Fire Emblem Heroes’ Gatekeeper wins first place, dominating the Choose Your Legend vote

Publication date of the original Japanese article: 2021-02-02 14:07 (JST)
Translated by. Braden Noyes


On February 2, 2021, the official Twitter account for Fire Emblem Heroes announced the results of their “Choose Your Legends: Round 5” vote, showing the top 600 ranking characters. The NPC known as Gatekeeper continued to gain even more votes since ranking 2nd during the interim results, demonstrating unmatched popularity this round. His victory has apparently caused quite a stir among the online community.

“Choose Your Legends” is a popular voting event held once a year for the Fire Emblem Heroes mobile game. Players are allowed to vote once per day for their favorite hero from any game in the Fire Emblem series. Characters are split into two categories, male and female, and the two top-ranking characters from each category get a “Choose Your Legends” version released in-game wearing a special outfit. Only players who have linked their game to a Nintendo account may submit votes.

The final tally for Gatekeeper was 72,267 votes, giving him quite a big lead over Marth, who came in 2nd place with a total of 46,699 votes. Looking at the results from previous “Choose Your Legends” rounds, we can see that Alm won round 3 with a total of 62,216 votes, and Edelgard claimed victory with 74,617 votes during round 4 last year. This means that Gatekeeper is the second most voted-for character in the history of the contest, falling just short of Edelgard’s total vote count.

The top two ranking characters from both the male and female categories will now get a special “Choose Your Legends” version released later this year. Marth, who just barely missed his opportunity by placing 3rd for the past three years in a row, finally managed to secure himself a new in-game version by finishing in 2nd place. Chrom, unfortunately, was not so lucky. Another consistently high-ranking character, he only managed to climb to 3rd place this year after finishing 4th in three of the previous four rounds.

For those who haven’t heard of him, Gatekeeper is a non-player character (NPC) who appears in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. He stands guard near the entrance to Garreg Mach Monastery, and players may choose to speak with him if they wish. Though he has no actual name, and despite him being an NPC, he rapidly gained notoriety among the player base due to his friendly, energetic personality as well as the way his speech and moods change along with what is happening in the game’s story. Gatekeeper has even managed to get away from his guard post from time to time as well, making appearances in drama CDs and even as a background character in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Byleth DLC.

This year is the first time Gatekeeper has been a candidate in the “Choose Your Legends” vote. He was even joined by an additional first-time contender, another popular NPC named Abysskeeper from Fire Emblems: Three Houses’ Academy Arc. Once voting began, it wasn’t long before Gatekeeper had overtaken many protagonist-level characters such as Chrom, Byleth, and Robin to claim a spot at the top of the pack. In a previous article about this round’s interim results, AUTOMATON mentioned the large number of votes being cast from outside Japan. (See the Japanese article here.) Well, the Fire Emblem Heroes’ official Twitter account also hinted at another possible reason the results of this vote turned out the way they did.

According to the information provided, Marianne was a popular choice among regular players, whereas Eirika seems to have been the popular choice of players who have taken a short break from the game. On the other hand, Gatekeeper apparently received a steady number of votes from all players, regardless of their play style. Furthermore, according to the Feh Channel video released the same day as the results, 72.5% of votes cast were done so by users who actually play Fire Emblem Heroes. This would imply that around a quarter of all votes came from non-players.

This begs the question: Is Gatekeeper’s popularity real, or did he perhaps claim so many votes as a result of some internet meme? This very discussion has been taking place over on Reddit, but no one seems quite sure what the answer is. While many have voiced their unhappiness at seeing a mere NPC win first place, there are also plenty of others glad to support such a dark horse. It’s likely that a number of factors played a role in this outcome, and finding a single cause for Gatekeeper’s sudden rise in fame may prove difficult. However, it is worth noting that Gatekeeper will be unable to pull off such an upset again, as characters who have won the “Choose Your Legends” vote in the past are not eligible to participate in future votes.

Gatekeeper’s win was not the only surprising result during this round, either. One of Hilda’s greatest supports, the lovely Lady Marianne, claimed 1st place among the female characters, while the timid recluse Bernadetta ranked 4th. We also saw Yuri, a character who only appears in the Fire Emblem: Three Houses DLC, climb to 6th place in the male category, and these are only a few examples. “Choose Your Legends: Round 5” is more than just about who came in first, though, so take a minute to check out the final results to see how well your favorite Fire Emblem characters fared.

Fire Emblem Heroes is scheduled to begin its 4th anniversary campaign later this month (February 2021), where players will have the chance to collect a large number of free orbs as log-in bonuses, challenge special missions, and more. The campaign looks to be a rather large one, so if you’ve been thinking about trying out Fire Emblem Heroes for the first time, this may be a good opportunity to do so. Fire Emblem Heroes is a free-to-play game currently available for both iOS and Android phones.