Pit
Pit (ピット Pitto) is the protagonist and eponymous character of the Kid Icarus series, first appearing in Kid Icarus for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986, followed by an appearance in Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters for the Gameboy in 1991. Other than a handful of cameos, Pit did not appear again until the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, seventeen years after Of Myths and Monsters, in which he was one of the starter characters.
Pit is Palutena's most loyal servant, as well as the captain of her royal bodyguards. He is sometimes referred to as "Kid Icarus" in reference to the English title of the series. Pit is always armed with his trusty Bow and arrows and prefers ranged combat, though he has demonstrated a fair amount of melee capability.
Characteristics
Physical Appearance
In earlier games, Pit appeared as a young, cherubic angel wearing a simple, white chiton with a pair of sandals, and metal cuffs. He has short brown hair, and small white wings that are incapable of flight. In Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters and beyond, he dons a gold laurel crown. Since his reappearance in Brawl, he was given a major redesign by Masahiro Sakurai. Pit now looks to be around 13 years old (in humans years), and has large blue eyes and many tufts in his hair. His chiton remains white, now decorated with red and gold hems on the bottom. It is fastened on the shoulder by a single gold pin with a ruby-like gem embedded on it. He wears the outfit with a brown belt with silver edges and a gold, triangular buckle on his waist. Pit also appears to wear navy blue tights beneath his chiton. The angel now has a pair of bronze and gold cuffs on his wrists, a gold bracelet on his upper left arm, and another gold ring on his right thigh. Pit's sandals are brown and decorated with crossing, beige bands. The top edges of his shoes have what appears to be white fur or wool.
Personality
Like many Nintendo protagonists, Pit is fearless and heroic. He faces many dangers or threats with little hesitation. Pit has no problem fighting monsters many times his size, and is always ready to help the humans when they are in need. The angel has a notable humorous side and enjoys cracking jokes, and bantering with Palutena. He even has the tendency to make outrageous puns and break the fourth wall. Pit is also very confident, which makes him bit of a show-off at times. He can however, become a little reckless due to his gung-ho personality and naiveness that causes him to get into trouble at times. Nonetheless, Pit is a good-hearted and friendly character.
Abilities
Despite Pit being a flightless angel, he is still a skilled and versatile fighter. He originally started out as an archer that mainly specialized in using the Bow, but over the years he has become more experienced with using various weapons like the Blade, Claws, Cannon, etc. Even though Pit has a childish appearance, he seems to possess great physical strength, and is capable of utilizing massive weapons like the Arm or Club. The angel has also learned to use impressive abilities and magic known as Powers.
Appearances
Kid Icarus (1986)
At the beginning of the first game, Pit began as a young angel boy, trapped in the Underworld. Palutena, the Goddess of Light, had been imprisoned, so she entrusted Pit with a magical Bow and the duty of gathering the Three Sacred Treasures, defeating the Dark Goddess Medusa and saving Angel Land. Pit must journey through the Underworld, Overworld, Skyworld, and finally, the Palace in the Sky in order to gather the Three Sacred Treasures and free Palutena.
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (1991)
In Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, Pit is charged with training for the defense of Angel Land, after Palutena foresees an invasion of demons led by a monster called Orcos. The training involves the Three Sacred Treasures, which Pit must unite. However, because of a dire emergency, Palutena had entrusted the Three Sacred Treasures to the fortress guardians. To prevent Orcos's invasion, Pit must once again obtain the Three Sacred Treasures.
Kid Icarus: Uprising (2012)
A return to the series as the release title with the Nintendo 3DS. Twenty-four years after the first game (referencing the real-life gap between the NES classic and Uprising), Medusa is revived by her minions. A now-teenage Pit is tasked with defeating Medusa and her army of monsters by Palutena, who gives Pit the Power of Flight, which allows him to fly for five minutes before his wings burn up. This allows him to get between the various areas where he fights the army on the ground. Along the way, he'll not only use the Bow of Palutena to fight his foes, but will also gather a large new repertoire of weapons with both long and short-ranged capabilities, showing off a few new tricks.
Idol Toss Description
"Our hero and the captain of Palutena's personal guard. Pit is a powerful warrior despite his youthful appearance. Wielding many new weapons and gifts from Palutena, Pit is no longer limited to the bow of his past adventures."
Super Smash Bros. Series
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)
Pit is a playable in character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and is available at the start of the game.
His Special Attacks, other than his Side Special, are based off of the Three Sacred Treasures. His bow is called the "Sacred Bow of Palutena".[1] This bow is his symbol and has the added feature of being able to split into dual swords, a trait that would carry on to its appearance in Uprising and a dual functionality that would come to permeate all of the weapons in Pit's arsenal in that game. He uses both swords and bow for his Aerial, Standard and Smash Attacks, changing the weapon between three different forms to attack. His Down Special is the Mirror Shield, which is used to reflect projectiles and protect Pit from attack from the front. It can be angled upward slightly. His Up Special is the Wings of Icarus, which allows him to fly freely for a short time.
After obtaining the power of the Smash Ball, Pit can use his Final Smash, Palutena's Army, to call upon a swarm of Centurions to attack his opponents.
Due to his possessing wings, Pit is one of three characters who are capable of gliding, the other two being Meta Knight and Charizard.
This is also the first game in which Pit has a voice. In the Japanese version, he is voiced by Minami Takayama, while in the English version he is voiced by Lani Minella.
There is a stage called Skyworld which is based off of Skyworld in the original games. On this stage, there are breakable platforms held up by clouds. In the background, there is a temple and a statue of Palutena. Four pieces of music from Kid Icarus can be played the stage.
Due to his fast projectile, which is controllable after release, can cover a great distance in a short time, and can easily be used multiple times in quick succession, his superior recovery, his multiple projectile-reflecting moves, and his multi-hit attacks, which include, but are not limited to, his Neutral Air attack and Forward Special, Pit is sometimes accused of being cheap or simply too easy to use effectively in matches. Without many good moves to KO with and the inability to use the Wings of Icarus again if hit in midair during the duration of the move until he lands, he is kept from a higher spot on the tier list: He currently ranks at 18th out of 38 characters on the tier list, but has held higher spots in the past.
Role in the Subspace Emissary
In the Subspace Emissary, Pit is first seen watching Mario and Kirby battling on a stadium through a Reflecting Pool in Skyworld. When he sees the stadium get engulfed by Subspace, Palutena appears and sends him to defeat the Subspace army, giving him his bow. Pit soon meets Mario, who was knocked out of the stadium by Petey Piranha, the act of which turned him into a trophy before he landed in the Sea of Clouds near Skyworld. Pit and Mario quickly team up and set out to defeat the Subspace army. They eventually form a larger party of fighters with Link, Yoshi and Kirby, which joins up with other characters later in the story.
Eventually, all the characters, with the exception of Luigi, Ness and King Dedede (and Sonic, who only appears at the end, as well as Jigglypuff, Toon Link, and Wolf, the three of whom are absent from the storyline altogether) join up and invade the Subspace, only to get turned into trophies by Tabuu. However, he and most of the others are rescued by King Dedede, Luigi and Ness, who had been absent in the invasion. Pit takes part in the final battle against Tabuu with all the other characters.
Trophy Information
Super Smash Bros. Melee
The head of Palutena's personal bodyguards, Pit traveled near and far to gather Three Sacred Treasures that
would help him defeat the evil goddess of darkness, Medusa, and free Palutena, the goddess of light. Pit couldn't fly with his little wings; only the Wings of Pegasus let him take flight. Will Pit ever fight again?
- Kid Icarus (7/87)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Pit)
The captain of the royal bodyguards of Palutena, goddess of light and ruler of Angel Land. The dark goddess,
Medusa, conquered the underworld, the surface world, and the heavens, and imprisoned Palutena. Pit escaped and, armed with Palutena's magical bow, set out to free her. Along the way, he gathered Three Sacred Treasures with which he challenged Medusa.
- Kid Icarus, 1987
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Palutena's Army)
Pit's Final Smash. An image of the goddess Palutena appears, heralding
the arrival of Pit'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!
Other Appearances
Captain N: The Game Master
Pit appeared as one of the main characters in the cartoon, Captain N: The Game Master. Here, he was referred to as "Kid Icarus" and, after initial suspicion, became Kevin's loyal sidekick next to Duke. He was voiced by Alessandro Juniali. Pit is drawn with a comically larger head (with a massive cowlick) in comparison to the rest of his body and is constantly in flight, as though he already possessed the Wings of Pegasus. He has a tendency to append the catchphrase "-icus" to words (and sometimes maximus for large things) and speaks as a young teenager just hitting puberty. No longer satisfied with normally deadly arrows, Pit has a large selection of different projectiles in his quiver with a large variety of functions, and he always seems to have the right one for the job (ranging from saw-bladed arrows to pizza arrows); sometimes, however, he pulls the wrong arrow and simply must make do with whatever he drew. One episode was centered on the plot of Kid Icarus, with the team trying to collect the Three Treasures. Kid Icarus came from the "Mount Icarus" realm.
Tetris
Pit appeared in the official Nintendo version of Tetris, as an instrument player alongside Samus of Metroid fame and several of Nintendo's other characters. In this appearance, he was depicted playing a violin or viola in the ending. This may be a pun on his choice of weapon, as the tool used for playing a stringed instrument is also called a bow.
F-1 Race
He made a minor cameo, cheering the player on in Course 8.[2]
Gallery
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Pit donning his sacred treasures to fight Medusa.
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His crouching frame.
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Cheering at the end of Kid Icarus.
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His look after rescuing Palutena and obtaining one of the better endings.
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Artwork of him squatting.
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Pit grown up, as seen in the best ending of K.I.
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Pit's expressions in Uprising.
Trivia
- There are not any proper angels in Greek mythology, but there is one archer with wings; Pit bears a very striking resemblance to the cherubic Eros (also known as Cupid), the demigod who would inspire love by shooting people with arrows. In popular culture, Cupid is often depicted as having arrowheads shaped and colored like hearts due to his love motif, and some of Pit's art and his trophy from Super Smash Bros. Melee depict his arrowheads as looking like hearts.
- Pit also draws inspiration from Icarus, the figure for whom the series is named: For example, at the end of Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, Pit flies up toward the sun, and his wings fall off. This alludes to the story of Icarus, whose wax-and-feather wings allowed him to fly, but, caught up in the moment, he disobeyed his father, Daedalus, and flew too close to the sun, causing the wax holding the wings together to fall off, causing him to plummet to his death. A similar allusion is made in Uprising, when Palutena notes that the Miracle of Flight can only sustain Pit for five minutes before his wings burn up, causing him to fall, and he must reach his destination before that happens.
- And finally, Pit draws inspiration from Biblical angels. Angels in the Bible are commonly depicted as benevolent messengers and guardians. Pit's position as Palutena's bodyguard and a protector of humans fits as a role of a guardian angel. There are also hints of Pit being a messenger, however he has never really been seen doing such tasks in games.
- Pit was supposed to be in the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64, but was cut out due to his low popularity at that time. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Pit appears as a trophy, with the words "Will he ever fight again?" imprinted on it, which would be a foreshadowing of his eventual inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
- A romantic interest between Palutena and Pit was implied in the best ending in the original Kid Icarus, though this has yet to be revisited.
- Oddly, it has been stated that Pit's wings are just for decoration.
References