My two favorite Nanoha characters.

You've gotta wonder why these two aren't drawn together more often, considering...

Fate is the best - #1.

Interesting weapon Tiana's holding there, somewhat different to StrikerS ;)

I like Tia's old pistols more.

Aside from that, I completely approve of all of the small character design changes. (black uniform, hair kept down, etc.)

Also, agreed on Fate being the best, but Tia is a fairly close second.

...Why are Nanoha's secondary leads always hotter (PTJ; not into loli), more badass, better written, and all around more interesting than the main leads?

Mostly because the main cast was written when Nanoha was still a full-blown magical girl story, and because of that the main cast was bound to the general cliches of magical girl characters.

With StrikerS they moved away from that, so they could throw in more creativity.

... um, Nanoha was never really a magical girl show, other than the first few eps of season 1.

Season 1 radiated a Card Captor aura until well into the final episodes (and even then the army of giant robots can be excused somewhat), it wasn't until A's that the whole technology and military theme started to move to the forefront, but even A's still had a magical girl aura (loli's in dresses, mysterious masked enemies, ancient magical book and of course the huge monster end-boss). StrikerS finished what A's started, and moved further away from the things that A's still had, and now we've reached the point where the next Nanoha manga isn't even called 'mahou shoujo lyrical Nanoha' anymore.

Radiosity said:
Interesting weapon Tiana's holding there, somewhat different to StrikerS ;)

Based on Sound Stage X if memory serves right.

>>...Why are Nanoha's secondary leads always hotter (PTJ; not into loli), more badass, better written, and all around more interesting than the main leads?

Um, no they're not. Unless I'm mis-interpreting you.

Fate is main lead, who is your favorite character, so I'm not really seeing the connection.

Dracnore said:
>>...Why are Nanoha's secondary leads always hotter (PTJ; not into loli), more badass, better written, and all around more interesting than the main leads?

Um, no they're not. Unless I'm mis-interpreting you.

Fate is main lead, who is your favorite character, so I'm not really seeing the connection.

Nanoha is the central protagonist.

Nanoha and Subaru share the role of central protagonist in StrikerS.

Fate and Tia still seem to share the role of protagonist with them, but they're not the one in the protagonist's spot in the OPs, promotional material, website etc. They're secondary leads.

Fate is just as much a lead as Nanoha. If you compared screentime, I wouldn't doubt Fate has more than Subaru. Nanoha, I'm not sure, as she seems to trump everyone in screentime, but all four of those characters are main protagonists. And as far as I know, Fate has a crapton more official art than anyone in the Nanoha series, except for Nanoha herself...which they're pretty even in that respect. I'll agree that Nanoha is more central to the plot than anyone else, but Fate is no doubt second. I can't even recall what Subaru accomplished, besides the closing scene during the final eps of StrikerS after the millionth time skip. Care to remind me? Atleast they gave Teana a resolve, while she was fighting the Numbers.

Not to mention Nanoha and Fate had the first two seasons to develope, long before Tia and Subaru even came into the picture.

Art and screentime say little about whether a character is a lead or not. What is important is how a character is related to the plot, and in that aspect Fate is a lead character. Fate had her own plotline connected with the main storyline, spoilerthat being her origins and relation to Jail. This is important to the main plot because the success of her creation allowed Jail to get more data in order to make sure Vivio would be created properly.

What people are confusing is the difference between a main character and a lead character. A main character is the character around which the story is centered. A lead character is important to the plot, but not a main character. Fate was important to the StrikerS plot, and a lead character, but the main character of the show is Nanoha. The same goes for Subaru. She was important to the plot, and a lead character, but not the main character.

Which is also why it is sometimes being argued that A's really wasn't a Nanoha season, as the whole plot is centered around Hayate, and Nanoha's role in it is more lead-like rather than main-like.

Well, I said Nanoha was the main character.

lol, you can't really argue Nanoha a's Isn't a Nanoha season since It's factual that it is. And the first season technically revolved around Fate, just as much as A's revolved around Hayate and the wolkenritter.

Dracnore said:
Well, I said Nanoha was the main character.

I'm not arguing that, I just wanted to clarify the difference between a main and a lead character. My apologies if I made it look like I was disagreeing with you.

lol, you can't really argue Nanoha a's Isn't a Nanoha season since It's factual that it is. And the first season technically revolved around Fate, just as much as A's revolved around Hayate and the wolkenritter.

I'm not saying it isn't, I'm just saying it's argued. And the point is a valid one. A's was really Hayate's story, while Nanoha had next to no character development of any kind in it. Heck, even Fate got more character development in A's than Nanoha. ^_^;

At least in the first season, Nanoha the central character because the plot was about Nanoha's quest to seal the Jewel Seeds and save Fate, and she made a lot of character growth in it. A's was quite stale in that regard for Nanoha. Nanoha didn't even see Hayate until the final episodes.

But the point is, A's is a direct sequel of Nanoha. To say A's is not a Nanoha season makes no sense at all. Nanoha's role was technically the same as her role in the first season, she just had a friend to aid her this time around. More characters = less time for developement.

True, and I'm not disagreeing. However, I do see what other people mean. While Nanoha did play a vital part in saving Hayate, the story itself was more about Hayate's trials. Nanoha's role may have been technically the same, saving Hayate, but unlike S1 where this is constantly hammered home, her interactions with Hayate were virtually non-existent.

This is one of those cases where the line between main character and lead characters grows awfully blurry. Nanoha is the titular character, and plays the most vital part in saving Hayate by holding of the Yami no Sho. However the central character in A's was definitely Hayate, as from the first episode to the last, everything revolved around her.

A case of two main characters, perhaps?

Can I remind everyone to not post visible spoilers? howto:comment (Are any of these spoilers though?)

I guess my comment regarding Fate's origin could be one... editing to be on the safe side.