Who do you consider the Main Character?

[Gomez_Addams]

Radiant Dawn is the Gundam SEED Destiny of Fire Emblem: person supposed to be the main character gets cut off by the original protagonist of the predecessor.

Okay, now that's way too harsh. No Fire Emblem game deserves to be compared to Gundam SEED or it's even worse sequel.

[Jedi]

Okay, now that's way too harsh. No Fire Emblem game deserves to be compared to Gundam SEED or it's even worse sequel.

I'd say the original was pretty decent overall though. Destiny is just utter garbage however.

Also Fire Emblem isn't that good at plots fyi. Outside of Jugdral and Tellius.

Edited August 24, 2015 by Jedi

[Florete]

I'd agree with this more, if Ike wasn't as clearly the "hero" to root for when their armies clash, Micaiah does have some good grey moments in P3 however then come part 4 they do share the spotlight again.

I'd also say Elincia and Tibarn are secondary protagonists to a point.

There are definitely two sides of a story that eventually land on the same path. We get Micaiah's first, then Ike's, with some more of Micaiah's sprinkled into Ike's. I don't believe the story really favors either side.

Tibarn can't be called a protagonist at any point. He's the leader for two maps in part 4, but the main story never revolves around him. Elincia can sort of be called the protagonist of part 2, but that's awkward since she's only around for maybe half it, and part 2 itself is more like a side story, so I wouldn't call her a protagonist of the story overall.

Edited August 24, 2015 by Red Fox of Fire

[Tragonight]

They share the spotlight a bit but the game leans towards Ike. Micaiah's only around most of the time for Yune.

[Radiant head]

There are definitely two sides of a story that eventually land on the same path. We get Micaiah's first, then Ike's, with some more of Micaiah's sprinkled into Ike's. I don't believe the story really favors either side,

Well I'd say Ike's side is being favored when they clash due to Micaiah being forced to help the bad guys.

[Florete]

Well I'd say Ike's side is being favored when they clash due to Micaiah being forced to help the bad guys.

It's pretty clear you're meant to sympathize with Daein's situation. I say the story doesn't favor either side because the story tells us these fights shouldn't be happening at all; both of them are victims. We want both sides to succeed, just not against each other.

[Radiant head]

Sympathizing with Daein isn't mutually exclusive with how the game makes it clear Daein is fighting on the wrong side of the war; if we're asking if either side is favored. The fact that zihark and jill can be recruited kind of solidifies that. s

[Loki Laufeyson]

I don't believe the story really favors either side.

I disagree with that. Micaiah's story and role are literally hijacked by Ike come part 3. While the game tries really hard to paint both characters as positive and tries to show what both sides are dealing with, Ike is the one showcased from that point onward in the forefront. Ike is the one who gets the real hero treatment, Ike is the one who gets have the moment with BK. Ike is the one who gets the memory sequence that applies to him. Ike is the one who gets to finish off Ashera. Micaiah may be receiving exposition dumps in Endgame, its Yune who responds to them. Both characters get their happy ending, but its Ike who gets the special send off. Hes the one you see interacting with everyone before the credit roll. Ike, for all intents and purposes, is the main hero of the story. Micaiah is a secondary. She is literally second place and thats what boils the beans of so many.

[Florete]

Sympathizing with Daein isn't mutually exclusive with how the game makes it clear Daein is fighting on the wrong side of the war; if we're asking if either side is favored. The fact that zihark and jill can be recruited kind of solidifies that. s

When the Blood Pact stuff comes, we're clearly supposed to sympathize with Daein's situation. We know they're fighting on the wrong side. We also know they're being forced to and don't want to.

I disagree with that. Micaiah's story and role are literally hijacked by Ike come part 3. While the game tries really hard to paint both characters as positive and tries to show what both sides are dealing with, Ike is the one showcased from that point onward in the forefront. Ike is the one who gets the real hero treatment, Ike is the one who gets have the moment with BK. Ike is the one who gets the memory sequence that applies to him. Ike is the one who gets to finish off Ashera. Micaiah may be receiving exposition dumps in Endgame, its Yune who responds to them. Both characters get their happy ending, but its Ike who gets the special send off. Hes the one you see interacting with everyone before the credit roll. Ike, for all intents and purposes, is the main hero of the story. Micaiah is a secondary. She is literally second place and thats what boils the beans of so many.

I agree that Micaiah should have gotten more focus, but I'm answering this based on how I believed the writers perceived it, and I believe Micaiah and Ike are meant as co-leads. The entire first part is all about Micaiah. Part 3 is mostly about Ike, but still has Micaiah's side in there. Then from part 4 on it's about them simultaneously. Were there missteps along the way and some uneven attention given? I can agree to that, but it doesn't really matter. As far as I can tell, the story is made around Micaiah and Ike being co-protagonists.

I don't know what you mean with those post-game conversations. Micaiah is in some, Ike is in some, neither are in some.

Thing is, even if Micaiah literally turned into a villain by part 3, I could never see Ike as the sole protagonist of the game considering he doesn't exist for the entire first half.

[Jave]

I disagree with that. Micaiah's story and role are literally hijacked by Ike come part 3. While the game tries really hard to paint both characters as positive and tries to show what both sides are dealing with, Ike is the one showcased from that point onward in the forefront. Ike is the one who gets the real hero treatment, Ike is the one who gets have the moment with BK. Ike is the one who gets the memory sequence that applies to him. Ike is the one who gets to finish off Ashera. Micaiah may be receiving exposition dumps in Endgame, its Yune who responds to them. Both characters get their happy ending, but its Ike who gets the special send off. Hes the one you see interacting with everyone before the credit roll. Ike, for all intents and purposes, is the main hero of the story. Micaiah is a secondary. She is literally second place and thats what boils the beans of so many.

It's made even worse by the fact that Ike and the Greil mercs really feel like an afterthought, since they barely get any sort of character development through the game. There are some convos here and there, but nothing that really makes them grow (They didn't even bother to give Rolf's Mom a unique design, she's a recolored generic villager). The only one who gets any sort of extra backstory is Soren, and even that is a pain to unlock.

[Radiant head]

When the Blood Pact stuff comes, we're clearly supposed to sympathize with Daein's situation. We know they're fighting on the wrong side. We also know they're being forced to and don't want to.

Yes, you're not supposed to hate Daein since they were forced into it, but ultimately Ike and his side gets favored in that conflict.

[KMT4ever]

Elincia

Seriously though, Micaiah looks like the main character up until the end of Part 3, what with the Dawn Brigade being literally the only thing mentioned on the box and in the instructions and them continuing to make plenty of appearances after Part 1. Then Yune comes along and hijacks her role in the plot, Ike gets the big Black Knight subplot, and he gets exclusive rights to killing Ashera.

So if I had to apportion main status, Ike would get around 55% while Micaiah gets around 35%, other characters like Elincia and Soren getting the other 10%.

[Augestein]

This is going to sound kinda wild, but hear me out on this: I'd say Micaiah but the writers' favoritism desperately wants Ike to be the protagonist. Kind of like they wanted in Path of Radiance IMHO. In PoR, nothing really happens in the plot if it's not for Elicina. Without Elincia, Ike doesn't actually have a goal, or anything to work towards. Even if you bring up the Black Knight, the only reason he could even find Greil is because of the whole ordeal with Elincia. Even worse, is that when Ike joins Elincia on her quest, it's just doing a job, that's it. Even if you can argue that the GMs support Elincia through convenience, it's still not really them being the driving force of the plot. Sure, Ike becomes a "hero," but really the story is just as much, if not more, Elincia's story of her reclaiming her kingdom. Even worse, is that by the time RD happens, what they built up for PoR is disposed of off screen and Ike reverts back to a mere mercenary, so even the "rags to riches" story they may have been going for is kind of unable to be salvaged by RD's time. For RD, Most of the actual important aspects of the plot either involve Sanaki or Micaiah. Blood Pact? Turns out that this involves Sanaki and Micaiah. Ike is just kind of *there*. The Black Knight arc is there, but certainly no where near the importance of anything else going on. Take a look at even the path to the tower in RD. All of the interesting reveals and character arcs/developments are with Micaiah's group.

I can definitely see where they were trying to go with Ike being the main character in RD, but it's just so poorly done IMO.

Better luck next time writers.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Augestein

[Aregularforumuser]

oliver

nah I agree with ike and micaiah sharing the position as the main characters

though oliver should've been the protagonist for the last part of the game ;(

[Quintessence]

RD is a game with such a good concept that was simply terribly executed. I think they work as co-lords, the only thing is that it was so lame and terrible the way it was implemented. One would expect much more from the game and the lords.

If anything, if one says Ike deals the final blow, one can think that you deal with Dheginsea, Sephiran and Ashera only because of Micaiah (Yune's blessings). So, there's definately a contribution of both Ike and Micaiah. I just expected something more epic, idk if it's just me or what.

[Radiant head]

Yeah, there’s some weird, conflicting stuff going on in this game/story. On one hand, it’s clear that they favored Ike at the end, by giving him the final blow, the legend ending, etc. But then if they favored Ike, clearly they would have written a story that is actually about him? I’m thinking surely there was a group of writers who favored Micaiah, and then they got overruled as the later parts of the game/story were being developed.

[Snowy_One]

Ike, which is really kind of sad.

I'm not an Ike hater by any means, but the problem with this game is that it feels like they wanted Micaiah, Ike, and Elincia to ALL be main characters but things got mangled up quickly. Elincia is basically filler after the absurdly short part 2 which focused a bit more on Lucia anyways. Micaiah got the first part but then Ike basically chokeslammed her to the side in part 3 and 4. IMO...

Time ran out big-time. Most likely their budget was running low and deadlines were approaching so they went 'fuck it' and tossed together what they had. Things like how... bad... the supports are, how Tormod basically vanishes for the majority of the game, how most of the new characters are junk and don't get elaboration, and so-forth hint strongly to me that they originally planned the game to likely be about 33% larger than what we got, but had to take a hack-saw to it when things got too tight. Which is sad.

[Augestein]

Don't forget the random gameplay bouts of insanity. Male Swordmasters can SS rank but female ones? They aren't as good with swords.

[Snowy_One]

Don't forget the random gameplay bouts of insanity. Male Swordmasters can SS rank but female ones? They aren't as good with swords.

Wait seriously? Why? I mean... just... Why? The limitation seems dumb either way since your SM will likely promote before they would have reached SS and Mia is still the best SM... but... well... WHY? Maybe it was to limit Lucia? But Part II is so short and it could have been easily fixed by not having any SS weapons there. Actually, looking at the other units, the question should be 'why are male swordmasters so special as to have SS ranks' instead of 'why are females discriminated against'.

[Quintessence]

It doesn't make sense anyway since you won't get SS weapons until Part 4; Part of the game where the player should already have his team (or a great proportion of it) 3rd Tiered.

[Augestein]

Wait seriously? Why? I mean... just... Why? The limitation seems dumb either way since your SM will likely promote before they would have reached SS and Mia is still the best SM... but... well... WHY? Maybe it was to limit Lucia? But Part II is so short and it could have been easily fixed by not having any SS weapons there. Actually, looking at the other units, the question should be 'why are male swordmasters so special as to have SS ranks' instead of 'why are females discriminated against'.

I don't know, I just find that really funny. It's definitely one of the strangest things to come out of RD though.

[Troykv]

Ike and Micaiah are both the Main Characters.

Elincia can calified as a secondary or supporting protagonist. I don't sure with the rest.

[Merc Ee]

Why not both?

Seriously,why not? ,they both have enough screen time and the plot kind of resolves around them enough to be protagonists.

[Gomez_Addams]

Wait seriously? Why? I mean... just... Why? The limitation seems dumb either way since your SM will likely promote before they would have reached SS and Mia is still the best SM... but... well... WHY? Maybe it was to limit Lucia? But Part II is so short and it could have been easily fixed by not having any SS weapons there. Actually, looking at the other units, the question should be 'why are male swordmasters so special as to have SS ranks' instead of 'why are females discriminated against'.

Maybe Stefan was originally going to be a Swordmaster instead of a Trueblade? He'd need an SS rank to wield his Vague Katti.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I always figured it was to help out Edward and Zihark a bit, since they come out of part 3 almost surely still in tier 2 (especially Edward), so this lets them catch up to Mia more quickly in terms of wielding the SS-rank swords. And swordmasters, having only one weapon type, feel like they more badly deserve to be caught up in sword rank than, say, Reavers or Dragonlords of Generals in their respective weapons.

Although there's also a decent chance it was just someone entering the wrong number into a database. To be fair, it's not the first such oddity in series history (e.g. steel axe at a lower weapon rank than other steels in FE6-9), and at least this one is relatively meaningless in practice.


(To respond to the original topic, I would consider Micaiah and Ike to be co-mains.)