I want this banner to be Male Kris, Female Kris, Cecil, and Ryan just so people can get mad about an Archanea banner. Just please don't meme on me with a Path of Radiance banner here because they technically didn't say anything about it when they mentioned Radiant Dawn and Binding Blade. Important note is that apparently the Japanese wording of the Ward Skills banner (加護) actually lines up more closely with Crusader's Ward (聖騎士の加護), Sacae's Blessing (サカの加護), and Beorc's Blessing (ベオクの加護), so that's probably just a repeat of the last Hero Fest minus Nephenee.
Last year was actually just as long of a wait though, and we haven't gotten anything nearly as bad as the Ayra situation this time so I think we're doing better this year. The last chapter of Book 1 was Dauntless Crimeans on September 15th last year, which admittedly we didn't know would be the end because of how abruptly that ended. After that we had Performing Arts, World of Holy War (and Ayra), Trick or Defeat, and Farfetched Heroes before Book 2 happened in early December.
The end of Book 2 was with the Nohrian Dusk banner which started on September 14th, and since then we've had Generals of Muspell, Brave Redux, The Land's Bounty, Adrift, and whatever the new banner which will probably be followed by Book 3 in early December. This is discounting Legendary Tiki and Legendary Eirika, but we actually haven't had any non-seasonal or unnecessary alts for awhile until Adrift. The next banner could also be a disaster but that's more new banners than last year in the same amount of time.
Still a light calendar though, which I guess...is fine. Makes sense to keep things simple for the month before Book 3 though I fully expect the next banner to have something wild regardless. Hopefully the good kind of wild.