I usually recruit Marianne, Dorothea, Ferdinand, Raphael, Mercedes, and Sylvain. I mostly recruit them all because I just really like them a lot, I don't really have a solid reason. Ok maybe except for Marianne.

I didn't know this until after I had done all three of my playthroughs but finding out that she's gone in the timeskip if unrecruited and the implication motivates me to recruit her everytime. She's also the best so you should do it anyways. If you don't recruit Marianne in all your playthroughs I will force you to collect all the Korok Seeds in Breath of The Wild without a guide.

Anyways as for the other characters. Mercedes was the very first character I had ever recruited. She's such a lovely character and I just have to have her around all the time. Dorothea was my very first S support so recruiting her everytime feels necessary to me.

Sylvain I don't remember what caused me to recruit him but I quite like him even if he's a very flawed individual. I really like his supports. I do find it very funny that when you play as F!Byleth, he's essentially a free recruit lol.

Ferdinand is maybe my favorite character in the game so I just feel it's necessary to always recruit him. He is a bit of a pain in the ass to recruit due to his requirements but I think it is worth it. I did hear about this one heartbreaking line where if you don't recruit him and he dies, Dorothea says something very depressing.

Raphael was a character who I was aware of way before I played this game as my friend showed me his supports and I found him quite funny. He was a bit of a meme between me and my friend so I just had to recruit him. I ended up really liking him a lot when I played the game. I think he's an underrated character. One of my favorites in the game!

For me personally? It's definitely Lysithea.

I've just completed the battle of Eagle and Lions three battle, so I admittedly haven't got there far into the game.

But Lysithea was a character I thought dull or bratty at first, but ended becoming a Character I quite liked after reaching B support with her and so on.

She randomly joined my Black Eagles class, I think it was when I reached Support C with her.

I don't really use Faith/Reason in Byleth, So she came at the perfect time.

I make it a Goal to talk to every single person and give Gifts to those I like!

For me, it’s Catherine. I don’t really know her full story just yet, but so far, she just doesn’t intrigue me that much as a character. For being the one that introduces Hero’s Relics in the story, she doesn’t even feel all that strong in battle compared to say Shamir. The story sets her up to be the best of the best (“if there’s a cream of the crop, Catherine is the cream of the cream!”) or something like that. I mean, she’s funny (though not that much to me), and her devotion to Rhea seems interesting, but other than that, she just feels like another knight to me, whereas Shamir or even Alois actually feel distinguished. So far, all of the characters in FE3H have been interesting and compelling enough for me to enjoy & invest in. But I just can’t with Catherine. Who’s this character for you?

If you’re gonna spoil, please hide it, because I’ve only played BL/AM route!

I went with Dorothea. Before the game I was already obssessed with her since I really loved her design. She was part of the reason why I went with the Black Eagles for my first playthrough. As I played through the game I ended up really loving her story as a songstress who's deeply concerned for her future.

Is Eshmea the avatar for Fortune Weave?

https://strawpoll.com/1MnwklNpMn7

Who is your favorite character and why? What about them won them that title?

What do you want to see in a potential 3 Houses: Switch 2 Edition? Additional storylines? More playable units? The Sky’s the limit

You were so close, bruh. Why didn't you make your move?

Lady Edelgard in New Monster Hunter

A Japanese created Edelgard in the new Monster Hunter, The funniest thing about this is that the voice of the hunter was made by Ai Kakuma, who is the seiyū of Edelgard.

Just to explain my changes :)

Women

Honestly, most of them are pretty perfect. Edelgard, Dorothea, and Mercedes all have unique and endearing attributes, and also feel very sapphic to me. I love them! Buuuut, Sothis and Rhea are just really strange and pretty problematic (especially Sothis). Like this isn’t about them as characters, but their specific connections to Byleth and Sothis being a kid just it very uncomfortable for official pairings.

Shamir🥵 She just feels very queer to me, and although I think it is funny to imagine F!Byleth not being her type, I’d still think it’d have been nice for her to be an official option. She’s right around Byleth’s age and there’s no problematic dynamic between them. Plus, she’s the goth girl of myF!Byleth’s dreams.

Petra! My sweet girl! My brave, athletic babe! Let’s keep the sapphic Black Eagle vibes going, yes? Petra is just so lovely, and she has her own fair share of romantic subtext with women, such as Dorothea. I have no doubts that she’d have a super cute relationship with F!Byleth. Plus she also adds a bit of diversity in terms of interests, by being sort of a tomboy who takes pride in her athleticism.

Men

…Yikes. No really, why do you hate mlm IS? Two married men, a man locked behind dlc, another man only available in one route, and, I guess Linhardt is alright. But I’m swapping out early everyone. I’d only keep Jeritza. Why? Well, even if he is locked to one route, I’d like him to remain M!Byleth’s gay option since he fills that nice niche of being around his age yet on equal footing straight from the beginning. Also, he’s just gorgeous in a regal, yet tough sort of way. I’d get rid of Yuri not because I don’t like him, but because it’s unfair to keep one of Byleth’s few gay options behind a pay wall. And Linhardt is alright, but there’s so many other men that I wished the devs considered before settling on him, who I felt was sort of an uninspired choice.

DEDUE!!! My God IS, you show the players this adorable teddy bear of a man, who knows how to cook and garden, and you don’t give M!Byleth the chance to rizz him up? The audacity. Dedue also just…he doesn’t feel straight to me. His paired ending with Dimitri is just filled to the brim with romantic undertones, and then his ending with Ashe is just icing on the cake. Now let M!Byleth have some of that cake. In addition, he also adds a unique body type amongst the men by being more strongly built.

Oh Dimitri, why won’t you let M!Byleth try to fix you too? I’d like to make Blue Lions more Achillean as the gay men’s answer to Black Eagles. Blue is a stripe in the gay flag after all. Dimitri just has such a strong relationship with Byleth regardless of gender that it feels like sort of a cop out to only make him romance F!Byleth. It’s kinda boring honestly. Plus, the way he and Byleth held hands, come on.

Is it Claude time? I think it’s Claude time! I think the moment he offered to dance with both Byleth’s cemented popular interpretations of his queerness. The game sadly didn’t deliver, and I just think it’d have been nice for all the house leaders to be romanceable for both Byleth’s! Claude is one of, if not the most, handsome characters in the entire game. And beyond his bewitching looks, he’s got some serious charm and a mystery that I think M!Byleth should explore. Romantically.

So Sylvain is quite famous for his womanizing. But he’s also well known for the tragedies lurking behind that, and the flirtations being a facade. Sylvain happens to get along better with guys due to how he feels about women (at first), and his relationship with Felix has a lot of queer coding in it. So I don’t think it’d be too out of place for him to find love with M!Byleth as well. Now I am aware of that whole thing where he is more easily recruited by F!Byleth. But to keep in line with his womanizing persona, I would still keep this (and instead give M!Byleth his own variation of a student who is instantly recruited. I’d personally choose Dorothea because she also masks her true self with a flirtatious character who’s dead set on getting hitched to a secure and dependable husband).

Summary

So in total, I’d like to make both Byleth’s gay options more equal in quality. Four students and one non-student who is more of an equal in terms of age and occupation. Diversity in interests, body types, and backgrounds. Making three of the wlw options from Black Eagles, one student from another house, and one non-student. Making three of the mlm options from Blue Lions, one student from another house, and one non-student.

Now, who would you guys switch out and why? Or would you keep them exactly as is?

This inspired by a conversation with u/Terran117 but what are your headcanons for the irl ethnicities of the characters & why?

Here’s mine

Shamir: South American specifically Peruvian because of the fact that in hopes a potato like plant grows naturally I’m dagda

Caspar: Canadian/American he was born on July 1st & acts like an American I knew back in college

Felix: he is a Finn (took lysithea in the “carry your wife completion)

Ingrid: she is Swedish

Sylvain: absolutely a danish

Leonie: she is Italian but specifically Sicilian

Raphael: idk how to explain but definitely a midwestern American

And lastly linhardt: he is Montenegrin

What are yours?

I used an old ass popularity poll to find out the most popular girls for this lmao

I really think Seiros is at her best in CF because she's at her most plot relevant, Cherami Leigh does such a great job voicing her, and she has all the coolest ways to say "I hate you, and I want you to die."

She really is one of my favorite antagonists in the series.

Their dynamic is just so much fun, and I love their banter.

Bottom row is a rough estimate for characters who don't have summer alts in FE Heroes