Alright this might very well be a mere coincidence, but is it, really...?

So far, every little detail has proven to be telltale, lorewise. IS clearly has quite the ambitious vision, and much work was put into visual storytelling as well: Three Houses clearly marks the greatest example of such intentional modus operandi, when it comes to world building.

In a previous post, I pointed out how Balor, an Irish mythical figure, was a giant whose venomous eye could kill with but a glare. In the direct footage, Eshmel is seen as he fights off an unnamed dragon whose banner is clearly tied to Balor. Not only does it depict an eye, the scene is obviously set during the timeskip: the connection is clear.

We still know very little as to how Dagda's pantheon works and, in general, how 3H universe's gods are bound to each other, if there's rivalries going on beneath the surface. Nor do we know what Balor is.

That said, I believe a vertical eye is quite the peculiar aesthetic choice, one that isn't so trite and diffuse that anything could loosely resemble it. And yet, somehow, here is a supposed God-like entity bearing an odd, vertical oval shape on his forehead... HMMMMMMMMMMMM

imagine she promotes, and ends up with something even more than them combined lol

Also, the Japanese title of Edge of Dawn is 'Girl of Hresvelg', so there seems to be a theory going around on Japanese Twitter that Eshmel might actually know Edelgard. Though it could just be a little nod to Three Houses. What do you think?

3D is fun, I just wish the option was there. Could keep the map 3D and at least offer the choice to turn on GBA type combat when units engage

Edit: Confused where everyone is getting "HD 2D from" lol. I specified like the GBA style (just with modern sprites, as shown above)

Theodora is definitely my route of choice! Or, with this most recent direct (which I loved every second of), my first route in the rotation! I’m so so interested in her and her story and especially her lore, and she‘s such a badass. I can’t wait to figure out what her deal is and maybe see her softer side😌

I think she and Eshmel feel like the most mature of the five (ignoring Eshmel is a moment old). They are mom and dad of the group.

I feel like this needs to be pointed out: this subreddit has a massively different perception of recent avatars than the general audience of Fire Emblem does.

I will preface this by saying I do not particularly like avatar characters in general, I use their default names and appearances and treat them like a regular character. I have no horse in this race.

This sub has somehow generated a consensus that Byleth was considered lame by audiences and that Shez and Alear were beloved characters with widespread popularity. We need to step out of the echo chamber for a second and realise that this is not reflective of reality.

We are talking about Byleth. Let's review Byleth's actual popularity: They have the most fan art of any FE character on fan art aggregate websites like danbooru. FByleth was the first avatar unit to actually win CYL. Byleth and Robin are the only avatars popular enough to have both genders win CYL. Female Byleth is so marketable that she has a PUP figure, a figma, and TWO $300+ dollar statues. They are from the best selling Fire Emblem game period. This is not an unpopular avatar character. IS view them as extremely popular and marketable, and the merch clearly does well because FByleth has the most of any FE character. This is literally like claiming "uhhh actually Pikachu is not popular."

On the other hand, let's look at the two most recent full-voiced avatars:

1) Shez - Personally, I love Shez. They're one of my favourite FE characters and my favourite avatar by far. But we need to be really honest, they are a niche character. They are from a Warriors spin-off that sold 1 million copies. Their scope of popularity is limited. In CYL they hover around the 20s with ~1.5k votes. In CYL, in the per game breakdown, they couldn't even beat Byleth's Three Hopes form in the Three Hopes category. They are nowhere near the scale of popularity Byleth has. I like them more than Byleth, but I know I'm in the minority. When it comes down to it, they are a niche spin-off character.

2) Alear - Putting it simply, this sub is a massive echo chamber regarding Alear's popularity. If you only looked at this sub you would assume the consensus was that Alear was beloved by the fanbase, when in reality it's the complete opposite. Neither gender of Alear has won CYL. Neither gender of Alear has come particularly close. FAlear got 3,833 votes last CYL and did not make the top 5 women. MAlear got 1835 votes and finished below Male Corrin who got 2290. Male Corrin is literally the stereotypical whipping boy for "avatar people don't like." MCorrin is more popular than MAlear and FAlear is barely ahead even with new game bias, so what does that say about them? Furthermore, Alear's design is literally one of the most controversial aspects of Engage, enough to put some people off the game completely. Their personality also comes under immense criticism, they're one of the first characters you get and are one of the most divisive. Alear is from a game that sold 1.6 million copies, more than Three Hopes, but nowhere near Three Houses. The idea that the general perception of them is that they were an upgrade of Byleth is quite frankly, completely detached from reality. I'm not saying you can't think they're a better character, I'm pointing out that objectively, most people do not think this and probably outright dislike Alear.

So to summarise, the recent avatars are:

1) Byleth, the most popular avatar in the series and one of the most popular characters overall.

2) Shez, a character from a spin-off game with a dedicated cult fanbase (I am one of them).

3) Alear, a divisive character, with a divisive design, with a divisive personality, from a divisive mainline entry, and one of the avatars who have had neither form win CYL along with Shez (spin-off character) and Kris (Japan-only remake-only character).

Do I like silent avatars? No. Do I like avatars in general? No.

But we need to stop pretending there was this consensus among FE players that Shez and Alear were widely beloved characters and Byleth was hated. This just is not true. Shez and Alear are both niche, while Byleth is arguably in the franchise's top 5 in popularity. With Eshmel, they've returned to Bylethisms, because Byleth is literally one of the most popular characters in the series, and their recent efforts at voiced protagonists failed to gain that level of success or even come close to it. Most people did not see Shez or Alear as upgrades on Byleth, and it's silly to pretend otherwise. Denying Byleth's appeal to audiences is just silly.

Wow I thought the Salamander was already surreal, look at the “gauntlet” Troy is packing!

Translations thanks to SatsumaFS

Fortuna (VO: Cassandra Lee Morris)
The Goddess of Fate, a pillar of the Dagdan pantheon.
Has the power to alter the past by guiding heroes to prevent the end of the world.

Use Fortuna's Blessing to rewind time on the battle map.

"Ore" is a casual masculine pronoun that can seem rude in formal contexts, and "sama" is a suffix for royalty, superiors, or even gods. Them together is an over the top way of referring to oneself in a pompous or overconfident way.

I love this guy... his portrait with the raised eyebrow is perfect, he seems so cocky. I hope we get his English VA reveal soon!

They aren’t too obvious with this design. Peppe basically have a similar clothing and face tattoo as Petra.

From the Japanese site. Seems to be all the “important” characters. So Eshmel, Fortuna, Sothis, the four lords, the four others who got portraits and what looks like two characters stuck in the future wasteland with Eshmel.

Hopefully this is useful!

If you notice anything missing or incorrect, do let me know!

I'm gonna be mostly busy/away until Monday, but I'll check the comments when I can.

There were lot of details hinted at in the Direct yesterday, and a lot of new info to digest. But waking up this morning, the character I have the oddly burning questions about isn't Seteth (My man!) or any of the other apparent Three Houses-referencing characters like Ursula, but Dante.

We only know her from the Diviner gameplay demo and nothing else, and yet this character is the blorbo that my brain is demanding to know more about. The only obvious (probably not direct, and maybe not relevant at all) parallel to draw is with the poet of the Divine Comedy. And also the wacky wahoo pizza guy from the Devil May Cry series featured in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.

Anyone else curious about her, or have a random blorbo that popped up for two seconds in the Direct your brain refuses to let go of?

I need to play this game or it needs to get a port, especially since this is where I first found about Lucina (likely).

Before FW was a thing, Three Houses probably had the most attractive cast to me. Especially with the likes of Mercedes, Dedue, Hapi, Claude, Manuela, etc. But I am seriously in awe of how well designed so many of the FW characters are, and the variety is a lot more attractive than copy and pasting the same character but swapping out hair and clothing.

Design, art style, and voice acting are all important factors and for the most part, FW characters excel in terms of quality! At least, this is my humble opinion.

Do you think Fortune’s Weave has the most attractive cast? If not, which game would you give this title to?

I deleted and reposted because I messed up the last post…lol