Selected comments, one a division:
Ryu (BoF2) vs. Indalecio (SO2) - High Indy respect, notably high Indy HP respect.
Decus (SO2) vs. Lundgren (FE7) - Not terribly high non-Indy, non-Cyril Wiseman respect. Also counters.
Tear Grants (TotA) vs. Argilla (DDS) - Not really familiar with DDS, but since no one else has mentioned it yet... if this turns into a stallfest, let's not forget Tear has a Mystic Arte to end it.
Viktor (Suikos) vs. Peppor (CC) - Kneejerk against Peppor & Solt. Ketchop might have won here.
Some probably overthinking of the bonus:
Walnut sucks. No way I'm voting for him.
Squall... huh. Phantom Isle is small, so the FF8 crew doesn't really have time to set up - Marona can easily walk a fair distance on her initiative turn, summon a phantom yet another range again, and then have that phantom be able to walk about in their range. And there's only 6 of them. This is bad, as it means they probably all die before getting a turn, or at least everyone relevant. This is probably near necessary, since if given time to set up some kind of horrific Cerberus - > Triple -> Auras -> Mighty Guard setup, they'd be pretty well set. Also, Rinoa is an X-Factor here. Normally this is bad for Squall since it can turn winnable events into lost ones, but since he isn't favored here, maybe she does something crazy and it works? Also... Quistis with a machine gun in a landing craft hype?
Ike... hmm. Ash gets to disarm Ragnell from Ike with Flying Bomb and have somebody else pick up and use it for humiliation, but Ike has spare weapons, so that isn't *that* crippling. The problem is that all their Staff users (Rhys, Mist, Soren, Ilyana, & Elincia are it, I think?) are horribly frail and FE-style "protect them with a human wall!" doesn't really work against PB characters with large area-attack spells & abilities that ignore evasion. Sure, whoever unleashes the first attack fries to the counters, but the second attack probably wipes them out. Ike does have sheer weight of numbers, though (Marona can only keep so many phantoms out). Still, by handing out weapons like bushes and so on and generally twinking for speed, I think that Marona's army can avoid getting doubled, and even if some of the first troops die, they won't easily be able to get to Marona & the healers who'll just bring them back. Marona can play an attrition game, Ike can't. Ike only wins this if he has his flyers sneak in and take out both Marona and any healers she summoned at once. Doable, but tough.
Lucretia's probably get the best shot here, as the Prince & Lyon are reasonably tanky and their Unite attack is pretty awesome. More generally, they have a crudton of mages with "everyone dies" attacks.... though I suppose if Marona sees the Prince & 17 mages coming, she summons an army set up for Magic Resistance. Also... Dragon Cavalry hype for a marine attack?! Maybe Rahal would be worth a damn here after all.
