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[[center: [- [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxx Main Character Index]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxPlantationThirteen Plantation 13]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxHiro Hiro]] | '''Zero Two''' | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxTeamsDelphiniumAndArgentea Pilots of Delphinium and Argentea]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxTeamsGenistaAndChlorophytum Pilots of Genista and Chlorophytum]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxAPE APE]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxAdditionalPlantationsAndSquads Additional Plantations & Squads]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxKlaxosaurs Klaxosaurs]]]]-]
'''Due to [[Administrivia/HandlingSpoilers wiki policy]], trope names will not be spoiler tagged. Reader beware.'''
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[[header:Code:002/Zero Two/Nine Iota]]
[[quoteright:167:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/latest_618.png]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/HarukaTomatsu (Japanese), Creator/TiaBallard (English), Creator/MarianaOrtiz (Latin American Spanish), Creator/NuriaTrifol (European Spanish)
The female lead. A mysterious girl with red horns. She is an elite pilot, but her tendency to get her co-pilots killed led her to be nicknamed "Partner Killer". She quickly took an interest in Hiro and managed to convince him to become her new partner, or "darling" as she puts it.
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[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-F]]
* AcePilot: Compared to the other ''pistils'', Zero Two has a lot more control over her Franxx's synchronization rate and movements. She can also pilot on her own with greater ease and has more experience in dealing with klaxosaur.
* AlienBlood: [[spoiler:When she was a kid her blood was a bright blue, similar to the fluid secreted by klaxosaurs. As a teen, it appears to be the normal red. It's implied that her blood will turn blue again if her "saurification" proceeds.]]
* AnimalMotifs: As stated below, she is somewhat compared to spiders; partly because of how it seems she has ensnared Hiro, and partly because of the whole BlackWidow shtick. However, both she and Hiro are also compared to a mythical bird which cannot fly unless it has a partner, which characterizes their relationship.
** Her voice actor has also likened her to a cat in [[https://seiyuuplus.wordpress.com/2018/01/13/162-darling-in-the-franxx-pair-interview-uemura-yuto-x-tomatsu-haruka/ an interview]], which fits well with her pointy ear-like horns, her CuteLittleFangs, her occasional feral mannerisms (such as showing affection by licking), and Strelizia's lion-like Stampede Mode.
* AntiHero: Prior to her CharacterDevelopment. Zero Two is known to be strong and carefree, but also selfish, headstrong, arrogant, and lacking of empathy. She tones down after reuniting and reconciling with Hiro in episode 15, where she finally shown her true kindness and cheerful side to the others.
* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler: She was cloned by Dr. Franxx from hair he took from the Klaxosaur Princess]].
* BarefootCaptives: [[spoiler:She was held this way in her childhood.]]
* BarefootLoon: In Episode 8. When she gets in the middle of the boys vs. girls feud, a naughty streak is awakened in Zero Two and during the height of it, she runs around barefoot like a giddy child (mainly because she sneaks into a bathing room and you're not supposed to use footwear in one). When she gets caught, she is unabashed about using her lack of footwear to her advantage, stealing Hiro's ModestyTowel with her toes and showing off her skill with unencumbered feet by nimbly leaping all around the dormitory (and even the rooftops and a nearby tree) like a parkour maniac. However, after she gets scolded and the zeal of being impish wears off, Zero Two remembers she can't afford to act foolish after the horrible experiences she's had with [[spoiler:former pilots]] and tucks her feet into slippers, signifying that her childish side has been beaten back. This trait might come from [[spoiler:the person she was cloned from.]]
* BeastAndBeauty: Gender-flipped when she was younger. [[spoiler:She was a CuteMonsterGirl in love with a normal boy, and her favorite picture book was a fairy tale about a monster/beast princess who fell in love with a handsome prince.]]
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Part of the reason she likes Hiro is that he wasn't afraid of her and treated her as he would anyone else, whereas others don't treat her as human for one reason or another. [[spoiler: As it turns out, they go way back, and even back then Hiro was the first to treat her kindly. She never fully forgot her short time with him despite the attempt at wiping her memories, and strives to become human much like the demon girl in the fairy tale book she had with her at the time.]]
* BecomingTheMask: [[spoiler: Despite saying to Hiro that he was fodder all along, it's implied in Episode 12 that she grew to care for him as her darling as his apparent fear of her increasingly feral characteristics wounds her and the act of draining him clearly pains her to the point of tears.]]
* BerserkButton: Best not to comment on how she's not human.
* BettyAndVeronica: She is Veronica and Ichigo is Betty, with Hiro as their Archie. Contrasting with the obedient and straight-laced Ichigo, Zero Two is very flirty with Hiro, has an assertive personality and hates following the rules of the adults.
* BlackWidow: She's known as the "Partner Killer" for a reason, with a Stamen count of over 100. (She's also thematically compared to a spider or vampire who drinks her partner's blood until he has nothing left to give, killing him.) Episode 12 reveals that [[spoiler:she literally puts a curse on all her partners, draining their life-force each time they pilot.]]
* BlitheSpirit: Her seemingly care-free rule-breaking helps break Hiro out of his crippling depression and blind adherence to rules, and the cheerful affection she shows him in the children's quarters inspires some of the other kids to be more affectionate with each other. (Like the boys and girls sitting together for meals, or Kokoro feeding Futoshi honeyed bread.)
* BloodKnight: After fighting mostly [[{{Mook}} Conrad-class]] klaxosaurs for several days, she gets very ecstatic and reckless when she sets her sights on a Gutenberg-class. She then nearly gets Strelizia trapped inside it, but her team comes to pull them out. Hiro even has to hold her back when she charges in again right after, and they only narrowly avoid getting crushed under the klaxosaur's feet.
* BodyHorror: [[spoiler:The scene in Episode 13 of her being not just strapped down, but ''pinned'' onto a medical table like an animal about to be dissected with her outer layer of skin severely peeled away.]]
* {{Bokukko}}: Uses the first-person pronoun "boku" despite being a girl. While she does has some tomboy traits, her choice of pronoun is more likely meant to represent how she isn't fond of following the rules of society. [[spoiler:Episode 15 reveals that she uses this pronoun because she heard Hiro use it to refer to himself when they first met.]]
* BrokenBird: Arguably since the beginning, [[spoiler: but ''definitely'' in Episode 15. When she and Hiro reunite, she is a [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness sputtering mess]] who is so afraid of hurting him again that she tries to push him away]].
* BrutalHonesty: In episode 8, she gets a ''chilling'' moment following a girls vs. boys feud that has gotten so out of hand and obnoxious that the group of pilots is scolded. After an episode where the characters have mostly been quibbling over trivial and petty nonsense, Zero Two muses that this amusing spectacle was fun while it lasted. Then, in the girls' room, she reminisces on the lot of the children, and predicts that [[spoiler: they're all going to be killed]] with [[DeathGlare an extremely icy look of bitter resignation]], and says it with such certainty and lack of hope that it freaks ''all'' the girls out and gets them curious about why Zero Two is writing them off. [[spoiler:They later discover a photo of a previous generation of plantation members she worked with... who are now all dead. It takes an even worse meaning when the full extent of Zero Two's abilities and the price for their activation is revealed. Zero Two is ''personally'' responsible for the deaths of all her partners because a parasitic curse is released from her that hacks away at their life force.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: She's an exceptionally gifted parasite whose extremely odd quirks (often commenting on how she and/or other people taste, often musing on how she wants to go in the ocean, dousing her food in honey, has {{no sense of personal space}}) are tolerated because of how good she is fighting off klaxosaur.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Doesn't remember working with the members of Plantation 26 two years ago or getting one of their partners killed. As she puts it, weaklings die so she doesn't pay any attention to them.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: She's strong enough to punch an armored man across a room, and agile enough to jump up an entire story. Granted, she isn't entirely human, but ''how much'' of her physical attributes ''can'' be credited to her heritage is left unanswered.
* CharacterTics: She bites down on her nails whenever she gets annoyed.
* [[ChildhoodFriends Childhood Friend]]: [[spoiler: Episode 13 reveals she was one for Hiro]].
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: [[spoiler:Her relationship with Hiro is revealed to be this]].
* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: [[spoiler:Episode 13 reveals Hiro made such a promise to her. That promise becomes the main reason why Zero Two is so hellbent on becoming human.]]
* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:She is revealed to be a clone of the Klaxosaur Princess by the end of Episode 19.]]
* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler: When she was younger, she was tortured in various ways to test and gauge her HealingFactor.]]
* ColorMotif: Her horns, uniform, and pilot suit are all red. This conveys not only her passionate, intense, exciting personality (and implied sexual liberation), but also how dangerous and blood-thirsty she can be. [[spoiler:As a child, she used to have red skin.]]
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: She's been a prized military asset of [=APE=] and sent to fight on the front lines for so long that she has no regard for human life or her own, since [[ChildSoldiers they all exist to fight and die]] and [[AMillionIsAStatistic become a statistic anyway.]] Heck, even when her beloved is dying, perhaps the one person she unambiguously cares about, she hardly bats an eye at it because, to her, it's just a fact of life that everyone dies.
* ContraltoOfDanger: Creator/TiaBallard gives her this in English, as an example of PlayingAgainstType.
* CustomUniform: She's the only one who wears a red uniform, and retains it even after she officially joins Squad 13.
* CuteLittleFangs: Played with; Zero Two has fangs, but they're not always played as cute. More often than not, when they are shown, it's to highlight her non-human nature, but she's not a example of FangsAreEvil. [[spoiler:And by episode 10, they're growing, implying that Zero Two is mutating.]]
* CuteMonsterGirl: [[spoiler: Her younger self definitely was this, having red skin, more prominent horns, claws, and sharp teeth.]]
* DanceOfRomance: An adorably awkward variant with Hiro when she gets him into restricted (to him) areas by linking her hands with his, but leading with one pair of hands forward like a kind of dance. After his AnguishedDeclarationOfLove in Episode 4, they do this together to bypass security and get to Strelizia.
* DarkIsNotEvil: She has demonic looking horns and her blood is partially of a dark looking race of monsters, but is on the side of the heroes nevertheless.
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Completing her SanitySlippage, she crosses this line when she believes she's been rejected by Hiro in Episode 14]].
* {{Determinator}}: She's implied to be this from the get-go when she sought to become human and reunite [[spoiler:with her original Darling]], but she shows this in full force in Episode 20. [[spoiler:Even after the Klaxosaur Princess whiplashes her down several stories, she'll stop at nothing to save Hiro.]]
* {{Deuteragonist}}: The most important character in the plot after Hiro.
* DoomMagnet: Is called the "Partner Killer" by the children for her infamous streak in getting many of her co-pilots killed.
* DoNotCallMePaul: In episode 17, Zero Two tells Nine Alpha not to call her Iota, a name given to her by Papa. She prefers to be called Zero Two, [[spoiler:a name given to her by Hiro]].
* DontLookAtMe: [[spoiler: Her reaction when she and Hiro meet again in Episode 15.]]
* TheDreaded: To Squad 26, who worked with her before and had one of their numbers killed because of her reckless fighting style.
* EmptyShell: [[spoiler:Her body became this in the aftermath of episode 21, with her mind transferred into Strelizia Apus.]]
* EvilLaugh: She does a rather scary one when [[spoiler: she beats up almost the entirety of Squad 13 after wrongfully thinking that they've tricked her]].
* ExoticEyeDesigns: Her eyes have rings around the pupils and lack the shading of the normal human eyes.
* ExperiencedProtagonist: Having been fighting on the front-lines for some time, she's significantly more experienced than the other parasites on Plantation Thirteen. This is played for drama, as in episode 8, she has to explain to her squad that their days are numbered and that they are all likely to die fighting the klaxosaurs.
%% Please don't add Expy as an example unless it's been confirmed by the creators.
* FacialMarkings: Has prominent red eyeliner.
* ForgottenFirstMeeting: [[spoiler:Implied in Episode 12 between Hiro and Zero Two in her true form. Confirmed in episode 13.]]
* TheFourLoves: She prioritizes ''eros'' love, but can't even comprehend ''storge'', because she's never had any family.
* FreakinessShame: Zero Two is hyper-sensitive to anyone making a comment about her non-human status [[BerserkButton and bringing it up is a very good way to tick her off]]. This is especially true when it comes to her horns. But despite that, Hiro considers her horns an attractive feature since he did call them "alluring" in his mind.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:G-L]]
* GoodThingYouCanHeal: Played for drama. [[spoiler:In Episode 13 she was subjected to horrible experiments so that the scientists can (presumably) collect data about the klaxosaurs.]]
* HalfHumanHybrid: Is partially klaxosaur somehow. [[spoiler:Episode 19 reveals her klaxo-sapien side comes from her being a clone of the Klaxosaur Princess. Additionally, Episode 17 reveals that, like other hybrid species such as ligers and mules, she's unable to reproduce.]]
* HandyFeet: In episode 8, she demonstrates this skill. Zero Two sneaks into the boys' bathing quarters to steal their clothes. She also traipses around barefoot in lieu of her usual boots and socks (either to give make her footsteps quiet enough to go unnoticed or, more likely, because it's common courtesy in Japanese culture that you have bare feet or at the very least socks only in a bathing area to not track in grime). Hiro gives chase after her, and Zero Two catches him by surprise by doing something absurd - using her toes to swipe [[ModestyTowel the towel draped around his loins]] before he can even react, and then gives him a smug and mischevious giggle as she mockingly waves it in front of him.
* HeadbuttOfLove: In the fourth episode, she touches Hiro's forehead with her horns to show affection.
* HealingFactor: It's revealed in Episode 13 that she has the power to heal her own injuries.
* HeelRealization: In Episode 13 [[spoiler: learning that Hiro was the boy she loved all along causes her to realize that everything she's done - at least since arriving at Plantation 13 - has been pointless]].
-->'''Zero Two''': [[spoiler: Hey, were you my Darling from back then? ''Then what have I been doing all this time?'']]
** It continues in Episode 14 [[spoiler: as she's barred from interacting with Hiro, forcing her to confront all the times she had acted callously or manipulative to Hiro with the hindsight of knowing that he was the very person she thought she was doing this for all along and that Hiro, as a teen, honestly cared for her the entire time.]]
* [[TheHeroDies The Heroine Dies]]: [[spoiler:She and Hiro meet their ends in Episode 24. Fortunately, it's heavily implied that the two have reincarnated as human children.]]
* HeroicResolve: In Episode 20, [[spoiler:she goes after the Klaxosaur Princess after she gets whipped out of Strelizia. Her drive to save her OneTrueLove keeps her going even as she's losing a dangerous amount of blood from the fall.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: In Episode 21, in order to force the VIRM to retreat, she injects a large portion of her soul into Strelizia, with the very, ''very'' small portion of her soul still left leaving her a nearly-catatonic, barely responsive EmptyShell while the majority of her soul powers Strelizia in its one-man war against the VIRM. After Hiro joins her in Strelizia, they leave Earth forever, sacrificing themselves to destroy VIRM's homeworld and free all their imprisoned souls.]]
* HiddenDepths:
** Zero Two seems to only care about herself, so much so that even when Hiro is dying, it seems like she can't be brought to care when Ichigo demands she take it easy on him. That having been said, she has deep insecurities about [[BerserkButton not being human]], and in private she gives Hiro an out, though naturally he refuses. Also, [[HurtingHero she's very lonely]] and seems to have been desperate for someone to love her. Also, though she hates it when other people bring up the fact she's not human, she can be very self-depreciating about it herself.
** Zero Two turns out to be quite the good artist, and even made a perfect recreation of the images from her picture book.
* HornedHumanoid: Has small, but prominent red horns on her head, probably as a result of being a [[HalfHumanHybrid part-klaxosaur]]. [[spoiler:Her horns were much longer and more prominent when she was younger.]]
** [[spoiler: The end of episode 14 reveals that her horns have started growing again, and by episode 15 they've grown into full-on ''antlers''.]]
* HunterOfHisOwnKind: She has klaxosaur blood, and yet is [=APE=]'s best klaxosaur killer. [[spoiler:This is because they've told her that if she kills enough of them she could become human.]]
%%* IAmNotAGun:
* IAmAMonster: As much as she hates people calling her a monster, she calls herself one at times in a self-deprecating tone. This problem escalates in Episode 12, to the point that [[RageAgainstTheReflection she wildly shatters every mirror in sight]]. It only gets worse later on, where she comes to consider herself a monster not for a what she is, but for [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the horrible things she has done.]]
* IAmNotLeftHanded: In episode 3, Mitsuru pilots Strelizia with her and starts raving about the PowerHigh it brings him, offering to become her official partner. At this, Zero Two decides she can go all out purely to spite him; Mitsuru comes out of the experience [[BreakTheHaughty badly injured and traumatized]].
* IJustWantToBeNormal: In episode 8, she gets in on the fight between the boys and the girls because she thinks it will make her more like a human. [[spoiler:This is because, as a child, she realized that she couldn't be with Hiro since they weren't the same.]]
* IngestingKnowledge: Actually ate her [[spoiler: picture book when she was a kid]]. However, it wasn't so she gain any knowledge but so she won't [[spoiler: forget Hiro when they were kids]].
* InsistentTerminology: She calls Hiro her "darling" because that's what she wants to call him. [[spoiler:He taught her it in the past.]]
* InternalizedCategorism: She completely ''loathes'' herself and other klaxosaur for being a "monster."
* InterspeciesRomance: Between her, a klaxosaur-human hybrid, and Hiro, a human. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] once Hiro became part Klaxosaur as well]].
* {{Irony}}:
** Spends the first half of the series thinking that since she's not human, Squad 13 will never accept her, so she shouldn't even bother trying to be nice to them or show consideration for their lives. She fails to realize that said behavior is exactly what makes her monstrous in their eyes. Hiro and the others eventually [[WhatTheHellHero call her out on it]]. After [[spoiler:she and Hiro confess their love and she is officially accepted by Squad 13]], she admits that she got it all backwards.
** At the worst point of her SanitySlippage in Episode 12 [[spoiler: she nearly drains Hiro in her pursuit to become human and reunite with her original darling, driven by the belief that he had already rejected her out of fear; not only was Hiro fearing for her rather than her but, as Episode 13 reveals, Hiro '''is''' her original darling.]]
* LackOfEmpathy: Zero Two doesn't display any concern for the lives of any pilot besides Hiro, because she thinks of them the same she thinks of herself. That is, they are all meant to live and die fighting klaxosaurs, [[AMillionIsAStatistic so in the bigger picture it doesn't matter if they die today or tomorrow]]. [[spoiler: Early into episode 14, it's clear that she really ''has'' come to care about the other pilots in Squad 13 and feels guilty for betraying their trust, but stubbornly wills herself to keep displaying no empathy for them and to outwardly insist that she never considered them TrueCompanions, just temporary allies. Thankfully, this facade shatters in the following two episodes.]]
* LadyInRed: While far from a ProperLady, in all other ways she fits this trope to a T. She wears primarily red uniforms and pilot suits, she has a very strong personality, her demeanor suggests sexual liberation, and she's seen as both dangerous and alluring by the other (male) characters.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Episode 14 in a nutshell was this for her. [[spoiler:Her actions towards Hiro and her squad over her desire to become more human to meet her original "darling" leads to not only the one person who was willing to accept her for her monstrous self rejecting her, but also splitting up the only squad that came to accept her fully as well.]]
* LaserGuidedTykebomb: APE's created Zero Two to be this. [[spoiler:As a clone of the Klaxosaur Princess, they planned to use her to activate Star Entity and wipe out the klaxosaurs.]]
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: She becomes one [[spoiler:for Hiro]]. To put it bluntly, [[spoiler:Hiro cannot function without her, and he is willing to face the VIRM ''all by himself'' after she becomes an EmptyShell in Episode 21.]]
* LoveConfession: [[spoiler: Tearfully and happily gives one to Hiro in Strelizia in episode 15, which he reciprocates to the amusement and happiness of Squad 13.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:M-S]]
* ManicPixieDreamGirl
* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Masculine girl to Hiro's feminine boy. While neither of them have the looks associated with this trope, their interactions are a blatant inversion of gender stereotypes: Zero Two is assertive and confident while Hiro gets easily depressed and is plagued by self-doubt. In a sense, Zero Two was the one that "rescued" Hiro when he needed help.
* MeaningfulName: See StealthPun.
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Her outlook on life reflects this and why she doesn't bother with a name. They're all meant to fight and die, so why bother when all that will be left is a statistic?
* MissedHimByThatMuch: [[spoiler:In Episode 12, Zero Two reveals that she's searching for her original "darling". But given the fragments of Hiro's memories and various other bits of {{Foreshadowing}}, Zero Two is unaware that her first "darling" and her current "darling" are one and the same. She finally becomes aware at the end of the following episode, however.]]
* MsFanservice: She has a well-built body that she has no problems showing off, whether it be naked or in a LatexSpaceSuit, and everything she does seems to be part of an attempt to make everyone around her sexually uncomfortable.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Her tear-stained face alone ''screams'' this at the end of Episode 13 when she figures out Hiro is her Darling from her childhood. Episode 14 confirms that she's shaken up about all the things she has said and done to him, and even somewhat for betraying the rest of her squad. In episode 15 we see that she's downright afraid to touch him, because she considers herself a monster and doesn't think she deserve forgiveness after what she's done]].
* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Repeatedly invades the personal space of people that catch her interest, getting her face uncomfortably close to theirs and even licking their cheeks for reasons known only by herself, or to get her point across. [[spoiler: This might have stemmed from her childhood, when Hiro licked her knee to disinfect a wound.]]
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Zero Two always keeps people at arm's length with [[{{Troll}} mocking humor]], [[AMillionIsAStatistic nihilism]], and [[LackOfEmpathy emotional detachment]]. She never shows remorse for this, [[spoiler: until after Episode 14. Her actions upon learning who Hiro really was lead to what she believes is a deserved rejection from him. After this, she is so [[DespairEventHorizon distraught]] she can't look him in the face, weeping and recoiling when he sees her again]].
* OfficialCouple: In Episode 15, [[spoiler:she and Hiro become this]].
* OneTrueLove: Much like the ''Jian'' bird from Chinese mythology, she [[spoiler:and Hiro]] serve as each other's wings. [[spoiler:Going as far back as when they tried to escape APE's facility as children, Hiro was the only boy who admired and loved her for who she is, WartsAndAll. [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Their short time together as children made an impact on Zero Two]] and, as Episode 12 reveals, she spent much of her life looking to reunite with her original "darling", the boy she loved and missed. When she finds out Hiro was her "darling" all along in Episode 13, she becomes distraught over her actions before the two make up for their mistakes in Episode 15. Since then, the two have shown unconditional love for one another and know that their bond can overcome whatever obstacle fate throws at them.]]
* {{Oni}}: Some of her motif are based on the mountain beast. While her horns is obvious, she wears red which is often the standard color of onis. Her behavior is also more beastly at time. There's also been visual hints that she may have a more monstrous form. And lastly, her codename can be read as O-NI. [[spoiler:Then in Episode 12, her true form is revealed to have red skin, which is a common characteristic of onis.]]
* OralFixation: She's constantly sucking on lollipops.
* PhotographicMemory: In Episode 16, she's able to accurately recreate the illustrations of the picture book from her childhood. Hiro lampshades this by remarking how incredible it is that she could remember all of it.
* PinocchioSyndrome: Practically confirmed in Episode 12, where the reason why Zero Two wants to kill as much klaxosaurs as possible is because she believes that if she kills enough, she can become fully human. [[spoiler:The fact that she's becoming more and more like a klaxosaur instead however, drives her into a state of despair and rage.]]
* PowerLimiter: Her headband seems to serve as such to some degree. When Ichigo knocks it off in Episode 5, her [[RedEyesTakeWarning eyes]] and horns start glowing bright red.
* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler: Just like with Hiro, the adults attempted to wipe her memories after she was recaptured. They weren't entirely successful however, because according to them "something strong was protecting [her]", thus she was able to retain coherent (albeit fragmented) memories of her brief time with Hiro.]]
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Red pupils, to be exact. When Zero Two got angry with Ichigo, she seemed as scared of the red-eyed demonic creature in front of her as she was of the klaxosaurs that almost killed her. [[spoiler: Her eyes then glow red again when she flies into a rage after thinking that the rest of Plantation 13 deceived her when she finally gets to visit Hiro]].
* RedIsHeroic: Her main color scheme is red and she's an anti-hero.
* RedOniBlueOni: Red Oni to Hiro's Blue. As her ColorMotif indicates, she is unruly, passionate and intense. Her "Darling" is collected, soft-spoken and prone to self-loathing when he feels he failed in his only purpose in life.
* {{Reincarnation}}: [[spoiler:Episode 24 heavily implies that she and Hiro were reincarnated as human children, as it shows a pink-haired girl playing with a boy under a cherry blossom tree.]]
* ReincarnationRomance: [[spoiler:She and Hiro die in the final battle, as they sacrifice themselves to stop the VIRM. Centuries later, their souls return to Earth and become reborn as humans, where they meet each other again as kids. With the strong implication they will restart their romance, it's crystal clear that not even death can separate her from Hiro.]]
* RescueRomance: Forms a [[PuppyLove childish]] version of this [[spoiler: with Hiro when they were younger. This becomes the basis of their ''actual'' romance when they recover their memories]].
* RookieMaleExperiencedFemale: She is an experienced pilot who fought many battles, while Hiro is a complete rookie like all the other pilots in the team.
* RuleOfThree: Before Hiro, every pilot who served as her partner could only do so three times before dying.
* SanitySlippage: As her transformation progresses she becomes more violent and hostile towards others, even Hiro. [[spoiler: Her discovery that Hiro is her [[ForgottenChildhoodFriend original darling]] after the things she said to him, as well as Hiro calling her a monster after she attacked the rest of Squad 13, pushed her even further over the edge. By the time they reunite in Episode 15 (which was ony a few days after they were separated, at most), she's burned through an entire squad of partners and her horns have grown into twisted tree-like shapes.]]
* SexForSolace: Her reaction to Hiro's confession in Episode 12 to straddle him and start to undress herself. When he rejects her advances, she gets annoyed. It may have been because it would have been easier [[spoiler: to kill him]] if he just wanted her for her body...
* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: She clearly doesn't mind whether she's wearing clothes or not, judging how she doesn't even bat an eye about Hiro seeing her naked and instead [[{{Troll}} picks on him]] [[AccidentalPervert for holding her panties.]]
* ShellShockedVeteran: She arguably was this from the beginning, [[spoiler:but Episode 18 makes it crystal clear that her past is taking its toll on her. She feels guilty over her past actions and starts having nightmares over the stamens she had consumed.]]
* ShesGotLegs: Her long legs are accentuated by her tights.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Once she takes a liking to Hiro, she decides that he and ''only he'' can be her partner. No one else will do.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Falls for the kind, heroic TeamDad Hiro who was the first person to [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe treat her kindly]].
* SmugSmiler: Flashes these all the time. Especially to Ichigo.
* TheSocialDarwinist: She casually refers to Hiro's squad as "weakling[=s=]" who he should leave behind.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: In the manga.]]
* SpiritualAntithesis: She is what Rei would be like as a HotBlooded ActionGirl who defies orders [[spoiler:and both are clones of an authority of an enemy race with some human blood]].
* StarCrossedLovers: [[spoiler:With Hiro.]]
* StealthPun: If one was to use the [[GoroawaseNumber naming conventions]] of the other characters for Zero Two, her name would translate to "{{Oni}}". Given her [[HornedHumanoid horns]] and [[{{Troll}} personality]], it would actually be very fitting. [[spoiler:In a flashback, Hiro even mentions Oni as a potential name for Zero Two before discarding it.]]
* SuperStrength: She manages to bat a grown man away with a wave of her arm and jump the length of a room in a single bound.
* SweetTooth: ''Drowns'' her food in honey, nauseating Miku. And is always eating lollipops.
** In episode 13, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Hiro introduced her to sweets as a child. The {{Squee}} she lets out upon first tasting candy is the stuff of legend.]]
* {{Synchronization}}: [[spoiler:She becomes linked to Strelizia following Episode 21, and wounds spontaneously form on her body whenever Strelizia takes damage, even though Strelizia is literally millions of miles away.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:T-Z]]
* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:With Hiro in the aftermath of Episode 24's final battle.]]
* TookALevelInCheerfulness: By episode 16, [[spoiler:not only has she reunited with her Darling, but she also finally understood what "being human" really means. That is, living together with other humans, helping each other while also being true to their feelings.]] Thanks to this discovery, she becomes much more friendly and cheerful.
* {{Troll}}: Clearly gets off on making Hiro, and pretty much everyone around her for that matter, highly uncomfortable for her own pleasure.
* UptightLovesWild: With Hiro as the Uptight and Zero Two as the Wild. She seems to have "break every rule set by the adults" as her hobby, while Hiro is quiet and obedient. More creepily, both of them have a cynical outlook on life, but while Zero Two freely talks about how much she hates their society, Hiro tends to blame himself whenever things go wrong, lacking the self-initiative to question the status quo he was born into.
* UsingYouAllAlong: [[spoiler:When Hiro gives her his LoveConfession, she responds that he's nothing but fodder to her, a means of becoming human and eventually reuniting with her ''real'' darling. When she later finds out he ''is'' her original darling, she is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone absolutely distraught]] over the fact that she'd been degrading and manipulating the first person she'd ever loved all along.]]
* VampiricDraining: When she pilots, her partner is subjected to this. No one aside from Hiro lasts for more than three times due to the toll it takes on their bodies as a result.
* VetinariJobSecurity: Despite her erratic rule-breaking and BlackWidow tendencies, the klaxosaur are a great enough threat and she's a great enough pilot that HQ can't afford ''not'' to keep her around or send her out in the field as-needed.
* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: Given how quickly Mitsuru was hospitalized after insulting Hiro... well, let's just say that speaking badly about her darling might not be the most inspired of decisions.
* WalkingTheEarth: [[spoiler:What she wants to do with Hiro now that the two remember their past together]].
* WhatIsThisFeeling: Downplayed. When she agrees to use Strelizia to help save Ichigo and Goro in Episode 9, she seems mildly surprised when she admits she doesn't ''hate'' this. (Considering her [[LonersAreFreaks usual]] [[SocialDarwinist cold]] [[ButForMeItWasTuesday and]] [[AMillionIsAStatistic aloof]] [[LackOfEmpathy demeanor]], learning to not dislike [[spoiler:helping others]] is huge for her.)
* WhatTheHellHero: When Zero Two starts getting a little too obsessed with killing klaxosaurs during a mission in episode 12, Hiro tries to rein her in. However, in the heat of the moment, she ends up choking him, and says things that are heard by the others that heavily imply she was going to kill him like so many of her other copilots in the past. Though the two get some clarifications of their past in episode 13's flashback, the other members of Squad 13 only saw and heard her trying to kill him. Consequently they refuse to let the two see each other, nor will they allow her to take part with her in any further missions lest she kill Hiro like so many other partners in the past.
* WhenSheSmiles: After smiling mysteriously or smugly for the first several episodes, during the Episode 8 "Boys vs Girls" fight she smiles and laughs her heart out in sheer delight from all the fun she's having. It charms Hiro greatly. [[spoiler:She also smiles at him in episode 13 when he starts recalling his past, which was blocked out as punishment for trying to escape with her back then.]]
* WildChild: [[spoiler:As a child, Zero Two had a Oni-like appearance, lack of social skills and was unable to speak, even though she understood with what people said to her. She also behaved like a feral animal, such as like growling, biting other people's hands, and trying to eat or swallow strange things like a paper book and a mouse.]]
* YouAreWhatYouHate: She despises her 'handlers' for treating her like an military asset rather than a person, but she does the same to all pilots except Hiro. Additionally, Episode 12 makes it clear that her hatred for Klaxosaurs stems from the fear of becoming one herself. Her desire to avoid this, however, causes her to act more monstrous.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Has pink hair.
[[/folder]]
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%% There is no reason to put the name of a trope in spoiler tags.
%% If the name of the trope considered to be a spoiler, either don't add it or pothole it from a related trope entry.
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[[center: [- [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxx Main Character Index]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxPlantationThirteen Plantation 13]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxHiro Hiro]] | '''Zero Two''' | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxTeamsDelphiniumAndArgentea Pilots of Delphinium and Argentea]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxTeamsGenistaAndChlorophytum Pilots of Genista and Chlorophytum]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxAPE APE]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxAdditionalPlantationsAndSquads Additional Plantations & Squads]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxKlaxosaurs Klaxosaurs]]]]-]
'''Due to [[Administrivia/HandlingSpoilers wiki policy]], trope names will not be spoiler tagged. Reader beware.'''
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[[header:Code:002/Zero Two/Nine Iota]]
[[quoteright:167:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/latest_618.png]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/HarukaTomatsu (Japanese), Creator/TiaBallard (English), Creator/MarianaOrtiz (Latin American Spanish), Creator/NuriaTrifol (European Spanish)
The female lead. A mysterious girl with red horns. She is an elite pilot, but her tendency to get her co-pilots killed led her to be nicknamed "Partner Killer". She quickly took an interest in Hiro and managed to convince him to become her new partner, or "darling" as she puts it.
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[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-F]]
* AcePilot: Compared to the other ''pistils'', Zero Two has a lot more control over her Franxx's synchronization rate and movements. She can also pilot on her own with greater ease and has more experience in dealing with klaxosaur.
* AlienBlood: [[spoiler:When she was a kid her blood was a bright blue, similar to the fluid secreted by klaxosaurs. As a teen, it appears to be the normal red. It's implied that her blood will turn blue again if her "saurification" proceeds.]]
* AnimalMotifs: As stated below, she is somewhat compared to spiders; partly because of how it seems she has ensnared Hiro, and partly because of the whole BlackWidow shtick. However, both she and Hiro are also compared to a mythical bird which cannot fly unless it has a partner, which characterizes their relationship.
** Her voice actor has also likened her to a cat in [[https://seiyuuplus.wordpress.com/2018/01/13/162-darling-in-the-franxx-pair-interview-uemura-yuto-x-tomatsu-haruka/ an interview]], which fits well with her pointy ear-like horns, her CuteLittleFangs, her occasional feral mannerisms (such as showing affection by licking), and Strelizia's lion-like Stampede Mode.
* AntiHero: Prior to her CharacterDevelopment. Zero Two is known to be strong and carefree, but also selfish, headstrong, arrogant, and lacking of empathy. She tones down after reuniting and reconciling with Hiro in episode 15, where she finally shown her true kindness and cheerful side to the others.
* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler: She was cloned by Dr. Franxx from hair he took from the Klaxosaur Princess]].
* BarefootCaptives: [[spoiler:She was held this way in her childhood.]]
* BarefootLoon: In Episode 8. When she gets in the middle of the boys vs. girls feud, a naughty streak is awakened in Zero Two and during the height of it, she runs around barefoot like a giddy child (mainly because she sneaks into a bathing room and you're not supposed to use footwear in one). When she gets caught, she is unabashed about using her lack of footwear to her advantage, stealing Hiro's ModestyTowel with her toes and showing off her skill with unencumbered feet by nimbly leaping all around the dormitory (and even the rooftops and a nearby tree) like a parkour maniac. However, after she gets scolded and the zeal of being impish wears off, Zero Two remembers she can't afford to act foolish after the horrible experiences she's had with [[spoiler:former pilots]] and tucks her feet into slippers, signifying that her childish side has been beaten back. This trait might come from [[spoiler:the person she was cloned from.]]
* BeastAndBeauty: Gender-flipped when she was younger. [[spoiler:She was a CuteMonsterGirl in love with a normal boy, and her favorite picture book was a fairy tale about a monster/beast princess who fell in love with a handsome prince.]]
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Part of the reason she likes Hiro is that he wasn't afraid of her and treated her as he would anyone else, whereas others don't treat her as human for one reason or another. [[spoiler: As it turns out, they go way back, and even back then Hiro was the first to treat her kindly. She never fully forgot her short time with him despite the attempt at wiping her memories, and strives to become human much like the demon girl in the fairy tale book she had with her at the time.]]
* BecomingTheMask: [[spoiler: Despite saying to Hiro that he was fodder all along, it's implied in Episode 12 that she grew to care for him as her darling as his apparent fear of her increasingly feral characteristics wounds her and the act of draining him clearly pains her to the point of tears.]]
* BerserkButton: Best not to comment on how she's not human.
* BettyAndVeronica: She is Veronica and Ichigo is Betty, with Hiro as their Archie. Contrasting with the obedient and straight-laced Ichigo, Zero Two is very flirty with Hiro, has an assertive personality and hates following the rules of the adults.
* BlackWidow: She's known as the "Partner Killer" for a reason, with a Stamen count of over 100. (She's also thematically compared to a spider or vampire who drinks her partner's blood until he has nothing left to give, killing him.) Episode 12 reveals that [[spoiler:she literally puts a curse on all her partners, draining their life-force each time they pilot.]]
* BlitheSpirit: Her seemingly care-free rule-breaking helps break Hiro out of his crippling depression and blind adherence to rules, and the cheerful affection she shows him in the children's quarters inspires some of the other kids to be more affectionate with each other. (Like the boys and girls sitting together for meals, or Kokoro feeding Futoshi honeyed bread.)
* BloodKnight: After fighting mostly [[{{Mook}} Conrad-class]] klaxosaurs for several days, she gets very ecstatic and reckless when she sets her sights on a Gutenberg-class. She then nearly gets Strelizia trapped inside it, but her team comes to pull them out. Hiro even has to hold her back when she charges in again right after, and they only narrowly avoid getting crushed under the klaxosaur's feet.
* BodyHorror: [[spoiler:The scene in Episode 13 of her being not just strapped down, but ''pinned'' onto a medical table like an animal about to be dissected with her outer layer of skin severely peeled away.]]
* {{Bokukko}}: Uses the first-person pronoun "boku" despite being a girl. While she does has some tomboy traits, her choice of pronoun is more likely meant to represent how she isn't fond of following the rules of society. [[spoiler:Episode 15 reveals that she uses this pronoun because she heard Hiro use it to refer to himself when they first met.]]
* BrokenBird: Arguably since the beginning, [[spoiler: but ''definitely'' in Episode 15. When she and Hiro reunite, she is a [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness sputtering mess]] who is so afraid of hurting him again that she tries to push him away]].
* BrutalHonesty: In episode 8, she gets a ''chilling'' moment following a girls vs. boys feud that has gotten so out of hand and obnoxious that the group of pilots is scolded. After an episode where the characters have mostly been quibbling over trivial and petty nonsense, Zero Two muses that this amusing spectacle was fun while it lasted. Then, in the girls' room, she reminisces on the lot of the children, and predicts that [[spoiler: they're all going to be killed]] with [[DeathGlare an extremely icy look of bitter resignation]], and says it with such certainty and lack of hope that it freaks ''all'' the girls out and gets them curious about why Zero Two is writing them off. [[spoiler:They later discover a photo of a previous generation of plantation members she worked with... who are now all dead. It takes an even worse meaning when the full extent of Zero Two's abilities and the price for their activation is revealed. Zero Two is ''personally'' responsible for the deaths of all her partners because a parasitic curse is released from her that hacks away at their life force.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: She's an exceptionally gifted parasite whose extremely odd quirks (often commenting on how she and/or other people taste, often musing on how she wants to go in the ocean, dousing her food in honey, has {{no sense of personal space}}) are tolerated because of how good she is fighting off klaxosaur.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Doesn't remember working with the members of Plantation 26 two years ago or getting one of their partners killed. As she puts it, weaklings die so she doesn't pay any attention to them.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: She's strong enough to punch an armored man across a room, and agile enough to jump up an entire story. Granted, she isn't entirely human, but ''how much'' of her physical attributes ''can'' be credited to her heritage is left unanswered.
* CharacterTics: She bites down on her nails whenever she gets annoyed.
* [[ChildhoodFriends Childhood Friend]]: [[spoiler: Episode 13 reveals she was one for Hiro]].
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: [[spoiler:Her relationship with Hiro is revealed to be this]].
* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: [[spoiler:Episode 13 reveals Hiro made such a promise to her. That promise becomes the main reason why Zero Two is so hellbent on becoming human.]]
* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:She is revealed to be a clone of the Klaxosaur Princess by the end of Episode 19.]]
* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler: When she was younger, she was tortured in various ways to test and gauge her HealingFactor.]]
* ColorMotif: Her horns, uniform, and pilot suit are all red. This conveys not only her passionate, intense, exciting personality (and implied sexual liberation), but also how dangerous and blood-thirsty she can be. [[spoiler:As a child, she used to have red skin.]]
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: She's been a prized military asset of [=APE=] and sent to fight on the front lines for so long that she has no regard for human life or her own, since [[ChildSoldiers they all exist to fight and die]] and [[AMillionIsAStatistic become a statistic anyway.]] Heck, even when her beloved is dying, perhaps the one person she unambiguously cares about, she hardly bats an eye at it because, to her, it's just a fact of life that everyone dies.
* ContraltoOfDanger: Creator/TiaBallard gives her this in English, as an example of PlayingAgainstType.
* CustomUniform: She's the only one who wears a red uniform, and retains it even after she officially joins Squad 13.
* CuteLittleFangs: Played with; Zero Two has fangs, but they're not always played as cute. More often than not, when they are shown, it's to highlight her non-human nature, but she's not a example of FangsAreEvil. [[spoiler:And by episode 10, they're growing, implying that Zero Two is mutating.]]
* CuteMonsterGirl: [[spoiler: Her younger self definitely was this, having red skin, more prominent horns, claws, and sharp teeth.]]
* DanceOfRomance: An adorably awkward variant with Hiro when she gets him into restricted (to him) areas by linking her hands with his, but leading with one pair of hands forward like a kind of dance. After his AnguishedDeclarationOfLove in Episode 4, they do this together to bypass security and get to Strelizia.
* DarkIsNotEvil: She has demonic looking horns and her blood is partially of a dark looking race of monsters, but is on the side of the heroes nevertheless.
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Completing her SanitySlippage, she crosses this line when she believes she's been rejected by Hiro in Episode 14]].
* {{Determinator}}: She's implied to be this from the get-go when she sought to become human and reunite [[spoiler:with her original Darling]], but she shows this in full force in Episode 20. [[spoiler:Even after the Klaxosaur Princess whiplashes her down several stories, she'll stop at nothing to save Hiro.]]
* {{Deuteragonist}}: The most important character in the plot after Hiro.
* DoomMagnet: Is called the "Partner Killer" by the children for her infamous streak in getting many of her co-pilots killed.
* DoNotCallMePaul: In episode 17, Zero Two tells Nine Alpha not to call her Iota, a name given to her by Papa. She prefers to be called Zero Two, [[spoiler:a name given to her by Hiro]].
* DontLookAtMe: [[spoiler: Her reaction when she and Hiro meet again in Episode 15.]]
* TheDreaded: To Squad 26, who worked with her before and had one of their numbers killed because of her reckless fighting style.
* EmptyShell: [[spoiler:Her body became this in the aftermath of episode 21, with her mind transferred into Strelizia Apus.]]
* EvilLaugh: She does a rather scary one when [[spoiler: she beats up almost the entirety of Squad 13 after wrongfully thinking that they've tricked her]].
* ExoticEyeDesigns: Her eyes have rings around the pupils and lack the shading of the normal human eyes.
* ExperiencedProtagonist: Having been fighting on the front-lines for some time, she's significantly more experienced than the other parasites on Plantation Thirteen. This is played for drama, as in episode 8, she has to explain to her squad that their days are numbered and that they are all likely to die fighting the klaxosaurs.
%% Please don't add Expy as an example unless it's been confirmed by the creators.
* FacialMarkings: Has prominent red eyeliner.
* ForgottenFirstMeeting: [[spoiler:Implied in Episode 12 between Hiro and Zero Two in her true form. Confirmed in episode 13.]]
* TheFourLoves: She prioritizes ''eros'' love, but can't even comprehend ''storge'', because she's never had any family.
* FreakinessShame: Zero Two is hyper-sensitive to anyone making a comment about her non-human status [[BerserkButton and bringing it up is a very good way to tick her off]]. This is especially true when it comes to her horns. But despite that, Hiro considers her horns an attractive feature since he did call them "alluring" in his mind.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:G-L]]
* GoodThingYouCanHeal: Played for drama. [[spoiler:In Episode 13 she was subjected to horrible experiments so that the scientists can (presumably) collect data about the klaxosaurs.]]
* HalfHumanHybrid: Is partially klaxosaur somehow. [[spoiler:Episode 19 reveals her klaxo-sapien side comes from her being a clone of the Klaxosaur Princess. Additionally, Episode 17 reveals that, like other hybrid species such as ligers and mules, she's unable to reproduce.]]
* HandyFeet: In episode 8, she demonstrates this skill. Zero Two sneaks into the boys' bathing quarters to steal their clothes. She also traipses around barefoot in lieu of her usual boots and socks (either to give make her footsteps quiet enough to go unnoticed or, more likely, because it's common courtesy in Japanese culture that you have bare feet or at the very least socks only in a bathing area to not track in grime). Hiro gives chase after her, and Zero Two catches him by surprise by doing something absurd - using her toes to swipe [[ModestyTowel the towel draped around his loins]] before he can even react, and then gives him a smug and mischevious giggle as she mockingly waves it in front of him.
* HeadbuttOfLove: In the fourth episode, she touches Hiro's forehead with her horns to show affection.
* HealingFactor: It's revealed in Episode 13 that she has the power to heal her own injuries.
* HeelRealization: In Episode 13 [[spoiler: learning that Hiro was the boy she loved all along causes her to realize that everything she's done - at least since arriving at Plantation 13 - has been pointless]].
-->'''Zero Two''': [[spoiler: Hey, were you my Darling from back then? ''Then what have I been doing all this time?'']]
** It continues in Episode 14 [[spoiler: as she's barred from interacting with Hiro, forcing her to confront all the times she had acted callously or manipulative to Hiro with the hindsight of knowing that he was the very person she thought she was doing this for all along and that Hiro, as a teen, honestly cared for her the entire time.]]
* [[TheHeroDies The Heroine Dies]]: [[spoiler:She and Hiro meet their ends in Episode 24. Fortunately, it's heavily implied that the two have reincarnated as human children.]]
* HeroicResolve: In Episode 20, [[spoiler:she goes after the Klaxosaur Princess after she gets whipped out of Strelizia. Her drive to save her OneTrueLove keeps her going even as she's losing a dangerous amount of blood from the fall.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: In Episode 21, in order to force the VIRM to retreat, she injects a large portion of her soul into Strelizia, with the very, ''very'' small portion of her soul still left leaving her a nearly-catatonic, barely responsive EmptyShell while the majority of her soul powers Strelizia in its one-man war against the VIRM. After Hiro joins her in Strelizia, they leave Earth forever, sacrificing themselves to destroy VIRM's homeworld and free all their imprisoned souls.]]
* HiddenDepths:
** Zero Two seems to only care about herself, so much so that even when Hiro is dying, it seems like she can't be brought to care when Ichigo demands she take it easy on him. That having been said, she has deep insecurities about [[BerserkButton not being human]], and in private she gives Hiro an out, though naturally he refuses. Also, [[HurtingHero she's very lonely]] and seems to have been desperate for someone to love her. Also, though she hates it when other people bring up the fact she's not human, she can be very self-depreciating about it herself.
** Zero Two turns out to be quite the good artist, and even made a perfect recreation of the images from her picture book.
* HornedHumanoid: Has small, but prominent red horns on her head, probably as a result of being a [[HalfHumanHybrid part-klaxosaur]]. [[spoiler:Her horns were much longer and more prominent when she was younger.]]
** [[spoiler: The end of episode 14 reveals that her horns have started growing again, and by episode 15 they've grown into full-on ''antlers''.]]
* HunterOfHisOwnKind: She has klaxosaur blood, and yet is [=APE=]'s best klaxosaur killer. [[spoiler:This is because they've told her that if she kills enough of them she could become human.]]
%%* IAmNotAGun:
* IAmAMonster: As much as she hates people calling her a monster, she calls herself one at times in a self-deprecating tone. This problem escalates in Episode 12, to the point that [[RageAgainstTheReflection she wildly shatters every mirror in sight]]. It only gets worse later on, where she comes to consider herself a monster not for a what she is, but for [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the horrible things she has done.]]
* IAmNotLeftHanded: In episode 3, Mitsuru pilots Strelizia with her and starts raving about the PowerHigh it brings him, offering to become her official partner. At this, Zero Two decides she can go all out purely to spite him; Mitsuru comes out of the experience [[BreakTheHaughty badly injured and traumatized]].
* IJustWantToBeNormal: In episode 8, she gets in on the fight between the boys and the girls because she thinks it will make her more like a human. [[spoiler:This is because, as a child, she realized that she couldn't be with Hiro since they weren't the same.]]
* IngestingKnowledge: Actually ate her [[spoiler: picture book when she was a kid]]. However, it wasn't so she gain any knowledge but so she won't [[spoiler: forget Hiro when they were kids]].
* InsistentTerminology: She calls Hiro her "darling" because that's what she wants to call him. [[spoiler:He taught her it in the past.]]
* InternalizedCategorism: She completely ''loathes'' herself and other klaxosaur for being a "monster."
* InterspeciesRomance: Between her, a klaxosaur-human hybrid, and Hiro, a human. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] once Hiro became part Klaxosaur as well]].
* {{Irony}}:
** Spends the first half of the series thinking that since she's not human, Squad 13 will never accept her, so she shouldn't even bother trying to be nice to them or show consideration for their lives. She fails to realize that said behavior is exactly what makes her monstrous in their eyes. Hiro and the others eventually [[WhatTheHellHero call her out on it]]. After [[spoiler:she and Hiro confess their love and she is officially accepted by Squad 13]], she admits that she got it all backwards.
** At the worst point of her SanitySlippage in Episode 12 [[spoiler: she nearly drains Hiro in her pursuit to become human and reunite with her original darling, driven by the belief that he had already rejected her out of fear; not only was Hiro fearing for her rather than her but, as Episode 13 reveals, Hiro '''is''' her original darling.]]
* LackOfEmpathy: Zero Two doesn't display any concern for the lives of any pilot besides Hiro, because she thinks of them the same she thinks of herself. That is, they are all meant to live and die fighting klaxosaurs, [[AMillionIsAStatistic so in the bigger picture it doesn't matter if they die today or tomorrow]]. [[spoiler: Early into episode 14, it's clear that she really ''has'' come to care about the other pilots in Squad 13 and feels guilty for betraying their trust, but stubbornly wills herself to keep displaying no empathy for them and to outwardly insist that she never considered them TrueCompanions, just temporary allies. Thankfully, this facade shatters in the following two episodes.]]
* LadyInRed: While far from a ProperLady, in all other ways she fits this trope to a T. She wears primarily red uniforms and pilot suits, she has a very strong personality, her demeanor suggests sexual liberation, and she's seen as both dangerous and alluring by the other (male) characters.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Episode 14 in a nutshell was this for her. [[spoiler:Her actions towards Hiro and her squad over her desire to become more human to meet her original "darling" leads to not only the one person who was willing to accept her for her monstrous self rejecting her, but also splitting up the only squad that came to accept her fully as well.]]
* LaserGuidedTykebomb: APE's created Zero Two to be this. [[spoiler:As a clone of the Klaxosaur Princess, they planned to use her to activate Star Entity and wipe out the klaxosaurs.]]
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: She becomes one [[spoiler:for Hiro]]. To put it bluntly, [[spoiler:Hiro cannot function without her, and he is willing to face the VIRM ''all by himself'' after she becomes an EmptyShell in Episode 21.]]
* LoveConfession: [[spoiler: Tearfully and happily gives one to Hiro in Strelizia in episode 15, which he reciprocates to the amusement and happiness of Squad 13.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:M-S]]
* ManicPixieDreamGirl
* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Masculine girl to Hiro's feminine boy. While neither of them have the looks associated with this trope, their interactions are a blatant inversion of gender stereotypes: Zero Two is assertive and confident while Hiro gets easily depressed and is plagued by self-doubt. In a sense, Zero Two was the one that "rescued" Hiro when he needed help.
* MeaningfulName: See StealthPun.
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Her outlook on life reflects this and why she doesn't bother with a name. They're all meant to fight and die, so why bother when all that will be left is a statistic?
* MissedHimByThatMuch: [[spoiler:In Episode 12, Zero Two reveals that she's searching for her original "darling". But given the fragments of Hiro's memories and various other bits of {{Foreshadowing}}, Zero Two is unaware that her first "darling" and her current "darling" are one and the same. She finally becomes aware at the end of the following episode, however.]]
* MsFanservice: She has a well-built body that she has no problems showing off, whether it be naked or in a LatexSpaceSuit, and everything she does seems to be part of an attempt to make everyone around her sexually uncomfortable.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Her tear-stained face alone ''screams'' this at the end of Episode 13 when she figures out Hiro is her Darling from her childhood. Episode 14 confirms that she's shaken up about all the things she has said and done to him, and even somewhat for betraying the rest of her squad. In episode 15 we see that she's downright afraid to touch him, because she considers herself a monster and doesn't think she deserve forgiveness after what she's done]].
* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Repeatedly invades the personal space of people that catch her interest, getting her face uncomfortably close to theirs and even licking their cheeks for reasons known only by herself, or to get her point across. [[spoiler: This might have stemmed from her childhood, when Hiro licked her knee to disinfect a wound.]]
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Zero Two always keeps people at arm's length with [[{{Troll}} mocking humor]], [[AMillionIsAStatistic nihilism]], and [[LackOfEmpathy emotional detachment]]. She never shows remorse for this, [[spoiler: until after Episode 14. Her actions upon learning who Hiro really was lead to what she believes is a deserved rejection from him. After this, she is so [[DespairEventHorizon distraught]] she can't look him in the face, weeping and recoiling when he sees her again]].
* OfficialCouple: In Episode 15, [[spoiler:she and Hiro become this]].
* OneTrueLove: Much like the ''Jian'' bird from Chinese mythology, she [[spoiler:and Hiro]] serve as each other's wings. [[spoiler:Going as far back as when they tried to escape APE's facility as children, Hiro was the only boy who admired and loved her for who she is, WartsAndAll. [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Their short time together as children made an impact on Zero Two]] and, as Episode 12 reveals, she spent much of her life looking to reunite with her original "darling", the boy she loved and missed. When she finds out Hiro was her "darling" all along in Episode 13, she becomes distraught over her actions before the two make up for their mistakes in Episode 15. Since then, the two have shown unconditional love for one another and know that their bond can overcome whatever obstacle fate throws at them.]]
* {{Oni}}: Some of her motif are based on the mountain beast. While her horns is obvious, she wears red which is often the standard color of onis. Her behavior is also more beastly at time. There's also been visual hints that she may have a more monstrous form. And lastly, her codename can be read as O-NI. [[spoiler:Then in Episode 12, her true form is revealed to have red skin, which is a common characteristic of onis.]]
* OralFixation: She's constantly sucking on lollipops.
* PhotographicMemory: In Episode 16, she's able to accurately recreate the illustrations of the picture book from her childhood. Hiro lampshades this by remarking how incredible it is that she could remember all of it.
* PinocchioSyndrome: Practically confirmed in Episode 12, where the reason why Zero Two wants to kill as much klaxosaurs as possible is because she believes that if she kills enough, she can become fully human. [[spoiler:The fact that she's becoming more and more like a klaxosaur instead however, drives her into a state of despair and rage.]]
* PowerLimiter: Her headband seems to serve as such to some degree. When Ichigo knocks it off in Episode 5, her [[RedEyesTakeWarning eyes]] and horns start glowing bright red.
* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler: Just like with Hiro, the adults attempted to wipe her memories after she was recaptured. They weren't entirely successful however, because according to them "something strong was protecting [her]", thus she was able to retain coherent (albeit fragmented) memories of her brief time with Hiro.]]
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Red pupils, to be exact. When Zero Two got angry with Ichigo, she seemed as scared of the red-eyed demonic creature in front of her as she was of the klaxosaurs that almost killed her. [[spoiler: Her eyes then glow red again when she flies into a rage after thinking that the rest of Plantation 13 deceived her when she finally gets to visit Hiro]].
* RedIsHeroic: Her main color scheme is red and she's an anti-hero.
* RedOniBlueOni: Red Oni to Hiro's Blue. As her ColorMotif indicates, she is unruly, passionate and intense. Her "Darling" is collected, soft-spoken and prone to self-loathing when he feels he failed in his only purpose in life.
* {{Reincarnation}}: [[spoiler:Episode 24 heavily implies that she and Hiro were reincarnated as human children, as it shows a pink-haired girl playing with a boy under a cherry blossom tree.]]
* ReincarnationRomance: [[spoiler:She and Hiro die in the final battle, as they sacrifice themselves to stop the VIRM. Centuries later, their souls return to Earth and become reborn as humans, where they meet each other again as kids. With the strong implication they will restart their romance, it's crystal clear that not even death can separate her from Hiro.]]
* RescueRomance: Forms a [[PuppyLove childish]] version of this [[spoiler: with Hiro when they were younger. This becomes the basis of their ''actual'' romance when they recover their memories]].
* RookieMaleExperiencedFemale: She is an experienced pilot who fought many battles, while Hiro is a complete rookie like all the other pilots in the team.
* RuleOfThree: Before Hiro, every pilot who served as her partner could only do so three times before dying.
* SanitySlippage: As her transformation progresses she becomes more violent and hostile towards others, even Hiro. [[spoiler: Her discovery that Hiro is her [[ForgottenChildhoodFriend original darling]] after the things she said to him, as well as Hiro calling her a monster after she attacked the rest of Squad 13, pushed her even further over the edge. By the time they reunite in Episode 15 (which was ony a few days after they were separated, at most), she's burned through an entire squad of partners and her horns have grown into twisted tree-like shapes.]]
* SexForSolace: Her reaction to Hiro's confession in Episode 12 to straddle him and start to undress herself. When he rejects her advances, she gets annoyed. It may have been because it would have been easier [[spoiler: to kill him]] if he just wanted her for her body...
* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: She clearly doesn't mind whether she's wearing clothes or not, judging how she doesn't even bat an eye about Hiro seeing her naked and instead [[{{Troll}} picks on him]] [[AccidentalPervert for holding her panties.]]
* ShellShockedVeteran: She arguably was this from the beginning, [[spoiler:but Episode 18 makes it crystal clear that her past is taking its toll on her. She feels guilty over her past actions and starts having nightmares over the stamens she had consumed.]]
* ShesGotLegs: Her long legs are accentuated by her tights.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Once she takes a liking to Hiro, she decides that he and ''only he'' can be her partner. No one else will do.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Falls for the kind, heroic TeamDad Hiro who was the first person to [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe treat her kindly]].
* SmugSmiler: Flashes these all the time. Especially to Ichigo.
* TheSocialDarwinist: She casually refers to Hiro's squad as "weakling[=s=]" who he should leave behind.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: In the manga.]]
* SpiritualAntithesis: She is what Rei would be like as a HotBlooded ActionGirl who defies orders [[spoiler:and both are clones of an authority of an enemy race with some human blood]].
* StarCrossedLovers: [[spoiler:With Hiro.]]
* StealthPun: If one was to use the [[GoroawaseNumber naming conventions]] of the other characters for Zero Two, her name would translate to "{{Oni}}". Given her [[HornedHumanoid horns]] and [[{{Troll}} personality]], it would actually be very fitting. [[spoiler:In a flashback, Hiro even mentions Oni as a potential name for Zero Two before discarding it.]]
* SuperStrength: She manages to bat a grown man away with a wave of her arm and jump the length of a room in a single bound.
* SweetTooth: ''Drowns'' her food in honey, nauseating Miku. And is always eating lollipops.
** In episode 13, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Hiro introduced her to sweets as a child. The {{Squee}} she lets out upon first tasting candy is the stuff of legend.]]
* {{Synchronization}}: [[spoiler:She becomes linked to Strelizia following Episode 21, and wounds spontaneously form on her body whenever Strelizia takes damage, even though Strelizia is literally millions of miles away.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:T-Z]]
* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:With Hiro in the aftermath of Episode 24's final battle.]]
* TookALevelInCheerfulness: By episode 16, [[spoiler:not only has she reunited with her Darling, but she also finally understood what "being human" really means. That is, living together with other humans, helping each other while also being true to their feelings.]] Thanks to this discovery, she becomes much more friendly and cheerful.
* {{Troll}}: Clearly gets off on making Hiro, and pretty much everyone around her for that matter, highly uncomfortable for her own pleasure.
* UptightLovesWild: With Hiro as the Uptight and Zero Two as the Wild. She seems to have "break every rule set by the adults" as her hobby, while Hiro is quiet and obedient. More creepily, both of them have a cynical outlook on life, but while Zero Two freely talks about how much she hates their society, Hiro tends to blame himself whenever things go wrong, lacking the self-initiative to question the status quo he was born into.
* UsingYouAllAlong: [[spoiler:When Hiro gives her his LoveConfession, she responds that he's nothing but fodder to her, a means of becoming human and eventually reuniting with her ''real'' darling. When she later finds out he ''is'' her original darling, she is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone absolutely distraught]] over the fact that she'd been degrading and manipulating the first person she'd ever loved all along.]]
* VampiricDraining: When she pilots, her partner is subjected to this. No one aside from Hiro lasts for more than three times due to the toll it takes on their bodies as a result.
* VetinariJobSecurity: Despite her erratic rule-breaking and BlackWidow tendencies, the klaxosaur are a great enough threat and she's a great enough pilot that HQ can't afford ''not'' to keep her around or send her out in the field as-needed.
* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: Given how quickly Mitsuru was hospitalized after insulting Hiro... well, let's just say that speaking badly about her darling might not be the most inspired of decisions.
* WalkingTheEarth: [[spoiler:What she wants to do with Hiro now that the two remember their past together]].
* WhatIsThisFeeling: Downplayed. When she agrees to use Strelizia to help save Ichigo and Goro in Episode 9, she seems mildly surprised when she admits she doesn't ''hate'' this. (Considering her [[LonersAreFreaks usual]] [[SocialDarwinist cold]] [[ButForMeItWasTuesday and]] [[AMillionIsAStatistic aloof]] [[LackOfEmpathy demeanor]], learning to not dislike [[spoiler:helping others]] is huge for her.)
* WhatTheHellHero: When Zero Two starts getting a little too obsessed with killing klaxosaurs during a mission in episode 12, Hiro tries to rein her in. However, in the heat of the moment, she ends up choking him, and says things that are heard by the others that heavily imply she was going to kill him like so many of her other copilots in the past. Though the two get some clarifications of their past in episode 13's flashback, the other members of Squad 13 only saw and heard her trying to kill him. Consequently they refuse to let the two see each other, nor will they allow her to take part with her in any further missions lest she kill Hiro like so many other partners in the past.
* WhenSheSmiles: After smiling mysteriously or smugly for the first several episodes, during the Episode 8 "Boys vs Girls" fight she smiles and laughs her heart out in sheer delight from all the fun she's having. It charms Hiro greatly. [[spoiler:She also smiles at him in episode 13 when he starts recalling his past, which was blocked out as punishment for trying to escape with her back then.]]
* WildChild: [[spoiler:As a child, Zero Two had a Oni-like appearance, lack of social skills and was unable to speak, even though she understood with what people said to her. She also behaved like a feral animal, such as like growling, biting other people's hands, and trying to eat or swallow strange things like a paper book and a mouse.]]
* YouAreWhatYouHate: She despises her 'handlers' for treating her like an military asset rather than a person, but she does the same to all pilots except Hiro. Additionally, Episode 12 makes it clear that her hatred for Klaxosaurs stems from the fear of becoming one herself. Her desire to avoid this, however, causes her to act more monstrous.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Has pink hair.
[[/folder]]
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%% If the name of the trope considered to be a spoiler, either don't add it or pothole it from a related trope entry.
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[[center: [- [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxx Main Character Index]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxPlantationThirteen Plantation 13]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxHiro Hiro]] | '''Zero Two''' | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxTeamsDelphiniumAndArgentea Pilots of Delphinium and Argentea]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxTeamsGenistaAndChlorophytum Pilots of Genista and Chlorophytum]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxAPE APE]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxAdditionalPlantationsAndSquads Additional Plantations & Squads]] | [[Characters/DarlingInTheFranxxKlaxosaurs Klaxosaurs]]]]-]
'''Due to [[Administrivia/HandlingSpoilers wiki policy]], trope names will not be spoiler tagged. Reader beware.'''
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[[header:Code:002/Zero Two/Nine Iota]]
[[quoteright:167:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/latest_618.png]]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/HarukaTomatsu (Japanese), Creator/TiaBallard (English), Creator/MarianaOrtiz (Latin American Spanish), Creator/NuriaTrifol (European Spanish)
The female lead. A mysterious girl with red horns. She is an elite pilot, but her tendency to get her co-pilots killed led her to be nicknamed "Partner Killer". She quickly took an interest in Hiro and managed to convince him to become her new partner, or "darling" as she puts it.
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[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-F]]
* AcePilot: Compared to the other ''pistils'', Zero Two has a lot more control over her Franxx's synchronization rate and movements. She can also pilot on her own with greater ease and has more experience in dealing with klaxosaur.
* AlienBlood: [[spoiler:When she was a kid her blood was a bright blue, similar to the fluid secreted by klaxosaurs. As a teen, it appears to be the normal red. It's implied that her blood will turn blue again if her "saurification" proceeds.]]
* AnimalMotifs: As stated below, she is somewhat compared to spiders; partly because of how it seems she has ensnared Hiro, and partly because of the whole BlackWidow shtick. However, both she and Hiro are also compared to a mythical bird which cannot fly unless it has a partner, which characterizes their relationship.
** Her voice actor has also likened her to a cat in [[https://seiyuuplus.wordpress.com/2018/01/13/162-darling-in-the-franxx-pair-interview-uemura-yuto-x-tomatsu-haruka/ an interview]], which fits well with her pointy ear-like horns, her CuteLittleFangs, her occasional feral mannerisms (such as showing affection by licking), and Strelizia's lion-like Stampede Mode.
* AntiHero: Prior to her CharacterDevelopment. Zero Two is known to be strong and carefree, but also selfish, headstrong, arrogant, and lacking of empathy. She tones down after reuniting and reconciling with Hiro in episode 15, where she finally shown her true kindness and cheerful side to the others.
* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler: She was cloned by Dr. Franxx from hair he took from the Klaxosaur Princess]].
* BarefootCaptives: [[spoiler:She was held this way in her childhood.]]
* BarefootLoon: In Episode 8. When she gets in the middle of the boys vs. girls feud, a naughty streak is awakened in Zero Two and during the height of it, she runs around barefoot like a giddy child (mainly because she sneaks into a bathing room and you're not supposed to use footwear in one). When she gets caught, she is unabashed about using her lack of footwear to her advantage, stealing Hiro's ModestyTowel with her toes and showing off her skill with unencumbered feet by nimbly leaping all around the dormitory (and even the rooftops and a nearby tree) like a parkour maniac. However, after she gets scolded and the zeal of being impish wears off, Zero Two remembers she can't afford to act foolish after the horrible experiences she's had with [[spoiler:former pilots]] and tucks her feet into slippers, signifying that her childish side has been beaten back. This trait might come from [[spoiler:the person she was cloned from.]]
* BeastAndBeauty: Gender-flipped when she was younger. [[spoiler:She was a CuteMonsterGirl in love with a normal boy, and her favorite picture book was a fairy tale about a monster/beast princess who fell in love with a handsome prince.]]
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Part of the reason she likes Hiro is that he wasn't afraid of her and treated her as he would anyone else, whereas others don't treat her as human for one reason or another. [[spoiler: As it turns out, they go way back, and even back then Hiro was the first to treat her kindly. She never fully forgot her short time with him despite the attempt at wiping her memories, and strives to become human much like the demon girl in the fairy tale book she had with her at the time.]]
* BecomingTheMask: [[spoiler: Despite saying to Hiro that he was fodder all along, it's implied in Episode 12 that she grew to care for him as her darling as his apparent fear of her increasingly feral characteristics wounds her and the act of draining him clearly pains her to the point of tears.]]
* BerserkButton: Best not to comment on how she's not human.
* BettyAndVeronica: She is Veronica and Ichigo is Betty, with Hiro as their Archie. Contrasting with the obedient and straight-laced Ichigo, Zero Two is very flirty with Hiro, has an assertive personality and hates following the rules of the adults.
* BlackWidow: She's known as the "Partner Killer" for a reason, with a Stamen count of over 100. (She's also thematically compared to a spider or vampire who drinks her partner's blood until he has nothing left to give, killing him.) Episode 12 reveals that [[spoiler:she literally puts a curse on all her partners, draining their life-force each time they pilot.]]
* BlitheSpirit: Her seemingly care-free rule-breaking helps break Hiro out of his crippling depression and blind adherence to rules, and the cheerful affection she shows him in the children's quarters inspires some of the other kids to be more affectionate with each other. (Like the boys and girls sitting together for meals, or Kokoro feeding Futoshi honeyed bread.)
* BloodKnight: After fighting mostly [[{{Mook}} Conrad-class]] klaxosaurs for several days, she gets very ecstatic and reckless when she sets her sights on a Gutenberg-class. She then nearly gets Strelizia trapped inside it, but her team comes to pull them out. Hiro even has to hold her back when she charges in again right after, and they only narrowly avoid getting crushed under the klaxosaur's feet.
* BodyHorror: [[spoiler:The scene in Episode 13 of her being not just strapped down, but ''pinned'' onto a medical table like an animal about to be dissected with her outer layer of skin severely peeled away.]]
* {{Bokukko}}: Uses the first-person pronoun "boku" despite being a girl. While she does has some tomboy traits, her choice of pronoun is more likely meant to represent how she isn't fond of following the rules of society. [[spoiler:Episode 15 reveals that she uses this pronoun because she heard Hiro use it to refer to himself when they first met.]]
* BrokenBird: Arguably since the beginning, [[spoiler: but ''definitely'' in Episode 15. When she and Hiro reunite, she is a [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness sputtering mess]] who is so afraid of hurting him again that she tries to push him away]].
* BrutalHonesty: In episode 8, she gets a ''chilling'' moment following a girls vs. boys feud that has gotten so out of hand and obnoxious that the group of pilots is scolded. After an episode where the characters have mostly been quibbling over trivial and petty nonsense, Zero Two muses that this amusing spectacle was fun while it lasted. Then, in the girls' room, she reminisces on the lot of the children, and predicts that [[spoiler: they're all going to be killed]] with [[DeathGlare an extremely icy look of bitter resignation]], and says it with such certainty and lack of hope that it freaks ''all'' the girls out and gets them curious about why Zero Two is writing them off. [[spoiler:They later discover a photo of a previous generation of plantation members she worked with... who are now all dead. It takes an even worse meaning when the full extent of Zero Two's abilities and the price for their activation is revealed. Zero Two is ''personally'' responsible for the deaths of all her partners because a parasitic curse is released from her that hacks away at their life force.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: She's an exceptionally gifted parasite whose extremely odd quirks (often commenting on how she and/or other people taste, often musing on how she wants to go in the ocean, dousing her food in honey, has {{no sense of personal space}}) are tolerated because of how good she is fighting off klaxosaur.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Doesn't remember working with the members of Plantation 26 two years ago or getting one of their partners killed. As she puts it, weaklings die so she doesn't pay any attention to them.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: She's strong enough to punch an armored man across a room, and agile enough to jump up an entire story. Granted, she isn't entirely human, but ''how much'' of her physical attributes ''can'' be credited to her heritage is left unanswered.
* CharacterTics: She bites down on her nails whenever she gets annoyed.
* [[ChildhoodFriends Childhood Friend]]: [[spoiler: Episode 13 reveals she was one for Hiro]].
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: [[spoiler:Her relationship with Hiro is revealed to be this]].
* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: [[spoiler:Episode 13 reveals Hiro made such a promise to her. That promise becomes the main reason why Zero Two is so hellbent on becoming human.]]
* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:She is revealed to be a clone of the Klaxosaur Princess by the end of Episode 19.]]
* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler: When she was younger, she was tortured in various ways to test and gauge her HealingFactor.]]
* ColorMotif: Her horns, uniform, and pilot suit are all red. This conveys not only her passionate, intense, exciting personality (and implied sexual liberation), but also how dangerous and blood-thirsty she can be. [[spoiler:As a child, she used to have red skin.]]
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: She's been a prized military asset of [=APE=] and sent to fight on the front lines for so long that she has no regard for human life or her own, since [[ChildSoldiers they all exist to fight and die]] and [[AMillionIsAStatistic become a statistic anyway.]] Heck, even when her beloved is dying, perhaps the one person she unambiguously cares about, she hardly bats an eye at it because, to her, it's just a fact of life that everyone dies.
* ContraltoOfDanger: Creator/TiaBallard gives her this in English, as an example of PlayingAgainstType.
* CustomUniform: She's the only one who wears a red uniform, and retains it even after she officially joins Squad 13.
* CuteLittleFangs: Played with; Zero Two has fangs, but they're not always played as cute. More often than not, when they are shown, it's to highlight her non-human nature, but she's not a example of FangsAreEvil. [[spoiler:And by episode 10, they're growing, implying that Zero Two is mutating.]]
* CuteMonsterGirl: [[spoiler: Her younger self definitely was this, having red skin, more prominent horns, claws, and sharp teeth.]]
* DanceOfRomance: An adorably awkward variant with Hiro when she gets him into restricted (to him) areas by linking her hands with his, but leading with one pair of hands forward like a kind of dance. After his AnguishedDeclarationOfLove in Episode 4, they do this together to bypass security and get to Strelizia.
* DarkIsNotEvil: She has demonic looking horns and her blood is partially of a dark looking race of monsters, but is on the side of the heroes nevertheless.
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Completing her SanitySlippage, she crosses this line when she believes she's been rejected by Hiro in Episode 14]].
* {{Determinator}}: She's implied to be this from the get-go when she sought to become human and reunite [[spoiler:with her original Darling]], but she shows this in full force in Episode 20. [[spoiler:Even after the Klaxosaur Princess whiplashes her down several stories, she'll stop at nothing to save Hiro.]]
* {{Deuteragonist}}: The most important character in the plot after Hiro.
* DoomMagnet: Is called the "Partner Killer" by the children for her infamous streak in getting many of her co-pilots killed.
* DoNotCallMePaul: In episode 17, Zero Two tells Nine Alpha not to call her Iota, a name given to her by Papa. She prefers to be called Zero Two, [[spoiler:a name given to her by Hiro]].
* DontLookAtMe: [[spoiler: Her reaction when she and Hiro meet again in Episode 15.]]
* TheDreaded: To Squad 26, who worked with her before and had one of their numbers killed because of her reckless fighting style.
* EmptyShell: [[spoiler:Her body became this in the aftermath of episode 21, with her mind transferred into Strelizia Apus.]]
* EvilLaugh: She does a rather scary one when [[spoiler: she beats up almost the entirety of Squad 13 after wrongfully thinking that they've tricked her]].
* ExoticEyeDesigns: Her eyes have rings around the pupils and lack the shading of the normal human eyes.
* ExperiencedProtagonist: Having been fighting on the front-lines for some time, she's significantly more experienced than the other parasites on Plantation Thirteen. This is played for drama, as in episode 8, she has to explain to her squad that their days are numbered and that they are all likely to die fighting the klaxosaurs.
%% Please don't add Expy as an example unless it's been confirmed by the creators.
* FacialMarkings: Has prominent red eyeliner.
* ForgottenFirstMeeting: [[spoiler:Implied in Episode 12 between Hiro and Zero Two in her true form. Confirmed in episode 13.]]
* TheFourLoves: She prioritizes ''eros'' love, but can't even comprehend ''storge'', because she's never had any family.
* FreakinessShame: Zero Two is hyper-sensitive to anyone making a comment about her non-human status [[BerserkButton and bringing it up is a very good way to tick her off]]. This is especially true when it comes to her horns. But despite that, Hiro considers her horns an attractive feature since he did call them "alluring" in his mind.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:G-L]]
* GoodThingYouCanHeal: Played for drama. [[spoiler:In Episode 13 she was subjected to horrible experiments so that the scientists can (presumably) collect data about the klaxosaurs.]]
* HalfHumanHybrid: Is partially klaxosaur somehow. [[spoiler:Episode 19 reveals her klaxo-sapien side comes from her being a clone of the Klaxosaur Princess. Additionally, Episode 17 reveals that, like other hybrid species such as ligers and mules, she's unable to reproduce.]]
* HandyFeet: In episode 8, she demonstrates this skill. Zero Two sneaks into the boys' bathing quarters to steal their clothes. She also traipses around barefoot in lieu of her usual boots and socks (either to give make her footsteps quiet enough to go unnoticed or, more likely, because it's common courtesy in Japanese culture that you have bare feet or at the very least socks only in a bathing area to not track in grime). Hiro gives chase after her, and Zero Two catches him by surprise by doing something absurd - using her toes to swipe [[ModestyTowel the towel draped around his loins]] before he can even react, and then gives him a smug and mischevious giggle as she mockingly waves it in front of him.
* HeadbuttOfLove: In the fourth episode, she touches Hiro's forehead with her horns to show affection.
* HealingFactor: It's revealed in Episode 13 that she has the power to heal her own injuries.
* HeelRealization: In Episode 13 [[spoiler: learning that Hiro was the boy she loved all along causes her to realize that everything she's done - at least since arriving at Plantation 13 - has been pointless]].
-->'''Zero Two''': [[spoiler: Hey, were you my Darling from back then? ''Then what have I been doing all this time?'']]
** It continues in Episode 14 [[spoiler: as she's barred from interacting with Hiro, forcing her to confront all the times she had acted callously or manipulative to Hiro with the hindsight of knowing that he was the very person she thought she was doing this for all along and that Hiro, as a teen, honestly cared for her the entire time.]]
* [[TheHeroDies The Heroine Dies]]: [[spoiler:She and Hiro meet their ends in Episode 24. Fortunately, it's heavily implied that the two have reincarnated as human children.]]
* HeroicResolve: In Episode 20, [[spoiler:she goes after the Klaxosaur Princess after she gets whipped out of Strelizia. Her drive to save her OneTrueLove keeps her going even as she's losing a dangerous amount of blood from the fall.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: In Episode 21, in order to force the VIRM to retreat, she injects a large portion of her soul into Strelizia, with the very, ''very'' small portion of her soul still left leaving her a nearly-catatonic, barely responsive EmptyShell while the majority of her soul powers Strelizia in its one-man war against the VIRM. After Hiro joins her in Strelizia, they leave Earth forever, sacrificing themselves to destroy VIRM's homeworld and free all their imprisoned souls.]]
* HiddenDepths:
** Zero Two seems to only care about herself, so much so that even when Hiro is dying, it seems like she can't be brought to care when Ichigo demands she take it easy on him. That having been said, she has deep insecurities about [[BerserkButton not being human]], and in private she gives Hiro an out, though naturally he refuses. Also, [[HurtingHero she's very lonely]] and seems to have been desperate for someone to love her. Also, though she hates it when other people bring up the fact she's not human, she can be very self-depreciating about it herself.
** Zero Two turns out to be quite the good artist, and even made a perfect recreation of the images from her picture book.
* HornedHumanoid: Has small, but prominent red horns on her head, probably as a result of being a [[HalfHumanHybrid part-klaxosaur]]. [[spoiler:Her horns were much longer and more prominent when she was younger.]]
** [[spoiler: The end of episode 14 reveals that her horns have started growing again, and by episode 15 they've grown into full-on ''antlers''.]]
* HunterOfHisOwnKind: She has klaxosaur blood, and yet is [=APE=]'s best klaxosaur killer. [[spoiler:This is because they've told her that if she kills enough of them she could become human.]]
%%* IAmNotAGun:
* IAmAMonster: As much as she hates people calling her a monster, she calls herself one at times in a self-deprecating tone. This problem escalates in Episode 12, to the point that [[RageAgainstTheReflection she wildly shatters every mirror in sight]]. It only gets worse later on, where she comes to consider herself a monster not for a what she is, but for [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the horrible things she has done.]]
* IAmNotLeftHanded: In episode 3, Mitsuru pilots Strelizia with her and starts raving about the PowerHigh it brings him, offering to become her official partner. At this, Zero Two decides she can go all out purely to spite him; Mitsuru comes out of the experience [[BreakTheHaughty badly injured and traumatized]].
* IJustWantToBeNormal: In episode 8, she gets in on the fight between the boys and the girls because she thinks it will make her more like a human. [[spoiler:This is because, as a child, she realized that she couldn't be with Hiro since they weren't the same.]]
* IngestingKnowledge: Actually ate her [[spoiler: picture book when she was a kid]]. However, it wasn't so she gain any knowledge but so she won't [[spoiler: forget Hiro when they were kids]].
* InsistentTerminology: She calls Hiro her "darling" because that's what she wants to call him. [[spoiler:He taught her it in the past.]]
* InternalizedCategorism: She completely ''loathes'' herself and other klaxosaur for being a "monster."
* InterspeciesRomance: Between her, a klaxosaur-human hybrid, and Hiro, a human. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] once Hiro became part Klaxosaur as well]].
* {{Irony}}:
** Spends the first half of the series thinking that since she's not human, Squad 13 will never accept her, so she shouldn't even bother trying to be nice to them or show consideration for their lives. She fails to realize that said behavior is exactly what makes her monstrous in their eyes. Hiro and the others eventually [[WhatTheHellHero call her out on it]]. After [[spoiler:she and Hiro confess their love and she is officially accepted by Squad 13]], she admits that she got it all backwards.
** At the worst point of her SanitySlippage in Episode 12 [[spoiler: she nearly drains Hiro in her pursuit to become human and reunite with her original darling, driven by the belief that he had already rejected her out of fear; not only was Hiro fearing for her rather than her but, as Episode 13 reveals, Hiro '''is''' her original darling.]]
* LackOfEmpathy: Zero Two doesn't display any concern for the lives of any pilot besides Hiro, because she thinks of them the same she thinks of herself. That is, they are all meant to live and die fighting klaxosaurs, [[AMillionIsAStatistic so in the bigger picture it doesn't matter if they die today or tomorrow]]. [[spoiler: Early into episode 14, it's clear that she really ''has'' come to care about the other pilots in Squad 13 and feels guilty for betraying their trust, but stubbornly wills herself to keep displaying no empathy for them and to outwardly insist that she never considered them TrueCompanions, just temporary allies. Thankfully, this facade shatters in the following two episodes.]]
* LadyInRed: While far from a ProperLady, in all other ways she fits this trope to a T. She wears primarily red uniforms and pilot suits, she has a very strong personality, her demeanor suggests sexual liberation, and she's seen as both dangerous and alluring by the other (male) characters.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Episode 14 in a nutshell was this for her. [[spoiler:Her actions towards Hiro and her squad over her desire to become more human to meet her original "darling" leads to not only the one person who was willing to accept her for her monstrous self rejecting her, but also splitting up the only squad that came to accept her fully as well.]]
* LaserGuidedTykebomb: APE's created Zero Two to be this. [[spoiler:As a clone of the Klaxosaur Princess, they planned to use her to activate Star Entity and wipe out the klaxosaurs.]]
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: She becomes one [[spoiler:for Hiro]]. To put it bluntly, [[spoiler:Hiro cannot function without her, and he is willing to face the VIRM ''all by himself'' after she becomes an EmptyShell in Episode 21.]]
* LoveConfession: [[spoiler: Tearfully and happily gives one to Hiro in Strelizia in episode 15, which he reciprocates to the amusement and happiness of Squad 13.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:M-S]]
* ManicPixieDreamGirl
* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Masculine girl to Hiro's feminine boy. While neither of them have the looks associated with this trope, their interactions are a blatant inversion of gender stereotypes: Zero Two is assertive and confident while Hiro gets easily depressed and is plagued by self-doubt. In a sense, Zero Two was the one that "rescued" Hiro when he needed help.
* MeaningfulName: See StealthPun.
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Her outlook on life reflects this and why she doesn't bother with a name. They're all meant to fight and die, so why bother when all that will be left is a statistic?
* MissedHimByThatMuch: [[spoiler:In Episode 12, Zero Two reveals that she's searching for her original "darling". But given the fragments of Hiro's memories and various other bits of {{Foreshadowing}}, Zero Two is unaware that her first "darling" and her current "darling" are one and the same. She finally becomes aware at the end of the following episode, however.]]
* MsFanservice: She has a well-built body that she has no problems showing off, whether it be naked or in a LatexSpaceSuit, and everything she does seems to be part of an attempt to make everyone around her sexually uncomfortable.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Her tear-stained face alone ''screams'' this at the end of Episode 13 when she figures out Hiro is her Darling from her childhood. Episode 14 confirms that she's shaken up about all the things she has said and done to him, and even somewhat for betraying the rest of her squad. In episode 15 we see that she's downright afraid to touch him, because she considers herself a monster and doesn't think she deserve forgiveness after what she's done]].
* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Repeatedly invades the personal space of people that catch her interest, getting her face uncomfortably close to theirs and even licking their cheeks for reasons known only by herself, or to get her point across. [[spoiler: This might have stemmed from her childhood, when Hiro licked her knee to disinfect a wound.]]
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Zero Two always keeps people at arm's length with [[{{Troll}} mocking humor]], [[AMillionIsAStatistic nihilism]], and [[LackOfEmpathy emotional detachment]]. She never shows remorse for this, [[spoiler: until after Episode 14. Her actions upon learning who Hiro really was lead to what she believes is a deserved rejection from him. After this, she is so [[DespairEventHorizon distraught]] she can't look him in the face, weeping and recoiling when he sees her again]].
* OfficialCouple: In Episode 15, [[spoiler:she and Hiro become this]].
* OneTrueLove: Much like the ''Jian'' bird from Chinese mythology, she [[spoiler:and Hiro]] serve as each other's wings. [[spoiler:Going as far back as when they tried to escape APE's facility as children, Hiro was the only boy who admired and loved her for who she is, WartsAndAll. [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Their short time together as children made an impact on Zero Two]] and, as Episode 12 reveals, she spent much of her life looking to reunite with her original "darling", the boy she loved and missed. When she finds out Hiro was her "darling" all along in Episode 13, she becomes distraught over her actions before the two make up for their mistakes in Episode 15. Since then, the two have shown unconditional love for one another and know that their bond can overcome whatever obstacle fate throws at them.]]
* {{Oni}}: Some of her motif are based on the mountain beast. While her horns is obvious, she wears red which is often the standard color of onis. Her behavior is also more beastly at time. There's also been visual hints that she may have a more monstrous form. And lastly, her codename can be read as O-NI. [[spoiler:Then in Episode 12, her true form is revealed to have red skin, which is a common characteristic of onis.]]
* OralFixation: She's constantly sucking on lollipops.
* PhotographicMemory: In Episode 16, she's able to accurately recreate the illustrations of the picture book from her childhood. Hiro lampshades this by remarking how incredible it is that she could remember all of it.
* PinocchioSyndrome: Practically confirmed in Episode 12, where the reason why Zero Two wants to kill as much klaxosaurs as possible is because she believes that if she kills enough, she can become fully human. [[spoiler:The fact that she's becoming more and more like a klaxosaur instead however, drives her into a state of despair and rage.]]
* PowerLimiter: Her headband seems to serve as such to some degree. When Ichigo knocks it off in Episode 5, her [[RedEyesTakeWarning eyes]] and horns start glowing bright red.
* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler: Just like with Hiro, the adults attempted to wipe her memories after she was recaptured. They weren't entirely successful however, because according to them "something strong was protecting [her]", thus she was able to retain coherent (albeit fragmented) memories of her brief time with Hiro.]]
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Red pupils, to be exact. When Zero Two got angry with Ichigo, she seemed as scared of the red-eyed demonic creature in front of her as she was of the klaxosaurs that almost killed her. [[spoiler: Her eyes then glow red again when she flies into a rage after thinking that the rest of Plantation 13 deceived her when she finally gets to visit Hiro]].
* RedIsHeroic: Her main color scheme is red and she's an anti-hero.
* RedOniBlueOni: Red Oni to Hiro's Blue. As her ColorMotif indicates, she is unruly, passionate and intense. Her "Darling" is collected, soft-spoken and prone to self-loathing when he feels he failed in his only purpose in life.
* {{Reincarnation}}: [[spoiler:Episode 24 heavily implies that she and Hiro were reincarnated as human children, as it shows a pink-haired girl playing with a boy under a cherry blossom tree.]]
* ReincarnationRomance: [[spoiler:She and Hiro die in the final battle, as they sacrifice themselves to stop the VIRM. Centuries later, their souls return to Earth and become reborn as humans, where they meet each other again as kids. With the strong implication they will restart their romance, it's crystal clear that not even death can separate her from Hiro.]]
* RescueRomance: Forms a [[PuppyLove childish]] version of this [[spoiler: with Hiro when they were younger. This becomes the basis of their ''actual'' romance when they recover their memories]].
* RookieMaleExperiencedFemale: She is an experienced pilot who fought many battles, while Hiro is a complete rookie like all the other pilots in the team.
* RuleOfThree: Before Hiro, every pilot who served as her partner could only do so three times before dying.
* SanitySlippage: As her transformation progresses she becomes more violent and hostile towards others, even Hiro. [[spoiler: Her discovery that Hiro is her [[ForgottenChildhoodFriend original darling]] after the things she said to him, as well as Hiro calling her a monster after she attacked the rest of Squad 13, pushed her even further over the edge. By the time they reunite in Episode 15 (which was ony a few days after they were separated, at most), she's burned through an entire squad of partners and her horns have grown into twisted tree-like shapes.]]
* SexForSolace: Her reaction to Hiro's confession in Episode 12 to straddle him and start to undress herself. When he rejects her advances, she gets annoyed. It may have been because it would have been easier [[spoiler: to kill him]] if he just wanted her for her body...
* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: She clearly doesn't mind whether she's wearing clothes or not, judging how she doesn't even bat an eye about Hiro seeing her naked and instead [[{{Troll}} picks on him]] [[AccidentalPervert for holding her panties.]]
* ShellShockedVeteran: She arguably was this from the beginning, [[spoiler:but Episode 18 makes it crystal clear that her past is taking its toll on her. She feels guilty over her past actions and starts having nightmares over the stamens she had consumed.]]
* ShesGotLegs: Her long legs are accentuated by her tights.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Once she takes a liking to Hiro, she decides that he and ''only he'' can be her partner. No one else will do.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Falls for the kind, heroic TeamDad Hiro who was the first person to [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe treat her kindly]].
* SmugSmiler: Flashes these all the time. Especially to Ichigo.
* TheSocialDarwinist: She casually refers to Hiro's squad as "weakling[=s=]" who he should leave behind.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: In the manga.]]
* SpiritualAntithesis: She is what Rei would be like as a HotBlooded ActionGirl who defies orders [[spoiler:and both are clones of an authority of an enemy race with some human blood]].
* StarCrossedLovers: [[spoiler:With Hiro.]]
* StealthPun: If one was to use the [[GoroawaseNumber naming conventions]] of the other characters for Zero Two, her name would translate to "{{Oni}}". Given her [[HornedHumanoid horns]] and [[{{Troll}} personality]], it would actually be very fitting. [[spoiler:In a flashback, Hiro even mentions Oni as a potential name for Zero Two before discarding it.]]
* SuperStrength: She manages to bat a grown man away with a wave of her arm and jump the length of a room in a single bound.
* SweetTooth: ''Drowns'' her food in honey, nauseating Miku. And is always eating lollipops.
** In episode 13, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Hiro introduced her to sweets as a child. The {{Squee}} she lets out upon first tasting candy is the stuff of legend.]]
* {{Synchronization}}: [[spoiler:She becomes linked to Strelizia following Episode 21, and wounds spontaneously form on her body whenever Strelizia takes damage, even though Strelizia is literally millions of miles away.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:T-Z]]
* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:With Hiro in the aftermath of Episode 24's final battle.]]
* TookALevelInCheerfulness: By episode 16, [[spoiler:not only has she reunited with her Darling, but she also finally understood what "being human" really means. That is, living together with other humans, helping each other while also being true to their feelings.]] Thanks to this discovery, she becomes much more friendly and cheerful.
* {{Troll}}: Clearly gets off on making Hiro, and pretty much everyone around her for that matter, highly uncomfortable for her own pleasure.
* UptightLovesWild: With Hiro as the Uptight and Zero Two as the Wild. She seems to have "break every rule set by the adults" as her hobby, while Hiro is quiet and obedient. More creepily, both of them have a cynical outlook on life, but while Zero Two freely talks about how much she hates their society, Hiro tends to blame himself whenever things go wrong, lacking the self-initiative to question the status quo he was born into.
* UsingYouAllAlong: [[spoiler:When Hiro gives her his LoveConfession, she responds that he's nothing but fodder to her, a means of becoming human and eventually reuniting with her ''real'' darling. When she later finds out he ''is'' her original darling, she is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone absolutely distraught]] over the fact that she'd been degrading and manipulating the first person she'd ever loved all along.]]
* VampiricDraining: When she pilots, her partner is subjected to this. No one aside from Hiro lasts for more than three times due to the toll it takes on their bodies as a result.
* VetinariJobSecurity: Despite her erratic rule-breaking and BlackWidow tendencies, the klaxosaur are a great enough threat and she's a great enough pilot that HQ can't afford ''not'' to keep her around or send her out in the field as-needed.
* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: Given how quickly Mitsuru was hospitalized after insulting Hiro... well, let's just say that speaking badly about her darling might not be the most inspired of decisions.
* WalkingTheEarth: [[spoiler:What she wants to do with Hiro now that the two remember their past together]].
* WhatIsThisFeeling: Downplayed. When she agrees to use Strelizia to help save Ichigo and Goro in Episode 9, she seems mildly surprised when she admits she doesn't ''hate'' this. (Considering her [[LonersAreFreaks usual]] [[SocialDarwinist cold]] [[ButForMeItWasTuesday and]] [[AMillionIsAStatistic aloof]] [[LackOfEmpathy demeanor]], learning to not dislike [[spoiler:helping others]] is huge for her.)
* WhatTheHellHero: When Zero Two starts getting a little too obsessed with killing klaxosaurs during a mission in episode 12, Hiro tries to rein her in. However, in the heat of the moment, she ends up choking him, and says things that are heard by the others that heavily imply she was going to kill him like so many of her other copilots in the past. Though the two get some clarifications of their past in episode 13's flashback, the other members of Squad 13 only saw and heard her trying to kill him. Consequently they refuse to let the two see each other, nor will they allow her to take part with her in any further missions lest she kill Hiro like so many other partners in the past.
* WhenSheSmiles: After smiling mysteriously or smugly for the first several episodes, during the Episode 8 "Boys vs Girls" fight she smiles and laughs her heart out in sheer delight from all the fun she's having. It charms Hiro greatly. [[spoiler:She also smiles at him in episode 13 when he starts recalling his past, which was blocked out as punishment for trying to escape with her back then.]]
* WildChild: [[spoiler:As a child, Zero Two had a Oni-like appearance, lack of social skills and was unable to speak, even though she understood with what people said to her. She also behaved like a feral animal, such as like growling, biting other people's hands, and trying to eat or swallow strange things like a paper book and a mouse.]]
* YouAreWhatYouHate: She despises her 'handlers' for treating her like an military asset rather than a person, but she does the same to all pilots except Hiro. Additionally, Episode 12 makes it clear that her hatred for Klaxosaurs stems from the fear of becoming one herself. Her desire to avoid this, however, causes her to act more monstrous.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Has pink hair.
[[/folder]]
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Removing the Expy example since there needs to be confirmation from the creators, and removing the Rei Ayanami expy because of natter and because Zero Two ultimately has very little in common with Rei anyway.
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* {{Expy}}: Of Lum Invader from ''Manga/{{Urusei Yatsura}}''. Both of them have horns, fangs and eyeliner (with Lum's being blue instead of red). Both are romantically obsessed with the protagonist, who they always refer to as "darling". Furthermore, both have a notably disgusting taste in food. Zero Two referring to herself with "boku" is similar to how Lum refers to herself with "uchi". Zero Two's "bye bye" in episode 4 may also be a reference to episode 44 of ''Urusei Yatsura''. In a flashback, Hiro also reads the number "002" as "o-ni"; Oni is the alien species Lum belongs to.
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* ReiAyanamiExpy: While her personality is very little like Rei's, she nonetheless has similarities to the character. [[spoiler:Just like how Rei is half-Angel, Zero Two is half-Klaxasaur]]. Both are ShamelessFanserviceGirl, both are ApocalypseMaiden, both are the experienced female half of a RookieMaleExperiencedFemale team, etc. They also both met the male protagonist as very young children, were separated from him for many years, and finally reunited with him, which of course leads to InterspeciesRomance and ChildhoodFriendRomance.
** TOTALLY AVERTED. Except [[spoiler:their alien-human hybrid condition with apocalypse maiden profile]]they share no common traits. Rei and Shinji NEVER MET as very young children(where that comes from?), so of course they NEVER were separated for many years (their first encounter takes place in the 1st episode of the series)and after the 6th episode Ayanami gets relegated to a totally secondary role in benefit of the german newcomer. Asuka gets most of the shared screentime and relationship dynamics with the protagonist and after the revelation of Rei being [[spoiler:a clone of Shinji's mother]] any chance of romantic relationship is crushed. And we better don't talk about End Of Evangelion, where the relationship between Shinji and Asuka is, from the beginning to the END (until the last second) one of engines of the story. So neither in personality, looks or relationship with the main character shares anything in common with Ayanam. Quite the the opposite.
** TOTALLY AVERTED. Except [[spoiler:their alien-human hybrid condition with apocalypse maiden profile]]they share no common traits. Rei and Shinji NEVER MET as very young children(where that comes from?), so of course they NEVER were separated for many years (their first encounter takes place in the 1st episode of the series)and after the 6th episode Ayanami gets relegated to a totally secondary role in benefit of the german newcomer. Asuka gets most of the shared screentime and relationship dynamics with the protagonist and after the revelation of Rei being [[spoiler:a clone of Shinji's mother]] any chance of romantic relationship is crushed. And we better don't talk about End Of Evangelion, where the relationship between Shinji and Asuka is, from the beginning to the END (until the last second) one of engines of the story. So neither in personality, looks or relationship with the main character shares anything in common with Ayanam. Quite the the opposite.
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** TOTALLY AVERTED. Except [[spoiler:their alien-human hybrid condition with apocalypse maiden profile]]they share no common traits. Rei and Shinji NEVER MET as very young children, they NEVER were separated for many years (their first encounter take place in the 1st episode)and after the 6th episode Ayanami gets relegated to a totally secondary role in benefit of the german newcomer. Asuka gets most of the shared screentime and relationship dynamics with the protagonist and after the revelation of Rei being [[spoiler:a clone of Shinji's mother]] any chance of romantic relationship is destroyed. And we better don't talk about End Of Evangelion, where the relationship between Shinji and Asuka is, from the beginning to the END (until the last second) one of engines of the story. So neither in personality, looks or relationship with the main character shares anything in common with Ayanami.
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** TOTALLY AVERTED. Except [[spoiler:their alien-human hybrid condition with apocalypse maiden profile]]they share no common traits. Rei and Shinji NEVER MET as very young children, children(where that comes from?), so of course they NEVER were separated for many years (their first encounter take takes place in the 1st episode)and episode of the series)and after the 6th episode Ayanami gets relegated to a totally secondary role in benefit of the german newcomer. Asuka gets most of the shared screentime and relationship dynamics with the protagonist and after the revelation of Rei being [[spoiler:a clone of Shinji's mother]] any chance of romantic relationship is destroyed.crushed. And we better don't talk about End Of Evangelion, where the relationship between Shinji and Asuka is, from the beginning to the END (until the last second) one of engines of the story. So neither in personality, looks or relationship with the main character shares anything in common with Ayanami.Ayanam. Quite the the opposite.
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Changed line(s) 139 (click to see context) from:
** TOTALLY AVERTED. Except [[spoiler:their alien-human hybrid condition with apocalypse maiden profile]]they share no common traits. Rei and Shinji NEVER MET as very young children, they NEVER were separated for many years (their first encounter take place in the 1st episode)and after the 6th episode Ayanami gets relegated to a totally secondary role in benefit of the german newcomer. Asuka gets most of the shared screentime and relationship dynamics with the protagonist and after the revelation of Rei being [[spoiler:a clone of Shinji's mother]] any chance of romantic relationship is destroyed. And we better don't talk about End Of Evangelion, where the relationship betwenn Shinji and Asuka is, from the beginning to the END (until the last second) one of engines of the story.
to:
** TOTALLY AVERTED. Except [[spoiler:their alien-human hybrid condition with apocalypse maiden profile]]they share no common traits. Rei and Shinji NEVER MET as very young children, they NEVER were separated for many years (their first encounter take place in the 1st episode)and after the 6th episode Ayanami gets relegated to a totally secondary role in benefit of the german newcomer. Asuka gets most of the shared screentime and relationship dynamics with the protagonist and after the revelation of Rei being [[spoiler:a clone of Shinji's mother]] any chance of romantic relationship is destroyed. And we better don't talk about End Of Evangelion, where the relationship betwenn between Shinji and Asuka is, from the beginning to the END (until the last second) one of engines of the story.story. So neither in personality, looks or relationship with the main character shares anything in common with Ayanami.
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**TOTALLY AVERTED. Except [[spoiler:their alien-human hybrid condition with apocalypse maiden profile]]they share no common traits. Rei and Shinji NEVER MET as very young children, they NEVER were separated for many years (their first encounter take place in the 1st episode)and after the 6th episode Ayanami gets relegated to a totally secondary role in benefit of the german newcomer. Asuka gets most of the shared screentime and relationship dynamics with the protagonist and after the revelation of Rei being [[spoiler:a clone of Shinji's mother]] any chance of romantic relationship is destroyed. And we better don't talk about End Of Evangelion, where the relationship betwenn Shinji and Asuka is, from the beginning to the END (until the last second) one of engines of the story.
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* RuleOfThree: Before Hiro, every pilot who served as her partner could only do so three times before dying.
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* {{Expy}}: Of Lum Invader from ''Manga/{{Urusei Yatsura}}''. Both of them have horns, fangs and eyeliner (with Lum's being blue instead of red). Both are romantically obsessed with the protagonist, who they always refer to as "darling". Zero Two's "bye bye" in episode 4 may also be a reference to episode 44 of ''Urusei Yatsura''. In a flashback, Hiro also reads the number "002" as "o-ni"; Oni is the alien species Lum belongs to.
to:
* {{Expy}}: Of Lum Invader from ''Manga/{{Urusei Yatsura}}''. Both of them have horns, fangs and eyeliner (with Lum's being blue instead of red). Both are romantically obsessed with the protagonist, who they always refer to as "darling". Furthermore, both have a notably disgusting taste in food. Zero Two referring to herself with "boku" is similar to how Lum refers to herself with "uchi". Zero Two's "bye bye" in episode 4 may also be a reference to episode 44 of ''Urusei Yatsura''. In a flashback, Hiro also reads the number "002" as "o-ni"; Oni is the alien species Lum belongs to.
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*{{Expy}}: Of Lum Invader from ''Manga/{{Urusei Yatsura}}''. Both of them have horns, fangs and eyeliner (with Lum's being blue instead of red). Both are romantically obsessed with the protagonist, who they always refer to as "darling". Zero Two's "bye bye" in episode 4 may also be a reference to episode 44 of ''Urusei Yatsura''. In a flashback, Hiro also reads the number "002" as "o-ni"; Oni is the alien species Lum belongs to.
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* TheSouthpaw: Zero Two is left-handed, as revealed when [[https://i.redd.it/v5ahwyqlquy01.png she's in the middle of drawing]].
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* ReiAyanamiExpy: While she serves as a SpiritualAntithesis to Rei, she nonetheless has similarities to the character. [[spoiler:Just like how Rei is a clone of Lilith, Zero Two is revealed to be a clone of the Klaxasaur Princess]]. They are also both seen as the odd ones out in their respective squads, and both try to further understand human nature over the course of their respective series.
to:
* ReiAyanamiExpy: While she serves as a SpiritualAntithesis to Rei, her personality is very little like Rei's, she nonetheless has similarities to the character. [[spoiler:Just like how Rei is a clone of Lilith, half-Angel, Zero Two is revealed to be a clone of half-Klaxasaur]]. Both are ShamelessFanserviceGirl, both are ApocalypseMaiden, both are the Klaxasaur Princess]]. experienced female half of a RookieMaleExperiencedFemale team, etc. They are also both seen as met the odd ones out in their respective squads, male protagonist as very young children, were separated from him for many years, and both try to further understand human nature over the finally reunited with him, which of course of their respective series.leads to InterspeciesRomance and ChildhoodFriendRomance.
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* AMillionIsAStatistic: Her outlook on life reflects this and why she doesn't bother with a name. They're all meant to fight and die, so why bother when all that will be left is a statistic?
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* AnimalMotifs: As stated below, she is somewhat compared to spiders; partly because of how it seems she has ensnared Hiro, and partly because of the whole BlackWidow schtick. However, both she and Hiro are also compared to a mythical bird which cannot fly unless it has a partner, which characterizes their relationship.
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* AnimalMotifs: As stated below, she is somewhat compared to spiders; partly because of how it seems she has ensnared Hiro, and partly because of the whole BlackWidow schtick.shtick. However, both she and Hiro are also compared to a mythical bird which cannot fly unless it has a partner, which characterizes their relationship.
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* BerserkButton: Best not to comment on how she's not human. Also, given how quickly Mitsuru was hospitalized after insulting Hiro... well, let's just say that speaking badly about her darling might not be the most inspired of decisions.
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* BerserkButton: Best not to comment on how she's not human. Also, given how quickly Mitsuru was hospitalized after insulting Hiro... well, let's just say that speaking badly about her darling might not be the most inspired of decisions.
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* AMillionIsAStatistic: Her outlook on life reflects this and why she doesn't bother with a name. They're all meant to fight and die, so why bother when all that will be left is a statistic?
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* RedIsHeroic: Her main color scheme is red and she's an anti-hero.
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* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Falls for the kind, heroic TeamDad Hiro who was the first person to [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe treat her kindly]].
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* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: Given how quickly Mitsuru was hospitalized after insulting Hiro... well, let's just say that speaking badly about her darling might not be the most inspired of decisions.
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* BarefootLoon: In Episode 8. When she gets in the middle of the boys vs. girls feud, a naughty streak is awakened in Zero Two and during the height of it, she runs around barefoot like a giddy child (mainly because she sneaks into a bathing room and you're not supposed to use footwear in one). When she gets caught, she is unabashed about using her lack of footwear to her advantage, stealing Hiro's ModestyTowel with her toes and showing off her skill with unencumbered feet by nimbly leaping all around the dormitory (and even the rooftops and a nearby tree) like a parkour maniac. However, after she gets scolded and the zeal of being impish wears off, Zero Two remembers she can't afford to act foolish after the horrible experiences she's had with [[spoiler:former pilots]] and tucks her feet into slippers, signifying that her childish side has been beaten back.
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* BarefootLoon: In Episode 8. When she gets in the middle of the boys vs. girls feud, a naughty streak is awakened in Zero Two and during the height of it, she runs around barefoot like a giddy child (mainly because she sneaks into a bathing room and you're not supposed to use footwear in one). When she gets caught, she is unabashed about using her lack of footwear to her advantage, stealing Hiro's ModestyTowel with her toes and showing off her skill with unencumbered feet by nimbly leaping all around the dormitory (and even the rooftops and a nearby tree) like a parkour maniac. However, after she gets scolded and the zeal of being impish wears off, Zero Two remembers she can't afford to act foolish after the horrible experiences she's had with [[spoiler:former pilots]] and tucks her feet into slippers, signifying that her childish side has been beaten back. This trait might come from [[spoiler:the person she was cloned from.]]
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* BarefootCaptives: [[spoiler:She was held this way in her childhood.]]
* BarefootLoon: In Episode 8. When she gets in the middle of the boys vs. girls feud, a naughty streak is awakened in Zero Two and during the height of it, she runs around barefoot like a giddy child (mainly because she sneaks into a bathing room and you're not supposed to use footwear in one). When she gets caught, she is unabashed about using her lack of footwear to her advantage, stealing Hiro's ModestyTowel with her toes and showing off her skill with unencumbered feet by nimbly leaping all around the dormitory (and even the rooftops and a nearby tree) like a parkour maniac. However, after she gets scolded and the zeal of being impish wears off, Zero Two remembers she can't afford to act foolish after the horrible experiences she's had with [[spoiler:former pilots]] and tucks her feet into slippers, signifying that her childish side has been beaten back.
* BarefootLoon: In Episode 8. When she gets in the middle of the boys vs. girls feud, a naughty streak is awakened in Zero Two and during the height of it, she runs around barefoot like a giddy child (mainly because she sneaks into a bathing room and you're not supposed to use footwear in one). When she gets caught, she is unabashed about using her lack of footwear to her advantage, stealing Hiro's ModestyTowel with her toes and showing off her skill with unencumbered feet by nimbly leaping all around the dormitory (and even the rooftops and a nearby tree) like a parkour maniac. However, after she gets scolded and the zeal of being impish wears off, Zero Two remembers she can't afford to act foolish after the horrible experiences she's had with [[spoiler:former pilots]] and tucks her feet into slippers, signifying that her childish side has been beaten back.
Deleted line(s) 65,67 (click to see context) :
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Played with in Episode 8. When she gets in the middle of the boys vs. girls feud, a naughty streak is awakened in Zero Two and during the height of it, she runs around barefoot like a giddy child (mainly because she sneaks into a bathing room and you're not supposed to use footwear in one). When she gets caught, she is unabashed about using her lack of footwear to her advantage to steal Hiro's towel and show off her skill with unencumbered feet by nimbly leaping all around the dormitory and even the rooftops and a nearby tree like a parkour maniac, but after she gets scolded and the zeal of being impish wears off, Zero Two remembers she can't afford to act foolish after the horrible experiences she's had with [[spoiler:former pilots]] and tucks her feet into slippers, signifying that her childish side has been beaten back.
** [[spoiler:She is also shown to be barefoot in her childhood.]]
** [[spoiler:Apparently, she gets it from the Klaxosaur Princess, who she's a clone of.]]
** [[spoiler:She is also shown to be barefoot in her childhood.]]
** [[spoiler:Apparently, she gets it from the Klaxosaur Princess, who she's a clone of.]]
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* HandyFeet: In episode 8, she demonstrates this skill. Zero Two sneaks into the boys' bathing quarters to steal their clothes. She also traipses around barefoot in lieu of her usual boots and socks (either to give make her footsteps quiet enough to go unnoticed or, more likely, because it's common courtesy in Japanese culture that you have bare feet or at the very least socks only in a bathing area to not track in grime). Hiro gives chase after her, and Zero Two catches him by surprise by doing something absurd- using her toes to swipe [[ModestyTowel the towel draped around his loins]] before he can even react, and then gives him a smug and mischevious giggle as she mockingly waves it in front of him.
to:
* HandyFeet: In episode 8, she demonstrates this skill. Zero Two sneaks into the boys' bathing quarters to steal their clothes. She also traipses around barefoot in lieu of her usual boots and socks (either to give make her footsteps quiet enough to go unnoticed or, more likely, because it's common courtesy in Japanese culture that you have bare feet or at the very least socks only in a bathing area to not track in grime). Hiro gives chase after her, and Zero Two catches him by surprise by doing something absurd- absurd - using her toes to swipe [[ModestyTowel the towel draped around his loins]] before he can even react, and then gives him a smug and mischevious giggle as she mockingly waves it in front of him.
