using, it's a bad one.

Otherwise, I demand that Innes get a super overpowered magic alt too.

[Othin]

I love it.

[Florete]

Lma-to-the-freaking-o. If I'd seen that Lyn/Mark art outside the trailer I'd have thought it was a hoax, not because it's bad (it's not), but because I wouldn't believe the mad men at IS would actually do it.

7 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

... Mark couldn't fight even as an adult. Heck, this art of Mark makes them look male even though players could choose Mark's gender. And since they couldn't give Mark a voice ... it's basically Lyn doing all the talking? This feels dumb.

This is hardly the first time a non-fighter can fight in FEH (Merlinus, lots of dancers, etc).

Edited April 5, 2023 by Florete

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I'm definitely putting my priority on this banner, for now. I want everyone here. I like all of the art, everyone looks like a pretty good unit, and I like all of them as characters.

[Sunwoo]

1 minute ago, Florete said:

This is hardly the first time a non-fighter can fight in FEH (Merlinus, lots of dancers, etc).

The big difference is that the dancers and Merlinus are technically playable characters who are recruitable, killable, and show up on the map when the fighting happens, even if they couldn't fight back. Heroes couldn't add them without giving them a way to fight back, hence characters like Larum and Ninian/Nils and Tethys and Merlinus getting some way to fight back.

Mark may technically have a character sprite, but they are not present on the map during battle and can't be attacked if you carelessly leave them in harm's way/use them as bait, and barely had a canon appearance. It is not the same thing.

[Othin]

3 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

The big difference is that the dancers and Merlinus are technically playable characters who are recruitable, killable, and show up on the map when the fighting happens, even if they couldn't fight back. Heroes couldn't add them without giving them a way to fight back, hence characters like Larum and Ninian/Nils and Tethys and Merlinus getting some way to fight back.

Mark may technically have a character sprite, but they are not present on the map during battle and can't be attacked if you carelessly leave them in harm's way/use them as bait, and barely had a canon appearance. It is not the same thing.

August and living Rinea were never on the field. And throwing a ton of power where it shouldn't belong has always been part of the premise of the child banners.

[Florete]

5 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

The big difference is that the dancers and Merlinus are technically playable characters who are recruitable, killable, and show up on the map when the fighting happens, even if they couldn't fight back. Heroes couldn't add them without giving them a way to fight back, hence characters like Larum and Ninian/Nils and Tethys and Merlinus getting some way to fight back.

Mark may technically have a character sprite, but they are not present on the map during battle and can't be attacked if you carelessly leave them in harm's way/use them as bait, and barely had a canon appearance. It is not the same thing.

I think that's splitting hairs, yet still it wouldn't make Mark the first: Jorge is in FEH (as are the ones Othin mentioned above). 

[King Marth 64]

I wasn't expecting Mark to be involved in the banner. But, good thing what he looked like with the colors (he had Brown Hair like Leif) and the new artwork since we haven't seen him in his portrait nor fully shown in those GBA cutscenes since we merely see him bit far away.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I also just noticed that the only two ladies on this banner are Lyn and Rebecca, and one of them is the backup on the Duo unit, everyone else is a man. This is the first time they've given us a banner with more males than females in...well, a very long time.

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, Fire Emblem Fan said:

I also just noticed that the only two ladies on this banner are Lyn and Rebecca, and one of them is the backup on the Duo unit, everyone else is a man. This is the first time they've given us a banner with more males than females in...well, a very long time.

Lucius was a compromise choice.

[Dylan Corona]

Honestly not sure how I feel about Mark being added, but I know he was the first create your own unit. I just always liked that he could have been anyone. However, times change. I love how cute he is and how cute Lyn is and that Lyn talks for him.

I'll pull for him and then the others, but I'll get them all at least once I'm sure.

They must come from a strange timeline though. Mark and Lyn know each other, but they didn't meet till later and this Mark can fight. But FE does have a multiverse.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

4 minutes ago, Dylan Corona said:

Honestly not sure how I feel about Mark being added, but I know he was the first create your own unit. I just always liked that he could have been anyone. However, times change. I love how cute he is and how cute Lyn is and that Lyn talks for him.

I'll pull for him and then the others, but I'll get them all at least once I'm sure.

They must come from a strange timeline though. Mark and Lyn know each other, but they didn't meet till later and this Mark can fight. But FE does have a multiverse.

Well, in the stories they've given all of these kid banners so far, Thorr wipes their memories before sending them back home so they don't remember they were ever summoned to Heroes-world or met anyone there, so their timelines remain intact.

[Sunwoo]

5 minutes ago, Othin said:

August and living Rinea were never on the field. And throwing a ton of power where it shouldn't belong has always been part of the premise of the child banners.

3 minutes ago, Florete said:

I think that's splitting hairs, yet still it wouldn't make Mark the first: Jorge is in FEH (as are the ones Othin mentioned above). 

Legit forgot that August and Rinea even existed. Jorge is a choice that I still really dislike and disagree with, although more for botting reasons than anything else.

That said, I still feel that adding Mark is not a good move and that it's not really splitting hairs. Mark is different from August and Rinea and Jorge in that they're barely a character. They're an avatar minus the actual playability and with even less speech options than Byleth. Because Byleth at least had dialogue options the player could choose to pretend they were talking. Like, apparently Lyn the backpack has to do all the talking here. Was Mark even in CYL? I legitimately don't know.

Did they really have so few options that they had to make Mark a character on this child banner?

[Ice Dragon]

I have no idea what Mark is doing on this banner. I'm not entirely sold on leaving Mark completely voiceless, but I'll probably get over it pretty quickly.

Unless there are time shenanigans going on, Eliwood's exclusive skill and Mark being a duo with Lyn make zero sense. Eliwood feared dragons as much as everyone else up until it was revealed that Ninian was one, and Mark and Lyn had never met at this point (and Mark probably shouldn't even be in Elibe at this point).

We're getting Atk/Spd Finish 3 on a 4-star unit, but it's a Special Hero, as always. That's really irritating.

 

I'll probably try to +10 Rebecca and get a few extra copies for fodder. As with all other recent Special Hero banners, there's really no need to actually go for +10 on the premium units due to the Legendary Hero Arena bonus mechanic, and none of the premium units are big enough game changers to make me want to merge them up. I'll probably go for +0 on Hector and Eliwood. I might pull for more copies of Mark, but we'll see.

 

38 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Heck, this art of Mark makes them look male even though players could choose Mark's gender.

The only thing remotely masculine about Mark's art is that they have short hair. Children are generally pretty androgynous without hair and clothing styles as cues.

 

35 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, FE has long tied magic with intellect. At least with Dark and Anima magic. To the point it's Reason Magic in Three Houses. Thus, to have the intellect to be a tactician, you have the intellect to wield magic. At least, it seems to be the logic they're using. I think.

I mean, fantasy settings as a whole tend to tie magic with intelligence.

 

EDIT:

6 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Did they really have so few options that they had to make Mark a character on this child banner?

Novelty.

Edited April 5, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[King Marth 64]

1 minute ago, Dylan Corona said:

They must come from a strange timeline though. Mark and Lyn know each other, but they didn't meet till later and this Mark can fight. But FE does have a multiverse.

Well technically I think the Blazing Blade kids are going to lose their memories afterwards in the enemy side. The Archanean kids and Elibean kids did lose their memory after battle when Loki returned them back to their world.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

3 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Did they really have so few options that they had to make Mark a character on this child banner?

It was probably done because they wanted Eliwood and Hector to sell on their own, not bundled with Lyn, and they didn't have faith in the other options to lead Lyn in the Duo, those options being Florina and Rath. Not to mention Florina already shared a Duo with Lyn and there's no way they'd repeat it, even if they switched roles. So, they went completely out of the box and used Mark. It's also probably a test to see if Mark can sell.

[Diovani Bressan]

That's not a Lyn Alt... But it is a Lyn Alt, because she will be doing all the talking.

Even though I liked Mark being added... I hated that he is just a disguised for another Lyn.

Anyway, this banner is very good but still a skip. I have other priorities.

[Sunwoo]

8 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

The only thing remotely masculine about Mark's art is that they have short hair. Children are generally pretty androgynous without hair and clothing styles as cues.

He looks like a small Seto Kaiba.

6 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

It was probably done because they wanted Eliwood and Hector to sell on their own, not bundled with Lyn, and they didn't have faith in the other options to lead Lyn in the Duo, those options being Florina and Rath. Not to mention Florina already shared a Duo with Lyn and there's no way they'd repeat it, even if they switched roles. So, they went completely out of the box and used Mark. It's also probably a test to see if Mark can sell.

Realtalk, Lyn was never getting a duo with Rath anyway. Aside from Veronica+Xander (who have story interactions), 100% canon couples, sibling pairs, or Sothis+m!Byleth, we've never had a male/female duo or harmonic. Even Chrom and Robin's duo used the male Robin instead of the female one. You put Rath and Lyn together as a duo hero, and IS gonna get so much backlash from the crazies within Mark/Lyn shippers, Hector/Lyn shippers, Kent/Lyn shippers, and Florina/Lyn shippers. Even if the actual Rath/Lyn duo was not meant to be romantic. They're never going to risk that.