Garon

Garon (ガロン) is a non-playable character and the primary antagonist in Fire Emblem Fates's Birthright and Conquest routes. He is voiced by Akio Ōtsuka in the Japanese version and Travis Willingham in the English version.

Profile
Garon is the King of Nohr and a stern man. He is the father of Xander, Camilla, Leo, Elise and stepfather of Azura. He kidnapped the infant Avatar and raised them in a near isolated environment for all of their time in Nohr before the events of the game in a devious plan to kill Queen Mikoto of Hoshido, and remove the magical barrier that prevents his army from entering Hoshidan territories. After Nohr is hit with horrible weather and poor crop yields, he orders his children to invade Hoshido. He is ambitious and has a lust for power. He is always suspicious of others.

Several support conversations between the Nohrian siblings reveal that in his youth, he had a very different demeanor towards his children, being a doting and loving father. However, he also frequently indulged in his rather harmful passions, didn't take responsibility for his actions and never could leave a woman he'd once loved. His many mistresses began jockeying for his favor, even to the point of murdering one another's children. It's thought that this unhappy family life is what eventually hardened him into the person he is at the start of the game.

All Routes
Before the events of Fates start, Garon exiled the Avatar to North Fortress as they were not strong enough to his expectations. He would only let them out if they could prove themselves to him. After the Avatar bests Xander in combat, Garon allows the Avatar to return to the Nohrian capital. At the castle, Garon gives the Avatar the Ganglari and has them use it on some prisoners from a recent skirmish, which consist of two Hoshidans along with Rinkah and Kaze. After the Avatar defeats the prisoners, he then orders them to execute them, to which they refuse because they are already defeated. Angered by their refusal, he uses his magic to kill one of the prisoners. Before he can kill Rinkah, the Avatar blocks it with Ganglari, angering him even more. He then orders Xander to kill them, but after a short argument and battle, Leo "kills" them instead, pleasing him before leaving to decide the Avatar's punishment.

Later on, the Avatar, along with Elise, wait outside Garon's room when they hear commotion. He is startled when he hears them at first, but after the two apologize to him for the recent event, lets them in. To make the Avatar more useful, he orders them to scout a supposedly abandoned Hoshidan fort with Hans at the Bottomless Canyon, and return when they give him a status update on it.

Birthright
If the Avatar sides with Hoshido, Garon is not upset by their choice at all, and calmly orders Iago to kill them by any means of his likings.

Later on, when the Hoshidan army breaks into the castle after killing Hans, he sends Iago after them to finish the job. Iago fails to kill them and is subsequently killed by Leo. After the Avatar kills Xander in a duel, the forces continue towards the throne room. Garon is "pleased" to see the Avatar again, mocking them for making it this far. Garon tells the Avatar that his family were all pawns for the war, angering the Avatar, who knows that he cannot be reasoned with, and attacks him. However, their Noble Yato is unable to penetrate his armor, and in retaliation, Garon launches several blows at them. Azura attempts to use her powers to weaken him, but Garon is well aware and grabs her, threatening to kill her unless they listen to his demands. Ryoma negotiates with him, and he responds that it is a wise choice. Garon demands that Hoshido gives unconditional surrender so its lands can be incorporated into Nohr, then stating that he wishes to kill Ryoma. Garon sends a fireball at Ryoma, wounding him.

Suddenly, Ryoma's Raijinto reacts to the Avatar's Noble Yato, empowering it into the Blazing Yato. The Avatar decides to test the new Yato on Garon, and he screams in pain, stating that it actually hurt. He calls for his soldiers to stop the Hoshidans, but they fail and the Hoshidans fight and defeat him. Garon, refusing to give up, uses the power of the Dark Dragon to transform into it and continues to fight, but is eventually stopped and killed by Azura.

Conquest
Garon is shocked and angered that the Avatar had returned, knowing that they had been in Hoshido and that now know their true origins and his kidnapping of them, and agrees with Iago that they could be a Hoshidan spy and order Xander to kill them. He refused, so Garon asked the great dragon Anankos (through a stone effigy on the ceiling) on how to deal the matter, and he then order the Avatar to suppress the Ice Tribe's rebellion alone to prove their loyalty, to the Nohrian siblings' shock on the virtual suicide mission, this is because he wanted the Avatar to suffer. The plan was foiled however by Xander sending Elise, her retainers, and Silas to aid them after he overhears this.

However, Garon learns of this, and threatens to execute the Avatar, but is stopped when both Elise and Xander offer their lives instead since they acted out of his orders, so Garon reluctantly allows the Avatar to be his child again. He then orders the Avatar to conquer Notre Sagesse, and after that is finished, suppress the rebellion of Cheve, but before they left for Cheve, the Avatar re-introduced Garon to his kidnapped daughter Azura. However, he showed cold detachment to her and ordered them to leave.

After the uprising in Cheve is put down, Garon, along with the Nohrian army, watches a play from a mysterious songstress. Before the play starts, Garon talks to the Avatar, telling them that he is pleased with their actions on crushing the rebellion, as Hans told him. Garon is unaware that Hans had done most of the killing and not the Avatar. After the songstress' movement causes Garon to be put in a "curse", as Iago puts it, he orders the Avatar to kill all the songstresses, to their horror. However, this is quickly interrupted by Kumagera and his assassins, so the mysterious songstress manages to escape before her identity is revealed to him.

Garon, along with Iago, oversees the invasion of Nohr and are pleased with their progress through Hoshido territory. As the royal siblings open the door to the throne room, they find a gigantic slime like creature, who reveals itself as Garon, to their shock. Garon and a group of powerful invisible soldiers attempts to kill them on the spot, due to them seeing his true form, but they fail and Garon is eventually killed by the party.

Monster Garon's appearance is hinted at in both routes during Azura's dance, where her graceful and elegant Hoshido dance only causes the monster discomfort and problems with breathing, while her aggressive and forceful dance in Conquest causes unbearable pain to Garon and his eyes to roll back.

Revelation
It is revealed that the real Garon had died a couple years before the story began and the Garon present is a servant of the King of Valla, Anankos, who is little more than a corpse imbued with a semblence of life by Anankos' power and stripped of his free will. His mission is to destroy both the kingdoms of Nohr and Hoshido for "betraying" its master. The undead Garon makes less appearances in this route, compared to the other 2 routes.

In his first appearance in the cutscene before Chapter 9, he is seen speaking to his stone effigy of Anankos on the ceiling, a little surprised about the fact the Avatar survived the earlier explosion at Hoshido and knowing the truth of the entire situation. He decides that the Avatar being afraid and wanting them to suffer isn't enough, and that decides that the Avatar simply will have to be disposed of. He then erupts into maniacal laughter.

In his second appearance before the start of Chapter 14, Xander and Leo arrive in the throne room and see Garon looking manipulated, telling them to continue the war against Hoshido, and tells them that he wants to destroy not only Hoshido, but also Nohr itself. This causes both Xander and Leo to reconsider their earlier dismissals about the Avatar's claims about Garon being manipulated by the real culprit, the Invisible Kingdom of Valla, and they eventually join the Avatar's cause.

He makes his last appearance after Anankos defeat in Chapter 27 of this route, offering to become a vessel for Anankos like Gunter, only for Anankos to eat him to gain his blood to be at full power again.

Personality
Garon is portrayed as a ruthless, mean, cold-hearted man that has no mercy for anyone who does not please him or dares to defy him. He has been known to execute people on the spot without any sort of rationale, even in front of his youngest daughter. His ruthless nature extends heavily to his adopted "child", the Avatar, who is constantly ordered by Garon to perform inhuman tasks in order to "earn his trust." Actions ranging from slaughtering innocents are among the most notable, his children either reluctantly follow through with orders, or to find ways to limit the damage, but they never outright defy him. He has also expressed cold detachment to Azura, the step-daughter of his second wife, going so far as to refuse a prisoner trade between the Avatar and Azura. He has little trust even in his subordinates, ordering Iago to kill the Avatar repetitively, yet considers him nothing more than a foolish pawn.

However, many years prior, Garon was portrayed in a different light. Leo notes that Garon would do many things stereotypical of a loving father, such as letting Leo ride on his shoulders. While he was still a rather stern man outside of his family life, the death of his second wife Arete, hurt him emotionally. Apparently, Garon was quite the ladies man and easily won the hearts of many women including his first wife Katerina and Arete. However, his love for women prevented him from breaking their hearts, letting them do as they please, causing his four children to come from different mothers. After numerous attempts by his concubines to assassinate the other children and other women to gain control of the throne, Garon became much more hardened, suspicious of any sort of trust because he felt that he could be taken advantage of if he was not careful. Even going as far as to order the death of Gunter's wife and family and begin antagonizing the kingdom of Hoshido. Because of his cold demeanor, Anankos easily possessed Garon and made him his personal slave a couple years before the story.

Birthright Chapter 12 - Dark Reunion

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Birthright Chapter 27 - King Garon

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Birthright Endgame - Dawn Breaks

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Conquest Chapter 27 - The Empty King

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Critical/Skill

 * "DIE!"

Defeated by Player
"This can't be."

- Garon's Death Voice Clip

Chapter 12(Birthright)
"Are you actually attempting to engage me in battle? Very well. Do your best!"

- Garon's Pre-Battle Quote

Vs. Avatar

 * Avatar: You're not my father, and you never were. Prepare to die.
 * Garon: I may not be your father, but I will slap you down like a child. This foolishness ends now!

Chapter 27 (Birthright)
"HAH! Avatar should have known better than to send an underling. Or perhaps you're just a sacrificial lamb.."

- Garon's Pre-Battle Quote

Vs. Avatar
Garon: "You're like a cockroach to me... How can you possibly think you can win?"

Avatar: "I've grown, Garon. I'm not a victim anymore. And I WILL defeat you!"

Endgame (Birthright)
"NEVER FORGET THAT YOU CHOSE THIS PATH. YOU CHOSE DEATH AND DEFEAT. YOU CHOOSE DOOM. YOUR DEATH IS AT HAND!"

- Garon's battle quote in Birthright Endgame

Chapter 27 (Conquest)
"I...WiLl nOt LoSe...I WiLl RuLe nOhR aNd hOsHiDo...tHe wHoLe WoRld!! I aM tHe GrEaTeSt KiNg Of aLl!!"

- Garon's Pre-Battle Quote

Vs. Avatar
Garon: "i ShOuLd hAvE KiLlEd YoU...EvEn If iT mEaNt...DisObEyInG tHe GrEaT AnAnKoS..."

Avatar: "Anankos? What are you talking about?! Your god has nothing to do with this! We all make our own decisions. You are all responsible for all of this, monster! You destroyed the heart of a good man for your own selfish gain. But even you could have chosen a different path. No matter the circumstances we are born into, or the blood in our veins...We are all the masters of our own fate! That is why I am not like you, nor could I ever be. I chose the path I believe in, the path of peace. And that conviction, that strength...I will use it to defeat you!

Defeated

 * "This...can't...be..."

Death/Retreat
"You...you think you've won? Urk..."

- Garon's Death quote in Birthright Chapter 27

"URGH! THESE WOUNDS! THIS CAN'T BE! I REFUSE TO ACCEPT DEFEAT! I REFU--- GYAAAAH!"

- Garon's Death Quote in Birthright Endgame

"tHiS iS...ImPoSsIBlE...IMPOSSIBLE!!"

- Garon's Death Quote in Conquest Chapter 27

Trivia

 * Like Zola, Mikoto, Hans, and Iago, Garon has unused blushing portraits within the game's code, suggesting that they would be playable characters.
 * Garon is one of the few final bosses in the entire series to move. The others are Duma, Idenn, Fomortiis, and Ashnard.
 * His class, Nohrian King, is interestingly unable to use tomes, although he uses magic in several cutscenes during the game.
 * Garon shares his English voice actor, Travis Willingham, with Awakening's Lon'qu and Brady.