#and naesala is just trying to ignore him for as long as he can

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

we all clear on that point now? yeah? yeah??? good.

[slumberinglabyrinth]

I’ve been toying with the question of “which of the Laguz Royals could be viable candidates for a legendary alt?” long enough for this post to have originally started with “I have no illusions about the contents of the upcoming RD banner, but...” and I want to share my thoughts on it.

All the non-oc legendary heroes thus far are protagonist-aligned (Tiki, Grima kinda) if not protagonists themselves (everyone else, also kinda Grima), and I’ll be using this arbitrary measurement of plot relevance as the primary judging criteria, with popularity being a secondary criteria. Given that all the non-oc legendary heroes also had their ‘base’/’generic form’ already in heroes, I’m not expecting that that we’ll be getting a Laguz legendary (or mythical) hero in January (and we should all know who it’s going to be anyway) nor will I be using the Laguz that we’re getting, but this is just a ‘what if’ kind of scenario, so don’t take this as a prediction of future events or something.

Skrimir is probably the strongest candidate. He’s the closest we get to a Laguz Lordlike in either game, and Radiant Dawn’s irregular narrative format does make him a full blown protagonist for a bit so he’s got a fair amount going for him. On the other hand, he’s not actually a Royal Laguz with a captial R yet so while a “20 years down the line when he’s mellowed out because Ranulf learned to get him to show restraint” Skrimir Alt would be an incredibly interesting direction to take him in as a legendary hero, alas, tfw no formshift. That’s an admittedly arbitrary distinction to ‘disqualify’ him from this given that his lack of formshift probably comes as a design choice that prioritized game balance over world-building, and of all the Laguz (ignoring Lehran, noted Beorc impersonator) I’d consider him the most likely to actually ever get an alt (legendary or not) should it come to it.

On the topic of units without formshift, we have the Herons. Their lack of formshift can also mostly be attributed to game balance purposes within the mainline games (which is also the reason why you’re prevented from using more than one in endgame), and both Leanne and Reyson have notable roles in both games (sorry Rafiel). On the other hand, the main obstacle to becoming is that they would be best described as ‘plot adjacent’ instead of ‘plot relevant’; they’re present in subplots and are active players in those subplots, but exist as background characters to the main plot of both games.

This isn’t meant to be me taking potshots at the Herons; if you look at Rafiel revealing the truth of the Serenes Massacre to kick off Part 3 of RD, Leanne’s role in Part 2 of RD, and the plot detour PoR makes to address Reyson being kidnapped by Oliver, they’re all major contributions to the world-building of Tellius but as characters they each lack presence, relevance, and impact beyond the scenes they appear in. That’s going to be a recurring theme with most everyone else mentioned in this post.

In descending order of likelihood of getting a legendary alt: Leanne’s a fair bit behind Skrimir, then Reyson, and then Rafiel far, far behind.

The last unit without formshift I’ll look at is Kurthnaga, who somehow manages to do less than Rafiel despite being in both PoR and RD suffers greatly from Goldoa’s isolationist policies in PoR and a bad case of “is busy doing other things” during Radiant Dawn, placing him roughly on par with Rafiel.

Tibarn is the most popular Laguz by a mile, and while not a protagonist, he’s on the upper end of ‘plot adjacent’ to the point where combined with his popularity I’d say he’d be the only other Royal Laguz that could stand a fighting chance against Skrimir, but he’s still clearly behind him in terms of likelihood of getting a legendary alt.

Naesala is a hair behind Leanne in terms of popularity, but he’s held back by being less protagonist-aligned than most people I’m talking about here. He’d be roughly on par with Reyson.

Nailah is in a similar position as Kurthnaga and Rafiel, but roughly three to six times as popular. You could potentially try to spin Wolf Laguz being thought to be extinct as her being ‘of legends’, but that’s a reach I’m not willing to go for.

Caineghis is on the lower end of the scale of ‘plot adjacent’-ness, but he does play a bit more of an active role in the background and especially the backstory of Path of Radiance even if that mostly amounts to supplying Elincia’s party with money and troops in-game and providing refuge to Greil and his family. The other thing that might set him apart from other people on this list is that canon does everything but outright state that he’s ‘basically the strongest person in Tellius’, which creates some level of plot justification for how absolutely busted any Legendary Laguz would be if they went with him. He lacks major popularity though, so he’d probably be passed over in favor of someone who would make IntSys more money.

Dheginsea will be a GHB eventually and get no alts. He’s a full-blown antagonist and unlike everything else in this post this isn’t up for discussion.

So to recap:

“Maybe if they decide to give Tellius a third Legendary Hero”-tier: Skrimir, Tibarn

“Maybe in 20 years”-tier: Leanne, Reyson, Naesala

“Life is simply unfair”-tier: Caineghis, Nailah,  Rafiel, Kurthnaga

“No tears now, only dreams”-tier: Dheginsea