Chapter 5 is the first tough chapter, then it eases back a little until chapter 10, then the game's at its hardest (imo) through chapter 13 (or 14, depending on who you ask), then it starts opening up.

Yeah, it's the impression I got from people. The whole rescue of the two guys was easy enough, but I kept getting swarmed by flying units or by those units which appear as reinforcements (which I didn't realise now moved the turn they appeared!)

Yeah, even on the easiest difficulty, enemies in this game are much more aggressive, whereas on the lower difficulties before, the enemies wouldn't attack until you got into their range usually, unless it was a defensive chapter.

On that note, it is sad that Awakening has no defense chapters. Runs like 3-13 or 2-E from Radiant Dawn were part of what made that game great.

I guess, but it's better than previous entries where every mission was a seize mission. 

Donnel is only overrated if you're the type of player who grinds levels, in which case he's actually not worth it because his stat caps are a bit lower than average. But if you don't grind, he's the best character in the game, with fast-levelling and stats that exceed the manaketes in every area. He's the only character who might cap one or two categories without having to re-class him several times.

Tiki's paralogue flirted with that idea, but yeah, I also missed having missions with overwhelming enemy forces (combined with the challenge of taking down the boss within the time limit, of course!).

Bolded-No, you can do this. Kinda censored in America.

Italics-Humorously funny trap is implied homo.

Owain x Lucina will always be available. Well really any combination of Owain x Chrom's daughters. Though some of the dialogue is changed and instead of Husband and Wife they are labeled "Companion". In the Japanese version, Lucina even comments on the fact that Owain and herself are cousins in their romantic support.

Libra has some homo moments sometimes, though generally on the recieving end of the affection. Particularly funny is his support line with Virion. If you leave him unmarried by the end of the game, there's a line in the epilogue where it states "he was courted by women and men alike".

I loled.