History Characters / SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin

* PsychoForHire: They are willing to get payed to perform their Player Killing.

* AndIMustScream: His ultimate fate. [[spoiler:After [=PoH=] declares he'll never stop coming after Kirito and Asuna until he's killed them in real-life, Kirito declares that he's never logging out of Underworld and traps him in a tree, leaving him to rot in Underworld forever. It's made even worse by the fact that time in Underworld runs on YearInsideHourOutside; years can pass in-game while mere days pass in the real world. Kirito even takes the time to [[ToThePain describe such a fate]] to him: [=PoH=] will spend ten or more years of isolation and insanity, and then die after another 30 years of brain activity; as Kirito puts it, he better pray his allies bail him out, otherwise he's stuck in there, rotting for the rest of his life until someone else cuts him down with an axe.]]
** [[spoiler: Possibly {{Subverted}}. It's revealed that when the remaining Glowgen mercenaries are retreating, those in charge of securing Gabriel and Vassago's corpses reveal that they were only able to recover Gabriel's body, and that Vassago's had mysteriously disappeared, implying that he escaped his fate somehow and disappeared from the Ocean Turtle without anyone noticing.]]

* BadBoss: [[spoiler:He's the one who leaked the Laughing Coffin's hideout to the other players while giving partial information about the raid on their HQ to his followers, all so he can watch both sides kill each other.]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: [[spoiler: While beating up the still brain dead Kirito, he demands the latter to stand up and fight him despite Asuna's pleas. Guess what Kirito did to him after waking up.]]

* GreaterScopeVillain: His presence can be felt in almost every arc, from Aincrad, to Phantom Bullet, and Alicization arcs. [[spoiler:While he is personally uninvolved in the GGO incident, he is still responsible for the corruption of many SAO players through Laughing Coffin, including his two right-hand men who become the villains for that season, and one of his right-hand men almost comes close to killing Kirito, leading to him ending up in the Underworld.]]

* KickTheDog: Does this a bunch and revels in it, such as establishing the Laughing Coffin guild so he can make people kill each other for his own amusement, to [[spoiler:[[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown beating up a comatose Kirito]] in front of his TrueCompanions entirely to spite them, to inducing players and Underworld residents, human, beast and demon alike to start killing each other solely to provoke Kirito into snapping out of his catatonia so he can fight and kill him, to even his announcement to Kirito that he will always be hellbent on him, Asuna and the others no matter what until he brutally murders them in real-life.]]

* OmniGlot: [[InformedAbility According to the novels]] he is apparently fluent in Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese, Russian, and Latin American Spanish. Kirito even wonders if he's of [[ButNotTooForeign mixed ethnicity]], which is verified later on: He was born as the illegitimate son of a Japanese man and Mexican woman and joined a Korean crime gang upon coming to Japan.
** His multilingual fluency is much more relevant later on during the Alicization arc, [[spoiler:where he's part of a 12-man team of operators from Glowgen Defense Systems making an assault on Ocean Turtle, led by [=GDS's=] own Gabriel Miller. All of the team speak English, with only him and Gabriel being fluent in Japanese. This meant that they would enter the Underworld via non-password protected accounts (Vassago chose an account of a dark knight, while Gabriel got the account of Emperor Vector), in an attempt to locate Alice.]]

* EarlyBirdCameo: In ''Hollow Realization'', [[spoiler:while [[TheGhost he doesn't make a direct appearance]], Kyouji (as Richter) does make mention of him multiple times as his "brother", particularly when threatening Kirito and including a part where, upon gaining an orange cursor after attacking Sinon, he notes it happened just like his "big brother" said it would]].

* LightIsNotGood: He dons the [=KoB=]'s bright white armor, but he's a StalkerWithACrush and a {{Sadist}}ic murderer.

'''Main series''': [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineMajorCharacters Major Characters]] ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineKazutoKirigaya Kazuto Kirigaya]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAsunaYuuki Asuna Yuuki]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineSuguhaKirigaya Suguha Kirigaya]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineShinoAsada Shino Asada]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineEugeo Eugeo]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAliceZuberg Alice Zuberg]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAincrad Aincrad]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAlfheimOnline Alfheim Online]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineGunGaleOnline Gun Gale Online]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineUnderworld Underworld]] ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineIntegrityKnights Integrity Knights]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineDarkTerritory Dark Territory]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineCardina Cardina]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineUnitalRing Unital Ring]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAntagonists Antagonists]] ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAkihikoKayaba Akihiko Kayaba]], '''Laughing Coffin''', [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineNobuyukiSugou Nobuyuki Sugou]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineQuinella Quinella]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineBosses Bosses]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineOthers Others]]\\

* OmnicidalManiac: He has zero regard for the lives of anyone, [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder including his fellow teammates in Laughing Coffin or would-be boss Gabriel in Underworld]]. Upon entering Underworld, [[spoiler:his goal is to pit all of the Japanese players by summoning thousands of American, Chinese, and Korean players and have them all fight to the death. Then brag to Asuna that he'll kill thousands of beings, including her, their allied forces, and every other human and monster down there, [[TheStarscream including the foreign players he just summoned and the demon army under his and Gabriel's command]] [[ForTheEvulz just to get a comatose Kirito to wake up and fight him]]. His threat to Kirito about [[AndShowItToYou ripping out his and Asuna's hearts out]] and slitting their throats carries the implication that he'll do so knowing that their friends or family will find out, and that he'll be around to take them out in much the same way.]]

* SatanicArchetype: Perhaps the closest example in the series. He was considered an outcast having been born as an illegitimate child similar to Lucifer being cast from Heaven. Not only is he responsible for the corruption of many an SAO player and the post-SAO incidents but he dons a dark robe, is named Vassago (one of the demons in the Ars Goetia) and calls himself [=PoH=] (meaning Prince of Hell). Also adding to his Satanic character is that he [[spoiler: deceives players from America, China, Korea and Russia to fight the Japanese players in the Underworld, which neatly parallels Satan gathering the nations around the world to fight the people of God in the Book of Revelation. To further add to the Messiah-Satan contrast, Kirito's [[CameBackStrong recovery]] from his GameBreakingInjury and victory over [=PoH=] and his forces during the final battle parallels the Second Coming of Christ and him defeating Satan's forces in the final battle in the Book of Revelation.]]

* AdaptationalBadass: [[spoiler:In the source material, [=PoH=] is strong enough to the point of overpowering Asuna in her Stacia account but is already worn out from his previous fights by the time he fights a recently recovered Kirito, resulting with being turned into a tree by the latter. In ''Last Recollection'', however, he's in much better shape, manages to take out the regular accounts of Asuna, Silica, and Lisbeth in their first confrontation, and Kirito had help from Dorothy to bring him down.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: In the Alicization arc, [[spoiler:he has the [[SarcasmMode brilliant idea]] to [[EvilGloating insult, threaten and gloat]] to Kirito, who just kicked his ass, that he's never going to stop coming after him until he brutally murders him, Asuna and their friends in real-life, expecting him to just sit there and cry about it. Instead, his threats are met with retaliation and efforts to make sure he never comes after anyone ever again, as can be expected when one threatens someone who can and ''will'' fight back, especially since Kirito ''knows'' what [[TheSociopath PoH]] is capable of, has tried to kill literally anyone who either works with him or gets in his way, and will spell nothing but bad news wherever he goes.]]

** Also one to Kirito, with them both being SAO Survivors and had a reputation for being MasterSwordsmen. However, Kirito was left traumatized by taking the life of other players, while [=XaXa=] took pride in it and his status as a true red player. There's some similarities in their backgrounds, the both of them having felt unwelcomed in their families, Kazuto due to his HappilyAdopted status and Shouichi due to being an InadequateInheritor because of his poor health, and [[spoiler: the both of them having younger siblings who cared for them, though Kazuto tried to distance himself from Suguha due to them not being blood related, while Shouichi, at least initially, was apparently a CoolBigBro to Kyouji.]]

* GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler:He is responsible for Kirito's presence in the ''Alicization'' arc due to providing Johnny Black with the syringe of succinylcholine, the method of killing used in their "Death Gun" scheme, which he used to badly injure Kirito. This in turn starts the chain of events that leads to Kirito ending up in the Underworld]].