Ike

"This is my chance to avenge my father's death. This time, he won't walk away."

- Ike to Tibarn, shortly before Ike's second battle with the Black Knight.

Ike (アイク, Aiku) is the main character of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, released in 2005 for the Nintendo GameCube. He is the first and only main character not of noble birth. His seiyuu is Michihiko Hagi, and his voice actor is Jason Adkins.

Path of Radiance
Ike is the son of Greil, leader of the Greil Mercenaries, and takes leadership when his father is killed by the Black Knight. For the most part of the game, he is in the service of Princess Elincia. Ike is rather naive in the beginning of the game, but grows into a brave character later on. He has little memory of his life in Gallia as a young kid, and prior to joining the Greil Mercenaries, shows that he does not know what Laguz are. He is a nice and brave character, and is very protective of his friends and family. His motivation is to avenge his father's death, but he seeks no reward in aiding Crimea's liberation and helping Elincia to claim the throne as queen, except for the usual payment as being a mercenary. Although he has no desire to become a noble, he accepts the title as Lord so he can lead the Crimea Liberation Army after his triumph over Duke Oliver.
 * Class: Ranger -> Lord

Ike begins the game as the newest member of the Greil Mercenaries. The other members look down on him as a rookie, such as Boyd and Shinon. After learning about Daein's invasion, Greil makes Ike work harder to prepare him for the task of leadership. Following Greil's death, Ike takes over leadership of the Greil Mercenaries, to Gatrie and Shinon's disdain. After Shinon telling Titania that he would not serve Ike, Titania gets mad at Shinon due to her affection towards the now departed Greil. Gatrie leaves alongside Shinon because he feels his skills deserve a better challenge, but he rejoins Ike at Astrid's urging in Chapter 13 because of his love for the mercenary group.

After remaining in Gallia until Chapter 9, realizing that Caineghis is unable to help him, Ike leaves and is escorted to Port Toha by a squad of Laguz including Ranulf, Lethe and Mordecai. Ike then leaves and travels around the continent in order to help Elincia reclaim Crimea. Along the way, he meets and recruits many allies.

Eventually, near the end of the game, he acquires the Divine Blade Ragnell and duels the Black Knight with the assistance of his sister Mist. Although it does not matter whether or not the player is truly able to defeat the Black Knight, the castle in which the duel takes place collapses after five turns pass, and the Black Knight is declared dead (cannonically, Ike slays the Black Knight).

Ultimately, Ike reconquers Crimea with the help of his allies.

Radiant Dawn
Ike, the hero of the Mad King's War, returns in Radiant Dawn, as the main character of Part III. He starts as a Hero class, and wields the sword Ettard, but later reacquires the divine blade Ragnell, which he had previously used while dueling with the Black Knight in Path of Radiance, but subsequently turned it over to Begnion when Sanaki declared it a sacred treasure.
 * Class: Hero - Vanguard

His appearance has also changed, he facial structure is more defined, and he looks more mature, also his hair is shorter. In Part IV of Radiant Dawn, Ike becomes a Vanguard with the blessing of the goddess Yune and finally avenges his father's death and this time defeats the Black Knight in a truly one-on-one duel. Upon the Black Knight's defeat, Ike then takes possession of Alondite, the Black Knight's personal blade and Ragnell's counterpart, which, though it has no weapon level in Path of Radiance (and thereby is exclusive to the Black Knight), is now an SS sword and can be given to other units. It is revealed that he witnessed Greil killing Elena due to the medallion's chaos energy, but his memory is sealed by Sephiran to prevent the painful truth.

Once the goddess Ashera is defeated and all the countries are made stable, Ike travels to another land (possibly Hatari) and leaves the continent of Tellius behind forever. He suffers from poor resistance and luck, but his strength, skill, speed, and HP are all high. His magic is also low, but this is no longer an issue for physical units due to the fact that magic swords no longer use magic to calculate damage. Once he is promoted into a Vanguard, Ike can wield axes, including his father Greil's axe, the SS-ranked Urvan, given to you by Caineghis in an Info Conversation in the Final Chapter. He defeats Ashera, and Leaves Tellius, depending on the support level, Soren or Ranulf could go with him, if they have an 'A' Rank.

Ike's departure leads to fan speculation regarding a third game in the Tellius Series. It should be noted that should there be a third game, both Soren and Ranulf may appear along with Ike, as having only one support only counts in-game, when a person can actually have a support with multiple people.

Recruitment

 * Prologue: Automatically From start.

Base Stats
|Ranger |Earth |1 |19 |5 |1 |6 |7 |6 |5 |0 |9 |9 |6 |Sword - D |N/A |Iron Sword

Growth Rates
|75% |50% |20% |50% |55% |35% |40% |40%

Bond support

 * Mist:10%

Recruitment

 * Part 3: Prologue: Automatically from Base, available in Prologue, Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10. 11 and Endgame.
 * Part 4: Chapter 1: Automatically from Base, available in Chapter 1, 4 and Endgame.

Base Stats
|Hero |Earth |11 |44 |24 |2 |28 |23 |14 |21 |7 |12 |13 |7 |Sword - S |Shove |Ettard Iron Sword

Growth Rates
|65% |55% |10% |60% |35% |30% |40% |15%

Bond support

 * Mist: 10%
 * Soren: 5%
 * Titania: 5%
 * Ranulf: 5%

Epilogue
Once he saw stability returned, Ike left on a journey to lands still unknown. He was never seen again.

Death Quotes

 * Ike: Nngh... I... I... I must... protect
 * Mist: Brother? No! No... Please, you can't die... Ike!!!

-Ike, dying at Chapter 8: Despair and Hope (Path of Radiance)

"I...wasn't strong enough..."

- Ike losing to the Black Knight (Path of Radiance) '


 * Ike: Damn... I... After all this... Forgive me, Elincia...
 * Elincia: This can't happen... Ike! I won't accept this... No... I-I won't! Don't do this, Ike. Don't leave me...

-Ike, dying at the final chapter (Path of Radiance)



Super Smash Bros.
Ike is in the Nintendo Wii game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He appears as his titled Ranger class although age wise he appears as a cross between Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, and accompanying him is the divine sword, Ragnell. His special moves are:


 * Aether: His master skill. A move in which he throws Ragnell into the air and launches himself upwards, seizes the sword, and plunges it into the ground, cleaving through the target as they land; However, Ike's sword does damage at every stage of the attack.


 * Eruption: A chargeable Earth-smashing move that sends flames bursting from the ground.


 * Quick Draw: Another chargeable move in which Ike lunges foward and strikes his enemy (based on his critical attack in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance before he promotes to a Lord).


 * Counter: Takes any attacks that hit Ike during the move's animation and deals back damage of the original attack multiplied by 1.2. with a minimum of 10% damage. Marth could also use this move.


 * Final Smash: Great Aether, which is a more powerful version of Aether. Since Ike has never used Great Aether in any of the Fire Emblem games in which he's appeared in, some interpret that it may be a manifestation of Ike's final blow against Ashera,when Yune lends him her power in Radiant Dawn. In it, he delivers several flaming blows in the middle of the air, before finishing with devastating downward slice that sends the opponent flying.

In Story Mode: Subspace Emissary, Ike helps Marth and Meta Knight through their journey. He appears using Aether on the Ancient Minister, a R.O.B. and commander of the Subspace Armada. In the U.S., Australian and European versions, he yells 'Great Aether' instead of 'Aether'.

Etymology
'Ike' is short for 'Isaac,' a Biblical patriarch whose name means 'he laughs.' His father, Abraham, prayed for a son and was finally given Isaac although he and his wife, Sarah, were too old to bear children. In this way, then, the name 'Ike' would reference an important son and heir. Ike's birth name suits him well as he is the son of a legendary mercenary Greil/Gawain and Ike eventually inherited the Greil Mercenaries succeeding his father in his place.

Ike's name in the original drafts of the game, Paris, is from the Iliad. Paris was the prince of Troy whom Aphrodite promised the most beautiful woman in the world for his wife--this woman, Helen, was already married, and when she and Paris ran off, Helen's husband Menelaus chased them to Troy and began the ten-year-long Trojan War. There, Achilles killed Paris' brother Hector and Paris killed Achilles by shooting an arrow at his famous weak ankle. Then the Greek Philoctetes killed Paris by shooting him with a poisoned arrow; a dying Paris called for his former lover, the nymph Oenone, to save him, but she refused, Paris died, and Helen was taken back to Greece. Perhaps the name 'Paris' alluded to a more developed romance with Elincia in earlier drafts of the game that was removed in later versions.

Ike