Makalov

Prince of Layabouts
Makalov
Species	Beorc
Class	FE9 Sword Knight FE10 Sword Paladin
Promotion	FE9 Paladin FE10 Gold Knight
Affiliation	Crimean Liberation Army
Hair color	Pink
Base	Begnion
Relatives	Marcia (sister) Astrid (possible wife)
Debut	Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

Makalov is a playable unit in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and is the only playable Sword Knight in the game. He is also playable in Radiant Dawn.

Background

Makalov was a compulsive gambler who bet any money he could get his hands on. But he often lost and so he often wound up indebted to various shady characters. This usually lead him to work for his debtors, sometimes in criminal activities, or to rely on his sister Marcia to bail him out of trouble. He later wound up on the run from his debtors, and he fell into the ranks of a group of bandits he was indebted to, who worked in the underground laguz slave ring.

In "Chapter 14: Training of Path of Radiance, the bandits engaged in battle with Ike and his mercenary group. There Makalov was reunited with Marcia, whom had fallen into the ranks of Ike's company. Marcia strong-armed him into switching sides and joining up with Ike's group. Afterwards, Makalov decided to find ways to skip working for Ike and, since he had a fixed income, he planned to spend it all at the casinos. But Ike saw through this plan and used the company's money to pay off all of Makalov's debts. In turn, this meant that Makalov was indebted to the mercenary company, and the money would be taken out of Makalov's wages to the point where he would be working for free for a while, and he was required to attend every battle he was called into.

Makalov made several attempts to steal money from his sister, but ultimately he remained in Ike's ranks for the remainder of the war. After the war ended, he decided to start over with a more responsible life in Begnion that involved less men threatening to break his knees.

Over the next three years, both Makalov and Marcia became members of Crimea's Royal Knights instead. Astrid also joined them there to due her admiration of Makalov. She seemed blind to his faults and constantly defended him whenever he was berated by Marcia, Geoffrey or Calill. In "Chapter 3: Geoffrey's Charge" of "Part 2: Of Countries and Kings" in Radiant Dawn, he was called out by Geoffrey to aid in suppressing Ludveck's rebellion; although first they had to retrieve Makalov from Calill's tavern, where he seemed to have gotten drunk. They dragged Makalov out to battle, and he joined in on the battles involving the Royal Knights in Part 2 as well as "Part 3: Intersecting Vows". In "Chapter 9: Marauders" of Part 3, Makalov hanged around Calill's tavern again and discussed the current state of affairs in Crimea. Marcia had to come and drag him out to battle, this time because they were fighting Begnion and people whom Makalov owed money to.

After the war ended, Makalov remained among the royal knights because he considered the Begnion Empire to be too strict. If he had an A Support with Astrid, the two married, but it was said that Astrid was never able to "tame" him.

Support Conversation Summaries

Makalov is capable of having Support conversations with three other characters.

• Astrid- In the first conversation, Astrid introduces herself to Makalov formally, leading him to say he's not actually a knight, and she gives him some wildflowers that he dropped. Makalov says he picked them to butter up Marcia (if Marcia is dead at that point in the story, he picks the flowers to place by her grave). Astrid considered him thoughtful, and he let her keep several of the flowers as thanks. In the next conversation, Makalov suggested that they were linked by fate but only because he wanted to borrow money from her. He found she had given all her money to a poor family she met, which caused Makalov to criticize her move. However, Astrid then gave Makalov an expensive pendant of hers. In the third conversation, Makalov returns the medallion to Astrid because his sister caught him trying to pawn it off and got angry at him (if Marcia had died, Ike instead got angry at Makalov and said he was insulting his sister's memory). Makalov then became shocked to learn that the pendent was a memento of Astrid's grandmother, and she said she had given it so freely to Makalov because her grandmother's memory would always be in her heart and so she felt less bad about giving the pendant to someone in need. Makalov expresses his humility and admits he was going to use the money for gambling, but Astrid instantly forgives him and calls him a fine gentlemen before she becomes embarrassed and leaves.
• Bastian- In the first conversation, Makalov meets Bastian and thinks of him as nothing more than a comedian street performer and laughs at everything he says. Afterwards, a Crimean soldier approaches Makalov and chastises him for laughing at Bastian, saying Bastian is actually a count of Crimea (possibly the only time a third character appears in a Support conversation). Makalov is intrigued by this news and decides to use his charm to get Bastian to give him money. In the second conversation, Makalov attempts to convince Bastian to join him in going to a gambling den together since they have become close friends. But Bastian says he will only watch and refuses to play games while Crimea is suffering. In the third conversation, Makalov had lost everything he had gambling to Bastian. Bastian claims he did not lie about never having been to a gambling den, but he says that he played a similar game with other nobles. Bastian had no need of the money, and against Makalov's demands he decides to contribute it to the army's funds. Makalov says Crimea doesn't need the money with someone as lucky as Bastian on their side, and Bastian promises to shower Makalov with gold if Crimea wins the war, prompting Makalov to take his fighting more seriously.
• Haar- Makalov sees Haar in one of his naps, which causes Makalov to panic and flee. Haar is woken up by his screams and wonders if Makalov confused him with a Daein soldier. In the next conversation, Haar confronts the frightened Makalov and finds that Makalov had confused him with a debt collector, and Makalov is pleased to find this is not the case. In the final conversation, Makalov observes Haar napping and notes how he sleeps no matter what and is naturally intimidating. Makalov decides to imitate Haar so he can scare off debt collectors and first tries training himself to sleep anywhere. Haar wakes up just as Makalov falls asleep, and Haar criticizes him for sleeping before a big battle and wonders how he survived so long.

Additionally, Makalov has a Support bonus with Marcia which increases his chances of delivering a critical hit when she is nearby, and vice-versa.

In Radiant Dawn, Makalov has an automatic Bond Support with Marcia.

Trivia

• Unused Support data in Path of Radiance indicates that he was originally intended to have support conversations with Devdan and Brom.