Haha, that's one way to look at it! I feel like everyone complains that the Dawn Brigade chapters are unjustly harsh but it contrasts nicely with Ike's group, which is battle-hardened but destitute.
I also liked Micaiah and felt the Dawn Brigade's adoration of her was deserved rather then some symptom of Mary Sue'ism as she's often criticized for. She made the most cutthroat choices, which made things more interesting.
Nice to see some support for my heretical Micaiah fanboyism.
Well said. I don't have any problem with that kind of character or story but I don't think there's anything remotely close to supporting it as canon, and that includes the ending with Soren. You have to take into account everything about Soren's character, the history he has had with Ike, and how that relationship grew out of his first encounter with Ike as a starving outcast child. I didn't see anything more than two very close friends, one of whom basically owes his entire existence to the other and has to balance that against an incredible amount of justified anger at the outside world.
Perfectly legit to interpret it however you want though. Wouldn't at all change my opinion of the character if some content were introduced that did make some kind of other relationship canon; I just do not see it at all in what we have so far.
I never said the asexual interpretation was wrong. As I said it was intentionally written ambivalently, like positive representations of gay/lesbian characters often are in Japanese games/anime/manga ('out' gay characters are usually played for laughs). See Kanji from Persona 4 for another example. Interpreting the character as if he was from an American TV-show or movie is not very useful in this instance.
That said, Ike is the main character of two FE games. Who he has 'S-support conversations' with and who he doesn't is very carefully considered and his relationship with Soren is in line with previous lords 'canonical partners'. Also, as I said previously their English A support from Path of Radiance clearly de-emphasises a romantic interpretation.
Another thing to consider is that FE rarely addresses sex or sexuality directly. The only reason we know some of the straight couples (in the series) were sexually involved, is because they got married and had children. Something Ike and Soren can't do in the world of PoR/RD.
Anyway, as I said, your interpretation is also valid. Perhaps we can at least agree that this facet of Ike's character was left intentionally ambivalent?
