Here's what an Ike with actual stats looks like. He has that Laguz Axe because Volke was being a kleptomaniac in the preceding chapter section. That's some healthy Luck, but his HP is a bit on the low side.
Even with max Strength, Ike can only muster up 9 damage a blow. That 89 Hit is 97.69% under True Hit, but it's not 100. The Black Knight does 34 damage on a Luna. You need 54 HP to truly feel safe in this fight. As safe as you can possibly get, at any rate.
The Black Knight prepares for victory.
Don't forget Toha! Except Ike doesn't really canonically fight him there...
Ike is confident in his odds of success.
That's what you're basing your confidence on, Ike?
...Well, that too.
Definitely a mitigating circumstance.
The Black Knight seems moderately surprised at that plot nugget, although he moves on to focus on Ike.
Show him the strength of Gawain!
...Yeah, we have Mist on healing duty, but this is not tenable. Ike has 5 turns to get the Black Knight to 0 HP. Assuming perfect RNG, that he hits all 10 hits he can, the Physic bishops don't heal the Black Knight and Ike doesn't have to worry about getting killed thanks to double Luna (Ike's HP caps at 60, it is impossible to survive two Lunas in a row), Ike can exactly kill the Black Knight, even with Renewal. (5 turns of Renewal gives him +30 HP, Ike does 90 damage total.) But there has to be a more reliable way...
Say hello to the Occult skill of the Lord and Hero class, Aether. Aether is a two hit combo attack, with the first hit having the effect of Sol (Ike heals for the HP he deals) and the second hit having the effect of Luna (the Black Knight's defence is halved). This is, no questions asked, the best Mastery Skill in Path of Radiance- it's so good that, when Radiant Dawn buffed all the other Masteries, Aether stayed exactly the same.
The Sol hit isn't worth much, but the Luna hit adds a whopping 18 points of damage. If you want to use any other Skills to try and even the odds, Wrath and Adept are your best choices (yes, Wrath breaks Alondite's crit negation). If you choose only one of those Skils, you can allow Ike to equip Nihil and negate the odds of a surprise Luna.
Also, I suppose you could also attack the Black Knight from range- I think he can only trigger Luna in melee. Ike can certainly only do Aether at melee.
Adding insult to injury, the Black Knight misses his counterattack.
This playthrough's Mist has been, in some regards, better than the main campaign, but one thing that has stuck with her has been some very low HP. It took until right up near her promotion for her to hit 20. Combine that with her not-capped Luck, and I do not feel comfortable having her go a round with the Black Knight like the main one would. Having HP this low is unusual for Mist, but her being oneshot by the Black Knight is not.
And there goes Renewal...
Ike's second Aether in as many turns. Ike has a 26% chance of proccing Aether every attack. Yes, I used savestates to get the two turn win. No, I will not be attempting a legitimate fight to show off. A legitimate fight against the Black Knight in this game is rolling the dice for Aether, Adept, Wrath, or whatever other Skill(s) you picked to get you the victory, and hoping he doesn't Luna you if you don't have some method of avoiding it. If you fail to win in 5 turns, you have to reset and redo all of Chapter 27 over again.
And for what? The Black Knight is done with his role in Path of Radiance, but it was clear the writers were preparing him to reappear in Radiant Dawn. Ike has gotten the victory and got his revenge. What's the point of bringing him back for RD, other than to maybe fill in some plot details about who he is and why he is? We saved Nasir, and oh boy does saving Nasir have narrative value beyond just ensuring his RD appearance, but why did Nasir have to die in the first place? And with all that buildup that Ike could and possibly should withdraw if he is not ready to fight the Black Knight... the game just assumes Ike wins anyway?
It's somewhat politically important that the Black Knight be considered dead, or at least MIA, in order for the war to end correctly. But I think Ike probably shouldn't have been the one to do it. As for who should... actually, I think I have an idea. But I'll save that for when there's a bit more evidence for it.
At least the Black Knight commends us for the work.
Hah hah hah.
This is one heck of a glitch that happens if you beat the Black Knight in two turns (ie before these guys show up). Like the Crimean soldier in Chapter 26, these guys have forgotten they are in Path of Radiance and are wearing red armour, rather than Daein's black. Unlike that case, though, there is a faction that wears red in-game...
They are definitely Daein soldiers, though.
Hey yeah, didn't Nados collapse or something?
Well, that seems to have been a Daein trap that backfired on the Black Knight.
And without the Black Knight to stop him, Nasir can do a little more emotional reunion.
Just a little bit. It's time for us to clear out too.
Nasir makes it out with Ena.
The Black Knight has met his match. We got our revenge.
...Mist, you were there.
Because, well, revenge.
If Ike was up against Gawain at his peak, though? Yeah, that's an unwinnable matchup. Not that we ever see numbers.
One thing that amazes me about this line is that this is the core of RD Black Knight's characterisation. Yes, amazes is the correct word for me to use there.
I'm sure you do.
Gawain is truly something to aspire to...
I just love Mist casually dropping "Mum was cool too."
The Gawain quartet are all badasses.
Titania and Soren have come to sing our praises.
...Not sure that's how I would've answered that sentence.
"I need to sit down now."
So how about Nasir and Ena?
Nasir will have something to say to us now, I'm sure.
Apologies are easily spoken.
Dragons, of course, can sense their brethren to a more refined extent than even the herons.
Maybe you could lend a hand to make sure your damage is undone.
...Whatever your damages are.
Ike isn't worried. He's just curious about the facts.
This conversation is a lot funnier when Ike is telling this to Nasir's face.
I suppose, if you didn't lose the fight, this would actually be the first moment it's really explicit that Nasir is Goldoan. You know he's related to Ena, you know he's laguz and you know Ena is a dragon, but it's been a while since you've been reminded of that last point.
Wow, the "Ike wins" branch has so much more packed into it. I'm not sure if Nasir is just more talkative or they really wanted to reward you for managing the KO.
Kurthnaga is over a hundred, but how mature he is is another matter. One thing I can never feel comfortable talking about is at what age a race with a longer lifespan reaches maturity milestones.
(Also, just quietly skipping the part where Goldoa has not seen a new birth in a hundred years there, are we?)
I find it interesting that both Nasir and Ena are like "why did you help [the other? They] were your enemy."
Ike really does forgive easy.
Oh yeah, Nasir also leaked our plans. It probably helps our cause that most of them were just "hit the enemy. Really hard."
And breached her trust in doing so.
Nasir is as reticent about their reasonings as Ena was.
Ike sasses Nasir.
Nasir cares a great deal about his granddaughter. I wonder about his family situation. The fact he has a granddaughter implies he has a wife. What happened there?
As forgiving as Ike has been, he does still expect a certain degree of proof of allegiance.
If Nasir will help us here, Ike will forgive Nasir for everything else outright.
I'm thinking about one other moment, way later, here.
Don't disappoint me, Nasir.
He presumably knew enough to not touch it with his hands, but after that...
This is, in fact, true. One thing I'm wondering, though, is just how much more.
I wonder what reason Nasir has for not sharing these details.
Yeah, without Altina, Ashnard can't actually use the medallion for anything.
On one hand, what Nasir knows about the medallion comes from an alternate source to Lillia. On the other hand, he does have to know about Lillia in order to point Ike there.
Who knows, but we have plenty of exceptionally good guesses.
And that's how we dovetail into where we ended with Ena.
This is the opening of the narration for the next mission. At least Ike gets a good sleep-in.
Overall, having Nasir is more interesting than not. I mean, yeah, that's to a degree obvious, but Ena is relatively single-mindedly focused on getting to Ashnard, while Nasir offers a more broad perspective. I quite like what Nasir has to share, and find it unfortunate that his survival, and what he shares as a result, is tied to besting the Black Knight. Although, when I consider what the narratively interesting parts of Nasir's survival are and compare them to a certain individual in Radiant Dawn, I can't help but notice they are more alike than I had previously considered. Perhaps there's something to this parallel. But that's a long ways off.
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