Male and female Alear from Fire Emblem Engage with red-and-blue split hair in white royal uniforms against a red-blue gradient background.

Alear

2022character nicknamesemi-active

Published November 9, 2026

In June 2022, leaked screenshots of an unannounced Fire Emblem game showed a protagonist with striking red-and-blue hair, and 4chan anons were calling her "toothpaste" within hours. By the time Nintendo revealed the character as Alear that September, Fire Emblem Twitter was drawing both Alears with Colgate boxes and praying to Pepsiman.

fire emblem memes celebrity nickname memes fan art memes character design memes 4chan memes

Overview

Alear / Toothpaste-chan is the Divine Dragon protagonist of Fire Emblem Engage, released on Switch in January 20239. Female Alear's two-tone hairstyle, a bright blue fringe over red lengths, reads so much like a Colgate tube that the Fire Emblem community adopted the drugstore nickname before the character's real name was known4. Fan art in the format usually pairs her with a consumer-brand prop, a Colgate box in hand or a Pepsi can nearby, with Pepsiman occasionally standing in as a deity for both Alears to worship78.

Male Alear picked up "Colgate-kun" after the official reveal, letting comics show both versions with the same product in hand4.

Origin & Background

Platform
4chan (nickname) / Reddit and Twitter (viral spread)
Date
2022

Leaked screenshots of what fans suspected was Fire Emblem 18 surfaced in an Imgur gallery on June 14th, 20221. Discussion moved onto 4chan and r/fireemblem, where many were skeptical because the design broke from previous Fire Emblem protagonists10. Later that day, an anonymous /v/ user labeled the character "toothpaste"2, and a /vg/ poster upgraded it to "Toothpaste-chan" within hours3. Nintendo developed the game; the nickname and its visual gag were a community invention with no single fan credited as originator.

How It Spread

Within days of the leak, the Fire Emblem subreddit adopted the Toothpaste-chan nickname wholesale. On June 16th, 2022, user Berry_Nutty posted a pencil sketch to r/fireemblem that reached over 2.2k upvotes with a 98% positive ratio5. Twitter artist NerdAmiba followed on June 20th with a fuller illustration at roughly 5k likes and 1.3k retweets6.

When Nintendo revealed the game as Fire Emblem Engage on September 13th, 2022 and named the character Alear9, the joke spilled past the Fire Emblem subreddit. The red-and-blue palette now matched Pepsi too, adding "Pepsi-chan" and "Colgate-kun" to the lineup. Artist thegreyzen's two-Alear piece with the Colgate box reached over 7.9k likes and 1.1k retweets7, and dixoterin's praying-to-Pepsiman image collected 10.8k likes and 2.4k retweets8.

Timeline

2022-06-14

Fire Emblem Engage screenshots leaked in an Imgur gallery, prompting 4chan anons to call the unnamed protagonist "toothpaste" and then "Toothpaste-chan" the same day.

2022-06-16

Berry_Nutty posted a Toothpaste-chan sketch to r/fireemblem, reaching over 2.2k upvotes at a 98% positive ratio.

2022-06-20

NerdAmiba shared a Toothpaste-chan illustration on Twitter, reaching about 5k likes and 1.3k retweets.

2022-09-13

Nintendo's September Direct officially revealed Fire Emblem Engage and named the character Alear, sparking new "Pepsi-chan" and "Colgate-kun" fan art from thegreyzen and dixoterin.

2023-01-20

Fire Emblem Engage released on Nintendo Switch, locking the nickname into the fandom's standard vocabulary for the character.

How to Use This Meme

The format typically pairs female Alear with a consumer product whose colors match her hair: a Colgate toothpaste box for the red-and-blue, a Pepsi can for the same effect, or Pepsiman himself worshipped by both Alears side by side.

Frequently Asked Questions