#iceberg meme and this is the upper half of the iceberg

[taihua]

i've never played fire emblem and my only exposure to these characters is from nintendo smash and yet. your ikesoren posts are so interesting to me please tell us more

I almost made a post yesterday along the lines of "I hope I post about them enough that when my tumblr mutuals play Smash Bros they think about oomf who writes yaoi about that one fighter"

Ike's special trait is that he was the first Fire Emblem protagonist who wasn't royalty or nobility--he's a mercenary's son who ends up leading his dad's mercenary company after a war breaks out. He's a good dude and also kind of a smartass who almost caused a major diplomatic incident by calling an Empress and her nobles disgusting horrible people (he was right but tact isn't always his strong point). Suffered really terrible twink death between game 1 and 2 but it's ok, he's still cute even when he's built like a refrigerator and at least it gives him a nice size difference with his tiny boyfriend.

Soren is a mage and eventual strategist/tactician in the mercenary company and oh boy does he have the most miserable awful tragic backstory! He's half human and half dragon shapeshifter, and since that kind of relationship is taboo in their world, he's been discriminated against because of it. He was abandoned as a baby for reasons*, raised by a woman who hated him until she sold him to a demanding wizard who only wanted to pass on his skills to someone before he died, and then when he did die Soren had nowhere to go and no one would take him in. He was about to starve to death, but he happened to meet child Ike at the edge of a village and Ike gave him something to eat and it was the first time anyone had ever done anything nice for him. He eventually joins the mercenary group specifically because he wanted to find Ike, and pretty much everything he does revolves around protecting Ike, helping Ike, and doing what Ike wants. He is also kind of a smartass, and because he's traumatized he wouldn't really care if the whole continent exploded with everyone on it... as long as Ike is safe!

*The reasons: his dad is the main antagonist of the game. The guy who wants to start a continent-wide war to unleash an evil god from cursed amulet prison. Soren doesn't know this, but there's extra anguish when you learn what happened to his dragon mom and all the awful things she had to endure because she hooked up with an absolute nutcase :,)

Anyway that's all nice ship material and their in-game interactions are cute but the real bonus part is that their relationship is really strongly implied to be canon and probably would have been explicitly canon if the game hadn't been released in 2005. One of Fire Emblem's things is having characters pair off together depending on which relationships you support, and the endings change slightly depending on which relationships you set up. Ike has three possible endings; Soren always follows him no matter what, but with a maxed out support, they basically ride off into the sunset together. "When peace had settled on the land, Soren packed lightly and set off with the only person he had ever trusted." There's an artbook that talks about their two hearts becoming one. (The other two endings are Ike leaving by himself and Ike leaving with another guy, although the wording isn't anywhere near as suggestive; there is no version of the story where he ends up with a woman. Bro is gay fr. Toxic male fanbase hates to see it)

Since it's a 2005 gamecube game it's basically impossible to play now without an emulator but I got through it with this really good YouTube playthrough. In addition to ikesoren, it also has gay birds, catgirls, gay knight rivalry, milfs, and some hilariously bad voice acting. No previous FE knowledge required!