#the image isn't super clear but alas

[art3mus]

Professor Layton hint coin patch

[painted-crow]

Fictional double Birds, webcomics edition!

I found/rediscovered some more Bird characters for y'all~

These pals are all webcomic characters, so you can read their stories for free :D the name headers link to the first page of their respective comics!

Just a reminder, clicking the images gives you better quality and can make the text easier to read. I've put alt text on the images with the relevant info--sorry if this still isn't the most accessible post. ^^;

Henry Jekyll (The Glass Scientists)

Thanks to @aubade-things for reminding me this comic exists, and for discussing it with me! I binged the whole thing a few days ago, haha.

The Glass Scientists is a webcomic about a haven society for mad scientists, in a world that does not like them. Jekyll here is trying to keep it from falling apart, but between mad science shenanigans, plain old lack of funding, and a fellow called Hyde who is definitely not the same person, who told you that, he's... uh... struggling.

Jekyll screams Badger secondary at first, his Bird secondary is just VERY burnt.

He idealizes Badger as a huge part of how he thinks a Proper Gentleman should be, and he has this super uptight Badger performance that does noooot actually make him happy.

His primary's shaky, too, but he's working on it. This just about says it all, honestly:

Yes, that is a figment of his own imagination yelling at him for using Bird secondary to sort out a major piece of his system.

Jekyll is peak "person who looks like they have their shit together but is actually a mess underneath" and I'd be okay with him being a little less relatable thank you very much

He is slowly reclaiming his secondary though:

Sidenote: I have had almost that exact experience, about the same topic, during a period where I'd burned Bird secondary.

(Seven year old Paint was obsessed with the idea of plant medicine. You know how some kids mix up "potions" with stuff from their back yard? I wanted mine to work. I had this giant textbook about it and everything.)

Alas, remembering was less useful to me; all it really gave me was an extra uncanny experience reading this webcomic :p

Thistle (Daughter of the Lilies)

Thistle is a cinnamon roll hiding a whoooooole lot of trauma and anxiety. I'll let you find those panels for yourself, though. Instead, here she is entertaining some children with her magic:

Sometimes she sounds like a Badger primary, but she's a full-fledged Bird:

Her secondary is a little singed, too, but hers is WAY better off than Jekyll's. She's doin ok.

Spoiler warning: the current comic arc shows her face, which is a major reveal--so if you want to puzzle out what her deal is on your own, start from the beginning and avoid the front page for now ^^

She's also super relatable, but in a way that doesn't bug me. I'm trying to figure out why Jekyll does... I think it's that he's an example of a very burnt Bird secondary that looks seriously familiar to me, but his primary is unstable too and I find that unnerving--I've never burned mine. To me, he feels deeply unhealthy in a way that Thistle doesn't at all. Thistle's morality is very clear and bright; the parts of her system she struggles with most are about how she sees herself, but I deal with the same thing (it's probably less common for Birds not to) so that's fine.

That does say something about the general tone of the two stories. DotL deals with some heavy topics, but it's a much more optimistic feeling world with a much more stable protagonist.

DotL fights with Girl Genius for rank as my favorite webcomic, period. Everyone should go read it, it's beautiful and funny and relatable and tragic and then it's funny again. Also there are dragons! At least one of them is plot relevant, and several of the pages he's on got turned into posters by popular demand because the art is just that good.

Speaking of Girl Genius:

Gilgamesh Wulfenbach (Girl Genius)

Girl Genius is a gaslamp fantasy comedy adventure romance about mad scientists, and it does all of those things really well at the same time. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's a goldmine for Bird secondaries.

This story has also been adapted into ebook and audiobook versions, so if comics are hard for you to read, that could be a more accessible option!

Snake primary is the most popular (Agatha, Tarvek, Zeetha, Bang, Krosp, Lars, and most of the Jagers) but there are a few Birds hanging around. The Baron is a Bird primary, I think, and Othar is some form of Exploded Idealist (double Lion?) but I'm going to focus on Gil because he's a main character.

The page that cements his primary for me is this one, where he's arguing with Snake primary Zeetha (who is Loyal to Agatha). Agatha's been the victim of some weird mind control stuff by the story's BBEG, but Gil hasn't gotten that context yet and the Baron (his dad) is convinced Agatha IS the BBEG.

And yes, he's technically pantsless in this scene but hasn't realized that yet either. It's not his fault... the "ability to rant" part of a Spark's brain wakes up long before their situational awareness does.

Also lol @ Zeetha's reaction. Gil is one of Agatha's Important People, and Agatha is Zeetha's, so he's safe, for now, if he behaves.

As for his secondary:

And:

Like many of the cast, Gil is a Spark and very vulnerable to nerd sniping. RIP his lost sleep.

Also mine, actually. I'm gonna end this here and try to go back to bed ^^;

Happy reading!

[af1899]

So... [Feh Channel] for Dec/2021 is out and here's what I think on the upcoming stuff

Why, hello there! I certainly didn't post in a while, but there wasn't much of noteworthy I could think of share, however, I do have a few ideas to share later, both FEH and non-FEH related.

Anyway, as you most likely know by now, the latest [Feh Channel] rolled out for everyone the 5th at 9:00 p.m. (GMT-3), and here's the video for your convenience:

The update rolled out soon after and maintenance ended half an hour earlier, so some of the covered content is already available.

Now, for my dump of thoughts, this post is going to be really long, because I'll go in-depth with some of the contents of the video and some dataminey stuff, which has already rolled out in /r/FireEmblemHeroes (Reddit).

This post took a couple hours to assemble up, I hope you'll find anything useful as always, beyond the cut!

⚠ Before starting, I'll note that because of Tumblr's limit of images per post, this post (and any thoughts post I make) will contain no more than 10 images.

Resources

Links to any useful stuff, always first in case you're not interested on the rest of the contents here.

Top 5 of characters not in the game, per entry on the series.

Refines compilation by PM1.

Skill inheritance rarity levels for Miriel, Basilio and Yen'fay.

Ash's quotes.

Release notes for 6.0.0.

Datamine post by /u/MrGengar123 isn't out as of this post's release date, but the stats, skills, artwork and quotes for all new units are already out in Gamepedia (convenience link).

Thoughts on the [Feh Channel]

First of all, we now know more or less what's the setting for [Book VI]: HOLY COWS VS. BATS!

Ok, in all seriousness, let's take a deeper and actually serious look into what we know more or less so far:

Ash: Retainer to Askr

"Retainer to Askr, god of connections and strong bonds. Earnest and polite, she strives to always say exactly what she means." ― In-game description.

This time, the story won't take us to some new realm but we'll be revisiting the most familiar ones. In [Book VI], the plot will revolve around Askr and Embla, the specifics aren't exactly clear yet, but I can infer that there's going to be a war between the retainers to the gods that name both kingdoms. That's how I got it anyway, but we'll be learning in due time.

And guess what? Our free unit is ― to no one's surprise ― yet another female character. I won't deny that I do prefer female characters over male ones ― I've stated this in one of my previous entries ― yet I still agree that a free male OC to start a new story arc would be nice for a change of pace, but I.S. seems rather adamant when it comes to prioritizing waifus, like always... alas.

At any rate, I'm not upset with her, like always, I try to look into the good side of things, so, I'll focus on what we know about her so far:

Based on her quotes and her intro, I can infer that Ash is protrayed as a caring and formal woman, she finds joy and pleasure in helping others, as well as forming bonds with them, and she's more than willing to help Kiran as they work with Askr grow closer to the Heroes from other realms and worlds. I do really feel pleased with this kind of personality actually, and her artwork and movie scenes show how sweet and down to earth she is in her normal art, unwavering in battle. I must say though, it's funny to look at those Super Saiyan vibes from her special art while she's pouting, I can't help but smile.

But in any case, that's about what I think of her and what we know, I look forward to learn more about her!

Then we know about Elm, who's the exact opposite to Ash, Elm is the retainer to Embla, who's the opposite god to Askr (barriers instead of connections and broken bonds instead of strong ones).

Looking at him, I can't help but think of Elmo from Sesame Street. Did he quit to prepare for this occassion?

Finally, we do learn about Letizia, who's Emblian royalty and Veronica's older sister, despite that fact she's farther away from the throne than Veronica, we'll likely learn why later. Also, is it me or does she resemble a certain OC?

At any rate, it's too early to have some solid thoughts on what to expect or think about the first bits of story until they're unlocked, specially since Feh focused on introducing the characters, we got little info on the plot itself, however, with what we got and what we could infer from the movie, we got something, it looks quite interesting and is a great opportunity to delve deeper onto the lore of the two realms that once worked together.

The music is a banger and the characters are actually pretty promising, the designs are cool but nothing I think should particularly make stand out, except for maybe Ash, whose's design and transformation is themed after a... cow? Holy cow!

We're also getting celebrational events! You should make sure to at least log-in for the duration of the event, all the events will be active from Dec. 7th 4:00 a.m. until Dec. 21st 3:59 a.m. (GMT-3), and we'll be getting rewards even for only logging in, but you should tackle all the content you can as specified in the quests.

Double [EXP] and [SP] isn't too shabby, these don't come around often, but it's kind of sad we're not even getting the 5x variant. Anyway, my tip to make the most of this event is to grind up those underleveled units you want to fodder later, using the [Training Tower] with any spare [Stamina] you might have around, it's best to train one unit at a time, keep an eye on their levels and pick the floor that has more favorable enemies and is 5~10 levels above said unit.

We'll also get new decorative structures for use in [Aether Keep] (your [AR-D] map) and [Aether Resort] (where you play and interact with your favs and all), these aren't really necessary for anything, but if you're a completionist like me, definitely try to go for them, they actually look rather pleasing aesthetically, specially the bat one.

Upon entering with our updated game, we'll be greeted with an offer to set the new castle skin, based on Embla.

Pretty, right? It sure is, I didn't know Embla was such a beautiful paradise on the inside. I've decided to stick to this theme.

Last but actually most important, the listing of rewards, I'll list some of them in order of importance and totalling the numbers we got from log-in stuff and quests:

3 [Orbs]: It's a relatively small amount compared to some earlier celebration events, but we take what we can. For our favorite characters!

3000 [Divine Codes: Part 2]: I feel like I have to make special emphasis on the generous amount of these "divine toilet papers" we're getting, because of all the strong fodder you can get with it, it can help you complete a path, which is great.

60 [Heroic Grails]: whether you're aiming for rare fodder or merges for your "free" projects, you'll appreciate more of those.

180 {Dragonflowers} of each type: yes, this is quite the nice amount, and definitely worthwhile for those stat boosts, specially if you work with older units.

The rest isn't worthwhile naming, but if you're a newer player, you'll appreciate to get ahold of all the other resources here, but specially [Sacred Coins].

New Heroes from Fire Emblem Awakening announced!

And you can watch the trailer right here:

As you can see, Ash is going to be the star of the banner, but these guys will also tag along:

Priam (a guy who claims to be (possibly) Ike's descendant), Flavia and Basilio (the demote) comprise the rest of the banner, with Yen'fay being our [Grand Hero Battle] set to run the 8th.

We can get two free copies of Miriel at 5★ from quests related to [Book VI], Miriel will be the straight to 3★/4★ unit of the batch, she's an infantry blue tome user who comes with [Blárlion+] (the blue version of Pelleas's weapon), [Draw Back], [Atk/Spd Ideal 3] at 5★ and [Spd/Res Link 3] at 4★, she has a statline of 37+/37/40+/25+/31... yes, three super assets to choose from! Isn't that great? And her artwork is really gorgeous too. I'm still not making of her a project because I never cared too much about her as a character, nor I do feel the need for yet another unit of her class when I already have Tailtiu working wonders, but she's a promising unit with good fodder. I plan to fodder her when I get lower rarity copies so that I can take the two 5★ skills in one inheritance session, one for Tailtiu and the other... will be decided, I haven't really thought much of it.

As for the rest of the units, I'll say there's no serious powercreep fortunately, but Ash could be quite troublesome to deal with if she's given the right investment, being an infantry colorless beast unit gives her plenty of choice from skills alone, like [Null Follow-Up 3]. You don't even need to worry about her C-skill unless mobility isn't a big concern to you. Being kind of slow, yet bulky and boasting high attack, makes of her a formidable mixed combatant, her base kit primes her for physical melee combat, but y'know, her statline and preference skills allow you to take a step further beyond, the most obvious being to turn her into a mixed range/damage tank. It's also worth remembering she's a Light season [AR-O] unit that boosts attack and extends your team slots by 1, on top of being obtainable for free once in the end of the first chapter at [Book VI] (starting in two hours!) will make of her a likely common to find unit when you're attacked in [Aether Raids], specially for people that never could get Dagr like me. While Ash does have some similarities in gameplay to Fallen Edelgard, Ash isn't nowhere as broken, she's strong but not terribly difficult to deal with, not with her base kit at least.

Also, Yen'fay can be a really fun project, he has high speed with a super asset that pushes it to 46, plus workable bulk and built-in damage reduction and [Distant Counter] in his preference weapon. His best use would probably be the same I suggested about Ash (role and B-skill). If you like him enough, definitely give him the investment, he's a very promising unit!

And the fodder rarities for the skills in the demotes, they're mostly poor choices, only Miriel makes best sense for now and we're even getting two 5★ copies of her for free, but [Kestrel Stance 2] and [Atk/Def Bond 3] are skills that need easily attainable sources more than the skills that were chosen for 4★: [Threat. Atk/Def 2] (you got Petrine and Fernand for that) and... [Atk Tactic 3]? Seriously? It's a terrible joke if it's one, you can get it from Legault at 4★, who's in the regular pool and is a colorless low rarity unit.

The choices themselves... I'm kind of mixed, I do like the characters here barring Yen'fay, but I'm not excited for any of the Awakening characters, specially since we didn't get any of the children this time (I was particularly hoping for Severa) but alas, it's not entirely bad, and it sort of makes sense thinking about it, Flavia and Basilio are still well liked characters, plus, Miriel and Priam were still the most popular characters that weren't in the game in any form until now (unlike some of the children like Severa and Inigo).

I'll be skipping this banner, there's not enough value to it and Ash will be given for free to everyone, plus I don't really need merges on her right away (even though I'd like to improve my situation with [Aether Raids]).

And the update stuff

We'll start with [Summoner Duels], it's our first real-time competitive game mode (PvP). In it, you'll be able to fight against players from around the world in battles where both parties have full control over their units and try to take over a central rectangle-shaped area and defeat the other player's units. Winning or losing, it doesn't matter, the unit leading your team will get [Favor] according to your performance, it's a stat exclusive to this game mode that gives you cumulative rewards obtained once, and accounting only the most "favored" Hero.

Teams are built with five units, one of them is your lead (referred as "Captain") who will get the [Favor] and can use one of three benefits that can affect the rectangle's position and your captain's and/or teammates's performance positively, you can choose one of them and switch anytime, in the team editor, I went with [Secret Maneuver], which prevents that the foe the captain is facing receives support from their allies, and gives a cooldown charge to all allied units from turns 2 to 5.

You fight a random player in the moment and try to score the best (not losing your units, defeating all foes and placing your units on the marked area for terrain score). You'll be able to get up to 20 [Favor] per match. The previously mentioned "benefits" from both players aren't shown at first, but they'll be revealed as battle progresses. Units take turns to move and have a set amount of time before they can be ordered to do anything (up to 90 seconds).

Now, I've tried this game mode even though I was initially nervous about it and got to say I'm actually quite enjoying it, but some matches ended up in shameful losses that come from non-optimal teams and... matchmaking RNG I guess, but forunately, there's an option that preveents units that were added after [Book III] can be used, it's really useful and nets you the same score, but you have the plus that you'll never face the latest powercreep units, including Fallen Edelgard, I've started to use it, and this made the game mode more enjoyable.

This update also introduces the [Profile Card], it's basically a profile showing your tier in [Arena], [Golden Thrones] obtained in [Aether Raids] and some other data you can customize at will.

[Summoner Duels] is tied to this feature, as you can showcase your three "most favored" Heroes, here's mine:

The first two fields don't need explanation, it's like the tinyest resume of your greatest exploits in PvP.

"Home Base" is where you'd be coming from if you were a Fire Emblem character, you can choose any location in the series, or leave it "Secret". I did pick Silesse because I do love snowy/cold places like that, and I stan the Jugdral sub-series.

"Play Style" is a one-word summary of how you play: feel free to tell others here what do you play like in one word from a set list. I chose "favoritism" because nothing beats having fun with my favorites (of course in FEH).

"Favored Heroes" will automatically show any Heroes with [Favor] greater than zero and with one of the three highest [Favor] values among all your Heroes, you can't directly edit who appears here, but by playing with your units of preference at least acting once as captains will make them appear here, and you can also manipulate that with [Favor] gains. I made it so that my three top favorites in the series appear here, I didn't grind enough yet to give them equal valors, but I want to focus on one at a time. Btw, Resplendent sprites are disabled in this display (I do have Sonya with her Resplenden skin and in use, but the game shows her with her originl sprite). Also, in this "Favores Heroes" part, you can change the background to match one of the realms in Fire Emblem Heroes (I chose Dökkálfheimr because I love the thematic and colors), your amount of collected Heroes also shows up here.

You can customize your card's color and border. I'm all for purple, and as for the border, I just went for what I think looks best I guess?

And finally, you can set who can see your [Profile Card] and/or the "most favored" units, whether it is everyone or no one, I left it all public tho, it doesn't bother me.

I've reached the picture limit, but here's the last feature I'll be covering: new sorting/filtering criteria.

You can now make it so that you can see on which month and {Book} were the units in your possession added, just by glancing at the version! Check the image above for an example.

You can also sort by Duo/Harmonized Hero, and make it so that 1~5 types of units appear at the top via the filtering function (most noteworthy, you can now find your refreshers much easier).

So, in a nutshell, what do I think of all this?

So far, I've mostly explained the new stuff and tried to mix my thoughts in, but here's a summary of my thoughts.

The rewards are pretty good this time, we're getting a rather hefty amount of [Divine Codes: Part 2] to quickly push ourselves closer towards our desired free fodder, while we're getting few [Orbs] from celebrational quests, there's still the customary extra 5 we can get by clearing the maps on the highest difficulty, there'll be 10 this time though, because the second chapter will also be available in about two hours.

Despite no free male OC, which comes at a disappointment for many, I feel that Ash is easily likeable and charming both in design and personality, her voice is rather pleasing and calming to hear too, and this is the work of yet another new VA contributing in Fire Emblem Heroes! I'm getting myself another project? Probably... probably not... Idk...

The New Heroes asides her aren't interesting to me, not even any necessary fodder also, so I'll skip, I'd have likely considered sparking for Ash otherwise.

I actually got to try [Summoner Duels] right after maintenance was over, and I've actually quite come to enjoy it, plus the rewards, and another chance to show us who our favorite characters are add to the value Imo, but it's not so enjoyable if I don't apply the matchmaking restricions, that's okay though, because all my biggest favorites were released before [Book IV] and there are more characters I do appreciate, plus it makes matches more fair than those without restrictions. Playing with real players in the moment is kind of thrilling as you can't take your time to think your moves for too long, but it seems fun.

Finally, the update stuff is quite cool, having our own profiles is pretty neat to give us a little more identity and another way to show who are our biggest favorites, plus the new sorting/filtering criteria gives us even more flexibility and an easier time finding our units, we take those perks.

As for what I haven't mentioned so far, the refines this time look rather strong and packed, even Walhart's did impress me with all those effects going on, his is probably the best of the batch, but all are powerful in a way or another. The limited [Combat Manuals] are also good, whether you're a collector or a serious player... or whtever, Winter Nino's and/or Eirika's skills are quite useful if you have a project in need of a new weapon, but Winter Nino's weapon might not be as impressive as it was before, it helps with self-sustain for sure, but it's been long powercrept. Still, good batch.

The new songs available on [Concert Hall] aren't so interesting but Burger King Black Knight's theme is a thrilling banger, it sounds like it comes right from a movie, so menacing.

I rate this update: 6/10

The End

Geez... this was absurdly long, but it's not so easily avoidable when the devs are also announcing a new arc in the story, and there's a lot to cover in the update.

Thank you for checking out my posts and take care! Good luck with the coming banner also.