Mercedes is one in a handful of season one characters that never received an alt-unit. She deserved one during Sacred Shield Charlotte’s story event and she deserved one on Lord of the Seas Nichol’s banner (or at minimum an NVA). Alim doesn’t care for her, but I’ve made it obnoxiously clear that she has at least one die-hard fan over here on GL. She’s been my favorite since her banner in 2016 and she hasn’t left my story party since. I can’t say the same for my other parties. Even with 5k ATK equipped her damage in the current meta is absolutely embarrassing.

Now is a good time to mention that I have another comic in the works, about Mercedes and Luka following the events of season one. I have it scheduled to come out later this year for the 6th Anniversary, and for motivation it would really be amazing to see Mercedes place somewhere high on the ranks (let’s be real, she’s not making first). It’s been difficult getting hyped to draw this. It feels like these characters have been forgotten by the game developers and my inspiration in consequence is running dry. I’m grateful to see them even make the list, and I guess this is my last chance to bring some attention back to the Olderion gals.

Attached is some NVA art inspired by her older kit. It was a Brave Shift prompt from Flip_Method for funsies. If it’s a whole new NV I would imagine the skills would be better, and Suede on Discord also mocked up a full kit a couple months back. Gumi’s been doing a great job with GL units lately, so I imagine whatever they come up with would be much, much better than my pleb ideas.

Mercedes Brave Shift concept (Summer 2021) https://imgur.com/mocNTxr

TL;DR: If you’re indifferent to the rest of the characters listed, vote for Mercedes to make that one weird artist lady happy. Thank you!

Vote here: https://cp-vote.finalfantasyexvius.com/