Editing Great Aether

Ike becomes invincible and swings his sword in front of him; anybody who he hits is sent upward. He then leaps into the air after the sent character(s) and yells "Great...AETHER!!" while slashing the target(s) seven times with his sword aflame, after which he kicks them twice, slashes them four more times, and knocks them downward with a powerful finishing blow, similar to {{SSBB|Link}}'s [[Triforce Slash]]. Upon impact with the ground, a large explosion knocks away the trapped character(s) and any character that happens to be too close. The [[Smash Bros. DOJO!!|DOJO!!]] described the move as a more powerful version of [[Aether]].

Multiple enemies can be picked up in this attack and, although Ike is invincible during this move, Ike's victims can be attacked by other players along the way down. The move elevates Ike to the highest point on the stage and typically takes place in the center of the stage. Due to the fact that Ike moves to the center of the stage when this move activates, on some [[custom stage]]s the downswing can be somewhat of a [[Sacrificial KO]]. As a result, Ike moves to the side instead of the exact center when using the move on stages like [[Gaur Plain]] and [[Midgar]] (after Odin's slash).  

CPU opponents tend to get hit by this move, even if not caught in the initial strike. When they try to "add to the woes" of one caught in the move (as Sakurai suggested at DOJO), they do not understand to get out of the way when Ike plummets down, and get caught in the explosion.

==Instructional quotes==

|image=Great Aether - Brawl Trophy.png

|desc=Ike's Final Smash--a powered-up version of his signature move, Aether. Ike faces a foe and swings his sword up for a hit, then tosses his sword into the air, performs multiple nasty strikes, and finally unleashes a mighty overhand blow to send his opponent plummeting down. It's a very impressive sight, but if Ike misses with the first upward swing, he can't use the move.

|game=Brawl

}}

==Origin==

Oddly, this move has never been seen before in the ''Fire Emblem'' series, although it may be inspired by several elements of Ike's story. Aside from {{s|fireemblemwiki|Aether}} being Ike's mastery skill in ''{{s|fireemblemwiki|Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance}}'' and ''{{s|fireemblemwiki|Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn}}'', it could be based on the final blow Ike deals to the goddess {{s|fireemblemwiki|Ashera}} in the end of ''Radiant Dawn''. For this attack, Ike uses the power of the goddess {{s|fireemblemwiki|Yune}} to finish Ashera off, which wraps him in radiant blue fire and is the basis of the title given to Ike in the game's epilogue ("Radiant Hero" in English material, "Hero of Blue Flames" in Japanese; both come from the title of ''Path of Radiance'' in their respective language). The actual attack finishes with a downward plunge at Ashera, which is similar to the final hit of Great Aether. While the fires of Great Aether are regularly colored in ''Brawl'', ''Smash 4'' changed them to be blue to match ''Radiant Dawn''.

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Great Aether SSB4.png|Great Aether in {{for3ds}}.

Great Aether SSB4 WiiU.jpeg|The final blow in {{forwiiu}}.

Ike SSBU Skill Preview Final Smash.png|Great Aether as shown by the [[Move List]] in ''Ultimate''.

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*When Ike first appears in [[The Subspace Emissary]], he uses a regular Aether on the [[Ancient Minister]] to destroy the [[Subspace Bomb]] that he is carrying. However, in the English language version of the cutscene, he yells out "Great Aether" instead of "Aether". This is because the voice clip of "Aether" in Japanese is split in two parts between the characters (天空 ''Tenkū'') and the extra word was used to fill the line. (The word "Aether" in English also has two syllables, but it arguably would not split as well.)

**Despite this, {{SSBU|Chrom}}'s [[Awakening Aether]] has "Aether" split into two distinct syllables, in line with the Japanese audio—this, however, was not the case in his initial reveal trailer.

*As with [[End of Day]], it is possible to [[self-destruct]] with this Final Smash if it is used on a custom stage that has a gap in the center.

**When 3 pairs of [[Ice Climbers]] are trapped in a Great Aether, it is possible that the bigger space of characters can save them from being KO'd and save Ike from SDing on these types of stages. This can occur since all the characters trapped will make a wider collision bubble that can be hit by platforms that would not usually be hit with fewer characters and commence the final hit.

**In {{for3ds}}, if Great Aether is used on [[Gaur Plain]] or [[Gerudo Valley]] after the bridge has been broken, Ike will instead bring the opponent above the closer side of the gap so that he doesn't SD.

***An exception to this is if the player activates Great Aether during the Float Islands phase of {{SSB4|Dream Land}}, where Ike and the opponent will dive straight down to the blast line, resulting in a self-destruct; Ike must be facing right and standing on the left side of the stage for this to be successful. The same applies to {{SSB4|Cloud}} with [[Omnislash]].

*In {{for3ds}}, if the Final Smash is used on Metal {{SSB4|King Dedede}}, he will lose his metallic texture.

*In [[Training mode]], Great Aether along with other similar Final Smashes aren't counted in the combo meter.