# 3 - The Black Knight (Tellius Games)

 

Kicking off the Top 3 is none other than The Black Knight, aka the Darth Vader of the Fire Emblem series. The Black Knight can only be described as an unstoppable force of nature that made the Tellius games as great as they are. So, what makes the Black Knight awesome?

The Black Knight's main claim to fame is kicking off Ike's character arc by killing his dad in the beginning of Path of Radiance. The Black Knight would have killed Ike if it weren't for the Gallia laguz nearby. Up until this point, the game had gone to great lengths to tell the player that Greil was supposed to be a powerful fighter in his own right. Petrine refers to Greil as fighting like a demon. The game still hypes up his fighting skill even after he's gone. Greil was considered one of the Four Riders of Daein. The lore of Path of Radiance makes it clear that he is a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield, which is why the Black Knight's easy victory is so shocking. The Black Knight kills Greil in only a few moves, and then reacts to Greil's death the way Saitama reacts to most of his kills in One Punch Man:

        "Is that all there is? No charge? No resistance?"

And just like that, our main character's father dies. And from there comes Ike's entire arc: Getting strong enough to get revenge on this motherfucker for what he did to Greil. But as the player soon finds out, this is way easier said than done. Not only does the story hype the Black Knight up, the game reinforces it too. Anytime the Black Knight shows up on screen YOU RUN! Why? Because this dude can one-shot every single character in your army without taking any damage! Running away from the Black Knight feels like something straight out of a survival horror game. This is another way in which the Black Knight and Darth Vader are similar, because as anyone familiar with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order could tell you, when Darth Vader shows up YOU RUN!  

Eventually you level-up, and when the Black Knight shows up again, the player thinks that they should be able to take him right? Right? Lol nope. This is chapter 24 in the game when Ike faces off against the Black Knight again, and he still can't deal any damage. When you do finally face off against him, you need to proc Aether in order to win. Even at your best, you still have to rely on dumb luck to beat him. No other Fire Emblem villain I can think of is this effective at feeling like an unstoppable force of nature. In addition to being so freaking strong, he also has warp powder. So theoretically speaking, you are never safe from him. It's a miracle Ike won at all. 

According to Radiant Dawn, Ike canonically won the third fight against the Black Knight....but only because the Black Knight let him win. Yet another similarity between the Black Knight and Vader is that these guys can only lose against our heroes because they held back. Even when you think you've won, it turns out that you didn't actually win. It isn't until the end of Radiant Dawn when the Black Knight is defeated for real by Ike. I will point out that it still bugs me to this day that The Black Knight can be more easily beaten by a hammer than Ragnell in that fight. Plus, the Black Knight is much easier to beat that time around. Then again, Ike did get way better in-universe so there is an explanation present as to why he would win like this. 

Fun Fact: The explanation for the Black Knight holding back against Ike is a change made only to the localization. In the Japanese version, the explanation was that the Black Knight's warp powder "malfunctioned." Supposedly, Ike only fought a "shadow" of the Black Knight. I'm actually surprised that the localization of a game ended up making a change for the better. This explanation actually makes far more sense while also staying in character for him.

Here's another fun fact that Blaine brought up: Take a look at how many characters this dude defeats in the series:

- Greil: Killed by the Black Knight. In universe, he's a beast of a fighter. Also The Black Knight's mentor too.

- Ranulf: Gets beaten by The Black Knight twice. He would have died in Path of Radiance if Sephiran hadn't stopped the Black Knight when he did.

- Skrimir: Got rekt by Zelgius in single combat.

- Jarod and his men: The second to last chapter in Part 1 of Radiant Dawn is just The Black Knight soloing Jarod's mooks. I'm surprised Jarod somehow survived that encounter.

- Tibarn: Tibarn didn't lose, but Zelgius held him off Tibarn's hawk form with one freaking arm! That's super badass!

On a personal note, Path of Radiance was my first Fire Emblem game. I still remember how intimidating the Black Knight was back when I was new to this game. I didn't even beat the Black Knight during my first playthrough. I actively ran away from him and thought that he couldn't be beat. I eventually learned about Aether, and during my second playthrough of Path of Radiance, I was determined to beat The Black Knight at all costs. It took me a couple restarts to do it, but the first time I beat him was one of the greatest feelings in the world. Even to this day, defeating the Black Knight is easily one of the most satisfying moments of victory for me. So for me the Black Knight fight also has a huge sense of nostalgia in addition to everything else that's been mentioned. 

Another major positive for The Black Knight is that he has one of the greatest boss themes in the series:

The Black Knight's theme screams "I am unstoppable! Prepare to get destroyed!" Plus his Mastery Skill in Radiant Dawn is deliciously overkill. It negates enemy Defense and multiplies his strength by 5. That's overpowered enough to destroy anyone in the game, including Ashera. The only way to deal with that is to fight him with someone who has Nihil. 

Before I end this piece, I do want to bring up another major factor that added to the Black Knight's awesomeness. For all of Path of Radiance (and a decent chunk of Radiant Dawn) there's an incredible sense of mystery to him. Nobody in either the player's army, or the enemy army, knows who he is or where he came from. All you learn is that Greil trained him. That mystery made him both frightening and cool. 

In fact, people liked the mystery so much that some members of the fanbase were disappointed when it was revealed that the Black Knight was Zelgius. For the record, I am not one of those people. As far as I can tell, the reveal works. Zelgius had been built up in Radiant Dawn to be a powerful fighter, and there's nothing in Path of Radiance to suggest that Zelgius couldn't be The Black Knight. 

I also find that what we do learn about him makes sense and works for his character. Zelgius killed Greil because he wanted to surpass his master. This is a surprisingly unique motivation for a Fire Emblem villain. You'd be more likely to see this in Dragonball Z or Street Fighter. When you consider the Black Knight's actions regarding Ike, it actually makes sense that this would be the reason why The Black Knight would fight against Greil. 

I've seen some people call Zelgius "tragic" or "sympathetic" and I have to disagree. Sure, it sucks that he's a Branded and that he'd have to deal with all the crap that entails, but the story makes it seem like nobody except for Sephiran even knew that he was Branded to begin with. I've never seen Zelgius as tragic. His motivation and backstory make sense for his character, but not tragic. They're simple motivations, but they work.

 So to conclude this post, the reason why The Black Knight is one of the greatest villains in the Fire Emblem series is:

• He's a badass villain that can curbstomp your army for most of his existence. No other villain in the series gives off this presence of being unstoppable like he does.

• The aura of mystery surrounding him is cool. When his identity and motivations are eventually revealed, they're simple motivations that make sense for his character. 

There's never been another Fire Emblem villain quite like the Black Knight, and his popularity among the fanbase is well deserved.