"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 Travel after having been banished from the village, where he's held responsible for the attack they suffered from the Desians. At the beginning of the game, Lloyd is a typical overly idealisticIdiot Hero, but he grows upon discovering the world as it is, making his idealism into a goal to save both worlds and everyone living inside it.Tropes associated with Lloyd:
Accidental Pervert: Lloyd received the title "Peeping Tom" when he caught Zelos (Who ran when the girls heard noises) spying on the girls in the the hot spring scene. Evolves to a sort-of Running Gag 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.
Asleep In Class / Good Morning, Crono: 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.
Disappeared Dad: Raised by the dwarf Dirk, whom he grew to call father, but his real father, Kratos, thought he died together with his mother, and never sought him after the incident.
Genius Ditz: 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...
Idiot Savant: 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, like crafting one already embedded in Presea's body.
Dual Wielding: 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 lampshaded by Kratos at one point; Lloyd's (rather poorly thought-out) response is the trope's page quote.
He also has a brief one after discovering that Kratos is his father.
Hostage For Macguffin: Lloyd, of all people, is at one point held hostage so Kratos will give Yuan the Eternal Sword.
I Gave My Word: Why he's so dead-set on going back to the Iselia ranch is because he promised to save Chocolat, despite there being somewhat more important matters going on at the time.
Idiot Ball: 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 after releasing all the seals, he gets the idea to blast the tree with Tethe'alla's summon spirits' energy, and when, shortly thereafter, remembers that Chocolat was taken to Iselia.
Luke, I Am Your Father: Has this pulled on him, though his father himself wasn't responsible for The Reveal. Lloyd even does the "NO!!!" shout.
Likes Older Women: Becomes this in Dawn of the New World, unless you pair him up with Colette. He'll still comment on the attractiveness of older women even if you do, however.
No Infantile Amnesia: He reveals in one skit to Kratos 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 3 years old when he lost his parents.
The Other Darrin: Brian Beacock is the new English voice post-first game, with intense debate resulting. Popular opinion seems to be that, while Beacock did a good job, Scott Menvill's hot-headed approach just suits our Idiot Hero better.
Also a rare example of this actually working to the story's advantage. It's a plot point that a Lloyd imposter is walking around in Dawn of the New World. Had Menville returned, it would've been blazingly obvious which of them was fake.
Spam Attack: 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 Overlimit do so based on the number of hits they've taken.
Standing In The Hall: 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 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.
Sword Beam: Demon Fang, his first technique and the one he tends to use in scenes.
"Even if I lose my body, my heart will still be free"Lloyd's childhood friend was raised with the knowledge that she was The Chosen One, and, when the time came, she'd go on "a journey to regenerate the world," where humans are often treated by cattle by the Desians, an organization comprising mostly half-elves. She's a naive, sweet, cheerful girl with an incredibly large martyr complex: regenerating the world implies becoming an angel, and "becoming an angel" means "dying by inches."She originally tries to dissuade Lloyd from following her, then hides the truth from him as long as she can, but he manages to change her mind when he prevents her from dying, and then reprimands her on her acceptance of her fate. From this moment on, Colette is Lloyd's most constant support.Tropes associated with Colette:
Action Girl: Despite getting kidnapped a couple of times, Colette fights by tripping is actually a pretty good fighter.
And I Must Scream: 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, though.
Apologises a Lot: 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, unlike Lloyd and Regal, apologizes mostly when she doesn't have to (and Regal actually apologizes when he needs to).
Complete with Efficient Displacement. It's called a "divine clumsiness" at one point, given that she occasionally has a tendency to trip over the exact thing the party were searching for. She even trips after she gets wings!
"Item Thief! Ugh!" to be followed by "Yay, I got something!"
Innocently Insensitive: 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".
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?"
Love Freak: 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'. Which they eventually do.
Not so Different: From Zelos when you think about it. They both hide their insecurities behind their smile and insist that nothing is wrong. This tends to result in terrible consequences later. In Colette's case, by insisting that she's okay, the group has to save her life multiple times whether it's from sacrificing herself or from a 4000 year old sickness.
One Note Chef: 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.
Purity Sue: A very deliberate in-universe deconstruction. Colette is just about the sweetest and most selfless human being imaginable, not to mention she is The Messiahin every sense of the word. Unfortunately, Mithos doesn't care about any of that and selectively bred her so that he could have a new Soul Jar for his sister.
Sidetracked by the Analogy: Probably the champion within the game. 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.
Silk Hiding Steel: 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 also physically the strongest of the group.
Spam Attack: 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.
Lloyd's other childhood friend, Genis is a young elven boy who was raised by his sister. The ambient racism against half-elves forced them to hide their half-elf nature and pretend to be pure-blooded elves. Genis is the first to break the law in order to help a human from a Desian human ranch, which resulted in Iselia being attacked and Lloyd and he being exiled as a punishment. He's extremely clever, making him often quite sarcastic and arrogant toward Lloyd, and later Zelos, but he also starts out just as idealistic as his best friend.Of the party, Genis is the one who struggles the most with racism. Rejected and reviled by both humans and elves, he sympathizes the most with the Big Bad's goal. However, he never crosses the line, and chooses to trust Lloyd with building a world where everyone will be treated equally.Tropes associated with Genis:
Improbable Weapon User: He uses a kendama toy, a Japanese toy that resembles hammer with a ball on a string on it. He can whack people will the little ball, but he mostly uses it to focus when casting magic.
You Can't Go Home Again: As his house burns, he laments that he thought Iselia was a place where he and Raine could settle down. He's not actually from Sylvarant to begin with, but was forced to flee through the Otherworldly Gate.
Genis' older sister who took care of him after they were abandoned by their mother. Raine is Iselia's schoolteacher, and she leaves to accompany Colette on her journey before Lloyd and Genis do. She starts off as very cynical, but over the course of the game, she trusts Lloyd more and more to achieve his idealistic world.It's later revealed that Raine and Genis were born in Tethe'alla. Their parents abandoned them at the Otherworldly Gate; one of the two poles between the two worlds, when Genis was an infant. And optional event has them reunite with their mother, who has gone mad with grief. Through her diary, they leave the experience with the knowledge that their parents did love them, and were trying to save them from the persecution faced by half-elves in Tethe'alla.Tropes associated with Raine:
Adventurer Archaeologist: Averted; although she gets incredibly excited about ancient ruins, she usually insists on their preservation.
Agent Scully: 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.
Angst Coma: In the anime. Kind of handwaved as being from illness, but the timing was very conveniently at a properly angsty moment.
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.
Combat Medic: To some extent. She's very poor in physical combat, but her Photon and Ray spells (especially Ray) have very good offensive capabilities.
Combat Pragmatist: Not a physical fighter, but Raine certainly has the right mindset. To increase her Relationship Values, 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
Light 'Em Up: Her three attack spells: Photon, Ray, and Holy Lance.
Freudian Excuse: Her fascination on old ruins and civilizations? One skit after the reunion scene in Exire theorizes that she was trying to find the Otherworldly Gate, and by extension, her parents.
The Medic: 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 ( Sheena).
Nature Adores a Virgin: Averted. 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 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.
Odd Friendship: With Sheena. At first the two come off as Headbutting Heroes, 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.
Parental Abandonment: 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.
Stern Teacher: 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 the hero in particular because she knows he's strong enough to handle it, and wants to see him grow up strong.
Team Mom: not a leader in any sense, but 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 Sacrifices along the way...
A 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 little, smiles 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.When it looks like he finally has it, of course, Kratos betrays you and hands over Colette to the Big Bad. Turns out he was working for him all along and is really an angel, none of which explains why he spends the second part of the game crypticallyhelping the party out.He's finally revealed to be Lloyd's father, who Lloyd has to duel in order to release Origin's Seal, after he admits to having been helping the heroes so he could atone for his sins; more precisely, going back to the Big Bad after being forced to kill his wife who had been turned into a monster.Tropes associated with Kratos:
Absurdly Youthful Father: Justified by fact that he stopped aging about 4000 years ago when he was 28, but still lampshaded in one conversation.
Aloof Big Brother: Plays this role against Lloyd during the Journey of Regeneration, despite not being his brother.
Bodyguard Crush: The Tales of Fandom 2 DVD reveals that he has feelings for a princess whom he protected before he met Lloyd. Four-thousand years before.
Guile Hero: 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 die. It's 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.
Hopeless Boss Fight Your first fight with him is intended as this as he is a huge jump in power above any boss you fought before, but can still be beaten if you're overleveled, though it has no effect on the plot.
Alternatively, you can use one of your precious All-Divides to half the damage everybody takes, preventing Kratos from stomping all over your party, but dragging the fight out for longer.
Luke, I Am Your Father: 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 Iselia.
Magic Knight: He's practically the patron saint of this character class in Radiant Mythology spin-offs.
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 by time, yet he still doesn't help when threatened to be killed by Yggdrassil. Fortunately, later in game he throws himself in front of Lloyd to shield him from a deadly attack, does a full Heel Face Turn for his sake, and is revealed he'd done a lot of backstage planning to help the heroes achieve their goal
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
In a OVA, he delivers quite a smack down to Sheena after she threatened to kill a defeated Lloyd.
Running Gag: Kratos is often late to important events, parodied a bit in OVA's bonuses.
Shell Shocked Senior: 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.
Stoic Spectacles: 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.
Too Many Belts: Especially in his judgment costume. So much so it became a fandom in-joke that he has a belt fetish.
Try Not To Die: "Don't die, Lloyd." Then, in the ending, "Don't die before I do, Lloyd, my son."
Weaksauce Weakness: As a gameplay mechanic, every character has an ingredient they don't like. Kratos' is tomatoes. Fanon has elevated this dislike to outright phobia.
Sheena starts as a sympathetic antagonist; her first attempt to kill Colette fails due 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 what's going on in Sylvarant human farms. Later, she reveals she comes from the ninja village of 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.She's easily one of the most idealistic characters of the game, and one of Lloyd's staunchest supporters. However, it's revealed that she has a particularly angsty backstory - feeling responsible for the death of about a quarter of her village when she couldn't make a pact with the Spirit of Lightning, at age nine. Most people in the village blame her for this, including one of her childhood friends who then tries to kill her. This resulted in almost crippling lack of confidence and guilt, but she eventually manages to overcome them, helped mostly by Lloyd, Colette, Zelos and the choice her village made to trust her.She has feelings for Lloyd, but he doesn't get it. Her interactions with Zelos imply that there's also something going on between them and they've clearly known each other for quite some time, though whether they used to just be good friends when they were younger or even dated at one point is never actually stated in the game.Tropes associated with Sheena:
Big Breasts, Big Deal: Her type of this varies, but she certainly doesn't appreciate Zelos' mentioning of them, and when Raine remarks in the hotsprings sidequest she's not as well-endowed as Sheena, she reacts with some embarrassment.
Light 'Em Up: The only one she learns naturally which isn't a summon.
Feminine Women Can Cook: Subverted; despite her tomboyish personality, she likes cooking, although she makes some odd (but not completely wrong) decisions, like adding pineapple to curry.
She's actually the third-best cook in the group (to Genis and Regal) and the best girl at it.
Fragile Speedster: However, she's not the fastest character in the game - that'd be 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 love interests.
Vitriolic Best Buds: 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."
Zelos Wilder
Voiced by: Masaya Onosaka (JP), Shiloh Strong (EN, Symphonia), Christopher Corey Smith (EN, Dawn of the New World)
"Whatever will be will be"Tethe'alla's 21-year-old Chosen One, Zelos has all the appearance of Handsome Lech, and provides much of the comic relief in the second part of the game, and is generally the party's Butt Monkey. Among the aristocracy of Tethe'alla, he's extremely popular and a regular Casanova, and retains the common prejudice against 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.Later, it's revealed that Zelos' behaviour is mostly an act to cover an extreme self-loathing that stems from a horrific backstory: He was abandoned by his father at a young age and his mother was killed in front of him while she tried to protect him from a murder attempt, and her last words to him was that he never should have been born. Zelos' hatred for his position as the Chosen leads him to betray the party, hoping to gain a better life for his sister (in fact his half-sister, daughter of the woman who'd killed his mother, strictly guarded by the Church) and being done with his life (either by losing the title of the Chosen or by dying, he's not picky); whether the party fights him and kill him or doesn't depends on story choices.If you choose to fight him, he is slain in the battle and Kratos rejoins your party in his stead. If he doesn't die, he rejoins the party after saving each member from their Heroic Sacrifice and reveals his betrayal was part of his plan to obtain the aionis Lloyd needed to wield the Eternal Sword. From that moment on, he enjoys the party's full trust. He is alive and present for the sequel, revealing that this choice was canonical.Tropes associated with Zelos:
Anti-Hero: Type IV; shifts up the scale to Type II in the story paths where he isn't killed.
Big Brother Instinct: 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.
Calling the Old Man Out: Clearly feels that Lloyd should do this, regarding his father Kratos. Not surprising, considering his own situation with his parents.
Double Agent: Goes Serial Escalation 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.
Et Tu, Brute?: At the final dungeon, complete with the hero's exclamations of disbelief.
Evil All Along Somewhere during the course of the journey, however, he eventually has a Heel Face Turn with his change of heart, so when he finally gets to 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 [[spoiler: after the scene in Flanoir. If you talk to anyone except Kratos (which makes Zelos' Face Heel Turn a fake one,) Lloyd tells Zelos that he trusts him before they leave. If you talk to Kratos (which makes his Face Heel Turn real,) Lloyd instead asks Zelos if he can really trust him.
Foil / Shadow Archetype. To Lloyd. He's basically what would happen if Lloyd got really cynical.
Fake Defector: In the story line that doesn't kill him.
Lolicon: Zelos' Personal EX Skill lets him flirt with female NPCs for free items and money. This works on little girls as well. There's even a Z-skit where the rest of the party mistakes this for Zelos just really liking children. He claims to be thinking about how hot they'll be when they'll grow up, though. Doesn't really doesn't make it any better, though... then again, this is ZelosWilder.
Lovable Sex Maniac: He even gets a special title for flirting with every female NPC in the game.
Multiple Endings: When people say the game has several endings, they're not referring to the ships.
My Friends... and Zoidberg: Has this attitude towards Lloyd and Genis in the beginning. Lloyd earns his respect and grows out of it. Genis... not quite so much.
The Nicknamer: 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," and Lloyd is "Hey You" and later "Bud."
Not so Different: From Colette - They both hide their insecurities behind their smiles, all the while insisting that nothing is wrong, which tends to result in terrible consequences later. In Zelos' case, this leads him to think that the party doesn't trust him, and depending on who Lloyd chooses, Zelos will either accept the fact that he cant be trusted or allow himself to trust his comrades.
Power of Trust: Lloyd telling Zelos he trusts him makes the difference between Zelos being a Fake Defector 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.
A 12-year-old Tethe'allan lumberjack, Presea seems entirely devoid of emotions when the party meets her. It's quickly discovered that her emotionlessness results from the Cruxis Crystal experiments that where conducted on her; the party makes it their goal to cure her, since anyway the process can't be much different from the one employed to cure Colette.Once she regains her personality, she tells her story to the party: her mother had died when she was little, and her father, a lumberjack, had taken ill, so Presea had agreed to become an exsphere carrier in order to earn money for herself and her younger sister. Shortly after that, her sister Alicia had found employment as a maid and had left, but when the party tries to find Alicia, they discover she was killed by her master. Presea then swears to avenge her sister. Her plan is derailed when the party learns that Regal was Alicia's master - and lover - who had had no other choice but to kill her when she'd been turned into a monster as a result of the exsphere experiments.This revelation seals Presea's decision to keep on helping the party getting the world rid of the Desians and the Cruxis, once she accepts Regal is not responsible for what happened to her sister.Tropes associated with Presea:
And I Must Scream: 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.
Glacier Waif: Has the highest Strength, Attack, and the second highest amount of hit points in the game, effectively cementing her status as the party's Mighty Glacier.
Older than They Look (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 year old and 28 years old, depending on the scene.)
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 refuses to take off his shackles - they are the symbol of the sin he committed and which he has to atone for. He killed his lover, Presea's sister, when she was turned into a monster by the Exphere experiments that Cruxis performed on her, and cannot forgive himself.Regal is able to focus his efforts towards the fight against the Desians and the Cruxis after his centric sidequest, in which Alicia, whose soul was retained in the exsphere Regal had been unable to discard, is finally able to tell him she doesn't hold him responsible for what happened to her. However, he retains his peculiar fighting style, refusing to kill anyone with the hands that have already done so much harm.Tropes associated with Regal:
Actor Allusion: (Japanese version) In the sequel, Collete thinks that Regal trains spies to "hide in cardboard boxes and steal top-secret info from rival companies".
The Atoner: Almost an Exaggerated Trope. 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 his personal flaw that he must come to terms with in Welgaia is being weighed down by his feelings of guilt.
Big Brother Mentor: 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.
Kamehamehadoken: Used only in a cutscene (rightfully so! It looks like it would be a real Game Breaker). The in-universe explanation is that he used to specialize in fighting with his hands, to the point where 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 Freudian Excuse 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.
Lolicon: Got labelled as this thanks to the game not being clear on how old he and Alicia actually were when they fell in love... and the fact that certain fans like to ship with with Presea. Not helped by the fact that she is technically in her twenties. One can even label Regal a Lolicon if you choose the right answer when asked about his tastes in women.
Zelos points this out in a OVA bonus, which earns Regal the group's disapproval until Lloyd defuses the situation. This one's Played for Laughs, however, as that very same OVA also cleared up the confusion.
May-December Romance: The game was very, very vague on the age difference between himself and Alicia, leading most fans to conclude this. The animated adaptation confirmed it, but to a lesser extent: Regal was nineteen and Alicia somewhere in her mid-teens. Of course, having Alicia characterized with a faux-child voice and Regal played by the deep-voiced, ultra-manly Akio Ohtsuka doesn't help things.
Out of Focus: 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 the PS2 version, makes nothing more then a few token lines after visiting the rooftop grave.
Unequal Pairing: With Alicia, his servant, which may be why George had them separated.
Use Your Head: In the 5th OVA bonus, Regal decides not to fight with his legs anymore, instead using his head, because he blames himself for the death of Corrine. He promptly and randomly skull bashes Zelos.
With My Hands Tied: Regal's fighting style is based around using his feet only, since he killed his lover with his hands and therefore vowed never to kill with his hands again.
A dog-like companion of Lloyd.Tropes associated with Noishe:
All Animals Are Dogs: 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.
Heroic Dog: Subverted in that he's not really a dog despite acting like one, but Noishe fit this trope when he protected Lloyd when his mother-turned monster attacked him.
Stealth Pun: Noishe matches the physical description of a Scottish mythological Cu Sith, which is pronounced Cu Shee.
For those not familiar with the name, it's feline counterpart is Cait Sith, which was a puppet and party member in Final Fantasy VII.
What Happened to the Mouse?: 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 this 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 Rheairds before the end of the first disk, though the game does actually go into a little more detail about him.
Yggdrasill is the leader of Cruxis and the Desians, a self-righteous antagonist who has the world under his spell. But 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 reveals himself to the party when one of his most trusted lieutenants, one of his companions from 4000 years sooner, proves himself to be a traitor.4000 years before Lloyd swore he would save both worlds, a young half-elf named Mithos stopped the war and watched his sister Martel be killed by a human. He managed to keep her soul from disappearing, keeping it in the Seed of the Giant Tree, source of all mana, and swore to fulfill her dream: a world without discrimination. An admirable goal, but his plan to do such a thing involved forcing millions of people to suffer and die to create Exspheres, which he would then use to turn everybody into a lifeless being, with the justification that if everyone were the same, discrimination would stop. While he was doing this, he also tried to breed a vessel with the same Mana signature as Martel to resurrect her by creating the Chosen Ones and arranging marriages to selectively for the best possible match to Martel's mana signature. Until the age free of discrimination could come, he separated the world in two, allowing them to both survive without the Giant Kharlan Tree providing mana, and preventing Magitek technology from coming into being to preserve mana.By the end of the game, he's been betrayed by all and rebuked by the soul of Martel herself. His final decision is to be destroyed rather than suffer the same fate as other exsphere victims; his final words are that, if given the choice, he would follow the same path as he did.Tropes associated with him:
A God Am I: Subverted, as 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... through some extremely questionable means.
Get It Over With: 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.
Grand Theft Me: Yggdrassil's primary goal is to use a suitable Chosen as a host body for his sister's mind.
Hopeless Boss Fight: The first two times you meet him. The first ends after he virtually one-shots your party, the second ends after a certain amount of time
Older Alter Ego: He used the Cruxis Crystal to give him an adult form so he would have "an appearance befitting the leader of Cruxis."
One-Winged Angel: 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.
"Farewell, my shadow, you who stand at the end of the path I chose not to follow."
Taking the Bullet: 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 never explained why he did either, although Raine calls him out on cruelly shooting Tabatha despite risking his life to save her.
That Man Is Dead: 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.
Villain Decay: A deliberately invoked and justified by-product of this. 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.
Flunky Boss: Tend to have a few minions fighting alongside them, except for the first battle with Pronyma and Rodyle
Freudian Excuse: 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.
Moral Myopia: 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.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: 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 Mithos while begging for his help after being defeated by the party..
Forcystus
The Grand Cardinal in charge of the Iselia RanchTropes associated with Forcystus:
Complete Monster: An in-universe subversion. Lloyd and Genis regard him as such in the beginning of the game, while the morality is still fairly black and white, but they eventually come to realise that it's not so simple and Forcystus is fighting for the good of his people albeit with extremist methods.
Killed Mid-Sentence: Not killed, just incapacitated by a 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.
Informed Attribute: 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.
Knight Templar: He started out just trying to protect his fellow half-elves. Now he does so many horrible things to defend them that he could qualify for Monsterdom if he had more screen time.
Noble Demon: 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.
Too Many Belts: His undershirt is pretty much just a mass of belts (or belt-like straps, anyway).
Well-Intentioned Extremist: He is a hero to his people and comes off as a soldier fighting a racially-motivated war.
Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: 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.
Magnius
The leader of the Palmacosta Ranch.Tropes associated with Magnius:
Complete Monster: Regarded as one in-universe. In a game where many antagonists get an Alas, Poor Villain moment, or at least have their motivations explained, it says a lot about Kvar that almost everyone in the game views him as an irredeemable monster.
Even Evil Has Standards: In fact, Kvar is so bad that even his own subordinates think he's evil. Debateable whether they actually fall under this trope, as they sound like they're bragging about having such a monster for a boss, although one quickly tells you not to let anyone know about him talking about Kvar's cruelty.
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 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, though, but the game implies that Kvar and Rodyle were working rather closely together.
Smug Snake: Believes himself to be the cleverest of the Desian Grand Cardinals, but ends up 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 turns him into an Exbelua when he equips it.
The leader of the Renegades, a group of half-elves who oppose the Desians. Both cynical and ruthless, he was one of Mithos' companions and is currently one of the Seraphim of Cruxis, although he is no longer loyal to Mithos.Tropes associated with Yuan:
Above Good and Evil: 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.
My God, What Have I Done?: After his plan to germinate the great seed causes to Kharlan Tree to go out of control.
Pet the Dog: A short sidequest reveals 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 literally beg for its return.
A strange girl who lives with Altessa and assists him. She speaks in a robotic voice. She's a robot girl who was built to be Martel's new body rather than trying to breed a compatible Chosen One, but Martel's soul seemed to be incompatible with her. In the end, it turns out that the 'incompatibility' was just Martel's refusal to return to life, and Tabatha becomes the vessel for the spirit Martel who guards the revived Mana Tree.Tropes associated with Tabatha:
