User:Cukie Gherkin/Marth

[31] Nintendo DREAM June 2015 issue, P20, 21 "FIRE EMBLEM 25TH ANNIVERSARY Special feature on the birth of love and courage Everyone, please watch! Play as Mars From FE 25th Anniversary as told by Hikaru Midorikawa.

9] From "Fire Emblem The Complete" (published by NTT Publishing).

[30] PlayStation March 28, 2008 issue, Vol.414, Hikaru Midorikawa's column "Target Lock On!! I was participating in the war without knowing it (lol)" Than.

Marth (マルス) is a fictional character from the Fire Emblem series, developed by Intelligent Systems and owned by Nintendo. He is the protagonist and Lord class character in the first and the third games in the series, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, and Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, as well as their respective remakes, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem.

Marth's first appearance outside of Japan was in the Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem OVA. Marth and Roy's inclusions in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series is cited as a reason Nintendo started releasing the games internationally, starting with Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. On December 4, 2020, Marth's original Famicom game and the first installment in the Fire Emblem series was localized and released outside of Japan for the first time to commemorate the franchise's 30th anniversary.

Creation and development
Marth was one of the characters created for Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light by the game's designer and writer Shouzou Kaga. According to Kaga, though Marth takes a prominent role in the story, he is not technically the main protagonist. During early development, a scene would have depicted Marth kneeling in grief next to the body of his retainer Jagen in a pool of Jagen's blood: this was designed to be a symbolic moment of Marth violently coming of age by losing a father figure. Due to hardware limitations, this and other similar scenes needed to be cut. Marth's character designer is currently unknown, though the graphics and character art for Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light was cooperatively handled by Tohru Ohsawa, Naotaka Ohnishi, Saotshi Machida and Toshitaka Muramatsu. Marth's appearance underwent alterations for promotional posters, having a slightly different hairstyle and an altered shade of blue for his hair.

Marth was redesigned for Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem by the game's character artist Katsuyoshi Koya. For the first game's remake, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Marth underwent a redesign. The staff's main aim for the redesign was to make the character look and feel fresh while not straying too far from what fans had come to expect. His redesign was handled by Ghost in the Shell artist Masamune Shirow. He was redesigned once again for the third game's remake, New Mystery of the Emblem, by Daisuke Izuka. Marth's design for his appearance in downloadable content for Fire Emblem Awakening was by Senri Kita, the character artist for Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. This, along with other character redesigns featured in the game's DLC, was dubbed an "underworld" design.

Super Smash Bros. developer Masahiro Sakurai initially wanted Marth to be part of the roster for the original game, but time constraints prevented this. The developers of Super Smash Bros. Melee originally intended to make Marth playable only in the Japanese version of the game, but when he garnered favorable attention during the game's North American localization, they decided to keep both him and fellow Fire Emblem protagonist Roy in the North American and European versions. Sakurai redesigned the character for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where he was included as a playable character alongside other Fire Emblem protagonists. By this time, Marth had also been redesigned for Shadow Dragon, with Sakurai being shocked when he saw it. He commented that, if he had known earlier, he would have incorporated the new design into the game rather than his own. Marth's later appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series were brought in line with his design from New Mystery of the Emblem.

In the original video animation adaptation of Mystery of the Emblem, Marth was voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa, with Ai Orikasa voicing him as a child. Midorikawa reprised the role in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and his voice lines recorded for the game were reused in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. In the OVA's English dub, Marth was voiced by Spike Spencer. His name was localized as "Mars", which was put down to the vague pronunciation of the katakana of Marth's name. Since Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., Marth has been voiced in all of his video game appearances by Yuri Lowenthal in English (except Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE) and Hikaru Midorikawa in Japanese.

Video games
Marth debuted in 1990 with the release of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light in Japan. He is depicted as a heroic prince, sixteen years of age who is forced to flee his home kingdom of Altea after it is attacked. He then leads a rebellion to regain control of his kingdom and save his sister Elice. Marth keeps his role in Mystery of the Emblems Book 1 and Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Kens remakes.

In Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, released on January 21, 1994, and in the 2010 extended remake of Book 2, Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, Marth returns to his role as the story's protagonist. Marth's peaceful reign over Altea is disrupted when he discovers Emperor Hardin, a former ally, comrade and friend, was conquering neighboring kingdoms by force.

In Fire Emblem Awakening, a game set in the far future of his story and starring his distant descendants, Marth is available as both a paid downloadable content character in the "Champions of Yore 1" package (which is also included in a bundle with "Champions of Yore 2," which features Roy from The Binding Blade), and as two different SpotPass characters: "Prince Marth" and "King Marth", representing his portrayals in Shadow Dragon and Shin Monshou no Nazo respectively. During the course of the game's main story, his descendant Princess Lucina of Ylisse disguises herself as Marth and, wearing a mask, actively claims to be him until her father, Chrom, Prince of Ylisse, discovers her true identity.

Marth returns in Fire Emblem Engage, as a partner to the game's protagonist Alear. Along with other previous protagonists of the series, Marth is summoned as an Emblem to the realm of Elyos using an Emblem Ring and fights alongside Alear to defeat the Fell Dragon Sombron.

Marth debuted in the Super Smash Bros. series via Super Smash Bros. Melee, where he is an unlockable character alongside fellow Fire Emblem protagonist Roy. Marth reappears in the 2008 Wii title Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In the game's story mode, the "Subspace Emissary", he teams up with Ike from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and Meta Knight from the Kirby series. His final smash, Critical Hit, strikes opponents with a blow that instantly knocks them out of the screen unless they hit a barrier. During this attack, a quickly-depleting 60 HP health bar is shown, as an homage to the Fire Emblem series' battle system. Marth is also playable in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, using his character design from New Mystery of the Emblem. He is also a starter character in the series for the first time. Marth was confirmed in the June 2018 Nintendo Direct to return in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch.

Additionally, by using his respective Amiibo figure, Marth can be unlocked as a playable character in both Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. and Fire Emblem Fates using the New Nintendo 3DS' Near Field Communication function.

In other media
An anime under the title Fire Emblem was released in 1996, adapting a part of the first game's plot. Marth's name is romanized as 'Mars' and he is given the surname of 'Lowell'. The anime ended production after only two episodes were finished. The OVA was released in the United States in April 1998. Marth is featured as a card in both of the final expansion sets for the Fire Emblem Trading Card Game along with other characters from Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, and also appears as a promotional card.

Reception
Marth was noted to be the most famous character in the series by Official Nintendo Magazine, and a popular character by GamesRadar and IGN. In North American Fire Emblem character popularity polls running up to the release of Fire Emblem Heroes, Marth was ranked number 6th out of all Fire Emblem male characters. Marth's inclusion in the Super Smash Bros. series of video games popularized both him and Fire Emblem in the West; it is cited as a reason Nintendo began releasing the games internationally, beginning with The Blazing Blade. Series producer Toru Narihiro attributed an increase in reputation for both Marth and fellow Fire Emblem character Ike to their appearances in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, adding that their reputations grew beyond the staff's expectations.