Characters / The Seven Deadly Sins: Meliodas

The Seven Deadly Sins Main Character Index
Main Characters | Meliodas | Liones | Camelot | Fairy Clan | Giant Clan | Demon Clan | Goddess Clan | Other Characters | Four Knights of the Apocalypse

Meliodas of The Seven Deadly Sins.

Beware of unmarked spoilers.

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"Dragon's Sin of Wrath" Meliodas

Voiced by: Yūki Kaji (Japanese), Bryce Papenbrook (English) ^{Foreign VAs} Miguel Ángel Leal (Latin American Spanish), Roberto Rodríguez (European Spanish), Benjamin Bollen (French), Patrick Bach (German), Alessandro Vanni (Italian), Fabrício Vila Verde (Brazilian Portuguese)

Magic: Full Counter・Hellblaze

^{Click here to see him in Four Knights of the Apocalypse} 

Meliodas is the leader of the Seven Deadly Sins and is known as the Dragon's Sin of Wrath. As a good deal of the overall plot involves him, he is the primary main male protagonist of the series.

Upon being found by Elizabeth at the start of the series, Meliodas decided to help her find the other Sins in order to stop the Holy Knights who had taken over her kingdom. Despite looking like a human child, Meliodas is actually a member of the Demon Clan. That said, he has lived for over 3000 years which is three times the average lifespan of a regular demon. This is because of a certain curse which was placed upon him.

Meliodas is also a former Holy Knight of the kingdom of Danafall. However due to certain reasons, his uncontrolled wrath caused him to completely obliterate the kingdom.

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A-C

• The Ace: He's strong enough to fell giants, durable enough to take fatal blows like they were paper cuts, fast enough to block and dodge nearly any attack and clever enough to anticipate sneak attacks. In his youth, he was the most powerful member of the Demon Clan just under the Demon King himself and was the leader of the Ten Commandments, themselves as a Badass Crew of demons chosen for their overwhelming power. When he defected, it was what caused the War between the Five Races because of the imbalance of power it created between the Goddess Clan and Demon Clan. As a member of the Seven Deadly Sins, he wields a sword with a broken-blade because he's too powerful to use a real one without causing massive devastation with a single swing. While he's not invincible, Meliodas was nearly impossible to kill even without the Supreme Deity's Resurrective Immortality curse on him and at full power he's strong enough to withstand wielding every commandment without suffering from Phlebotinum Overdose.
• Adaptation Personality Change: In the initial one shot of the manga and the Fairy Tail crossover, he is portrayed as more of a sane Straight Man than his more perverted self in the manga proper.
• Afraid of Their Own Strength: Due to his past, Meliodas has a deep fear of his own strength, which is why he prefers using blunt and broken weapons.
• The Ageless: Meliodas does not visibly age at all, even over the course of three thousand years. In a flashback Zaratras mentions that even demons and goddesses don't live that long.
• The Alcoholic: Like Ban, Meliodas is rarely seen not holding a drink outside of battle; his son Tristan takes frequent notice of this to the point of being embarrassed by his father's habits.
• Aloof Big Brother: To Zeldris in the past. It's shown that Meliodas barely cared about developing a proper relationship with Zeldris, even when he noticed Zeldris's attempts to get closer, noting that he didn't want to waste his energy on communicating. Meliodas comes to greatly regret this as it soured their relationship to the point that Zeldris stopped trying to communicate after countless rebuffs via Meliodas's cold attitude. Their relationship got worse after Meliodas left the Demon clan.
• Always Save the Girl: Elizabeth is his first priority; everyone and everything else (including morality) comes second.
• Angst Nuke: This is how he became the Sin of Wrath. After Danafall was attacked by Fraudrin and his lover Liz was killed right in front of him, Meliodas' demon powers went out of control and blew up the entire kingdom.
• Animal Battle Aura: When Oslow was encountered for the first time, Meliodas' strength was manifested before the dog's eyes in the shape of a dragon similar in appearance to Meliodas' broken sword handle.
• Animalistic Abomination: This happened to Meliodas' stolen emotions in Purgatory. There, Meliodas' emotions became a shadow-like dragon that bears a resemblance to his broken sword handle.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: This became the case for Meliodas' stolen emotions. In Purgatory, Meliodas' emotions took on a physical form. Initially, they assumed the form of a shadow-like dragon. After encountering and fighting with Ban, the emotions turned into a near exact copy of Meliodas.
• Anti-Anti-Christ: Essentially the series' version of one. He's the oldest and most favored son of the Demon King, the series' equivalent of Satan, who's being bred to be the Demon King's successor to bring about a horrible apocalypse that will kill all humans and non-demons in Britannia. Instead, Meliodas changes his ways thanks to the Power of Love via Elizabeth and fights to stop his father and save Britannia.
• Anti-Magic: Meliodas' Counter Vanish disperses magic attacks.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He is The Captain of the Sins and the strongest of them all.
• Attack Reflector: Meliodas' power, Full Counter, reflects any attack directed at him with greater power back to the attacker.
  • A more powerful version is Meliodas' Revenge Counter move. He receives any and all attacks to charge up one of his own which he can later unleash with full vengeance.
• The Atoner: A defining aspect of his character and the motivation behind his actions. He carries endless guilt for his role as a butcher and instigator in the Holy War, slaughtering countless people, betraying his beloved younger brother, and causing him and Elizabeth to undergo endless hellish curses. Gets even worse with all the mishaps that occurred like when he lost his temper and destroyed Danafall. As such, he continually aspires to atone for his own sins, stop the Holy War, save Elizabeth from her curse, and help others make amends for their own sins whenever able out of sympathy.
• Babies Ever After: At the end of the original series, Meliodas marries Elizabeth and has a son with her, whom he names Tristan.
• The Bartender: He is the owner and sole bartender of the Boar Hat bar.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: Meliodas is a pacifist that prefers to not kill and even not use actual weapons in lieu of his strength. However, upon facing the Armored Giant, an opponent that can't be defeated by pacifist means, Meliodas is forced to break these particular personal vows as they are severely hindering him from doing the right things necessary.
• Battle Aura: Meliodas has one when he is enraged.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't you ever try to steal his sword. Ban tried to take it... once. He still has the scar, which is saying something since no other weapon or power had truly left a lasting mark on him at the time.
  • If you mess with his friends or threaten to hurt his family, say your prayers and hope for a quick demise.
• Betty and Veronica: The "Archie" for Elizabeth's "Betty" (a very sweet, generally calm human) to Diane's "Veronica" (a clingy, easily jealous giantess).
• Beware the Nice Ones: Meliodas is a Nice Guy who cares about his friends and is generally polite, but when he's in rage mode, you better pray for help.
• BFS: 3,000 years ago, Meliodas used a sword that was at least twice his size.
• Big Brother Bully: Was one of these to Zeldris in the past, forming his later hatred and animosity. His beatdown of Zeldris and Estarossa, a believed brother at the time, when asserting his desire for the status of Demon King shows as much.
• Big Brother Instinct: He goes up against the Demon King in order to save Zeldris after their pulls a Grand Theft Me on him like he did to Meliodas.
• Big Damn Heroes: When Elizabeth is in danger from Derieri, he awakens from his coma and saves her.
• Big Good: He’s the leader of the Seven Deadly Sins and does everything he can to break the curses that were placed upon him and Elizabeth.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: As an elite demon, he has seven fully functioning hearts. They're evidently in various spots in his torso, meaning his entire organ structure is probably rather inhuman looking.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Obviously he's not evil, but his eyes turn black when he's using his demonic powers.
• Bound and Gagged: Hawk ties him up every night he sleeps with Elizabeth so Meliodas doesn't do anything funny. He, however, takes it as a Casual Kink by calling it roleplaying.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Meliodas' father the Demon King and his rival the Supreme Deity cursed him and his lover, the latter's daughter Elizabeth to an eternal life of pain and tragedy. He also gradually stole Meliodas' emotions each time he died, took over his body, and then possessed the body of Meliodas' brother Zeldris to force them to fight. When he finally marries Elizabeth, Meliodas is somewhat worried about not having a reference to being a good father. Despite that, he does a good job at raising his son Tristan, whose only complaints about his father are that he's a silly, irresponsible alcoholic pervert.
• Broken Ace: He is acknowledged as the strongest among the Seven Deadly Sins and even considered to be stronger than other characters outside the order of Holy Knights in general. Despite his strength, he has deep issues regarding him using it as he is afraid of hurting others like he did in the past. This fear is so much that it had hindered him at one point from properly defeating a opponent.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • He was this to his younger brother. Zeldris idolized Meliodas when he was the leader of the Ten Commandments, learning how to fight directly from him, but when Meliodas left the Demon Clan AND got Gelda in a spot where Zeldris had to execute her, Zeldris, needless to say, spends most of the present time harboring bitter rage and resentment towards Meliodas, which is probably made worse by the fact that he had seen Meliodas's attack on Edinburgh that apparently killed his lover. It's only when Meliodas reveals he purposefully sealed away Gelda and offers to reunite them, along with the two of them working together to defeat the Demon King, that he finally becomes a Rebuilt Pedestal for his younger brother.
  • Played for Laughs. Anne was excited to meet Meliodas, who she idolized as the captain of the famous Seven Deadly Sins. When she meets him in person, she's immensely disillusioned to discover her idol is a perverted midget who shamelessly gropes his wife's boobs in public.
• Cain and Abel: He's the Abel to his brothers, Estarossa and Zeldris' Cain. Though from their point of view, it's the other way around.
• Came Back Wrong: After being killed by Estarossa and coming back to life, it becomes quickly obvious that Meliodas's outlook and way of treating his opponents is clearly different from how he was behaving before, something that his companions immediately notice. He goes as far as killing a defenseless Fraudrin who, at this point, abandoned the fight and wasn't willing to oppose anyone anymore, making his execution completely unnecessary. Such a cruel act was carried out with a brilliant smile, leaving everyone nearby stunned.
• Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Inverted. He apparently only acts perverted towards his love interest. According to some extra pages in Vol. 14, when asked about when Meliodas became such a pervert, the other Sins note that he wasn't someone who would do perverted things to any woman. At least since the creation of the Sins to when they reunited, they note he didn't seem to have any interest towards any kind of woman at all. The only one who he however acts this way is Elizabeth, and before her, his former lover Liz.
• The Captain: He's the literal captain of the Sins.
• Casting a Shadow: Is universal to demons. Though, there may or may not be something special about his brand of darkness.
• Catch and Return: Caught a spear thrown by Gilthunder from 11 kilometers and returned it to him.
• Catchphrase: "Now then, now then, now then!".
• The Champion: Meliodas fights for Elizabeth's sake above all else.
• Chick Magnet: Elizabeth falls in love with him over time. Diane has always had a crush on him. He was in a romantic relationship with Liz, who initially hated him when they met. And Zaneri is madly in love with him. In the Q&A corner, Merlin is also revealed to have had a past crush on Meliodas.
• Child-Like Voice: Meliodas' child-like stature and looks, as well as his flippant attitude, are well complemented by a very boyish voice provided by Yūki Kaji and Bryce Papenbrook.
• Chivalrous Pervert: He usually won't pass up a chance at groping the girl he likes or putting his head up her skirt, but he is still chivalrous when protecting Elizabeth and others.
• Clark Kent Outfit: With his clothes on, Meliodas looks like a small kid. When his shirt is removed for whatever reason, you get a look at how ripped he really is.
• Combat Pragmatist: He will play the fool, but Meliodas has no problem striking a dangerous enemy when he is at his weakest.
• Combination Attack: Has one with Diane called Metal Crush.
• Comically Missing the Point: When King transformed into his older fatter self, the only difference Meliodas noticed was King's change of clothes. During the Vaizel fighting festival, Meliodas interpreted Howzer's battle banter with Diane as a Double Entendre.
• Convenient Coma: He's left in a deep coma after his defeat by Estarossa.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Downplayed. He doesn't get easily jealous at the sight of Elizabeth interacting with other guys. However, one instance is justified as, when King is introducing himself to Elizabeth, he pushes King's face away from her. The other instance is played straight when he pokes Howzer's eyes for ogling Elizabeth in her new outfit.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He appears to be relatively young, and is rarely serious, preferring to perv on Elizabeth over getting into a fight. He carries around a broken sword hilt and his best friend is a pig. All in all, he acts nothing like you would expect the leader of the Seven Deadly Sins to, even before you get into his capacity for Unstoppable Rage which instantly turned an entire kingdom into an empty crater.

D-L

• Dark and Troubled Past: Like the other Sins, Meliodas had a dark past and could be the darkest out of all the Sins. He also supposedly had bouts where he lost control of himself and destroyed a lot of stuff.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite the fact that Meliodas is a demon, he isn't a bad guy or remotely evil. The problem though is that he has little to no control when he is angry or when his Superpowered Evil Side takes over.
• Death or Glory Attack: Revenge Counter allows Meliodas to charge himself up for an attack via absorbing the attacks inflicted upon him by others. The catch is that he has to render himself defenseless and one wrong move in taking an opponent's attack could prove fatal.
• Death Seeker: Because even if his curse were broken, he'd still be exhausted from all the trauma it's caused him.
• Declaration of Protection: Meliodas promised to protect the kingdom of Danafall long ago. That didn't work out too well. Now though, Meliodas declared that he would protect Elizabeth with his life.
• Defecting for Love: In a flashback, it's revealed that this was the main reason why Meliodas switched sides from serving the Demon clan to opposing it. He had fallen in love with a member of the enemy Goddess Clan, Elizabeth.
• Depower: Merlin did this to him, 10 years prior to the series, to limit his powers lest he go berserk and destroy everything. Even severely handicapped, he still possessed an enormous amount of power that rivaled Hendrickson and Dreyfus. He later regains his powers.
• Dirty Kid: Subverted. Though Meliodas looks like a kid that fondles Elizabeth a lot, he's actually Older Than He Looks. He's more like a Dirty Old Man without actually looking the part, and even then his tendencies apply exclusively to Elizabeth, to the point that he becomes flippant (moreso than usual) and uncomfortable whenever any woman other than Elizabeth expresses romantic interest in him.
• Dissonant Serenity: When Meliodas' Superpowered Evil Side takes over, he looks very calm. In reality though, he is extremely bloodthirsty when like this.
• Doom Magnet: Other demons often seek Meliodas out so they can prove their strength by defeating him, bring him back to the fold, or just mock him. Also, courtesy of his mother-in-law, causality itself wants him hurt. This is one reason he isn't safe to be around.
• Dope Slap: He gets one from Elizabeth after he says that she can hit him if it will make her feel better. She then proceeds to call him an idiot, powers up her hand with a Holy Hand Grenade, and slaps him across the face with it. He is obviously stunned as he wasn't worried that a slap from her would do any sort of damage. He also didn't stop to think that she would use her powers to do it, especially since she can use it more efficiently now and she knew that any regular slap wouldn't be effective against him. An idiot indeed…
• The Dreaded: Meliodas is dreaded by a great deal of people. The first Fanbook further confirms this as he is listed in many of the characters' profiles as someone they don't want to make an enemy out of.
• Dumb Blonde: Inverted. Meliodas is blonde but an experienced warrior with a tactical mind.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The design for Meliodas' actual sacred treasure appeared early in the anime prior to it being revealed in the manga as opposed to the apparent placeholder weapon he was originally depicted with in the manga.
• Eternal Love: With Elizabeth. Meliodas is immortal and Elizabeth reincarnates endlessly. They have been in a strictly monogamous relationship for over 3,000 years.
• Everyone Has Standards: In a side comic in Volume 6, Meliodas dislikes peeping on girls while they bathe since it would just cause guilt for the peeper. He however unfortunately prefers jumping right in and joining them instead.
• Expecting Someone Taller: People who meet Meliodas for the first time usually don't expect someone as famous and powerful as him to be a midget instead of the muscular man depicted in his wanted poster.
• Experienced Protagonist: Meliodas is arguably the strongest Holy Knight in the world, save for Escanor as "The One". Ten years before the events of the series, he was Depowered by Merlin because the risk of him losing control of his wrath and destroying everything around him was too great. Even then, he was able to cut a hill in half with a stick. When his power was restored, he was capable of beating up not one, but TWO of the Ten Commandments.
• Failure Knight: Meliodas couldn't protect his lover Liz, which he considers his biggest failure. Now, he has sworn to not let that happen again and protect Elizabeth, who happens to be Liz's reincarnation.
• Fatal Flaw: Due to his unwillingness to kill others, this came back to bite him.
• A Father to His Men: He cares a lot about the other Deadly Sins and regards them as his friends instead of his subordinates.
• Faux Death: He's apparently killed by Estarossa after the Vaizel Festival hosted by Dolor and Gloxinia... except it's soon revealed by a revived Zaratras that Meliodas isn't actually dead, just in a deep coma.
• Female Angel, Male Demon: He's a demon prince whose lover was an angel-like goddess in her first incarnation.
• Flaming Sword: The weapons so far that have been enchanted by his Hellblaze technique have been swords.
• Flash Step: Meliodas is capable of traveling at extremely fast speeds. Of note is when he was in his wrath mode and ripped Guila's hand off to get his sword back so fast that she didn't even realized what happened to her.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: After Elizabeth gets kidnapped, Meliodas in one instance just plows through several lower ranking Holy Knights without even giving them so much as a chance for proper banter.
• Forced to Watch: Part of the curses placed upon him and Elizabeth by the Demon King and the Supreme Deity respectively is that whenever Elizabeth dies (which inevitably happens after she regains the memories of her previous lives), Meliodas will always be there to witness it.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Normally, he has regular looking eyes but when his Superpowered Evil Side takes over, he has Black Eyes of Evil.
• The Good King: After becoming king of Liones, Meliodas turns the kingdom into a place where all races can coexist peacefully and his subjects adore him.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Meliodas might be a pervert who seems to have no shame for fondling Elizabeth, but he does care a lot for his friends, helps strangers, and shows some mercy to some people who try to kill him.
• Healing Factor: It's a characteristic of the Demon Clan.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door:
  • In the far distant past, Meliodas was heralded as the most cruel and ruthless warrior among the Demon Clan. He however fell in love with a member of the enemy Goddess Clan, Elizabeth and as a result, decided to defect to fight against his evil race.
  • Due to the curse his father placed upon him, Meliodas came back to life after Estarossa killed him but with less emotions. Having Came Back Wrong, this eventually leads to him leaving the Seven Deadly Sins and defecting back to the Demon Clan to become the next Demon King. His reason for doing so though is to attempt to break Elizabeth's curse however he does it at great cost to himself and everything else.
• Heir-In-Law: Meliodas becomes Bartra's successor as King of Liones after he marries Elizabeth, the kingdom's third princess.
• Hellfire: With a name like Hellblaze and its effect on the otherwise immortal Ban, it's clear that the fire Meliodas uses is rather sinister in nature.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Initially, his main weapon is a sword's handle, but with a broken blade because he wants to avoid going all-out in battle. Later on, he retrieves his Sacred Treasure, Lostvayne, which is a short sword.
• Hero with a Unique Name: Downplayed. It's not his name but Red Baron nickname. Unlike his fellow Sin members, Meliodas' title is that of a mythical animal.
• He's Back!: He revives from being put into a coma by Estarossa just in time to save Elizabeth from being killed by Derieri.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Meliodas and Ban are so buddy-buddies that they destroy Basta Dungeon while arm wresting each other for fun.
• Hidden Badass: Due to his appearance, Meliodas is mistaken for a kid and nobody knows how strong he really is.
• Hidden Depths: Meliodas seems like a happy, calm, and tricky type of person but he has many issues and a Dark and Troubled Past that is filled with death and rage.
• Honorary Uncle: In the sequel, Ban's son Lancelot calls Meliodas "Uncle". Makes sense because Meliodas and Ban are close like brothers.
• Hope Is Scary: Melodias' curse allows him just enough autonomy that he can try to break it...but not enough that he can succeed. Consequently, he blames himself for Elizabeth's deaths more than the curse's actual creators.
• Humble Hero: Out of all the Sins, Meliodas seem to care the least for what he gets from heroism.
• Hunk: According to Nakaba, in the Sinful Anatomy fanbook, Meliodas is actually the handsomest character. This really shows after he goes into assault mode, in which his overall serious expressions bring out his attractiveness, and when his appearance turns into that of a fully grown adult after completely absorbing all the commandments.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: During the battle with Hendrickson's second One-Winged Angel form, Meliodas intentionally holds back his power so that he can charge himself with all the attacks from both Hendrickson and his allies to power up his "Revenge Counter" move. Most tellingly when he did this is that he actually used his less dominant right hand instead of his dominant left one.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Due to a curse placed on him by the Demon King, Meliodas is incapable of killing himself.
• Idiot Hair: He has a pair of small cowlicks that stand rather prominently atop his head with one in particular being more pronounced than the other. Identified in the first Fanbook specifically as his "ahoge (アホ毛)", this is reflective of some parts of his personality which fit a typical type of a shonen character and protagonist. The Fanbook also further lists this down as being his Charm Point.
• Idiot Hero: Meliodas isn't truly an idiot, but he is shown at times to be not exactly the smartest of the Sins.
• I Gave My Word: He promised Elizabeth during her first reincarnation that he would one day break her curse. Unfortunately, once Meliodas is taken over by his evil side, he decides to become the new Demon King so he can fulfill the promise.
• I Hate Past Me: Meliodas admits to Elizabeth that he is terrified of the possibility of becoming the same demon he used to be.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Having failed to save Liz, Elizabeth's previous incarnation, haunts him. The previous other times he failed to save her also haunt him as well.
• Imagination-Based Superpower: Meliodas can turn the black marks of his Superpowered Evil Side into a variety of things such as wings, a blade, and a giant claw hand.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: When he gave up evil, he meant it, staying firmly good throughout the millennia that followed through all sorts of injury and temptation. He only cracks because of brainwashing and several lifetimes' worth of evidence that being good won't help him end his and Elizabeth's curse- and all that cracking does is make him a suicidal martyr in service of the same altruistic goal.
• Interspecies Romance: He is a demon who ends up falling for Elizabeth, a human. Later, it's revealed that Elizabeth is actually a reincarnation of a goddess who has been in love with Meliodas across her multiple reincarnations since 3,000 years ago.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: After the revival of the Ten Commandments, Meliodas starts to act rather distant towards Elizabeth and even forbids her from coming with the Sins to Camelot. He's doing it because he wants to keep her safe, but this upsets Elizabeth since she's worried about him and begins to question how he really feels about her. He's actually worried their presence might jog her Past-Life Memories.
• The Jailbait Wait: When Elizabeth was just a newborn baby, Meliodas already called her "his woman". To make it slightly less disturbing, he waited until she turned sixteen to start perving on her. Then it's revealed Meliodas has done the wait many times before as he has seen Elizabeth reincarnate over a hundred times and he avoids getting too close to her until she has grown up to prevent her from recovering her old memories at a young age.
• Karma Houdini: He rarely is punished for his perverted acts.
• The Kirk: Meliodas is very attuned with his emotion and he also use logic to exploit his enemies' weakness to the fullest.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Like King, Meliodas has shown some signs of being a noble knight but Meliodas has the bravery while King is more of a gentleman.
• Lack of Empathy: Though normally kind-hearted and willing to show mercy to a defeated enemy, Meliodas ends up lacking this empathy, this humanity, after he is resurrected from death. It is the part of the Demon King's curse, as without empathy he is more likely to change back into the evil being he once was.
• Lady and Knight: The knight to Elizabeth's lady. Meliodas is sworn to protecting the beautiful and sweet princess he loves.
• The Leader:
  • He is the captain of the Seven Deadly Sins despite his appearance.
  • He was also the original leader of the Ten Commandments
• Lethal Chef: Food prepared by Meliodas might look good occasionally but it really tastes horrible, and not even Escanor can stomach it. Special mention however goes to a meat pie he once made for Ban after losing a card game prior to the Edinburgh incident. The thing was an indescribable mess that looked nothing like meat pie... and it was moving around for some reason. His cooking also made Merlin of all people shed tears in disgust in the past.
  Meliodas: "I didn't say it was good."
• Literal Split Personality: This is the case with Meliodas and his emotions that get stolen. As a result of the curse placed upon him by his father, Meliodas loses his emotions for sympathy every time he dies and gets resurrected. Torn from Meliodas and imprisoned in Purgatory, these emotions have taken on a physical manifestation. In essence, another Meliodas.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Meliodas often does all sort of perverted things to Elizabeth, such as groping her, flipping her skirt and stealing her underwear. He's also the first to comment on others doing some sexual act in a completely enthusiastic manner. Unusually for the trope, he only acts like this towards his love interest.
• Love Redeems: If he haven't fallen in love with Elizabeth, Meliodas would be a cruel and heartless demon instead of who he is now.

M-T

• Made of Iron: Meliodas is capable of surviving all sorts of punishment. Notably, he is able to survive and walk away from the fury of a completely jealous Diane.
• Mark of the Beast: His Superpowered Evil Side covers him tattoo-like markings that appear to be made from his blood.
• Master Swordsman: Meliodas possesses incredible Implausible Fencing Powers with a sword or anything substituting for one. With a poor facsimile of a sword, he can cut mountains if he exerted himself enough. With a real one, he can cut down Demons, who are impervious to most conventional weapons and techniques. He's also able to move fast enough to make thousands of slashes in an instant.
• Mellow Fellow: Meliodas' overall characteristic is usually very relaxed and nonchalant most of the time. When he isn't this, that means things are definitely serious.
• Mercy Kill: Accepted to kill Gelda after listening to her reasons. Subverted, he just sealed her away to save her life.
• Moment Killer: In moments wherein Meliodas is reunited with Elizabeth, he tends to ruin them when he starts groping her.
• Mum Looks Like a Sister: Male example. When Percival's friends meet Meliodas, their first guess is that he's Tristan's younger brother, even though he's groping Tristan's mother who then confirms Meliodas is her husband.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Though he has child-like arms, it doesn't stop him from breaking steel.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • Meliodas states that his greatest sins were being unable to save Danafall or his lover Liz.
  • Meliodas' betrayal of the Demon Clan triggered the Vampire Clan's rebellion and Zeldris was ordered to execute the vampires, his lover Gelda among them. Meliodas regrets not having been there for his brother at his greatest time of need.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Long ago, he failed to protect his lover Liz. Now he does whatever he can to protect her reincarnation, Elizabeth.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: The Demon Clan seems to be universally despised and reviled as evil monsters while he's acknowledged as one of the greatest heroes of Britannia. He's also apparently considered the worst traitor of the Demon Clan and was said to have shock them to their core, but the specifics are so far unknown. It turns out that Meliodas was the leader of the Ten Commandments and his cruelty and utter disregard for life were feared by both his kin and even by the Goddess Clan, but then out of nowhere betrayed the demons when he fell in love with the original Goddess Elizabeth.
• Mythical Motifs: As befits Meliodas' dragon tattoo, he is a Long-Lived badass who is very paranoid about protecting his stuff. With fire if necessary.
• Nemean Skinning: In Purgatory, the embodiment of Meliodas' emotions is found naked. As monsters born in Purgatory have evolved to withstand its disintegrating effects, he gets Ban to slay one of the native monsters for which they make clothes from its pelt.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Upon hearing Dogedo's opinions on the deceased Dreyfus and Hendrickson, Meliodas calls him out on it. He explains that while they may have been swayed from the right path, they were still honorable as Holy Knights.
• Nice Guy: Despite his perverted nature, Meliodas is generally a nice guy. His genuine kindness is the reason that made Ban and Diane follow him.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: To very sad and hair pulling levels. One of Meliodas's internal issues is how he thinks he is a failure of a brother and wants to make things right with Zeldris and their relationship. However, after Zeldris is forced to becomes a vessel for the DK, Meliodas decides not to inform the rest of the Sins, who has the necessary abilities to save Zeldris like they did him, and goes to battle the DK with only Elizabeth thinking that only he can do it. He quickly finds himself unprepared and unresolved to save Zeldris - leading Zeldris to be completely absorbed - and allowing the DK to get stronger. He gets called out by the rest of the Sins when they come to help him.

Ban: Hey Meliodas, did you fight your way all the way back from the purgatory just to have double lover's suicide with the princess here?

• Noble Demon: He's a lot more ruthless when he's stripped of his emotions, but he genuinely tries to fulfill his promise to Elizabeth (in his own creepy way) and stops Chandler and Cusack from fighting the Sins. He remembers that he loved them, he just can't summon or understand the feeling anymore.
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Meliodas dislikes Diane chasing after him.
• Non-Idle Rich: In the sequel, Meliodas is the king of Liones and still runs the Boar Hat tavern that he rebuilt at the kingdom.
• Obstructionist Pacifist: Meliodas is a Technical Pacifist who chooses to be Willfully Weak and not kill his opponents. While this mindset works out early on in the manga as he and his fellow Sins are vastly more powerful than their opponents, it becomes a deterrent when they encounter the Armored Giant. Not only is this demon so strong that only using their full strength and killing it is the only way to stop it, but killing it is also the only merciful thing to relieve its suffering. Meliodas initially doesn't want to go this route and even hinders comrades of his that want to. It's only when the gravity of the whole matter is apparent to him that he decides to actually stop holding back.
• Official Couple: With Elizabeth. They have been in love in every of her incarnations and they get married at the end of the first series.
• One True Love: To Elizabeth. She keeps falling in love with him no matter how many times she reincarnates and forgets about him. At one point, Meliodas claims this is an effect of their curse, but Elizabeth firmly believes she fell in love with Meliodas by her own will in every of her incarnations.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Meliodas is normally aloof and nonchalant, even in battle. He is also normally perverted around Elizabeth. When he's not like that, then that means that things are really serious. A number of characters have noticed this.
• Panty Thief: On their initial meeting, Meliodas teased Elizabeth by saying he used to steal panties ten years ago. In the next chapter, he actually stole hers after cupping her but later decided to give it back.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: Played with in that Meliodas was once the Paragon of the demons, a cruel, vicious, dangerous fighter and heir apparent to the Demon King. He turned against all of them out of love for a non-demon.
• Personality Powers: Being one of the very few demons who are not only harmless but outright heroic (most of the time), Meliodas' unique ability requires others to attack first.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Meliodas wiped out the kingdom of Danafall single-handedly when he lost control of his powers in the past.
• Physical God: After absorbing the Ten Commandments, Meliodas truly became the strongest member of the Seven Deadly sins and gained a Demon King-like final form after he was possessed by the Demon King, it pretty much makes him this. Even if he didn’t use his final form against his father when he was possessing Zeldris, he was still strong enough to fight him on equal footing.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite his size, Meliodas is very strong. That said, he's quite muscular for his size as Clothing Damage proves.
• Playing with Fire: Meliodas is capable of using a black colored fire ability called Hellblaze. It is an enchantment that lets Meliodas coat his weapons in it, and is one of Meliodas' techniques that are genuinely offense-based rather than counter-based. It is also the fire that scarred Ban.
• Power Perversion Potential: Given Meliodas's nature, he shows he can use his Self-Duplication ability to basically gang grope Elizabeth. Fortunately, Diane and Slader were around to put him back in his place.
• The Promise: He promised to Elizabeth in a past life that he would break their curse and free them both from the tragic cycle of falling in love to then be separated. This is likely the one thing that has kept him going for the past 3,000 years.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: As the leader of the Seven Deadly Sins, he is the strongest of them all and managed to have a number of them join the group by beating them in combat.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: To Dogget, explaining to him why he is not fit to be a Holy Knight.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: Ban and King start losing their faith in Meliodas when they realize he is related to the people who destroyed the Fairy King's Forest and killed Elaine and Helbram. They decide to trust him again once it becomes clear Meliodas wants nothing to do with the demons and is trying to defeat them.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: If anything, switching sides made him more willing to indulge his desires and break social convention. The Meliodas of the past was an incredibly lonely and easily goaded man who lived under his father's thumb.
• Resurrective Immortality: It turns out that due to the curse placed upon him long ago by his father the Demon King, Meliodas is incapable of dying properly as he'll just simply come back to life. On one hand, it unintentionally allows Meliodas to escape the commandment curses his father gave to the Ten Commandments since dying is one of the ways to break them. On the other hand, it prevents Meliodas from truly passing on and every time Meliodas is resurrected, part of his emotions are destroyed and the chances of him becoming the cruel and heartless demon he used to be increases.
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Meliodas won't let several Holy Knights guarding Liones stand in his way when Elizabeth is kidnapped.
• Sanity Slippage: An indirect effect of his curse. Danafall's annihilation was the first time when his wrath became dangerous to the world (instead of just the villains who triggered it).
• Sealed Badass in a Can: Was temporarily sealed into a charm by Veronica.
• Seen It All: Lampshaded by Diane after learning the truth about Gowther. Meliodas answers that he was not surprised because he has seen all sort of things in his life.
• Self-Duplication: He is able to multiply himself with Lostvayne and attack aided with his clones. He can make up to four clones, thus there can be up to five of him. The catch is that his clones are significantly weaker than him. For one clone, it possesses just half his strength. For four, they each possess one fourth the strength of a single clone. The clones are thus useless in a physical sense but are best utilized in conjunction with abilities like Meliodas's Counter.
• The Shadow Knows: Meliodas casts a rather demonic shadow in Chapter 28 as a hint of his true nature.
• Sheath Strike: Upon the Sins' rescue attempt of Elizabeth when she is brought to the capital of Liones, Meliodas decides to Dual Wield both the sword he received from her and its sheath as weapons.
• Shields Are Useless: Meliodas briefly used a shield against the Armored Giant before it melted away.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • A flashback shows Meliodas teasingly comment that Gilthunder will grow up to be a Henpecked Husband to Margaret.
  • On one of the issue covers, he encourages a bashful Escanor to give a bouquet of flowers to Merlin.
  • Even as the cruel and ruthless Meliodas he was 3000 years ago, he approved of Gelda and his brother's relationship.
• Signature Laugh: His is "Ni-Shi-Shi."
• Single-Target Sexuality: He doesn't feel the slightest romantic or sexual attraction towards anyone but Elizabeth. The other Sins even note Meliodas only does perverted things to Elizabeth. In fact, she's the only woman he has ever loved in the past 3,000 years, ever since her first life as an angel.
• Spell Blade: His technique Hellblaze enchants weapons so that Meliodas can attack opponents with fire.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Elizabeth. Meliodas is cursed to live forever, encounter Elizabeth in each of her human lives, and eventually watch her tragically die in his arms. This cycle has repeated 107 times over 3000 years.
• Stepford Smiler: He tries not to think about the unending cycle of failure and pain that has characterized most of his life, because he has no way of dealing with it other than 'destroy everything in a cataclysm of insane fury'.
• Stereotype Flip: Of the Stock Shōnen Hero. Meliodas has the role and the looks of the stereotype, but he's already an Experienced Protagonist, has control over his emotions, is a capable tactician instead of being an Idiot Hero, and is aware of his romantic feelings.
• Strong Family Resemblance: With both of his brothers.
• Stunned Silence: After Elizabeth hit him with a holy ark to escape, something he obviously didn’t expect, he lay on the ground with “what the heck just happened?” face.
• Supernaturally Young Parent: Meliodas is over 3,000 years old, but because of his demon lifespan being much longer than a human's, he looks younger than his 16-year-old son Tristan in the sequel.
• Superpowered Evil Side: When a Demon sealing item was used on him, he briefly vanishes before reappearing half covered with the tiny black marks that had shown on him a few times before when he brought out great power. In this form, he is far stronger than before, but acts almost entirely on instinct with only the slightest ability to tell friend from foe. He's incredibly violent, but looks vacant, innocent and mindless.
• Tame His Anger: He usually struggles to keep himself calm and not lose his temper since if he does his powers could go out of control. He later has to go through a trial to control his anger before the Druids can give him back what Merlin took away from him.
• Technical Pacifist: While Meliodas dislikes the idea of killing people, he is not above hurting foes.
• Technicolor Fire: The flames of his technique Hellblaze are colored black.
• Thanks for the Mammary: Meliodas often grabs Elizabeth's bosom and before that, Liz's.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Meliodas dislikes the idea of killing a person off whether they are good or bad.
• Time to Unlock More True Potential: Subverted in that he's regaining power he already had but was removed from him by a certain someone who feared he couldn't control it. He gets it back to fight the Ten Commandments, and boy does it show!
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Elizabeth is about a head taller than him.
• Token Heroic Orc: He's a Demon yet is on the side of good.
• Tragic Keepsake: Meliodas uses a seemingly worthless broken sword as his primary weapon and never goes anywhere without it. It was never revealed how he got the item but is one of the keys to unseal the Demon Clan. Meliodas says carrying around this sword is the only thing he can do to atone for his sins, so you better not touch it.
• Tranquil Fury: Zaneri describes Melioda's new grasp on his power as this, being in utter control of his wrath while retaining his emotions and compassion.
• The Trickster: Barely a scene goes by in which Meliodas doesn't deceive, prank, or unsettle someone with his complete disregard for propriety. Notable deeds of his include directly causing the Death of the Old Gods and having a child who is two mutually exclusive races at once- both things that nobody thought was possible until Meliodas did them.

U-Y

• Undying Loyalty: To Elizabeth, in a very literal sense. Every time she's reborn, Meliodas returns to her side to protect her once again. Also, his one and only goal in his immortal life is to free Elizabeth from their curse.
• Unstoppable Rage: Meliodas' sin was him destroying the kingdom of Danafall out of rage.
• Use Your Head: Headbutted Ban when he was trying to finish him.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Despite going as far as he did to make Fraudrin suffer before killing him, the next chapter afterwards soon makes it clear that killing him felt empty. If anything, murdering Fraudrin only left him terrified of himself, realizing he's still capable of becoming the monster that he once was.
• Virtuous Character Copy: To Caius Ballad from Final Fantasy XIII-2. Both are cursed immortals who suffered seeing the woman they love cursed to die and reincarnate numerous times before unleasing chaos in the world as a result of breaking those curses. But Caius understood the consequences and willful committed the deed while Melodias was an Unwitting Pawn in another's agenda.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Ban; their fights are constant but mostly just for fun.
• Waistcoat of Style: Meliodas wears a black waistcoat for his initial attire.
• Weapon for Intimidation: When Elizabeth first notices his sword, Meliodas explains that he merely carries it around for intimidation's sake against those who'd dine and dash from his bar. As its blade is broken, it leads some credence to his claim. In truth however, it's more than just a mere tool used solely for intimidation.
• We Used to Be Friends: In the Commandments's view, Meliodas was their trusted and respected leader, until he abandoned them for Elizabeth. In the present, they're enemies.
• What's Up, King Dude?: He retains his hospitable nature as the king of Liones in the sequel, casually walking the streets and working his old job on the side.
• White Sheep: For the Demon Clan in general, and his own family, specifically.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: When you are cursed to watch the woman you love eventually die, be reborn, and die again, whenever you remind her of your past relationships?
• Willfully Weak: In order to not kill, Meliodas willfully limits his strength either by not using any weapon, or by using ones that are extremely damaged. Chapter 120 implies that he's either still holding back most of his power or has somehow become weaker than he was in the past. Galan, one of the Ten Commandments of the Demon Clan is surprised that Meliodas is doing so poorly against him and even asks if he's really Meliodas.
• Worf Had the Flu: Upon recovering the bulk of his power, Meliodas's rematch with Galan is completely one-sided.
• World's Best Warrior: Even among the Sins, Meliodas is recognized as the strongest of all. Back when he was the leader of the Ten Commandments, he was recognized as one of the strongest Demons of all, and the most worthy successor to the Demon King.
• World's Strongest Man: He’s easily the strongest member of the Seven Deadly Sins and one of the strongest characters in the series, he possesses massive power that makes him a worthy heir to his father the Demon King. Throughout the series he was able to grow stronger despite already being powerful in his own right, and during the final battle against his father, he absorbs all of the Ten Commandments and having a Demon King like final form making him a Physical God. And was capable of fighting the Demon King who was possessing his younger brother Zeldris.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Like you wouldn't believe. He was cursed with eternal life while Elizabeth was cursed to be reincarnated over and over without her memories while being instinctively attracted to Meliodas. If she ever regain her memories, she would invariably die within 3 days, in a way that Meliodas will be there to see her demise. So far, the cycle has gone through 107 times. It's something worthy of Ravenloft.