Welcome to Gaia! ::

LEONARDO <3

As a unit? He's a tarnished gem. It makes me sad because I love Archers to death, but his Speed is lacking and he's otherwise outshined so badly by the other characters in the Dawn Brigade. I think his character has potential, though, and he had a nice dynamic with Edward and the other Dawn Brigade dudes.

And as a person who likes to draw fantasy-ish characters and otherwise character designs, I really, really like Leonardo's. <3 It flows very nicely and it looks very stylish.

Leo is a okay unit, I find him useful in the Dawn Brigade's chapters. Great at killing things at a distance. Though once you have Rolf and Shinon he ends up losing all his potential in a way.
As a person I like the dynamics he has there. I find his story believable and it really makes the story of friendship between him and Edward more likable in my opinion. His design also fits his role pretty well. He's a cool character though.

I’m actually a really big fan of Leonardo, even though Shinon and Rolf both destroy him in terms of value as a unit. And it’s not just because Leonardo is Dawn Brigade (although that’s definitely a big part of it).

It’s largely his very peculiar stat growth distribution. Like Edward, Leonardo is tied for the third highest amount of raw growths overall at 380%. But the way it was distributed was less than idea: 75% Skill, 65% Luck, 55% Resistance… 40% Strength. It’s remarkably Ronan-esque, actually. He has a higher Resistance growth than Strength growth. Unproductive, much? Oh, and meager 35% Speed and Defense growths. And 40% Strength is by no means bad (various great characters such as Zihark, Oscar, his own competition Shinon all have Str growths equal to or lower than Leonardo’s). But it’s coupled with just 8 base Strength, meaning he has to do much more growing with it than other characters with similar Strength growths have to. Moreso for Speed. One way around this is to Bexp abuse, but he needs to cap at least 2 stats before he can even consider taking advantage of Bexp because with only 1 capped, he’ll have more than 300% left in growths to use, making Bexp ineffective and un-abusable. Further hurting his Bexp opportunities is the fact that his second largest growth, Luck, has the same Cap for all three tiers, meaning you can’t expect it to cap in first or second tier at a decent time (it should cap just before or right after hitting third tier though). He does eventually hit bexp-abusable conditions in every tier at some point though, just not as soon as might be hoped for. And he IS usable, but with the Greil Mercs having two better, more easily used units in the same class tree, there isn’t much reason to use Leo seriously to begin with. Being with the Dawn Brigade, as mentioned earlier, isn’t exactly doing him any favors either, since there are plenty of units who come before him in terms of value throughout the game and using Leonardo means fewer resources for everyone else. That considered, to use Leonardo, a unit who can’t even reliably attack at 1-range, is quite counterproductive and requires going out of your way to do so.

He does have utility, however (whether fed experience or not, even). To begin with, he can give one of your units support with one of the best (non-Earth) affinities in the game for solid and guaranteed Atk and Def bonuses and can do so without being put in harm’s way. That gives you a reason to field him throughout, even if he’s a poor unit. He can also be used as a tool for cutting down flying enemies, even without investing in him both in Part 1 and Part 3 at the least. One would think he wouldn’t get the job done in Part 3 if you aren’t using him due to stats, but Lughnasadh begs to differ. And if you DO bother to go out of your way to use Leonardo, having exclusive access to Lughnasadh (+5 Speed is ******** awesome, also, especially considering his poor speed growth) becomes all the more relevant and useful… sort of like an apology-stipend for using the worst archer in the game. It also, as was the case with Edward, lets you take him AND another potential Marksman to Endgame without having to share the SS Double Bow (the DB’s fancy personal weapon pool is one of the better assets for using them, it would seem).

You’re better off with Shinon, and then Rolf, before going with Leonardo, but Leonardo IS usable. I actually go out of my way to use him every 2-3 playthroughs of RD I do because I’m such a fan of his character. It involves stat boosters, Paragon, Bexp abuse, other totally unjustifiable favoritism, and feeding him enough kills to get him a spot on my top 5 killers, but he was just as usable as Shinon by Part 4 – and I even ended up taking both to Endgame (Marksmen are great for helping set up one-turn Boss kills thanks to their 2-3 range in Endgame, among other things). But yeah, of all the archer units in the game, Leonardo’s the worst as a unit. If you’re going to be using two archers however, I will say using Leonardo and one from the Greil Mercenaries is arguably better than using both of the GM archers.

And I wouldn’t go to all the trouble I do to use Leonardo if I didn’t love his character. And boy, do I. His design is amazing, he’s VERY good looking, he has good personality chemistry with Edward (again, it’s crack-like, but I totally adore the idea of Edward/Leonardo). Being from nobility gives him a unique perspective in the Dawn Brigade and makes him a great component to their dynamics. I totally have an FE crush on him. If only he were a better unit…

It's been a while since my last FE7 run...but as far as the Lord's go, Eliwood has always been my least favorite. He's never turned out very strong as a unit for me...maybe on one playthrough, but not often enough for me to like him that much. That's just in comparison to Hector and Lyn though, overall, he's okay. Especially after promotion.

For personality, he just doesn't do it for me. Sure, he's really nice and kind and stuff, but he's not that interesting. On the other hand, I guess somebody has to be that way. I just kind of think of him as a weenie sometimes : P

I like Eliwood. More than I like Lyn, certainly, but less than Hector (it’s pretty damn close between those two for me, though – in Eliwood Mode, Hector’s better, in Hector Mode, Eliwood edges past Hector). Thus, I get irritated when people say Eliwood is the worst of the three as I see that as completely untrue from a unit-value standpoint. But I’ll save my Lyn rant for when we cover Lyn (averages, people. Averages!).

I like Eliwood’s character, but not specifically because of his personality. As a character, he’s the semi-compulsory compassionate, friendly, and kind Lord (like we don’t have enough in the series), with his kindness being amplified to levels higher than any other Lord in the damn series. Good for him. It’s kind of a boring and redundant personality, though. It’s not bad, but it’s kind of just there to me. In terms of the story, him losing his dad is by far one of the most moving scenes in the game, and it alone has endeared me to Eliwood, regardless of whether his personality is exciting or not. And his continuing forward after that demonstrates highly appreciable resolve. And then there’s the Ninian incident… really, when you think about it, Eliwood experiences a lot of hardship through the course of the game, and it makes him a great medium for experiencing catharsis. I love catharsis. Ergo, I’m fond of Eliwood.

As a unit, Eliwood’s overall value depends on what mode you’re playing in because that will determine his promotion time. In Eliwood Mode, he has a terribly late forced promotion time, which can really hamper his value as a combat unit for a long portion of time. But in Hector Mode (harder, thus my preference), he can be the first Lord to promote, which is much better. And speaking of promotions, he definitely has the best promotion of the three Lords, also. I’ll say that much. Just look at everything he gets: horse utility, additional weapon triangle control in a stronger weapon type and access to a purchasable 1-2 ranged weapon, and a notable +2 to con. Really, the horse alone is better than anything Hector or Lyn get. Choosing between everything he gets and Lyn getting a weapon type that she can’t even use up close which offers no additional triangle control and a smaller movement boost, Eliwood’s definitely getting that first Heaven Seal. In Ranked Runs, because Heaven Seals are worth so much and contribute so substantially to the Funds Ranking, it’s often advised to only use two of the three Heaven Seals, also. And giving Eliwood one yields the biggest bang for your buck, so to speak, because he contribute to shorter turn counts with his newly acquired mount. Definitely a huge plus for him in terms of efficiency. Looking at his performance before he promotes (I realize I’m looking at this backwards, but that’s just the way it happened), he’s just another sword user on foot, and not necessarily even the best, although he gets the job done. Having a prf-weapon that slaughters specific enemy types gives him an edge over much of his competition though in various circumstances. Plus, he’s very frequently if not always (mode depending) required, so he isn’t taking up someone else’s spot when you’re picking your units. Cumulatively, that all makes for a very good unit. Looking at his stats, one will find he has enough Speed to double without any worry (so Lyn’s lead in that stat because’s much less meaningful, especially since her affinity doesn’t boost avoid while Eliwood’s does, making her greater Speed even less meaningful), he’s surprisingly tied for fifth highest Defense growth in the game (it’s just 30%, but that IS substantially higher than a lot of other characters’) which his affinity and many of his support options will only improve. He’s more durable than one would likely suspect at first between his generally defensive supports and surprising defensive growths (he also has 35% is Resistance, which, magic units and Nini/Nils aside, is the second best Resistance growth in the game). And while a 45% Strength growth isn’t godly, it definitely gets the job done, especially after Eliwood gets access to lances.

As far as supports go, his affinity is great, too: Anima is one of only two affinities that directly boosts his Attack and Defense/Resistance, and comes with an avoid boost on top of that. Very fierce. His support with Hector is the second fastest in the entire game and gives full defensive boosts to both of them, while many of his other support partners are also appreciably fast and offer either full defensive boosts or at least full avoid AND power simultaneously. Eliwood is definitely a great support partner for most of his options and vice versa (that he can start building many of them immediately or very early into the game is an additional bonus).

Overall, I'd say Eliwood is a very solid unit.

I dare say that Eliwood is my favorite lord of the ENTIRE series. I actually like his kindness and gentleman-like personality. I think it made him very likable, even if it's a bit predictable for a protagonist to be kind-hearted and stuff. I like his interactions with the other characters too, in particular, the ones with Hector, and just how great of a friendship they have. (Back when I was a n00b in the series I thought this was a bad thing thanks to what happens to Hector... later on, but I've changed my tune.)

As a unit, I'm not gonna lie. He's been a give or take for me. Sometimes the RNG gives me a good Eliwood and sometimes it gives me one I have to feed the stat boosters to, but more often than not, he's very good at avoiding things, has pretty solid defense, and as a plus, he gets lances upon promotion, which gives him 1-2 range and a weapon that's a little tougher than a sword. Ever thought of giving him a Killer Lance when you rank up his spears? >D I sure do. I give him killer lances and killing edges, he's got quite the edge (pardon the pun) with both of them.

And Eliwood's got one of the fastest supports in the game with Hector, which is awesome to use those boosts. I'm really no expert on which boosts are for what affinity, but when they get A that fast, it's just cool. heart

Overall, I'd say he's a decent unit and a good main character. Even if he's a bit cliche, I do love all his scenes, especially some of those mentioned (with Ninian, and then also when he loses Elbert). I think that what really makes him stick out for me is that heroic determination to go on despite his hardships, instead of endlessly angsting about it. He actually fights for his country/friends and doesn't even have to SAY "I fight for my friends!"

And that, to me is why he deserves a spot in my favorites. Now, if only I were inspired enough to write fic of him...

Ooh, Marcus : D

I always loved Marcus because he was so good at saving everyone that I threw in harm's way. I always thought he was a really good unit, but I never used him much so that I could level up the other units. Oh, and I liked his support conversations with Lowen. I never really liked Lowen, but I did like their interactions. I don't think I really had him interact with anyone else...

Ehh, I thought I would have more to say than that, but it looks like that's it. Marcus, can't complain about him.