To be more specific, this is my 4th Maddening run of this game. This time unlike my 1st take, I allowed myself the Ancient Well (and it really does such wonders), all of Expansion Pass bonuses, and Spirits of the Fallen. The only restrictions I put on myself were the DLC Emblems and the Fell Xenologue rewards.
I was thinking this run would be more challenging than my 1st because I wanted to take Vander all the way to endgame. Surprisingly, he didn't really fail me. Right when I got them, I gave Vander all of the Expansion Pass stat boosters except for the Spirit Dust and Boots. In the early game, I placed him in all of the yellow spirit tiles, so he could get experience points. Not only that, most of his level ups weren't that bad (most were 4 stat levels). He even got 3 Build points from the level ups (He only has 5% chance as a Paladin). To top it off, Vander got the MVP on the Corrin paralogue, haha.
This is the run where I took 86 turns on the Jean paralogue and wow it really paid off. I was really shocked to see that it took me under an hour even with all the heal spamming. To further elaborate, Clanne was benched until Chapter 8 was done, so I can second seal him to Level 1 Lance Fighter. I then spammed heal with him and Micaiah until he reached Level 10. Once I upgraded Clanne to Halberdier and switched to Wyvern Knight, he just took off. This Clanne was EXTREMELY blessed as he maxxed Speed (and I think Res?). I cannot even recall how many 6 stat level ups he has gotten. Not to mention the only stat booster I gave Clanne right before the endgame was the Seraph Robe. Even though Boucheron got the most MVPs, I feel that Clanne was the defining highlight of this run.
Speaking of Boucheron, he and Lapis both went through the "Berserker program" and it paid off at the end. I origially intended Lapis to stay as a Griffin Knight, but she got HP and Strength screwed. I put her into Berserker until her Res was maxxed, followed by Warrior until Chapter 21. Amusingly, Lapis managed to get MVPs as both Berserker and Warrior.
Finally, I wanted to dedicate this run to Goldmary. I haven't brought her to the endgame once since my very 1st run of this game where she was part of my main team. I pretty much did the same thing with her as Ivy where Goldmary didn't have an emblem until Alear became one (Her most used emblem is "none").
Once again, enough rambling. Another Maddening run complete. If I do another run, I'm definitely going all in on the DLC from now on. Game's too fun.