Great Aether

Great Aether
Great Aether in Ultimate.
User	Ike
Universe	Fire Emblem
Article on Fire Emblem Wiki	Aether

Great Aether (大天空, Great Sky or Great Aether) is Ike's Final Smash.

Overview

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 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 DOJO!! described the move as a more powerful version of Aether.

The attack does up to 74% /60% /53% damage. The initial hit deals 5% in every game and is followed up by Ike throwing Ragnell towards the opponent(s), which (depending on how close the are to Ike and their position on stage) will deal 10% /3% . Ike will the unleash a series of slashes and kicks which deal 2% and 3% depending on the game and hit, with the last slash always dealing 5%. Ike and the opponents(s) then fall, dealing 5% /4% before landing with an explosion for 12% /10% . Because the knockback from the explosion is vertical, opponents may not be KO'd immediately due to the high blast lines on some stages. In most cases, however, the move does provide significant knockback to launch enemies off the screen. It usually KOs around 35% /15% /40% .

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 stages 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).

On 75m, Rumble Falls, Flat Zone 2, Hanenbow, the elevated part of Rainbow Cruise, the World 1-2 version of Mushroomy Kingdom, and certain custom stages, it is essentially a guaranteed OHKO in every game, because the opponent is brought up to the top platform, very close to the stage boundary.

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.

Similarly to Eruption, the flames that are part of Great Aether are changed to blue in Smash 4, making it closer to Ike's origin in Fire Emblem than before, although the sword trails are still colored orange. This was changed in Ultimate, with Ragnell being properly covered in blue flames with accompanying blue trails.

Instructional quotes

instruction booklet		Take a swing at your opponent and, if the hit lands, finish with a series of powerful attacks. Its success is dependent on landing that first blow.
case foldout		Launch foes into the air, and slash at them repeatedly.
Move List		Ike knocks his foes into the air and then strikes them repeatedly. Finally, he slams them down to the ground with a single powerful blow. The first strike lacks reach, but it can hit multiple opponents.

Trophies

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Great Aether's trophy in Brawl

Great Aether

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.

: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Great Aether's trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Great Aether

Ike's Aether up special is combined with a relentless barrage of sword blows in this powerful Final Smash. He knocks targets into the air with an upward swing, and then they're stuck there as he strikes over and over. Finally, he slams them down to the ground and launches them. Just make sure that first strike hits!

Ike's Aether up special is combined with a relentless barrage of sword blows in this powerful Final Smash. He knocks his target into the air with an upward swing, and then they're stuck there as he strikes again and again. Finally, he slams them down to the ground and launches them. Just make sure that first strike hits!

Origin

Ike wielding the power of Yune, which might have inspired Great Aether.

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 Aether being Ike's mastery skill in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, it could be based on the final blow Ike deals to the goddess Ashera in the end of Radiant Dawn. For this attack, Ike uses the power of the goddess 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.

Fire Emblem Heroes has followed similar naming conventions to Great Aether when introducing upgraded versions, such as Radiant Aether for Ike's "Legendary" variant. These upgraded skills are exclusive to each Ike variant and cannot be inherited to other units.

Great Aether would eventually make its way back to the series in Fire Emblem Engage as Emblem Ike's Engage Attack. However, instead of being a series of attacks before hitting the ground, the animation is more like his normal Aether before sending a massive shockwave that lifts rocks from the ground.

Gallery

• 

  Great Aether in Brawl.

• 

  Great Aether in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

• 

  The final blow in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

• 

  The final explosion in for Wii U.

• 

  Great Aether as shown by the Move List in Ultimate.

Names in other languages

Language	Name
Japanese	大天空
English	Great Aether
French	Grand Éther
German	Mega-Aithir
Spanish	Gran Éter
Italian	Grande Etere
Chinese	大天空
Korean	그레이트 에테르, Great Aether
Dutch	Mega-aether
Russian	Величие небес

Trivia

• 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, 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.
• The kicks that Ike does are almost identical to the first two kicks of Snake's neutral aerial.
• In Brawl, while using this Final Smash, Ike and the opponent will slowly rise upward. If Ike's animations are sufficiently slowed down via mods, they will continue to rise until the opponent reaches the upper blast zone and gets KOed by the next slash.
• 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 Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, 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 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 Cloud with Omnislash.
  • In Ultimate, if Great Aether is used on a Battlefield stage and the target disappears (such as Nana disappearing after Popo is KO'd), Ike will land on the main platform instead of the top platform.
• In Brawl, if a player uses Mr. Game & Watch's up aerial while Ike is in the middle of his Final Smash, it will push opponents or teammates (in Team Battles with Friendly Fire enabled) out of the attack, causing them to not get KO'ed, but leaving them in their tumbling animation until the Final Smash is finished. This can also be done with Gale Boomerang.
• In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, if the Final Smash is used on Metal King Dedede, he will lose his metallic texture.
• Even though the attack's fire has been recolored in SSB4, the trails of the sword during the attack remain colored orange like in Brawl. This was changed in Ultimate.
• Despite the copious amount of fire visuals in the move, only the top of the final flame pillar in Ultimate has a flame hitbox; all other hitboxes in every other game is not a flame hitbox.
• In Training mode, Great Aether along with other similar Final Smashes aren't counted in the combo meter.

External links

• Confirmation

Ike's special moves

Neutral special	Eruption
Side special	Quick Draw
Up special	Aether
Down special	Counter
Final Smash	Great Aether