Palutena
- For fighter info, see Palutena (SSB4) and Palutena (SSBU). For other instances, see Palutena (disambiguation).
| Palutena | |
|---|---|
 
Official artwork of Palutena from Kid Icarus: Uprising. Her appearance as of Uprising is a slight redesign of her modernized appearance that debuted in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. | |
| Universe | Kid Icarus |
| Debut | Kid Icarus (1986) |
| Smash Bros. appearances | Brawl SSB4 Ultimate |
| Most recent non-Smash appearance | NES Remix 2 (2014) |
| Console/platform of origin | Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom Disk System) |
| Species | Deity |
| Gender | Female |
| Place of origin | Skyworld |
| Created by | Toru Osawa |
| Designed by | Toru Osawa (NES) Masahiro Sakurai[1] (Wii) |
| English voice actor | Brandy Kopp |
| Japanese voice actor | Aya Hisakawa |
| Article on Icaruspedia | Palutena |
Palutena (パルテナ, Palutena) is a character from the Kid Icarus series. As the Goddess of Light and the patron deity to Pit, the captain of her Army, Palutena assists him via Powers and her vast knowledge in order to protect humanity and maintain celestial balance.
After making cameos in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a trophy and during both Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary and Pit's Final Smash, Palutena's Army, Palutena transitioned into a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4, and has remained as such since then.
Origin
Palutena (a derivative of Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and justice) is the Goddess of Light from Skyworld. Not much was known about Palutena's personality in the first two Kid Icarus games, aside the fact she was very wise. With the creation of Kid Icarus: Uprising Nintendo was able to develop her more as a character, as she is in constant communication with Pit via psychic communications. It is shown that Palutena, while a goddess, is very dignified when she wants to be; however, most of the time, she is actually quite cheerful and playful. While being the leader of Skyworld, and ergo Pit's boss of sorts, she treats him more like a kid brother than an actual servant. She is very playful and mischievous when she wants to be as well. Often she will put Pit in very dangerous situations to complete missions she has assigned him just for laughs.
During their psychic communications she is prone to speaking to Pit's adversaries, and is also known to use modern day quotes and phrases incorrectly due to her use of a large vocabulary that confuses Pit when conversing. She is shown having a huge appetite, to the point the mention of anything food related making her hungry, an example being the mention of eggs making her craving omelets. She is very touchy when it comes to her age despite her youthful appearance, and detests it to the point of becoming agitated when being called "Ma'am".
As the Goddess of Light, she has great power over the element, and therefore is capable of performing powerful magical abilities with it. One of her most powerful attacks is a giant beam of vaporizing light that can disintegrate enemies. She is also the one who supplies Pit his Power of Flight and all his other powers. She is quite omniscient, and she demonstrates her godly insight to look into the pasts of total strangers. Palutena has typical abilities shared by other gods from the Kid Icarus series such as telepathic communication, as mentioned before, and summoning large projections of herself.
Like Pit, Palutena was formerly irrelevant to gaming history and was a curious obscure character of Nintendo's library. Compared to Pit, who did make many cameos and minor appearances in other media since his inception, Palutena was a virtually unimportant video game character with very little involvement in the first two Kid Icarus games.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl marked Palutena's first 3D appearance, which contributed to her design in Kid Icarus: Uprising. In Uprising, Palutena gained a significant role as Pit's mentor-of-sorts; this gave the character a large fanbase. Palutena's popularity increased from being included in Super Smash Bros. 4 as a playable fighter, leading to her reappearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in the same capacity. As of now, Palutena is a relatively well-known character, though not to the same extent as Pit.
Palutena was amongst the small collection of Kid Icarus characters to have had their voice actors changed from Uprising to Smash Bros. due to scheduling conflicts. Originally voiced by Ali Hillis in Uprising, Brandy Kopp takes over in SSB4 due to Hillis not being available at the time of the recording, and she retains the role in Ultimate.
In Super Smash Bros. Melee
Palutena is mentioned in the description of Pit's trophy.
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
As a background character
Though she does not appear in battle as a playable character, she does appear in Pit's Final Smash. An image of Palutena appears in the background when activated, and she summons many Centurions to help Pit in battle.
In Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary
In The Subspace Emissary, Pit is seen in Skyworld watching Kirby and Mario fighting in the Midair Stadium courtesy of a Reflecting Pool. When he sees the Subspace Bomb being detonated, Palutena appears. She gives Pit her sacred bow and sends Pit to help save the World of Trophies from the Subspace Army. Palutena is the only character in The Subspace Emissary who is neither playable nor a villain.
Trophies
Palutena has two trophies, with the first being unlocked after clearing the "Cleaning House in Skyworld" event. The second is unlocked by clearing All-Star Mode as Pit.
- Palutena
- The ruling goddess of Angel Land. Palutena showered the earth with rays of light, using her powers for the good of mankind. But Medusa, who in her hate for mankind was banished to the underworld, makes war on Palutena and wins, capturing and holding the goddess deep within a temple. Palutena entrusts Pit with a sacred bow and the task of defeating Medusa.
: Kid Icarus (1987)
- Palutena's Army
- Pit's Final Smash. An image of the goddess Palutena appears, heralding the arrival of Palutenas's Army's legions, the Centurions. These flying warriors proceed to attack all enemies with fierce savagery. Once a Centurion strikes an enemy, he falls from the sky, never to fly again. Centurions are so fast that dodging them is very hard. Take heart, Centurions! Your deaths are not in vain!
: Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Palutena's trophy in Brawl.
Palutena's Army Trophy.
In Super Smash Bros. 4
As a playable character
Palutena was announced as a playable character at E3 2014 during the Nintendo Digital Event. Prior to her announcement, in early 2014, rumors of Palutena being included as a playable character within the game had spread across the Internet, consisting of two images of her in the Nintendo 3DS version. However, the images were eventually proven false when it was revealed that they were created in an external program and digitally manipulated to resemble those from Super Smash Bros. 4.
Palutena's home is featured as an available stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, called Palutena's Temple. Designed to resemble its appearance in Kid Icarus: Uprising, a large, golden statue of herself appears on the stage. Palutena uses various Powers that she would grant Pit and the Fighters in Kid Icarus: Uprising. According to one of her trophies, these moves help her by customizing her into a long or short ranged fighter, due to their variety. The most notable of these moves include Super Speed and Lightweight, both of which increase her mobility. Like the Mii Fighters, these powers are unlocked from the start as custom moves.
However, custom moves were an object of controversy at tournaments, most notably at EVO 2015, due to how they gave most fighters unfair advantages, and as such, they have been banned from tournament play. Due to this, Palutena cannot make use of them to compensate for her weaknesses, including the limited utility of her default special moves. Outside of this, Palutena's very poor frame data (most notably her grounded and special moves), unimpressive KO potential, and vulnerability to getting KO'd early, juggles and combos.
Although Palutena possesses some notable strengths, such as her very solid air and grab games granting her good combo and spacing capabilities, her weaknesses mostly outweigh these strengths. As such, she still suffers from poor tournament representation and results; although the latter have improved over time, she is nevertheless ranked 45th out of 55 characters on the current tier list, placing her in the E tier.
Trophies
- Palutena
In Kid Icarus: Uprising, the goddess of light uses telepathy to communicate and grants miracles to support Pit on his adventure. In Smash Bros., she has special moves like Warp and Heavenly Light at her disposal. She's very adaptable—you can customize her into a long- or close-range fighter!
Said to be able to perform miracles, this goddess supports Pit in battle, using telepathy to communicate with him. She's no slouch on her own, either. She has a huge variety of moves you can customise and use to your advantage. Short or long range, the sky's the limit! Or maybe not. After all, she can teleport.
- Palutena (Alt.)
- Palutena's Reflect Barrier side special deflects any attacks and projectiles that come at her from the front. Unlike other reflective moves, you can leave this barrier in place and it will keep reflecting. If you really want to ruin someone's day, you can push them over an edge using this move.
- Palutena's Reflect Barrier special deflects any attacks and projectiles that come at her from the front. Unlike other fighters' reflective moves, you can deploy this barrier and then leave it to its own devices. You can also push opponents with it, so use it on someone who's teetering on the edge of the stage to push them off.
Classic (3DS)
Classic (Wii U)
Alt. (3DS)
Alt. (Wii U)
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
As a playable character
Palutena returns in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as with all previous fighters. Like most characters in Ultimate, Palutena is an unlockable character. Notably, she is one of very last characters to be unlocked, with the Classic Mode and Versus Mode methods always resulting in her being the final unlockable character.
Due to the removal of custom moves (except for Mii Fighters), some of her custom moves were swapped or combined with her default moves. Her side special is now Explosive Flame, which was previously one of her custom neutral specials. Her down special now consists of both Counter and Reflect Barrier (the latter of which was previously her standard side special), allowing her to either counterattack or reflect projectiles depending on the incoming attack.
Additionally, while Lightweight does not return as a move, Palutena's mobility has been greatly improved to compensate for its loss. Palutena's buffs have greatly benefited her, so much so that she is widely considered one of the best characters in the game. This perception has been reflected by her acquiring a sizable playerbase and a plethora of successful tournament results.
Spirits
705. Palutena
Gallery
Palutena's image in Pit's Final Smash in Brawl.
Palutena's idol from Kid Icarus Uprising.
Palutena's Skyworld statue in for Wii U.
Palutena's Temple statue in for Wii U.
Palutena's alternate official artwork for Ultimate without her halo.
Trivia
- In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, despite not being a playable character, she is featured in more trophies than Pit, appearing in her own trophy as well as Pit's Final Smash trophy.
- Palutena, Ridley, the dog from Duck Hunt, Dark Samus, Wii Fit Trainer, and Piranha Plant are the only playable characters in the Super Smash Bros. series that do not have a playable appearance in any other official video game by Nintendo.
- Palutena is the first female fighter to have made a non-playable debut before her appearance as a fighter, as she appeared in Pit's Final Smash from Brawl.
- She is also the first fighter to become playable after debuting in the Super Smash Bros. series as a Final Smash appearance. This would happen again with Chrom.
- Palutena is the only playable character in the series who despite always carrying a shield, doesn't use it as a passive shield. Prior to Melee, this applied to Link as well, however.
- This is not counting a small number of Mii Fighter costumes.
- Palutena is the only character in the series to have two of her special moves change their directional input, and is also the only character to have two special moves merged into one.
References
 Kid Icarus universe
| |
|---|---|
| Fighters | Pit (SSBB · SSB4 · SSBU) · Palutena (SSB4 · SSBU) · Dark Pit (SSB4 · SSBU) |
| Assist Trophies | Magnus · Phosphora |
| Stages | Skyworld · Reset Bomb Forest · Palutena's Temple |
| Items | Back Shield · Daybreak · Killer Eye · Ore Club · X Bomb · Staff |
| Enemies | Boom Stomper · Bumpety Bomb · Clubberskull · Daphne · Flage · Lethinium · Lurchthorn · Mahva · Megonta · Mimicutie · Monoeye · Nutski · Orne · Reaper & Reapette · Skuttler · Souflee · Zuree |
| Other | Centurion · Viridi |
| Trophies, Stickers and Spirits | Trophies (SSBB · SSB4) · Stickers · Spirits |
| Music | Brawl · SSB4 · Ultimate |
| Masterpiece | Kid Icarus |
