Ike

Ike is the central character of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and one of the main characters in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.

Ike is the son of Greil and Elena, as well as the older brother of Mist. He is also the fearless leader of the Greil Mercenaries and the first and only main character who is not of noble birth.

In the Heroes Coalition fics, Ike is currently a member of the Heroes Coalitions and is a part of the Truimph Division.

Appearance
Ike is a tall young man with spiky blue hair and cerulean eyes. He is currently wearing a red cape with tattered ends over a blue high-collar long coat with yellow linings and red shirt, white pants, a dark, yellow & white creamed boots, a white metallic fingerless gloves and a dark bandana wrapped around his forehead.

Personality
A key characteristic of Ike is his more adult-view of the world, due to having been influenced and raised on the battlefield. He hates saying more than needs to be said, and is always stout-hearted. Some others likely perceive this as him acting above his actual ability, however. Characterized as rather naïve when he is introduced, he often takes things at face value. He has a kind and brave personality, acting very protective of his friends and family, and this protectiveness eventually lead him to decide to join the side of the Laguz Alliance in the war against the Begnion Empire.

Having indifference towards the status of the Laguz, he is shown to bear no prejudice against them, whereupon he winds up gaining their trust with his actions, one of which include defending Ranulf from being assaulted by a group of Beorc.

Despite having played a major role in liberating Crimea from Daein, Ike is shown to be rather humble, and seeks no reward for his actions, save for the fees he charges as a mercenary.

By the time of Radiant Dawn, Ike barely has traces of the boy he once was, as he has matured and grown considerably, with people who meet him often remarking on his resemblance to his late father. Though there are many women who love his distinct masculine features and personality, Aimee especially seems head-over-heels for him to the point she constantly attempts to woo him, much to his dismay.

Ike has shown to have a passion for fighting strong warriors as it gets his heart racing. This is shown during the revelation that the Black Knight is still alive, where Ike does not feel grief or sorrow, but only anticipation of wanting to challenge him again. Another example of this is at the epilogue when Ike expressed his desire to fight Caineghis in a one-on-one match and suggested controlled matches as a way of testing each other's strength. Despite this love for tests of strength Ike takes no pleasure in war and is never eager to raise a blade. As war has cost him dearly, he hopes by his efforts to keep others from losing what he has lost.

Abilities
Ike can be described as a unit of pros and cons. He has perfect availibility, good growth rates, and gets access to some powerful skills over the course of the game. However, he's locked to swords for the entirety of the game, giving him practically no 1-2 range attacking options. The inability to retaliate on mages, archers, or anything with a hand axe or javelin will add a lot of unneeded tedium to maps. He has no mount, and his base stats are fairly mediocre and will not be anything special for some time. With all of this taken into consideration, Ike's combat is frankly rather mediocre. However, it doesn't actually matter very much. Training him is practically a necessity, as he is one of the only characters who can hurt the final boss Ashnard and the Black Knight (defeating the Black Knight is optional, but it does reward you with a much better unit for dealing with Ashnard, so it is highly recommended). Regardless of whether you think his combat is good or bad, you should train him for the contributions he makes that few others can replicate.

When it comes to skills, the most popular choice for him is Aether. While this can certainly be a potent option for him, a combination of wrath and resolve is generally considered better for dealing with Ashnard.

He is often in competition with Sigurd, Seliph and Alm for the strongest lord in the series. He has excellent base stats, retains his great growths, and is one of the strongest members of the Greil Mercenaries. Even if his speed has taken a landslide, he will still be fast anyway and still excel in every stat except magic, luck and resistance. Magic is absolutely useless to him because Aether is a much better skill thanks to his insane skill stat and ranged swords are now essentially Javelins. It's worth noting he gets Ragnell pretty early for a legendary weapon.

While Ike has some weaknesses, like his horrible Resistance, temporary Sword-lock, and the fact Axes not being useful to him barring Urvan and the Hammer, these weaknesses are minimal to the point he can stay in the front lines, or even solo the entire game, but he isn't allowed to.

As the player is forced to bring Ike into every battle he participates in, it is thus of the utmost importance to train him over the course of the game. His importance to the game is further accentuated by the fact that he is the only character who is capable of combating Zelgius and performing the finishing blow to Ashera.

Lastly, Ike is the boss of Chapter 13 of Part 3, and by then, he will plow through the Dawn Brigade unless they are Third Tier, so it's best you keep your distance from him as Ragnell can't be removed from his inventory.

Trivia

 * Ike has an unused support with Zihark in Path of Radiance's data.
 * In an info conversation between Titania and Ike, it is revealed that Ike has a great appetite, which is compared to that of a Beast Tribe Laguz. Titania also reveals that he enjoys ribs and steaks tremendously. This voracious appetite of Ike is further revealed in a base conversation from Path of Radiance, where Soren informs Aimee that Ike is fond of spicy food.