Fire Emblem Heroes is now a year old and still going strong. Throughout the year Intelligent Systems released various timed banners with extra rare heroes that many believed we would never get another chance at. Rewind to last November however and we are introduced to the Legendary Banner, a special banner with lots of focus characters and all have an 8% chance of appearing, as opposed to the usual 3.5% chance. Alongside each of these banners, however, came a brand new character known as the ‘Legendary Hero’.
The first Legendary Hero was the original character Fjorm, who was also given away for free in the story, and then the second Legendary Hero released in December was Gunnthra, another original character. These two created a precedent that the Legendary Hero would always be original, especially since there were still five more original characters who were not playable yet, like Veronica and Bruno. Once January came to an end though, Intelligent Systems threw a curveball and revealed the new Legendary Hero was not an original character and instead Vanguard Ike, his strongest form from Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn. This debut opened up a new possibility for Legendary Heroes, stronger versions of already existing characters.
So that’s what this article is about today, I want to highlight a view possibilities for future Legendary Heroes that we might see, talk about why they are likely and how they may differ from their original counterpart.
Hero-King Marth
The first hero on our list is by far the most important character in the entire series. Marth was many players first experience with Fire Emblem, both as the very first protagonist as well as the first character to appear in Super Smash Bros., where many westerners first discovered the franchise. In-universe, Marth is also known as the Hero-King and an influential icon in Fire Emblem Awakening, the most successful game released. This alone is enough to warrant his appearance as a Legendary Hero but there is another factor and that is the Choose Your Legends poll. In the 1st poll, Ike got into the top 10 males twice, both his original look and his Vanguard look. The latter got used as the first Legendary Hero and this may be why. Well, in the second CYL poll Marth has done the exact same thing. His original form, which is already in Heroes came fifth overall but his King form from the sequel came 11th in the male rankings and the highest voted alternate character. So this popularity may do the same thing for Marth. The big question now is how to change him up and well, there is one big factor of Marth that many fans don’t realise because it rarely gets focused on: Marth has a shield. While most depictions of Marth don’t show this, he actually wields a shield in his games and that shield is actually the Fire Emblem itself. This shield is marketed a lot but never on Marth, yet this might be the best time to bring in that version of him. While Marth always has to have the Falchion, the shield could provide a new set of skills to make him different, like giving him a higher defence or a counter.
As a side note, Great Lord Chrom also wields the Fire Emblem/Falchion combo and could also work as a Legendary Hero. However he is not nearly as iconic as Marth, nor as popular.
Grima Robin
Chrom isn’t the only protagonist of Awakening as we have the avatar Robin, arguably the more popular hero. In the story, it is revealed that Robin is the avatar of the fell Dragon Grima and in Lucina’s timeline Grima has destroyed the world. While many think of Grima as the big dragon itself, they can take on their Robin form and we see this both in the game and in much promotional material. Obviously, Grima as the legendary fell dragon, as well as another form of Robin, is perfect for this legendary hero position and to add to this, Grima came up in the top 100 Fire Emblem characters in the 2nd CYL poll so it shows they are popular. Visually, to avoid the gender issue, Grima could have their hood up just like Robin often did and thus the gender becomes unknown, while also representing the iconic look of the avatar that inspired the summoner in Heroes. As for how Grima would differ from both versions of Robin, there are two ways. Grima could be a red mage, a class used often for dark mages, and allows there to be a Robin for each colour of mage; alternatively, the dragon aspect of Grima could be played up by making Grima a red or green dragon. The latter would be more unique for Robin but either would work.
Marquess Hector
The winner of the CYL 2nd poll was Hector, one of the protagonists of Fire Emblem the Blazing Sword. This means he will get a brave unit at some point in the future, just like Ike, however it may not be his older form from the Binding Blade. Afterall Brave Ike was instead based on his father instead of Radiant Ike, probably because the latter did not win. And the same thing happened again, as Marquess Hector was a separate option in the poll but Young Hector won. However a Legendary Hero is a great way to get Marquess Hector, and his glorious beard, into Heroes. Unlike the first two, it is not as obvious how this form of Hector could be different. He would still be a green general, however now he is much bulkier so maybe we could have another unit with a heightened defence? One comparison I was thinking of is the difference between Julia and her mother Deidre could work for Hector and his older, tougher, self. Either way, this is a character that is popular and so I could see this happening regardless.
Archsage Soren and Halbedier Nephenee
So Soren and Nephenee are in a similar situation and that is why they have been grouped together. Neither are main characters of the Radiant Saga and i’m not sure what unique elements they could bring to Heroes, however, both are very popular units. In both Choose Your Legends polls, Soren and Nephenee ranked high and in both of their forms. The originals that are already in Heroes did well and then their Radiant Dawn equivalents were also in the top 100, and scored higher in the second poll than in the first. So while these two aren’t that significant, I think their popularity could be enough to get them in.
Emperor Arvis
Finally, the last character I wanted to bring up is the Emperor Arvis, the final villain of Genealogy of the Holy War. Many fans wanted Arvis to get into Heroes in his Emperor form, which gives him the unique class of an armoured Red mage, however, when he made it he appeared in his class from the first generation, simply as a mage unit. This understandably made Arvis feel less special to many and as this is just another form from the same game it might not be a priority for Intelligent Systems to add as a regular summon. However as a Legendary Hero he would work really well. He is different enough from his first form that he stands out and would truly be a strong unit for players to wield.
Those were just a few of my suggestions though, let me know any Legendary Heroes you would like to see in the comments below.
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spoiler
…Arvis is not the final opponent in Genealogy of the Holy War.
Speaking of which, there are all the heroes in the various games’ backstories who are already considered legendary (including Marth by the time of Awakening). Of those, Athos and Deghinsea show up in person.