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Best: Clarine. I love her avoid. Oh, and her personality...I guess? xd

Worst: Micaiah.

Hold up, hold up. Still determining who I'm going to vote for, but consider some of the points Evayle offers before she disappears. People were complaining about being unable to hurt the first boss of FE5 with so many units just last week. Evayle can. And she comes with that super handy Flame Sword (which is a godsend during the prison chapters)

She can basically kill any enemy before she disappears. Yes, that's experience other people can't get, but it's a plus for her all the same (and this is a game featuring limitless reinforcements; people that hung up over getting experience can just save-state abuse or arena-abuse or eat endless reinforcements). Before she disappears she has top-notch offense. And being a prepromote isn't that big a deal either. (Being a prepromote shouldn't matter at all actually; stats matter) It's FE5; caps suck. She comes with capped speed already. She comes with a capped stat at the very beginning of the game! Who else does that? Being promoted also means she already has the Continue skill. Sounds like a pro more than a con to me.

She's literally impossible to kill before a certain event we know of. The game won't allow for it (try killing her). This basically makes the first few chapters impossible to ******** up with her . Also, she gives support bonuses to Othin, Havan, and Dagda (and Mareeta, but that one can be ignored since it's until after you get her back).

Immediate support bonuses to awesome units + invincibility for a few chapters>>>>some of the stuff other characters bring to their games. Being useless after she comes back doesn't take away from all she could accomplish before she left.

What does Lyre have, by comparison, for example?

Hold up, hold up (again).

Do my eyes deceive me or did MajIshtar just make a decision based on efficiency-determinants rather than growth rates.

TOTALLY not a criticism (I'm very pleasantly surprised by this new development) - I'm just REALLY, REALLY surprised (I am quite the lurker on SF and see your posts and LP though). I never thought I'd see the day you would judge a character's objective worth on things like availability and the contributions one makes to the game over the course of the game instead of endgame performance and final level stats.


...What's your opinion about Lara?

Hey, we all have our favorites (I like arranging it so that Nanna holds various scrolls when she's about to level up so she can actually be a strong fighter later on) we give some special treatment to (and since you can't use everyone people can have some favoritism), but it seems our FE-philosophies are now in sync. And it's not like we can't use units we like even if they're bad, we just know they're bad objectively.

Loving it.

Okay, I'll use FE5 examples for an FE5 unit, then.

How are, say.... Miranda or Tania better than Evayle?

-The fact that Evayle can't die is helping you, not hurting you. It means you'll never have to reset because of her. That you'd restart anyway means the fact that you don't have to should be in her favor. Meanwhile, Tania will never, EVER be able to capture, can't attack up close, and requires a good deal of effort to make into a competent fighter. Evayle requires no effort to be basically a god for the few chapters she's available for.

-It's great that Dagda can kill Wiseman for you, and that Armorslayers are available alongside the Flame Sword. The fact that other things are available doesn't change the fact that Evayle provides these things and that they're helpful. You using other options when she's available doesn't make her worse (and you have more than one Sword user in the prison chapters).

-Her support bonuses to the Axe Fighters is still more utility than you're likely to get out of the likes of Miranda.

-So she isn't around for the majority of the game. She still provides you with useful things and and excellent fighter (for the time) while she is around.

Best: Going with FE 11 Sheeda too. Every time I use her, she turns out to be a beast, and then she gets axes on promotion! Oooooh yeaaaaaah.

Worst: Since we're just going by units here, I have to say Lyre. I think she's outclassed by a lot of other Laguz and I didn't find myself using her that much.

If we can still nominate categories for the future, I'd like to nominate the Bow Knight/Nomad trees.

People I considered for best: Safy, Nanna, Ayra, Lakche, Nailah, Sheeda

There are many, many good female units in the FE series. I think the people above do more for the games they’re in the any other females, though. Nailah isn’t around all too much, and Nanna, while a great unit, doesn’t have availability combined with performance and support to seal the deal. Same thing with Ayra but with regards to combat only. Safy is Safy is Safy, and Lachke and Sheeda both have perfect availability and incredible performance in slightly different categories. They all bring different things to the table and happen to do them better than any other female unit, I would argue, (and none of them are necessary, quite interestingly) so it becomes a question of what gets more value. I want to say Lakche, but I know that’s me being biased. Objectively, I have to go with Safy. A healer, support unit. She can accomplish more and has more value than any combat unit you could possibly use.

Best: Safy

People I considered for worst: Karla, Miranda, Farina, Sophia, Fiona, Lyre

From this list of people I considered from worst, I’d say Fiona can be removed JUST because she has an Earth Affinity. She’s one of the worst units in the history of the series on her own merit and in terms of her situation, but those Earth affinities are just that ******** awesome. Especially for the Dawn Brigade, where she can turn someone into an untouchable dodge-god. She herself may very well be the worst unit, but that affinity makes her useful. Lyre, while also a god-awful unit in her own merit, gets more out of stat-boosters than Beorc do, and so can be pulled out of her s**t hole by having enough resources (an enormous amount of Bexp, for example) dumped into her, which, while a terrible use of resources, makes her usable to such a point that she is not the worst female unit in the game. The parameters of the game she’s in quite fortunately for her prevent her from being the worst unit in the game. That leaves three people who require various conditions to obtain and Sophia. In the case of the former three, Karla and Farina don’t require giving up access to another (better) better character while Miranda does, and they also happen to come with stats are can immediately be exercised (I consider using Farina a waste of money, but hey, she can deliver if you do purchase her). That leaves us with Miranda and Sophia, both of them Ests, and both of them having a LOT against them. Sophia starts with TWO skill and uses the least accurate form of magic. ******** gross. There’s basically no reason to use her. Especially when Rei and Neimi exist. It’s shooting yourself in the foot. I’d say she’s the second worst female unit. Why only second worst? Because Miranda exists. And Miranda isn’t just a terrible unit, too, but one who requires sacrificing an awesome unit: Sleuf (Amalda is better than Conomore, too, so really, having access to Miranda means not having access to two superior units compared with what you can get). Sleuf is a really great unit to have available to you just because he comes with an A in staves immediately which gives him instant utility to exercise throughout the rest of the game with no investment in him necessary whatsoever. Miranda is a mage. And hey, I love many mages, and it’s one of my favorite classes, but let us consider some things about Miranda. She doesn’t get access to staves upon promotion, instead promoting to FE5’s version of the Mage Knight and getting swords (useless on her). If she gets attacked by anything physically, it’s more than likely going to kill her before putting effort into her (that she doesn’t have a right to, is the problem), so all her experience has to be fed to and arranged for her. She has Wrath, but that requires she be attacked, which requires her being exposed to an attack, which is NOT acceptable with her, so it really doesn’t mean much. This can be said for Sophia, too (Miranda is a more extreme case just for existing in the much, MUCH more difficult game, though, I would argue). But the thing about Sophia is you can use her and still use great units while using Miranda means you have to completely sacrifice using FAR superior (and actually useful and good) units. Yes, you can make both of them strong fighters, but the amount of resources and favoritism that requires is objectively unjustified. Miranda denying you access to the infinitely superior Sleuf is what seals the deal for me. It’s shooting yourself in both the foot and the face... Evayle is miles ahead of her even if you're not using her, I'd argue - Evayle is miles ahead of Sophia, too, though.

Worst: Miranda.

That my choice for Best and Worst are both from FE5 was completely incidental, looking back on this. I chose both by process of elimination.