Roy (Fire Emblem)

Roy is a playable character and the main protagonist of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. He is the son of Eliwood, the main character of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade.

Roy's mother could be either Ninian, Lyndis, Fiora, or another unmentioned woman, depending on who Eliwood gained supports with in The Blazing Blade or if he had any supports at all. He is stated in the Hasha no Tsurugi manga to be 15 years old. He makes a brief cameo in the ending of The Blazing Blade.

In the Heroes Coalition fics, Roy is a member of the Heroes Coalition and is the leader of the Omega Force.

Appearance
Roy has an orange-red hair tied by a blue forehead protector and has blue eyes. He wears a blue armored-mantle with golden linings over a black shirt while being underneath a blue cape, white pants, blue boots and blue fingerless gloves.

Personality
Roy is an upstanding, thoughtful, and idealistic young man who repeatedly shows a desire to help and support others, shown in his interaction with Guinivere and his friend since youth, Lilina. While he would prefer to avoid bloodshed – a fact reflected in his interaction with Guinivere and his tactical efforts to conserve his soldiers – he maintains a strong resolve to see peace return to Elibe. Unlike most young protagonists, however, he is perceptive and cunning for his age – he tricks a traitorous Lycian vassal into exposing himself, deciphers that the bard Elffin is more than he seems (though he does not pursue the truth against Elffin's will), and often reacts calmly and tactically to disturbing news. In a support conversation between Lillina and Cecilia, it is revealed that Roy's inferiority complex is the reason why he picked up a sword despite his teacher using magic. Lilina also notes in a support conversation that he is clumsy and is known to "dance with two left feet."

Roy is notably dense, being oblivious to the feelings that some of the women in the army develop for him. Lilina in particular is quite smitten with him regardless of the player’s actions, but he never notices this. He can either marry her or several other women in the army (Sue, Larum, Cecilia, Shanna, or Sophia).

Abilities
As a unit, Roy starts with low base stats and is swordlocked with 5 movement. This is mitigated by his growths after a few level ups (with his HP and Luck growths being particularly robust). He will not be a viable unit in most playthroughs until his promotion, which grants Roy a large increase to all his stats. Further hindering Roy's viability is the fact that he cannot promote until after Chapter 21 or Chapter 21x, when he receives his forced promotion and legendary weapon, The Binding Blade. Another hindrance is that every chapter has a Seize objective, requiring Roy to capture a gate or throne and limiting his opportunities to fight.

Roy does have exclusive access to the Rapier, which has three times effective damage against Knights and Cavaliers (Troubadours and Nomads are unaffected), giving him utility within the first few chapters where effective weapons against Armored and Mounted units are rare. With some bosses up until Chapter 10 being either a Knight or Cavalier, Roy is able to perform a niche role. Although it must be noted that on Hard, Knights will generally have enough Defense and weapon advantage to offset his effective damage. The Rapier is limited to 25 uses and there are only two in-game (the other must be found inside a chest in Chapter 7).

Roy's combat improves drastically upon obtaining the Binding Blade. The sword has a 18 Mt base, good accuracy, decent crit rate, 1-2 Range, effective damage against Manaketes, and grants +5 Defense and Resistance. The blade is also light enough that any speed penalty incurred is negligible. It can be used as an item to heal Roy for 30 HP but it is not recommended as the sword is limited to 20 uses.

Special Moveset

 * Regular Special: Flare Blade: Roy's standard special move. Roy performs a vertical slash similar to his standard attack animation in his game. The move can be charged in place and will initiate once the player lets go of the B Buttons. If held for at least 5 seconds, Roy will automatically unleash the attack, creating a large explosion in front of him. A fully charged Flare Blade always deals 50% to any enemy that it hits and will result in a One-hit KO unless on a stage with an un-passable roof, or if used against superheavy characters from the opposite end of the stage. It will also inflict 10% recoil on Roy even if he does not connect with anyone. It can also break shields at full charge.
 * Side Special: Double-Edge Dance: Roy's side special move. Roy performs a series of different slashes depending on the button input by the player. After performing the standard Side Special input, the player can press B while pressing up, down, or forward, up to 4 attacks. With all the different move variations, Roy can perform 18 different versions of the Double-Edge Dance move. high variations are outlined with blue streaks, middle variations are outlined with red streaks, and low variations are outlined with green streaks. Roy's version is stronger than Marth's but slower, making it harder to hit an opponent with all hits of the special.
 * Up Special: Blazer: Roy's stage recovery move. Roy performs a leaping ascending vertical slash that can hit up to 4 times due to the fire effect imbued in his blade. However it has little horizontal movement making it difficult to recover from off the offscreen. In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, Roy now executes the attacks with a reverse grip uppercut slash and has more horizontal range, similar to Marth and Lucina's Crescent Slash custom move variation, while retaining the multiple hits.
 * Down Special: Counter: Roy's down special move. Roy takes a defenses stance and his body flashes for a few seconds. If any character attacks him with a non-projectile move up close, Roy will deal 1.35x the amount of damage that he would have received, slightly stronger than Marth's, whose deals 1.2x. If hit with a projectile, Roy will redirect the projectile upwards at a 30 degree trajectory behind him. However, if he tries to Counter an explosive projectile, it will detonate upon contact and deal damage to Roy.
 * Final Smash: Critical Hit: Unlike Marth and Lucina's rushing version of the move, Roy's version is a close range stationary attack. Roy will first slowly swing his blade backwards. Any characters within two character lengths in front of him will receive up to 5% during the start up swing while characters behind him can receive up to 10% and be forced in front of Roy. Roy then slams his blade down, creating a large explosion, hitting any foe within two character lengths of Roy. This move has lower knockback compared to Marth and Lucina's version, requiring at least 50% on Bowser to KO him from the opposite side of Final Destination. If the move connects, Health bars similar to the style of Awakening appear and quickly deplete to zero. The animation for the move is his actual critical hit animation when he wields the Binding Blade.

Trivia

 * Roy is one of two characters (the other being Karel) that was originally conceived for the cancelled Nintendo 64 title Fire Emblem: Ankoku no Miko that carried over into the rebooted development of what would eventually become The Binding Blade. In the process, Roy's design was changed and other names such as Ike were considered for him.
 * Roy is the only Fire Emblem character to be playable in Super Smash Bros. Melee before his game was released (by four months). He is also the only character in the Smash Bros. series who made his first debut in Smash Bros. instead of his own franchise.
 * Roy is also the only returning Fire Emblem representative to not appear in the Smash Bros. game succeeding the game he debuted in.
 * Roy is also the first Fire Emblem character to be added to a Super Smash Bros. roster post-release as downloadable content. He was released as DLC for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii Uon June 14, 2015, alongside another returnee, Lucas from the Mother series, and newcomer Ryu from Street Fighter.
 * Roy only speaks Japanese in his appearances in Melee and Smash 4, alongside Marth.
 * Roy is the only Fire Emblem character to appear in the Super Smash Bros. series without a core Fire Emblem title he starred in (The Binding Blade) officially localized.
 * Roy has been in a number of popularity contests and statistics based on player favoritism:
 * On the official Japanese website for Nintendo, Roy won 1st place in the character popularity poll for Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. The male-female vote ratio was 2:1. The voter comments mainly focus on his heroic personality, kindness, strength, nobility, and composure.
 * In a Japanese video game news website, Roy won 1st place in the character popularity poll for Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. The male-female vote ratio was 4:1.
 * Roy came in 2nd place for males in the Fire Emblem Heroes Choose Your Legends popularity poll. He had 28,982 votes.
 * Roy (Brave Lion) placed 52nd with 3,007 votes and Roy (Young Lion) placed 88th with 1,658 votes in the Fire Emblem Heroes A Hero Rises unit poll. He had a total of 4,665 votes.
 * The Choose Your Legends versions of Roy and Lyn placed 3rd among the most popular Ally Support pairings in Heroes.
 * The Choose Your Legends version of Roy placed 5th among the most popular Summoner Support pairings in Heroes.
 * In Heroes, his Choose Your Legends version's fourth select quote: "Roy's our boy!" references a popular community meme and Super Smash Bros. chant.
 * Roy's first appearance with an English voice actor is in Fire Emblem Heroes, in which he is voiced by Ray Chase.
 * Roy can be 1/4th Manakete if Ninian is his mother because she is half-Ice Dragon.
 * Roy can be Lilina's cousin if Eliwood is married to Fiora and Hector is married to either Florina or Farina, since Fiora, Florina, and Farina are sisters.
 * Roy is the only primary protagonist in the entire series whose father is still alive at the end of his game (unless one counts Lucina, though in her timeline her father does die and her status as a primary protagonist is debatable).
 * Roy's allies in his SpotPass battle in Fire Emblem Awakening represent some of his allies in The Binding Blade:
 * 3 Paladins (Alen, Lance, and Marcus)
 * 1 Sniper (Wolt)
 * 1 General (Bors)
 * 1 Hero (Dieck)
 * 1 Falcon Knight (Shanna)
 * And 2 Warriors (Lot and Wade)


 * Roy shares his Japanese voice actor, Jun Fukuyama, with Innes.
 * He also shares his English voice actor, Ray Chase, with Alfonse, Gaius and Fernand.