Marth

Marth as seen in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.
Marth
Species	Human
Class	Lord
Affiliation	Altea Archaneia
Hair color	Blue
Eye color	Blue
Age	21 (as of FE3's ending)
Weaponry	Falchion
Base	Altea
Relatives	Anri (great-granduncle) Marcelus (great-grandfather) Marius (grandfather) Cornelius (father) Liza (mother) Elice (sister) Caeda (wife) Chrom, Lucina (descendants)
Voiced by	Hikaro Midorikawa Yuri Lowenthal (2015-Present)
Debut	Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi

Marth is the original main character from the Fire Emblem series. He acts as the protagonist of both Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi and Fire Emblem: Monshō no Nazo, as well as their DS remakes, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyuu.

Background

Book One

Marth was a descendant of Anri, a heroic dragon slayer, and the prince of Altea. After an attack from Dolhr, a neighboring kingdom, Marth was forced to go into exile in the nearby kingdom of Talys. While he was gone, his sister was kidnapped and his father was killed by an evil priest named Gharnef, while his mother was later killed by Dolhr's occupational force. With the help of the Altean knight Jagen, the Talysian Princess Caeda, and others, Marth embarked on a quest to find the sword Falchion and was entrusted with the Fire Emblem, which he could use to find the treasures he needed.

Along the way, he liberated various kingdoms and learned about the many troubles of war while working with other invaluable allies such as Hardin and Princess Nyna, who became close friends. Upon finding the two artifacts, he went to defeat Gharnef with the help of the Starlight spell entrusted to him by the great sage Gotoh. However, he found that the dragon his ancestor slayed, Medeus, had been resurrected. Marth ended up slaying the dragon himself. After his victory, Marth returned the Fire Emblem and Falchion to their places and was then convinced by Nyna into admitting his feelings for Caeda, which she returned. Returning to Altea with Caeda, Marth spent his time rebuilding the great kingdoms and ruled Altea for five years before Book Two's events occurred.

Book Two

Marth in Book 2.

As his wedding with Caeda approached, Marth found himself called into action by Hardin and his cruel Commander Lang in suppressing rebellions at Grust and Macedon. Marth found himself troubled by the army's methods, but he initially refused to doubt his good friend Hardin. However, he was forced to kill his former ally Lorenz at Grust and then had trouble protecting Grust's heirs Yubello and Yumina from Lang. Marth eventually had enough of Lang, and he and Jagan both told him off. This may have been a trap, however, as Hardin used that incident as an excuse to invade Altea soon afterwards.

In Macedon, he was given the Fire Emblem by Linde, which puzzled him further and led him to start thinking that Nyna wanted him to overthrow Hardin. After defeating Lang and freeing Grust, he returned to Altea and liberated it as well, only to discover that Elice had been abducted. He also heard reports of similar disappearances of pure-blooded noblewomen among their ranks, but could not deal with it at the time. At the same time, at Wendel's request he began to search for the remnants of the Starsphere as well as the other five orbs, which Wendel said were needed to prevent the world from decaying.

Marth soon learned more about the orbs when he traveled to the Ice Dragons' Temple, crossing the impossible path that only his ancestor Anri had also crossed. There he learned the true nature of the Shield of Seals from Gotoh, and that he would need to find the missing orbs and place them on the Fire Emblem so that it could become the Shield of Seals again. This would make it possible seal away the Earth Dragons before they reawakened.

After obtaining the Lightsphere (which was needed to counteract Hardin's Dark Orb), Marth turned his attention to Gra, where Hardin was hiding with the last remaining orb. Some of Marth's old friends found a secret passage to Hardin's fortress, and they used it to attack him. Marth had trouble fighting Hardin, due to his harsh claim that he always hated Marth. Still, Marth reluctantly carried out the deed and killed Hardin. In his last moments, Hardin reclaimed his mind and apologized to Marth. Afterwards, Marth was able to claim the last orb, with which the Shield of Seals was complete.

Marth then traveled to Dolhr and killed Gnaref once and for all. However, he then found Medeus being revived in a ritual with Elice and the other missing girls as possessed sacrifices, in addition to Earth Dragons protecting Medeus. Using the power of the Fire Emblem and the Falchion, Marth was able to defeat Medeus and save the possessed clerics. Having defeated his ancient enemy once more, Marth began to work on rebuilding Archanea. After marrying Caeda, he was crowned Altea's fifth king as well as the leader of the newly-unified Kingdom of Archanea. From that point on, worked tirelessly to restore the land.

Awakening

Fire Emblem Awakening is set two thousand years later. Marth's exploits became legend, and he was known as the Hero-King. However, his legacy started to be overshadowed by a more recent hero, and some of his wishes went unheeded, such as taking the Shield of Seals apart.

During the time of Awakening, Chrom was said the be a distant descendant of Marth, was his daughter from the future, Lucina. In fact, Lucina initially wore a mask and posed as Marth himself.

Abilities

Marth wields a sword in combat and is also known for his ability as a leader.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• In Codename S.T.E.A.M., Marth could appear in the game as a playable character when a Marth amiibo is scanned. This was Marth's first appearance in which he had an English voice.
• A Yoshi pattern based on Marth's appearance could be unlocked in Yoshi's Woolly World by scanning Marth's amiibo.
• In Super Mario Maker, Marth appears as an potential Mystery Mushroom costume for Mario, unlocked by scanning a Marth amiibo or as a random prize for completing a 100-Mario Challenge on Normal or harder.
• In Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, Marth's spirit appears to Itsuki Aoi during the final battle, granting him the skill Naga's Blessing, which protects the party from being damaged for one turn.

Super Smash Bros.

Marth appears as a playable character in several games of the Super Smash Bros. series, being playable in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He is an unlockable character in his first two Smash appearances and Ultimate. Marth's design is based on his appearance from Monsho no Nazo in his first two Smash appearances and then updated to his design from its remake in his later appearances. In battle, he fights with a variety of different sword-based moves and later gains a Final Smash based on the critical hit feature from the Fire Emblem games. Two of the other Fire Emblem characters represented in the series, Roy and Lucina, act as clones of his moveset, although Roy would develop to be more distinct while Lucina would be labeled as Marth's Echo Fighter.

In Melee, Marth can be unlocked by completing 400 Vs. Mode matches, having a player control every character in Vs. Mode, or by beating Classic Mode with all fourteen characters in the original roster. In Brawl, he is unlocked by completing ten brawls, beating Classic Mode on any difficulty, or by Marth joining the party in "The Subspace Emissary". In Ultimate, he could be unlocked through the game's variable-based system for unlocking characters or by awakening im in Adventure Mode.

Marth has three different trophies in Melee and two trophies in Brawl, with one normal trophy and one of his Final Smash. A sticker of Marth from Monshou no Nazo also appears in Brawl. In the 3DS/Wii U games, he has two unlockable trophies that are shared between both versions, as well as a trophy for his Final Smash in the Wii U version. In Ultimate, he has his own Fighter Spirit.

Brawl: The Subspace Emissary

Within the Adventure Mode of Brawl, "The Subspace Emissary", Marth was first featured in the Battlefield Fortress stage. After seeing the explosion of a Subspace Bomb, Marth drew Falchion and used it to defend his fortress from the Subspace Army. Along the way, he teamed up with Meta Knight (after the two briefly confused each other for enemies at first) and Ike. The trio then traveled together and fought off various minions of the Subspace Army, with Marth appearing to be more passive than the rash Ike. They eventually battled the gargantuan Galleom boss. Their journey ended when Meta Knight left them at the Glacial Mountain to pursue the Halberd. Marth and Ike remained at the base of the mountain, finding off minions of the Subspace Army while attracting more allies whom soon formed the main party of the game. The main party than traveled into Subspace to challenge and defeat Tabuu.

Ultimate: Adventure and Classic Modes

In the Adventure Mode of Ultimate, "World of Light", Marth first appeared during the opening cutscene, where he was notable as one of the four characters to receive a voiced line. He was part of the group of fighters that had assembled together to confront Galeem and his Master Hand army. Marth estimated that each fighter would have to take down at least ten of the Master Hands. Soon afterwards, everyone in the battlefield (save for Kirby, who managed to escape) was defeated by the beams of light fired by Galeem, and they were all put under Galeem's control. Marth was one of the first fighters who could be faced in the game, being found at a crossroads near the beginning of the game, where the other choices were Sheik and Villager. Whichever fighter the player chose to approach, Master Hand would then block off the other two, and the player would have to reach them later in the game. Regardless, Marth was awakened and unlocked after fighting him.

In Classic Mode, Marth's route was called "A Kingdom of Dragons". It was themed around fighting enemies who resembled dragons or other reptilian beings. The two gendered versions of Corrin were the last opponents faced on his route, followed by a boss fight against the dragon Rathalos.

Other Media

• Marth also starred in an anime OVA based on Monsho no Nazo. The OVA was unpopular and canceled after two episodes, although the two episodes were translated and released in America in VHS format. Marth was voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa (who would later supply Marth's voice in the Smash Bros. games) in the Japanese version and Spike Spencer in the American version.

Trivia

• Marth's name was originally going to be translated as Mars.
• Out of all of the Fire Emblem protagonists, he has appeared in and been the protagonist of the highest amount of games.
• In Monsho no Nazo, Marth gets a Support bonus from Caeda, and in Shadow Dragon, he receives Support Bonuses from both Caeda and Elice.
• Marth is the only Lord who is incapable of promotion (unless Sigurd is also counted).