History Characters / TalesOfSymphonia

[[center:[-''Characters/TalesOfSymphonia'' | '''Main Character Index'''\\

The characters from the game ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia''.

'''SPOILER ALERT''': NOT ALL SPOILERS ARE MARKED.

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[[foldercontrol]]

!Playable Characters

[[folder:Lloyd Irving]]
!!'''Lloyd Irving'''
!!!Voiced by: Creator/KatsuyukiKonishi (JP), Creator/ScottMenville (EN, ''Symphonia''), Creator/BrianBeacock (EN, all other appearances)
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lloyd.jpg]]

-->''"Dwarven Vow #1: Let's all work together for a peaceful world."''

A 17-year-old human who was raised by a dwarf, Lloyd leaves his home town of Iselia to follow his childhood friend Colette on her World Regeneration journey after having been [[YouCantGoHomeAgain banished from the village]], where he's held responsible for [[DoomedHometown the attack]] they suffered from the Desians. At the beginning of the game, Lloyd is a typical [[WideEyedIdealist overly idealistic]] IdiotHero, but he grows upon [[ThisIsReality discovering the world as it is]], making his idealism into a goal to save both worlds and everyone living inside it.

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Tropes associated with Lloyd:
* AbandonedCatchphrase: For the Sylvarant portion of the game, Lloyd has "Give me your name and I'll give you mine" when confronted. He drops it when the group ends up in Tethe'alla; when Raine [[BorrowedCatchphrase borrows]] it when they first meet Zelos, he decides that "it sounds kinda arrogant".
* AccidentalMisnaming: After Zelos refers to Lloyd as "his bud" (hunny in the Japanese version), Sebastian starts referring to him as Sir Bud. By ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld Dawn of The New World]]'', the king of Tethe'alla is calling him Bud as well.
* AccidentalPervert: Lloyd received the title "[[ThePeepingTom Peeping Tom]]" when he caught Zelos (who ran when the girls heard noises) spying on the girls in the hot spring scene. Evolves to a sort-of RunningGag in spin-off games: He gets pulled into these situations in ''Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology'' as well as in ''Dawn of the New World''. Gets {{Flanderized}} in some other games where he becomes an actual pervert.
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: In the OVA, Lloyd's status as an IdiotHero is downplayed, to the point it arguably becomes an InformedAttribute, with characters mentioning his apparent stupidity (even himself) in-universe, but actual evidence of it being largely absent. One of the biggest examples of this is that in the game, an early plot point showcasing his idiocy revolves around Lloyd forgetting to make Colette a necklace in time for her birthday, but Lloyd gives her a birthday necklace in the OVA within the first couple minutes of the first episode.
** It can be argued that his ObliviousToLove status was also downplayed in the OVA; he and Colette both act significantly more romantic toward each other. Heck, he even straight-up ''kisses her on the lips'' in one scene.
* AllLovingHero: Not at first, but after CharacterDevelopment, he tries to save everyone, in both worlds, and even feels sympathy for the villains they're forced to fight. [[spoiler:Just after defeating Mithos and shattering his Exsphere, Lloyd laments that "you could have lived with us in our world".]]
* AmbiguouslyHuman: It's referenced a couple of times, since his father is a dwarf, though Lloyd is quick to point out that he's adopted. His birth father [[spoiler: Kratos is an angel, and his Exsphere is a Cruxis Crystal. Consider that he gets angel wings at the end of the game]].
* AnimalMotifs: Falcons, and birds in general. Rising Falcon is his only arcane arte that isn't a fusion or derivative of his earlier artes, and his Mystic Arte is titled Falcon's Crest. Also, [[spoiler:the angel wings he gets in the end are reminiscent of actual bird's wings, unlike those of Colette, Zelos, and the Four Seraphim]].
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: He always makes it a point to save Colette from trouble. Depending on his "soul mate" choice, this can also be reflected in the final kidnapping segment of the game. He does this with random civilians too, such as Chocolat, Princess Hilda and Kate.
* AsleepInClass: Lloyd does this once, notable in that he falls asleep, standing up, while also holding a bucket full of water in each hand. He's woken up when Raine (his teacher) throws an eraser into his face.
-->'''Raine:''' How do you manage to sleep standing?
* TheBlacksmith: The son of one. He's learnt well, as he can craft, do machinery and pick locks.
* BladeSpam: Sword Rain, and all its derivatives.
* BlowYouAway: The only element he can learn naturally in the original game is wind, and for all of one arte: Hurricane Thrust.
* BookDumb: Lloyd is not as stupid as [[{{Flanderization}} he's generally made out to be]]. He doesn't know much in terms of pure information, but he's got a lot of raw intelligence and can generally work out an answer with logic and reason. Lloyd can also be surprisingly clever, such as in the game of Shiritori at the House of Salvation where Lloyd (as the default party member displayed) wins by ending all his words in "L." Two other more relevant examples would be [[spoiler: when he tricked Colette into revealing her condition via coffee and when he deduced from Remiel's speech in the Tower of Salvation that the Church of Martel was a front.]] This continues into the sequel, as shown in a skit where he thinks memorizing the multiplication table is sufficient education.
* BoringButPractical:
** Tempest is an [[SpinAttack airborne vertical spin attack]]. Okay, [[DownplayedTrope maybe not boring]], but it's definitely one of his less flashy artes - nonetheless, the leap is enough to get him over the heads of most of his opponents, which means that in any fight with [[spoiler:Kratos]], who generally depends on magic rising from beneath, spamming Tempest is a good way to win.
** Demon Fang is his most basic arte, but many seasoned players swear by it instead of it's upgraded versions. Reason being is that, along with it being cheap when it comes to [=TP=], it's considered a Game Breaker because, in a game built around multiplayer, it's [=OTG=] properties allows him massive solo combo potential.
* CharacterCatchphrase:
** Using one of the Dwarven Vows to justify his actions.
** "Who are you to ask for my name?" or "Give me your name and I shall give you mine." Eventually [[AbandonedCatchphrase abandons]] them when Raine [[BorrowedCatchphrase uses it on Zelos]], realizing how arrogant it sounds.
* CharacterTics: Has a tendency to rest his left hand on the pommel of one sword. Only really applies to his original game.
* ChasteHero: Until the sequel, where he can be in a relationship with any female party member.
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: With Colette, if you choose to go that route. Notably, she's the only one Lloyd explicitly tells he loves if you select her scene in ''Dawn of the New World''.
* ClarkKentOutfit: Thanks to the OVA, we find out that Lloyd is actually quite buff underneath that turtleneck.
* DiggingYourselfDeeper: After the sidequest in which the princess is saved, Colette asks if Lloyd [[SchmuckBait "likes girls like the princess"]]. Lloyd proceeds to dig himself in, [[SubvertedTrope briefly hop out]], and then [[DoubleSubverted jump back in to dig again]].
* DisappearedDad: Raised by the dwarf Dirk, whom he grew to call father, [[spoiler:but his real father, Kratos, thought he died together with his mother, and never sought him after the incident]].
* DoesNotLikeSpam: He hates tomatoes. [[spoiler: Just like his father]].
* DualWielding: Done out of a belief that having two swords makes him twice as powerful as if he has one. The fact that dual-wielding is an unusual combat style is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Kratos at one point; Lloyd's (rather poorly thought-out) response is the trope's page quote. Considering the kind of [[SuperReflexes reflexes]] one needs to use two swords at once, this probably wouldn't even be possible without his exsphere [[spoiler:though the fact exspheres are said to build on what's already there and Lloyd's AmbiguouslyHuman nature due to his mother being an exsphere experiment and his father an angel means he possibly could dual wield without it.]] By the time the sequel comes around, he's shown to be ''brutally'' effective with them.
** For cutscenes, he starts the game with wooden swords, then iron swords later on, then [[spoiler: he gets [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement the Material Blades]].]]
* DumbIsGood: He's not quite as stupid as he appears to be, but he's BookDumb and a lot friendlier than Genis, Raine or Kratos.
* EmpoweredBadassNormal: Without his Exsphere, he's still the strongest in his village. With the Exsphere, he's close to superhuman.
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** "Dwarven Vow #7: Justice and love will always win." Lloyd's a WideEyedIdealist, and even he thinks that's corny. It should be noted that Colette is [[{{Malaproper}} misquoting it]], the proper way is "''Goodness'' and love will always win". While he still thinks either way is a bad quote, he really starts to hate the former due to his hatred of the word "Justice".
** Lloyd gets irritated with Colette's ditziness on occasion, especially early in the game. He also has quite a bit of AngerBornOfWorry when Colette accidentally reveals [[spoiler:just how much she's been hiding from everyone else about how the angel transformation is hurting her.]]
* ForGreatJustice: He hates the concept of justice, and thinks that it's just a shallow excuse for people to do whatever they want.
* GeniusDitz: Is quite skilled and knowledgeable when it comes to using Dwarven technology. He can also do a surprisingly good job unlocking doors or stopping strange devices. However, he's quite simple when it comes to just about everything else.
* GreenEyedMonster: He's initially quite standoffish and confrontational towards Kratos and it's implied it's because Kratos is the cool, badass swordsman that Lloyd wants to be. He warms up to Kratos as they travel together and takes his HeelFaceTurn ''hard''.
* {{Hachimaki}}: Is that what that utterly ridiculous neck-tie-thing he's always sporting is?
* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler: His mother Anna was a normal human equipped with a special exsphere, while his father is Kratos, a member of the Four Seraphim.]]
* HappilyAdopted: By Dirk, who he has no trouble calling 'dad'.
* HasAType: He LikesOlderWomen, and, aside from Colette, all his potential girlfriends are older than him. [[OlderThanTheyLook Even Presea.]]
* HeroicBastard: Though never made explicit, it's highly doubtful that his parents [[spoiler:Anna (being an Exsphere host body) and Kratos (being a Cruxis angel)]] were married.
* HeroicBSOD: Suffers one after [[spoiler:Colette loses her soul]], due to his belief that he should have paid more attention to her suffering and shouldn't have allowed it to happen. He also has a brief one after discovering that [[spoiler:Kratos is his father]].
** In the OVA Lloyd actually has an emotional breakdown when he realizes that [[spoiler: Colette can no longer speak]], as it's the moment where it really hits him what the journey is doing to her.
* HeroWithBadPublicity: He spends much of the first act under the stigma of being "that brat who destroyed Iselia". Happens again in the second act, when [[spoiler: the Pope declares him a traitor out to destroy Teth'ella in order to prevent Lloyd from interfering with his own sinister schemes.]] Then ''Dawn of the New World'' reveals that ''everyone'' blames him for all the problems that have arisen since [[spoiler:the worlds merged.]]
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Genis, though due to the 5 year age gap between them, Lloyd often acts like a CoolBigBro to him as well. They grew up together, and Lloyd greatly values their friendship.
* HotBlooded: Very much so, he's itching to go on an adventure and leave Iselia. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor He does after he's exiled, having nowhere else to go]].
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] (perhaps unintentionally) in the ending of the first game; [[spoiler:his [[PowerGivesYouWings Angelus wings]] are longer than the rest of the playable characters side by side, so when he flies after the Great Seed and Colette flies up after him, her Martel wings look ''tiny''.]]
* HostageForMacguffin: Lloyd, of all people, is at one point held hostage so [[spoiler:Kratos will give Yuan the Eternal Sword.]]
* IdiotSavant: Although it's clear he isn't able to grasp other studies, he is still quite a skilled artisan, crafting jewelry and, more importantly, key crests for Exspheres, often in less than a day, sometimes against adverse situations, [[spoiler:like crafting one already embedded in Presea's body]]. He even defuses a bomb at one point.
* IGaveMyWord: Why he's so dead-set on going back to the Iselia ranch is because he promised to save Chocolat, despite there being more important matters going on at the time.
* IdiotHero: Lloyd fits the stereotype, especially at first. This mostly changes once CharacterDevelopment settles in and he becomes more of a MessianicArchetype and a great leader instead. His main problem is an unwillingness to think and plan rather than an inability to learn, and the famous and largely pre-development "Coffee MindScrew" shows early on that he is capable of great cunning. That said, he's very gullible, and still genuinely often misses the point or fails to understand whats being talked about in certain conversations, coming to outlandish conclusions at times.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's introduced as short-tempered, foolhardy and insensitive sometimes but he's still a good and selfless person and as time passes, [[TookALevelInKindness his 'jerk' part starts to wear off him and his heart of gold is much improved.]]
* TheLeader: As he undergoes CharacterDevelopment, he slowly but indisputably becomes the leader of the team.
* LightningBruiser: Very quick and has good attack power. In an extended battle though, he'll burn through his Tech Points absurdly fast.
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Has this pulled on him, though his father himself wasn't responsible for TheReveal. Lloyd even does the "NO!!" shout.]]
* LikesOlderWomen: Raine was his first crush. It's also worth nothing that unless you pair him up with Colette, ''all'' of his other potential female love interests are older than him. This even technically includes [[spoiler:Presea, who is temporally 28 years old despite her child-like appearance, due to having her growth stunted by the exphere experiment she was part of]]. He'll still comment on the attractiveness of older women even if Colette is his soulmate. [[MommyIssues Considering that he was raised without a mother...]]
* MeaningfulName: Lloyd can mean "holy." An appropriate name for TheHero who is a WideEyedIdealist and [[spoiler:the son of an angel and even gains ''very'' special wings of his own in the climax]].
* MomentKiller: Due to his ObliviousToLove status, just about every scene that he can have with Sheena that could be considered romantic, he kills the vibe of at the end, not realizing how she feels. She is never happy about it. Even Colette drops a few hints about princesses as a way of flirting with Lloyd, and he doesn't notice.
* NiceGuy: Especially after he goes through CharacterDevelopment, but even from the start Lloyd is always moved to help people in need.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Is easily manipulated by both [[spoiler:Zelos and Mithos.]]
** His attempts to help Marble end up getting her targeted by Forcystus, though Genis shares some blame for this as well.
* NoInfantileAmnesia: He reveals in one skit that he remembers being held by his father and watching stars together. Since then he always made sure to count stars on the night sky. He was about three years old when he lost his parents. It does seem, though, that while he does remember this, he doesn't remember it that clearly -- otherwise, he would have recognized his father when they first met.
* ObliviousToLove: As Zelos puts it in one scene, Lloyd is “romantically challenged”; any girl who tries to drop romantic hints to Lloyd may as well be talking to a brick wall. Lloyd has a tendency to not recognize the romantic aspects of nearly any situation where it's just him and another girl together, being either completely ignorant or so focused on something else that the hints the girl gives sail right over his head. Ultimately, how this trope gets used is [[RelationshipValues completely up to the player]].
** In one skit, Colette asks Lloyd if he likes girls like Princess Hilda as a way of flirting with Lloyd. He almost gets the hint, saying Colette is cuter than Hilda, but then completely misses the point of the conversation by complimenting all the girls in the party.
** Sheena, if the player chooses to pursue her, drops numerous hints that she's attracted to him. The last scene of them together even has her tell him "I want to be with you." Lloyd still doesn't pick up on it, believing that she wants to go WalkingTheEarth with him after their quest is over.
** In another skit, Presea asks Lloyd if he has somebody he likes (Though, unlike the aforementioned similar conversation with Colette, she doesn’t appear to be asking as a means of dropping romantic hints to him, but only because [[LoveInformant Raine telling her Genis likes her]] made her curious). Lloyd doesn’t understand what she’s talking about.
-->'''Lloyd:''' I like everyone. You guys are all my friends.
** Lloyd does get better about this in ''Dawn of the New World'', where scenes with Colette and Sheena are more explicitly romantic from both parties, even hugging Colette or Sheena and whispering to them if the player chooses them as Lloyd's soul mate (He also openly declares his love for the former).
** It can be argued this was downplayed in the OVA adaptation (See AdaptationalPersonalityChange).
* PaperFanOfDoom: Can wield [[ImprobableWeaponUser twin fans]] as his [[JokeItem Joke Weapon]].
* PlayingWithFire: Has a couple altered artes of the element, and gets listed as a Fire-elemental character in the sequel.
* PowerGivesYouWings: [[spoiler:During [[EleventhHourSuperpower the ending cutscene of the first game]], he gets rainbow wings that put those of everyone in Cruxis to ''shame''.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives a pretty cutting one to Dorr, then later one to Yggdrasill.
-->'''Lloyd''': Where do you get off? Don't even start spewing the word justice! I hate that word! If you wanted to save your wife, you should have resigned your position as Governor-General and search for a cure, or help, or whatever! You're a worthless jerk who couldn't give up his social status, even for his own wife.
* RedIsHeroic: Main character, wearing red. Yup.
* RedOniBlueOni: Red to Genis, Kratos, and Regal. Empathised with Kratos by obtaining ([=PS2=] version only) [[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/pyroclasmicinferno/ToS/Lloyd1.png extra]] [[http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/Tails-X/Forum%20Requests/samurai_front.jpg costumes]] of legendary rivals [[UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi Musashi]] and [[TheRival Kojiro]].
* RogueProtagonist: One of the main plots in Dawn of the New World. [[spoiler:Subverted in that his evil actions are actually a disguised Decus, and Lloyd himself is merely more secretive than he used to be, out of necessity.]]
* SayMyName: After [[spoiler: Kratos betrays the party]], Lloyd develops a habit of dramatically shouting his name whenever he sees him, almost to the point of it being a RunningGag.
* ScarfOfAsskicking: If those twin white ribbons that seemed to be fused to his tunic can be called a scarf.
* ShockAndAwe: Not on his own, but many of his Unison Techs are lightning-element.
* SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers: Lloyd is practically the poster boy of this trope, showing all sides of the conflict that there's always a better way to do things, or another option they always had but were too apathetic to notice. Lloyd also staunchly believes that a morally bad option would end up changing nothing, and frequently [[KirkSummation points this out to the villains]] when they attempt to justify their terrible behavior.
* SmallStepsHero: No matter how minor the injustice, in spite of more pressing concerns, if there's trouble nearby, Lloyd will step in try to make it right.
-->"How can we go on a journey to regenerate the world if we can't even save the people standing right in front of us?"
* SmartBall: Lloyd will occasionally be handed the ''intelligence'' ball that will give him spontaneous moments of insight before he turns back into a moron again. These moments become more common later in the game, such as when [[spoiler:after releasing all the seals, he gets the idea to blast the tree with Tethe'alla's summon spirits' energy]], and when, shortly thereafter, he remembers that Chocolat was taken to Iselia. Partially justified by the fact that he's an IdiotSavant, and the fact that he's a little more emotionally smart.
* SpamAttack: Lloyd has by far the most of these, though they're something of a mixed bag; spam attacks are one of the best ways to get an enemy spellcaster to "flinch" out of their incantation, but enemies that can go into [[TurnsRed Overlimit]] do so based on the number of hits they've taken. Lloyd tends to burn through his TP reserve quickly as a result.
* StandingInTheHall: While not in the hall, he is shown holding buckets of water at the beginning of the game. In fact, the game starts with Lloyd getting an eraser thrown at his head because [[GoodMorningCrono he fell asleep while doing this]]. Hilariously enough, he hadn't put the buckets down while he was asleep, either. They were still a good three inches off the ground while he was snoozing.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: It could just be the art style, but compare Lloyd's "sad" expression to [[spoiler: [[https://youtu.be/WgMjwDk8sfg?t=5m31s Kratos'.]]]] Yuan and Pronyma also note they can see the resemblance between the two.
* SwordBeam: Demon Fang, his first technique and the one he tends to use in scenes.
* TeacherStudentRomance: Lloyd admits that Raine was his first crush, and he was even a part of her fan club. They can be paired up in both games if the player chooses.
* TellMeAboutMyMother: Late in the game, he shares one of these moments with a character who knew his mother in life: [[spoiler: his father, Kratos.]]
* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: [[spoiler:The duel against Kratos in the forest. His friends could intervene, but choose not to in order to let Lloyd and Kratos settle things.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: Compare the dope who fell asleep in class in the game's opening to the AllLovingHero who rescues everyone in Welgaia.
* TheUnchosenOne: Not only is he not the Chosen One, he wasn't permitted to travel with the real Chosen One. [[JumpedAtTheCall Didn't slow him down long.]]
* UnskilledButStrong: At the beginning of the game. He's the strongest in the village, but his sword-style is self-taught and amateurish, and relies on the fact that he has an [[AmplifierArtifact Exsphere]]. He improves markedly over the course of the adventure.
* TooManyBelts: Two belts, although it's justified in that he carries two swords.
* WellDoneSonGuy: He doesn't realize that he actually does this by [[spoiler:trying to get recognized by Kratos, as Kratos is his father.]]
--> "I'm sorry, Dad..."
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: He gets banished from Iselia after inadvertently causing it to be damaged. It's subverted when they're let back in later by the townspeople, despite the mayor's protests.
* YouKilledMyFather: [[spoiler:Lloyd ''tries'', dealing a serious wound to Kvar for the death of his mother, but Kratos one-ups him for the kill. It later turns out that [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Kratos had a higher rating on the Scale of Justified Revenge]].]]
* WideEyedIdealist: Wants to save both worlds instead of one. He gets this as a title.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Colette Brunel]]
!!'''Colette Brunel'''
!!!Voiced by: Creator/NanaMizuki (JP), Creator/HeatherHoganWatson (EN)
[[quoteright:145:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/colettetos.jpg]]

-->''"Even if I lose my body, my heart will still be free."''

Lloyd's 16-year-old childhood friend who was raised with the knowledge that she was TheChosenOne, and, that when the time came, she'd go on "a journey to regenerate the world." Constantly self-sacrificing and generous to a fault, she ends up making enemies into friends due to sheer niceness, and never looses her positive demeanor, even as the story itself puts her through the ringer.

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Tropes associated with Colette:
* ACupAngst: She's not too happy if she gets called an Ironing Board by the coliseum announcer.
* AesopAmnesia: Colette never seems to learn her lesson about admitting her problems to the party, even after her tenure of losing her humanity to be an angel. It's only when everyone else scolds her and [[spoiler:she nearly turns into an Exsphere herself]] that she finally seems to get it.
* AllLovingHero: She's the Chosen One. It's practically a requirement. She's a big animal lover, and she's unfailingly polite to everyone she meets. After meeting Sheena, who ''explicitly tried to assassinate Colette'', Colette still wonders if they can someday become friends. Deconstructed in that she feels like she has to act this way as the Chosen One, never allowing herself to appear as anything else. She's still a nice girl, she's just not so unfailingly perfect as the position might require.
* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Happens to her as a result of losing her heart and soul to the Cruxis Crystal. Also a very literal example, as she loses her ability to speak as well. She gets better.]]
* ApocalypseMaiden: [[spoiler: From the Tethe'allan perspective. Finding this out is what inspires the party to [[TakeAThirdOption buck the system]] in order to save ''both'' worlds]].
* ApologisesALot: She even says she's sorry for saying she's sorry. If we're going by sheer amount, Lloyd and Regal take the cake, though Colette apologizes mostly when she doesn't have to.
* BadassAdorable: Though she doesn't really become badass until after the first seal, when she unlocks her angel powers.
* BarrierMaiden: Her role as the Chosen of Mana is to protect the world from being overrun by Desians. [[spoiler:In reality though, it's much more complicated than that.]]
* BettyAndVeronica: The Betty to Sheena's Veronica ,because she is the sweet and humble childhodfriend.
* BirdsOfAFeather: Despite their wildly different personalities and upbringings, Colette and Zelos quickly get along with each other due to their shared status as Chosen. A skit has Zelos be one of the only people Colette confides in that her usual positive demeanor is mostly her putting on a strong front.
* BodyHorror: [[spoiler: She has an adverse reaction to her Cruxis Crystal, which causes her body to begin crystallizing a grotesque green plating.]]
* BornLucky: Zigzagged. On the one hand, her clumsiness almost always causes good things to happen. On the other hand, she is doomed to a very unfortunate fate as the Chosen.
* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:Subverted. The Desians and angels failed to break Colette, even after she lost her soul and nearly lost her body. They came awfully close, though.]]
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: With Lloyd, if the player chooses to go that route. Regardless, her feelings for him are very clear.
* TheChosenOne: Deconstructed. The constant mounting pressure from all of Sylvarant, [[spoiler:combined with the none-too-small amounts of BodyHorror and [[BreakTheCutie cutie-breaking]] she goes through]], show just what would happen to someone that has the whole world's future riding on their success. She's a StepfordSmiler of the first order, impossibly polite because she feels like she has to be, and keeps quiet about her own problems because she doesn't think she has the right to complain or that they're even worthy of discussing.
* ChurchMilitant: She's essentially a battle priestess, raised to be the Church of Martel's secret weapon. She doesn't really have the attitude though, since she tends to focus on the church's teachings about love and mercy.
* ClingyJealousGirl: She starts to get this way when Lloyd starts paying attention to other girls, asking him if he likes girls "like the princess" when Lloyd comments on how pretty Princess Hilda is, and gets insecure when he proceeds to compliment on all the other female members of the party. [[ObliviousToLove He never picks up on this behavior, of course.]]
* CloudCuckoolander: She's a bit too LiteralMinded when it comes to using metaphors and woefully naïve besides.
* CuteBruiser: She can put up quite a fight, especially once she gains her angel wings. She ends up being one of the best damage dealers in the party once she gains all her skills.
* CuteClumsyGirl:
** It's called a "divine clumsiness" at one point because of her tendency to trip over the ''exact thing'' the party was searching for. She even trips after she gets wings! She also has a tendency to leave [[ImpactSilhouette Colette-shaped holes]] in whatever she crashes into/through, such as in Triet, specifically noted to be the shape of the Chosen of Regeneration.
** "Item Thief! Ugh!" has her stumble over her target, to be followed by "Yay, I got something!" when she successfully steals something.
* TheCutie: Really sweet and really adorable. In the OVA, Zelos can't stop fawning over her because of how adorable she is, and in Tales-of crossover games, [[VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss Tear Grants]] has a CutenessProximity reaction to meeting her.
* DamselInDistress: Colette is kidnapped twice during the course of the game. [[spoiler:Well, three times if she's the VictoriousChildhoodFriend.]] Played straight nearly 24/7 in the anime, in which the other characters don't let her fight for most of it. Much of the plot is also driven trying to cure Colette's various sicknesses, ones she usually refuses to tell the party about. Colette isn't seen in battle until near the very end (although once she does, it's pretty glorious).
* DangerousSixteenthBirthday: Her dangerous journey to save the world starts the day after her 16th birthday.
* DecoyProtagonist: It may be Colette's Journey of Regeneration in the early portion of the game, but ultimately the game is about ''Lloyd'', not her.
* DefinitelyJustACold: For a large part of the game. It... [[BodyHorror isn't.]]
* DevelopersDesiredDate: While any of the party is able to gain 'soulmate' status with Lloyd through player choices, Colette is the easiest character to rack up RelationshipValues with and narratively has the most importance to Lloyd in the main plot, having many cutscenes with Lloyd by default regardless of options.
* TheDitz: She's quite LiteralMinded, misses metaphors, and is generally not too quick on the draw. Take a look at this dialogue, which occurs if Lloyd ends a battle poisoned:
---> '''Lloyd''' - Colette, need cure for poison...\\
'''Colette''' - [[ItsAllAboutMe I'm FINE.]] I'm not poisoned.\\
'''Lloyd''' - No, I mean, ME...
* DoesNotLikeSpam: In fact, it becomes a plot point when she starts eating bell peppers despite disliking them. [[spoiler:It's a sign that she's beginning to lose her humanity, and sense of taste]].
* DropTheHammer: Her Pow Hammer techniques involve her tossing plastic-looking hammers at her target.
* DualWielding: Wields a pair of chakrams.
* EffortlessAmazonianLift: Picks up ''[[TheBigGuy Regal]]'', of all people, and comments that he's lighter than she thought. It's said to be part of her transformation into an angel that she gets SuperStrength.
---> '''Raine:''' "Men are so useless these days."
* EyeColorChange: Colette's blue eyes turn red when she [[spoiler:loses her soul]]; they return to blue later down the road. In the anime adaptation, [[spoiler: her eyes turn green when she is possessed by Martel.]]
* ExtremeDoormat: Despite it being her Journey of Regeneration, she hands a lot of the decisions over to Lloyd during it, such as him picking the teams in Kvar's ranch. Genis even lampshades that she isn't very "Chosen-like."
* FatalFlaw: Pride, or a rather warped form of it. She intentionally hides things from her allies that would have been really useful for them to know as soon as they happened, but she keeps putting things off for the sake of not wanting them to worry. This always blows up in her face, typically at the worst possible time when the heroes really need to focus on something else. [[spoiler:At one point this costs Colette her soul, and very nearly costs her use of her whole body at another.]] It's only after the party scold Colette until they're all blue in the face that she finally gets it. She also has a tendency to always assume that things are happening because of her, since she's the Chosen.
* ForgotICouldFly: A ''chronic'' offender of this trope - a lot of the puzzles in the game could have been solved in about five minutes if Colette had just used her wings.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Especially dogs. In fact, there's a CollectionSidequest for her meeting every dog in the game.
* GenkiGirl: She's high-energy, that's for sure, to the point where even Lloyd can't keep up. [[spoiler:Turns out, she's a StepfordSmiler.]]
* GirlyRun: If you make her your overworld avatar.
* GlassCannon: Out of all the playable characters, she can deal and receive some of the highest damage values in the game, but she has low HP and defences.
* GoldAndWhiteAreDivine: The benevolent chosen of Sylverant, wears a white tunic and has [[HairOfGoldHeartOfGold long flowing blonde hair]].
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:She smiles and thanks Lloyd for being there for her as she's about to lose her soul.]]
* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Sweet, young, innocent and kind with beautiful flowing golden hair.
* HalfHumanHybrid: As the Chosen, she's supposed to be half-angel. Remiel reveals himself as her father after she receives the Oracle. [[spoiler:He's lying. Colette's human father was really her real father and she's mostly human, although her bloodline has been carefully selected for by Cruxis.]]
* HeroicSafeMode: Has a minor one after she [[spoiler:regains her soul.]]
* HesNotMyBoyfriend: During one skit in the [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld sequel,]] Colette is trying (and failing) to stop herself from thinking about Lloyd too much, given the circumstances. Marta quickly asks if they are more than friends, causing her to get flustered, deny it, and run off. Emil questions how Colette could possibly like Lloyd, causing [[ClingyJealousGirl Marta]] to get angry at him.
* HolyHandGrenade: Learns "Angel" class Light spells as she unlocks seals.
%%* AnIcePerson: Through an altered arte.
* IDidntTellYouBecauseYoudBeUnhappy: Her justification for not telling Lloyd or any other party member several of the terrible things she's going through as part of her Journey of Regeneration. It's deconstructed, however, since the more she delays telling anyone her problems, the worse they get.
* ImageSong: Courtesy of her Japanese voice actor Nana Mizuki who also has prolific career as a singer, Colette was given ''two'' songs for the Symphonia OVA. First is ''Uchi e Kaerou'', a song in the vein of a children's lullaby which she sings to Lloyd in the 3rd episode of the OVA and [[DoItYourselfThemeTune serves as the episode's ending theme]], and then ''Omoi no Yukue'' which was relegated to just being a track on the soundtrack CD, but is absolutely gorgeous and represents Colette's character very well.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Good luck getting her to turn to the dark side. She'll even be upset if Lloyd argues against Sheena joining the party, when Sheena had been trying to kill Colette literally every other time they'd met.
* TheIngenue: She's a sweet and sheltered girl who's naive about how the world truly works.
* InnocentBlueEyes: Among her most striking features are her clear blue eyes.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: It's not as apparent at some examples, but there are times when she comes out with this, such as seeing the Tethe'alla bridge being covered in exsphere and remarks that it's "kind of gross-looking". ''Zelos'', of all people, calls her out on this, remarking that it's hardly an appropriate comment considering where exspheres come from. When the party run into him talking to Presea, she also calls Rodyle "creepy", before she knows he's a Desian.
* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: The reason given why she initially tries to stop Lloyd from coming along on her journey. It doesn't work.
* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: She nearly dies several times, and the constant pressure to succeed weighs heavy on her mind.
* KickTheDog: [[spoiler:When Remiel adds insult to injury at the Tower of Salvation. She also performs a ''literal'' dog-kicking moment after losing her soul.]]
* TheKlutz: She's comically clumsy at even basic tasks. It's even one of her titles!
* LiteralMinded: Due to her innocence, it's a RunningGag for her to take expressions literally:
-->'''Tenebrae''': Am I really that much of a stick in the mud?
'''Colette''': I honestly don't see any mud on you. But, what's wrong with mud anyway? Everyone gets a little dirty now and again.\\
'''Marta''': I don't think he meant that sort of mud.\\
'''Colette''': "Well then, what sort of mud did he mean?\\
'''Emil''': No, listen. There was never any mud to begin with.\\
'''Colette''': Oh, so it was more of a muck? Or maybe a slime?
* TheLoad: Because she is TheChosenOne and therefore a LivingMacGuffin, the party are always being pursued by Desians and related forces trying to use her. This, in addition to Colette's refusal to confide in anyone any of her problems mean that the party ends up having to drop what they're doing to help her once they realize that she's suffering. Kratos even lampshades this after Rodyle kidnaps Colette by commenting that he'll soon realize he can't use her as she is now [[spoiler: because her Cruxis Crystal is corrupting her body]]. Later on, when the party find out about Colette's sickness, Cruxis don't have to do anything but sit back and let the group run themselves ragged gathering the ingredients to heal Colette, before they kidnap her ''again.''
* LoveFreak: Especially showcased in the skit when she states that she'll have to ask ''an assassin trying to kill her'' about why she's doing it 'when they become friends'. [[spoiler:Which they eventually do.]]
* LuckBasedMission: [[HolyHandGrenade Judgement]] is a vertical BeamSpam of light beams. With sufficient fortune, Colette can wipe out four enemies consecutively and steal the rest of the party's kills. Otherwise, you'll be lucky to land one hit.
** Her LimitBreak attack Holy Judgment is literally an ''accident'', where when casting Holy Song or Judgment she has a random chance of messing up the incantation and ends up combining the two into one powerful HolyHandGrenade.
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Subverted when it turns out Remiel was lying.]]
* MagikarpPower: Starts off as a low-level JackOfAllStats, becomes very powerful once she starts gaining her [[HolyHandGrenade Angel powers.]]
%%* {{Meido}}: One of her alternate outfits.
* MessianicArchetype: At first [[InvokedTrope invoked]] by others on her behalf, as she is meant to be this as the Chosen One, but eventually played straight under her own free will.
* ModestRoyalty: Colette is basically this being the Chosen, someone from a lineage assigned to save the world and therefore worshipped by everyone around her. But due to the circumstance of Sylvarant being in decline, Colette came from very humble means, growing up in a small village and otherwise living the same type of life as everyone else. This contrasts strongly with Zelos, the Chosen of the flourishing world, where the Chosen is part of the aristocracy and has immense political power.
* NiceGirl: Consistently kind-hearted and sympathetic to everyone. ''Everyone.''
* NotQuiteBackToNormal: The Key Crest returns Colette's sleep, hunger, sense of touch, and voice, but she still keeps her magic, enhanced senses, and strength.
* OneNoteChef: Almost every recipe, when made by her, will involve fruit in some form. This is actually lampshaded in one particular skit in ''Dawn of the New World''.
* PluckyGirl: Never, ever gives up, no matter the setbacks.
* ThePollyanna: She always tries to look on the positive side and help people, even people who arguably don't deserve it, such as Governor-General Dorr.
* PoorCommunicationKills: A lot of problems stem from Colette's refusal to admit something is wrong, such as [[spoiler: her illness which is spreading through her body via a corrupted key crest.]]
* PurityPersonified: Deconstructed. She's just about the sweetest and most selfless human being imaginable, not to mention she is a MessianicArchetype in every sense of the word... and ''she knows it''. So [[StepfordSmiler she deliberately plays up her cheery personality and tries to]] [[BeneathTheMask look happy at every turn because nobody will suspect a thing if she does]]. [[GoneHorriblyRight It works far too well]]. When Lloyd figures out what she's been hiding from him, he goes into the biggest HeroicBSOD of his life. Oh and, one last thing... [[spoiler:she owes her existence to Mithos ''selectively breeding her'' and using the Church of Martel to condition her into being the perfect SoulJar for his sister.]]
* RaisedAsAHost: [[spoiler:Her true purpose as a Chosen is to be Martel's new body, and her family has been specifically bred to allow her to be this.]]
* RedEyesTakeWarning: [[spoiler:After losing her soul. They turn back to their normal color after this wears off.]]
* RingsOfDeath: Wields chakrams as her weapons.
* ShockAndAwe: Her Para Ball, Torrential Para Ball, and Grand Chariot are all lightning-based, making it her second most-used element.
* SidetrackedByTheAnalogy: Often, her confusion will promptly confuse either Lloyd (in [=ToS=]) or Emil (in [=DotNW=]) as well, who don't suffer from it quite as much in skits without her.
* SilkHidingSteel: A girl so sweet and eager to please, yet capable of redirecting her very specific quest into detours by making them ''sound'' like they're part of the quest. She's also physically the strongest of the group until Presea and Regal join.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: The exact reason she adores Lloyd so much.
* SpamAttack: Not as many as Lloyd, but still more than any other party member. In fact, the two of them have a Compound Unison Attack, Stardust Rain, which can deal in the neighborhood of sixty hits on larger enemies.
* SpectacularSpinning: Her "Ring Whirlwind" attack has her spin in place. She also throws spinning chakrams and discs for her weapons.
* StepfordSmiler: Her absolute refusal to address any of her problems causes them to keep getting worse. She even confides to Zelos, her fellow Chosen and also a Stepford Smiler in his own right, that she feels much of her upbeat positive attitude is just talk.
* SuperSenses: Gradually gains these as she evolves into an angel. She gets enhanced vision and hearing, though she does note a few sounds are now really loud to her.
* SuperStrength: A part of her becoming an angel involves getting enhanced strength. At one point, she lifts a full-grown man over her head with one hand.
* TheGlomp: She does this to Lloyd at the beginning of the OVA’s second episode.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: GirlyGirl to [[{{Bokukko}} Sheena's]] {{tomboy}}.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Fruit, of any kind. She somehow puts fruit in basically every recipe she cooks, even in places they don't really belong (though unlike Raine and her habit of cooking with lemons, Colette doesn't turn into a LethalChef because of it).
* UnConfession: In her scene at the Altamira Suite, Colette almost outright confesses to Lloyd, but chickens out at the last second.
-->'''Colette:''' The best! So many wonderful people. I love them all. And Sylvarant and Tethe'alla too.\\
'''Lloyd:''' Yeah.\\
'''Colette:''' But most of all, I love--\\
'''Lloyd:''' Hmm?\\
'''Colette:''' (Blushing) N-nothing! It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. I’ll just, um, I’ll head back to my room now.
* UselessUsefulSpell: Her Sacrifice arte. It heals/resurrects the whole party and deals a good chunk of light-element damage to all enemies. However, it costs 150 TP, making it the most expensive arte in the game, and costs Colette her life.
* VideoGameStealing: Her "Item Thief" ability, which allows her to steal items from her enemies [[TheKlutz by falling on them]]!
* VirginPower: It's how she could approach the unicorn.
* WaifFu: Manages to throw Zelos when meeting him the first time, and can pick up Regal, a tall, muscular convict, ''with one arm''. This is because she mutates into an angel.
* WellDoneDaughterGirl: To Remiel. [[spoiler: Exploited by him. He's not her father but playing along would provide extra encouragement.]]
* WhatTheHellHero: After the party stop the[[spoiler: Mana Tree]], much of Sylvarant has been damaged by its rampage. If you go to some of the cities, such as Asgard, people will get angry with Colette for allowing this to happen. In the Aifread/Lyla sidequest, he calmly points out that Colette chose to abandon Sylvarant in its time of need and ran away to Tethe'alla. Colette herself has no rebuttal for them.
* YouCanAlwaysTellALiar:
-->'''Lloyd:''' ''Stop lying to me! You always do that [[MirthlessLaughter fake giggle]] when you lie.''

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Genis Sage]]
!!'''Genius/Genis Sage'''
!!!Voiced by: Creator/AiOrikasa (JP), Creator/ColleenOShaughnessey (EN, ''Symphonia''), Creator/TaraSands (EN, ''Dawn of the New World'')
[[quoteright:160:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/genis.jpg]]

Lloyd's other childhood friend, Genis is a young elven boy who was raised by his sister.

----

Tropes associated with Genis:
* AdorablyPrecociousChild: Twelve years old, and studies advanced mathematics and crushes the entrance exam to a prestigious university.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Genis is horrified to learn that Zelos is actually very intelligent and better at academics than him. Except it turns out Zelos is only a genius at math, otherwise he got through his classes with top marks though getting all the girls he hit on to take notes for him, give him answers during tests, answer for him at role call, etc. But he is still better at math than Genis.
* AnimeHair: Like his big sister.
** It's implied that this is a rather elvish trait, [[spoiler:as he and Raine are able to pass themselves for half the game as pureblood elves.]]
* TheBabyOfTheBunch: He gets this treatment a lot, particularly early in the game, with Lloyd treating him much like a little brother. His attempts to seem more mature around Presea tend to fail hilariously.
* BadassAdorable: He can conjure up huge storms of fire and lightning, and he's not even a teenager yet!
%%* BigNo / SayMyName: Has a positively heartbreaking one early on. [[spoiler:"Marble...MARBLE! NOOOO!"]]
* BlackMage: He doesn't learn a single healing spell. It puts him at odds with Raine, who is a WhiteMage.
* BlowYouAway: From weak spells like Wind Blade to the powerful Cyclone.
* BrattyHalfPint: Raine usually stops him from getting ''too'' bratty.
* CaptainObvious: Does this a little ''too'' often, for being such an intelligent character...
* ContemplateOurNavels: A late game skit has him muse out loud about his species-inherent [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld longevity of 1000+ years]], wondering how that translates to his short-lived human friends when he finally starts to look old (meaning that all of them have long since passed away). The others then point out that they will live on as long as he remembers them.
* CrazyJealousGuy: He tends to get pretty angry whenever another boy talks to Presea.
* DeadpanSnarker: He can only put up with Lloyd's stupidity for so long.
* DishingOutDirt: Learns several earth-elemental spells.
* DoesNotLikeSpam: He's not a big fan of carrots. According to one of his titles, he's not a big fan of gels either.
* DoggedNiceGuy: To Presea, not that she notices or reciprocates his feelings.
* DudeLooksLikeALady: He's easy to mistake for a prepubescent girl at first, especially since you can't tell he's a boy by his voice.
* FantasticRacism: [[spoiler:Develops this after a while. By then, the only human he seems to like is Lloyd.]]
* {{Fauxshadow}}: [[spoiler:His growing cynicism, his FantasticRacism towards humans, and the revelation that Mithos is a BigBadFriend to him all hint Genis will betray you. He stays loyal to the end.]]
* GibberishOfLove: Genis is not capable of saying a proper line to Presea.
* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler:He's a half-elf. This causes no end of trouble as he tries to keep it a secret.]]
* HeadbuttingHeroes: First with Zelos, calling Zelos an ass after Zelos' EstablishingCharacterMoment. He's also guilty of this with Regal, mostly due to Regal's mysterious connection with Presea. He mellow out towards them both over time, although he doesn't develop the same OddFriendship that Raine and Sheena do.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Lloyd, who he grew up with and considers his best friend. Even after events of the game cause his faith to waver, he still ultimately trusts Lloyd more than just about anyone else.
* AnIcePerson: Ice is one of many elements he wields, but he's notably the ''only'' party member to wield ice apart from Sheena's Ice summon spirit. In the sequel, he's given an Ice attribute.
* ItsAllMyFault: He leaves Iselia when Lloyd is exiled, since he brought Lloyd to the ranch and introduced him to Marble, which kickstarted the entire attack on Iselia.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: He uses a kendama, a Japanese toy that resembles a hammer with a ball on a string on it. He can whack people with the little ball, but he mostly uses it to focus when casting magic. A skit in the [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld the second game]] reveals why: When he, Lloyd and Colette were all children, he was playing with one, when the string broke. This led to Lloyd getting hit with the ball. Colette joked that he "found a weapon" in response to the situation.
* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: For a while, Lloyd was his only friend, because most kids his age are intimidated by his intelligence.
* TheLancer: To Lloyd. Genis is usually the one who has to figure out how to make Lloyd's insane schemes work.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's a bit of a wise-ass, and he has a pretty open contempt for humans. He's still a good kid underneath it all.
* LightEmUp: Prism Sword, the ultimate spell on the Strike path.
* LittleMissSnarker: Little Mr. Snarker: The youngest party member has the most acid tongue.
* LoveAtFirstSight: Falls for Presea the minute the party first encounters her.
* LovingAShadow: He gets a crush on Presea from the moment he sees her because she's "cute", but he's unaware that she's really [[spoiler: twenty-eight years old]] and is pretty much an EmptyShell until her key crest is fixed.
* MakingASplash: Yep, gets water too.
* MeaningfulName: In the original Japanese,''Genius''.
* TheNapoleon: Although he's still young for an elf, Genis is ''very'' self-conscious about his height. In ''Dawn of the New World,'' when he returns, he is happy to say that he grew a ''sixteenth of an inch.''
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Genis trying to help Marble ultimately ended with not only her death, but resulted in Lloyd getting kicked out of Iselia and several people died. Genis leaves Iselia as well because he's just as guilty as Lloyd and he knows it.
* ObliviousGuiltSlinging: Subverted. [[spoiler: Genis tries to subtly guilt Mithos out of betraying the group by constantly re-stating how happy he is that he found another half-elf to be his friend. Mithos even lampshades it, "You shouldn't have trusted me? Good guess, Genis! Because I didn't trust you, either!"]]
* ParentalAbandonment: Though unlike Raine, he doesn't remember them at all.
* PlayingWithFire: His default spell is Fireball, and it's the one he's using all the time in cutscences.
* PinkGirlBlueBoy: His outfit is primarily blue while Presea is pink-haired.
* PracticallyDifferentGenerations: He's 12 and Raine is 23. The age gap may be less signifcant due to their being half-elves, but it still defines their sibling relationship.
* PuppyLove: He has a crush on Presea, but [[spoiler:Presea's 28, she only looks about the same age as him]].
* ShipperOnDeck: He is clearly aware of how Colette feels about Lloyd, but mostly exploits this to tease the latter (On one occasion, Colette goes for a walk, saying she needs some alone time when Lloyd offers to come along, and Genis jokingly says that Lloyd got rejected. In one group victory quote, Colette says that Lloyd looked cool, and Genis responds by questioning Colette’s taste). However, there is one skit where Genis does seem to genuinely be trying to drop hints to [[ObliviousToLove Lloyd]] (Albeit through his usual manner of trolling). [[spoiler: After Colette loses her soul,]] Genis suggests Lloyd tell her he loves her [[spoiler: to get her back to normal. It doesn’t work.]]
-->'''Genis:''' Maybe you should try telling her you love her.\\
'''Lloyd:''' What? Why?\\
'''Genis:''' Oh, you’re so dense. Stop asking questions and just try it.
* ShockAndAwe: His Mystic Arte is Indignation Judgment, a massive thunderbolt.
* ShorterMeansSmarter: The shortest member of the party, and roughly on par with Raine for intelligence.
* TheSmartGuy: Though not as booksmart as Raine, he's certainly got his wits about him.
%%* SomethingAboutARose / BishieSparkle: In the 3rd {{OVA}} bonus.
* SquishyWizard: A purely offensive mage and only a prepubescent boy, he can't take many hits.
* SupremeChef: He'd have to be good at cooking; he'd never survive eating Raine's meals!
* TeenGenius: [[MeaningfulName In Japan, he is even named Genius.]]
* TokenMiniMoe: He's the youngest playable character in the game.
* WhiteHairBlackHeart: Averted, though he's tempted to play it straight as he struggles with Mithos.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: As his house burns, he laments that he thought Iselia was a place where he and Raine could settle down. [[spoiler:He's not actually from Sylvarant to begin with, but was forced to flee through the Otherworldly Gate]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Raine Sage]]
!!'''Refill/Raine Sage'''
!!!Voiced by: Creator/YumiTouma (JP), Creator/KariWahlgren (EN, ''Symphonia''), Creator/TaraPlatt (EN, all other appearances)
[[quoteright:140:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/raine.jpg]]

Genis' [[CoolBigSis older sister]] who [[PromotionToParent took care of him]]. Raine is Iselia's [[SternTeacher schoolteacher]], and she leaves to accompany Colette on her journey before Lloyd and Genis do. She starts off as very cynical, but [[DefrostingIceQueen over the course of the game]], she trusts Lloyd more and more to achieve his idealistic world.

----

Tropes associated with Raine:
* AdventurerArchaeologist: Averted; although she gets incredibly excited about ancient ruins, she usually insists on their preservation.
* AgentScully: A minor example, but she is very skeptical when Sheena first explains she is from Tethe'alla, even though Sheena possesses the lost summoning arts. Admittedly, it is possible to see that scene before the pact with Undine (and the only other summon she has at that time, Corrine, isn't exactly a Mystic Arte).
* AngstComa: In the anime. Kind of handwaved as being from illness, but the timing was very convenient at a properly angsty moment.
* ArtificialStupidity: She has a very poor idea of who deserves priority for her single-target buffs, often casting Sharpness/Keenness (which boost physical attack power) on herself and Genis (who are almost exclusively casters) before someone useful like Lloyd or Presea (who are exclusively physical fighters).
* BadassBookworm: In a WhiteMage sort of way.
* BerserkButton: People trying to do harm to ruins will regret it very soon... She is also not pleased when she catches Lloyd and Genis skipping school at the Martel Temple.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Loves technology and ancient artifacts a little ''too'' much at times...and is still by far the greatest scholar in Sylvarant.
* CharacterFilibuster: Casually belittling historical events is practically ''begging'' for lecture. During one scene, she starts a long-winded lecture about an ancient site. After a few sentences, the game lets you wander around while she continues. Her lecture doesn't stop until you stumble upon some guys trying to blow the site up, even if you reach the end of it... because Colette asks her to repeat it.
* ChekhovsBoomerang: During the party's first night at Triet, Raine pulls out a pile of old ruin pieces, all of which either were mentioned earlier or get mentioned later:
** A jeweled sword from the Martel Temple, where her ruin mania was first implied;
** A holy vase from the Balacruf Masoleum, which [[PricelessMingVase Zelos knocks over]] just as the party is thinking that [[StatusQuoIsGod maybe she'll calm down]];
** A priest's crown from the Asgard ruins, sold to Koton to get the last Devil's Arm;
* CombatMedic: She's very poor in physical combat, but her [[LightEmUp Photon and Ray]] spells (''especially'' Ray) have very good offensive capabilities.
* CombatPragmatist: Not a physical fighter, but Raine certainly has the right mindset. To increase her RelationshipValues, you must make pragmatic choices, such as saying that Sheena's an enemy, or the journey of regeneration takes precedence over freeing the prisoners at the Palmacosta ranch.
* CoolBigSis: To Genis and, as a TeamMom, kinda to the rest of the party too.
* DeadpanSnarker: Easily one of the snarkiest.
-->'''Raine''': Men are so useless these days.
* DefrostingIceQueen: She starts as one of the most cynical party members, but Lloyd's idealism rubs off on her.
* TheDreaded: No one wants to get on her bad side, and those who don't know her learn the ''hard'' way. Lloyd and Genis fear her the most, giving Genis butt slaps and giving Lloyd a kick on the ribs that sends him ''flying to the wall.''
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: A downplayed example, but Lloyd and Colette still call her "Professor" long after she stops being their teacher.
* ForScience: PlayedForLaughs a lot of the time, but she gets ''very'' excited over Ruins. In Tethe'alla, she's similarly enthusiastic about its technology and Summon Spirits. She even jokingly mentions wanting to do tests on Corrine, and later to Lloyd's horror, suggests ''dissecting Noishe'' when [[spoiler: she finds out that Noishe is not a dog, but a primitive, mythical, constantly evolving organism called a 'Protozoan']].
* FreudianExcuse
** Her fascination on old ruins and civilizations? [[spoiler:One skit after the reunion scene in Exire theorizes that she was trying to find the Otherworldly Gate, and by extension, her parents.]]
** [[spoiler:Her fear of water is also connected to this, as once when escaping the Imperial Research Lab, she fell off the boat she was on with her parents and almost drowned.]]
* HalfHumanHybrid: She's a half-elf. She claims to be an elf to avoid the racist implications.
* GadgeteerGenius: She's the only one in the party who's literate with [[{{Magitek}} magitechnology]], which has supposedly been unused in Sylvarant, besides by the Desians, since the GreatOffscreenWar.
* GetAholdOfYourselfMan: Frequently does this for the other characters, as she is probably the most rational member of the group, outside of Kratos and Regal.
* HeadTurningBeauty: Raine gets less overt {{fanservice}} moments than Sheena, but she has a ''lot'' of admirers. She had fanclub in Iselia made up mostly of her students, which causes this to overlap with SexyMentor. She later gains a fanclub in Asgard, too, which might have something to do with the outfit she was wearing when she released the Wind Spirit.
* HeroicBSOD: Has a minor one in Palmacosta after [[spoiler:you defeat Kilia and Dorr dies. She can be heard asking herself, "My healing arts cannot save a single life?"]]
* IcyBlueEyes: Reflecting her clear-headed, pragmatic personality.
* {{Irony}}: TheMedic of the group is also the most violent.
* TheLeader: Directs the team initially. She eventually hands the reins over to Lloyd once he steps up.
* LethalChef: [[CordonBleughChef Because she always experiments by adding bizarre ingredients]]; [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in-game when she earns the "Passable Chef?" title for maxing out her cooking skill. Part of her problem is that she tries to invent new ways to cook or different dishes, but she also has some odd obsession with adding lemons to dishes where they don't belong. Genis mentions that it's because of his cooking that they're even alive.
* LightEmUp: Her three attack spells: Photon, Ray, and Holy Lance.
* LoveInformant: During a conversation with Lloyd, Presea mentions that Raine told her about Genis’s feelings for her.
* KickChick: Not in battle, but in several cutscenes she kicks people who piss her off (Lloyd being the first person). In Asgard she kicks Harley in the stomach [[RunningGag three times]] in the same scene!
* MarriedToTheJob: Raine continues to give Lloyd, Colette, and Genis lessons and homework over the course of the journey, despite all the traveling and misadventures they're getting into.
* TheMedic: Kratos, Zelos, and Regal all also have healing abilities, but Raine is The Medic of the lot. Subverts the pacifism aspect of the trope, being one of the more cold and pragmatic members of the party. Notably, the teens have to do some arm-twisting before she is willing to heal an apparent enemy ([[spoiler:Sheena]]).
* MissingMom: [[spoiler:You can find her in a sidequest. Raine does not take it well.]]
* MrExposition: Fittingly for a teacher, Raine is the character who provides most of the early information about how the Symphonia world works.
* NatureAdoresAVirgin: [[spoiler:Potentially. In the quest where the heroes must choose a pure maiden to make contact with a submerged unicorn, she says she can't do it herself and either Sheena or Colette must do so. When pressed on the issue, she merely replies "I'm an adult," leading Lloyd and Genis to [[ChasteHero stare at each other in utter confusion with comically blank looks on their faces]]. Though it could just be because of her dislike of water, rather than the obvious implication.]]
* NotSoAboveItAll:
** She is mostly calm and collected, but the group sees her less mature side when she comes across the Triet ruins for the first time. She [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes reacts poorly]] when it turns out to get to the Water Seal, you have to get there by riding a washtub.
** She's easily the smartest member of the party, but she still falls for traps at times, such as commenting after [[spoiler: Kratos's betrayal]] that she knew something was odd about him but never voiced her suspicions, and she is also blindsided by [[spoiler: Mithos and Zelos's plans]] as well.
* OddFriendship: With Sheena. At first, the two come off as HeadbuttingHeroes, but they eventually become a lot closer and supportive, such as Sheena rushing to help save Raine and Genis in Tethe'alla, and when Raine attempts to calm Sheena down in the temple of lightning.
* ParentalAbandonment: [[spoiler:Her father is dead and her mother lives, but has since forgotten that she's older than an infant after abandoning her to protect her from the Imperial Research Academy]].
* PersonalityPowers: As mentioned above, she's a notable aversion, as she is a healer and uses light-based magic, but is something of a SugarAndIcePersonality with a pragmatic, occasionally severe approach to things, [[spoiler:such as she and Regal agreeing that sacrifices must be made for Lloyd to defeat Yggdrasill, even though they know Lloyd himself would never agree to it.]] She also is happy to dish out a DopeSlap to Lloyd or Genis whenever they behave immaturely, which ironically makes her one of the most violent members of the group.
* PracticallyDifferentGenerations: She's 23 and Genis is 12. The age gap may be less significant due to their being half-elves, but it still defines their sibling relationship.
* PromotionToParent: After she and Genis lost their parents, she took it upon herself to raise him. Genis was only a newborn, so she's the only 'parent' he's ever known. Considering that the siblings are [[PracticallyDifferentGenerations 11 years apart]], Raine has been parenting him since she was still a child herself.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives one to [[spoiler: Her mother, Virginia, for abandoning her and Genis, if you encounter her in the completely-optional floating city of Exire. It doesn't take, owing to Virginia being mentally ill, and Raine runs out in tears.]]
* {{Schoolmarm}}: She's the sole teacher at what looks to be Iselia's only schoolhouse.
* SecretKeeper: [[spoiler: She's the only one of the party (except Kratos) who knew that becoming an Angel meant that Colette would die. She kept quiet about it on Colette's request, but also because the world had to be regenerated.]]
* SelfMadeMan: A skit reveals that despite being a schoolteacher for a small town, Raine never formally attended school herself. She got to her position through sheer willpower to study on her own and take the necessary testing for her qualifications.
* SenseiChan: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in that unlike most examples of this trope, Raine for the most part behaves like how you'd expect a proper teacher would towards her students (except maybe when she gets violent...). Most of the characters call her "Professor", even those she didn't personally teach. Her mature personality makes it easy to forget that she's only 6 years older than Lloyd, an age gap almost the same as the one he has with Genis, and therefore technically she could also be considered one of his childhood friends.
* TheSmartGirl: Extremely well-read and a quick, logical thinker.
* SternTeacher: She is noted for being cool, strict, and practical, and even smacking her students around when they're being particularly stupid. Which makes it a very sweet moment when, late in the game, she admits that she's so hard on Lloyd in particular because she knows he's strong enough to handle it, and wants to see him grow up strong.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: Mostly cold and detached, you can sometimes see her earnest love poking through. Especially if Lloyd romances her.
* TeacherStudentRomance: Defied. [[LovableSexManiac Zelos]] certainly ''fantasises'' that this is the case but, while she has a fan-club of young students, Raine doesn't go for the younger man... [[RelationshipValues unless you max out her relationship value with Lloyd]].
* TeamMom: She's the most likely to get on people's cases for messing around too much. She and Regal are also the ones who have the private conversation about how Lloyd ''must'' succeed, even if it requires some {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s along the way. One of her titles is "Sisterly Love", where Genis trips in the Triet Ruins and has Raine both scolding and fussing over him. Lloyd mentions he can't tell if she's angry or relieved, and the title description calls Raine both a mother and a sister to Genis. This makes sense, since she literally raised Genis herself from a baby and he admits he doesn't remember his parents.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Apparently lemons, for some reason. If one pays attention to the ingredients she uses when she cooks, she inexplicably puts lemons in many recipes, even ones where they probably don't belong. This seems to tie in with why she's the party's resident LethalChef.
* VirginPower: PlayedWith. When approaching the Unicorn, the group suggest using Raine, but she refuses and alludes to the idea she isn't a virgin anymore. However, its also implied that her real reason was because the Unicorn was in the water, so she made it up to get out of doing it.
* WhiteMage: She's the best healer in the game, bar none. No one else even comes close, to the point that she's practically required to be in the party late-game to keep you alive.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: She really doesn't do very well around water. Ironically, the sequel made this her elemental affinity.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Kratos Aurion]]
!!'''Kratos Aurion'''
!!!Voiced by: Creator/FumihikoTachiki (JP), Creator/CamClarke (EN)
[[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kratos.jpg]]

A [[TheStoic stoic]] mercenary who just happens to be passing through the vicinity to save the Chosen's life and be offered the job of protecting her during her journey. Kratos speaks [[TheQuietOne little]], smiles [[PerpetualFrowner less]], and gets angry once every blue moon; this, combined with his superb swordsmanship, makes him the epitome of badass according to Genis, but a perpetual thorn in Lloyd's side, who tries his best to earn the older man's respect.

----

Tropes associated with Kratos:
* AloofBigBrother: Plays this role against Lloyd during the Journey of Regeneration, despite not being his brother. Lloyd himself seems to Lampshade this during one of their training sessions. Though, Lloyd says Kratos is a little old to be his brother. [[LittleDidIKnow Little did he know]]...
* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:Between {{Mercy Kill}}ing his wife, causing Mithos to go completely insane over his grief about Martel, and keeping the whole scheme going, he has a lot to atone for.]]
* BadassArmfold: Does this in cutscenes quite often.
* BerserkButton: The Desians' tendency to refer to humans as "inferior beings" really pisses him off. [[spoiler: As it turns out, this is because his wife was an escapee from a Desian Human Ranch, and was killed when they tried to get her back.]] He's also oddly protective of Lloyd, and doesn't take kindly to him being hurt. [[spoiler: He ''is'' [[PapaWolf his son]] so in retrospect not that surprising.]]
* BishieSparkle: In the {{OVA}} bonuses, sometimes, when he appears accompánied by sparkles and [[SomethingAboutARose roses]] in the background.
* BlowYouAway: Learns Wind Blade.
* BodyguardCrush: The ''Tales of Fandom 2'' DVD reveals that he has feelings for [[spoiler:a princess]] whom he protected before he met Lloyd. [[spoiler:Four-thousand years before.]]
* ButNowIMustGo: [[spoiler:Much to Lloyd's chagrin, he leaves with the rest of the angels at the end of the game.]]
* CharacterNarrator: But just at the beginning of the game. After the opening cutscene, there's no more.
* CombatMedic: He has basic healing spells, [[HealerSignsOnEarly which are quite useful before]] [[WhiteMagicianGirl Raine]] joins your party.
* TheComicallySerious: His overly serious attitude is played for laughs at time, mostly seen in skits and optional scenes.
%%* CoolOldGuy: Despite being 28. [[spoiler:Give or take 4000 years.]]
* CrutchCharacter: Kratos has the highest starting stats and base stat growth in the game and is a MagicKnight JackOfAllTrades capable of just about everything. However, he lacks deep specialization and, when they get titles that boost their stat growth, the rest of the party will bypass him in their own specialties. [[spoiler:He also isn't usable past the Journey of Regeneration unless you reject seeing everyone else at Flanoir.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: More heavy on the deadpan than the snark, but he has his moments.
* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:"Looks like I've failed to die once more."]]
* DemotedToExtra: He's the only playable party member to not come back in the sequel, outside of an easy to miss cameo, most of which can't be seen on the first playthrough.
* DishingOutDirt: Learns a couple of earth spells.
%%zce* DoesNotLikeSpam: Just like Lloyd. It's one of the few things they have in common.
%%* DoubleAgent: [[spoiler:For Yggdrasill]].
* DoubleMeaning: He does this a ''lot'', which makes sense given how much he actually does know. For example, in Triet, Lloyd catches Kratos outside with Noishe. Despite Kratos [[BlatantLies claiming not to like animals]], Lloyd remarks Noishe seems very comfortable with him. Kratos replies, "I once had a pet, long ago." [[spoiler: That's because Noishe ''was'' his pet.]]
* DuelBoss: [[spoiler:Against Lloyd, the two of them battle in the elves' forest.]]
* EmpoweredBadassNormal: [[spoiler:Kratos was originally just a normal human, meaning he lacked the ability to use magic. Being given a Cruxis Crystal allowed him to gain the power to use magic, but even with that he primarily fights without it]].
* EnigmaticMinion: [[spoiler:Despite betraying the party and revealing himself to be one of Yggdrasill's seraphim, Kratos frequently provides crucial advice to Lloyd. It eventually turns out that Kratos is working against Cruxis. He's simply sick of everything Mithos is doing to revive Martel, and plans to have Mithos stopped for good.]]
* EvilCostumeSwitch: [[spoiler:After TheReveal. You can have him put it back on with the proper title.]]
* {{Expy}}: If you compare this game to ''Final Fantasy X'', he's an obvious one of Auron being the aloof mercenary with a DarkAndTroubledPast. [[spoiler: He could also be one of [[FallenHero Jecht]] given that he works for the BigBad but as a SpannerInTheWorks, is somewhat abusive to his son, and is TheAce that Lloyd wants to be like and surpass. He's arguably nicer than Jecht was, at any rate, and that all his seemingly abusive moments with his son were just to toughen him up like Jecht.]]
%%* FallenHero: [[spoiler:Just like everyone else in Mithos's group, although Kratos is the most aware of it.]]
%%* FakeDefector: [[spoiler:And quite sneaky about it too, playing both sides as part of his plan to end Mithos'.]]
%%* TheFatalist: Initially. Lloyd's idealism shakes him out of it.
* GuestStarPartyMember: [[spoiler:Returns briefly a while after his HeelFaceTurn. Notably, it's the only time he and Zelos can be in the party together.]]
* GuileHero: [[spoiler:His plan to let a human wield the Eternal Sword relies on him repeatedly betraying the party and playing both sides so that he can finally [[DeathSeeker die]]. It's [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor never really clear what side he's on]] until the end, and although it is his sword skills that are commented on the most, his plotting does a lot more to drive the story forward.]]
* GuiltComplex: [[spoiler:Parodied in [[https://www.deviantart.com/sleepyotter/art/It-s-not-your-fault-Kratos-138496735 this fan comic.]]]]
* HairColorDissonance: His hair goes from being burgundy (like his in-game model) in the first four [=OVAs=] to redder and redder. It's completely bright red in the last episode. His hair is also often brown instead of red in fanart.
* HeadsIWinTailsYouLose: Kratos' second fight. You're not required to win; and good luck trying to do that on your first playthrough.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: [[spoiler:Starts as a face, turns heel, turns semi-face, then back to heel, then full face again.]]
* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Though it's not immediately obvious [[spoiler: he knows well he's a FallenHero, is wracked with guilt over having to MercyKill his lover, and feels he is undeserving of being [[IdealHero Lloyd]]'s father. It's to the point he's a DeathSeeker due to how poorly he thinks of himself.]]
%%* HolyHandGrenade: Judgement.
* ILetYouWin: [[spoiler:Is supposedly holding back in the first two fights with him. Of course, you might not actually win the fairly difficult battles. That said, the fact the party isn't dead despite everything does suggest Lloyd is right that he holds back.]]
%%* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: [[spoiler:Twenty-eight, but close enough.]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He wants the world to be saved as much as anyone in Colette's close-knit group of friends. Doesn't mean he has to be nice about it.
* JerkassHasAPoint: When the party arrive at the Tower of Salvation and are shocked that [[spoiler: it's the same as the one in Sylvarant]], Kratos appears and tells them that this should have been obvious and tells them they've pretty much done Cruxis a favour by bringing Colette straight to them.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: He gets a good attack on Magnius in Palmacosta, which is enough to force him to retreat. Also when he kills Kvar, until it's revealed that he's [[spoiler:[[RoaringRampageOfRevenge avenging his wife.]]]] Has another one of these with [[spoiler: Remiel. After the party defeats him, he implores Kratos for aid, who very calmly lets Remiel die.]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Remiel''': Lord Kratos, have pity on me. Please... lend me your aid!]]\\
'''Kratos''':[[spoiler: Have you forgotten, Remiel? I used to be of the inferior race, a human. Does the ultimate being seek help from that which he despises most?]]
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Is actually Yuan that reveals this, Kratos did figure it out in Iselia, but never told Lloyd because he knew wouldn't be too pleased finding his biological father was alive and was never with him most of his life, though in all fairness Kratos didn't know Lloyd was alive till he found him in Iselia.]]
* MagicKnight: Kratos has the ability to use magic and also is good with a sword. He leans more towards the knight side of it though, as while he has the same rough arte list as Zelos, Kratos' overall stats focus more on the strength side of things.
* MayflyDecemberRomance: [[spoiler:He's an angel who lived for thousands of years, yet fell in love and married a human woman with a normal lifespan.]]
* MementoMacGuffin: Has a locket which contains a picture of [[spoiler:him with his wife and child. [[RelationshipValues If the player views a certain scene]], he gives it to Lloyd and the locket just happens to protect him from an arrow.]]
* TheMole: [[spoiler:For Cruxis. The party learns way too late to stop him from turning.]]
* MysteriousParent: [[spoiler:He's Lloyd's dad, and his true motives are an enigma.]]
%%* NobleTopEnforcer: [[spoiler:To Mithos.]]
* NotSoStoic: Becomes uncharacteristically angry upon meeting Kvar. [[spoiler:And for a very [[ItsPersonal good reason.]]]]
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: The reason he's joins you for the Journey of Regeneration. Raine has a skit with him where she suspects ulterior motives, and Kratos only restates this point over and over. [[spoiler: She's actually right]].
* OpenEndedBossBattle: His first battle is played up as {{hopeless|BossFight}}, but it's "merely" very difficult. With skillful play, the benefits of a NewGamePlus, and/or use of an All-Divide, you can win, though Lloyd immediately points out that [[ILetYouWin he was obviously holding back]].
* OptionalPartyMember: He'll rejoin the party permanently only if Lloyd chooses to reject everyone else in Flanoir.
* OverratedAndUnderleveled: He's consistently treated as much much stronger than the rest of the party when in cutscenes, but in gameplay-terms he only starts out 2-3 levels higher than Lloyd, Genis and Colette. [[spoiler:His boss form, meanwhile, represents how it is when he's not holding back.]]
* PapaWolf: [[spoiler:Subverted at the beginning of the game where, despite himself knowing the fact that Lloyd is his son, he acts like a total jerkass towards him and only warms up over time, yet he still doesn't help when Lloyd looks like he's going to be killed by Yggdrasill. Fortunately, later in the game, he throws himself in front of Lloyd to shield him from a deadly attack, does a full HeelFaceTurn for his sake, and is revealed he'd done a lot of backstage planning to help the heroes achieve their goal.]] [[spoiler:He actually may have cared the whole time, as, when used by AI and put on free command, he is the one who spams Lloyd with First Aid more than anyone else.]]
** [[spoiler:In a {{OVA}}, he delivers quite a smack down to Sheena after she threatened to kill a defeated Lloyd.]]
** It's implied that [[spoiler: as Yggdrasill was his student, he's also still something of a PapaWolf to him as well. He's basically choosing between two "sons" and in the end he picks Lloyd at the cost of Mithos dying.]]
* PerpetualFrowner: And when he does smile, it's usually a bitter thing.
* PetTheDog: In spite of his gruff personality, he still mentors Lloyd when he tags along on the Journey of Regeneration. Also, he was hired to protect Colette, but he agrees to healing Sheena when the party encounters her in a devastated Luin, despite the fact she's a hired assassin and [[spoiler: from Tethe'alla, which the party isn't supposed to know exists.]]
* PlayingWithFire: Knows Fireball from the moment he joins, and can also learn Eruption and Hell Pyre.
* PunctuatedForEmphasis / [[PunctuatedPounding Punctuated Slashing]]: "Feel the pain! Of those 'inferior beings!' As you burn in Hell!"
* TheQuietOne: Only says as much as he needs to.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler:Just like Mithos and the rest.]]
* RecurringBoss: [[spoiler: Though most encounters with him are {{Hopeless Boss Fight}}s.]]
%%zce* RedOniBlueOni: To Lloyd's Red Oni.
* RunningGag: Kratos is often late to important events, parodied a bit in OVA's bonuses. In fact, his [[EstablishingCharacterMoment very first scene is him arriving just in time to stop the game's first boss attacking Lloyd.]]
* SharpDressedMan: His "Tales Series" bonus costume is [[VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2 Ludger Will Kresnik]]'s suit and tie, to compensate for the fact that it's impossible for him to participate in the Meltokio party. Given his lack of storyline titles, he'll probably be wearing this for most Sylvarant if you've got Tales data.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Exhibits tendencies of this trope from the very beginning. As you get further out in the game, the party learns that he has a very, very long and rocky history to explain it.
* ShockAndAwe: Learns Lightning and Thunder Blade, and has a few sword techniques and Compound Unisons of this element.
* SourSupporter: He spends most of the Journey of Regeneration in a perpetually annoyed state, not helped by half the party being essentially random schoolchildren. During the Journey he also has a skit with Lloyd where he calls the whole Journey of Regeneration a colossal waste of time, which if Lloyd calls him out on it leads him to explain that even if Colette ''does'' succeed the world will inevitably decay again and another Chosen has to go on another Journey, so what sort of rotten system is Cruxis running in the first place? [[spoiler:It's the first of many hints that he's not entirely happy with the path Mithos took.]]
* StakingTheLovedOne: [[spoiler:When he and his wife Anna where cornered by Kvar, she had her Exsphere removed and turned into a monster and almost killed the infant Lloyd. Kratos was forced to MercyKill her while she had a moment of lucidity.]]
* StealthMentor: To Lloyd. He constantly berates Lloyd's lack of actual skill, but his advice does genuinely stick all the same.
* TheStoic: He's a cold and unemotional man most of the time. He starts to lose the facade later in the game.
* StoicSpectacles: Unusual example in that he does not regularly wear glasses, nor is there any hint of him having vision problems, but he fits this trope to a tee the few times he's shown with them.
* SupernaturallyYoungParent: [[spoiler:He stopped aging about 4000 years ago when he was 28, but his youthful appearance is still discussed in one conversation.]]
%%* TeamDad: Mostly to Lloyd, but does it towards Genis, Colette and Sheena too.
* TooManyBelts: Especially in his judgment costume. So much so it became a fandom in-joke that he has a belt fetish.
* TryNotToDie: "Don't die, Lloyd." Then, in the ending, "[[spoiler:Don't die before I do, Lloyd, my son.]]"
* WalkingSpoiler: As we're sure you can tell, there's a lot about him that gets revealed throughout the story.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sheena Fujibayashi]]
!!'''Sheena Fujibayashi'''
!!!Voiced by: Creator/AkemiOkamura (JP), Creator/JenniferHale (EN, ''Symphonia''), Creator/MeganHollingshead (EN, ''Dawn of the New World'')
[[quoteright:175:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sheena.jpg]]

Sheena starts as a sympathetic [[DarkActionGirl antagonist]]; her first attempt to kill Colette fails due [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain to her own clumsiness]], and subsequent meetings highlight her niceness and sincerity as a person. It comes as no surprise when she joins the party after discovering [[HumanResources what's going on in Sylvarant human farms]]. Later, she reveals she comes from the ninja village of [[{{Wutai}} Mizuho]], from the parallel world of Tethe'alla; in spite of her attachment to her world and her village, she consistently picks the 'right' choice over blindly following her orders, even when she knows she will be punished for it. Her powers as a Summoner are essential to the second half of the game.

----

Tropes associated with Sheena:
* ActionGirl: A tough, athletic, fast-hitting ninja who leaps into battle and kicks ass.
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: The [=OVA=] portrayed her as a serious, enigmatic figure throughout the Sylvarant arc of the story. Compare that to the game, where she's a comically inept antagonist, and far more forthcoming with information to the rest of the cast. Her more comedic aspects surface once Zelos joins the party, however.
* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: Sheena's relationship with Zelos in the OVA is less overtly strained than in the game. The game gives the impression that the two of them had a falling out in the past and are barely on speaking terms when Zelos first joins the party, while in the OVA they still seem to be solid friends, although Sheena beats him up when he annoys her regardless. At the very least, she's more comfortable in his presence and is more inclined to communicate with him normally, compared to her more conflicted reactions to him in the game.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Since she is not a Mizuho native by birth, but the adopted daughter of the Chief, she never quite felt like she belonged in the village. [[spoiler: The incident with Volt made this so much worse.]]
* AsianAirhead: {{Downplayed|Trope}}, but it's there. She has - by a long shot - the second-lowest test score at the Palmacosta Academy, she takes Genis seriously when he jokingly claims to use fire magic to cook, and her clumsiness is very much PlayedForLaughs. She makes up for it by being a badass.
* BadassBoast: At the Temple of Lightning:
--->'''Sheena''': For the sake of everyone who risked their lives to protect me, Volt - ''I demand your power!"''
* BelligerentSexualTension: With Zelos, in a way that's almost entirely one-sided on his part, although small moments show that her relationship with and perception of him is complicated. He flirts with her to an obnoxious degree which she clearly can't stand, but she takes to heart his more serious moments of concern, and deep down she does at least consider him a friend.
* BerserkButton: [[spoiler: When Volt kills Corrine, she ''SNAPS''.]] She gets angry at sexist remarks, as well.
* BettyAndVeronica: The Veronica to Colette's Betty, because she is a mysterious asassin from another world. After that gets settled, the issue doesn't come up much.
* BigDamnHeroes: At Kvar's ranch when she saves everyone from being captured. She's also the one who busts the party out of the Imperial Research Academy.
* BlowYouAway: Only in the sequel, where wind becomes her primary element.
* BookDumb: She's not stupid and has plenty of common sense, but her academic knowledge leaves a lot to be desired. She has the second-lowest score on the Palmacosta Academy entrance exam. This is partly because Mizuho doesn't have a formal school, and partly because she's from an entirely different world (Presea also gets a relatively low score for the latter reason).
* BuxomBeautyStandard: She has a sizable chest, earning the attention of guys and the envy of girls. She even gets a Title about it when she bathes in the hot springs and all the girls comment on her figure.
* CannotSpitItOut: She has romantic feelings for Lloyd, but can never muster the courage to confess it, especially in her ending.
* CastingAShadow: The only party member capable of [[DarkIsNotEvil dark attacks]], either directly by summoning Shadow or by applying the dark attribute to others.
* CharacterDevelopment: Compare her first pact with Undine to later and she has much more confidence in her abilities and herself.
* CuteClumsyGirl: Not as much as [[TheKlutz Colette]], or, rather, she's not so much clumsy as it is there's a running gag of trap doors opening under her.
* DaddysGirl: Well, adoptive Grandfather, but she's very close to the Chief of Mizuho and refers to him as 'Grandpa'.
* DeadpanSnarker: Mostly towards Zelos, though you can usually count on Sheena to have some sassy remark up her sleeves.
* DeathDealer: She uses cards as her weapons. She also uses them to curse her opponents with debuffs.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Apparently, Mizuho tradition dictates that a proven liar must swallow a thousand needles. Pick Sheena's ending, and she threatens to invoke it on Lloyd if he doesn't let her come along on his Exsphere hunt. Subverted as she was just kidding.
* DualBoss: Fights alongside a guardian when you face her as a boss. Also justifies her RedemptionDemotion: She ran out of guardian seals right before she joins the party!
* FragileSpeedster: She's quick and agile and can dish a lot of damage, but has low health and defense. She's also not the fastest character in the game, that'd be [[LightningBruiser Lloyd]].
* {{Foil}}:
** To Colette, in some ways. Both are idealistic women doing questionable things (to themselves or others) to save their world. They're both kind of clumsy. And, not coincidentally, they're the most popular female love interests.
** She's also this to Lloyd himself directly, being someone who refuses to make sacrifices for the "good of the world" [[spoiler: and were adopted and raised by people who are considered 'outsiders', Lloyd by a dwarf and Sheena by the village of Mizuho]]. Her character is essentially built to be the Lloyd to Zelos's Colette, being a long-time, opposite-gender friend of the 'Chosen One' who is well-meaning, book-dumb (Sheena actually gets the lowest test score next to Lloyd at the Palmacosta Academy) and who the respective Chosen has an emotional attachment towards. However, her relationship with Zelos is fraught with tension compared to Lloyd's very close relationship to Colette.
* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Taking the Hard Path and getting Sheena early on will result in extra scenes, dialogue, and more foreshadowing.
* GlassCannon: Hits hard, but her defence is lacking.
* GoodThingYouCanHeal: Her summoning skills get the party out of bad situations several times, most notably when they jump off the Grand Tethe'alla bridge.
* HappilyAdopted: By the chief of Mizuho, who loves her as his own.
* HeadTurningBeauty: Lampshaded mercilessly by Zelos. Sheena herself tends to get uncomfortable or defensive when people hit on her, which makes sense since she was treated like an outsider growing up, much like Lloyd was in Iselia.
* HeelFaceTurn: She starts off trying to kill Colette the first few times they meet. She comes around after learning what the Journey of World Regeneration is really like, and that there might be a way to SaveBothWorlds.
* HeroAntagonist: For the Journey of Regeneration, since she's trying to save her world from a dark age and assault by the Desians, and it's quite clear she's having second thoughts upon seeing how bad draining mana is for Sylverant.
* HeroicBSOD: Has one in the Temple of Lightning when [[spoiler: Corrine dies]]. She does managed to snap out of it when Lloyd gives her a GetAholdOfYourselfMan speech, but several Z-skits imply she's pretty emotionally shattered for a small while after.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Tries to do this at the Otherwordly Gate, offering to let Kuchinawa kill her in exchange for letting everyone else go. [[AllLovingHero Lloyd]], [[JerkWithAHeartofGold Zelos]] and [[MessianicArchetype Colette]] are not exactly happy with this, but luckily, they manage to escape to Sylvarant before Sheena can go through with it.]] Happens again in [[spoiler: Welgaia, when she falls through a trap intended for Lloyd. Like everyone else, she catches up before the final battle.]]
* HighlyVisibleNinja: Granted, she never self-identifies as one, but her clan has a few much more practical, traditional ninja within it, so she really stands out. Even if that wasn't the case, she still wears a glaring purple outfit with a vibrant pink sash.
* HitmanWithAHeart: She was sent to Sylvarant to kill Colette, after all, but she just can't go through with it.
* IAmNotPretty: Despite being very attractive, Sheena doesn't think highly of her looks at all, which may have something to do with how she was ostracised in Mizuho after the Volt incident.
* InformedEquipment: In cutscenes her preferred summon (besides Corrine) is Undine, though this is partly because Undine is the only Summon Spirit Sheena is required to get early in the game, whereas the player can opt to get Sylph and Efreet much later on so Undine might well be the only one Sheena ''can'' summon until the Tethe'alla portion of the game starts. Even so she does seem to get along witn [[NiceGuy Undine]] the best out of all of the summon spirits; it probably helps that Undine is the polar opposite of Volt, the Spirit that put Sheena off her summoning abilities in the first place.
%%* {{Kamehamehadoken}}: Her "impression of the Mana Cannon", though it leaves her extremely drained.
%%* LetsGetDangerous: After Volt [[spoiler:kills Corrine]].
%%* LightEmUp: The only one she learns naturally which ''isn't'' a summon.
* MinionWithAnFInEvil: During the Journey of Regeneration. Although she's trying to kill Colette, her villain cred is severely dented by her taking time off from Chosen-killing shenanigans to go on a SideQuest to heal an injured man and play hide-and-seek with the children of Luin. For double irony points you have to help her with the former, though it does prove to be plot-related as Pietro knows how to sneak into Kvar's human ranch. You can also find her in one of the Houses of Martel, where she is praying for the protection of Tethe'alla.
* MsFanservice: In contrast to the rest of the female party members, she's visibly quite curvy, with a low-neckline on her kimono that completely exposes her bra and well-endowed chest. And that's not getting into her alternate costumes.
* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler: Her failure to make a pact with Volt, who killed a quarter of Mizuho's population and put her surrogate father in a coma. Not to mention, Sheena was only ''seven years old'' when this happened.]]
* NavelDeepNeckline: Her swimsuit has a plunging neckline that reaches her stomach.
* {{Ninja}}: And from the game's local {{Wutai}} to boot.
* ObliviousToLove: While it's partly because he intentionally keeps it this way, Sheena has absolutely no idea that Zelos genuinely has feelings for her that go beyond his trademark flirting.
* OddFriendship: With Raine. They are rather antagonistic with each other at first, but by the time the Tethe'alla half of the plot begins they're actually good friends.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Sheena is actually a pseudonym that was given to her by the village, as revealed in a skit. They have a law stating that only the village chief, as well as one's parents and[=\=]or spouse, are to know a Mizuho ninja's true birth name.
* PaperTalisman: Her cards are inscribed with mystical seals to give them power and let her [[DeathDealer fight by swinging them around]].
* ParentalAbandonment: [[spoiler:Her biological parents abandoned her in the Gonorrchia forest, aka: The Forest of ''Death''.]] This is why she views the chief as her adoptive father.
* PlatonicLifePartners: With Regal in ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld Dawn of the New World]]''. The two are rarely seen apart.
* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler: The reason she failed to make a pact with Volt, besides her inexperience, was that she couldn't understand Volt's language.]] Averted when [[spoiler: Lloyd asks her why she's so hell-bent on preventing the World Regeneration, Sheena replies, "''[[WhamLine This world]]'' will be saved!" allowing Raine and Kratos to figure out Sheena's real identity.]]
* ReluctantFanserviceGirl: Played with. She's not opposed to looking good - just looking like "one of Zelos' cheap floozies."
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: For Lloyd, in a similar manner to Colette. It's entirely possible to hook her up with Lloyd.
* ShadowArchetype: To Lloyd. Sheena ([[HeelFaceTurn at least initially]]) represents a much darker side of Lloyd's idealism, unable to make any meaningful choice between saving her world and letting Sylvarant suffer and attempting to save her world through assassination and the sacrifice of another. [[spoiler: She also, like Lloyd, was adopted and raised within a culture different from most of the world - but unlike Lloyd who had a well-adjusted childhood under Dirk, Sheena lost her adoptive father figure at the age of 7 due to events that she blames herself for]]. Her relationship with Zelos is also a mirror of Lloyd's and Colette's in the reverse direction: Lloyd and Colette's relationship is built on longstanding trust and honesty, while Sheena and Zelos have trouble communicating properly and their relationship is volatile as a result, even though they do actually care about each other.
* SophisticatedAsHell: Exactly once, during her pact with Gnome, after the Summon Spirit gets fed up with her 'stuffy language'.
-->"For the sake of creating a place in which the two worlds must no longer sacrifice one another... gimme your power."
* StupidSexyFlanders: [[ACupAngst Colette]] and [[VitriolicBestBuds Raine]] comment on Sheena's figure in the HotSpringsEpisode, much to her embarrassment.
* SummonMagic: When she's in Overlimit mode, she can summon any entity she's made a pact with in-story for a powerful attack in place of a Mystic Arte.
* SurvivorGuilt: Massive amounts of it, thanks to the Volt Incident, especially as the attack [[spoiler: killed Orochi and Kuchinawa's parents, and her adopted father is in a coma because he threw himself in front of Sheena to protect her]].
* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: In her (optional) fight with [[spoiler: Kuchinawa.]]
* ToBeLawfulOrGood: Sheena is faced with this trope when she arrives in Sylvarant - protecting Tethe'alla means she has to kill the Chosen, but when she sees the state Sylvarant is in and the heroic antics of the group, she ultimately begins working with her former enemies.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Tomboy to Colette's Girly Girl.
* TomboyishPonytail: She has a tomboyish personality, which is emphasized by her spiky bun.
* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Despite her tomboyish personality, she actually likes cooking, although she makes some odd (but not completely wrong) decisions: like adding pineapple to curry. She also is mentioned to like flowers, as seen in Zelos' mansion. She's actually the third-best cook in the group (to Genis and Regal) and the best girl at it.
* {{Tsundere}}: Type A towards Zelos, B with everyone else. Lloyd gets off easier but [[ChasteHero he has a habit of misinterpreting her advances]]. Plus she gets flustered when people compliment her.
* TragicKeepsake: Corrine's Bell, which she gives to Kuchinawa as insurance that she will show up to their agreed fight in Mizuho.
* TheUnchosenOne: Much like Lloyd, Sheena is outside of TheChosenOne system, but is essential to undoing it all.
* UnevenHybrid: Sheena is not a half-elf, but she explains in her Flanoir scene that she most likely has elven blood somewhere in her ancestry due to the fact that she can use summon magic.
* UnexpectedVirgin: When attempting to approach [[UnicornsPreferVirgins the unicorn]], the party initially plans to send only Colette. Sheena points out that she qualifies too, indignant at the assumption that she doesn't.
* UnknownRival: She's initially oblivious to the fact that [[spoiler:Kuchinawa is out to get her]].
* VagueAge: Her profile states she's nineteen, though her actual age is slightly in question due to the fact she was abandoned as a baby and adopted by Mizuho, and therefore doesn't know exactly when she was born.
* VirginPower: Like Colette, it's implied that this is how she could approach the unicorn. She's rather insulted when Kratos and Raine assume she isn't "qualified".
* VitriolicBestBuds: Despite the fact she claims she "can't stand" Zelos, she cares more for him than she lets on, and when it comes down to it, they play off each other well. The description for Zelos' title "Idiot Chosen" says it all.
-->"A title given by a friend during the journey. It's not a name given out of spite."
* WellDoneDaughterGirl: Implied to be this for the Chief of Mizuho. [[spoiler: It's why she agreed to go to Meltokio and Sybak to learn summoning arts and why she worked with the Renegades to get to Sylvarant.]]
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Her CharacterCatchphrase; she says it every time her guard breaks or [[NoSell her attacks fail]] during combat and every time [[RunningGag she triggers a trap door.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Zelos Wilder]]
!!'''Zelos Wilder'''
!!!Voiced by: Creator/MasayaOnosaka (JP), Shiloh Strong (EN, ''Symphonia''), Creator/ChristopherCoreySmith (EN, ''Dawn of the New World'')
[[quoteright:130:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zelos.jpg]]

-->''"Whatever will be will be."''

Tethe'alla's 22-year-old [[TheChosenOne Chosen One]], Zelos has all the appearance of HandsomeLech, provides much of the comic relief in the second part of the game, and is generally the party's ButtMonkey. Among the aristocracy of Tethe'alla, he's extremely popular and a regular TheCasanova, and retains the [[FantasticRacism common prejudice]] against [[HalfHumanHybrid Half Elves]]. However, he also proves his practical nature by discarding said prejudice, based upon his own experience with the party; in the moments when he is serious, he regularly shows himself to be the most cynical member of the party, and one of the most observant, especially towards Sheena, whom it's implied he may have feelings for. [[spoiler:Confirmed in the {{Interquel}} novel]].

----

Tropes associated with Zelos:
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange
** Zelos's portrayal in the Symphonia manga scales back considerably on his perverted playboy traits in favor of making his suspicious nature and bitterness towards the world far more apparent.
** In the OVA it's his pessimism and {{jerkass}} tendencies that take more of a backseat, and he's more willing to be emotionally honest, compared to his game counterpart who makes an insensitive joke or dismissive remark at every turn and ''very'' rarely shows his genuine side to the party.
* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: Zelos's relationship with Sheena in the OVA series is less overtly strained than in the game. The game gives the impression that the two of them had a falling out in the past and are barely on speaking terms when Zelos first joins the party, while in the OVA they still seem to be solid friends who are comfortable in each other's company, even if they bicker and banter constantly.
* AntiHero: Zelos is crass, selfish, and obnoxious, and mostly seems to go along with the party only because their goals are convenient for him.[[spoiler: Although if the player does right by him, he starts to wholeheartedly desire to fight for a better world]].
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Zelos acts very detached from his younger sister Seles much of the time, but he becomes extremely protective when the party encounters her at the colosseum, eventually flat out telling to her face that she's important to him.
* BecomingTheMask: If you [[spoiler: don't choose Kratos]] he actually becomes [[spoiler: a true friend to the group instead of just pretending to be one]] .
* BeneathTheMask: Underneath the shallow, womanizing loudmouth hides as viciously cunning, observant, cynical and serious person. If you choose him during the formal outfits side quest he even admits that ''not'' being serious all the time is exhausting.
* BerserkButton:
** He really hates when a child has to bear the burden of their parent's actions. In particular, how [[spoiler: Kratos acts towards Lloyd and how Lloyd has to fix the problems involving merging the worlds that Kratos is partially responsible for.]]
** His easygoing attitude totally vanishes when [[spoiler: Sheena offers to let Kuchinawa kill her in exchange for letting Lloyd and the others go]]. Zelos is notably pissed off and actually [[spoiler: drags Sheena through the Otherwordly Gate before she goes through with it]].
** He hates when people act like they're a tragic figure entitled to a private pity party. He outright calls [[spoiler: Mithos]] on trying to play the part after everything horrible he's done and to Richter in DummiedOut content.
** In the sequel, bad-mouthing Lloyd is a one-way ticket to his bad side. [[BigBrotherInstinct As is kidnapping his sister Seles.]]
* BelligerentSexualTension: With Sheena. It's almost completely one-sided on his part, though: while Sheena does definitely like him more than she lets on, her true feelings about him remain ambiguous. They have known each other for awhile, and Zelos maintains an attachment to her. He flirts with and annoys her far more than any other girl, but at the same time is highly observant of her and worries for her well-being.
* BigBrotherInstinct:
** He truly does care for Seles, even if he tries hiding it. Just watch the skit where he thinks she's following them and he insists she go home because she could get hurt. It's hinted he has a bit of this toward Colette as well, as he's prone to being more considerate of her. In the interquel novel, he pats Colette on the head and gives her encouragement when she has a moment of self-doubt.
** He's quite doting to Presea as well, calling her "my cute little Presea" and being one of the only party members who doesn't attempt to insist she get along with Regal after discovering [[spoiler: he killed Alicia]] and seems saddened when she expresses disapproval in him.
* BigDamnHeroes: He's the one who rescues the party from the various traps in [[spoiler: Welgaia. If he lives, that is.]]
* BirdsOfAFeather: Despite their wildly different personalities and upbringings, Colette and Zelos quickly get along with each other due to their shared status as Chosen. Zelos himself declares that 'Chosen have to stick together!', and a skit with Colette is one of the earliest points in the game that Zelos shows that he doesn't actually think as highly of himself as he pretends he does.
* BlatantLies: In the OVA, he says to Lloyd, with a pretty satisfied smile on his face, "Oh, stop it. Being thanked by someone like you doesn't give me a bit of joy."
* BlowYouAway: Zelos can wield Wind, Fire, Earth, and Lighting, but notably the only move apart from one of his [[LimitBreak Limit Breaks]] that's completely unique to his moveset compared to Kratos is ''Severing Wind''.
* BlueBlood: In Tethe'alla, the Chosen is deemed second in power only to the royal family, and as a result Zelos is part of the nobility class, contrasting sharply with Colette's humble life in a small village. Zelos posits that if Sylvarant began prospering, Colette's family would also quickly rise in riches and political power.
* BrutalHonesty: Zelos doesn't get why people hide their feelings or otherwise attempt to make light of a bad situation. As such, he's frequently labeled as insensitive for bringing up hard truths that someone would rather not face, even if it would be in their best interests to confront them as soon as possible. This is incredibly ironic since [[spoiler: Zelos himself masks most of his problems from the party by deliberately acting like a foolhardy playboy, but then again, it's also eventually clear that he hates himself.]]
* ButtMonkey: PlayedForLaughs... until it's played for drama. [[spoiler:The DarkAndTroubledPast from Zelos and the self-loathing that comes with it get shown rather succinctly, but it paints a very clear picture that Zelos takes all of the abuse that he does because he feels like he deserves it on some level.]]
* CallingTheOldManOut: Clearly feels that [[spoiler:Lloyd should do this, regarding his father Kratos.]] Not surprising, considering his own situation with his parents.
* TheCasanova: His Personal ability allows him to flirt with female [=NPCs=] for free items. He even gets this as a title for flirting with all of the [=NPCs=] in the game.
* ChickMagnet: Even Princess Hilda of Tethe'alla seems to have a big crush on Zelos.
* ChivalrousPervert: He might endlessly mock and toy with Sheena, but he does have her best interests at heart. This is best seen after [[spoiler:Corrine dies saving Sheena from Volt]] in an optional skit. He's his usual joking self, which the rest of the party calls him a jerk for. Zelos says to himself that everyone walking on eggshells around Sheena is just going to make her feel worse. Another skit much later has him tell Sheena that he would personally help the people of Mizuho if they were forced from their land.
* TheChosenOne: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]], just like with Colette, from only a slightly different direction. Zelos has the same pressures that she does, and is just as broken as she is. But while they both have a martyr complex, Colette is self-sacrificing to a fault, while Zelos is inherently flippant and flighty because he feels like nothing else he does outside of being the Chosen One will ever matter.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Plays Lloyd's group, Yggdrasill, and the Renegades against each other for his own benefit. Ultimately, he sides with Lloyd. [[spoiler:Unless you treat him like dirt throughout the entire game or pick Kratos in Flanoir.]]
* ChurchMilitant: Subverted. For someone supposed to be on a MissionFromGod, he is ''notoriously'' bad at doing anything even remotely religious. As a matter of fact, he doesn't seem to like the Pope much. [[spoiler:Then again, [[SinisterMinister the Pope]] [[CorruptChurch is kind of a]] JerkAss.]]
* CulturalPosturing: As Sylvarant has fallen behind Tethe'alla on a technological and cultural level due to its loss of mana, Zelos regularly talks about how barbaric it is, often to the annoyance of Lloyd. Of course, beneath the teasing, he really, really hates the fact that Tethe'alla's prosperity comes from Sylvarant's decline.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: [[spoiler:He was born into a loveless marriage and spent much of his youth wondering why his mother never seemed happy. While he was still a child, he witnessed his mother get murdered before his eyes by his father's mistress before she, with her ''dying breaths'', proceeded to tell him that ''she wished he had never been born''. Then, he was forced to watch helplessly as his then-5-year-old half-sister (one of the only people he truly cares about) Seles was locked up in an Abbey with no hope of being released, as punishment for the crime her ''mother'' committed. And that was just the ''start'' of a spiral of events that lead to Zelos having a serious amount of self-loathing underneath his [[StepfordSmiler smiling exterior]].]]
* DeathSeeker: Despite his high-and-mighty behavior, skits and sidequests reveal that he thinks very little of himself and believes that he shouldn't exist. [[spoiler: Whether or not this mindset of his changes depends on the player's choices, and if it doesn't he will betray the party for the thinly-veiled purpose of putting himself out of his misery. With the right choices though, he will grow to believe in living again]].
* DirtyOldMan: Not yet but he probably will be in a few decades, as a few lines of dialogue indicate that he intends to go on being a pervert for the rest of his life.
* DoubleAgent: [[spoiler:Goes SerialEscalation and becomes a ''triple'' agent for Cruxis, the Renegades, and Lloyd's party, eventually settling on either the first or last depending on the player's actions.]]
* TheDulcineaEffect: Many of the {{Event Flag}}s that increase his affection with Lloyd involve helping out pretty girls, and he only agrees to help save Colette, Presea, Raine, and Genis because he can't stand watching a pretty girl in trouble.
* EarlyBirdCameo: In the OVA, Zelos appears in the 2nd episode of the Sylvarant arc in one of Sheena's flashbacks, despite the fact in the game, the player never sees him until the party arrives in Tethe'alla.
* EtTuBrute: [[spoiler:At the final dungeon, complete with the hero's exclamations of disbelief.]]
* EvilAllAlong: Somewhere during the course of the journey, however, he eventually has a [[HeelFaceTurn change of heart]], so when he finally gets to [[spoiler:betraying the group, it's actually an act to ''help'' them, rather than what it would have been if he never decided to take Lloyd's side over Mithos']]. It's unknown at what specific time during the journey he made his decision to stay with Lloyd, but a good guess is after the scene in Flanoir. [[spoiler:If you talk to anyone except Kratos (which makes Zelos' FaceHeelTurn a fake one), Lloyd tells Zelos that he trusts him before they leave. If you talk to Kratos (which makes his FaceHeelTurn real), Lloyd instead asks Zelos if he can really trust him.]]
* FakeDefector: [[spoiler:In the storyline that doesn't kill him. He still betrays the party, but it's just a ruse to swipe a means for Lloyd to wield the Eternal Sword.]]
* FantasticRacism: Reconstructed. Zelos is fully aware that he's at least passively racist against half-elves thanks to his upbringing [[spoiler: and because a half-elf murdered his mother]], but that doesn't stop him from hitting on Raine or joining Lloyd and the others to try and rescue her and Genis. He even pragmatically explains that he does realize that such attitudes are unfounded, and that half-elves are no different from anyone else even after only traveling with the party for a short time. It even results in a major PetTheDog moment from Zelos during a sidequest when he lets Kate stay at his mansion (in his own room, no less), despite her status as not only a half-elf but [[spoiler: the Pope's]] daughter.
* {{Foil}}
** To Lloyd and/or Colette. If you stripped him of his womanizer aspects, he's actually a lot like Lloyd with a ''heavy'' dose of cynicism. He is also a contrasting take on the damage to self-worth that the Chosen system can cause compared to Colette's experience.
** Less noted, but arguably [[spoiler:Mithos]] is another one that he shares a lot of contrasting traits. He's also willing to do ''anything'' for his sister [[spoiler:regardless of what she really wants]], has cynicism for thinking a destroyed world would be better, holds prejudices spurned by traumatic pasts, will manipulate and use people to get his way, is much more cutthroat than most of the party when dealing with enemies and holds onto grudges for longer too. However he's more willing to grow and change than [[spoiler:Mithos]], causing their different endings [[spoiler:at least if he lives.]]
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Most of the party find him rather annoying due to his womanizing tendencies and flippant attitude, but nevertheless they think of him as one of their own. [[spoiler: Although Zelos's perception of how much the party actually cares for him plays a hand in whether he chooses to ultimately side with them or not]].
* TheGadfly: He almost constantly tries to get a rise out of the other characters through flirting, teasing, or cracking jokes, and likes to tell tall-tales to the more gullible members of the party.
* GeniusDitz: While he often acts like a moron and blatantly admits that his Valedictorian status upon graduating school was partly because he cheated, if you make the party take the test at Palmacosta academy, Zelos actually proves to be the smartest character after Raine (who is a genius), Genis (who is ALSO a genius), and Kratos (who has been alive for 4000 years).
* TheGlomp: Does this to Lloyd often, much to his chagrin. Also does this to Colette in the OVA twice.
* GoodWithNumbers: Whilst he cheated his way to the top of the class in most subjects (though as GeniusDitz points out he is smarter than he appears) he actually genuinely aced his mathematics exams and is called on by Raine to tutor Genius and Lloyd in the subject.
* HalfHumanHybrid: {{Subverted}}. Zelos can use magic, but as he explains, it isn't because he's an Elf or Half-Elf, but because when he was younger he received a blood transfusion from an Elf, causing him to gain magical powers as a result. [[spoiler:In actuality, he was made to consume a very rare mineral known as aionis, just like Kratos did 4000 years ago, which gave him the ability to cast magic.]]
* GoodWingsEvilWings: [[spoiler: The only time Zelos reveals that he actually has wings in-game is when he betrays the party and prepares to fight them to death. Should the player take the routes that allow him to survive, Zelos will still prove to have wings, but only when his Mystic Artes get unlocked and utilized as he won't have them out in-battle the way Colette does. His wings are the color of fire, fitting for his wild, volatile personality]].
* HandsomeLech: Gorgeous, and also a pervy philanderer. [[spoiler:It's all an act, though. Well, mostly]].
* HeadbuttingHeroes: With Genis, referring to him mostly as "Brat".
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Done oddly; he constantly shifts allegiances but does so subtly enough that a first-time player probably won't notice. By the time his deception comes to light, he's settled on a side.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Lloyd, assuming you raise his affection levels to max. [[spoiler: More evident in the sequel.]]
* HiddenDepths: There's quite a bit BeneathTheMask. He outwardly shows a perverted flirty side, but he's actually extremely intelligent, especially with regards to people and their personalities. He also has a remarkable insight into Tethe'alla's social structure and the accompanying problems, and knows far more about the nature of the Church of Martel than he lets on. And that's not even getting into his seriously DarkAndTroubledPast.
* HolyHandGrenade: After he [[spoiler: reveals that he was a member of Cruxis, Zelos gains access to the Angel spell Judgment, and both of his mystic artes are also related to Angel skills]].
* IdiotHair: It was there from the beginning, but Zelos's unique hair wasn't consistently drawn between official materials until the OVA's came out, after which it became much more obvious that there's a thick strand that stands out from the rest of his hair. It's especially noticeable during his childhood years when he didn't wear a headband.
* IFightForTheStrongestSide: When asked which side he wants to fight for, his answer is "the one that's likely to win." Though he also admits immediately after that, if push came to shove, he'd want to help both worlds. Lampshaded during his scene in Flanoir:
--> '''Zelos:''' Man, I can't believe I'm joining the weaker side... This isn't like me at all.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Zelos acts extremely pompous and overconfident most of the time, but it masks the fact he has a severe lack of self-worth. Lloyd is one of the biggest target of Zelos' teasing, but Zelos greatly envies Lloyd's idealism and willpower. One skit also has Zelos privately admit to Colette that he doesn't think that he's as amazing as she is.
* IronicEcho: Lloyd often starts battles by saying, "Let's go all out!" If Zelos [[spoiler:truly betrays the party on the Kratos route]], he'll say, "Nothing left to do but go all out, right?" [[spoiler:before fighting Lloyd and the rest of his friends to the death.]]
* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: Even though Zelos isn't an active Chosen destined to go on the fatal Journey of Regeneration the way Colette is, you can argue Zelos was dealt a harsher deal in life. While she gets a lot of physical trauma in her journey, Zelos by ''far'' gets the most emotional baggage which stems back to his childhood. He was [[spoiler: basically shunned and abandoned by his parents, and forced to live among a high-class society that constantly threatened to take advantage of him]]. Colette at the very least had a solidly supportive group of friends and family.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: He seems to act this way towards Sheena in a conflicted manner, as he is clearly irritated by her crush on Lloyd but at the same time repeatedly attempts to nudge her towards him. He is also this way towards his sister in a familial way, because a good portion of motivation for his actions stem from his desire to give her a better life. Unfortunately, in both cases he does so without showing any of his intentions and deliberately behaves abhorrently towards them, which only serves to push them both away from him.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He might let people hate him, but his PetTheDog moments shows he's actually thought about the consequences of his actions. He might have his moments of BrutalHonesty, but it's to make people confront their issues instead of hiding behind them. He also prevents Sheena from doing what she wants a few times, but that's because she'd be making a SenselessSacrifice if she did.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Zelos tends to point out the blunt truth the rest of the party shy away from, even if he means well by trying to get them to face facts.
** After the Temple of Lightning incident, Sheena is incredibly depressed thanks to Volt [[spoiler: killing Corrine]], especially since this is the second time this has happened when Sheena tried to form a pact with Volt. When Zelos seemingly ignores Sheena's grief, the rest of the party call him out on his insensitive behavior. Zelos then counters that Sheena is never going to feel better if everybody insists on walking on eggshells around her. Lloyd eventually comes to agree with Zelos, although he does say that Zelos could have worded that better.
** When the party is cornered at the Otherworld Gate, Sheena tries to pull a HeroicSacrifice under the assumption that she's the only one the party's enemy wants dead. Zelos drags Sheena away from it and forces her to flee. When Sheena calls him out on it, Zelos replies that it would have been a SenselessSacrifice, since it wouldn't have stopped Kuchinawa, the Pope and the armies of Tethe'alla, all of whom were gunning for the party's heads from pursuing them. Sheena ultimately admits he's right, but still is rather sour to Zelos for a time. (Doesn't help Zelos suggested Sheena give him a kiss for saving her - Presea called him out on it.)
** Zelos even does this in the sequel. He calls Marta out on her ClingyJealousGirl behavior, and how it's doing nothing but driving Emil away from her and making an already bad situation even worse. Zelos even says that it's okay to for Marta to pursue Emil romantically if that's what she wants to do, but she needs to learn there's a time and a place for it. After this, Marta does tone down a bit, suggesting that she listened to Zelos.
** During an optional sidequest, the party encounter a little boy in Sybak who has lost his mother. Every building you try to enter turn him away because he is filthy and poor. When the boy complains and says Zelos should do more about how the poor are treated, Zelos tells the boy he shouldn't expect someone to just come along and fix his life for him and tells the boy that since his mother is trying to find work, he should also help out and being a child isn't an excuse to do nothing but complain. While kind of a jerk thing to say, especially coming from a guy raised in luxury like Zelos, he isn't wrong and it's true that many people in both Sylvarant and Tethe'alla choose to hang their hopes on the Chosen One instead of being proactive. The kid even says as much to Zelos.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:If you choose to fight him, his FaceHeelTurn is real, and he dies after a boss battle with him.]]
* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Oh, most definitely. He plays it up for all its worth, as multiple women comment on how attractive Zelos is.
* LovingBully: Zelos antagonizes Sheena more than basically anyone else in the party, even running into DudeNotFunny territory at times, but simultaneously there are plenty hints that he harbors feelings for her and secretly looks out for her well-being.
* LovableSexManiac: He even gets a special title for flirting with every female NPC in the game.
* LovableTraitor: [[spoiler: DoubleSubverted; he betrays the party with a smile on his face, but abruptly stops being lovable. However, in the canonical path, he turns out to be a FakeDefector, and the party welcomes him back with open arms.]]
* MagicKnight: Just like Kratos, though he can be a bit more magical than knightly with the right build.
* ManipulativeBastard: [[spoiler:He's ''surprisingly'' devious.]]
* MeaningfulName: in mythology, the individuals known as Zelos, Kratos, and Nike (the latter of whom Colette derives her name from), are siblings.
* MeaningfulEcho: Happens in the Tower of Salvation, Zelos repeats his "I side with the strongest" phrase in a way that supposed to make you think he's serious. However, it's actually a DoubleSubversion. [[spoiler: In context, it seems like he's telling the party he sold them out to Cruxis a long time ago. However, right before he said it, he tells Lloyd "remember what I said in Flanoir?" What he said in Flanoir was not "I side with the strongest" but "put your faith in me," which was a subtle hint that he's really a FakeDefector. That line is very conspicuously omitted in the paths when he defects for real.]]
* MessianicArchetype: Subverted. As the Chosen of his land, this is what he's ''intended'' to be. He... [[MrViceGuy doesn't particularly follow it through, however]].
* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: [[spoiler: In the path where he dies, it's implied that he decides to betray the party for real because he felt that he could never completely earn their trust. The skit that plays afterwards shows that the party is ''extremely'' guilty about this.]]
* MommyIssues: Well, you'd have them too if [[spoiler: your mother was killed in an attack meant for you and were then told "you should never have been born."]] This may be why Zelos just can't help himself from helping a girl in trouble.
* MrExposition: Zelos is the primary character through which the player learns things about Tethe'allan society, particularly in the realm of politics and the way the Church of Martel works compared to Sylvarant.
* MrViceGuy: His vice is pretty obvious: it's {{Lust}}. He's a shameless flirt, refers to women as "hunnies", and even gets a passive trait where he can get free items from women by talking to them when he's in the party lead.
* MultipleEndings: [[spoiler: When people say the game has several endings, they're not referring to the ships. Any route where Zelos survives is canon, and any route where he dies is not.]]
* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Has this attitude towards Lloyd and Genis in the beginning. Lloyd earns his respect and grows out of it. Genis... not quite so much.
* TheNicknamer: According to him, Genis is "Brat", Raine is "My intellectual hunny", Colette is "Little Angel Beauty", Sheena is alternately "my voluptuous hunny" or "Violent Demonic Banshee", Presea is "Rosebud", Regal is "Old Man" or "Pops", and Lloyd is "Hey You" and later "Bud". Originally, he referred to Lloyd as "[[HoYay Hunny]]" in the Japanese version.
* NotInTheFace: One of the lines he blurts out when hit in combat.
* OddCouple: In the Tales meta-verse, Zelos co-hosts the officially created Tales character talk-show with [[VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss Jade]]. They play off each other surprisingly well.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Zelos is highly intelligent, skilled at manipulation, [[spoiler:and has severe self-loathing stemming from some ''severe'' ParentalAbandonment, not to mention being [[XanatosSpeedChess a triple agent who's playing the party, Cruxis, and the Renegades against each other to ensure he's got a shot of joining whoever's the victors]]]]. He hides all of this under a facade of being a happy-go-lucky HandsomeLech who seems to have made it his life's mission to hit on every female in existence and antagonize [[{{Tsundere}} Sheena]].
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Zelos drops his HandsomeLech attitude and gets genuinely pissed, you ''know'' the situation is serious.
** Sheena's attempted HeroicSacrifice at the Otherwordly Gate gets Zelos to literally drag her into the portal, as Zelos seems to show genuine anger at Sheena for even thinking about it.
--->'''Zelos''': You've gotta be kidding me! Enough of this, Sheena!
** If any member of the party younger than him falls in battle, Zelos will sometimes respond with an outraged, "How could you do that?!"
** In ''Dawn of the New World'', he drops the playboy act around Marta to give her some advice about how to pursue Emil. He calls Marta out on her ClingyJealousGirl behavior, and how it's doing nothing but driving Emil away from her. Zelos even says that it's okay to for Marta to pursue Emil romantically, but there's a time and a place for it, and it's not when their lives are on the line. After this, [[JerkassHasAPoint Marta does tone down her overt infatuation with Emil, suggesting that she listened to Zelos]].
* PaperThinDisguise: Apparently, just wearing a mask prevents the girls from recognizing him.
* ParentalAbandonment: Holy ''crap''. Even in a game that loves to kill off mothers like it's going out of style, Zelos is the worst of the lot. [[spoiler:His mother's final words to him being "you should have never been born" really don't help.]]
* PetTheDog: Zelos may be prejudiced against half-elves due to his upbringing, but he sympathizes with them, even letting Kate stay at his manor. He also sympathizes with Genis and Raine for the crap they get for being half elves, since they didn't ask to be born.
** One skit has Zelos honestly admit that he thinks Colette is amazing for the things she's endured and that he can't compare to her, and when she protests the notion he insists that she really is.
** He teases Sheena, but he truly does care about her, and when he does it in one skit after [[spoiler: Corrine's death]], [[WhatTheHellHero the party call him out]] on this and leave. Zelos then says Sheena will never snap out of her depression if everyone is walking on eggshells around her.
** One sidequest for Zelos has the group stumble on a street kid in Sybak who has lost his mother. Every building you try to enter refuses to let him in because he's dirty. When the mother shows up and apologises to the party, Zelos gives her a job as a maid in his manor. [[ThinkNothingOfIt He brushes this off]] when Lloyd points out it was a nice thing to do, saying it was just because she was pretty, but he was under no obligation to help and did it anyway.
* ThePornomancer: A PG version. No matter who he flirts with, where, or when, they will instantly love him enough to ''give him money.'' It can't even be explained by his excuse that women only like him because he's the Chosen, since this skill works in Sylvarant as well as Heimdall just after chewing him out for it.
* PowerOfTrust: Lloyd telling Zelos he trusts him makes the difference between [[spoiler:Zelos being a FakeDefector who helps the party escape the Tower of Salvation's death traps and obtains the final item they need for the Eternal Ring, or truly defecting in the hopes of dying and escaping his destiny.]] Leads to UndyingLoyalty in the second game; Zelos has absolute faith in Lloyd's innocence when the latter is accused of leading the Blood Purge in Palmacosta. Compare that to the other party members who, at best, are searching for Lloyd to find out the truth (Colette); or, at worst, suspect Lloyd may have pulled a FaceHeelTurn and become a WellIntentionedExtremist like Yggdrasill (Raine). [[spoiler: Turns out Zelos was right all along, and will even unmask the doppelganger responsible [[ButThouMust if the player fails to do so.]]]]
* RaisedAsAHost: [[spoiler:Same deal as Colette, with the added stress that his parents only got together because Cruxis told them to and didn't even like each other.]]
* RealMenWearPink: His default outfit is predominantly pink, black and white, plus gold and purple trim.
* RouteBoss: [[spoiler:If Lloyd goes outside with Kratos at the Flanoir scene, Zelos serves as a boss battle after betraying the party, hoping to [[SuicideByCop die at your hands]].]]
* SadClown: He doesn't seem to take anything seriously and is constantly cracking jokes, even in totally inappropriate situations. As it turns it, it's because he thinks that he's worthless and his life has no meaning out of being the Chosen One, and refuses to tip anyone off that he feels that way. Peeks BeneathTheMask with him are reserved only for a few scenes if Lloyd's affection rating with him is high enough.
* SecretKeeper: Briefly. Zelos is the first to recognize that Regal is actually [[spoiler: Lezareno's disgraced former President]], but he keeps that under wraps until the party finds out naturally.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: He's not above using his status as the Chosen to get what he wants, though it's usually in the party's best interest, such as managing to get a Key Crest from a stingy vendor in Sybak.
* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: In the dub, he tends to use the odd American slang term here and there (such as referring to Ozette as "out in the boondocks"). While colloquialisms are most definitely in-character for him, Commonwealth English speakers did have to look the odd thing up.
* ShadowArchetype: To Colette. The title of Chosen means that neither of the two value their lives as much as they should, and they both become {{Stepford Smiler}}s as a result. While Collette has a huge martyr complex that makes her accept unnecessary suffering for the sake of others, Zelos tries his best to avoid his responsibilities as the Chosen and squeeze as much superficial pleasure from life as possible. His relationship with Sheena is also the polar opposite of Colette's with Lloyd, since where Colette and Lloyd are extremely close, Zelos mostly sabotages his relationship with Sheena by alienating her with his flirtatious jerk behavior, even though they still care about each other.
* ShipperOnDeck: While it's implied he has feelings for Sheena, he also repeatedly is shown trying to [[IJustWantMyBelovedToBeHappy nudge her towards Lloyd]]. For instance, he encourages Lloyd to go talk to her when the Vice-Chief Tiga tells her she has to make a pact with Volt, telling him, "she seems to have a thing for you". In an optional event, he again tries to coerce Lloyd to cheer up Sheena, and gets exasperated when it doesn't work out. The trope is [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] though, in that Zelos actually not very happy about Sheena's apparent crush, and seems to mostly be doing it because deep down, [[InsecureLoveInterest he thinks Sheena deserves to be with someone better than himself]].
* SirSwearsALot: He's definitely got the coarsest language in the group, even in his battle quotes. Not quite as intense as most examples; the most vulgar he gets is calling Kratos an S.O.B.
* SmarmyHost: Zelos's Japanese voice actor Masaya Onosaka, and by extension, Zelos himself, has basically become the unofficial MC and spokesperson for the entire ''Tales'' franchise, hosting a variety of ''Tales'' talkshows and events while largely staying in-character.
* SomethingAboutARose: If he is in his formal wear costume, there is a chance that in battle his weapon will be a bouquet of roses.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the sequel, he's alive even if you choose the options that [[SchroedingersQuestion retroactively indicate]] that [[spoiler:Lloyd went outside with Kratos in the Flanoir scene, which normally leads to Zelos's death]]. This is at least partly because his survival is established well before that choice comes up in the first place.
* StepfordSmiler: Underneath that cheerful exposure, Zelos has some incredibly deep emotional scars and self-loathing. It stems from his DarkAndTroubledPast, and how his intense self-loathing makes Zelos believe that his life doesn't have any value outside of being the Chosen One.
* SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat: [[spoiler: If Zelos betrays the party for real, Zelos suddenly reveals that he, like Colette and Kratos, is an angel and knows the spell Judgment. If he's a FakeDefector this will still prove to be the case if you unlock the skills for him.]]
* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler:His betrayal (if he goes through with it) and subsequent death at the hands of the rest of the party can be seen as this. He even asks the party to destroy his Cruxis Crystal before he dies.]]
* SuperhumanTransfusion: Zelos was given transfusions of Elven blood by the laboratories of Sybak so he could use magic. [[spoiler: Subverted. He actually was made to ingest aonis powder.]]
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: His equipment and combat techniques all match those of Kratos, though Zelos is quicker and favors showier swordsmanship with lots of poses and pirouettes.
* TroubledSympatheticBigot: His dislike of half-elves stems from a very traumatic event in his childhood involving a half-elf. Even so he knows such attitudes are wrong and he directly opposes the laws that discriminate against half-elves, and is far kinder to Genis and Raine that his prejudice would suggest.
* {{Tsundere}}: Towards his sister. He's reluctant to show that he cares about Seles, often being very flippant and dismissive towards her, even though deep down she's one of the most important people in his life. Tragic irony is that she herself is {{Tsundere}} towards ''him''.
** He's also visibly uncomfortable whenever someone shows him genuine gratitude, with his most common reaction being to crack a joke to [[MoodKiller kill the mood]] or at least change the subject as quickly as possible.
* UndyingLoyalty: In ''Dawn of the New World'', Zelos has this towards Lloyd; no matter what happens, Zelos knows Lloyd didn't do anything that he's been accused of, and gets defensive with anyone who suggests otherwise. While some previous party members think Lloyd may have genuinely lost his mind (like Raine), or don't think Lloyd's responsible but want to be sure (like Collette), Zelos is the only one who never waivers in his support of Lloyd's innocence. [[spoiler:Turns out Zelos was right to think so; Lloyd was set up to take the fall.]]
* UsedToBeASweetKid: If the manga is any indication, where the side story detailing his childhood portrays Zelos as a wide-eyed boy who adored his little sister and wished to make his mother smile. It makes it all the more tragic that he turned into a cynical jerk who habitually pushes away anyone he cares for.
* VerbalTic: He likes to refer to women he meets as his "hunnies".
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Sheena, who he genuinely cares about despite him also taking every chance he can get to annoy her. See also the entry for this trope under her. In the OVA he actually describes the relationship between him and Sheena to be 'undesirable but inseparable'
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: It's not explicitly mentioned and he handles himself well in Flanoir, but a skit conversation Zelos has with Regal reveals that whenever it snows in Meltokio, Zelos will suddenly decide to go "on a pilgrimage". [[spoiler: This is because [[SnowMeansDeath it was snowing the night his mother was murdered in front of him]], so he likely can't stand being around it, at least in Meltokio.]]
* YouAreWhatYouHate:
** Zelos behaves like an insensitive jerk a lot of the time. If you pay attention to the things he says to himself, it's clear that he's largely aware of it and it just reinforces his hidden belief that he's a worthless person.
** He often denounces Kratos' traitorous actions, which implies he views his own actions as contemptible. [[spoiler:In the manga this is outright confirmed, when after complaining about how much Kratos pisses him off for using a bunch of kids for his own gain, Zelos depressingly concedes that he himself is no better.]]
* YouCantFightFate: The entire reason behind his actions is to compromise with it.
* YouLoseAtZeroTrust: Zelos is notably the only character for whom the game's RelationshipValues [[spoiler: markedly changes the fate of in the game]], and if the player fails to cultivate any level of camaraderie with Zelos, [[spoiler: or by spending time with Kratos in Flanoir, which automatically makes Zelos's relationship values plummet]] it will [[spoiler: lock him into pulling a SuicideByCop]].
* YouNeedToGetLaid: Zelos appears to have this attitude toward Lloyd, trying to get him to hit on girls with him during the beach sidequest, teaching him seduction techniques in the Altamira Suite scene ([[HoYay Unless you read into that scene too much]]), and being a ShipperOnDeck for him and Sheena.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Presea Combatir]]
!!'''Presea Combatir'''
!!!Voiced by: Creator/HoukoKuwashima (JP), Creator/TaraStrong (EN, ''Symphonia''), Creator/JaniceKawaye (EN, ''[=DotNW=]'')
[[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/presea.jpg]]

A 12-year-old Tethe'allan lumberjack, Presea seems entirely [[EmotionlessGirl devoid of emotions]] when the party meets her. It's quickly discovered that her emotionlessness results from the experiments to turn exphere's into cruxis crystals that were conducted on her; the party makes it their goal to cure her, since they reason that the process can't be too different from the one they are already searching for to cure Colette.

----

Tropes associated with Presea:
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Like Sheena, she is ostracized in her village. In Presea's case because she is "creepy", hangs out with MadScientist Rodyle, and most importantly, hasn't aged in 16 years.
* AnimeHair: Giant pink pigtails, to be precise.
* AdaptationalBackstoryChange: In the game, Presea became an exsphere experiment because she needed the extra strength it would provide so she could continue her family's lumberjack work by herself and take care of her sickly father. However, the exsphere's side effect of deadening a person's consciousness eventually caused her to endlessly loop in a daily routine and fail to notice her father had passed away in his bed years ago, which she only realizes after the party fixes her exsphere. In the OVA, her agreement to become an exsphere experiment was instead part of a deal she made to get money to pay for her already-passed-on father's funeral.
* AdaptationalBadass: In the game, Presea is a MightyGlacier who generally walks right through attacks to get to her enemies. In the OVA, she's upgraded to a LightningBruiser who dodges BeamSpam in midair like a friggin' Gundam.
* AndIMustScream: Borderline, since she wasn't consciously aware of everything that went on. When you finally bring her out of her zombie state, she finally does... very loudly.
* AwesomeButImpractical: Her two [[LimitBreak Mystic Artes]] are notoriously difficult to execute, but her Crimson Devastation takes the cake. The move's power is unrivaled by anything else in the game; it's able to take off more than half of the health of some of the {{Superboss}}es all by itself. The requirements to activate it though are as follows:
-->Presea must have received her Key Crest in the storyline
-->Beast used 200+ times
-->Over Limit mode must be active
-->All party members except Presea must be knocked out
-->HP must be in red (below 16% of Max)
-->Perform the "Might Charge" EX-Skill, which requires the holding down of a button for several seconds
-->Use Beast when not in a combo
* BadassAdorable: The most diminutive party member is one of the toughest. Canonically, she's physically stronger than both Lloyd and Genis combined.
* BewareTheQuietOnes: When she confronts [[spoiler:Rodyle]], her mood can basically be summed up as "UnstoppableRage". Similarly, she threatens ''the Pope'' by holding her axe over his face.
* TheBigGuy: She's roughly the same size as 12-year-old Genis, and yet due to the unique exsphere process she underwent she's physically the strongest party member. [[spoiler: Except possibly ''Colette''.]]
* BigSisterInstinct: She states she won't forgive her sister's killer and part of her character arc is finding the man who killed her. [[spoiler: Presea becomes quite conflicted when it turns out to be Regal.]]
* ComicallySerious: ''Especially'' in ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld Dawn of the New World.]]''
* CreepyChild: She has her moments, especially when threatening the Pope, killing Vharley and at one point she almost gets into a fight with Regal during Mithos' attempts to corrupt the party in Welgaia. (Lloyd snaps her out of it.)
* CuteBruiser: She's a twelve-year-old girl--um, sort of--with pink hair who wields a lumberjack axe.
* DishingOutDirt: About half of the attacks she learns are earth-elemental. It's also the only element she naturally learns.
* DropTheHammer: Can wield several of them, one being the [[LethalJokeWeapon Pow Hammer DX]].
* EmotionlessGirl: Has a monotone voice and complete lack of emotions when you first meet her. Which makes her entrance in the sequel even funnier. [[spoiler:She gets better after she's given a proper Key Crest for her exphere]].
* EmptyShell: What she's pretty much being turned into due to the experiments. Once her exsphere is fixed, this starts to fade. It's even a title Presea can acquire during the Nebilim sidequest, as she was picked to be the next host specifically for this reason.
* GirlishPigtails: They actually become important in a sidequest where she has to dress up as Videogame/{{Klonoa}}. They serve as her "ears."
* GlacierWaif: Has the highest Strength and Attack in the game, but only a two-hit basic combo and slow feet, effectively cementing her status as the party's MightyGlacier.
* HiddenDisdainReveal: In Welgaia, [[spoiler: Presea is by far the most susceptible to the illusions designed to break the party, revealing quite a lot of resentment at Regal for the MercyKill of Alicia. This is even foreshadowed at Alicia's grave when Presea says she will "try not to think of Regal as her enemy", but it's clear she hasn't forgiven him at that point.]]
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: The tiny girl of her association with Regal.
* IdiotBall: [[spoiler: In a late-game dungeon, the party one-by-one falls victim to several traps that eventually leaves Lloyd the last one left. Presea's trap involves her getting snared by vines when she opens the door to the exit. However, Presea still has an arm free and could have used the knife she always has on her belt to free herself. This is never brought up during that cutscene, nor any other time.]]
* InformedAttribute: Her resemblance with Alicia - they really don't have that much in common besides pink hair.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: It gets a bit better over the course of the game, but one scene in the Temple of Lightning has Lloyd asking [[spoiler:how to deactivate the traps. Sheena says some of the others from Mizuho did it for her since she was only a kid. When Lloyd asks if they can go ask them, Presea responds, [[BrutallyHonest "They are dead."]] Ouch.]]
** She also had a moment where she seems to belittle Genis by talking to him like an adult to a child and he surprisingly gets really offended and chides her for it. She quickly feels bad about it and seems to regret her words, as part of her struggle in dealing with the ordeal of adjusting to her growing awareness of her reality. While she is technically [[spoiler:much older than him in terms of how long she has been alive, her mental growth may well be as stunted as her physical growth and she just wants to think she is much older.]]
* IsThisWhatAngerFeelsLike: Happens after she starts relearning her emotions. She even says, "This unsettling irritation...is this anger?"
* LackOfEmpathy: Even after returning to consciousness, Presea's emotions are very stunted. She notes in certain situations that she doesn't feel sorry for people when she knows she probably ought to, and finds this very troubling.
* LethalChef: Never pointed out in any skit or cutscene, but her stats for cooking are on nearly on par with Raine's, who is a LethalChef in-universe. [[FridgeBrilliance Given that she probably didn't require food while she was being used as an experiment for the Angelus Project, this makes sense.]]
* LittleMissBadass: Though the "little miss" part is not by choice.
* MightyGlacier: Physically the strongest character in the game, and is also the slowest, but is still built like a 12-year-old girl.
* NoJustNoReaction: Her voice clip for blocking an attack is a firm "'''NO.'''"
* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Until Lloyd and co came along, anyway. Presea reflects on this during a sidequest where she bumps into a little boy she used to babysit, who is all grown up and does not recognise Presea.
* OddFriendship: Develops one [[spoiler: with Corrine. She even gets a title out of it in a Z-skit.]] You can imagine how well that turned out [[spoiler:after Volt zaps Corrine to death]].
* ObliviousToLove: While in her EmotionlessGirl state, a lot of Genis, rather poor, attempts at flirting sail past her head. When she does recover her emotions, it's implied that she's [[SelectiveObliviousness intentionally acting]] as such due to the sheer age difference in maturity; Presea being 28 and Genis 12.
* OlderThanSheLooks: [[spoiler:Actually 28-years old but looks 12 due to the experiments performed on her. Once she's cured, her mind seems to swap between 12 years old and 28 years old, depending on the scene.]]
* PinkGirlBlueBoy: She's the pink girl to Genis and Regal's blue boys.
* TheResenter: To Regal, as revealed in her Welgaia scene. She eventually gets over it.
* RoboSpeak: She says phrases like "No damage detected" when you first meet her.
* SiblingYinYang: To Alicia.
* SpockSpeak: Her after-battle quotes are things like "we won" and "don't bother us."
* TheStoic: Prior to her getting a proper key crest, she barely says anything or shows any emotions at all due to her experimental exphere limiting her consciousness. Even her in-battle portrait never changes. While she regains awareness after obtaining a key crest though, she's still incredibly flat emotionally.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: She grows quite sugary to the rest of the party, though she's still icy towards strangers.
* SuperStrength: As a result of [[spoiler:Cruxis Crystal Experimentaion.]]
* UnwittingPawn: To Vharley and Rodyle. She gets her revenge on them both.
* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: Implied if you have her in your party when you fight Rodyle, as her quote once he's dead is a melancholy, "I cannot get my time back..."
* WaifFu: Naturally boasts this as a GlacierWaif.
* WeaponsOfTheirTrade: Fittingly for a lumberjack, Presea uses axes as big as she is.
* WhenSheSmiles: A particular point is made out of this after Colette is rescued from Rodyle.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: [[spoiler:After Ozette is destroyed, although ironically, Presea's house is the only building still intact.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Regal Bryant]]
!!'''Regal Bryant'''
!!!Voiced by: Creator/AkioOtsuka (JP), Creator/CrispinFreeman (EN, ''Symphonia''), Creator/DaveWittenberg (EN, ''Dawn of the New World'')
[[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/regal.jpg]]

A mysterious convict who is first sent after the party but defects to join them once he catches sight of Presea, Regal is extremely discreet about his past and [[WithMyHandsTied refuses to take off his shackles]] -- they are the symbol of the sin he committed and [[TheAtoner which he has to atone for]].

----

Tropes associated with Regal:
* TheAce: He's a skilled fighter, an HonestCorporateExecutive, and a SupremeChef all in one, and a NiceGuy.
* AdaptationalBadass: In the [=OVAs=], he's one of the most competent combatants once he joins.
* ArmedLegs: His weapon of choice are bracers for his legs. He's more than capable of fighting with his hands, but refuses to.
* TheAtoner: Almost an ExaggeratedTrope. [[spoiler:Once you get to the flashbacks, you find out that Alicia, in her few lucid moments post-transformation, ''begged'' him to kill her. While the obvious emotional trauma of having to kill your girlfriend should not be discounted, boyfriend-assisted suicide is a slightly different case than murder.]] Possibly deconstructed, in that [[spoiler:his personal flaw that he must come to terms with in Welgaia is being weighed down by his feelings of guilt]].
* BareFistedMonk: Well, bare-footed, but same idea.
* BigBrotherMentor: Lampshaded when Lloyd and Regal state their bond is like that of siblings, with Regal in particular having come to view Lloyd as a younger brother. Regal is also one to Emil and Marta in the sequel, though it's a mix of big brother and father figure for Emil. With Emil, Regal believes in and encourages him to see his good qualities and gives him support and with Marta he gives advice when she asks for it.
* BlowYouAway: Learns a few wind-based techs.
* BlueOni: To Lloyd's red.
* ChainedByFashion: He's always wearing handcuffs as a symbol of what he's done. Even in the sequel, where his hands aren't chained together anymore, he still keeps the cuffs themselves on his wrists.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: [[spoiler: It is revealed that Regal's skill with hand- and arm-based martial arts is ridiculously high--when he used his hands actively, he was at least as powerful as everyone else in the party, ''without an Exsphere.'' Even now, after having kept his arms bound by shackles for a decade, an Exsphere gives him the physical strength to perform a Hadoken-esque attack, breaking through the bars that otherwise kept everyone else in the party well and truly trapped--magic users included.]]
* ChefOfIron: He's the best natural cook in the game, and the easiest to master all the recipes with.
* TheComicallySerious: Much humor is made at his stoic expense in the skits.
* CookingDuel: In a side quest, to unlock a secret outfit.
* CombatMedic: A primarily melee fighter with some healing capabilities.
* CoolOldGuy: The oldest party member who isn't ReallySevenHundredYearsOld.
* DifficultButAwesome: He's considered by many to be the second best character in the game. He's also one of the more unwieldy (having controls reminiscent of a fighting game in this non-fighting game).
* EasilyForgiven:
** The party accept him into the group quite quickly. Only Genis and Sheena seem to have reservations about allowing a convicted criminal into the group, and Sheena admits she also started off as the enemy.
** Regal has this attitude towards [[spoiler:his butler, George, who was the one who split himself and Alicia up in the first place, allowing her to fall into Vharley's hands.]]
** [[spoiler:Averted with Presea. She says she'll try not to hate Regal, but it's made clear in Welgaia that she still bears a grudge for killing Alicia. Lloyd eventually talks her out of this mindset.]]
* ExactWords: He will never fight with his hands again. [[spoiler:Hadoken-ing prison cells and giant boulders doesn't count as fighting.]]
* ExtremityExtremist: He only fights with his feet [[spoiler:because TheseHandsHaveKilled]].
* GeniusBruiser: He's the CEO of his own company. You don't get to be the boss by being stupid. He's also rather well-versed in Tethe'alla's history, which pairs him up quite nicely with Raine.
* HeartbrokenBadass: [[spoiler:His role in Alicia's death hit him really hard.]]
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: The huge guy of his association with Presea.
* IAmNotLeftHanded: [[spoiler:Or rather, I do not specialize in foot-based martial arts.]]
* {{Kamehamehadoken}}: Used only in a cutscene (rightfully so! It looks like it would be a real GameBreaker). The in-universe explanation is that he used to specialize in fighting with his hands and they grew so powerful that, once augmented with an Exsphere, he could unleash their physical hitting-things power as a beam, but after that, his FreudianExcuse happened and he vowed never to use his hands for violence again. He makes an exception for the one scene where he uses it because he's not hurting anybody, unless it turns out those jail cells were sentient. Gotta hand it to the guy, at least he keeps his word.
* MayDecemberRomance: Subverted. The game was very, ''very'' vague on the age difference between himself and Alicia; leading most fans to conclude this, especially as Alicia is very young-looking with a chubby face. The animated adaptation clarified that Regal was 25 and Alicia was around 19 when their relationship occurred. However, the fact Alicia still has a character design that looks barely older than Presea herself (who still looks as she did when she was barely into her teens) and a voice that's fairly childlike, compared to Regal who is played by the deep-voiced, ultra-manly Creator/AkioOtsuka just leads back to giving the impression of this trope.
* NiceGuy: Even when the party regards him with outright suspicion and hostility initially, he's nothing but polite and friendly and is a good person overall. [[AndZoidberg Except to Zelos, that is.]]
* OutOfFocus: Regal is the only party member (except for Zelos) the player can go the entire game without using and who has no Unison attacks until [[UpdatedRerelease the PS2 version]], makes nothing more then a few token lines after [[spoiler:visiting the rooftop grave]]. Interestingly, he is fully aware of this, and has himself stated that he sticks around just to support Lloyd. ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld Dawn Of The New World]]'' seems to try and make up for this by making him the GuestStarPartyMember that sticks with Emil and Marta the longest.
* PinkGirlBlueBoy: In regards to hair colors, with Presea.
* PowerLimiter: Regal wears those handcuffs as [[StakingTheLovedOne "a symbol of his crime"]] and as [[TheAtoner "a constant reminder of his sins"]], but they also function as this (see {{Kamehamehadoken}} above). One fan theory is that he rescued ''himself'' from the endless waves of angels in the Tower of Salvation by removing his shackles off-screen and tearing up the their shit with his bare hands.
* RealMenWearPink: Can tear enemies apart using nothing but his FEET and is the team's best chef. Oh, and he wears a belly shirt.
* SecretKeeper: In the game, a skit between Regal and Zelos shows that Regal at least knows the basics about how Zelos's mother died and that Zelos [[spoiler: has an aversion to snow because of it]]. In the OVA Regal deduces that Raine and Genis are half-elves before any of the rest of the party find out, and he keeps it under wraps.
* ShipTease: With Raine in the sequel. It's PlayedForLaughs, since the "love letter" she gives him is actually just [[spoiler: her theory about Emil's true identity.]] It doesn't stop Marta from shipping them anyway.
* SupremeChef / TeamChef: Along with Genis. Unlike Genis, who learned to cook out of necessity, Regal just does it as a hobby.
* SympatheticMurderBackstory: [[spoiler:Anyone would be feeling a bit down after having to deliver a MercyKill to their lover and then convicted for it because the actual responsible party was able to bribe their way out of it.]]
* TeamDad: [[spoiler:After Kratos leaves the group.]] He's definitely this for Emil and Marta in [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld the sequel]], which Emil even comments on.
* TechnicalPacifist: Downplayed: he refuses to kill using his hands, so he uses his feet instead. He still doesn't like killing, even when his opponents are just monsters, and always prays for the souls of any creature he kills.
* TheseHandsHaveKilled: [[spoiler:Specifically, he was forced to use them to kill Alicia]] and swore he would never fight using his hands again.
* UnequalPairing: [[spoiler:With Alicia, his servant, which may be why George had them separated]].
* UseYourHead: In the 5th {{OVA}} bonus, Regal decides not to fight with his legs anymore - instead using his ''head'' - because he blames himself for [[spoiler:the death of Corrine.]] He promptly and randomly skull bashes Zelos.
* WillfullyWeak: He's much weaker with his feet than he is with his hands. Keep in mind that "much weaker" still means that he's able to fight on even footing with Lloyd and the others; if he were to actually fight with his hands, he would be literally unstoppable. He refuses to fight with his hands, though.
* WithMyHandsTied: Regal's fighting style is based around using his feet only, since [[spoiler:he killed his lover with his hands]] and therefore vowed never to kill with his hands again.
* YouShallNotPass: Said word for word to block a group of angels from descending on the party.

[[/folder]]

!Antagonists

[[folder:Lord Yggdrasill]]
!! [[spoiler:Mithos]] '''Yggdrasill'''
!!! Voiced by: Creator/HideyukiTanaka (JP), Creator/JamesArnoldTaylor (EN)
!!! [[spoiler:Mithos voiced by: Creator/MinamiTakayama (JP), Creator/BrianneSiddall (EN)]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yggdrasill.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see his true appearance. '''(MASSIVE SPOILERS)''']]

Yggdrasill is the BigBad of Symphonia, a FallenHero who lost his mind and his idealism when the people he risked everything to save decided to betray him by murdering his only family, only to find a new and darker purpose by gorging on the power of souls. As the leader of Cruxis and the Desians, this self-righteous false messiah has the entire world bowing to his PathOfInspiration. For the past four millennia, he has hoarded technology and experimented on his chosen sacrifices, waiting for the day his magnum opus bears fruit.\\

[[spoiler:He's also Mithos, the young half-elf the heroes "rescued" from a burning village - who becomes Genis' first half-elf friend, who worries for Raine when she looks tired, who makes jokes at Zelos' expense like everybody else... until he [[TheReveal reveals himself to the party]] when one of his most trusted lieutenants, one of [[TrueCompanions his companions from 4000 years sooner]], proves himself to be a traitor.]]

----

Tropes associated with him:
* AdorablyPrecociousChild: He ''looks'' the part. Sure doesn't ''act'' the part.
* AGodIAmNot: He has godlike power but never develops the full-on complex. In the end, he still views himself as a half-elf who's just trying to make the world a better place... [[WellIntentionedExtremist through some extremely questionable means]].
* BadassAdorable: [[spoiler:Both stages of the FinalBoss are him alone versus the party.]]
* BeamSpam: The [=PS2=] version of the game onward gave his Yggdrasill form the "Yggdrasill Laser" move, which he likes to spam in the third battle, a lot. Coupled with his Outburst arte and he really starts to seem like a [[VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia Dhaos]] clone, gameplay-wise.
* BecomingTheMask: He genuinely seems to grow to like [[spoiler: Genis, even taking a hit from Pronyma that was meant for him]], though it doesn't stop him fighting him later on.
* BigBad: Of the first game.
* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler:Especially from Genis' point of view.]]
* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:What turned him into a villain was his sister Martel dying.]]
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: Symphonia is a prequel to ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' and Mithos is deliberately written to contrast Dhaos, a villain who has similar angelic powers and laser spam. Both fear for the world tree's mana depletion, but Mithos is primarily motivated by his goal to revive his sister and end discrimination, in that order, while Dhaos is primarily trying to obtain a seed to plant a new world tree, making the former more selfish. At the same time, Mithos is able to maintain better [[VillainWithGoodPublicity publicity]] due to his control over the Church of Martel while Dhaos is only ever seen as a generic EvilOverlord by humanity. Finally, Mithos dies unable to accept that he was in the wrong while Dhaos dies realizing that he became no better than the humans he hated.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: [[spoiler:He and his sister were the victims of a lot of overt racism due to being half-elves.]]
* DarkMessiah: He sets himself up as this, believing that everything he has done is necessary in order to save the world from its inevitable destruction. Judging from what happens in the sequel and ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'', he's not entirely wrong, but the end result would have been eternal stasis of civilization and consciousness, which was likely worse.
* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:During a skit, he actively questions his goals and says that if he is wrong, then he has no reason to continue living.]]
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of the StockShonenHero. In the past Yggdrasil was his own RPG protagonist, going on an epic quest to save the world, believing everyone could put aside their differences and work together and end discrimination forever, and convincing rivals and enemies to work with him. But when reality refused to follow his ideals [[spoiler: and murdered his sister]], Yggdrasil couldn't handle it and went insane, completly inverting the archetype.
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Martel being murdered. Doubles as his StartOfDarkness. He becomes disillusioned with the idea of voluntary coexistence after this, and believes that the only way humans, elves, and half-elves will ever get along is if the differences between them are artificially removed and they all become emotionless, lifeless beings.]]
* {{Determinator}}: Deconstructed. [[DetrimentalDetermination In fact, it's treated as his]] FatalFlaw. He never, ever gives up, and will do anything to save his sister. Unfortunately for the rest of the two worlds, we do mean ''anything''. [[spoiler:Including splitting the world asunder, getting countless people killed and trying to force everyone to become lifeless beings to end the discrimination that killed Martel. When Martel herself finally intervenes and tells him to stop what he's doing, his response is to go LaughingMad and refuse to accept her words, before finally deciding to take his sister and all of Derris-Kharlan into space so they can finally be alone, even if it causes TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. When he's finally killed for good, his last words are that he wouldn't change a thing if he could do it all over again.]] His FallenHero status is fueled [[PsychopathicManchild by his determination to never grow up]].
* DisproportionateRetribution: He kills [[spoiler:Pronyma]] for [[spoiler: calling him by his first name.]]
* DudeLooksLikeALady: The fact that his [[spoiler:younger self]] is voiced by a female actress doesn't help matters.
* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler:After the final boss battle, he has a HeelRealization where he realizes he doesn't want to be trapped in a soul gem for eternity, much like he forced thousands of his victims into. He is still unrepentant though, as his Cruxis Crystal is destroyed before his consciousness fades.]]
* EvilLaugh: Has a rather unnerving one when [[spoiler:his child Mithos form is revealed as the BigBad and starts kicking Yuan around for betraying him.]]
* EvilLuddite: [[spoiler:His World Prolongation Plan involves keeping the world in a MedievalStasis, because he believes that the development of technology inevitably leads to wars that waste resources. Unlike most Evil Luddites, he has no qualms about using technology himself.]]
* TheExtremistWasRight: About ''one'' thing; [[spoiler:one part of his plan, the splitting of the world in two and putting a limiter on mana flow, genuinely worked as far as it prevented new {{magitek}} wars. As ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' reveals, a renewed free flow of mana led to the proliferation of {{magitek}} weapons, another Mana Cannon, and another war that destroyed civilization a few centuries after the game ends. Incidentally ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'''s storyline involves the creation of yet ''another'' Mana Cannon [[HistoryRepeats that ends up damaging the new Tree of Mana]]... Even before the events mentioned in ''Phantasia'', ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld'' has the Vanguard, who planned on using the Mana Cannon against Tethe'alla.]]
* FallenHero: [[spoiler:Was once idealistic and, like Lloyd, believed the factions of the ancient war could live in peace. Everything changed when Martel died]].
* FantasticRacism: First a victim, then a perpetrator; especially when he obtained the power to ''change peoples' races'', but used it to turn humans into monsters and HumanResources. The party comment on how he might have been a victim, but, as Zelos says, "it doesn't even come close to justifying all the things [he's] done."
* FauxAffablyEvil: Zigzagged. On one hand, his regal demeanor is a [[MaskOfSanity facade]] to hide how deranged he is to his followers. On the other hand, [[spoiler:he shows a more genuinely [[AffablyEvil affable]] side when befriending Genis and helping to treat Raine when she's sick]].
* FinalBoss: Though he's fought several times before then, this is the only time it's not a HopelessBossFight.
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Even after the party comes to understand the experiences that made him the person he is, they don't believe it justifies it. Most explicitly spelled out when Zelos says that what he suffered doesn't even come close to justifying his actions.
* GetItOverWith: [[spoiler:Asks Lloyd to destroy his Cruxis Crystal so he won't be taken over by it. He admits defeat but refuses to accept Lloyd's ideas to the end.]]
* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler:Yggdrasill's primary goal is to use a suitable Chosen as a host body for his sister's mind.]] He also [[spoiler:takes control of Colette so he can make her fly to the sacrificial area.]]
* HalfHumanHybrid: And the discrimination he received because of it changed the entire world.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: [[spoiler:He was famed as a hero during the Kharlan War, before becoming a FallenHero]].
* HopelessBossFight: The first two times you meet him, physical attacks all deal single-digit damage, though magic still works fine. Both fights will end without a results screen after a certain amount of time, or if you somehow manage to reduce his HP to zero.
* HumansAreBastards: His primary belief.
* IRegretNothing: [[spoiler:When Mithos tells Lloyd to MercyKill him, he admits that he doesn't regret committing any of his atrocities to get Martel back and he would do them all over again if he could, thus proving to the very end that he will never let go of his hatred for humans and move on his sister's death.]]
* IRejectYourReality: [[spoiler:When Martel calls out Mithos for his atrocities and refuses to accept his plans, pointing out that this goes against everything they strived for, Mithos refuses to believe Martel would say that to him and goes LaughingMad. When she leaves Colette's body and begs Mithos to return the world to the way it was, he delibertaly misinterprets her words and decides to take her and Derris-Kharlan into space without caring that this will destroy the world, even going so far as to refuse to believe that Martel would tell Colette to stop Mithos from doing so.]]
* TheIdealist: [[spoiler:4,000 years ago]], he believed it was possible for humans, elves, and half-elves to live without FantasticRacism. He was apparently so much of a WideEyedIdealist that [[spoiler:he managed to get his jaded MentorArchetype Kratos, and Yuan, who was [[CommanderContrarian deliberately trying to prove him wrong]] to work with him]]. Unfortunately, that idealism died when said humans murdered and tortured the people he loved the most.
* IgnoredEpiphany: [[spoiler:When Martel briefly possesses Colette and gives Mithos as massive WhatTheHellHero speech, he chooses to interpret it ''entirely'' differently from how Martel actually meant it.]]
* KickTheDog:
** [[spoiler:Killing Pronyma, while she begged him to save her after being defeated by Lloyd and Co. Presea even calls such an act cruel.]]
** [[spoiler:Attacking Tabatha and calling her a failed vessel.]]
* KnightTemplarBigBrother: ''Hoo boy''. He does everything for the sake of Martel. She's not impressed.
* LackOfEmpathy: For all his talk about how much he loves [[spoiler: his sister Martel, he doesn't seem to care about what she wants and becomes furious when she calls him out for all of the atrocities he's committed in her name. After she leaves Colette's body, he's willing to take the Great Seed (which contains Martel's soul) to Derris-Kharlan in order to be with her forever, knowing that it'll destroy the worlds, not caring in the slightest that this goes directly against his sister's wishes.]] He also injures or outright kills people who piss him off and shows no remorse for it.
* LightIsNotGood: He's an angel and uses some light-based techniques like Judgment, Holy Lance, and Prism Sword, but he's the main villain.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Sibling love, though, to be exact. Unless you [[BrotherSisterIncest read too much into it]].]]
* LovingAShadow: Despite how much he claims to love [[spoiler: Martel, it turns out Mithos loves more of his idea of her than his sister himself. When he successfully manages to merge Martel with Colette, Martel gives him an epic TheReasonYouSuckSpeech over the atrocities he's committed in the name of resurrecting her and tells him in no uncertain terms that it's not what she wanted, musing that maybe things would have been better if the elves never left Derris Kharlan. When she leaves Colette's body, Mithos is furious and when Colette tries to tell him Martel wants the suffering to stop, he purposefully misinterprets this as Martel wanting the world ''destroyed'' and retreats to Derris Kharlan to "go home" with his sister.]]
* ManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:He's the leader of both Cruxis and the Desians.]]
* MaskOfSanity: He acts like a calm and composed leader, but according to the spin-off novel, Pronyma thinks he's too blinded by grief to think rationally. His crazy side starts to come out [[spoiler:when he laughs maniacally while kicking Yuan, attacks Tabatha for being a failed Martel vessel [[MoodSwinger despite earlier]] saving her because of her resemblance to Martel, and kills Pronyma for calling him by his first name. When Martel temporarily possesses Colette's body and admonishes him, Mithos starts going into denial and tries to take the Great Seed to Derris-Kharlan in a mad attempt to be with his sister forever.]]
* MeaningfulName: Mithos, as in "mythos", referring to both a set of stories -- Mithos being the legendary hero at the heart of the worlds' narrative -- and also to "myth", alluding to Mithos's carefully-constructed image all being a lie.
* TheMole: [[spoiler:In his "Mithos" guise.]]
* MotiveDecay: [[spoiler:He started out wanting to end half-elf discrimination, save the world from mana depletion, and revive his sister. Somewhere along the line, he became the main perpetrator of all discrimination, turned the world into his playground, and sacrificed thousands of chosen ones for his experiments. By the end of the game, he's willing to doom the world to be with his sister forever, all while disregarding her criticism.]]
* {{Narcissist}}: By the time you meet him, Yggdrasil has been consumed by his own ego. He casually spreads the racism he once fought against because it ensures he stays at the top of the hierarchy. He turned his dead sister into the goddess of his PathOfInspiration, and painted himself as the perfect hero. He also responds to a lieutenant calling him by his former identity (which he now derides as weak) by ''murdering'' them. By the end of the game, Yggdrasil is finally called out by the one person he wanted the praise of the most, and the blow to his ego causes him to abandon everything he's built to die just so he can be left alone.
* NecessarilyEvil: PlayedWith. On one hand, [[spoiler:him dividing the world into two with the Eternal Sword was definitely this, since as bad as the situation with the two worlds was, they would die without the Kharlan Tree if they were one. He argues that keeping them this way prevents another Kharlan War. Sadly, this is eventually proven true centuries after his death.]] On the other hand, it becomes clear that his cruel cycle was ultimately unsustainable due to his thirst for power, and if he wasn't replaced with something better, than the world would ''definitely'' die completely.
* OneSteveLimit: [[spoiler:Despite Raine's insistence that Mithos is "a common boy's name", Mithos the Hero, Mithos who holds the pact with all the Summon Spirits, and Mithos the tagalong half-elf orphan from Ozette are one and the same.]]
* OlderAlterEgo: [[spoiler:He used the Cruxis Crystal to give him an adult form so he would have "an appearance befitting the leader of Cruxis."]]
* OneWingedAngel: [[spoiler:An amalgamation of three mecha-like mini-bosses from Welgaia; reflecting his inability to accept others, come to terms with the past, or forgive people.]]
* PlayingTheVictimCard: He tries this on the party right before the FinalBoss fight. He calls himself the victim for all the racism that he and his sister suffered, and that his solution would still work. The party doesn't buy it for a minute, with Zelos in particular saying "it doesn't even come close to justifying all the things you've done."
* PsychopathicManchild: [[spoiler:Martel's death drove him so completely over the edge that, for all of his power and intelligence, he never really grew up mentally.]]
* RankScalesWithAsskicking: He's the leader of Cruxis and the Desians and is the most powerful among them, being the strongest enemy in the game barring a couple {{Superboss}}es.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Like the rest of his companions.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: [[spoiler:When Martel shoots down his AssimilationPlot, he decides to just take her and Derris-Kharlan and fuck off to space. Unfortunately, taking the giant mana source that is Derris-Kharlan with him would doom both worlds, so the heroes still have to stop him.]]
* ShutUpKirk:
** Shortly before the third battle with Yggdrasill, he responds to Lloyd calling him out on all the people he's killed by saying. "Human. Don't tell me what's right and wrong!"
** During the final confrontation, he asks where the half-elves should live. When Lloyd says they can live anywhere they like, he says "Don't make me laugh." Lloyd, not missing a beat, insists that if they're not doing anything wrong, they can live proudly in the open.
** In response to Colette asking him to seek redemption, he says, "Do you think I'm going to beg for forgiveness? Ridiculous!"
* ShadowArchetype:
** [[spoiler: He's what Lloyd could have become if the latter never owned up to his mistakes. He even says as much.]]
-->[[spoiler: "Farewell, my shadow, you who stand at the end of the path I chose not to follow." ]]
** He shares a lot of the same insecurities as all of the party members, [[spoiler:as shown by the illusions he uses to prey on their insecurities. He runs away from his problems like {{the mole}}s and Sheena, has issues with forgiveness and valuing his own life like Presea and Regal, and suffers from InternalizedCategorism over his race like Genis and Raine. This trope is especially true for Colette, who can be trapped in any of these illusions depending on whichever character is chosen in Flanoir, due to her guilt in not completing the pilgrimage and feeling ostracized for being a HumanSacrifice. Unlike Mithos, the party members ultimately choose not to accept the easy solution to their problems, which baffles him because he always chose the [[EvilIsEasy easier path]].]]
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler:Pushes Tabatha out of the way of a landslide (as Mithos), and takes a shot of dark energy Pronyma aims at Genis (as Yggdrasill). It's implied he resents Tabatha for being a "failed vessel" that couldn't accept Martel's soul (which he in fact outright says when Raine calls him out for hurting her) but her uncanny resemblance to Martel could be why he saved her. As for Genis, the game basically states that Genis was exactly like Mithos once was, and since Genis and Mithos became friends after the group "found" him in Ozette, it's possible Yggdrasill felt genuine kinship towards Genis, or was trying to persuade Genis to pull a FaceHeelTurn.]]
* TeleportSpam: This is why his first form is considered harder than his second. He does it in both of his {{Hopeless Boss Fight}}s, too.
* ThatManIsDead: [[spoiler:Only his former comrades are allowed to call him "Mithos". Interestingly enough, this may extend to Lloyd and Co., since he wasn't seen to have any specific problem with any of them calling him by his old name though its justified by the fact that when interacting with them, he calls himself Mithos.]]
* ThereAreNoTherapists: [[spoiler:Subverted. It's implied that Kratos ''did'' want to help him but it either didn't work, or Mithos didn't let him.]]
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler:What he thinks of himself and Martel once this happens. For Martel, this works. For himself, not so much.]]
* UsedToBeASweetKid:
** [[spoiler:Was revealed to be a lot like Lloyd and Genis (if a bit of a brat towards Yuan) as a kid in the anime and the manga. [[DespairEventHorizon And then Martel was murdered...]]]]
** This is also shown in the UpdatedRerelease, [[spoiler:where a phantom of his past self is in Niflheim as a {{Superboss}}. His phantom is still idealistic about equality for half-elves and encourages the party to carry on his work. The party can't bear to tell him the truth about his [[FallenHero present self]].]]
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: How he justifies the things he's done. No one buys it. [[spoiler:Not even Martel after she briefly resurrects.]]
* VillainDecay: A deliberately invoked and justified by-product of this. [[spoiler:After Martel rejects his plan, he basically decides to abandon the world and build a new life for himself and his sister on Derris-Kharlan.]]
* VillainousBreakdown: After [[spoiler:Martel rejects his plan]]. Complete with LaughingMad.
* VocalDissonance: It is ''very jarring'' hearing [[spoiler: Mithos' voice]] coming out of his mouth.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Shifts between the tall, intimidating angel Yggdrasill and [[spoiler:the young, innocent-seeming Mithos.]]
* WalkingSpoiler: Learning more about him turns the entire second half of the game on its ear.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: He started off well-intentioned, but eventually becomes a NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist. [[spoiler:Everything he did was for the sake of creating a world where he and his sister could leave free of discrimination. Until he undergoes his VillainousBreakdown and goes '''batshit insane''', leading to him trying to create a new world on Derris Kharlan for himself and his sister while abandoning any pretense of saving the old one, thus proving that now he only cares about being alongside his sister forever regardless of what she wants.]]
* WideEyesAndShrunkenIrises: [[spoiler:During his VillainousBreakdown in the anime. [[http://i44.tinypic.com/18zupi.jpg Take a look]].]]
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: It's hard not to feel sorry for him after all that's happened to him, but he loses any sympathy he might have gained after all of his horrific actions. The party even says as much before their final battle.
* WorthyOpponent: Eventually comes to regard Lloyd as one. The respect is mutual.
* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler:For Martel, though in a more familial love kind of way. Again, unless you [[BrotherSisterIncest read too much into it]].]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Five Grand Cardinals]]

The five leaders of the Desians.

----

Tropes associated with the Grand Cardinals:

* BattleThemeMusic: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uv8WdGFkHU The Law of the Battle]]".
* DirtyCoward: While they have plenty of physical courage when butting heads with the party, often to the point of arrogance and contempt, they only operate in whatever is The Declining World at the time. This means they're picking on humans who are too weak to fight them due to mana depletion in their world, instead of fighting the stronger world to liberate half-elves suffering under FantasticRacism.
* FantasticRacism: They all hate humans, and some of them even hate elves.
* FlunkyBoss: Tend to have a few minions fighting alongside them, except for the first battle with Pronyma, Magnius, and Rodyle.
* FreudianExcuse: Half-elves are abused by humans to a horrifying degree, leading them to hate humans. Then Cruxis promotes them to positions of power over captive humans. As expected, they did not grow up to be nice and understanding about the trauma.
* HateSink: If they have any redeeming qualities, they never share it with the party, and demonstrate the bloodthirsty pettiness of the world's FantasticRacism. Even Forcystus' more noble qualities are only [[InformedAttribute brought up after his death]].
* MoralMyopia: None of them express or seem to notice any {{Irony}} over their treatment of humans and how it seems similar to their own past treatment ''by'' humans.
* RankScalesWithAsskicking: Zigzagged. They are the strongest of the Desians, except for Rodyle, who is a DirtyCoward. However, it is implied that Forcystus is actually stronger than Pronyma, but she is the leader due to some off-screen plotting.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pronyma]]
!!'''Pronyma'''
!!! Voiced by: Yuki Makishima (JP), Masasa Moyo (EN)

The leader of the Five Grand Cardinals and Yggdrasill's right hand.

----

Tropes associated with Pronyma:

* AlasPoorVillain: The party is taken aback at how [[spoiler:Yggdrasill mercilessly kills her when she is begging for help]].
* CastingAShadow: Most of her attacks are dark-based.
* DarkActionGirl: She's the only female of the Desian Grand Cardinals.
* DarkIsEvil: To contrast with the rest of Cruxis' LightIsNotGood.
* TheDragon: To Yggdrasill. Downplayed in that she is both much weaker than him and a ''distant'' second in his esteem compared to the Four Seraphim.
* EarlyBirdCameo: We first see her in Kvar's ranch as a hologram.
* ElementalPowers: Includes CastingAShadow, MakingASplash, and AnIcePerson.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: According to Kratos's spin-off novel. Despite her UndyingLoyalty to Yggdrasill, even she is disturbed by his increasing insanity, especially when he states that he doesn't care about the out-of-control world tree.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: All of the other Desians resent her because she apparently usurped the leadership of the Five Grand Cardinals. Notably, Magnius' first instinct when he suspects that there's a traitor in their midst is to contact Forcystus rather than her.
* IgnoredEnamouredUnderling: It's strongly implied Pronyma's UndyingLoyalty is because she's in love with Yggdrasill- she even threatens [[spoiler:[[HalfHumanHybrid Genis]]]] when the latter attacks Yggdrasill saying, "You may be one of us, but you will pay for your treachery!" Of course, Yggdrasill couldn't care less and only keeps her around because she's the strongest of the Cardinals.
* LadyOfBlackMagic: The cold, serious leader of the Five Grand Cardinals with powerful darkness attacks.
* RecurringBoss: She's the only one of the Grand Cardinals you fight more than once. [[RuleOfThree Three times, actually.]]
* RedBaron: Twilight Pronyma
* RescueRomance: Her one-sided love for Yggdrasill started when he saved her from being used as a living weapon.
* SamusIsAGirl: Before she's introduced to the story proper, you fight Kilia, her underling, who brags about how she was sent to keep an eye on things in Palmacosta by Pronyma and once killed, cries out, ''"Lord'' Pronyma!", so it can come as a surprise to first-time players that Pronyma is a woman.
* SensibleHeroesSkimpyVillains: Subverted; her thigh-length boots, leotard and ExcessiveEvilEyeshadow isn't what you'd call subtle, but she is constantly surrounded by a set of artificial bronze wings on a ring, which means most of the time you only ever see her face and possibly her feet.
* SheIsTheKing: [[TheCasanova Zelos]] is the only one that refers to her as "Lady Pronyma"; the others all call her "Lord Pronyma".
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: She detests Kratos for his human origins and because she blames his earlier betrayal for Yggdrasill's SanitySlippage.
* TheStarscream: It's implied that she was one to the previous leader, though she's completely loyal to Yggdrasill.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Yggdrasill. [[spoiler: Killia, her subordinate, has this to Pronyma, screaming her name when she gets defeated.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: She's trying to protect her people from discrimination by humans.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: Mithos no longer cares about her after she's defeated by the heroes and Martel is about to be revived. In fact, he actually kills her himself when she calls him [[ThatManIsDead Mithos]] while begging for his help after being defeated by the party]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Forcystus]]
!!'''Forcystus'''
!!! Voiced by: Takahiro Yoshimizu (JP), Andre Sogliuzzo (EN)

The Grand Cardinal in charge of the Iselia Ranch.

----

Tropes associated with Forcystus:

* AdaptationalWimp: In the game, he survives Marble's self-destruct attack, but in the manga, he's ''vaporized'' by that same attack.
* ArmCannon: It shoots out gusts of wind. He also uses it as sort of a giant metal club.
* ArtificialLimbs: His left arm has been replaced by a cannon. It is either this or a gauntlet-like accessory. Given that he's also lost his eye, it's probably the former.
* BlowYouAway: His attacks are wind-based and he's adept at wind magic.
* DiedStandingUp: Fades away while still standing.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Rather literally, he's the last boss you fight in the Platform/GameCube version before you're forced to switch to Disc Two. More thematically speaking, while Pronyma is still alive at that point, The Desians are more or less destroyed as a faction and are largely no longer relevant to the story going forward.
* TheDragon: He appears to have the most authority among the Cardinals in charge of the ranches, making him this to Pronyma. It makes sense, considering he's in charge of the most important of the Human Ranches, and is the strongest of them all by far.
* EyepatchOfPower: It probably alludes to his past as a half-elven hero.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: He put an end to a human-led genocide against half-elves in his past. He [[MoralMyopia doesn't seem to see any irony with his current situation]].
* KilledMidSentence: Not killed, just incapacitated by a [[spoiler:self destructing Marble]] when Lloyd says he won't give up his exsphere to the Desians that killed his mother, Forcystus actually seems surprised and says "What are you talking about, your mother was killed by..." before he's cut off.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: By Lloyd.
* InformedAttribute: We learn nothing of, nor get a hint to the fact that Forcystus was a hero to half-elves everywhere until ''one'' skit shortly after he dies.
* KickTheDog: Transforming Marble into a monster just to spite Lloyd. When he learns of Kratos' betrayal, he yells that humans cannot be trusted and aims his arm cannon at [[DamselInDistress Chocolat]], making Colette push her out of the way.
* KnightTemplar: He started out just trying to protect his fellow half-elves. Now he does many horrible things to defend them.
* MagicKnight: He splits the difference between Magnius and Kvar. While Magnius prefers physical strikes and Kvar exclusively uses magic, Forcystus fights with both with equal competence.
* MrExposition: Averted. When Forcystus is first introduced, he nearly drops two ''very'' big reveals in the game's first act. [[spoiler: Namely, the existence of the Renegades and that Lloyd's father is the one who killed his mother.]] However, he's interrupted both times, so we don't find them out later.
* NobleDemon: He's the only Grand Cardinal who ''doesn't'' go out of his way to provoke the village he's overlooking and honours the non-aggression treaty until he has reason to believe that Iselia has violated it. It's also discovered posthumously that he was a defender and champion of his people. That said, it's implied that the [[PragmaticVillainy real reason]] he didn't antagonize Iselia [[spoiler: was so that Colette could grow up unharmed to continue the ViciousCycle Yggdrasill has in motion.]]
* RedBaron: Forcystus the Gnashing Gale
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler: Attempted, after being revealed to be NotQuiteDead.]]
* VillainHasAPoint: Despite how cruel and unnecessary his attack against Iselia was, he was completely correct that Lloyd violated the non-aggression treaty first, so he was simply retaliating. This is tempered by the fact that 1) Lloyd only killed about 3 Desians, while Forcystus led a massacre and 2) Lloyd [[spoiler: mistakenly, as it turns out]] believed that Forcystus violated the treaty first by attacking Colette.
* TooManyBelts: His undershirt is just a mass of belts (or belt-like straps, anyway).
* WellIntentionedExtremist: He is a hero to his people and comes off as a soldier fighting a racially-motivated war.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Praised by the Desians but reviled by the humans. Lloyd wonders whether he could have gotten along with him in a world where humans and half-elves could coexist.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Magnius]]
!!'''Magnius'''
!!! Voiced by: Creator/ShinjiKawada (JP), Chris Edgerly (EN)

The leader of the Palmacosta Ranch.

----

Tropes associated with Magnius:

* BloodKnight: He's the most violent of the Grand Cardinals. In stark contrast to Forcystus, who leaves his area alone unless provoked, he's more than willing to kill the citizens of Palmacosta with his bare hands.
* BoisterousBruiser: He's got the other Grand Cardinals beat in the volume department, that's for sure.
* TheBrute: When your EstablishingCharacterMoment is executing a teenage girl's mother and snapping a bystander's neck with your bare hands, you're probably this.
* DisproportionateRetribution: He snaps a guy's neck for not calling him "Lord Magnius".
* DumbMuscle: He's plenty strong, but he's not very smart. Rodyle manipulates him with a minimal amount of effort.
* DumbassHasAPoint: He calls out Lloyd in the Palmacosta Human Ranch when Lloyd declares the party will kill him and free the captives by pointing out how he failed to do just that in Iselia, and that several people died as a result.
* FantasticRacism: He's one of the few half-elves that hate their elven half as much as their human half.
-->'''Magnius''': Fine, I'll take care of you myself! I'll put an end to the Chosen, right along with you fools who can't let go of your elven blood!
* FieryRedhead: Literally and figuratively.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Has a scar over his eye.
* GroinAttack: When Magnius attacks Palmacosta, Lloyd's response is to deliver a swift [[SwordBeam Demon Fang]] to his crotch.
* HairTriggerTemper: In his very first scene, he's trying to kill at least 3 people, just because they mildly annoyed him. And the people of Palmacosta live in fear that one day he'll be in a bad mood and just destroy the city.
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Seems to have shades of this towards Chocolat.
* LargeHam: His voice actor was obviously having a great deal of fun, especially with the word 'vermin'.
--> '''VEEEEERRRMIIIIIIIIIN!'''
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When he realizes that Rodyle used him, he doesn't take it very well.
* NeckLift and NeckSnap: Does this to a random human who doesn't use his title.
* PlayingWithFire: His main element.
* RedBaron: Magnius the Pyroclasm
* SlouchOfVillainy: He's got a pretty impressive one going on when the party catches up with him in his ranch.
* SirSwearsALot: More prone to screaming and cursing than the other Cardinals. He actually doesn't swear quite as often as, say, Lloyd, but he seems to use the word "VERMIN!" in copious amounts to replace the swear words he would use otherwise.
* TheStarscream: He seeks to replace Pronyma as the leader of the Grand Cardinals.
* StupidEvil: It's ultimately PlayedForDrama. It's ''because'' he's so StupidEvil that Rodyle was able to manipulate him.
%%* UnwittingPawn: To Rodyle.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: He seeks to protect his people from discrimination by humans by [[StupidEvil murdering the crap out any of them who get in his way]]. Needless to say, he probably wasn't hired for his brains.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Kvar]]
!!'''Kvar'''
!!! Voiced by: Shigeru Ushiyama (JP), Chris Edgerly (EN)

The leader of the Asgard Ranch.

----

Tropes associated with Kvar:

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Comes off as ''very'' similar to Josef Mengele.
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: The unassuming bladed portion of his magic scepter is actually absurdly sharp, enough to impart a wound on Colette that horrifies the party.
* ArchEnemy: For Lloyd and Kratos. For Lloyd, it's because he's responsible for his MissingMom. For Kratos, it's ''even more'' personal because [[spoiler:said MissingMom was his lover]].
* BodyHorror: Not him, personally, but [[spoiler:as the brains behind the Angelus project, he ''induced this'' in Lloyd's mother.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards: His own underlings pull this on him, as they seem to be somewhat scared of him. He's even considered the cruelest of the Five Grand Cardinals, which is ''really'' saying something.
* TheEvilGenius: One of two, Rodyle being the second. Rodyle appears to be the superior of the two.
* EyesAlwaysShut: His sprite has a perpetual squint. In the OVA, this is changed to having very narrow eyes with black sclera.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: He knows who Kratos is and the two seem to have a very, ''very'' bad history. ''Hrm''...
* ForTheEvulz: Unlike the other Desians, Kvar doesn't seem to need much motivation to be a complete bastard.
* GoodHairEvilHair: He has slicked-back hair, which is a common hairstyle for bad guys.
* HilariousOuttakes: His voice actor [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPrgsqPc_5g somehow managed to have this little gem slipped into the game's files]]...
* LackOfEmpathy: He casually [[spoiler: tells Lloyd about his father killing Anna with no change in tone or facial expression. He even seems amused when Lloyd gets angry.]]
* MadScientist: He seems to be responsible for the Desian's scientific research in Sylvarant. Which naturally means he kills humans by the dozen for the sake of science.
* MeaningfulName: KVAR is an acronym that stand for [=KiloVolt=]-Amperes Reactive, a unit of reactive power, which is a reference to to his Lightning-related powers.
* PosthumousCharacter: Somewhat. [[spoiler: He's alive at the game's beginning but you don't find out ''quite'' how far the depths of his depravity go until after you've killed him.]]
* RedBaron: Kvar the Fury Tempest.
* ShockAndAwe: He uses lightning magic as his weapon of choice.
* SmugSnake: You'll find yourself wanting to punch him in the face in every scene he's in.
* SquishyWizard: He relies on magic to a much greater extent than the other Grand Cardinals. His only physical attacks involve him ineptly bashing his opponent with his staff. His magic is more than enough, though, especially his [[MagicMissileStorm Guardian Shield]], which can seriously fuck you up if you're not expecting it.
* TheStarscream: Like Magnius, he seeks to replace Pronyma as the leader of the Grand Cardinals. May also be one to Yggdrasill, since he was involved with [[spoiler:Rodyle's plan to rebuild the Mana Cannon and use it against Cruxis. It's never stated exactly how much he knew about the plan, but the game implies that Kvar and Rodyle were working rather closely together. Rodyle even refers to him as "Lord Kvar."]]
* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: It sounds like a mix of Indian and an upper-class British accent.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Rodyle]]
!!'''Rodyle'''
!!! Voiced by: Creator/TakeshiAono (JP, game), Creator/BinShimada (JP, OVA), Creator/DaranNorris (EN)

The leader of the Remote Island Ranch and one of the main Desian researchers.

----

Tropes associated with Rodyle:

* ArcVillain: For the first half of the Tethe'alla portion of the game, he's the main antagonist.
* ArchEnemy: For Presea. And Regal to a somewhat lesser extent.
* BigBadWannabe: Plans to overthrow Yggdrasill. As far the player can tell, Yggdrasill doesn't take him for a threat. [[spoiler: Mithos decided to go and let Lloyd and his friends deal with him as opposed to killing him himself.]]
* DirtyCoward: For the most part he runs rather than fights.
* DishingOutDirt: Most of his attacks are non-elemental, but the once that do have an element are Earth-based.
* DragonRider: Not in battle, but uses one as his main mode of transportation.
* EvilGenius: The second one after Kvar. Rodyle is apparently the superior of the two.
* GigglingVillain: Madly giggling is almost a second language for him.
* MadScientist: He's the one responsible for the Desians' Exsphere technology. Then, of course, is his hobby of human experimentation, which really messes with Presea's life.
* ManipulativeBastard: He's playing ''everybody'', from Lloyd's group to the other Desians to the Pope of the Church of Martel. [[spoiler: Ironically, he himself was manipulated by the Renegades into building the Mana Cannon, and Pronyma tricks him into killing himself by giving him a defective Cruxis Crystal.]]
* OneWingedAngel: [[spoiler:He mutates himself into an Exbelua when you fight him... [[UnwittingPawn albeit not willingly]].]]
* RedBaron: Iron Will Rodyle. Doubles as an IronicNickname, given that he's a DirtyCoward.
* SmugSnake: Believes himself to be the cleverest of the Desian Grand Cardinals but ends up [[spoiler:being manipulated by the Renegades into building the Mana Cannon for them, as well as tricked by Pronyma, who gives him a Cruxis Crystal that [[BodyHorror turns him into an Exbelua when he equips it]].]]
* SpeakIllOfTheDead: [[spoiler:After Kvar's death, a hologram of Rodyle appears and communicates to the recently deceased that he's going to take the rest of the data about the Mana Cannon, culminating with Rodyle laughing at his fellow Grand Cardinal's untimely demise.]]
* TheStarscream: [[spoiler:He seeks to take over Cruxis.]]
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:He fails, but manages to force Botta into a HeroicSacrifice and successfully manages to drown the humans at the ranch to spite the party]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Remiel]]
!!'''Remiel'''
!!! Voiced by: Creator/WallyWingert (EN)

An Angel sent down from Cruxis to guide Colette on her Journey of Regeneration, Remiel is said to be Colette's true father and tells her of the locations of the seals in Sylvarant.

----

Tropes associated with Remiel:

* AintTooProudToBeg: [[spoiler: He asks for Kratos' help after the party defeats him, but Kratos refuses.]]
* ArmourPiercingQuestion: [[spoiler: When Lloyd protests about Colette being taken away, Remiel answers, "The Chosen's soul will save the world. Are you saying you would choose one soul over the entire world?"]]
* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: The only reason he claims to be Colette's father is because he noticed Colette about to ask about him in that relation, and realized it'd be a perfect way to manipulate her into doing what he wants.]]
* CharacterCatchphrase:: "Colette, my daughter." [[spoiler: Invoked in-universe to make Colette trust him more.]]
* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler: His defeat marks the end of the Journey of Regeneration and gives the party an idea of just how big a mess they have to clean up.]]
* DragonWithAnAgenda: [[spoiler: What Remiel ''thinks'' he is- he only took the role of guide to Colette because he thought that Yggdrasill would then make him one of the Seraphim. But in the end, he was just another pawn to Yggdrasill.]]
* DudeLooksLikeALady: He's very feminine-looking and wears long, flowing robes.
* EvilLaugh: [[spoiler: Once he shows his true colors.]]
* EvilIsHammy: [[spoiler: His voice gets ''much'' deeper and more dramatic after he reveals he lied to everyone.]]
* GuardianAngel: Acts as this towards the group. Downplayed in that he only gives hints about where they need to go next, and gifts Colette with her angel powers. [[spoiler: And ultimately subverted, in that he's actually been lying to the party and facilitating Colette's death.]]
* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler: He's not really an Angel, he's a half-elf that evolved using Cruxis Crystals.]]
* KarmicDeath: He tries to pull a YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness on [[spoiler:Lloyd on his party once Colette was taken, mocking them for believing he was her father]]. They wind up beating him to an inch of his life instead, and he succumbs after having his plea for help rejected by [[spoiler: Kratos]].
* LightIsNotGood: [[spoiler: He's the first taste of this trope that the party gets.]]
* LukeIAmYourFather: To Colette.[[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope He's not.]] He just went along with it because it made him seem more trustworthy. He even calls Colette and Lloyd out on it, although Colette admits she guessed he was lying]].
* TomatoSurprise: [[spoiler: Surprise! He's not really an Angel. One of the first big ones of the game]].
* TranquilFury: At the second seal, he's ''really'' annoyed with Colette for some reason, but plays it off extremely well. It's not until TheReveal that we find out why: [[spoiler: He's angry because Colette's group destroyed the Palmacosta Ranch]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Kuchinawa]]
!!'''Kuchinawa'''

A ninja from Mizuho, Kuchinawa is a childhood friend of Sheena's and brother of Orochi.

----

Tropes associated with Kuchinawa:

* BadassBoast: When he finds the party at the Otherwordly Gate:
--->'''Raine''': [[spoiler: I'm positive Genis and I were left here when Genis was just a newborn...and we ended up in Sylvarant.]]
--->'''Kuchinawa''': Then this time, let me send you to hell instead!
* ButNowIMustGo: [[spoiler: He leaves Mizuho in disgrace after he loses to Sheena. It's implied by Orochi that he might change his ways.]]
* TheDragon: [[spoiler: To Vharley. And later to the Pope when Vharley is killed.]]
* DuelBoss: [[spoiler:Sheena duels against him in an optional sidequest.]]
* EvilFormerFriend: [[spoiler: Exactly when he became evil is unclear, but he starts working for the Pope right around the time Sheena makes her pact with Volt.]]
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Subverted, he was only pretending to be on Sheena's side at first to plant a charm on Sheena, allowing the Papal Knights to keep tracking the party.]]
* InterruptedSuicide: [[spoiler:He tries to finish himself off when Sheena beats him, but he's stopped by herself and Lloyd.]]
* ItsPersonal: [[spoiler: He blames Sheena for failing to control Volt, even though she was incredibly inexperienced at the time and couldn't understand Volt's language. He also bears anger towards her because she couldn't go through with killing Colette.]]
* NobleDemon: [[spoiler: He appears to agree when Sheena asks he spare the party in exchange for allowing him to kill her, although Zelos says the Papal Knights probably would have taken everyone else out, anyway.]] [[spoiler: He also returns the document containing important information of how to make a Rune Crest in exchange for Corrine's Bell, [[RevengeBeforeReason even if it directly helps the party]]. He agrees to fight Sheena alone in Mizuho, according to village customs.]]
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Like all of the other ninja in Mizuho.
* RedOniBlueOni: Red to Orochi's Blue. They even wear their respective Oni colours.
* TheResenter: [[spoiler: To Sheena. BIG TIME.]]
* SiblingYinYang: With Orochi. [[spoiler: Orochi never blamed Sheena for the Volt incident, and even congratulates her when she successfully makes a pact with him.]]
* VillainHasAPoint: [[spoiler: Not about Volt- that was a case of PoorCommunicationKills, but he is right in saying that Sheena's failure to kill Colette put Mizuho in danger.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Vharley]]
!! '''Vharley'''

An exsphere broker, he is working with both The Pope and Rodyle to distribute exspheres around Tethe'alla.

----

Tropes associated with Vharley:

* AnimeHair: Sports a rather ridiculous-looking Mohawk.
* ArchEnemy: Both to Regal and Presea- it was Vharley who [[spoiler: was responsible for turning Alicia into a monster, then he had Regal sent to prison because Regal's gave Alicia a MercyKill, and then tried the same project on Presea and introduced her to Rodyle.]]
* TheCartel: A one-man version, considering that he's got the illegal exsphere market cornered. Doesn't sound like much, until you consider that Tethe'alla quite literally runs on exspheres.
* TheDragon: To both Rodyle and the Pope.
* FatBastard: The most rotund character in the game, and by far one of the worst.
* JerkassHasAPoint: He's an absolutely vile human being, but he's not wrong when he gloats about how easy Regal made it for him to get away with [[spoiler: Alicia's death]], since Regal blamed himself and turned himself in while Vharley, who was responsible for the whole mess, didn't care at all and casually moved onto his next experiment - Presea.
* LackOfEmpathy: Arguably one of the worst cases in the same (after perhaps Rodyle and Kvar), he taunts Regal over [[spoiler: Alicia's mutation]], completely doesn't care when the party kills Rodyle, his employer, because he still has the Pope to work with. [[spoiler: And he assists the Pope in obtaining some poison to assassinate the King of Tethe'alla. Luckily, Lloyd, Raine, Zelos and co put a stop to it.]]
* TheUnfought: The party run into him in the Meltokio sewers [[spoiler: at first, it looks like a fight will happen, but Presea promptly cuts him down with her axe.]]
* TheManBehindTheMan: He's the middleman between Rodyle and the Pope, which allows the former to control Tethe'alla from behind the scenes and brings the latter ''dangerously'' close to ruling Tethe'alla in name.
* WouldHurtAChild: Has no problem [[spoiler: using a sixteen-year-old girl in horrific experiments, then tossing her aside when it fails and using her sister instead.]]

[[/folder]]

!Other Characters

[[folder:Noïshe]]
!!'''Noishe'''
A dog-like companion of Lloyd.

----

Tropes associated with Noishe:
* AllAnimalsAreDogs: Noishe acts like a ordinary dog, but he's not. Through a number of skits and one side-quest, you find out that Noishe is actually a creature known as a Protozoan, supposedly the first creature to have been born on the planet. It evolves during the course of its own life, starting off as a single-celled organism, then a fish, then a bird, then the dog-like form, then 'another' form, then finally a human that fights evil. It is also said that Noishe himself (possibly in his previous form) accompanied Mithos and Co. on their journey 4000 years ago. Even after being told this, Lloyd insists that Noishe is just a dog.
* CowardlyLion: He runs away whenever he sees a monster. [[spoiler:However, it's implied he got this fear after protecting an infant Lloyd from Anna in her monster form.]]
* {{Expy}}: A monster wolf called Orion in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld'' greatly resembles Noishe.
* EvilDetectingDog: He's first to react when there is a monster nearby and he blocks Sheena from following the group into one of the Seals. Interestingly, once she joins the party he has no problems with her after that. He's comfortable with Kratos despite being a CowardlyLion. [[spoiler: Though this is probably because Kratos is his original owner.]]
* HeroicDog: Noishe protected Lloyd when [[spoiler:his mother-turned-monster attacked him]].
* InformedSpecies: He doesn't look much like a dog, despite Lloyd's insistence. It quickly becomes clear that this is an in-universe example: several [=NPCs=] express skepticism that he's really a dog, the game contains actual dogs which look like dogs, and Lloyd's logic turns out to be based solely on the fact that he howls and has a tail. [[spoiler:Towards the end of the game, an elf in Heimdall identifies him as a "protozoan" in the canine-like "arshis" stage of life.]]
-->But he has a tail, and he howls, so that means he's either a dog or a wolf, right? He doesn't seem wolfish, so I thought he was a dog...
* StealthPun: Noishe matches the physical description of a Scottish mythological Cu Sith, which is pronounced Cu Shee. For those not familiar with the name, its feline counterpart is Cait Sith, which was a puppet and party member in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Noishe is played up as a major character in the beginning, even appearing in several skits and being the one thing Lloyd has that came from his [[ParentalAbandonment dead/estranged parents]], but is dropped roughly the time that the team makes it into Tethe'alla. He still appears occasionally (in stables, when the whole team is split up). His one useful ability, using Long-Range Mode, was also overshadowed greatly by the [[GlobalAirship Rheairds]] before the end of the first disk, though the game does actually go into a little more detail about him.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Yuan Ka-Fai]]
!!'''Yuan Ka-Fai'''
!!! Voiced by: Creator/ToshiyukiMorikawa (JP), Chris Edgerly (EN), Creator/KimStrauss (EN, ''Dawn of the New World'')

The leader of the Renegades, a group of half-elves who oppose the Desians. Both cynical and ruthless.
----

Tropes associated with Yuan:

* AboveGoodAndEvil: Implied. He doesn't seem to have any kind of moral compass. So long as he gets what he wants, that's all that matters.
* AdaptationExpansion: He got a much bigger role and a great deal more screen time in the OVA, to the extent that his [[spoiler:mana transfer]] - one of the things accused of being an AssPull in the original game - is here turned into an actual plan.
* AintTooProudToBeg: In an optional sidequest, the party keep running into Yuan at previous locations, before the third time he reveals he's looking for a ring. When Lloyd shows him the ring the assassin in Hima dropped, Yuan explains it was [[spoiler: Martel's engagement ring]] and literally begs for it back. Lloyd gives it to him and Yuan actually thanks him before leaving.
* AntiHero: He opposes the Desians, but his methods are so harsh that he's an antagonist for most of the game. In fact, some of his acts come close to outright villainy.
* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: He says he had this relationship with [[spoiler: Martel.]]
* TheChessmaster: He's been in complete control since the very beginning, effortlessly manipulating the Desians, Lloyd's group, and even the BigBad himself. Things do occasionally go awry, but he's quickly able to adjust his plans as he goes.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: He is only truly loyal to himself and his cause. He will ally with Lloyd's group if he needs to, but will turn on them as soon as he sees fit. Not to mention that he's a DoubleAgent for [[spoiler: Cruxis]].
* DeadpanSnarker: He's even got Raine beaten in this department.
* DespairEventHorizon: Part of his backstory. He crossed over it when [[spoiler: his lover Martel was killed.]]
* DoubleWeapon: A double-bladed {{BFS}}. The OVA indicates that he started off with a normal sword.
* DualBoss: With Botta. You never get to fight him alone.
* FallenHero [[spoiler: He was a hero of the ancient war alongside Kratos and Mithos. Now he's a vicious AntiHero trying desperately to stop Mithos' plans.]]
* FamilyEyeResemblance: His green eyes are a trait he shared with [[spoiler: Martel.]]
* FigureItOutYourself: Because he's too impatient to explain... and because he's kind of a dick.
* GoodAllAlong: For a certain value of "[[AntiHero good]]".
* GoodIsNotNice: While his goals match those of the party, he still is a jerk to them even when he's not [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor fighting them]] and his methods are more [[WellIntentionedExtremist morally ambiguous]]. He tends to be at least more reasonable and less outright-insulting when speaking to Raine, Genis or Sheena. Lloyd and Colette...not so much.
* HeartbrokenBadass: [[spoiler: He's still not over the death of his fiancée. A good 4000 years after the fact, even.]]
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: A strange example. He's always on the same side, it's just that he changes his degree of antagonism towards the party based on the circumstances. He's an enemy just as often as he's an ally, but he always has the same goal
* LaResistance: [[spoiler:The Renegades are an anti-Desian force.]]
%%* LostWeddingRing: He travels all over the world to find it, not knowing that Lloyd picked it up when he dropped it in Hima.
* TheMole: He works for [[spoiler:Cruxis]] while leading the Renegades behind the scenes. This is why he avoids letting [[spoiler:Kratos]] see him associating with them. He reveals himself to [[spoiler:Kratos]] right as the team is about to form a pact with the last Summon Spirit, believing it to be the end game for his plans. Unfortunately for him, [[DiscOneFinalBoss there's an entire disc left of game content]].
* MrExposition: Pretty much all of the information about the nature of the two worlds and the true identity of the Desians and Cruxis come from him. The only thing he doesn't tell you is [[spoiler: what happened during the Ancient War.]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: After [[spoiler:his plan to germinate the Great Seed causes the Kharlan Tree to go out of control]].
* NecessarilyEvil: [[spoiler: How he viewed killing Collette, which would stop the BigBad's plan cold. He gives up on it immediately as soon as another option presented itself...in the form of kidnapping Lloyd and using him as blackmail.]]
* OneTrueLove: Yuan was [[spoiler: engaged to Martel 4000 years ago. He's still in love with her despite all the years since her death]].
* PetTheDog: A short sidequest reveals [[spoiler:the ring you picked up in Hima is his engagement ring to Martel. You've just followed him as he looked for it all over both worlds. He's been wearing it for 4000 years, and when it turns out you have it, he's willing to swallow his pride and [[AintTooProudToBeg literally beg for its return]].]]
** After his role as [[TheStarscream is outed to Mithos]], Yuan gets up to leave despite his injuries. When Lloyd tells him he should stay and rest, Yuan says he has to go and evacuate his fellow Renegades before their base is discovered and they're all killed for following him.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld [[spoiler: He's one of the companions of the ancient hero Mithos, making him well over 4000 years old.]]
* RebelLeader: [[spoiler: The leader of the anti-Cruxis force, the Renegades.]]
* TheRival: For [[spoiler:Kratos]].
* ShockAndAwe: Lightning magic is his weapon of choice. It's his only attack in cutscenes, where it takes the form of a ball of lightning shot from his hand. The OVA gives him ''Indignation''.
* SlipknotPonytail: The OVA ''loves'' to make use of this trope. Yuan's hair comes loose from its ponytail at least twice during fights.
* StoicSpectacles: In the "United World" OVA extra.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: He wants to end the cycle Mithos created an re-unite both worlds and regrow the Kharlan Tree, but he'll go to nearly any lengths to accomplish this.]]
* WeUsedToBeFriends: [[spoiler: With Kratos and Mithos, who were his companions 4000 years ago.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Martel]]
!! '''Martel''' '''[[spoiler: Yggdrasill]]'''
!!! [[spoiler:Voiced by Misa Watanabe (JP), Kim Mai Guest (EN)]]

The Goddess worshipped by the church that bears her name. She is said to sleep at the center of the world out of grief for the sacrifice of her hero, Mithos. The Journey of Regeneration is a mission to awaken her so she will bless the world with mana once more.

----

Tropes associated with Martel:

* AllLovingHero: [[spoiler:No matter how she was hurt and betrayed, she never gave up her love for the world. Colette even says that it wouldn't have been odd at all for Martel to hate the world like Mithos did.]]
* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:For 4,000 years, she watched helplessly from within her Cruxis Crystal as her brother turned the world into his playground.]]
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:She becomes the dominant personality in the Summon Spirit Martel.]]
* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: [[spoiler:Yuan says she was the gentle girl to his brooding boy.]]
%%* CleavageWindow
* CrystalDragonJesus: Serves as one for the Church of Martel. [[spoiler:This is entirely by design, as the Church is a front organization to fuel her resurrection.]]
* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: Green hair to match green eyes.
* {{Foil}}: [[spoiler:To Raine. Both are half-elven healers that had to raise their younger brothers in place of their parents, but Martel maintained what Yuan describes as "relentless optimism" despite the many hardships and betrayals she experienced, before falling further and further into despair as the people closest to her lost their way after she died. This is sharply contrasted by the cynicism Raine developed as a survival mechanism against her own hardships, which gave way to growing idealism as Raine found a support system that refused to accept her race as a factor in her worth as a person.]]
* FourIsDeath: [[spoiler:She is the fourth Seraphim of Cruxis, and also dead.]]
* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler: She's a half-elf, just like her brother and fiance.]]
* TheLostLenore: [[spoiler:For Yuan.]]
* MagicStaff: [[spoiler: Carried one in life.]]
* MoralityChain: [[spoiler:To Mithos. When she died, everything went to hell.]]
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:If she had accepted Tabatha as her vessel in the first place, Mithos would never have set up the Church of Martel to selectively-breed Chosens for her... of course, Mithos doesn't listen when Martel tells him what he did was wrong when he ''does'' successfully revive her.]]
* PosthumousCharacter: [[spoiler:Oh, man is she. Her death is without a doubt the single most important event in the game's backstory.]]
* PowerGivesYouWings: [[spoiler:Like Mithos, Kratos, and Yuan, she became an angel via a Cruxis Crystal.]]
* PromotionToParent: [[spoiler:She raised Mithos in place of their parents.]]
* RemovingTheCrucialTeammate: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. [[spoiler: Martel was the WhiteMagicianGirl and TheHeart of her band of heroes, and her brother's MoralityChain. When she was murdered, her friends crossed the DespairEventHorizon and Mithos simply ''snapped'', marking their transformation from heroes to the villains that the current heroes need to stop.]]
* WalkingSpoiler: It is almost impossible to talk about her in substance without spoiling much of the second half of the game.
* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler: Gives a blistering one to Mithos when she is briefly transferred into Colette's body.]]
* WhiteMagicianGirl: [[spoiler: She appears to have been one in life.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabatha]]
!!'''Tabatha'''
!!! Voiced by: Miki Machi (JP), Kim Mai Guest (EN)

A strange girl who lives with Altessa and assists him. She speaks in a robotic voice.

-----

Tropes associated with Tabatha:

* CommonalityConnection: With Presea. [[spoiler: Since Tabatha is a doll made to be a vessel for Martel and the goal of using Presea in the Angelus Project was to turn her into an EmptyShell to make a Cruxis Crystal, this makes sense.]]
* ElectronicSpeechImpediment: [[spoiler:"MITHOS SA~~VED ME..."]]
* EmotionlessGirl [[spoiler: Only because she is a mechanical doll. Even then, she's not completely without emotion.]]
* FriendToAllLivingThings: And nonliving, as shown by her scene with Presea about the loneliness of Exspheres.
* HiddenDepths: She shows a lot of concern for Presea, and claims in one cutscene she can 'hear' the voices of Exspheres.
* ReplacementGoldfish: Of a sort. [[spoiler: The whole reason she exists was to be an artificial vessel for Martel.]]
* RoboSpeak: Her voice is stilted and mechanical. [[spoiler: Because she's a robot, naturally.]]
* SoullessShell: [[spoiler: She was designed to be a vessel for Martel's soul, but Martel refused the body.]]
* SupremeChef: She does the cooking for Altessa and the group needs her curry recipe to get through the Earth Temple.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anna Irving]]
!!'''Anna Irving'''

Lloyd's late mother, who died many years before the beginning of ''Tales of Symphonia''. Lloyd soon learns that she was murdered by the Desians and this, along with their attack on Iselia village, inspires him to seek revenge against them. While she never appears in-game, the effect that she had on certain people resonates very strongly throughout the story.

-----

Tropes associated with Anna:

* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: Implied to have been the Gentle Girl to [[spoiler: Kratos's]] Brooding Boy.
* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: No one who knew her personally, even Dirk who knew her for all of a few minutes, has anything but good things to say about her. The only exception is Kvar, who insults her mercilessly to get under Lloyd's skin.
* TheGhost: It's not until the anime adaptation that we finally get to see what she looked like.
* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacguffin: When Dirk found her, she lived long enough only to pass on Lloyd, Noishe, and her Exsphere. As it happens, said Exsphere was [[spoiler:actually a Cruxis Crystal; giving its user powers on the level of an angel.]]
* KilledOffForReal: Long before the story began.
* MercyKill: [[spoiler: After she was turned into a monster by Kvar, she begged Kratos to kill her so that she wouldn't hurt him or their son.]]
* PluckyGirl: Implied. While we never get acquainted with her character, something about her managed to inspire the broody [[spoiler:Kratos]] to pull a temporary HeelFaceTurn and try to overturn the BigBad's plans. The fact that her limited appearances in the anime generally have her smiling optimistically seem to confirm this. A bonus chapter in the manga also confirms this, with [[spoiler: Kratos]] thinking to himself that Anna and her son are both optimistic and "can laugh or get angry at small things all the time."
* PhlebotinumRebel‎: Subverted. She was made the host for a special type of Exsphere. She managed to escape and lived on the run long enough to have a child but, unfortunately, she never got to actually use her Exsphere's powers before [[spoiler:she was turned into a monster]].
* PosthumousCharacter: She never physically appears in the story but she makes a surprisingly large impact on it nonetheless.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: [[spoiler: If she hadn't met Kratos, [[TheHero Lloyd]] wouldn't have been born and would not gain her Cruxis Crystal which ultimately leads to the end of the BigBad and his plans.]]
* TragicKeepsake: Her Exsphere, which Lloyd inherited.
* TragicMonster: [[spoiler:As it happens, she was turned into a monster by Kvar and Kratos was force to kill her.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Dirk]]
!!'''Dirk'''
!!! Voiced by: Masaharu Satou (JP), Creator/KyleHebert (EN, ''Dawn of the New World'')

Lloyd's adoptive dwarven father. He is one of the few dwarves to have left the underground or and not work for Cruxis.

-----

Tropes associated with Dirk:

* AdaptationalBadass: Uses his hammer to smash around some Desians when Iselia is attacked in the [=OVA=] series. Becomes part of [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld the next game]] when he hammers demons attacking his house.
* AngerBornOfWorry: Hits Lloyd in the beginning of the game for going to the Iselia Human Ranch, and possibly revealing himself to the Desians. He later apologises.
* TheBlacksmith: He's the only other person aside from Altessa that can make Key Crests and such.
* GoodParents: Treats Lloyd like his own son despite the differences in race.
* SoProudOfYou: Entrusts Lloyd with the finest blade he's ever forged, the Vorpal Blade, as proof.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Marble]]

An old woman at the Iselia Ranch that Genis befriends and the mother to Cacao and grandmother to Chocolat.

----

Tropes associated with Marble:

* BodyHorror: She's transformed into an Exbelua (the first one you see in the game, in fact) and it is a ''painful'' process.
* CoolOldLady: Why Genis presumably befriended her in the first place. She tells the boys to run when the Desians catch her "slacking off", urging them not to get caught by the Ranch.
* ChekhovsGunman: Her fate has more significance than it initially seems, both because she's Chocolat's grandmother and because [[spoiler: it's exactly the same as Lloyd's mother.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: After Lloyd and Genis defeat her, Forcystus is about to attack the boys when she throws herself on him and her body explodes. She doesn't kill him, unfortunately, but she injures him badly enough to force the Desians to retreat.
* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacguffin: Genis ends up with Marble's Exsphere after she dies.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: With Genis and later on with Lloyd.
* LikeASonToMe: She outright admits she'd come to think of Genis as a grandson when she dies.
* MercyKill: Unfortunately, Lloyd and Genis are forced into doing this when Forcystus makes them fight her as "punishment" for going near the Ranch. [[YouKilledMyFather Chocolat does not take it well when she finds out.]]
* SacrificialLamb: She's killed off rather tragically in the beginning, both to give Lloyd and Genis something to fight for, and to illustrate what terrible people the Desians are.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: She's the reason Lloyd is caught by the Ranch, which in turn results in the Desians attacking Iselia and Lloyd and Genis being exiled. She also provides Genis his exsphere and her death is a large part of the reason Genis has a personal hatred for the Desians and later Cruxis.
* StealthPun: Her daughter Cacao and granddaughter Chocolat are both named after chocolate. Marble's name doesn't immediately seem to fit the theme, but it's referring to marble ''cake''.
* TakingYouWithMe: ''Tries'' to do this to Forcystus. She doesn't succeed in killing him, but he's injured badly enough that he's forced to withdraw.
* TraumaCongaLine: The poor woman has it rough, first she's kidnapped by Desians and taken away from her family, then whipped at the Iselia ranch [[KickTheDog for no reason]] and then transformed into an Exelua by Forcystus to battle Lloyd and Genis, the two kids she befriended.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Mayor of Iselia]]

----

* HateSink: While his banishment of Lloyd and Genis was arguably justified, he falls into this when the party returns to Iselia. Not only does he complain about exiles returning to the village, but he also shows disdain for the Sage siblings being half-elves, and calls Colette a failure as a Chosen. This causes the townspeople to stand up for the party members from Sylvarant.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: [[JerkassHasAPoint He has a point]] in banishing Lloyd and Genis for provoking Forcytus's wrath against the village, making it seem like he at least cares about the welfare of the villagers. However, after the Forcystus boss battle, he proves himself to be a hypocrite because he's not accepting of the ranch prisoners even after Lloyd frees them, implying part of his reason for the treaty is to have less mouths to feed.
* JerkassHasAPoint: In ''Dawn of the New World'', he still considers Lloyd a foolish idealist, but points out that Lloyd would never slaughter the people of Palmacosta "for the greater good" precisely because of his ideals.
* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Deconstructed. He's so used to the treaty with the Desians to the point where he stopped caring about the prisoners of the ranch, and has a LackOfEmpathy for them even after Lloyd defeats Forcystus and removes any need for the treaty. For all his talk of the treaty being NecessarilyEvil to protect the village, he ended up dehumanizing the villagers in the Desians' clutches.
* NoNameGiven: He's merely referred to by his title.
* NoSympathy: He doesn't care for the people who are imprisoned at the ranch. When one resident says that the people at the ranch will "rot there anyway," the Mayor callously agrees, and says that if Lloyd hadn't caused trouble there, the prisoners would have been the only ones who'd have to die.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Aifread]]

A famous pirate.
----

* JerkassHasAPoint: He's rather harsh in condemning Colette for not sacrificing her life to merely give Sylvarant temorary prosperity, especially when he refuses to hear Lloyd's side of the story, but he's not wrong to make the point.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: How he comes off in the end. He forces the party to search for him all over Sylvarant to make a harsh but ultimately valid point about what Colette's failure to perform the journey of regeneration has cost their world, then asks the party to deliver a letter to Lyla. The party's horrified to discover that Lyla's actually a loan shark, and by delivering the letter, they agreed to pay off Aifread's debts.
* PleaseShootTheMessenger: A variant. Aifread's letter to Lyla designates the party as the ones to pay off his debt.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Governor-General Dorr]]

The ruler of Palmacosta, the only city that actively resists the Desians. In reality, he secretly collaborates with them in order to cure his wife.

----

* BrokenPedestal: He's one of the more respected authority figures, but it turns out that he betrayed his people for his own selfish reasons.
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Lloyd sympathizes with him for what happened to his wife, but says Dorr's actions put his people at risk of suffering a similar fate.
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Colette suggests that Dorr can atone for his crimes and seems to get through to him, only for Kilia to stab him InTheBack, mortally wounding him. The most he can do is give the party the passcode to the Palmacosta ranch.
* InTheBack: The Desian impersonating his daughter stabs him from behind.
* ShutUpKirk: When Lloyd tries to call Dorr out on his behavior, he says, "Silence, boy! Stop acting like your justice is absolute!"
* TreacheryCoverUp: Neill asks the party to keep quiet about Dorr's behavior.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Kate]]

A half-elf who works (and lives) in the basement of the Imperial Research Academy in Sybak and conducted experiments on Presea.

----

Tropes associated with Kate:

* BrokenBird: The poor girl has it rough, even when you do rescue her.
* DamselInDistress: The party has to save her from Meltokio's Coliseum after she's arrested.
* FantasticRacism: She's the first taster we get of the horrific treatment of half-elves in Tethe'alla - despite being [[spoiler: the Pope's daughter, and thus technically a member of the royal family]], she is forbidden from leaving the laboratory in Sybak, ever, and is sentenced to death for letting Lloyd, Zelos and the others go.
* IGaveMyWord: Though she's no doubt aware of the punishment for freeing the prisoners, she still frees Presea from her experiment.
* MoralityPet: To Zelos, who lets her stay in his mansion (in his ''bed'', no less) and acknowledges that she's a victim in the whole situation and he must use his influence as the Chosen to abolish the discriminatory laws against half-elves.
* TheUglyGuysHotDaughter: Whoever her mother was, Kate clearly took after her in the looks department.
* WellDoneSonGuy: [[spoiler: She desperately wants to be loved and acknowledged by her father, the Pope, but he's disturbed by his half-elf daughter and only talks to her when he needs something.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Seles Wilder]]

Zelos's younger half-sister, who lives in the South-East Abbey due to being ill[[spoiler: officially, anyway, the real reason is that she's under house arrest for her mother's crimes]], though she is finally able to leave after the main events of the game. In part due to a tumultuous family history, the siblings don't have a great relationship, although when it comes down to it they care deeply for each other.

----

Tropes associated with Seles:

* AdaptationalBackstoryChange: In the game, the reason Seles was [[spoiler: placed under house arrest was because her mother attempted to assassinate Zelos, only to kill ''his'' mother, and Seles was punished by proxy after her mother was also executed for the crime]]. In the OVA, it was [[spoiler: the Pope who called for the assassination, hoping to turn Zelos's death into an opportunity to prop Seles up as a puppet Chosen and take full control of the Church, but when Zelos's mother died instead, Seles was then used as a scapegoat for the crime. While in the game the Pope did, in fact, desire to use Seles for his own purposes, this was a completely separate plot point from the assassination attempt]].
* AnIcePerson: Casts mid- and high-level ice magic.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Seles is often snippy with her brother, and is reluctant to show that she cares about him. However, if you defeat her at the colosseum, she confesses that the time in her life she was happiest was when Zelos would play with her as a child.
* BigBrotherWorship: She tries to hide it, but Seles adores Zelos.
* DamselInDistress: She's briefly held hostage by Alice in the sequel, until Sheena and Colette come to the rescue. You'd think Seles should be able to fight back, considering she was a very capable {{Superboss}}, [[JustifiedTrope but she had already given back the exsphere she was using to get around her illness]].
* HeroicBastard: Seles's mother was the mistress of her and Zelos's father. She proves to be very nice once she and Zelos work out their issues with each other.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Switches between swinging a huge sword and a cute handbag.
* MySisterIsOffLimits: A gender and age inverted example. According to a skit, she once attacked Sheena because she thought the latter was seducing Zelos.
* SinsOfOurFathers: Seles is imprisoned in the South-East Abby because [[spoiler:her mother murdered Zelos's mother in order to make Seles the next Chosen. Seles herself is completely innocent of the whole mess.]]
* StarPower: She has a minor stellar theme; her handbag bears a star motif, and her Mini Meteor move explodes into stars.
* {{Superboss}}: You can encounter her one-on-one in the Meltokio Coliseum after obtaining the Derris Emblem and completing the Advanced single course twice. [[GlassCannon She has relatively low HP, but high defense and a lot of wallop]] - her Mini-Meteor attack will even smash through a guard stance.
* {{Tsundere}}: Towards her brother, Zelos, in a non-romantic way. She makes some barbed remarks when Zelos shows up to take his Cruxis Crystal from her, but after he leaves, she says, "Please take care."
* TurnsRed: As a secret boss, knocking her hat off makes her much more aggressive and unlocks her most dangerous melee techniques.
* UnevenHybrid: Seles is a Quarter-Elf; her mother was a half-elf while her and Zelos's father was a pure-blooded human. For all intents and purposes, Seles is a human that can use magic. [[spoiler:according to [[AllThereInTheManual an artbook]] that includes a human lifespan.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Orochi]]
!!'''Orochi'''

A ninja from Mizuho and Kuchinawa's brother. Orochi is Sheena's childhood friend and one of her most ardent allies and supporters. His parents were among the victims of the Volt incident, though he doesn't maintain a grudge against Sheena for it [[spoiler: unlike Kuchinawa]].

----

Tropes associated with Orochi:

* AdaptedOut: He doesn't appear in the Symphonia OVA.
* NumberTwo: Eventually to Sheena. When she becomes chief of Mizuho he's basically her right-hand man.
* RedOniBlueOni: Literally wears a blue uniform, contrasting with Kuchinawa's red. Indeed, Orochi is the more levelheaded and calm of the two siblings while Kuchinawa is more intense.
* SecretKeeper: The interquel novel and a drama CD imply that Orochi is aware that Zelos has feelings for Sheena and that he secretly watches out for her, but Orochi stops short of spelling it out to her.
* SiblingYinYang: With Kuchinawa. Orochi is a kind, rational, duty bound ninja who was quick to forgive Sheena for the Volt incident even if it cost his parents lives. Kuchinawa on the other hand is more driven by emotion, secretly resented Sheena for the Volt incident [[spoiler: causing him to attempt to kill Sheena, an act of treason in Mizuho]].

[[/folder]]

* CatchPhrase:

* UnskilledButStrong: At the beginning of the game. He's the strongest in the village, but his sword-style is self-taught and amateurish, and relies on the fact that he has an [[AmplifierArtifact Exsphere]].. He improves markedly over the course of the adventure.

* AnIcePerson: Through an altered arte.

* TheIngenue: So sweet and sheltered.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: It's not as apparent at some examples, but there are times when she comes out with this, such as seeing the Tethe'alla bridge being covered in exsphere and remarks that it's "kind of gross-looking". ''Zelos'', of all people, calls her out on this, remarking that it's hardly an appropriate comment considering where exspheres come from.
** When the party run into him talking to Presea, she also calls Rodyle "creepy", before she knows he's a Desian.

* TheKlutz: It's even one of her titles!
* LiteralMinded: Very much so.
-->'''Tenebrae''': "Am I really that much of a stick in the mud?"
-->'''Colette''': "I honestly don't see any mud on you. But, what's wrong with mud anyway? Everyone gets a little dirty now and again."
-->'''Marta''': "I don't think he meant that sort of mud."
-->'''Colette''': "Well then, what sort of mud did he mean?"
-->'''Emil''': "No, listen. There was never any mud to begin with."
-->'''Colette''': "Oh, so it was more of a muck? Or maybe a slime?"

* {{Meido}}: One of her alternate outfits.

-->'''Colette:''' The best! So many wonderful people. I love them all. And Sylvarant and Tethe’alla too.
-->'''Lloyd:''' Yeah.
-->'''Colette:''' But most of all, I love--
-->'''Lloyd:''' Hmm?\\

* BigNo / SayMyName: Has a positively heartbreaking one early on. [[spoiler:"Marble...MARBLE! NOOOO!"]]

-->'''Genis:''' Maybe you should try telling her you love her.
-->'''Lloyd:''' What? Why?
-->'''Genis:''' Oh, you’re so dense. Stop asking questions and just try it.

* SomethingAboutARose / BishieSparkle: In the 3rd {{OVA}} bonus.

* NotSoAboveItAll: She is mostly calm and collected, but the group sees her less mature side when she comes across the Triet ruins for the first time. She [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes reacts poorly]] when it turns out to get to the Water Seal, you have to get there by riding a washtub.

* ButNowIMustGo / PutOnABus: [[spoiler:Much to Lloyd's chagrin, he leaves with the rest of the angels at the end of the game.]]

* TheComicallySerious: Mostly seen in skits and optional scenes.
* CoolOldGuy: Despite being 28. [[spoiler:Give or take 4000 years.]]

* DoubleAgent: [[spoiler:For Yggdrasill]].

* FallenHero: [[spoiler:Just like everyone else in Mithos's group, although Kratos is the most aware of it.]]
* FakeDefector: [[spoiler:And quite sneaky about it too, playing both sides as part of his plan to end Mithos'.]]
* TheFatalist: Initially. Lloyd's idealism shakes him out of it.

* HairColorDissonance: His hair is often brown instead of red in fanart.
** His hair also goes from being burgundy (like his in-game model) in the first four [=OVAs=] to redder and redder. It's completely bright red in the last episode.

* HolyHandGrenade: Judgement.

* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: [[spoiler:Twenty-eight, but close enough.]]

-->[[spoiler: '''Remiel''': Lord Kratos, have pity on me. Please...lend me your aid!]]
-->'''Kratos''':[[spoiler: Have you forgotten, Remiel? I used to be of the inferior race, a human. Does the ultimate being seek help from that which he despises most?]]

* MayflyDecemberRomance: [[spoiler:With his wife, Anna.]]

* MercyKill / StakingTheLovedOne: [[spoiler:Was forced to do this to his wife.]]

* NobleTopEnforcer: [[spoiler:To Mithos.]]

* SomethingAboutARose / BishieSparkle: In the {{OVA}} bonuses, sometimes, when he appears, these are in the background.

* TheStoic: Most of the time. He starts to lose the facade later in the game.

* TeamDad: Mostly to Lloyd, but does it towards Genis, Colette and Sheena too.

* AsianAirhead: Downplayed, but it’s there. She has - by a long shot - the second-lowest test score at the Palmacosta Academy, she takes Genis seriously when he jokingly claims to use fire magic to cook, and her clumsiness is very much PlayedForLaughs. She makes up for it by being a badass.

%%* BookDumb: She has the second lowest score on the Palmacosta Academy entrance exam. This is partly because Mizuho doesn't have a formal school, and partly because she's from an entirely different world (Presea also gets a relatively low score for the latter reason).
* CannotSpitItOut: To Lloyd, especially in her ending.

* FragileSpeedster: However, she's not the fastest character in the game. That'd be [[LightningBruiser Lloyd]].

** She's also this to Lloyd himself directly, being someone who refuses to make sacrifices for the "good of the world" [[spoiler: and were adopted and raised by people who are considered 'outsiders', Lloyd by a dwarf and Sheena by the village of Mizuho]]. Her character is essentially built to be the Lloyd to Zelos's Colette, being a long-time, opposite-gender friend of the 'Chosen One' who is well meaning, book-dumb (Sheena actually gets the lowest test score next to Lloyd at the Palmacosta Academy) and who the respective Chosen has an emotional attachment towards. However, her relationship with Zelos is fraught with tension compared to Lloyd's very close relationship to Colette.

* StupidSexyFlanders: [[ACupAngst Colette]] and [[VitriolicBestBuds Raine]] comment on Sheena's figure in the hotsprings, much to her embarrassment.

* TomboyishPonytail: Well, a spiky bun, but still.

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Her CatchPhrase; she says it every time her guard breaks or [[NoSell her attacks fail]] during combat and every time [[RunningGag she triggers a trap door.]]

** In the sequel, bad mouthing Lloyd is a one-way ticket to his bad side. [[BigBrotherInstinct As is kidnapping his sister Seles.]]
* BelligerentSexualTension: With Sheena. It's almost completely one-sided on his part, though: while Sheena does definitely like him more than she lets on, her true feelings about him remain ambiguous. They apparently have known each other for awhile, and Zelos maintains an attachment to her. He flirts with and annoys her far more than any other girl, but at the same time is highly observant of her and worries for her well-being.
* BigBrotherInstinct: He truly does care for Seles, even if he tries hiding it. Just watch the skit where he thinks she's following them and he insists she go home because she could get hurt. It's hinted he has a bit of this toward Colette as well, as he's prone to being more considerate of her. In the interquel novel, he pats Colette on the head and gives her encouragement when she has a moment of self-doubt.

* TheDulcineaEffect: Many of the {{Event Flag}}s that increase his affection with Lloyd involve helping out pretty girls, and he only agrees to help save Colette, Presea, and Raine and Genis because he can't stand watching a pretty girl in trouble.

* GeniusDitz: While he often acts like a moron and and blatantly admits that his Valedictorian status upon graduating school was partly because he cheated, if you make the party take the test at Palmacosta academy, Zelos actually proves to be the smartest character after Raine (who is a genius), Genis (who is ALSO a genius), and Kratos (who has been alive for 4000 years).

* GoodWithNumbers: Whilst he cheated his way to the top of the class in most subjects (though as GeniusDitz points out he is smarter than he appears) he actually genuienly aced his mathematics exams and is called on by Raine to tutor Genius and Lloyd in the subject.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: He's THE strongest enemy in the game barring a couple {{Superboss}}es.

* AuthorityEqualsAssKicking: Zigzagged. They are the strongest of the Desians, except for Rodyle, who is a DirtyCoward. However, it is implied that Forcystus is actually stronger than Pronyma, but she is the leader due to some off-screen plotting.

* UnwittingPawn: To Rodyle.

* {{Catchphrase}}: "Colette, my daughter." [[spoiler: Invoked in-universe to make Colette trust him more.]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: He started off well-intentioned, but eventually becomes a NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist.[[spoiler:Everything he did was for the sake of creating a world where he and his sister could leave free of discrimination. Until he undergoes his VillainousBreakdown and goes '''batshit insane''', leading to him trying to create a new world on Derris Kharlan for himself and his sister while abandoning any pretense of saving the old one.]]

* GutturalGrowler: It almost sounds like a very gruff whisper.