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I'm just curious what everyone here thinks.
Not paying attention to the stark difference in game difficulty between FE7 and 8, I would say overall that I like Tethys better as a dancer. While I like Ninian's character better, plus the addition of the different rings that are very useful, Ninian is just too fragile for me. Yes, I know that a dancer needs to be protected by another unit at all times. However, there are those instances when the enemy still snipes at her, and my Tethyses have always been faster and luckier than my Ninians. Maybe its just that the RNG in my copy of FE7 thats giving me the fragile Ninians. even though her character is meant to be fragile anyways...

Now, notably, because FE8 has vast oppourtunities for level grinding, as well as the control enemy/dark magic glitches, I can make a fighting Tethys thats somewhat effective for the later chapters of the game. I can't do that with Ninian, because the time it would take to level her up would lower my tactics grade. Also, I personally like Tethys' upbeat dancing music much much better than Ninian's sadder theme.
I've only played FE 7 and 8 which is why I only mentioned those two so if you think there is a better dnacer out there, please tell me! So, what do you guys think?

Ninian and Tethys only. No swords, no wings, no attacking, no items, final destination.

I also think Ninian is better. While Tethys does usually turn out better stat-wise, you really shouldn't be letting her get hit anyway. Even when Ninian has gotten in the way of an attack, she can dodge relatively well and can take at least one hit. So yeah. Tethys is better stat-wise, but Ninian does not have bad stats by any means.

And as has been said, Ninian also has her rings, which makes Ninian useful for different things, besides an extra turn.

Considering your Dancer shouldn't even be taking hits to begin with…

Ninian>>>>>Tethys. For being able to use the rings. Their stats are so remarkably similar, too, I don't know why people are arguing Ninian is much frailer.

But that's just as raw Dancers. I'd suggest Tethys is a better support unit (but on that note… Ninian's affinity makes her an even BETTER Dancer since it boosts all her defensive stats. Tethys is more reliable to support with since she's around the entire time, however).

And Nini predicts right. I'd take an FE4 Dancer before either of 'em, since they refresh four units at once, can uses Swords (although they kinda suck at using 'em - still it's better than no self-defense at all), and at least in the case of one of them, provide Charisma support to dodge and hit more reliably.

I'm inclined to agree that Tethys is more useful when it comes to staying alive and the dancer's function. Ninian has rings, but she needs to be rescued more (this may have to do with FE8 being the easiest game ever in the Fire Emblem series in my opinion as opposed to FE7).

I'm not arena abusing Ninian in the sense of I'm not sending her into the arena to fight--cause you can't, and that would be stupid and suicidal. What I meant by that is that when I arena abuse, I do it in the chapter where you get Ninian, and have her use Ninis's Grace on everyone. Then to keep that stat bonus, I rescue the unit, drop them on the next turn, and then have Ninian dance for them so they can march straight back into the arena. Gets me several units to level twenty, a crap-ton of gold, and 10 or 20 exp. every turn for Ninian. 3nodding

Without any use of glitches, I'd have to say Ninian hands down :I.

My reasons: Ninian in my experience has dodged more attacks then I would have imagined a dancer could dodge. Or anybody that can't attack for that matter (Like my Reyson magically dodging TWO ARROWS LOLOL. To this day, I still have no idea how that was accomplished ). Her rings give that 1-up that everybody is bound to use, not to mention its a good stat up if you want to bust someone's a** in one blow or even boost up their stats for the Arena. Her stats aren't that great, ok, I'll let that slide cause she's a dancer. But she still survived longer then Tethy imo.

Tethy in my experience was not that fascinating by any means. Sure, she gives you back a turn so you can move again. But uh....can I haz something special to use on my units instead of just giving back their turn? ._.; Not to mention she falls behind very quickly as does Ninian, and despite me uping her speed and def, she still gets killed in one blow.