Just a grumbling female player...

[fe6_fan]

So I've been lingering in tier 20 in the arena for months now, so I'd say I'm a pretty competitive player and can tell a great unit from a mediocre unit. The tier lists aren't without error, but they do give decent guidelines about what units are phenomenal (ex: all dragons) versus which units are sub par (ex: Odin).

Looking at the current layout, it is INSANE how much priority/special skills/special stats/special attention is given to female units versus male units. I counted quickly, but to give you a general rundown:

S+: 4 female, 0 male

S: 18 female, 11 male

S-: 19 female, 11 male

A+: 30 female, 22 male

A: 20 female, 23 male

A-: 11 female, 22 male

B+: 3 female, 12 male

B: 3 female, 3 male

The number of female units in the highest tiers is almost double that of male units, whereas the number of males at the bottom tiers is over double the number of female units. Do keep in mind that, currently, there are more female units in the game than male units.

And something important to consider is that male units are almost always our TT and GHB rewards—units historically put in to be non-competitive: low stats, non-unique weapons and skills, and impossible to level up beyond 40+3 (until they run again months down the road, if ever).

I pointed this out to a forum once and many people insisted it's because female units are generally given high attack, high speed, and high res--making them better suited to the meta. Whereas male characters are given high attack, high HP, and high defense--making them less suited to the meta. But didn't the high attack, high speed and high res of female units MAKE the meta??? Not to mention the handfuls of female characters given great weapons + 3 unique skills, whereas their male counterparts are RARELY treated so generously...

Furthermore, female characters are generally given unique classes and roles that male characters do not get--mounted archer, flying singer, dragon, flying dragon, flying mage, etc.. MANY of these roles canonically are male roles--Shigure would be the ideal flying singer, Reyson a flying singer, Nils or any FE9/10 dragons, Rath the mounted archer, among many others. Instead, females who do not canonically belong in the role are given it in Heroes while males are pushed to standard infantry roles (Shigure the infantry singer, M!Corrin the infantry sword user, etc.). Let's be perfectly honest: the hot, unique units that everyone fights to pull for are those niche characters that can't be filled by others: Spring Camilla, Halloween Nowi, Myrrh, New Year Azura, Brave Lyn, etc.. Generally all female.

Not only that, but we see many, many banners like the most recent that are all-female or at least a majority of female characters--with a lackluster male character thrown in as a reward for TT or GHB. We've had one or two banners recently that are weighted in favor of males--but we've never had a full male banner (to my knowledge). Whereas we've already had 2 full-female banners to date (that I'm aware of). Said male-weighted banners were often followed by a new female unit that appeared in a random banner on her own (Rhajat, Ayra, etc.). Female-weighted banners were only ever followed by GHB, TT or nothing at all.

I'm not into waifu or husbando culture at all, but I've been playing Fire Emblem since FE6--and there are TONS of characters that I love, particularly males at this point, that are completely irrelevant in Heroes or ignored altogether. And I understand that this is a waifu-culture game. I understand it's a gacha game that just wants to make oodles of dollars off waifu-obsessed folks. But are female players really so nonexistent that they don't even try a little bit?

(And before y'all argue, because I've seen it MANY times before, that they tried to please female players with Bruno, summer Marx, summer Freddy, summer Gaius, Hawkeye and Odin--let's please turn our attention to all of the gorgeous females in this game, the lolis, the number of scantily clad females, and the suggestive ripping of clothes and suggestive poses in MOST of the female injured artwork. Males do not even come close to having remotely the same treatment. Not even exaggerating, the ratio would be roughly 5 suggestive males to 80 suggestive females.)

[Dragoncat]

Yeah, sadly this happens with a lot of games. Have you SEEN Soul Calibur?

Kudos for doing all these calculations! It really paints a picture of all the one way fanservice that exists. Fanservice imo, should probably be done away with in canon content unless they were going to make it equal, which they clearly aren't. Let the fans make the fanservice themselves.

[eclipse]

. . .and yet Sue is the first GBA recruitable mounted archer, Leanne is a flying singer, Pegasus Knights were all-female up until Fates, and refreshers were female for a long time (I think Elphin was the first male one, even if Lewyn was a bard).  Yet the main lord/villain has almost always been male, and Fighters were only male until Charlotte shows up.

FE has always had the gender divide, and Heroes is no exception.  The raw numbers from the CYL, IIRC, showed more votes for the female characters than the male characters.  The target demographic is an audience that likes women. . .which means those of us that really like men are less likely to see our favorites. But that's okay - even if my Skittles never make it in, I can always find someone-or-other to pour my heart into!

[Sunwoo]

OP, I feel like I recognize you from FFN. Are you the same person who wrote a long, Roy-centric story once?

That said, I do agree with you that there seems to be a skew towards female characters in Heroes, especially lately. I've already complained once in the New Years thread why the developers put Camilla and Azura on flying things while Takumi and male Corrin were stuck on the ground. With the Christmas banner being all-armor, having the New Years banner being all-flier would've been cool. (Plus, if they ever add Reina they'll have to make a flying archer someday.) The only canon flying mages I can think of are Aversa and Camilla, so there's really no reason why we couldn't have had a guy be a flying mage on a seasonal banner. They just chose to give it to the women instead for whatever reason.

I don't necessarily think that there's something insidious going on here. Well, not really. I think during the initial release the developers had no idea how the meta would go and who would become powerful. Units like Takumi and Hector were super powerful during the earlygame, and Reinhardt continues to be strong up until this day. I think that after a certain point, though, the developers realized that waifus really, really sell though and they really want that money. I do agree with you that the whole waifu and husbando culture is silly. Can't people just like characters anymore without seeing them as potential waifubandos, lol.

[Silith13]

Most fire emblem games have more male then female characters in their roster so if they add more of the older characters it should even out fast.

[Solvaij]

I feel :\ I can honestly accept a lot of fanservice--I get that they're appealing to their demographic, but it's still obnoxious to have the screen suddenly filled with boobs every time there's a cut in. The gender divide has always been there, but Fire Emblem's waifu culture obviously got big with Awakening and Heroes hasn't helped things... Frustrating to say the least.

[Lushen]

18 minutes ago, eclipse said:

. . .and yet Sue is the first GBA recruitable mounted archer, Leanne is a flying singer, Pegasus Knights were all-female up until Fates, and refreshers were female for a long time (I think Elphin was the first male one, even if Lewyn was a bard).  Yet the main lord/villain has almost always been male, and Fighters were only male until Charlotte shows up.

FE has always had the gender divide, and Heroes is no exception.  The raw numbers from the CYL, IIRC, showed more votes for the female characters than the male characters.  The target demographic is an audience that likes women. . .which means those of us that really like men are less likely to see our favorites. But that's okay - even if my Skittles never make it in, I can always find someone-or-other to pour my heart into!

Yep.  It's all marketing towards the biggest demographic.  If you really think about it, there would be more male characters b/c FE is based off Western Europe (for the most part) so fighting woman should be rare.  

It doesn't bother me as much as the sexualization of the female characters that have been going on for the last few years.  I'm not sure sexualizing female anime characters is good for society.  I don't mind the whole "waifu" thing because you're idolizing their personalities which are a lot more real than their looks, but I have personal issues when IS throws big boob provocative woman in the forefront of the game, especially when this game is played by a lot of children.  And don't get me started on units like Nowi.  This is why I tend to prefer male characters over female in FEH, especially the newer female characters. Why can't we just have females that act and look like...actual woman?

edit:  To clarify, I'm not saying all the female characters are bad.  I don't mind units like Lucina for instance.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Lushen

[Charmeleonbrah]

We all know why the female units are more popular. 

It's funny, 35 of my 5-star units are female, and 16 are male.  I've fallen for the waifu-bait as well, it seems.  I don't know approximately when the "waifu" subculture caught on, but it's really seemed to pick up the past few years.  The most popular gacha games, this one included, revolve around collecting a bunch of cute girl characters.  I think it's lunacy that that adults would willingly spend thousands of dollars on a video game, just to get their "wife foo".  

You might be interested in this interview with a self-described Fire Emblem whale for perspective.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

You did not link to whatever tier list you're taking stats from. It's certainly not a Tier List that we have made, so you couldn't expect us to defend or appropriately debate placements.

So, more women being added to the game than men on a consistent basis bothers me, but not because I'm concerned about gender diversity in tier lists. Especially if you consider most of the base roster for FE Heroes seems to have been clearly designed without Skill Inheritance in mind, and we are only just now receiving updates that intentionally improve specific characters in the form of the weapon refinery and those new weapons that Hinoka, Felicia, Raven are getting in the next update. If you want to talk weird trivia, then consider how most of the FE6 roster in the game are average to lower than average units. Do the developers have something against FE6 and fans of that game? Nope, they just haven't gotten any new characters since launch besides CYL Roy. Meanwhile, ALL of the FE4 and FE8 rosters have been post-launch additions, and all receive high marks for viability. Except I guess normal Eirika but we know her weapon upgrade is on its way.

The reason why gender imbalance bothers me is because Fire Emblem games don't have very diverse rosters. You could point to Awakening and Fates as being close to a 50/50 split, but that's it. And I want to see as many familiar faces come into this game as possible. If a certain game runs out of women, then you couldn't expect to see any more units at all from it in the future. Echoes has just two playable female characters left. Sacred Stones has just five left. 

[bottlegnomes]

@eclipse Minor nitpick, Sue wasn't the first recruitable mounted archer. Wolf, Sedgar, Castor, all the archers from Gaiden, Warren, Midir, Dimna, and Lester all predate the first female mounted archer, Selphina. Robert also notably joins in the same chapter.

Anyway, yeah, unfortunately there are far more male fans so the numbers just make sense to do that from a revenue perspective. I'm not nearly as much a critic of fanservice as a lot of people, but I do wish they'd add in some more characters. I'd kill for Zeke, Percival, Marcus, etc.

[fe6_fan]

10 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

OP, I feel like I recognize you from FFN. Are you the same person who wrote a long, Roy-centric story once?

I don't necessarily think that there's something insidious going on here. Well, not really. I think during the initial release the developers had no idea how the meta would go and who would become powerful. Units like Takumi and Hector were super powerful during the earlygame, and Reinhardt continues to be strong up until this day. I think that after a certain point, though, the developers realized that waifus really, really sell though and they really want that money. I do agree with you that the whole waifu and husbando culture is silly. Can't people just like characters anymore without seeing them as potential waifubandos, lol.

Yes!! A loooong time ago! Hahaha, too funny!!

I also don't think it was originally intended to be this way--they included a lot of male lord units that were really great at the game's launch, part of the reason I fell hard and fast for it. But they definitely went where the money was and left some of us behind. I guess a part of me is also surprised because that hasn't always been Nintendo's style either. They used to make what they wanted without concern for money because they're just such a rich business in general--they can get away with it. So they didn't target the most lucrative audience; they just tried to make an enjoyable game. Heroes is taking us in a different direction, and that throws me.

3 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

You did not link to whatever tier list you're taking stats from. It's certainly not a Tier List that we have made, so you couldn't expect us to defend or appropriately debate placements.

Sorry, the tier list on Gamepedia is the one I always pop in and check--that's the one these numbers came from, ARENA style, including skill inheritance. These numbers are taken from today, including the latest banner and GHB.

8 minutes ago, Lushen said:

It doesn't bother me as much as the sexualization of the female characters that have been going on for the last few years.  I'm not sure sexualizing female anime characters is good for society.  I don't mind the whole "waifu" thing because you're idolizing their personalities which are a lot more real than their looks, but I have personal issues when IS throws big boob provocative woman in the forefront of the game, especially when this game is played by a lot of children.  And don't get me started on units like Nowi.  This is why I tend to prefer male characters over female in FEH, especially the newer female characters. Why can't we just have females that act like...actual woman?

Yeah, all of this is very true. I'm all for female units being wicked awesome. That absolutely isn't an issue. But most units are simply just thrown in there for the sake of fanservice. Honestly, when Loki came around, I had to stop playing the game at work because it got too uncomfortable...

4 minutes ago, bottlegnomes said:

@eclipse Minor nitpick, Sue wasn't the first recruitable mounted archer. Wolf, Sedgar, Castor, all the archers from Gaiden, Warren, Midir, Dimna, and Lester all predate the first female mounted archer, Selphina. Robert also notably joins in the same chapter.

Anyway, yeah, unfortunately there are far more male fans so the numbers just make sense to do that from a revenue perspective. I'm not nearly as much a critic of fanservice as a lot of people, but I do wish they'd add in some more characters. I'd kill for Zeke, Percival, Marcus, etc.

PERCIVAL!! I would give ANYTHING for Percival right about now. He made up a handful of my CYL votes even though it'll never fly. One can dream...

[eclipse]

9 minutes ago, bottlegnomes said:

@eclipse Minor nitpick, Sue wasn't the first recruitable mounted archer. Wolf, Sedgar, Castor, all the archers from Gaiden, Warren, Midir, Dimna, and Lester all predate the first female mounted archer, Selphina. Robert also notably joins in the same chapter.

Because that's not what I said.  Next time, quote me instead of pinging me.

[Dragoncat]

43 minutes ago, eclipse said:

. . .and yet Sue is the first GBA recruitable mounted archer, Leanne is a flying singer, Pegasus Knights were all-female up until Fates, and refreshers were female for a long time (I think Elphin was the first male one, even if Lewyn was a bard).  Yet the main lord/villain has almost always been male, and Fighters were only male until Charlotte shows up.

FE has always had the gender divide, and Heroes is no exception.  The raw numbers from the CYL, IIRC, showed more votes for the female characters than the male characters.  The target demographic is an audience that likes women. . .which means those of us that really like men are less likely to see our favorites. But that's okay - even if my Skittles never make it in, I can always find someone-or-other to pour my heart into!

I've seen both male pegasus knights and female axe fighters before Fates...in OCs :P

But yes, gender divide is a thing.

[bottlegnomes]

12 minutes ago, bbqbert said:

PERCIVAL!! I would give ANYTHING for Percival right about now. He made up a handful of my CYL votes even though it'll never fly. One can dream...

Yeah, same. He and Zeke made up a good chunk of my votes.

8 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Because that's not what I said.  Next time, quote me instead of pinging me.

Oh, misread. My apologies.

@Dragoncat More a fun fact than anything, but IIRC in FE3 the enemy pegs were male since the class wasn't actually gender locked. Never played FE1, but my guess is it'd be the same. Also since it promoted to dragon rider or whatever they were called in that game and there wasn't an alternative base class, that means that Michalis was presumably a peg knight at some point. What I wouldn't give for that :D

Edited January 28, 2018 by bottlegnomes

[Sunwoo]

7 minutes ago, bbqbert said:

Yes!! A loooong time ago! Hahaha, too funny!!

I also don't think it was originally intended to be this way--they included a lot of male lord units that were really great at the game's launch, part of the reason I fell hard and fast for it. But they definitely went where the money was and left some of us behind. I guess a part of me is also surprised because that hasn't always been Nintendo's style either. They used to make what they wanted without concern for money because they're just such a rich business in general--they can get away with it. So they didn't target the most lucrative audience; they just tried to make an enjoyable game. Heroes is taking us in a different direction, and that throws me.

Nice, haha! Always funny to see familiar faces in unexpected places!

Pretty much all of the early banners were balanced out in gender as well, if I recall correctly. I think the bride banner back in June was the first all-female banner, and Celica's debut banner was the first 4-person banner to be primarily female. And then we got 3-person banners with two female characters and one male character. I think the Children of Fates and Radiant Dawn banners were the only 3-person banners to be primarily male, and then they gave us the second Sacred Stones banner with three female characters on the banner and one of them being a repeat.

It's kind of unfortunate that they're going in this trend, since it means that certain characters will take much longer to appear. Heck, it's possible that less popular female characters like Miriel will take even longer to show up if they can just rehash more popular female characters in alternate costumes. Unless the anniversary wants to dump in a handful of "unpopular" characters into the 3-4 star pool, we'll likely be waiting for a very long time for less popular (male) characters.

[Cute Chao]

46 minutes ago, Silith13 said:

Most fire emblem games have more male then female characters in their roster so if they add more of the older characters it should even out fast.

Yeah, I used to comfort myself with this, in that they'd have to add more males at some point... and then they gave us alt Eirika for the general pool and all hope for less popular characters (as in many, many males) went out the window >.<

I know I'm not in the largest demographic, but each banner feels like it's more and more disappointing. Someone accused me of being a woman hater when I complained about the female weighted banners when they first came around, but it was pretty much because I saw the game going this way. I'm glad they've not done any more full female seasonals, but I bet they have them lined up. I will honestly be gobsmacked if they ever release a full male banner. The only hope I have now for half of the characters I would like to see coming in are them deciding the 3* pool does need expansion. 

Until then, we'll get them wielding weapons they never should, with alts included (Eirika wielding a tome... well, why not? Faye with the bow when Tobin should have? Ehhh of course. Shigure not being the first flying singer? Who'd want a man in that role, even if a lot of people would have pulled just for the unit? Ha!). 

Yeah... The game's left me a bit bitter of late, and that's without frickin' Loki coming into it. And with her getting really popular in the poll despite limited screen time, along with Camilla's continuing popularity... Yeah, I'm starting to think I can say goodbye to women in trousers in Fire Emblem games... 

Edited January 28, 2018 by Cute Chao

[Solvaij]

2 minutes ago, Cute Chao said:

Yeah... The game's left me a bit bitter of late, and that's without frickin' Loki coming into it. And with her getting really popular in the poll despite limited screen time, along with Camilla's continuing popularity... Yeah, I'm starting to think I can say goodbye to women in trousers in Fire Emblem games... 

I just do not get why some of these characters are popular. I know that fanservice is a thing for a reason, but SURELY everybody can tell those designs are absurd. I showed the Camilla Birthright cutscene to a few of my male friends and they agreed that it was just uncomfortable. Seriously, who likes this stuff? And Loki.... jeez... just... why.

I mean, I know why....

But WHYYYYYYYYYYY

[EricaofRenais]

I am a bit weird in that I like playing as guys even though I am a girl, and  yes it annoys me that my favorite guys that are in Heroes are mostly outclassed by girls.  I still use my favorites, but it is sad when they get out classed by someone I don't care about.  I was so happy with RD banner and then the SS banner had to ruin it with alt Erika when there could have been a new guy added as well as the two new characters.  I can dream of a groom banner, but I won't hold my breath for it since doing fan service for people who like guys seems to be a no no for IS.  I even sent feed back about adding more guys when they revealed the SS banner, not that it will do much good unless a bunch of people request that they add more guys to the summoning pool.

[fe6_fan]

1 minute ago, Cute Chao said:

Yeah, I used to comfort myself with this, in that they'd have to add more males at some point... and then they gave us alt Eirika for the general pool and all hope for less popular characters (as in many, many males) went out the window >.<

I know I'm not in the demographic, but each banner feels like it's more and more disappointing. Someone accused me of being a woman hater when I complained about the female weighted banners when they first came around, but it was pretty much because I saw the game going this way. I'm glad they've not done any more full female seasonals, but I bet they have them lined up. I will honestly be gobsmacked if they ever release a full male banner. The only hope I have now for half of the characters I would like to see coming in are them deciding the 3* pool does need expansion. 

Until then, we'll get them wielding weapons they never should, with alts included (Eirika wielding a tome... well, why not? Faye with the bow when Tobin should have? Ehhh of course. Shigure not being the first flying singer? Who'd want a man in that role, even if a lot of people would have pulled just for the unit? Ha!). 

Yeah... The game's left me a bit bitter of late, and that's without frickin' Loki coming into it. And with her getting really popular in the poll despite limited screen time, along with Camilla's continuing popularity... Yeah, I'm starting to think I can say goodbye to women in trousers in Fire Emblem games... 

Not to mention that a lot of the seasonal units are just rahashes of already-existing units, too. I wouldn't even mind unique seasonal units coming in like they did with Shigure or Charlotte--anything to expand the cast at this point. But that doesn't seem to be the goal, and at least with seasonal, I sort of understand. That is their main money maker--putting super popular units in new clothes to get obsessed fans to pay more.

I just wish that wouldn't also be the direction regular banners go, too. I hope people grumble about Eirika--I did. I like her, absolutely don't get me wrong, but... I would have loved any number of the male mages from SS to fill that role instead. Or any number of other male characters... Why not a flying male like Cormag? Men may not be pegasus knights but there are plenty of males on wyverns. Heroes is very selective about the males they put in and almost always ensure there are females that better fit that role. 

It's so sad, because Fire Emblem has been so awesome about having great males AND females. Because this game has the Fire Emblem label, plays like a Fire Emblem game... I guess my expectations are higher than a standard gacha game.

Yes, I'm awfully concerned about future Fire Emblem games as a result, to be honest... Awakening and Fates set a precedent for dating-sim style games with an emphasis on sexy females, and Heroes is really playing into it. I'm excited but also terribly fearful about the Switch game...

[Cute Chao]

Just now, Solvaij said:

I just do not get why some of these characters are popular. I know that fanservice is a thing for a reason, but SURELY everybody can tell those designs are absurd. I showed the Camilla Birthright cutscene to a few of my male friends and they agreed that it was just uncomfortable. Seriously, who likes this stuff? And Loki.... jeez... just... why.

I mean, I know why....

But WHYYYYYYYYYYY

Pretty much it... I mean, fanservice has a place, but one of my most hated moments in Fates was the forced scroll up Camilla's ridiculous outfit. And it is ridiculous. I don't mind the mages and dancers having random gaps, but there is literally no reason for female armour wearers to have gaps. I mean, Effie strikes me as someone who cares more about her training than showing off her thighs! Most of the designs just annoy me these days >.< 

And here I am loving my fully covered up knights, although I love the fanservice of the seasonal units. I won't say no to Naked Xander, but it'd be ridiculous to me if he looks like that all the time. Everyone comments on Odin's silly outfit, but that's pretty much how all the women look anyway >.< 

[Silith13]

31 males. 24 females in my 5* slots.

[Cute Chao]

4 minutes ago, EricaofRenais said:

I am a bit weird in that I like playing as guys even though I am a girl, and  yes it annoys me that my favorite guys that are in Heroes are mostly outclassed by girls.  I still use my favorites, but it is sad when they get out classed by someone I don't care about.  I was so happy with RD banner and then the SS banner had to ruin it with alt Erika when there could have been a new guy added as well as the two new characters.  I can dream of a groom banner, but I won't hold my breath for it since doing fan service for people who like guys seems to be a no no for IS.  I even sent feed back about adding more guys when they revealed the SS banner, not that it will do much good unless a bunch of people request that they add more guys to the summoning pool.

I sent in the same feedback, plus an extra complaint about now adding alt characters to the main banner when that is what seasonals are for. I know some people said Zelgius is the same, but the BK wasn't in the general pool, plus they can be treated as a separate character until the reveal (same with Masked Lucina). Eirika is the first outright alt added to the general summoning pool, when a male could have got in instead. I was hoping for Cormag but others really wanted Ross... Knoll or Ewan could have filled in the tome role... or heck, shove Artur on a horse and have a really obscure character get in with a unit type more people want (heck, I'd actually want healer Artur to have a male healer on a horse since that's another niche that only females have). 

 

5 minutes ago, bbqbert said:

Not to mention that a lot of the seasonal units are just rahashes of already-existing units, too. I wouldn't even mind unique seasonal units coming in like they did with Shigure or Charlotte--anything to expand the cast at this point. But that doesn't seem to be the goal, and at least with seasonal, I sort of understand. That is their main money maker--putting super popular units in new clothes to get obsessed fans to pay more.

I just wish that wouldn't also be the direction regular banners go, too. I hope people grumble about Eirika--I did. I like her, absolutely don't get me wrong, but... I would have loved any number of the male mages from SS to fill that role instead. Or any number of other male characters... Why not a flying male like Cormag? Men may not be pegasus knights but there are plenty of males on wyverns. Heroes is very selective about the males they put in and almost always ensure there are females that better fit that role. 

It's so sad, because Fire Emblem has been so awesome about having great males AND females. Because this game has the Fire Emblem label, plays like a Fire Emblem game... I guess my expectations are higher than a standard gacha game.

Yes, I'm awfully concerned about future Fire Emblem games as a result, to be honest... Awakening and Fates set a precedent for dating-sim style games with an emphasis on sexy females, and Heroes is really playing into it. I'm excited but also terribly fearful about the Switch game...

I feel the same about the future of Fire Emblem. The polls just really confirm it for me -.- I'm going to get it, I know I will, but it does sadden me... 

And yeah, there are so many wyvern riders yet the only male pullable flying unit is Subaki. We have a few more added in GHBs, but no swords and no tomes. Seasonal units, who they could happily use for that, they decide just to give females instead... despite the fact they should know a lot of people will pull for a flying tome / singer anyway, like with Armour Jakob and his bow. But nope... let's have all the females... 

Eirika's second inclusion will continue to annoy me, as does the bride banner, which I refuse to have anything to do with. 

[fe6_fan]

46 males, 59 females in my 5* slot, and I have upgraded several males from 3* and 4* to 5* AND I generally only pull for my favorite male units by sniping on banners.

[eclipse]

Welcome to RNG gacha, folks.  Everyone's ratios will be a bit different.  I'm short a woman because I couldn't pull a 5* on the bride banner.

I'll post my counts later.

[Ether]

This is a conflicting topic for me. I see people feeling marginalized via character choices and I totally get it, but the reason that I get it is that, for the longest time, Fire Emblem and it's fanbase were massively in the other direction. Most older games in the series are heavily male dominated, Lords and story important characters have historically been male centric. I'm not exactly a fan of designs like Camilla and Loki(I like Camilla for reasons other than her design, but that's here nor there), far preferring women in the style of Micaiah, or the obvious because it's me, Mia(and before you say anything, I consider that blasted cutscene non-canon. It's ruined fanart for years by taking away from her far more modest ingame and out of game official art).

So it's difficult. Making things even from here on out would be ideal, but I truthfully can't say I'd be bothered if it stayed female biased for a while longer if only to balance the past out, but I suppose that makes me an outlier at least in this topic. I can agree that the direction the women are being taken isn't the best, but unfortunately there is a large crowd who love Loki-type... personalities...