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Ike is Gay, Confirmed


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Source: https://lgbtqgamearchive.com/2016/09/05/ike-and-soren-in-fire-emblem-path-of-radiance/

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Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn features a hidden skit, available only if the player has previously cleared the game once, has imported a save from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance in which Ike and Soren have an A-level support relationship, has achieved an A-Level support relationship between Ike and Soren in the current playthrough, has unlocked Ike’s sealed memories, and has kept Soren alive, that ends with Ike embracing Soren. This scene is referred to in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Memorial Book Tellius Recollection: The Second Volume (2016) as the moment where their two hearts become one 「互いの心をひとつにした」(p.241).

This is a small profile on page 21 of The Making of Fire Emblem: 25 Years of Development Secretsthat paints a very telling picture of Ike.

Japanese has an immense capacity for speaking indirectly and with double meaning, and the text here is an excellent example of that.

「男気にあふれ」Can mean both “chivalrous to a fault” and “overflowing with masculinity”, while 「女性からの好意にも鈍感」can mean both the passive, unconscious “he is oblivious to female attention” and the more active, conscious “he cares nothing for the affection of women”.

Taken together with the nature of Ike’s interactions with Soren, this description allows for a clear reading of Ike as a gay character.

We can now bring this to rest. Case closed. This ultimately applies to both RD and PoR, but still.

Edited by NoNameAtAll
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Wow, I had no idea that a guy not being interested in women automatically meant he was gay. :/

Also, a guy hugging another guy does not mean he's gay either. Ike could just as easily be interpreted as asexual from this too. I never really thought he showed much interest in EITHER gender, honestly, despite that I ship him with Elincia. She's merely my favorite option for him if he has to show interest in anyone.

Oh, and don't forget Priam exists and is a walking talking Ike reference. It's very unlikely that he's from Mist's line since he has Ragnell and all.

Edited by Anacybele
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LMAO XD

Oh, that was hilarious to read. 

"Ike never shows any interest in women and is able to give a guy a hug. He must be gay, no doubt." 

I'm sorry, but are you really trying to use THAT as your argument?

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wow, I didn't know that not caring for the opposite sex and having someone of the same sex that you are not completely indifferent to means you are gay, this article is just as much speculation and wild guesses as any fan argument.

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10 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Wow, I had no idea that a guy not being interested in women automatically meant he was gay. :/

Also, a guy hugging another guy does not mean he's gay either. Ike could just as easily be interpreted as asexual from this too. I never really thought he showed much interest in EITHER gender, honestly, despite that I ship him with Elincia. She's merely my favorite option for him if he has to show interest in anyone.

Oh, and don't forget Priam exists and is a walking talking Ike reference. It's very unlikely that he's from Mist's line since he has Ragnell and all.

Deny all you wish, but even if the overarching article is dubious, the wording comes directly from that Memorial Book. Essentially, it comes from the developers.

Or are you insinuating that the developers don't know their own game?

It's not about the "hugging" or the indifference to females. It's about the whole picture. The moment where two hearts became one.

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By the way, showing romantic interest and sexual interest are different things.

Sexual interest means it's someone you are attracted to sexually and would want to have sex with at some point. You don't have to be romantically attracted to the person for them to be the kind you'd have sex with.

Romantic interest means someone you simply just really like and find could be a good lover. You don't have to want sex in this case.

I can even prove it here, as I'm heteroromantic, which means if I get married, I want to marry a guy. But I'm not sexually attracted to any gender, and have no desire for sex. So I am also asexual.

Ike could just not really be into romance, but still have enough sexual attraction one day to find a woman to have kids with, explaining Priam.

EDIT: @NoNameAtAll No, I'm saying that even that text you quoted still is not directly saying Ike is gay. Only that he hasn't cared for the affections of women and that he hugs his friend who happens to be male.

Edited by Anacybele
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I still disagree. You cite a website with LGTBQ in its name, it is understandably inherently biased in its interpretation.

If you want Ike in your headcanon and fanficts to be gay, go ahead. But asserting he actually is beyond your fantasies, no, not until Nintendo itself, the Word of God here, proclaims it.

And given IS has issue with proclaiming any single pairing in the more recent games to be canonical, and they refuse to officially acknowledge Ninian-Eliwood and Lyn-Hector despite them much more obviously than Ike-Soren or Ike-Ranulf pushing those pairings.

 

The famed Japanese swordsman from the end of the Sengoku era and early Tokugawa Bakufu Miyamoto Musashi never married, is not known to have had lovers, and ultimately just adopted an heir for his lineage and I think a separate one for his sword school. None of this means he was gay, just that he did not marry or have kids. And Musashi being a swordsman of great fame who dedicated his life solely to the art, was just like Ike.

 

Furthermore, whatever happened to intimate friendships? You don't need to be sexually interested in someone to want to console them when they cry. Aren't friendships ideally supposed to be deep enough that you can if you need emotional support, turn to a friend and get it? Otherwise what kind of friend are they?

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2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I still disagree. You cite a website with LGTBQ in its name, it is understandably inherently biased in its interpretation.

If you want Ike in your headcanon and fanficts to be gay, go ahead. But asserting he actually is beyond your fantasies, no, not until Nintendo itself, the Word of God here, proclaims it.

And given IS has issue with proclaiming any single pairing in the more recent games to be canonical, and they refuse to officially acknowledge Ninian-Eliwood and Lyn-Hector despite them much more obviously than Ike-Soren or Ike-Ranulf pushing those pairings.

 

The famed Japanese swordsman from the end of the Sengoku era and early Tokugawa Bakufu Miyamoto Musashi never married, is not known to have had lovers, and ultimately just adopted an heir for his lineage and I think a separate one for his sword school. None of this means he was gay, just that he did not marry or have kids. And Musashi being a swordsman of great fame who dedicated his life solely to the art, was just like Ike.

 

Furthermore, whatever happened to intimate friendships? You don't need to be sexually interested in someone to want to console them when they cry. Aren't friendships ideally supposed to be deep enough that you can if you need emotional support, turn to a friend and get it? Otherwise what kind of friend are they?

This post is awesome.

You want to headcanon Ike being gay and stuff, go right ahead. But it's not proven fact that he is.

So let us shippers that ship Ike with women have our fun too, 'kay?

Edited by Anacybele
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5 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I still disagree. You cite a website with LGTBQ in its name, it is understandably inherently biased in its interpretation.

 

7 minutes ago, NoNameAtAll said:

[...]even if the overarching article is dubious, the wording comes directly from that Memorial Book. Essentially, it comes from the developers.

It's not about the "hugging" or the indifference to females. It's about the whole picture. The moment where two hearts became one.

I don't like repeating myself.

2 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

This post is awesome.

You want to headcanon Ike being gay and stuff, go right ahead. But it's not proven fact that he is.

So let us shippers that ship Ike with women have our fun too, 'kay?

You can headcanon Ike to be interested in woman if you wish. But don't outright deny the developer's word. And please don't claim I'm trying to "headcanon" anything. I've made it abundantly clear in the past I don't give one wit about Ike. I linked this because I thought it was interesting and potentially something overlooked.

No need to get so defensive.

Edited by NoNameAtAll
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I'm not sure if this is basically an outright confirmation or not, but it's lowkey kind of cool one of the most badass FE heroes is gay since gay men are usually represented to be effemenate and stuff.

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Actually, out of curiosity i put the phrase into google translate and removed the kanji used for women in it. its google translate so its probably an imperfec treading of it but the kanji 性からの好意にも鈍感 apparently translates out as "Also insensitive to sexual favor". as such the line reading is probably referring to ike not being interested in women or atleast not interested in them sexually. now this doesnt explicitly mean hes gay mind you, but i do believe that in the wider context of ikes character it is rather more likely that he is, that or hes asexual and has no interest in anyone sexually. 

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Ike isn't gay, but he is pretty dense when it comes to social situations. Mist and some of the other characters mention and hint at this on multiple occasions throughout the game.  

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I think you ought to have posted the full article as your quote, not just the last few paragraphs. And then bolded the juiciest bits. Here's the missing part:

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Ike and Soren are playable characters in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. If Ike and Soren achieve A-support, there is an ending in which Soren says“There’s only one place for me to be, Ike… and it’s by your side.” Fans have long speculated about Ike and Soren having a possible romantic relationship, primarily due to a combination of Soren’s unwavering affection for Ike and Ike not being interested in any of his numerous other admirers.

The positioning of the two as a couple is slightly more overt in the Japanese release and in some official Japanese-language publications, due to choice of language. In the A-Level support conversation between the two in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Soren tells Ike, “You are the only one that is special to me” (「あなただけが、僕にとって特別になったんです⋯⋯」). Furthermore, the books Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Memorial Book Tellius Recollection: The First Volume(2016) and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Memorial Book Tellius Recollection: The Second Volume(2016) frequently reference the bond between the characters, with volume 2 stating that Ike feels love for Soren (p. 87), though the term used, 親愛, expresses a kind of devotion that may or may not be romantic. However, like all Fire Emblem games, the nature of relationships between characters is at least partially determined by the player’s actions, so this ambiguity is likely intentional.

I'd like to point out the article's conclusion, which is contrary to this thread:

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Taken together with the nature of Ike’s interactions with Soren, this description allows for a clear reading of Ike as a gay character.

That's deliberate word choice. "Allows for a clear reading". To which I agree. It's a conclusion that one can draw based on the evidence. But it's not "confirmed" by any official source until they elaborate on what sort of love Ike feels for Soren. You have misconstrued the article's conclusion.

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This topic is closed because the entire thread was summed up with this:

17 minutes ago, Tsak said:

Even if he is gay/straight/potatosexual

Does it really matter?

 

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