Choose Your Legends is an annual event for Fire Emblem Heroes that occurs in January of each year. Players vote on their favorite Fire Emblem characters from across the entire franchise, and are allowed to vote for one character per day for the extent of the voting period. Participants may vote for the same character as many times as desired.
At the end of the voting period, all characters are ranked, and the top two characters of each gender are crowned the winners of the event. All four are then given a special Hero variation called Brave Heroes who are released on a unified banner around August of that year. The top male and female character in the ballot also receive a special skill that is exclusive to them.
Once a character has won a Choose Your Legends event, they are no longer eligible to participate in future Choose Your Legends events. This also extends to variations of winning characters. For example, the Path of Radiance incarnation of Ike won the first Choose Your Legends ballot for the male category, and Lucina placed second among female characters. Consequently, the Radiant Dawn version of Ike and Lucina's "Masked Marth" persona were deemed ineligible for future ballots.
Below is a summary of each Choose Your Legends event, including notable new ballot inclusions and exclusions, as well as rule changes that went into effect for a given year.
2017 Choose Your Legends Event
Prior to the launch of Fire Emblem Heroes, the game's official website went live with the inaugural Choose Your Legends event. From January 18 to January 31, 2017, visitors to the website could vote for one character per day. All playable characters, major villains, and select major NPCs from each entry in the franchise were eligible to receive votes. Characters that appeared in more than one game could also receive votes for each individual appearance.
Results
On February 8, 2017, the top twenty male and female characters to receive votes were announced via Nintendo of America's Twitter account. The top two of each division this year were:
- For the full results, see Choose Your Legends Results: Round 1.
The top ten male and female characters were featured in monthly calendar mobile phone wallpapers distributed from March 2017 to December 2017.
| Lyn Brave Lady |
Ike Brave Mercenary |
Lucina Brave Princess |
Roy Brave Lion |
On August 27, 2017, Lyn, Ike, Lucina, and Roy received a Brave Hero variation due to holding the top two spots for each gender respectively. Ike and Lyn, the top ranked hero of their gender categories, received their own unique skills: Beorc's Blessing and Sacae's Blessing respectively.
Origin
- Lyn's Brave Hero variation is based on the nomadic people of Sacae, being similar to the Nomad class distinct to the region and wielding Mulagir, the sacred bow associated with the area.
- Ike's Brave Hero variation is based on his father, Greil, using Greil's color scheme in his outfit and wielding his axe, Urvan.
- Lucina's Brave Hero variation is said to be similar garb to that of her father, Chrom.
- Roy's Brave Hero variation is based on his father, Eliwood, represented by being calvary and wielding Durandal.
Four of the highest ranking units who were not already in Heroes were added in the Farfetched Heroes banner: Dorcas, Joshua, Mia, and Lute.
2018 Choose Your Legends Event
On January 21, 2018, the second round of the Choose Your Legends event began. Characters added to the ballot included the new characters in the Fire Emblem Gaiden remake, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, as well as the original cast of Fire Emblem Heroes itself. It also saw the addition of some characters who appeared in Gaiden that were not eligible prior to the remake, those being Slayde, Barth, Lawson, Tatarrah, Garth, Blake, Irma, Nuibaba, Jerome, Halcyon, Dolth, Massena, Marla, Hestia, Jedah, Duma, and Mila. The voting period for the second Choose Your Legends event was shorter than the first, and lasted only seven days.
Results
The results of the ballot were revealed on the official website on February 1, 2018. The top two of each division this year were:
- For the full results, see Choose Your Legends Results: Round 2.
| Hector Brave Warrior |
Celica Warrior Priestess |
Ephraim Sacred Twin Lord |
Veronica Brave Princess |
On August 21, 2018, Hector, Celica, Ephraim, and Veronica received a Brave Hero variation due to holding the top two spots for each gender respectively. Hector and Celica were the two highest ranked Heroes of their respective genders. Their Brave variations received Ostian Counter and Double Lion for their unique skills respectively.
Origin
- Hector's Brave Hero variation has him wearing the armor of his brother, Uther.
- Celica's Brave Hero variation is based on her original appearance from Gaiden.
- Ephraim's Brave Hero variation has him wearing the armor of his father, Fado.
- Veronica's Brave Hero variation features a grown version of her from an alternate world, where she rides a horse similar to her brother, Bruno and protector, Xander.
Three of the highest ranking voted units (aside from Veronica) that were not already in Heroes were added through the Brave Redux banner in November 2018, being Owain, Kliff, and Loki. Aversa, who placed at 23 in the female division, was also added, despite Selkie placing higher than her at 12, most likely because beast units had not been introduced at the time.
2019 Choose Your Legends Event
On January 21, 2019, the third round of the Choose Your Legends event began.
Changes
This event saw two major changes to its overall structure:
- Characters with multiple appearances no longer saw their votes split between appearances. Votes for all variations of a character are instead combined, and the variant with the most votes is considered the winner should the character place.
- However, some characters received exceptions due to them having dramatic differences between games, such as undergoing a new alias (ex. Owain/Odin), a long amount of time passing (ex. Tiki), developing a shift in personality (ex. Hardin) or being an entirely different character altogether (ex. Anna).
- The way ties were counted was changed. Previously, when multiple characters received the same number of votes, the placement they received depended on which seemingly random order the results website happened to place them in. Now, multiple characters receiving the same number of votes results in a genuine tie, in which all characters receive the same placement.
Both of these changes have been carried on to future Choose Your Legends events.
Results
The results of the ballot were revealed on the official website on January 31, 2019. The top two of each division this year were:
- For the full results, see Choose Your Legends Results: Round 3.
| Alm Imperial Ascent |
Micaiah Queen of Dawn |
Camilla Light of Nohr |
Eliwood Marquess Pherae |
Alm, Micaiah, Camilla, and Eliwood each received a Brave Hero variation due to holding the top two spots for each gender respectively. Alm and Micaiah placed first in their divisions and received special skills for their Brave Hero kits, being Scendscale and Yune's Whispers respectively.
Origin
- Alm's Brave Hero variation is based on his original appearance from Gaiden with incorporation from his father, Rudolf.
- Micaiah's Brave Hero variation features her after the events of Radiant Dawn as the 15th ruler of Daein, and has her in her Light Priestess promotion outfit.
- Camilla's Brave Hero variation comes from a world she has become the Queen of Nohr.
- Eliwood's Brave Hero variation has him dressed for his ascension ceremony to Marquess Pherae, and he wields Ninis's Ice Lance, which references his connection to Ninian.
Unlike previous years, there was no banner adding the highest ranking units not yet present in Heroes this year. Instead Sigrun was added as a Tempest Trials+ reward despite placing at 95 for the female division, with multiple female characters yet to appear placing higher than her.
2020 Choose Your Legends Event
The fourth Choose Your Legends voting event began on January 21, 2020, and ended on January 28, 2020. New characters added for this year's ballot include the casts of Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Encore, as well as new original characters from Fire Emblem Heroes itself, with the exception of Gustav, Henriette and Thórr.
Results
The results of the ballot were revealed on the official website on February 1st, 2020. The top two of each division this year were:
- For the full results, see Choose Your Legends Results: Round 4.
| Edelgard Adrestian Emperor |
Dimitri King of Faerghus |
Claude Almyra's King |
Lysithea Earnest Seeker |
Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, and Lysithea received a Brave Hero variation due to holding the top two spots for each gender respectively. Edelgard and Dimitri received special skills for their Brave Hero kits, Black Eagle Rule and Blue Lion Rule respectively, for placing first in their divisions.
Origin
- Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude's Brave Hero variations all reference their final exclusive classes from Three Houses, those being Emperor for Edelgard, Great Lord for Dimitri, and Barbarossa for Claude.
- Lysithea's Brave Hero variation combines her War Phase outfit color scheme with the clothing of a Gremory.
In addition to the free summon gifted to the player, after the player summoned forty times on the regular Choose Your Legends 2020 banner, the player could redeem one of the Brave heroes for free. The player could do this up to four times to claim all four heroes (requiring a total of 160 summons to do so)
Once again, there was no banner representing the highest ranking units yet to appear in Heroes this year. Instead Jorge, who placed at 12 for the male division, was added as a Grand Hero Battle reward despite Felix, Ashe and Sylvain placing higher than him.
2021 Choose Your Legends Event
The fifth Choose Your Legends voting event began on January 21, 2021, and ended on January 28, 2021. New characters added for this year's ballot included the characters featured in the Cindered Shadows expansion for Fire Emblem: Three Houses and the latest characters from Fire Emblem Heroes, with the exception of Thórr and the newest character Eitri. 2021 also saw the addition of NPCs and boss characters from across the franchise that were left off of the ballot in prior years. These new ballot additions include:
- Díthorba, Generation 1 Oifey, and Generation 2 Arvis from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
- August and Dryas from Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
- Bramimond, Brendan, Durban, Desmond, Elbert, Eleanora, Fargus, Hellene, Lundgren, Murdock, Natalie, Roland, and Uther from Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
- Morva and Vigarde from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
- Bryce, Gromell, Kasatai, and Shiharam from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
- Alder, Altina, Lehran, Lekain, Levail, Ludveck, and Numida from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
- Phila from Fire Emblem Awakening
- Daichi, Daniela, Funke, Gazak, Haitaka, Kumagera, Llewelyn, Lloyd, Senno, Tarba, and Zhara from Fire Emblem Fates
- Gustav and Henriette from Fire Emblem Heroes
- Gatekeeper from Fire Emblem: Three Houses
This year, voters were required to log in with a MyNintendo account in order to vote, unlike previous years, where using a MyNintendo account was entirely optional.
Results
The results of the ballot were revealed on the official website on February 1st, 2021. The top two of each division this year were:
- For the full results, see Choose Your Legends Results: Round 5.
It was stated in a followup tweet that most Heroes players supported Gatekeeper, Marianne was more popular among frequent players, and that Eirika was more popular among players who were taking a break.
| Gatekeeper Nothing to Report |
Marth Prince of Light |
Marianne Serene Adherent |
Eirika Pledged Restorer |
The Gatekeeper, Marth, Marianne, and Eirika received a Brave Hero variation due to holding the top two spots for each gender respectively. Unlike previous years, all four winners received special skills for their Brave Hero kits, those being Detailed Report for Gatekeeper, Requiem Dance for Marianne, Shining Emblem for Marth, and Moonlight Bangle for Eirika.
Origin
- Gatekeeper's Brave Hero variation doesn't alter much from his Three Houses appearance, but it does heavily feature the gates of the Garreg Mach Monastery he's dedicated to protecting.
- Marth's Brave Hero variation is based on his ancestor, Anri.
- Marianne's Brave Hero variation combines her War Phase outfit color scheme with the Three Houses female Dancer outfit. The animation for her tome features Maurice, her ancestor.
- Eirika's Brave Hero variation is based on her brother, Ephraim, in her clothing and her usage of Reginleif.
This year, Pelleas, who placed in 44th in CYL5 for the male division, and 99th overall, was added as a Grand Hero Battle Reward despite several other male characters yet to appear placing higher than him.
2022 Choose Your Legends Event
The sixth Choose Your Legends voting event began on January 19, 2022 and ended on Janurary 26, 2022. New characters added for this year's ballot included the latest characters from Fire Emblem Heroes, as well as Thórr and Eitri, who were left off the ballot previously. Notably, despite becoming playable in the past year, Ullr did not become eligible for voting this year.
Results
The results of the ballot were revealed on the official website on February 1st, 2022. The top two of each division this year were:
- For the full results, see Choose Your Legends Results: Round 6.
Trivia
- The four winners of the inaugural Choose Your Legends event in 2017, Ike, Lyn, Roy, and Lucina, all feature representation in the Super Smash Bros. series, with Roy, Ike, and Lucina all being playable characters, while Lyn has appeared as an Assist Trophy and Sticker in Brawl, then later as spirit in Ultimate.
- Statistically, had the vote count for character variants not been split in 2018, Marth would have placed second overall and second among the male characters, with a combined 37,192 votes cast between his Shadow Dragon and New Mystery of the Emblem appearances.
- The 2020 Choose Your Legends event was the first to feature more than one winner that originated from the same game, with all four coming from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
- The 2021 Choose Your Legends event was the first in which neither the top male nor the top female character to place first in their respective divisions was a Lord or a Lord-equivalent lead character, with the Gatekeeper being a non-combat NPC, and Marianne a classmate of the Golden Deer Lord, Claude.
- Edelgard's appearance as the Flame Emperor was still eligible for the 2021 Choose Your Legends event, being the one exception to the rule that all variations of a character are made ineligible after one wins.
- This was corrected in the 2022 Choose Your Legends event, as the Flame Emperor was removed from the ballot.
- While Marth's Shadow Dragon version won the 2021 Choose Your Legends event, his brave variation was based on his appearance in New Mystery of the Emblem.
- Female Byleth became the first avatar unit to win by placing second among female characters in the 2022 Choose Your Legends event. She is also the first Three Houses character to place second or above with her Academy Phase design earning more votes than her War Phase design.
- Characters that debuted in Fire Emblem Warriors such as Lianna and Rowan are ineligible for voting, as the game is excluded from the ballot. It is currently the only spin-off title excluded from Choose Your Legends.
