They've already started a banner competition, it would seem unfair that people start drawing Eirika in hopes of getting her on the banner only to have the mods suddenly go "lol nope we're changing it". The mods have thought a lot about this decision I'm sure, and leaivng every choice up to the community is not always a good thing, as it could lead with some illogical choices.
I mentioned Roy with his smash relevance because the Marth/Ike choices used their smash inclusion as part of their rationale.
I think a difference between them if that within the community Marth is seen as the figurehead, and Ike is a very popular lord character, whereas in the community Roy is basically completely irrelevant. He barely represents FE at all.
Only if you define most significant as most popular right now, which I don't.
Well I don't either, but something has to be somewhat popular to be significant, hence why Alm and Celica are completely not so, unfortunately.
Alm and Celica are nearly identical to Eirika/Ephraim in significance. They are the twin lord representations to an otherwise unrepresented continent.
Valentina ties in heavily with Akaneia, so I really wouldn't compare it to Magvel in the slighest. And Alm and Celica are from a really old game which almost nobody in the community has played, that along with the fact that Alm and Celica are barely known makes me wonder how they can be at all compared to Eirika and Ephraim, whose games have had a far greater impact on the series and the community.
Absolutely not.
Well I disagree, Eirika is definitely the most appropriate representative of Magvel (her only competition being Ephraim, of course) and I'd say that takes priority over FE5 (Leif) and FE6 (Roy), whereas the other two aren't even the main lords in their games.
As the mods said the main choice was Eirika v Ephraim, so I don't see why bringing up other lords is even relevant. I think the Elibe representation is fine, since they are the centrepiece for that part of the banner, and I think it looks really cool.