Friday 23 August 2019

1,566,000,000 Beri Jackpot


This year happens to mark the 20th anniversary of the popular anime adaptation of One Piece, as well as the 22nd anniversary of the manga as a whole, so I figured I might as well deliver a few rants/theories on how major plot events in the series might play out going forward. (SPOILER WARNING! The following rant talks about major plot events in the current arc that the anime has not covered yet. If you do not want to be spoiled, leave now.)

First off, with regards to how Kaido is going to be taken out, it's pretty obvious that Luffy will need the assistance of at least 2 characters of similar power level to himself to eek out a win here, considering that Kaido OHKO'd him from full health while he was in Fourth Gear. While Luffy did get noticeably stronger in the prison mines by doing hard labor while wearing sea prism stone shackles (which is basically kryptonite to Devil Fruit users), and is beginning to learn Advanced Armament Haki (which would theoretically allow him to bypass Kaido's tough scales), the problem is that even with that, the gap between the two would still be too large for Luffy to realistically have a one on one duel with Kaido and win. Now, there is a lot of debate as to who will assist Luffy in this fight, but from what I've seen seeing so far, Oda has been setting up a Luffy/Kidd/Law team-up against Kaido. I mean, a team-up between these three characters against a larger threat had been foreshadowed since their initial team-up against some Marine fodders on Sabaody before the timeskip, so it would make perfect sense for these three to team up against Kaido.

Now on to Zoro. With regards to his missing sword, there has been a lot of hints thrown around this arc that suggests that Zoro will leave Shusui behind in Wano and receive a new sword in its place. While Zoro did win Shusui in a duel with Ryuma, it is worth noting that what Zoro fought in Thriller Bark was not the real Ryuma, but rather a corpse infused with Brook's shadow, so Zoro cannot truly say that he legitimately won that sword considering that it along with Ryuma's corpse were stolen from Wano by Moria in the first place. Furthermore, the sword is regarded as a national treasure by the people of Wano, and even if Zoro were to tell the truth of how he obtained Shusui, the people of Wano would still be reluctant to let him leave with it. And lastly, the events in the latest chapter reveals that while Hiyori won't let him keep Shusui for the aforementioned reasons, she offers him her father's sword instead (said sword is revealed to have been used to injure Kaido in the past). Alternatively, Zoro could very well end up returning Enma to Momonosuke after the Wano war, and in gratitude for his actions during their liberation, the people of Wano allow him to keep Shusui.

Which brings us to another Zoro related plot point, this time involving Nidai Kitetsu. Earlier in the arc, we saw that Zoro had a keen interest in this sword, which highly suggests that he may acquire this sword later on. Which is plausible, considering that Nidai is a Great Grade sword while Sandai (the Kitetsu sword he currently owns) is merely a graded sword. It is probable that the Sandai breaks or is otherwise swapped for Nidai, or alternately he leaves with both Kitetsu swords (I do not find this to be terribly likely).

And now for obligatory shipping bullshit. There is nothing in the manga that suggests that Luffy will end up in a romantic relationship with Hancock. For starters, there is no real emotional connection between the two. This is because Hancock isn't so much in love with Luffy as she is infatuated with him. That is, she perceives him as something that will make her feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, much like a psychotropic drug. While it is true that she does care for him, she completely fails to understand him as a person. As an example, after Luffy regained consciousness following the events of Marineford, Hancock prioritized feeding him over giving him emotional support. On the other hand, Nami was thousands of miles away when Ace was killed, and upon hearing the news about the results of the Marineford war, she knew that Luffy needed a lot of emotional support to help him deal with the trauma that he was experiencing.

In fact, the relationship that Luffy and Nami have is pretty similar to the one that Natsu and Lucy have; that is, it is a fairly potent pairing based on faith and trust. And it is demonstrated at multiple points in the manga that Nami is quite reliant on Luffy as an emotional anchor. To illustrate my point, when Nami and Luffy first met, it was established that she hated pirates and that she was only trying to take advantage of him, but as they traveled together in the East Blue, he actively challenged her view of the world and the value system in which she grew up with. She witnessed how he would staunchly uphold his belief system on loyalty and companionship in contrast to her own, and in doing so, she started to open up to Luffy and his crew a little bit more. But she would not fully trust Luffy until she had reached her lowest point, when she saw the people that she grew up with go and take on Arlong, even knowing they were going to get killed doing so. It was only at this point that she realized that she needed outside help to deal with Arlong, and Luffy was the only person at the time she could rely upon. And when she finally opened up to him, what does he do? He takes his hat, his most prized possession, off his head, and put it on Nami's, before going to Arlong Park himself. After Arlong is deposed, she returns the gesture by silently placing the hat on Luffy's head. And you can find many more examples of this type of emotional bonding in many later arcs. (Skypiea and Whole Cake Island, to name a few. I'd explain in more detail, but I think this rant is getting long enough as it is.)

When compared the emotional development that LuNa had received, LuHan isn't anywhere near the same caliber. Not even close. There's a world of difference between a well-developed relationship and a mere infatuation or crush, and given how Oda wrote his story and characters, it is made crystal clear that they greatly value strong emotional connections over some fucking shallow perception of love. With LuNa, you have a very strong and deep companionship that is built on strong emotional development and mutual trust and faith, that form the bedrock in which a romantic pairing can be built. Many of the classic romance tropes in adventure novels can be applied to this pairing; the heroine reveals a painful secret (Nami's affiliation with the Arlong Pirates) that the hero resolves to release them from the burden, and even after this is resolved, the heroine still relies on the hero for emotional support (and vice versa). The heroine serves as a compliment to the hero, acting as a foil to their reckless nature, but can still guide them through their adventures. These are all things that will hold far more weight than an infatuation ever could.

In any case, I'm done ranting. I hope you enjoy this pic.

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One Piece is (c) 1997-2019 Eiichiro Oda.
All unit(s) are Lv18 and above.
This pic was made by GaggedDude 32. Go here and here to view his stuff.

Have a nice day.

Tuesday 30 July 2019

The Princess and the Dragon (2019 version)



DISCLAIMER: Ok kids, yes, I suck at coming up with ideas for new titles. This is the, what, fourth fucking time I've used this title for a NaLu pic. Also, this entry came about four days too late for NaLu day. But I did say I would post this once I was able, so, well, here it is.

Anyways, on to ranting.

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Remember when Lucy was caught in Bora's love charm and Gray's gaze broke her out of it? Me neither.

Remember when Lucy started getting dressed to go on a date, thinking that Gray was about to confess to her? Me neither.

Remember the time when Lucy called out for Gray when she jumped from a ten story tower? Me neither.

Remember when Lucy got sick and Gray uprooted a sakura tree and placed it on a rowboat so she could see it? Me neither.

Remember before Team Natsu went to fight Precht, Juvia told Lucy to "stay by Gray's side"? Me neither.

Remember when Lucy whispered Gray's name in her sleep while she was recuperating from getting manhandled by Minerva during the GMG swimming contest? Me neither.

Remember when Gray dropped out of a GMG tournament to rescue Lucy after she was apprehended by the Royal Guard? Me neither.

Remember when Gray and Future Lucy touched foreheads? Me neither.

Remember when Future Rogue killed Future Lucy and Gray told him that "[Rogue] took something precious to him"? Me neither.

Remember at the end of the GMG arc when Lucy hugged Gray from behind, and Gray told her to "feel the warmth dwelling in her chest"? Me neither.

Remember at the end of the first movie, when Lucy and Gray hugged? Me neither.

Remember during the one-year timeskip, Lucy had spent her spare time searching for Gray? Me neither.

Remember when Gray succumbed to his demon form and OHKO'd Dimaria after she was about to gouge Lucy's eyes out? Me neither.

Remember when Lucy kept Gray warm by placing her naked breasts on top of him after the effects of his devil slayer magic wore off? Me neither.

Remember at the end of Fairy Tail, Gray told Lucy they would be together forever? Me neither.

Remember when Gray loses control of his devil slayer magic after fighting Ignia and Lucy breaks him out of it by reverse hugging him? Me neither.

Remember when Gray started lobbing ice blades at every boy who tried to hit on Lucy while they were visiting Fairy Nail? Me neither.

At this point, I think it's pretty clear that GrayLu is going absolutely fucking nowhere. Given that Mashima had not bothered to give Gray and Lucy any real emotional development in the main story, it should honestly come as no surprise that GrayLu hasn't received any romantic moments in the sequel either. It's like... what are ZN-Lover and other flamethrowers expecting? For Mashima to liquidate all the development that he put into Natsu and Lucy's relationship over the course of 585 chapters, only for him to pair Lucy with a guy that she only thinks of as a friend (and who already has his own damn love interest)? Cut me a fucking break.

Even after the main story ended, Mashima had confirmed time and time again that he supports the NaLu pairing. A lot of the art that he posts on twitter are of Natsu and Lucy, actively participates in NaLu events organized by the fans, and he even went so far as to draw what their daughter would look like at 2017's Comic-Con at NYC. In a recent interview that he had while in Germany this year, he flat out stated that he wants Natsu and Lucy to get together, but hasn't done so yet because he likes teasing his fanbase. All of these things are strongly hinting towards him finally making NaLu official at the end of the Century Quest sequel.

TL;DR: NaLu is canon. GrayLu is dead. Deal with it. Game Over.

Credit to VoGoshinki for giving me the inspiration behind the setup of this pic.

Fairy Tail is (c) 2006-2018 Hiro Mashima
All unit(s) are Lv18 and above.
This pic was made by Kuroi Hoshi. Go here to view his stuff and here to watch his livestream.

Have a nice day.

Wednesday 26 June 2019

A Knight In Heaven (2019 Version)



Hello to all.

In the wake of the recent NaLu and Gruvia development we got in the 100 Year Quest, I figured I might as well talk about Jerza for a bit.

Now, I may just be a sentimental kind of guy, but I can't help but think back at how fucking screwed over Jerza got in the final chapter when compared to the other three "Big Four" pairings. I mean, Gruvia and GaLe received more or less explicit confirmations, and while NaLu's confirmation was not as explicit in the English translation, it was still implied heavily enough that it may as well be canon. Meanwhile, there was no interaction between Jellal and Erza in the final chapter, just Hisui pardoning Jellal for his crimes, followed by a panel of Erza brushing her hair. Now, I'm pretty sure that a lot of people here thought that Jellal had abandoned Erza, and I really can't blame them. That said, NatZa fans were quick to capitalize on this and peddle the lie that Natsu and Erza could start a romantic relationship in the sequel.

As mentioned in my previous rants, it was not unheard of early on for people who were not fans of the NaLu ship to instead support NatZa. Unlike GrayLu, which did not receive any real emotional development even during these early chapters, NatZa surprisingly received a fair bit of development during the earlier arcs that an untrained eye could construe as romantic development. And to many of these same NatZa fans, Erza's feelings for Jellal probably came out of left field.

While the Tower of Heaven arc seemingly made Jellal out to be a complete asshole to Erza (a lot of NatZa fans ignore the fact that Jellal was possessed at the time), the same arc had also highlighted how emotionally close they were as kids. Among other things, Jellal was the one to give Erza her last name, and was both willing to trade places with her after she confessed to one of his crimes and fight his way to her after she was tortured. And even after all the crimes he had committed while under Ultear's possession, Erza had retained her feelings for him, feelings that were proven mutual after Jellal's memories were restored.

With this in mind, NatZa fans are also quick to point out that Jellal had also abandoned Erza at critical junctures, including Chapter 264 and the final chapter. While it was true that they didn't officially tie the knot at these junctures, it was actually justified in both instances. With the former, Jellal had only recently escaped from prison, and Erza would've become wanted herself if they had become an item at that point. With the latter, it's actually unknown what went on between the two, but what can be implied is that the two are secretly dating (I mean, why the fuck else would Erza be brushing her hair every day?)

Which brings us back to NatZa. Like I previously mentioned, it is easy to construe the emotional development that Natsu and Erza received during the ToH arc as romantic development, especially when one considers that many of these "moments" are similar to a lot of future NaLu moments. That said, if NatZa was actually intended as a romantic pairing, then why did such development stop after the Nirvana arc. The answer is actually pretty simple; if you compare these early interactions to interactions in later arcs, it's made pretty clear that Natsu sees Erza as a big sister. If you think I'm bullshitting, consider this: When Natsu punched Gray out after the latter tried using a suicide attack in order to seal away Deloria, I don't think anyone could reasonably construe that as a romantic Gratsu moment. A similar logic can be applied to, say, Natsu pulling Erza out of Etherion.

With that all said, it's like... what the fuck are NatZa shippers expecting? For Mashima to throw away the strong emotional bond that Erza and Jellal have just so he can pair her with a boy that she views like a little brother in the sequel? Cut me a fucking break. At the end of the day, Erza and Jellal have romantic feelings for each other, and have had them since at least Chapter 264, and you'd have to be a special kind of deluded to think otherwise.

TL;DR: Jerza is canon. NatZa is dead. Deal with it. Game Over.

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Fairy Tail is (c) 2006-2019 Hiro Mashima
All unit(s) are Lv18 and above.
This pic was made by GaggedDude32. Go here and here to view his stuff.

Have a nice day.

Wednesday 19 December 2018

Ice-Cold Rainy Christmas 2018


Hello to all.

Since Douglas Garret (a.k.a ZN-Lover) is busy decking the halls of DeviantArt with his bullshit propaganda (how he can still sell GrayLu as a competitive pairing when Gruvia is canon is beyond me...) and acting like a Grinch towards NaLu and Gruvia shippers, I figured I may as well spread some joy to help distract people from his Grinchy behavior. So, as a gift from me to you, here's a parody of the famous Christmas song, "Silent Night":

Silent Night, Holy Night!
Gruvia's future is bright...
Man of ice, woman of water...
Their union couldn't be hotter...
And thus the fandom rejoiced!
And thus the fandom rejoiced!

Silent Night, Holy Night!
GrayLu trolls shake at the sight...
Gray confessed to Juvia...
And the fandom sang Alleluia!
And thus Gruvia was canon!
And thus Gruvia was canon!

Silent Night, Holy Night!
ZN couldn't dim their light...
No matter how much he tried...
GrayLu would still be dead...
And thus the fandom rejoiced!
And thus the fandom rejoiced!

With all that out of the way, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Kwanzaa to everyone in the NaLu and Gruvia shipping community! I hope this awesome pic of Gray and Juvia having anal sex is to your liking!

And to Douglas Garret, Merry Fucking Christmas! This is your "present" for not only posting your usual bullshit this month, but doing so when Gruvia was confirmed irrefutably to be canon. I hope you like your "gift". And yes, I will have more rants ready for you in the new year, so stay tuned for those.

Have fun, be safe, and don't drink and drive!

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Fairy Tail is (c) 2006-2018 Hiro Mashima
All unit(s) are Lv18 and above.
This pic was made by Kuroi Hoshi. Go here to view his stuff and here to watch his livestream.

Have a nice day. 

Thursday 30 August 2018

Ice-Cold Rainy Passion (2018 Version)



Hello to all.

Remember back at the very start of Fairy Tail when Lucy was caught in Bora's love charm and Gray's gaze broke her out of it? Me neither.

Remember during the Phantom Lord arc when Lucy called out Gray's name as she jumped from a ten story tower? Me neither.

Remember the time when Lucy was sick and Gray went out and placed a stolen sakura tree onto a dinghy just so Lucy could see it? Me neither.

Remember before Team Natsu went to fight Precht, Juvia told Lucy to "stay close to Gray"? Me neither.

Remember late into the Grand Magic Games, Gray and Lucy pull off a perfect unison raid on the first attempt? Me neither.

Remember that time when Gray and Lucy touched foreheads? Me neither.

Remember the ending of the Fairy Tail movie, when Lucy hugged Gray? Ne neither.

Remember at the end of the Tatarus arc, when Gray went to Lucy for comfort over Silver's death? Me neither.

Remember when Gray and Lucy lived together under the same roof for half a year? Me neither.

Remember when Gray went completely apeshit after Lucy killed herself in order to break Invel's blood chain? Me neither.

And lastly, remember in the final chapter, Gray told Lucy that he wanted and desired her body? Me neither.

Over the course of Fairy Tail's duration, it seemed to me that ZN-Lover and other GrayLu shippers would go to any lengths to prove that their pairing was actually legitimate, going so far as to hype up friendzone moments such as when Gray patted Lucy on the head when they were partying in the Spirit World or downplaying legitimate Gruvia and NaLu development by saying grade-A bullshit such as "Gray only sees Juvia as a creepy stalker" or "Natsu and Lucy see each other as brother and sister". One poor soul actually came up with a list of "reasons" why Gray and Lucy were a perfect match for each other a few years back, though a lot of the reasons he posted were either based of falsehoods, had nothing to do with romance, or both.

Of course, the fact of the matter is that Hiro Mashima favors a strong emotional bond between his characters over a shallow-ass perception of love, and at the end of the day, GrayLu was not given any emotional development that would suggest that a romantic relationship could plausibly happen, and anyone who thinks otherwise is honestly kidding themselves at this point, especially given the current trajectory of the 100 year quest.

TL;DR: Gruvia is canon. GrayLu is dead. Deal with it. Game Over.

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Fairy Tail is (c) 2006-2018 Hiro Mashima
All unit(s) are Lv18 and above.
This pic was made by GaggedDude32. Go here and here to view his stuff.

Have a nice day.

Monday 20 August 2018

Choose Your Damsels 2017 and 2018



Hello there.

With Brave Heroes 2 literally on the horizon, I felt it would be a pretty good time to talk about last year's Brave Heroes and the effect they had on the game.

Last year, Intelligent Systems conducted a popularity contest featuring every named character in every Fire Emblem game at that point in time. This contest lasted about a week, and in the end, the winners were reveled to be Ike and Lyn, with Roy and Lucina coming in second. There was a lot of speculation on what the CYL alts of each hero would look like, but many rumors started spreading around, including one where the heroes would be wearing Askrian armor. Eventually, the Brave Heroes banner was released on August 31, 2017, and the contents of said banner exceeded everyone's expectations.

Each of the brave alts had a weapon that granted two effects (a stat boost + a tier 3 version of a skill), and the two 1st place winners each had an exclusive B skill as well as a Lv40 BST that was roughly 4-5 points higher than other units of their range/move type.

Of the four first generation Brave Heroes, Brave Lyn (Blyn) had the most profound effect on the metagame by far. Blyn had the honor of being the first mounted bow user in the game, and had absolutely crazy stats for a ranged cavalry unit, with 33 atk and 35 spd dwarfing all of her competitors at that point. Her prf weapon, the Mulagir, was designed to help deal with bladetome users, having +3 speed and an effect that neutralized field buffs on mages built into it. However, what made Blyn truly one of the most oppressive units in the game was her exclusive B passive, Sacae's Blessing. This skill had the effect of blocking counterattacks by physical melee units, thereby removing one of her otherwise biggest counters (while dragons could still counterattack, they had to cut through her much higher magic bulk).

The combination of her high offensive stats, cavalry movement (and thereby access to cavalry buffs, which were very easy to get), and B passive meant that players had to more or less run specialized checks against her, such as TA Raventome mages. And even so, Blyn could easily run builds or have teammates that could trip such builds. Due to all of this, for the rest of 2017, Blyn was widely regarded as "the single best unit in the entirety of FEH". It wasn't really until the introduction of the weapon refinery and the rise of bulky dragons that Blyn started to become less dominant in the meta, but even to this day, she's still one of the most dangerous units to face in lower arena.

As for Brave Ike (Bike), he wasn't quite as oppressive as Blyn was, but he was a major threat for a while. Unlike Blyn (or the other two, for that matter), his statline leaned more towards a tank, coming with high attack and defense, along with a decent HP pool, but low speed and res. This was complimented by Urvan, an axe that not only lowered the cooldown of Bike's specials by 1, but also reduced the damage of any consecutive attacks to a fifth of what they would normally do, making weapons such as brave weapons nearly useless against him. As if that wasn't enough, Bike also came with a skill called Steady Breath, which not only increased the user's defense when attacked, but it also increased the rate at which specials charged, allowing him to fire off Aether very quickly. And unlike his B passive, this could be given to other units via skill inheritance. His B passive, in contrast, wasn't quite as useful as Blyn's was, only imparting a dull effect against cavalry and flying units.

While the other two came with some interesting effects and niches (Blucina could impart +6 speed in combat buffs to any physical unit, while Broy was the first true hyper offensive sword cavalier), they didn't quite make the same impact the other two did and both ended up getting dropped to the wayside pretty fast.

Now, it remains to be seen how the next generation of brave heroes will shape the metagame, but from what we've seen from Blyn and Bike, we should probably set our expectations high.

That being said, all that's left is to share this pic of the 1st place female winners of both 2017 and 2018 in a... predicament.

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Fire Emblem is (c) 1990-2018 Intelligent Systems
All unit(s) are Lv18 and above.
This pic was drawn by Kupoexe Magnus. View his stuff here.

Have a nice day.

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And now, alt time.

Ballgag:


Blindfold:


Ballgag + Blindfold:

Monday 9 July 2018

Hector x Lyn S Support (2018 Version)



Hello to all.

Out of all the units that I own on FEH, Hector has probably been used the most, having been in my possession since early September of last year and has consistently been a part of my arena core ever since. Now that I have recently gotten him to +10, I might as well talk about the history of Hector as a unit before we get to my experience using him.

Hector was one of the 90 or so units that was available to summon in FEH when the game first launched on February 2, 2017, as a 5* exclusive unit. At the time of the game's launch, he was a contender for strongest unit in the game, possessing some of the highest physical bulk in the game at 52 HP/37 def, while also hitting hard in return thanks to his 36 atk. However, what made him especially strong back then was the combination of Armads, which had Quick Riposte built into it (offsetting his low speed on enemy phase) and his Distant Counter A passive (this allowed him to counterattack ranged units who could otherwise take advantage of him being a melee unit). All of these things, put together, made him a monstrous enemy to face before the advent of skill inheritance. And really, his only real weaknesses, so to speak, were his low res and the fact that he was stuck with a damage reduction special.

While the addition of skill inheritance had helped a great deal of units become viable, many units such as Hector who were strong to begin with basically ran off with this feature. In Hector's case, because he had QR built into his weapon, this freed up his B slot, allowing him to run skills like Vantage or a breaker skill. SI also allowed him to swap out Pavise for a special that could take advantage of his high defense, such as Bonfire. This allowed him to maintain his dominance among melee greens for the next six months.

Starting in August, IntSys started releasing axe users that could challenge Hector's title for strongest green unit. The first of these was Brave Ike, an axe variant of Ike with attack and defense on par with Hector's as well as a prf that heavily cut the amount of damage he would receive from consecutive strikes, allowing him to tank QP Moon Reinhardt (something that Hector could only dream of doing back then). This would be followed by the release of Dorcas (an infantry axe with DC built into his weapon, allowing him to run DC alongside an A passive of his choice) and Christmas Chrom (a 174 BST armored unit with 40 atk and extremely high mixed bulk). Despite this, Hector was able to maintain his dominance thanks to Armads allowing him to run any B passive of choice. Not even the QR seal could really slow him down, as he could run it in conjunction with Wary Fighter and his prf to basically have an omnibreaker effect.

However, Hector's dominance as top green came to an end in February 2018, with the release of powercreeped armors like Valentine's Hector (a seasonal alt of himself with higher atk/def/res and a version of Armads that has a slaying effect and Wrath built in) and Fallen Robin (an armored dragon with a massive attack stat and a DC breath weapon). However, with the weapon refinery giving him access to his alt's weapon, OG Hector is still one of the strongest greens in the game.

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As for my experience using this unit, I pulled my first Hector when the CYL gauntlet banner came out. This also happened to be the banner which I stopped being an F2P player, as I had bought a pack of orbs so as to allow me to pull on the banner. However, to my dismay, the Hector I pulled on that banner that day was +spd/-atk. While I initially didn't want to use him because of that, I had also remembered that he was also relatively IV proof and that he was still stronger than basically any other green at the time, so I went ahead and trained him and gave him some skills.

Even with the attack bane, Hector was still strong enough to clear most of the PvE content that I had mostly skipped due to my lack of good units at the time, and he had certainly pulled his weight in arena as well, replacing Michalis as my main physical tank. To deal with the attack bane, I ended up fielding a Delthea (which I had conveniently gotten as a pitybreaker) and basically gluing her next to him. And this was basically Hector for the first 5 months of his existence.

The Love Abounds banner was released in early February, and I became interested in the banner once I found out that an alt of Hector was on it. So I did as I usually did and bought a whole bunch of orbs, but once I had actually got to summoning, my luck took a turn for the worse, as I spent close to 200 orbs before getting any 5* units, and 280 before I finally pulled Vector. And to make things a little better for me, I had managed to get a copy with optimal IVs (+atk/-spd). At this point, I decided to retire my old Hector and start using the new one, saving up orbs so I could get merges for him later in the month. About a week before the banner ended, I went in again, this time with more than 480 orbs. But luck was not with me that day either. I spent about 360 orbs before I gave up on that banner, only managing to pull a Julia, another Deirdre, a Vilina, and ironically enough, an OG Hector. Not one to waste resources, I merged my old -atk Hector into the new one once I saw the new copy's IVs (neutral).

At this point, I had given up on the idea of coring seasonal units (I don't have the monthly budget to do those sort of things, given how rarely past seasonals are re-run), so I continued using my now-neutral OG Hector, in the hopes that more banners featuring him as a focus would be released. About a month later, a banner featuring units with countering skills was released, so I stockpiled on orbs before that date. The night the banner dropped, I found that my luck had finally turned for the better, as I had managed to pull 4 Hectors within around 300 orbs, then YOLO'd a fifth as the banner ended, putting him at +6 (I had also pulled a copy that was +spd/-HP, which I used as the base.) This action, among others, such as getting 5 merges for Ayra in a later banner, had greatly improved my scoring situation, to the point where I could actually stay in Tier 20 (provided I sniped). Roughly three months after that, another banner with Hector came out (a banner related to his BHB with Matthew), and on the night it came out, I was finally able to finish the job using 272 orbs, putting him at +10. I had also managed to pull a Hardin on the VG banner that was running at that time, which allowed me to finally give him Bold Fighter.

So that concludes my epic tale about my Hector. Now enjoy this pic of him fucking Lyn silly.

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Fire Emblem is (c) 1990 Intelligent Systems.
All unit(s) are Lv18 and above.
This pic was made by Kuroi Hoshi. Go here to view his stuff and here to watch his livestream.

Have a nice day.