Ricken

Ricken is a character from the Fire Emblem Awakening games.

Ricken is one of the youngest members of Chrom's Shepherds, and acts as the group's mascot. Ricken hails from a noble family like Maribelle; not much is known about them, but recent financial issues caused them to lose much of their wealth.

In the AWA fics, Ricken is a student at the AWA Academy.

Appearance
Ricken has a short reddish-brown hair and has brown eyes. He wears a blue caped-mantle with white linings over a black wizard's robe with an armored belt wrapped around his waist, white tailcoat, black boots and a blue wizard's hat.

Personality
As one of the youngest members of Chrom's army, Ricken is a typical child, yet he hates being treated as such. Ricken seeks to grow up as quickly as possible, though he is overly sensitive about his height. Despite his young age he is quite studious, able to learn and grow from everyone in the army and soon realizes that he is growing up in his own way. He is worried about his family since his motivations to remain in Chrom's army is to bring his family back to good stature. He also looks up to Chrom as his role model and constantly tries to prove his worth.

He is distasteful of killing however, as seen in his support conversations, claiming to fight out of necessity, with his supports with Henry emphasizing this. When Henry talks about the lives of his former comrades killed by the Shepherds, Ricken becomes distressed at the fact that it reminded him of the fact that the Plegians weren't "faceless blobs".

Cute animals like him more than anyone else in the army. His birthday is May 23.

Abilities
Ricken is the second mage in the game, joining three chapters after Miriel is recruited. While he has slightly lower Magic, Skill and Speed growths as compared to Miriel, his Luck, Defence and Resistance growths are superior to hers. Also of note is the fact that Ricken possesses a much better Strength growth, allowing him to shine if reclassed to any of his physical unit options. Owing to his decent Defence, Ricken makes a very good Sage, as he will be able to withstand physical attacks better than Miriel can. Even so, as a Mage unit, it is not recommended for him to be overly involved in direct melee combat.

Ricken's Skill is lower than that of Miriel's, although this is compensated for by the presence of the Focus skill, which will allow him to land critical attacks when allies are absent in the immediate vicinity. To better harness this skill, Ricken should be made to strike enemy targets before the rest of his allies do. Further amplifying his combat usefulness is the Tomefaire skill that he can potentially learn as a Sage, which will enhance the strength of his magic-based attacks.

If class-changed into a Dark Knight, Ricken's Strength growth is noticeably superior to Miriel's, and he should thus be selected to function as a balanced physical and magical Dark Knight unit between the two. Ricken can learn the Slow Burn skill in this class, which will aid in gradually enhancing his Hit and Dodge rates. He will also be able to learn the Lifetaker skill as a Dark Knight, serving as the only regenerative ability that he can potentially lay claim to. With his low defenses, Lifetaker can make a huge difference when Ricken is caught in tight situations, helping to relieve healer units from constantly healing him.

Trivia

 * Ricken's official artwork depicts him holding an Elwind Tome.
 * Ricken's birthday is the same day that Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones was first released in North America.
 * In his C-Rank support conversation with Olivia, Ricken is reading a book about a prince who falls in love with a forest maiden, a reference to Sigurd and Deirdre from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.
 * In Ricken's B-Rank support conversation with Maribelle, when she asks about a wound on his leg, Ricken brushes it off, saying "Oh, this is nothing! Just a…flesh wound." This is possibly a Monty Python reference and alludes to the famous line said by The Black Knight in their film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
 * In his C-Rank support conversation with Nowi, Chrom makes an appearance talking to Ricken about burnings tents, this marks the only time Ricken can talk with Chrom in Awakening, not counting Summer Scramble.
 * Ricken shares his Japanese voice actress, Yuki Masuda, with Panne.
 * Ricken's voice actor, Yuri Lowenthal, also voices Marth in Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., Fire Emblem Fates, Fire Emblem Heroes and Fire Emblem Warriors, Kiragi and one of the male Corrin voices in Fates, as well as Eliwood and Merric in Heroes.
 * Ricken is also one of two male characters in Awakening to have been voiced by a woman in the Japanese version and played by a man in the English dub, a trait shared with Henry, who is also from Awakening. He also shares this trait with Fates ' Hayato and Percy, as well as Gaiden/Echoes: Shadows of Valentia's Kliff.
 * In Ricken's S-Support with Robin, Id~(Serenity), is not played. Instead "Ha ha! Yes, it will take some getting used to!" is played, the standard S-Support theme for any S-Support not involving Robin. Ricken shares this trait with Cordelia.
 * In the cutscene in which he saves Maribelle, the animation of his tome is Rexcalibur, contrasting with his starting tome, Elwind.