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)
Voiced by	Hikaro Midorikawa
Debut	Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi

Marth is a main character from the Fire Emblem series. He is the star of both Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi and Fire Emblem: Monshō no Nazo, as well as the DS remake Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.

Background

Book One

Marth is a descendant of Anri, a heroic dragon slayer, and the prince of Altea. After an attack from Dolhr, a neighboring kingdom, Marth is forced to go into exile in the nearby kingdom of Talys. While he is gone, his sister is kidnapped and his father 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 goes 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 by the great sage Gotoh. However, he found that the dragon his ancestor slayed, Medeus, had been resurrected. Marth slayed 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.

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. However, Marth found himself troubled by the army's methods but 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. It seems that this was a trap, however, as Hardin used this 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 Elice had been abducted. He also heard reports of similar disappearances of pure-blooded noblewomen among their ranks, but could not deal with it for now. 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, and could be used to seal away the Earth Dragons before they awaken again.

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 words in which he claimed to have always hated Marth. However, the deed was reluctantly done, and in his last words Hardin reclaimed his mind and apologized to Marth. However, Marth also received the last orb, with which the Shield of Seals was complete.

Marth then traveled to Dolhr and killed Gnaref for good this time. 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 is able to defeat Medeus and save the possessed clerics. Having defeated his ancient enemy once more, Marth began to rebuild Archanea. After marrying Caeda, he was crowned Altea's fifth king as well as the leader of the newly-unified Kingdom of Archanea, working tirelessly to restore the land.

Abilities

While excellent with a sword, Marth's most important ability is his ability to lead.

Other Major Roles

Video Games

• Marth is an unlockable playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and he is later a starting character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U. 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". 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 one standard unlockable trophy that is shared between both versions, as well as an extra trophy in the 3DS version. Throughout the Smash games, there have been two other Fire Emblem characters who have acted as 'clones' of his moveset: Roy and Lucina.
  • Within "The Subspace Emissary", Marth is 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.

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.
• 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 Siglud is also counted).