Aether

Aether(天空 Tenkū, lit. "Heavenly Sky") is Ike's Up Special Move in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U. He first throws his sword in the air and crouches. After the sword hits the apex of its trajectory, he jumps up, catches it, and hurtles toward the ground. It appears functionally similar to Kirby's Final Cutter.

Overview

Although it gains very little horizontal distance, it is a decent recovery move, for as Ike's sword reaches the top before Ike, it can hit anyone attempting to edgehog and give Ike an opening so he can leap up and grab a ledge. If the attack is initiated in close range, it hits the opponent upwards and sucks them into a multi-hit combo in midair, which finishes with a spike when Ike swings the sword down and descends.

Also, this move can be used as an effective edgeguard. If standing on the edge facing away from the platform when performing Aether, instead of falling off the stage to his death, he turns around and grabs the edge, sending the opponent downwards quickly, often to their death, as few characters have a good enough recovery to survive. However, due to being unable to grab the edge until descending, it can be easily edgehogged. Aether is also a good follow-up to his Down Throw, and its disjointed hitbox can be used to hit enemies through solid platforms, interrupt enemies' aerial attacks, or set off Quark Mines in the Subspace Emissary.

Ike has launch resistance in this part of the move.

Ike throws the sword upwards...

...then jumps up and starts spinning...

..then falls.

Ike's Special Moves
	Brawl	3DS/Wii U	Ultimate
Standard Special	Eruption
Side Special	Quick Draw
Up Special	Aether
Down Special	Counter
Final Smash	Great Aether

Origin

Aether is Ike's iconic Mastery Skill which is available once Ike promotes in the two games he appears in the Fire Emblem games. It is described as a combination of the Mastery Skills: Sol and Luna. In both games Ike appears in, it involves throwing his sword upward, jumping, catching it, and coming down with a spinning cut that heals Ike equal to the damage inflicted (the effect of Sol), followed by a second rising strike that is performed as Ike puts space between himself and his opponent, which halves/ignores the foe's Defense score (the effect of Luna in Path of Radiance/Awakening and Radiant Dawn respectively). However, neither effect is applied to Aether in Brawl, and the second strike is omitted completely.

Aether would later be available to the new Lords of Fire Emblem: Awakening, Chrom and Lucina when they become Level 5 Great Lords. Though the attack properties are the same as Path of Radiance, animation is not the same as its Tellius version. Ike appears in the game as a SpotPass and DLC character wielding Aether only during the battle.

Notes

• The beginning part of Ike's Aether (when the sword is out of his hand) gives him super armor until Ike retrieves his sword. As such, it is possible to avoid some of the most devastating Final Smashes, as well as him being trapped in freeze frames when his sword strikes a Smart Bomb.
• If Ike uses Aether six times without landing on a platform (i.e. by grabbing an edge after each Aether), he will not be able to grab an edge on the sixth use, and he will simply fall to his death if there are no platforms beneath him. This is to prevent Ike from stalling on an edge, and is important to know when using any technique involving Aether for Cruel Brawl.

Glitch

If Ike is hit while throwing Ragnell in the air and is still on the ground when under the affect of the Timer, he might perform his landing animation for Aether while Ragnell is still in midair, creating 2 Ragnells. He will be stuck like this until Ragnell lands on the ground. Ike will then pick up the Ragnell he held and the duplicate will disappear. Note that sometimes, Ike will simply just stop or Ragnell will instantly land without spinning.

If a Smart Bomb is there, and Ike doing the Aether right there, he will freeze with the sword frozen up in the air when the Smart Bomb explodes. And then returns with the Aether move normally, but without Laaah! or Aether!

Trivia

• Aether originally was the personification of the "upper sky", space and heaven, in Greek mythology.
• When Ike first appears in the Subspace Emissary, he uses a regular Aether on the Ancient Minister, but in the English versions he yells out "Great Aether". Because the voice clip of "Aether" in Japanese is said in two parts (天空 Tenkū, lit. "Sky") the voice clip of "Great Aether" was used instead.
• Although this move is functionally similar to Kirby's Final Cutter, it does not give off a shock wave upon landing, although Ragnell is capable of doing so in the Fire Emblem games. However, it still makes sense, because the Skill Aether could only be activated at close range in Fire Emblem.
• Even though Aether is Ike's signature move, it was originally used as the mercinary's critical hit animation in the GBA Fire Emblem games.