Ike: Difference between revisions

'''Ike''' {{ja|(アイク|Aiku}}, ''Ike'') is the main protagonist of ''{{s|fireemblemwiki|Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance}}'' and ''{{s|fireemblemwiki|Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn}}'', the ninth and tenth games in the {{uv|Fire Emblem}} series. He has appeared in every ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' game since ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]''.

After ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]'' and its inclusion of ''Fire Emblem'' protagonists [[Marth]] and [[Roy]], ''Fire Emblem'' established itself outside Japan with two Game Boy Advance titles, ''{{s|fireemblemwiki|Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade}}'' and ''{{s|fireemblemwiki|Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones}}''. The international success of the former prompted developer Intelligent Systems to begin work on a more ambitious, large-scale ''Fire Emblem'' game for the Nintendo GameCube: ''{{s|fireemblemwiki|Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance}}'', Ike's debut starring game, which released in 2005. It received a direct sequel in 2007 (the first time ''Fire Emblem'' had done so since ''[[Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem]]'' in 1994, although the series had done prequels and midquels in the meantime) in the form of ''{{s|fireemblemwiki|Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn}}'', in which Ike returned as part of a larger ensemble cast of protagonists, playing out the conflicts from multiple viewpoints.

Ike is the son of {{s|fireemblemwiki|Greil}}, a legendary warrior who leads [[fireemblemwiki:Greil Mercenaries|a band of mercenaries]] which operates in {{s|fireemblemwiki|Crimea}}, a minor kingdom on the continent of {{s|fireemblemwiki|Tellius}}. He and his younger sister, {{s|fireemblemwiki|Mist}}, live with the mercenaries in a remote Crimean fort. Notably, he is to date the only protagonist of a ''Fire Emblem'' game to have absolutely no royal, noble or divine ancestry at all; this is reflected in his initial [[fireemblemwiki:Class|character class]] in ''Path of Radiance'' not being the usual {{s|fireemblem|Lord}}, but rather the unique [[fireemblemwiki:Ranger (Path of Radiance)|Ranger]], instead promoting into a Lord when he is temporarily knighted. Like all ''Fire Emblem'' protagonists, Ike is the commander of his army, and his defeat in battle causes a Game Over. In contrast to ''Smash'' portraying him as a sluggish, brute-force fighter, Ike is quick, strong and sturdy, and has an acrobatic fighting style.

''Path of Radiance'' follows Ike's exploits through the {{s|fireemblemwiki|Mad King's War}}. Having only recently been allowed by Greil to join missions with the Merecenaries, Ike encounters Princess {{s|fireemblemwiki|Elincia}} of Crimea, on the run after the neighboring Kingdom of {{s|fireemblemwiki|Daein}} attacked and conquered Crimea. Elincia hires the Greil Mercenaries to assist her in escaping Crimea, but after Greil himself is killed by his former student, the [[Black Knight]] of Daein, Ike is forced to take command of the Mercenaries. Ike's journeys with Elincia - fleeing to the {{s|fireemblemwiki|Begnion}} Empire, assisting its Empress {{s|fireemblemwiki|Sanaki}} in destroying a slave trafficking ring, being knighted by Elincia, and raising an army to march on Daein and take back Crimea - brings him into contact with the ancient racial tensions between his people, the {{s|fireemblemwiki|beorc}} (humans), and the {{s|fireemblemwiki|laguz}} (clans of animal shapeshifters); with a plot by Daein's Mad King, {{s|fireemblemwiki|Ashnard}}, to unleash a dark god sealed within [[fireemblemwiki:Lehran's Medallion|a bronze medallion]] and remake the world; and with the sacrifices his parents made to try and stop that plot decades prior. By the end of the war, Ike's deeds have earned him respect across the world, from beorc and laguz nations alike.

''Radiant Dawn'' is set three years later, by which time Ike has renounced his Crimean knighthood and returned to work with the Greil Mercenaries. After assisting Queen Elincia with ending an uprising in Crimea, Ike is hired by his friend {{s|fireemblemwiki|Ranulf}}, a cat laguz, to assist the {{s|fireemblemwiki|Laguz Alliance}} in a war against Begnion, demanding reparations for the major atrocities they committed against laguz nations. This provokes a civil war in Begnion, in which Sanaki breaks away from her corrupt senate to join Ike's side, and is further complicated when Daein's army, led by the mage {{s|fireemblemwiki|Micaiah}}, joins the war on Begnion's side. The enormous war awakens and angers the order goddess {{s|fireemblemwiki|Ashera}}, with the underlying conflicts having been specifically manipulated to do so, and Ike and Micaiah join forces with the released "dark god" - actually {{s|fireemblemwiki|Yune}}, a sympathetic chaos goddess - to reverse Ashera's judgement and save the world. The game ends with Ike dealing the finishing blow to Ashera, for which he becomes known as the legendary "Radiant Hero" {{ja|(青い炎の英雄|Sōen no Eiyū}}, ''Hero of the Blue Flame''), and with him leaving Tellius forever for parts unknown.

Described in ''Radiant Dawn'' as "blunt, but genuine and loyal", Ike is reserved and socially awkward due to his sheltered upbringing, but in his younger years is fairly quick to anger. He is never comfortable in the spotlight into which his work with Elincia and Sanaki thrusts him, or with command of large armies, preferring to work in anonymity with the Greil Mercenaries, but his strong sense of duty and loyalty compels him to accept it when he has to. Despite being a mercenary, he takes the life-and-death nature of war very seriously and only takes up arms as a last resort; the only exception is his rivalry with the Black Knight. Notably, he offers almost every boss he faces an opportunity to surrender and leave the battlefield alive. His one true desire is to someday be as good a warrior as Greil was, even long after the latter's death.

Even before his ''Smash Bros.'' appearences, Ike was one of the most popular characters in the entire ''Fire Emblem'' series. In 2017, he was voted the single most popular male character in the inaugural {{s|fireemblemwiki|Choose Your Legends}} popularity poll for ''{{s|fireemblemwiki|Fire Emblem Heroes}}'' (beaten only by the top-placers of the female bracket, [[Lyn]] and [[Lucina]]). ''Fire Emblem Awakening'' features him as a bonus character, unrelated to the main story, available in SpotPass and DLC, as well as the character {{s|fireemblemwiki|Priam}}, a distant descendant of Ike who wields a heavily aged Ragnell. Later appearances include ''{{s|fireemblemwiki|Fire Emblem Fates}}'' via [[amiibo]] and DLC, and ''{{s|fireemblemwiki|Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia}}'' via amiibo as an illusory unit. He also makes frequent appearances in the smartphone game ''Fire Emblem Heroes'' (although, unlike the other six ''Fire Emblem'' fighters in ''Smash'', he was not in the game at launch), and the ''{{s|fireemblemwiki|Fire Emblem Cipher}}'' card game.