If I stay true to them, I cannot lose.

yeah it’s pretty disheartening, hopefully once you get past the initial conversations you’ll still be able to enjoy his inclusion in the game! 

from what i remember of awakening ike they got him pretty spot on, in particular i was impressed with how they managed to capture his trademark snark 

Ike: You keep glancing this way

Lon’qu: It’s nothing

Ike: Lazy eye, huh? 

I have no idea what’s happened with fates. My best guess is that whoever wrote him was only familiar with priam and assumed ike was very similar (he’s Not). 

this is something i’ve ranted extensively about on twitter but, i think it’s high time i posted about it here too. strap yourselves in, we’re talking about tumblr user regalsword’s Pet Hate™: mischaracterising ike  

fates ike has exactly one character trait: he loves to pick fights with strong enemies. When you summon an amiibo unit to your castle, corrin has a few conversations with them before you’re able to battle and recruit them. Ike’s first conversation is mostly just introductions, and is fine. It’s from the second conversation onward that things start to get bad. He talks about his motive for fighting, which is now apparently seeking out and battling strong foes for the thrill of the fight itself (which he remarks as “not exactly the most noble of motivations”. no, it isn’t). As someone who knows ike’s character like the back of my hand, this is all complete news to me.

One particularly egregious exchange involves him asking you whether you strive for peace or revel in conflict, should you choose the former he acts as though that’s not the choice he would have made, suggesting you shouldn’t “long for battle” the way he supposedly seems to now. Another has him talking wistfully about the constant battles in the world he came from, and how much he misses them. 

Once you defeat and recruit him, corrin jokes that ike only joined them for the opportunity to fight tough enemies, which ike then sheepishly admits to be true. ugh.

all of this is so out of character and wrong on so many levels

ike is a character motivated by duty, not something as selfish as the thrill of combat. Duty to his employer, duty to his friends and most important of all: duty to his father and living up to his expectations. While he enjoys sparring and friendly contests of strength, he has no love of battle and avoids conflict whenever possible. This is the guy who at the end of the game, grumbles that he’s had enough of battles to last a lifetime. Remember when a black dragon joined the enemy side and his reaction was “are u fuckin kidding me” not “aww yeah another worthy foe to fight!”. the only time he seems to show any kind of desire for conflict is with the black knight, and even then that’s for deeply personal reasons. If you’re going to reduce a character to one personality trait, then at least make sure it’s a trait they actually have? 

i’m just… very confused as to how they managed to screw up so badly with ike. It’s implied that these are the smash bros incarnations of the characters, but that doesn’t explain why the other amiibo units were faithful to their original characterisations (marth is a little iffy, but nowhere near ike’s level of ooc) while ike’s is almost a complete fabrication. I’d expect this kind of mischaracterisation in smash bros fanfiction but not a canon fire emblem game. It’s a real kick in the gut after being excited about his inclusion in the game for so long, especially when he was exclusive extra content that i had to shell out a premium for.

ike is such a commonly mischaracterised character as it is, so it’s infuriating to see intsys themselves adding fuel to the fire. I only hope next time they decide to include him in a game they leave the writing to somebody who can show they actually know anything about his games at all.  

Check out this character profile from Codename Steam, another game where ike is an amiibo exclusive character: 

“While Ike is not of high birth, his talents are those of a professional soldier, yet he is never eager to raise a blade. When asked, he simply replies that war has cost him dearly, and he hopes by his efforts to keep others from losing what he has lost”  

But idk, Ike is very duty-oriented but if you check his convos with characters like Lethe and Stefan he does seek to improve his sword skills, perhaps even suggesting he enjoys seeking different opponents for the experience. (True enough, this probably comes from his conflict with the Black Knight and wanting to live up to his father’s name).

Ike’s conversations with stefan and lethe don’t suggest he seeks strong foes to gain experience, they’re merely more of the same training he’s been doing to hone his skills from the beginning. Look at the way ike interacts with most strong enemies in the game (bosses and the like). In almost every case, he goes out of his way to give them a chance to stand down or step aside. This habit reaches its peak with micaiah, where he ends up basically begging hands and knees for her to stop so they don’t have to fight. This is not the behaviour of a man who prowls the battlefield looking for tough enemies to test his skills. Ike takes the life and death nature of the battlefield very seriously; fighting is a means to an end, not the end itself. 

And after reading the japanese version of the pre-recruitment convo, the “this is ssb ike” argument doesn’t hold water. The conversations i referred to are explicity in the context of his time as a mercenary leader in the jp version. But more to the point this being a different version of ike doesn’t justify a drastic personality change, robin, marth and lucina are all true to their original characterisations. It’s especially noteworthy in lucina’s case, because her smash portrayal was widely criticised for being overly arrogant and aggresive, yet she returns to her more humble fire emblem characterisation in fates. 

(and yeah it’s interesting you bring up ephraim because fandom has a habit of treating him, hector and ike as interchangeable. guess intsys are doing that now too :\) 

Have a thing from Miiverse.

“No, no! That’s not it at all!” Meta knight quickly stammers out. “Of course I’m having fun; I’d love to hear all of you sing!”

At Meta Knight’s insistence, which was very strange, Marth frowned. He couldn’t work out exactly what the problem was. He looked at the cake and then at the gifts. The only thing he could think might be a problem for the small knight was that he might have to remove his mask in order to eat. But the three had all seen his face before. Hadn’t they?

Ike, of course, joined into the singing. He couldn’t pass up, especially since it meant that the cake would be served faster that way. Although, he wasn’t going to since louder than Marth. The princess could be the one to carry the tune and mess up, not him...Or maybe Toon Link was good at singing? 

Meta knight sighs, hoping that the three of them aren’t going to shout at the top of their lungs.

…And then realizes something that is very very bad.

He had been so busy bickering with his fellow blue-haired friend that Toon’s comment threw him off. The prince looked at the knight. “Everything alright?” he asked. He smiled and, in attempts to cheer him up, added, “Would you rather Ike didn’t sing?”

“No, it’s fine–…Ah, I had a lot of fights today.” Meta knight is content to maintain a record of placing second or higher 2/3 of the time. If he can up that to 75% of the time he will, but his current stats aren’t bad at all.

Meta knight sighs at Ike’s proposal that they need as many candles as he is years old, sitting down on the couch and preparing to be bombarded with more chatter.

Marth laughed lightly at Ike’s proposal. “Don’t be mean, Ike,” he said with a grin. “We don’t have enough candles for that.”

“Hmm? Oh– er, yes,” he nods at Ike’s question.

Meta knight turns his head every which way to keep up with the fact that he’s being given things. Oh, and cake? Well, yes, of course he’ll eat cake; he must if they worked hard on it. 

He sighs.

“It’s just a simple chocolate cake,” Marth admitted with a nervous smile. “Nothing terribly exciting, I’m afraid.” He didn’t mention that it had started coming apart as he was icing it… It would still taste fine.

Meta knight is…certainly surprised.

“I…well…wow, this is impressive,” he stammers out.

“We wanted you to have a great day! Oh, and here’s your present from me!”

Toon Link handed him a small, messily wrapped box that could fit in a pocket. Toon Link clearly had trouble wrapping it, the ribbon knot coming loose. Inside was a small pin with the smash ball logo on it.