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Shocker.

I really don't like being the first to post after already posting to announce the change Character of the Week. Sooo… Ike.

Here’s what I have to say about Ike (and all without ever claiming Ike is “X sexuality” or “Y sexuality” or Ike isn’t “Z sexuality” can never be “Q sexuality”):

Ike is literally the only male main character in the series that doesn’t canonically marry nor have the potential to marry someone of the opposite sex.

Marth: marries Caeda
Alm: marries Celica
Sigurd: marries Deidre
Celice: can marry Julia, Lanna, Lakche, Nanna, Fee, Leen, Patty, Teeny and ALL of their replacements I don’t feel like typing out
Leif: marries Nanna in FE5, and can marry everyone Celice can in FE4
Roy: can marry Thany, Sue(HE WON'T), Lilina, Lalum, Cecilia, or Sophia
Eliwood: can marry Ninian, Fiora, or Lyn (and even if you don’t marry him, it’s established there’s a wife at some point as the mother of Roy)
Hector: can marry Florina, Farina, or Lyn (and even if you don’t marry him, it’s established there’s a wife at some point as the mother of Lilina)
Ephraim: can marry Tana or L’Arachel
Chrom: marries Sumia, Sully, Maribelle, Olivia, the Female Avatar, or a village maiden.

Actually, he’s the only main character this is true of, even ignoring gender:

Celica: marries Alm
Lyn: can marry Eliwood, Hector, or Rath
Eirika: can marry Seth, Innes, or Saleh
Micaiah: can marry Sothe (and does unless you destroy their build-in A-support)
Lucina: can marry the Male Avatar, Gerome, Yarne, Inigo, Owain, Laurent, Male Morgan, or Brady

If we extend it to count MU inserts as main characters, they have a number of options in FE12 and can marry ANYONE you’ve recruited in FE13.

And yet he does have not one, but two paired endings featuring members of the same sex (and he’s not the only main character to feature such an ending: Lyn/Florina immediately comes to mind and there are others) but he is the only character that this is the case for that isn’t off getting married/has the potential to get married.

And whatever you happen to think of Ike’s sexuality or whatever you interpret or don’t interpret it as, Ike doesn’t conform to heteronormative standards of sexuality or marriage in our world or even in the Fire Emblem universe literally EVERY other main character has to some degree.

And in some entries of the series, I get that having everyone able to marry members of the opposite sex is part of the mechanics because children characters need to be made and I’m not mad about it: heteronormativity and male-female marriages and marriage itself are all ingrained to the series to a certain extent necessarily in order for there to be features with multiple generations of characters in certain installments and the like (as archaic as it is since obviously marriage isn’t a requirement for having children, and neither is a particular sexuality or sexual experience).

But as a gay man who plays video games when there are virtually no explicitly gay protagonists who are gay by default rather than by a player choice and when

getting Ike as a main character is a BIG ******** DEAL for me, and probably for numerous other LGBTQ ‘gaymers’ that enjoy this series as well. Even if the game never explicitly states “Ike is X sexuality” it’s a big deal to me, because no matter what he is, he’s not the same explicitly straight man you can find in the vast majority of video games, so it feels like a step in the right direction.

And then on top of him not falling into the same heternormative marriage-bound relationship standards as every other main character in this franchise, he’s in the Tellius Saga where the series couldn’t possibly have been preachier about its main message of accepting otherness (it takes the form of racism/speciesism, but it’s easy to see the Saga as allegorically representative of various types of otherness) and doing your own thing. And he essentially brushes off all the advances females make on him. And there are a lot of instances with him that can be interpreted as charged with homoeroticism/homoerotic subtext. And he’s a main character with endings with other male characters. It really doesn’t matter to me what Ike’s sexuality would officially be: at the end of the day, because of all these things, he’s presented so differently in numerous manners concerning gender expectations and performace from his equivalents in the rest of the series, and these cumulatively make this leading protagonist character of a popular franchise easier to identify with for me as a member of the LGBTQ community. And that’s kind of ******** awesome and progressive for this series.




Addendum:

Do I like to think that Ike’s gay? Yes. Do I like to ship Ike/Soren? Yes. Would either of those things not being the case take away from the above? NO.

Oh. And Ike’s a really cool character for other reasons and a really great unit. I just started writing about him and this is what came out of me first and it suddenly took over the whole post. More Ike posts to come during Ike’s New Year’s Bash YAAAY.

Ike, Ike, Ike. WE LIKE IKE. Where do I begin? I’d say FE9 Ike is definitely one of my favorite young lords. I do prefer Leif from Thracia 776 a bit more but still Ike is a great character too! I absolutely loved his development and how he grows in that game. It’s generally the situations that he goes through that gives my admiration for this character. He can be blunt and says whatever is on his mind. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks and does and he does what he feels is right. Ike is also known to be quite the slob when it comes to food. But he does have some common decency. Like in the conversation between him and Oscar, Ike complimented him that he’s a great cook and how he didn’t just shove the food inside his mouth forcefully like some oaf. But it’s not just that, the way Ike interacts with every single character really what I enjoy about Ike.

If we take a look over the series not THAT many lords really get a chance to know everyone in the group. In fact once I think about it, Ike and Leif do share some common similarities. Those two are very much the only ones that have a connection to whoever comes their way in the progress of the journey. Ike doesn’t get into nearly as much trouble as Leif, which is partly the reason why I think he is done better as the younger lord. Of course there’s other factors on what to like about him.(Different reasons which I don’t need to get too heavily into) But don’t get me wrong, he does have a moment where he does get into some serious business with apostle Sanaki. He speaks out his opinion and in all actuality he could’ve been sentenced to execution for doing something like that. True, it was a very stupid move but on the other hand, I thought his heart was in the right place. So I could see the argument either way. What is really fascinating about Ike is the way he does grow in time and all the events that happen. In the beginning he starts off a rookie and he doesn’t really understand the ways of the mercenary group much. But then the way he slowly learns gradually is what I think makes him interesting.

Any character you just recruit on the battlefield they actually get into some really interesting conversations. And a lot of them are extremely funny too and so well written. It’s the fact that every single conversation matters, whether it’s getting a special occult scroll from Stefan or a simple conversing of a stranger, or it even goes through territories of Laguz racism(There are some certain elements in there like the chapter Blood runs red) and seeing the opposite enemies side perspective. I don’t know about anyone else here, but I felt the chapter before you fight General Shiram was pretty heavy stuff. It gave Haar and Jill some screen time but the way its delivered is so well done. What also really helps about this scene in the aftermath is well....

Bittersweet Victory is played in the background while everything is going on. It’s not only my favorite track from the game but it fits this scene entirely.(Then again I loved the track in FE9 as a whole) All of Daein’s homes are completely wrecked from the flood but even then Ike is still willing to help because even though they are enemies. Heck, there’s even a scene where one of Jill’s old friends is completely refusing aid from Crimea and her sister is hungry. And the fact that they’re starving is just really disheartening to see. They are still human no matter how you see it. Even Aimee and the merchants have some screen time. She seriously has a thing for Ike and chases after him even in FE10 but I’ll talk about him later. But this also leads to Ike’s sexuality which is questionable for obvious reasons. There’s also discussion about general strategies in a game of war chess between the two brothers merchants.(Jorge and Daniel) One of the strongest scenes I felt was in FE9 that really furthered Ike’s development was when his father dies by the hand at the Black Knight. The scene itself is sad, and the impact it sets upon the mercenaries hits them pretty hard. Ike is unable to figure out what he’s supposed to do now, especially since its been decided that he is the new commander. Gatrie and Shinon both leave because of this.(Shinon is downright angry of the matter) Also it hits Titania, a personal favorite paladin of mine, pretty hard to upon hearing the news. She really respected Greil and there’s even a sense of love she had for him. It’s the way that both Ike and her talk about it really make this moment extremely emotional.

FE10 Ike well… he’s actually really downplayed in that game and it’s really disappointing. All of the previous characters really don’t get a lot of screen time and are pushed aside for other stuff. Everyone knows about this so I don’t feel I need to talk about it any further. I don’t necessarily hate this version of Ike, nor do I dislike him either. I feel it’s hard to know about a character we yet know so little about. I wish we had more of a chance to learn about this character and everyone else. So it’s really just disappointing if anything.

As a unit, he’s great in either game. In FE9, he starts off as a Lv.1 ranger but eventually grows fairly well! By the time he’s promoted he’s pretty powerful. I like that there’s different ways to experiment with skills as a preference for him. Usually I like giving him Aether+Miracle. Mostly because of the Black Knight fight but that’s a preference for me. But he’ll do well with something like Resolve+Wrath too. So anything really works depending on what skill set you like? FE10 Ike is extremely strong too so not really that much to say here. But eventually once he promotes as a Vanguard, he’ll be able to use axes. So that’s kinda cool too. And from what I hear hammer actually helps against the Black Knight fight against him in FE10.

Here we are, We Know it's Too Late.
Hoping only to find some closure..!
Silently waiting, Hear the calling..!
Look into the wanting eyes, my Cherished!

Now we are here, We know its too late!
Hoping only to find some closure,
Silently waiting, Hear the calling!
Look into the wanting eyes, My Cherished!

Well, Ike's sexuality is just one facet of the character that FD and others chose to address. In addition, just because Priam exists doesn't absolutely determine Ike's sexuality. It just means that Ike at one point had a baby with a lady. It most CERTAINLY does not make any of Ike's interactions any less then they were previously.

That kinda leads into what I want to talk about. I've said my piece on Ike many times, favorite lord, blah blah blah. I don't want to talk about things I always talk about.

It's true. Ike does share a lot of similarities with past lords, Leif especially (FE5 and FE9 share a lot of story structure similarities on the whole, and what do you know, I love 'em both). But what I think Ike does better than any other lord, perhaps any other character in the entire series, is keeping his feet firmly planted on the ground.
He has his young, impulsive moments, sure. But when it comes to interacting with other characters, he speaks to them without regard for their race or class or any of that. He just speaks to them as people, and as equals. The best thing about Ike is how many conversations with other characters he has, and how adaptable and accepting he is towards pretty much everyone. His conversations are rarely one-way, usually there is character development or complementary conversation that goes both ways. Ike learns from other characters, and other characters get to show themselves as they bounce off of Ike. In his conversations and strategizing with Titania and Soren, he knows that both of their viewpoints are valid and goes with whatever he thinks suits the situation, while making his own decisions, of course. It's this groundedness and continual adapting and conversing that makes me like Ike so much. He can adapt to any situation and still be himself all the way. Of course that's mostly PoR, and I don't think RD really advanced his character all that much.

That doesn't mean that I think everything about how the game handles Ike is the best, though. The man himself is my favorite, but I think the game could have benefitted from putting Ike in more challenging situations and making him get into trouble more. I've played Path of Radiance enough times to have thought of simple ways for Ike to get in more trouble and still have the plot go as needed. We could have seen even more of Ike if we saw him deal with more bad situations, and I lament that we don't fully get to experience that.

Here we are, We Know it's Too Late.
Hoping only to find some closure..!
Silently waiting, Hear the calling..!
Look into the wanting eyes, my Cherished!

Now we are here, We know its too late!
Hoping only to find some closure,
Silently waiting, Hear the calling!
Look into the wanting eyes, My Cherished!

Onto Eirika.

I would love to know what evidence you have for that, given that her A-support ending with her brother is just "Busy days awaited Eirika and Ephraim as they struggled to rebuild Renais. Their work gave new hope to those ravaged by the war, and with Eirika's constant help, Ephraim grew to be a trusted and honorable king."

Sounds like a twin sister doing what she can to aide her twin brother, heir to the throne, to me, and not like OOH PLEASE EPHY-SAMA STICK IT IN MY POOPER