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Lina Inverse

Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara (Japanese), Lisa Ortiz (English; series), Cynthia Martinez (English; movies), Jhaidy Barboza (Latin American Spanish), Marta Sáinz (European Spanish), Veronique Uzureau (French), Matina Karras (Greek)

"You made two mistakes: you killed a lot of people to achieve your goals; and you picked a fight with ME."

Our beloved Anti-Hero, Lina is a young Black Magician Girl from the land of Zephilia. She is known throughout the world as the "Queen of Destruction", "Dragon Spooker" (because she can apparently frighten dragons to the point that they side step her "out of sheer revulsion" - which actually does happen in the pilot) and "Enemy of All Living Things" due to her short temper and skill with Dragon Slaves. Lina usually pursues power and riches for herself, but gets dragged into saving the world along the way.

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• Action Girl: She left a path of devastation wherever she went, kicking the collective arses of everyone between her and whatever goal she was pursuing at the time.
• A-Cup Angst: Lina does NOT like to be reminded of her small bust. This one's more of a case of flat-out Breast Envy than anything regarding a flat chest — compared to many flat chested characters, she is rather ample but it's understandable though when you consider the amount of time she spent hanging around Naga prior to the series proper. Amelia certainly didn't help matters any.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Lina is more famously recognized as a sorceress with flaming orange hair as depicted in the TV series, but in illustrations of the original novels, as well as in the OVA's and movies, her hair appears more auburn than red/orange. Over time, re-releases of the novels as well as newer manga series in the franchise have chosen to depict Lina as a redhead. Interestingly though, the fact Lina's hair was originally a reddish-brown hasn't been completely forgotten in media, since as recent as 2018, newly done illustrations and pieces of merchandise commemorating the earlier installments of Slayers have featured an auburn Lina, and at least one figure of Lina was made with both an "auburn" and "redhead" option.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Lina in the novels could be greedy and had a bit of a temper but didn't really dish out Disproportionate Retribution by throwing spells towards random villagers for minor slights. In the anime, particularly during TRY, she can be much more sociopathic and borderline abusive towards her own friends and even total strangers who, for whatever their faults, didn't deserve to have Lina ruin their day with a spell.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Lina was one of these to her older sister Luna... at least, until she used her magic to sell pictures of Luna in the bath, after which she learned a healthy respect for Luna (more like terror of her) and never crossed her again.
• Anti-Hero: Compared to Amelia, who's all about justice, she's all about the treasure and food.
• Badass Adorable: In her own words "The beautiful sorcery genius, Lina Inverse!"
• Badass Bookworm: She doesn't call herself the sorcery genius simply to pat herself on the back; she's infamous across the world not only for being among the best sorcerers alive (to the point of memorizing spells unknown or forbidden) but she exhibits being so well-versed across a variety of subjects from swordsmanship and bar brawling to geography and the sciences of the Slayers universe.
• Balloon Belly: Happens on occasion in the anime, but never to particularly noticeable levels... despite the sheer quantity of food she can put away.
• Berserk Button: Lina has many (see Hair-Trigger Temper), but the one most guaranteed to piss her off is any mention of her small (in comparison to everyone else) chest.
• Big Eater: Lina's primary defining vice can be said to be gluttony. She regularly eats, in each meal, enough food for at least three or four people... and often tries to steal food from her friends' plates while she's eating. It's justifiable; casting spells in the Slayers setting burns up calories, meaning the more magic a wizard uses (and the more powerful the spells), the more food they need to eat. Lina's tendency towards flashy, high-powered spells at the slightest provocation is fuel to the fire.
• Black Mage: Lina's self-proclaimed specialty is in the usage of Black Magic. She still fits under this trope because the Slayers take on such magic is somewhere between Black Mage magic and Black Magic proper — that is, though the magic is fueled by negative emotions and is drawn from the most powerful Demon Lords, it's treated by humans as simply "magic that is only usable for offense", much like how White Magic is "magic only usable for healing, defense, and purification".
• Catchphrase: "Ichika bachika!" ("Do, or die!") and the Dragon Slave incantation.
• Chekhov's Skill: Lina's exasperated comment in the first book that using a Mazoku's own power against it is like saying "Hey, help me kill you" turns out to be important in the last book, where Luke-Shabranigdo wants to die.
• Costume Evolution: She goes through three similar, but slightly different outfits (one in the prequel OVA and movies, one in Season 1 and one in later seasons). The main changes are the accessories such as boots, gloves and pauldrons; the basic silhouette (form-fitting tunic and pants, and a large cape with Shoulders of Doom) remains constant.
• Cute Little Fangs: While it's a common convention of the art style and thus most characters are drawn with them at one point or another, Lina is almost perpetually depicted with them. Serves both as a trait to show off her energetic pluckiness, as well as her more terrifying streak.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite the fact she has a terrible reputation, and brings it on herself due to her actions, she really isn't evil so much as self-centered, thoughtless, and immature. She definitely isn't a villain.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • She's a big believer in returning threats, insults, and general annoyances with far more serious "punishments", such as blowing up a whole restaurant because somebody split her food.
  • The biggest example was when she blew up some ruins and a mob with a Dragon Slave, because the ruins only contained skimpy idol singer outfits and a book of songs she was misinformed to be an ancient tome of spells. Then she used the Dragon Slave on Martina when she started mocking the singing she did.
• The Dreaded: She's nicknamed "the Dragon-Spooker", "the Bandit-Killer", and "the Natural Enemy of All Who Live". Pretty justified, considering the trail of destruction she leaves behind her and her questionable motivations.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: An Embarrassing Title. Lina was honored by the Zephilia Sorcerers' Guild with the official title of... Lina the Pink.
• Establishing Character Moment: In the opening scene of episode 1, she blows away a bandit gang with her magic, then helps herself to their treasure.
• Fiery Redhead: Has always been a quick-tempered hot-head, but actually started out as more of a brunette; got more orange-y as the anime went on.
• First-Person Smartass: Her narration in the novels is snarky as hell.
• Flanderization: While she is well-meaning, kind (namely to children) and willing to fight for causes, she is also portrayed as being sociopathic and reckless, especially in regards to her magic use and greed. Even with all of her positive traits, it can still be unnerving to see how poorly she treats either regular villagers, Gourry, Amelia, or Sylphiel. In the original novels, she lacks those sociopathic tendencies. Also, later seasons of the TV series have her react like a switch in regards to her small bust line; not so much initially.
• Friendship Denial: Denies that she and Naga are or were friends. Instead she claims that Naga was her sidekick while Naga thinks the other way round.
• Generation Xerox: Her mother was also a sorceress with a small bust, who got together with her swordsman partner.
• Good is Not Nice: She accidentally nuked a village she was trying to save and shrugged it off as nothing.
• Good Parents: As shown, Lina isn't the most morally upstanding member of society, and it is implied that the avatar of goodness, Luna, is even worse. However, her general store-running parents are implied to be kind and upstanding, and it's shown with her father in one of the Slayers Special novels: after testing him, it's he who suggests that Gourry find something or someone important to protect. It's also worth noting that Lina herself is the only one among her allies to have both parents alive and well, a given considering that she is The Protagonist!
• Greed: A defining character trait of hers: gold and food are what drives her.
• Guile Heroine: She blows up minor problems; the bigger ones she outsmarts.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Dear Lord, YES! The only sure-fire ways for her to not be pissed off at you are to A) have some uber-rare item that's worth loads or B) offer her lots of food.
• The Heroine: She's the main good guy but definitely not the traditional type.
• Heroic BSoD: Has a short one in NEXT after Gourry is abducted and brainwashed, and then another when she thinks that she's killed a little girl.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: This is a girl who, in the very first anime episode, blithely starts haggling with the mayor of a village to kill a dragon (which she set loose in the first place, albeit accidentally), while that dragon is tearing the village apart around them. She then vaporizes the village because the dragon deliberately stepped over her, thus proving that a newly discovered nickname given to her (the "Dragon Spooker") was warranted.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Although 'hero' is sometimes stretching it given her habit of picking fights with people over petty reasons, willingness to steal, and her habit of slinging around really des trucetive spells in populated areas with no thought for collateral damage. Lina's been arrested and tried for "being Lina Inverse".
• Hypocritical Humor: Lina forces a boy to pamper her as punishment for trying to pickpocket her. She then makes a comment that stealing is bad and that crime doesn't pay. The others face faulted, commenting she's the last person to say that since she herself steals recklessly from bandit gangs.
• Idiot Hero: While she's not dumb, and she gets overshadowed in this trope by anime!Gourry, she's also one herself as a result of her many flaws, being bratty, self-centered, arrogant, criminally reckless and easy to provoke, in addition to having a crippling fear of slugs.
• Informed Deformity: Lina has a bad reputation, mostly because of her prickly attitude and tendency to destroy everything around her. However, people regularly bring up her flat chest. There is a problem with this. Lina's breasts are hardly flat. In fact, she's typically drawn with what ranges between a B and C cup, and given her petite frame, they're actually very well proportioned. It makes sense that Lina herself might feel inadequate after traveling with Naga the Serpent's scantily clad DD-cups, but it doesn't make much sense for random strangers to think that way. Averted in the OVA, where they really are pretty tiny.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As much of a Jerkass as she can be, she does have a softer side; she keeps Gourry around, once intended to teach Amelia, and after all the terrible things that happened when she and Zelgadis first met they still traveled together as well.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: the Catchphrase "Ichika bachika" means she isn't going to fiddle around with slapstick and fireballs anymore, and will now try heavy magical artillery, dangerous tactics, or a Dragon Slave.
• Living Emotional Crutch: For Gourry. Three instances where it seems Lina will die or disappear forever affect Gourry badly. The third time he actually yells out desperately that he needs her. This is partly justified if you know Gourry's backstory: Gourry was in a sorry place in life until someone convinced him to do something worthwhile with his sword. Being Lina's bodyguard ended up becoming that worthwhile thing.
• Lovable Rogue:
  • In her own mind, first and foremost. In-universe, her avarice and self-centered nature means most think of her as being more just plain annoying.
  • She is more of this in the novels, where she is less reckless in her use of magic and isn't dismissive of people the way she is in the anime.
• Magic Knight: She carries a sword, though her magical power far exceeds her swordplay abilities.
• The Magnificent: Her least well-known name is also the only official one; "Lina the Pink".
• Munchkin: An example of this as a genuine character; NEXT is about finding stronger spells and better tools, mostly because the upcoming threats couldn't be stopped by a simple Dragon Slave.
• Never Gets Fat: She may be a Big Eater, but she still stays actively fit afterwards. Justified in-universe, as spellcasting requires high caloric intake.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The novel illustrator Rui Araizumi has said that Lina's appearance was modeled on young Audrey Hepburn.
• Person of Mass Destruction: "Dragon Slave!" Goodbye town and hello smoking crater.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Her short stature doesn't take away her ability to deal massive damage with her spells.
• Playing with Fire: Aside from pure Black Magic spells, Lina's favorite go-to spells are Fireball, Flame Arrow and, to a lesser extent, Fire Shamanism being her usual choices. Non-anime material even says she has a sorcerer's affinity for spells oriented around heat and light.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: The Giga Slave places such strain on Lina that, after casting it, her hair turns to a silvery shade of platinum blonde for a day.
• Precision F-Strike: From NEXT: "That bitch! She has the nerve to defy me and even brought up my weakest point!"
• Red Baron: Has quite a few, including "The Bandit Killer" and "The Natural Enemy of All That Live". There's also "The Dragon Spooker", and even Lina doesn't understand what that means (it means dragons step past out of clear revulsion). Later in the episode, a dragon does exactly this. A prequel movie includes 'Dragon Nester', which is a crack at her small breasts.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Zelgadis' blue because of her hotbloodness recklessness as compared to his stoicism.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Lina looks attractive in a nice dress. Gourry makes the mistake of lifting her skirt to make sure it was her, earning him a kick to the head.
• Ship Tease: With Gourry via tsundere and Bodyguard Crush moments.
• Skinship Grope: Does this to Amelia in the Hourglass of Falacies fanservice manga when both are asleep.
• Third-Person Person: Occasionally addresses herself by her full name ("the beautiful/smart/talented Lina Inverse").
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: When Lina (normally very tomboyish) tries to charge Zelgadis three million gold pieces for the orihalcon statue, she fantasizes briefly about what she's going to do with this money. Her fantasy involves her in a castle as a princess in a frilly dress. She also looks quite cute when dressing up, as long as the outfit isn't too extravagant. When she put on a lovely blue gown in the first anime, Gourry and Amelia were genuinely surprised to see how nicely Lina can clean up.
• Too Dumb to Live: The group spent an episode trying to catch a lake dragon for food ingredients because Lina wanted to eat dragon cuisine. She was excited to have some, but the chef told her that it will take one to six MONTHS to cook it, since preparing it any other way could be fatal. Lina, however, was impatient and tried to eat some of the raw meat straight up, not caring if she dies because she was hungry. The others were forced to physically drag her out of the restaurant and to the next destination.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Lina is known as the "Dragon Spooker" because dragons would rather avoid her outright than attempt to fight her. In the first episode of the anime, this is demonstrated when a dragon sees her and proceeds to step over her like she was a pile of manure on the road, to her unending chagrin.
• Tsundere: Especially obvious in NEXT where she blushes and stammers when Gourry calls her out and mentions his Bodyguard Crush on her and later when she has a brief but very intense breakdown after he's kidnapped by Phibrizzo.
• The Unchosen One: Her older sister Luna is the chosen Hero, despite Lina being the one battling all of the evil cosmic beings, because Luna doesn't care.
• Unscrupulous Hero: Alternates between this and Nominal Hero. She regularly exhibits behavior that could be considered self-serving and villainous, such as stealing, refusing to help those in need without some promise of a reward, threatening people for imagined slights, and being generally careless about collateral damage, but she also does heroic deeds for their own sake.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • With Gourry, which eventually evolved into Belligerent Sexual Tension despite the author's initial intent.
  • For as much she bickered with Naga, they spent a lot of time traveling together.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The Dragon Slave is a mage's alternative to huge beam cannon.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Slugs and her sister are the only things she's afraid of - and she is absolutely terrified of even the mere mention of them.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child:
  • The mere thought can send her into BSOD's, as it happened in NEXT, when she's attacked by an Undead Child from Sairaag and Lina "kills" her with a knife without looking. Sylphiel has to give the panicking and screaming Lina a Cooldown Hug to calm her down, reminding her that the poor little girl was already dead.
  • This is why she particularly despises Phibrizzo, who is a demon lord and archdevil pretending to be a child.

Gourry Gabriev

Voiced by: Yasunori Matsumoto (Japanese), Eric Stuart (English; series), Chris Patton (English; movies), Juan Carlos Vásquez (Latin American Spanish), Juan Logar, Jr. (European Spanish), Francois Creton (French)

An archetypal example of the Idiot Hero, Gourry is Lina's jellyfish-brained traveling companion. A descendant of the legendary Swordsman of Light, he wields the ancestral weapon. Gourry may have poor memory, but he is an excellent swordsman, and a match against even the powerful demons of the Slayers world. Gourry met Lina by accident, after a somewhat confusing first meeting, and decided to just hang around with her afterwards because he had no place else to go. Lina would never admit it, but she enjoys having him along.

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• Adaptational Dumbass: In the original novels, while he genuinely does not know or choose to remember a lot of topics in regards to magic and magic lore (which makes some sense in hindsight - he's a swordsman), and lacks tact, his "dumbness" is largely a facade that he often uses to tease others. The same can be said on his knowledge of women - he even makes an inappropriate joke to prevent Lina from getting sexually assaulted in the third novel. In the anime, instead, his genuine stupidity gets to the point that his importance to the team is almost entirely relegated to being muscle with a magical weapon, and occasionally Lina's Living Emotional Crutch. Some of the more recent manga adaptations and spin-offs have chosen to scale back on the stupidity, but not by much.
• Affectionate Parody: Of a traditional fantasy hero. In any other story, Gourry would fit right in as the chivalrous hero, but due to the nature of the Slayers world, he's a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass at the best of times and a completely useless Plucky Comic Relief sidekick at the worst of times.
• Alliterative Name: Gourry Gabriev.
• All There in the Manual: Many things about Gourry, including his never-mentioned background, have been spoken by Hajime Kanzaka only in interviews, or show up in obscure pieces of media that were published in magazines that haven't been officially translated. Noteworthy life events include a messed-up family that fought over who should possess the Sword of Light, and then running away at the age of 17 with it and living as a mercenary. Later, when Gourry had become so fed-up with the weapon that he was prepared to throw it away, he met a man who convinced him to instead put it to a good purpose. Shortly after, Gourry ran into Lina, who he would then dedicate the rest of his life to being a guardian for. The man, according to Kanzaka, was Lina's father. Kanzaka also noted that Gourry is capable of casting magic with power rivaling that of Lina's, but his poor and extremely selective memory would prevent him from doing incantations.
• Badass Normal: He doesn't know a single magical spell at all, and is officially too absent-minded to ever learn one, but he is the most powerful swordsman in the known world and therefore capable of fighting monsters and demons.
• Big Eater: Regularly goes toe to toe with Lina when it comes to eating and is just as likely to steal food from her plate as she is to steal food from his. Ironically, while he can't stand the thought of eating fish whole the way Lina does (pointing out in disgust that eating the "guts" the way she does means also eating the grubs she used for bait), he has no problems with eating orc-meat dishes which had Lina gagging in disgust.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Word of God states the reason Gourry became a wandering mercenary was because he'd run away from his family with the Sword of Light in an attempt to stop the in-house feud over who would inherit it. Unfortunately it seems that he wasn't successful and in fact only worsened things; Kanzaka has implied Gourry's entire immediate family is now dead.
• Bodyguard Crush: When they first met he thought Lina was a lost schoolgirl, so he proclaimed himself her bodyguard. The crush came later.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Happens to him at the end of NEXT and lasts about two episodes.
• Butt-Monkey: He becomes this when he either falls into traps or is forced to cross-dress.
• Chick Magnet: He has no trouble attracting women with his good looks. He attracts Lina, Sylphiel, Martina, Nama a.k.a. Naga, Kuppi, Gioconda, and almost every main female character in the show.
• The Confidant: Gourry has grown into this role overtime, especially in the novels but at times in the anime too. When Lina is feeling down or uneasy about something, it's almost always Gourry who steps in to patiently listen to her troubles or give her a confidence boost.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Normally, Gourry is just a bungling moron. If he needs to reveal his skills, he becomes a formitable warrior.
• Deadpan Snarker: In the novels, Gourry has a surprisingly sharp tongue. He was like this in the first season of the anime but then Flanderization hit and this aspect of him now only comes up once in a blue moon.
• Demoted Memories: In the novels, Gourry very pointedly likes to brush off any questions about his past by saying he's forgotten about it. Particularly given that in the novels he's established as mostly Obfuscating Stupidity, it seems to exemplify how much it's something he'd rather not think about or discuss.
• Detachable Blades: Gourry disguises his legendary Sword of Light as a normal sword by keeping its Laser Blade turned off and socketing a common steel blade in its hilt. In a pinch, it can be removed by tapping a needle to a hidden spot on the hilt.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Throughout the series he warns Lina how her schemes could bring unnecessary trouble and tries to convince her that taking the honest path would be far quicker and less stressful. Several times he's proven correct. He also gives advice to Zelgadis and Amelia every once in a while, in particular to control their passionate emotions because its giving the edge to the foes.
• Dumbass No More: In Evolution-R, Gourry is still an idiot, but he's much more alert, intuitive, and all around competent than he is in most of the previous anime seasons (the first being the only exception) when it comes to non-combat situations. He even manages to correctly assert most situations, much to Lina's surprise and praise.
• Dumb Blonde: Playing with a Trope:
  • He lacks common sense and common knowledge, but has sharp insight, excellent battle intuition, and high morals. As far as knowing about topics like magic and history, a mercenary raised in a family that specializes in swordplay probably never had the opportunity to learn the things that Lina, Zelgadis, and Amelia had learned, and their own learning environments (Lina's sorceress mother, Amelia the princess of a kingdom specializing in White Magic, and Zelgadis being raised by a priest) attribute to that.
  • Gourry's also very protective of the Sword of Light, and keeps a careful eye on anyone who might want to steal it; especially Lina. She's tried several times to trick him into giving it to her by claiming he made a promise to do so, but this is one of the few areas where Gourry's rather cloudy memory never fails him.
• Endearingly Dorky: His terrible memory (at least in the anime) and tendency to be really sweet and a genuinely nice guy make him totally cute and a Chick Magnet. Less so in the original novels, where he's less dorky.
• Even the Guys Want Him: The second happened once when he cross-dressed in the first season; he immediately attracted a prideful guy. Thankfully, because of it, the heroes got a ship and got to go where they needed... but when Gourry lost the dress, the guy was still in love with him!
• Genius Ditz: Despite how oblivious he seems, there's nothing he doesn't know about sword swinging, and he occasionally pulls moments of considerable insight — such as revealing he knew Xellos was a Mazoku all along.
• Idiot Hero: Lina is prone to calling him "Jellyfish Brains" while they are fighting evil because he's so absent-minded and needs things explained to him. Note that this is more prominent in the anime than the light novels.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: Although not a magic-user, Gourry makes up for it with his incredible swordplay skills, especially when using the Sword of Light.
• Laser Blade: The Sword of Light.
• Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Gourry is more or less the most powerful warrior in the world, and is in possession of the setting's resident Infinity +1 Sword from the very beginning of the series, but is still completely outmatched by Lina in terms of sheer destructive power. He's hardly useless in a fight, it's just generally much more practical and less time-consuming for him to guard Lina while she prepares a spell to one-shot their enemies instead of taking them head on himself.
• Living Emotional Crutch: For Lina. When Gourry gets kidnapped Lina's mood plummets, although she tries to pretend she's fine. Then when threatened with Gourry being killed unless she cast a spell that could easily destroy the world, Lina chooses to cast the spell.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: flowing blonde locks even longer than that of the female protagonist Lina. The long hair adds to his charm but it also helps him convincingly cross-dress.
• Master Swordsman: Even with a regular sword, he can perform amazing feats of skill — although, come the loss of his Sword of Light, he has to keep stopping in the middle of a fight because any other mundane sword tends to break under his strength.
• Mr. Exposition: The main reason for why Gourry became such an Adaptational Dumbass in the anime was so that there was a character who necessitated explanation of the way the Slayers universe works, something that wasn't needed in the original novels since Lina herself is the narrator and explains things directly to the audience.
• Never Gets Fat: While the spellcasters get away with this due to their high caloric requirements, Gourry simply remains athletically lean just as well as they do.
• Nice Guy: You can't get much nicer than Gourry. This guy has a big heart. He's very willing to help people if they seem to be in need. In fact, he started traveling with Lina in the first place because he mistook her for (much to her chagrin) a helpless girl who needed an escort.
• Noodle Incident: Whatever happened between him and Sylphiel in Sairaag. At the most, he ate the dinner she made at her house once and it was good enough for it to be memorable for him.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: In the original novel series, he only appears to be an idiot and his "dumbness" is largely a facade that he often uses to tease others.
• One-Man Army: Gourry is capable of taking down large groups of mooks single-handedly. The best example was how he took down the army of Zoana in less than five seconds.
• Out-of-Character Moment: In NEXT, Gourry whacks Lina on the head, calling out how she fooled him, Zelgadis, and Amelia into thinking she fell to her death in order to get a surprise attack on the current enemy.
• Out of Focus: Of the four main heroes, his backstory is the least fleshed out, despite being the second one introduced and the second most prominent in the entire franchise next to Lina; what was thought to have been a hint at part of his ancestry was ret-conned. While details about Gourry's past have been touched upon in many side materials and interviews, they've yet to appear in the mainline series of novels or in a manga or animated format.
• Say My Name: Name any media. He'll shout for Lina at least once.
• Ship Tease: With Lina via Bodyguard Crush.
• Superpowered Evil Side: When mind-controlled by an enemy in NEXT he took on the entire party at once, showing much greater control of the Sword Of Light and shrugging off everything short of a Ragna Blade, which only stunned him.
• Super-Senses: Gourry's skills as a mercenary are so well honed that he is often the first one to notice and/or react to any impending danger, such as sneak attacks.
• Too Dumb to Fool: Regarding Xellos' nature as a Mazoku. It was so obvious to him that he thought everyone else knew it too, and thus didn't bother mentioning it. He renders everyone speechless when it comes to light.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Lina, which eventually evolved into Belligerent Sexual Tension despite the author's initial intent.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: At the least, he's reluctant when he must fight one.

Zelgadis Graywords

Voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa (Japanese), Daniel Cronin (English; up to episode 10), Crispin Freeman (English; episode 18 onwards and in the Slayers Premium movie) ^note Also one of his earliest works in voice acting., Carlos Arraiz (Latin American Spanish), Daniel Sánchez (European Spanish), Pierre-Francois Pittorio (French)

From a young age, Zelgadis was apprenticed to his grandfather Rezo, eagerly assisting the Red Priest in pursuit of his many goals with a young man's zeal to aid a relative he idolized. Zel asked Rezo for power, in order to help seek out the Philosopher's Stone, and Rezo gave him power, alright: he transformed Zelgadis into a chimera, sorcerously fusing him with a stone golem and a low-level monster called a brau demon to become a mystically powerful, hyper-strong stone-skinned monster. After following him for several years as a loyal servant, Zel ran into Lina, performed a Heel–Face Turn and has been trying to restore his human body ever since. He has the least interest in Lina's little group (to the point he eventually wandered away and was never seen again in the original novels), and usually tends to accidentally cross paths with them whilst searching for cures, often needing to be bribed into tagging along by appealing to his desire to be rendered human again.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the novels and the Slayers Premium movie (which takes after the novels' character designs), Zelgadis' skin is a bluish-green color; in the anime, it is periwinkle blue.
• Anti-Hero: A mix of Unscrupulous and Nominal Hero like Lina. He doesn't really care about anything other than curing himself (and says so), and will do criminal things like raiding libraries and busting into tombs in search of magical lore, but he can do the heroic thing if properly motivated.
• Berserk Mode: Only in the novels; he wasn't just serving Rezo there, but he was also his berserker. Rezo would make him do gruesome tasks by his own hand, and in the novels, Zelgadis clearly regrets doing them. He is this briefly in the anime, but not to the same extent that he was in the novels and, if he was, it's heavily implied that he never knew about it because Rezo was forcing him into doing it through mind control.
• Broken Pedestal: Zelgadis looked up to his guardian and great-grandfather Rezo, a powerful spellcaster, as the epitome of good, nobility and selflessness. He even allows himself to be turned into a monstrous chimera (part human, part golem, part demon) in order to be stronger and more able to further Rezo's cause. Understandably, Zel is quite bitter when he finds out that everything Rezo was doing, up to and including his experiment on Zelgadis, was intended only to find a cure for his blindness.
• Byronic Hero: Zelgadis' potential for compassion clashes with his melancholic nature and tendency towards self-absorbtion. At a few points, he wonders and worries over his reputation of being "the dark-hearted sorcerer".
• Celibate Hero: Discussed briefly a few times in the novels and in some interviews. In the novels, he mentions once the painful things that would happen to a woman if he got intimate with her, and Kanzaka himself mentions this in interviews, thusly justifying it on a physical level.
• The Comically Serious: Which of course makes him the butt of jokes once the series goes comedic.
• Cursed with Awesome:
  • The curse placed on Zel has given him Super-Strength, Super-Speed (seen in the first series), Nigh Invulnerability and enhanced magical ability, but it's also made him a hideous freak and almost completely unable to swim since his body's composition will literally make him sink like a stone. He desperately wants To Become Human.
  • In Evolution-R, it's revealed that he could have lived with it, if he hadn't discovered that he was being used as a guinea pig in Rezo's quest to cure his sight.
• Cute Monster Guy: Zelgadis doesn't look very human, and thinks of himself as a monster (and being a magical hybrid of creatures means he's technically right), but he's not unattractive and, arguably, his "monstrous features" are actually part of his charm.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's the most sarcastic, flat-toned character in the series.
• First-Name Basis: Word of God has stated Zelgadis' last name (Graywords) in interviews, and the only time it's ever mentioned in canon is by Filia in episode 1 of TRY.
• Flanderization: His reason to cure himself was flanderized, oddly enough. In the novels, it is for atonement; he did terrible things under Rezo's command and, though miserable about being an outcast, holds hope into fixing what he's done (something more addressed in side stories). In the anime, it's mostly because of how he looks (to a radical point to where he refuses to change into any kind of swimwear), and it's largely his motive as to why he conveniently runs into Lina and sticks around with her. Other adaptations don't really address his reason to find a cure, weirdly enough.
• Flying Brick: He's supernaturally strong, Nigh-Invulnerable (it takes a headshot from a cannon to merely knock him out), and he flies. Through the use of magic for that last aspect, admittedly. You could also say that he's literally a brick since his body is made of rock.
• Good is Not Nice: Equally as nasty as Lina, but in different ways. He isn't above using black humor and giving threats like "It's been a while since I've killed someone!" or the like, and while he doesn't steal, he's fully capable of taking on a job, facing Lina, and intending to defeat and/or kill her if it meant succeeding.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Does not like having his "cursed" body and intents to rid himself of it.
• Insult Backfire: He's been called a "Heartless Sorcerer/Mystic Swordsman". He likes the sound of it..
• Jerkass: It varies between this and Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • On the Jerkass side, you have: throwing Lina at Rezo in an attempt to distract him, several times refusing to back down from a fight if a job pulled him into conflict with Lina, making grim jokes towards opponents, and so on.
  • On the other hand, you have: giving moral boosts to the team and anyone who needs it, risking his life (sometimes even paying for it) to jump in and save Amelia, getting turned into a doll because the only other option was literally grabbing either of his female teammates' asses, and so on.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Perhaps what he would've been if Rezo hadn't cursed him since that was cause of his cynicism.
• Magic Knight: Balances swordplay and magic well and has a special spell in which he channels magic through his sword.
• Master of None: He's skilled in both magic and swordplay, but is overshadowed on both fronts by Lina and Gourry, respectively. As a trade-off he has Nigh-Invulnerability as a result of being a chimera.
• Mr. Fanservice: Despite having green-grey skin studded with stones, he's rather handsome.
• Parental Abandonment: Word of God put out that both of his parents are dead. Rezo murdered them out of fear because they were growing suspicious of his experiments, and they were concerned about Rezo's intentions for their son.
• Put on a Bus: Along with Amelia after the first arc of novels. Notable because he and she are major characters in all other media, whereas their replacements were mostly novel-exclusive. He also doesn't appear in the Knight of the Aqualord manga.
• Raised by Dudes: Implied, given that Rezo was the one who raised him after he murdered his parents, and his most steadfast companions before meeting Lina were a fish man, a werewolf, and two older men.
• Red Mage: His strongsuit is Shamanistic Magic, he can perform some Black Magic and knows the basic healing spell in White Magic, and is a decent swordsman, being able to match an overpowered and possessed Gourry.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Lina's red because of his stoicism and general seriousness.
• Ship Tease: With Amelia; the two are generally more touchy than the others, with there being many moments where, out of fright, Amelia or Zelgadis can be seen holding one another. Zelgadis has also held Amelia close to him especially at the end of NEXT where he grabbed and held her twice when she was fatally wounded, usually when he's just jumped in to save her, and he turned pink when she spoke about giving him CPR after he nearly drowned once.
• The Smart Guy: He displays a good deal of scientific knowledge and both quick-paced analytical and mathematical skills in the anime and a few of the games; while he does show some high intelligence in the novels, Lina's narration makes it less prominent.
• The Spock: Tends to be the most rational one when it comes to planning (albeit not always).
• Straight Man: Being the serious one, he naturally gets the most humiliation heaped on him. Being the Comically Serious makes him more ideal for the role.
• Super-Toughness: It is occasionally noted by Lina that the stone skin he hates so much has saved his life many times.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Moreso in the anime than the novels; his appearance doesn't warrant as many reactions as the viewer would expect, given what he's established about it. The one notable time it actually is is during a flashback. It also makes less sense because he gets negative reactions in the novels, and there are far more chimeras that appear there. To be fair, though, the anime first shows him covering himself up to such an extent where only the tips of his fingers and his eyes are exposed.
• The Worf Effect: A way of noting a more powerful enemy's strength is his or her ability to severely injure Zelgadis, who is normally invulnerable to mundane attacks. This also tends to come into play to display the extent of Lina's magical power, namely during the battle with Gaav and her usage of the Ragna Blade spell against Kanzel in the anime.
• Would Hit a Girl: Has no qualms whatsoever with striking girls. In the first anime season, he socked Lina in the gut to knock her out.

Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun

Voiced by: Masami Suzuki (Japanese), Joani Baker (English; episodes 11-13), Veronica Taylor (English; the rest of the series), Luci Christian (English; Slayers Premium movie), Carmen Olarte (Latin American Spanish), Amelia Jara (European Spanish), Lea Gabriele (French)

A young princess (younger by a few years in the anime than the novels, actually) who initially mistakes Lina as a champion of justice! and begins traveling with her out of a desire to do good. Lina finds her annoying but puts up with her because having a member of the Saillune (Seyruun in the English version) royal family around is handy when the restaurant bill comes due. Amelia, for her part, admires Lina's strength of character, courage, and free lifestyle, and seems to almost regard her as a self-adopted big sister.

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• Action Girl: She has plenty of action girl moments, including one episode where she exorcises an entire town of its ghost infection.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In the anime she is introduced in the Copy Rezo arc in Season 1. In the original light novels she didn't appear until the battle with Kanzel, which occurs at the halfway point of NEXT in the anime.
• Age Lift: A very slight difference between the anime and the light novels. In the former, she's one year younger than Lina, while in the latter, she's the same age as her.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: She's the only one in the main four to not wield a bladed weapon, and refuses to do so. She only wields a weapon twice, both times in rather dire situations: in the final episode of the first season, she uses Gourry's Sword of Light to channel the Ra-Tilt, and in the final episode of TRY, she reluctantly uses one of the five Dark Star weapons (which the Sword of Light is one of) to fight off Valgaav. The reason for her refusal? Her mother was assassinated right in front of her and her sister.
• Beware the Nice Ones: If her buttons are pushed, or she's convinced it's the right thing to do, she can be just as nasty as Lina.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: In the finale of Evolution-R, she literally tries to punch out Shabranigdo, and equally literally breaks her arm doing so. Sadly, she doesn't actually accomplish anything by doing this.
• The Chew Toy: In early seasons of the anime, and taken to ridiculous levels in the Slayers Premium movie.

• Cloudcuckoolander: A combination of her Love Freak and Wrong Genre Savvy traits make her appear silly and out-of-touch. This trope varies depending on the media.
• Combat Medic: Best with White and Shamanistic Magic, and is quite powerful physically, despite her refusal to fight with weapons. Her healing powers are not as strong as Sylphiel's, but the latter was trained as a more traditional healer. To wit, when Amelia sustains a fatal wound in NEXT/novel 7, Zelgadis and Lina's recovery magic can't heal it, but when Zelgadis suffers from a similar wound, Amelia's seen healing him fine by herself and succeeds.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Frequently has her attempts at dramatic entrances foiled because of tripping or whatever.
• Daddy's Girl: Adores her father.
• Double Take: When a woman resembling Naga walks by during a crowd scene in the first season.
• Dramatic High Perching: She loves making In the Name of the Moon speeches from high places but she has trouble with the landings...
• Flanderization: Her love of justice became such a defining trait in the anime and early manga that, for a while, she became reviled by a lot of fans. In the novels, it is treated as an ideology and as an emotional barrier of sorts, and it's entirely justified: the end of novel 4, where she is introduced, has her upset at how her cousin was killed, and about how murder in her family is not an uncommon thing. Her naivite and tendency to trust others blindly is also cranked up in many adaptations. It will come off as odd for someone reading the novels after watching the anime that she actually hates Xellos almost as much as Zelgadis does.
• Genki Girl: She pursues her Love Freak goal with great energy. HAMMER OF JUSTICE!!
• Good Hurts Evil: Amelia once debilitated Xellos with sheer unbridled perkiness.
• Good is Not Nice: Amelia doesn't share the same self-centered selfishness that most of her companions have, but her being sheltered and her black-and-white moralities make up for it, as she is prone to acts of bad judgment and self-righteousness. Indeed, Lina herself refuses to teach Amelia the Dragon Slave spell when they first meet because she can easily see Amelia going even more overboard with it than Lina herself does — and Gourry immediately sees her point when Lina explains why she won't ever teach Amelia that particular spell. Several times, she judges people by first impression, but this varies from each medium (she gets off to a better start when meeting Zelgadis in the novels than in the anime). Still, she's much better at being good than Lina or Zelgadis are. As the seasons go by, she becomes more likely to be "not nice" in that she's willing to go along with Lina's self-centered and/or crazy schemes without protest, such as using Zelgadis as a human anchor, than she is to be "not nice" by acting stupidly.
• The Heart: In her traveling party, she is a fountain of love and feminine cuteness. She even tried to make Xellos act more heroic with a "life is wonderful!" mantra (of course, this just made him physically ill). This is displayed in varying degrees from media to media. She is one to an extreme when she appears in the anime, but it visibly subsides overtime.
• The Hero: Her primary motivation is justice.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With her dad (chest height) and even with Zel (her love interest), since she's that short.
• In the Name of the Moon: She loves to make elaborate speeches about Justice and Good and how they will always triumph over Evil.
• Justice Will Prevail: She says it at least three times in the first episode of NEXT alone.
• The Lady's Favour: At the end of the third anime season, she gives one of her amulet bracelets to Zelgadis, and he's seen with it during the ending sequence.
• The Lancer: Amelia is Lina's foil and kind of a Token Good Teammate. She fights in the name of justice, unlike the rest of the team who are Anti Heroes who fight for personal gain. Also, she's much nicer than Lina and both have opposing backstories — Amelia is a princess while Lina is the daughter of vendors.
• Love Freak: Again, she harmed Xellos once with how perky she was.
• Missing Mom: Assassinated when she was little.
• Modest Royalty: Outside of her palace affairs, obviously, she wears a simple white-and-pink traveling outfit.
• Morality Pet: Zel definitely shows his softer side better around her.
• Nice Girl: Amelia's got her bad points, and she's not afraid to crack heads when she needs to, but she's generally the nicest member of the party — Gourry is equally affable and easygoing, but she's not prone to making oblivious comments that insult people the way he does.
• Politically-Active Princess: When not out adventuring with the rest of the gang, she often acts as Seyruun's envoy to other kingdoms.
• Pretty Princess Powerhouse: She may look small and cute but this princess comes from a realm specializing in white magic. Add in her passion for love and justice and she can fight both human bandits and mazoku.
• Princesses Prefer Pink: Her tunic has pink touches on it, and both her collar and bracelets are pink. The dress she usually wears for royal duties is a frilly pink one.
• Put on a Bus: Along with Zelgadis after the first arc of novels. Notable because he and she are major characters in all other media, whereas their replacements were mostly novel-exclusive.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: As naïve and Wrong Genre Savvy she can get, she loves fighting alongside her companions, and it is shown several times that she tries to be a competent leader and diplomat.
• Shipper on Deck: In NEXT, we find out she's an in universe Lina/Gourry fangirl.
• Ship Tease: With Zelgadis, the most explicit being The Lady's Favor in Try.
• Spell My Name With An S: Amelia/Ameria (the latter is canonical in Japan, but there are both Japanese fanworks and official art books that use the former)
• Stepford Smiler: Even through the death of her mother, the absence of her sister, and the betrayals of her uncle and cousin, Amelia holds her head high. However, the former two are still great sources of grief for her, serving as a reminder of the betrayal that shakes the Seyruun royal family.
• Took a Level in Badass: During the final fight in Evolution-R, she uses the Visfarank spell to amazing effect against Shabranigdo and punches the Big Bad.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: The cute, well-endowed daughter of an ogrish hulk of a man who looks like a bandit.
• White Magic: Her specialty is healing, and she is pretty good with it given that her kingdom itself specializes in it..
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: It's hard to find an idealist of any measure outside her family. However, given the setting, she can avoid breaking by weaponizing her idealism. See Good Hurts Evil.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Amelia tends to treat the world as if she's the protagonist in a common Magical Girl show. Among other things, she is heavily convinced, initially, that Lina Inverse is a shining bastion of purity and goodness (Whenever she's not being directly presented with evidence to the contrary, at least). She also believed that an Evil Sorcerer was a good guy because his robes were white. This is mostly averted in the novels.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Says this to Shabranigdo while punching him! "I won't let you! You shall not go one step further!"

Starting in Slayers NEXT

Xellos the Priest

Voiced by: Akira Ishida (Japanese), David Moo (English; in NEXT and TRY), Michael Sinterniklaas (English; in Revolution and Evolution-R), Kurt Stoll (English; in Slayers Premium), Luis Carreño (Latin American Spanish), Enrique J. Lles (European Spanish), Taric Mehani (French)

Created over a thousand years ago during the Dark Lord's Resurrection War (or "War of the Monsters' Fall" if you go with the anime translation), Xellos is the loyal servant of the Greater Beast Zelas Metallium. He is twice as powerful as any of the other Priests or Generals due to the fact that he was created without a General counterpart, and one of the most powerful demons in the world overall. He loves deception and his true motivation is often impossible to determine, though he's usually following some mysterious plan on behalf of his master. Note that he gave himself the title of 'Trickster Priest'; that should give you ample warning as to what kind of person he is.

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• Affably Evil: He's so charming that it's sometimes hard to believe he really is a sadistic, heartless, genocidal Eldritch Abomination, but he is.
• Anti-Hero: He is not a hero by any stretch of the imagination, but his goals often coincide with Lina's.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Filia, a golden dragon. Naturally they hate each other. Then the Bridal Carry scene came up.
• Catchphrase: "Now that is a secret!" or "Sore wa Himitsu desu~!" Also later used by the same voice actor in Hoshin Engi.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: It's very hard (if it's even remotely possible) to tell exactly whose side he's on at any given moment. He's very much like a prototype for Jack Sparrow, right down to the fact that he can trick you even if you know he's lying.
• Curtains Match the Window: In the anime both his eyes and hair are purple.
• Dark Is Evil: He is an ancient demon who wears black clothing, and his true astral form is a black cone.
• Devil in Plain Sight: He introduces himself as The Trickster Priest. Even when the Slayers know he's manipulating them or setting them up for a trap, he STILL succeeds in doing so.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: One of the Golden Dragons in NEXT refers to him as "Beastmaster Xellos" in the dub. The title "Beastmaster" actually belongs to his mistress, Zelas Metallium.
• The Dreaded: He seems to have this reputation among elves and golden dragons.
  “The Kouma war’s– Dragon Slayer?!” When (Memphy) said that, Xellos wagged his finger with a tut-tut.
  “I don’t really like such a ferocious nickname. I would be happy if you could call me ‘the mysterious priest’ or ‘the nice young man of unknown origin.”
• Emotion Eater: Like all Mazoku, Xellos feeds off negative emotions. Which may be why he enjoys pissing people off.
• Enigmatic Minion: To the Dark Lord Zelas Metallium, one of the five lesser Dark Lords under Ruby-Eyed Shabranigdo, who is more enigmatic then her minion is in the anime — aside from the occasional mention of her title (variously given as "Lord Beastmaster" and "Greater Beast"), her sole appearances are brief, faceless cameos in the openings of NEXT, TRY and Revolution and in the epilogue of TRY.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He may be a sadistic, heartless, evil, ancient demon, but he doesn't kill or torment anyone that's not directly related to his plans unless he has to.
• Exact Words: The closest Xellos has ever come to telling a direct lie was to deliberately mispronounce a man's name. He may not even be capable of lying. That said, he has raised phrasing technically true statements in such a way that his listeners draw the wrong conclusions to an absolute art form.
• Eyes Always Shut: Xellos keeping his eyes closed at all times is actually part of his disguise. When they're closed, he's the friendly and mischievous "Trickster Priest," because it's nearly impossible for him to open his eyes without looking sinister. The moment they open, any question as to his true nature vanishes immediately. A possible exception (since his physical form is only a mask he wears) is an early scene wherein Lina surprises him by knowing something he was about to tell her and he just kind of stands there with a bewildered look on his face, and looks just like any other character. Lina at that point realizes he's more serious than expected, not because his eyes are open but because with just a glance, he scared Seigram away. This trait is not noted in the novels. Instead, it's his constant smiling that creeps people out.
• False Reassurance: Xellos is an absolute master of deceiving people without technically lying. Examples include "I absolutely will not use the Claire Bible manuscript for evil purposes" (He destroys it) and "Lord Hellmaster did not tell me his plan" (He figured it out on his own).
• Good Hurts Evil: He is physically hurt whenever he's around people with overly positive emotions, such as Amelia, but this only comes into play during TRY.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: He gets badly damaged on multiple occasions (with perhaps the most extreme example being reduced to little more than a head in the last episode of Evolution-R), but his nature as a Mazoku allows him to fully heal himself in due time.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Played with.
  • Xellos wouldn't be counted as nice, but he has mercy-filled moments and, like near the end of NEXT with Gaav, he'll act more on Lina's side and assist her in battle. Most notably he ends up Taking the Bullet for Lina in the final episode of Evolution-R.
  • Plus, when the Lord of Nightmares completely absorbs Lina into her in the last episode of NEXT, he's genuinely saddened and sorrowful when he confirms it to the rest of the group.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Despite being as an iconic member of the group as Lina, Gourry, Zel, and Amelia, he's not introduced until the fifth book and the second season of the anime.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In NEXT, he switches to his cone form to impale Seigram. This doesn't kill the latter, but it does allow Lina to do so. In Evolution-R, he also uses his cone form to impale Zuuma before going on to completely obliterate the latter's entire body.
• It Amused Me: He spends a lot of time just screwing around with Lina and co.. particularly Lina herself and Zelgadis.
• Kick the Dog: On one hand, his torture of Valgaav in TRY reminds the audience that he's a villain. On the other, Valgaav is out to destroy the world and is an angry, very destructive monster in his own right and his Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds side wouldn't be revealed until much later.
• Killer Rabbit: Xellos' human form is hardly imposing, and his true form (which is only explicitly stated to be such in the novels and is only glimpsed a few times in the anime) is basically a man-sized long and thin blackish-purple cone standing on its pointy end.
• Loves Secrecy: Really enjoys the reactions that occur when he withholds information from others; his catchphrase is "Sore wa himitsu desu," literally "That is a secret".
• Lying by Omission: Everything he says is true, but he never gives the right context. If directly asked to elaborate, he says his Catch Phrase "Sore wa himitsu desu" ("It's a secret").
• Manipulative Bastard: Again, he manipulates everyone by grapping their motivations.
• Morphic Resonance: Both his human form and his cone-like true form share the color scheme of black and purple.
• Noble Demon: Emphasis on the "demon" (that's literally what he is after all). He never lets anyone forget that he's an evil mazoku, but, at the same time, doesn't engage in wanton cruelty or murder. For instance he once failed to accomplish a goal because he chose to save Filia. She bought his excuse that he did it just to screw with her because she thinks he's Always Chaotic Evil but for an 'evil monster focused on the Evil Plan' it doesn't make sense to abandon The Plan to have simple fun.
• Not So Above It All: Xellos generally regards himself as unflappable and above the antics of the Slayers team. However, he seems to genuinely lose it when Filia (and, in Revolution, Lina) refers to him as "namagomi" in the Japanese dub (which roughly translates as "garbage" in English). In addition, he was just as surprised as the protagonists when Gourry revealed he was aware of his true nature the entire time.
• Perpetual Smiler: Save for the rare occasions where he's genuinely pissed off or surprised, he's always smiling.
• The Plan: It's impossible to tell what suptrope he's using. What he says is at odds with what he does, and what he seems to do is at odds with the final result, but he never seems upset upon "losing". Is it all part of The Plan, or is he just making it up as he goes along? It's a secret.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Everything he does, when he's not simply trolling people, is usually to further a plan.
• Ship Tease:
  • With Filia; the most famous example is the "Bridal Carry" during the fight with Valgaav.
  • He's been known to hit on Lina a few times, such as kissing her on the cheek in NEXT.
• Sinister Geometry: His true form is basically a large, spinning cone.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Aided by the fact he can teleport and go invisible/intangible whenever he pleases.
• Story-Breaker Power: While Lina could possibly defeat him if she tried hard enough, he's definitely much stronger than she is normally, and most other characters for that matter. He just never does anything to help.
• Token Evil Teammate: In a group of Anti Heroes, he's a genuine villain.
• Troll: Generally only seems interested in screwing with other people, regardless on whose side they're on. It actually helps the team somewhat, as it means he's just as much a threat to their enemies as he is to them.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Gifted at dressing up as a woman.

Starting in Slayers TRY

Filia Ul Copt

Voiced by: Houko Kuwashima (Japanese), Tara Jayne Sands (English), Annabella Núñez (Latin American Spanish), Amelia Jara (European Spanish), Valerie Nosree (French)

A high-strung member of the Golden Dragon race, she replaces Sylphiel in TRY, acting as a guide for the party in the Golden Dragons' quest to stop Dark Star Dugradigdu. As a member of a race siding with Ciefeed, the god of the Slayers World, she comes to blows with Xellos frequently, often for comedic relief.

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• Belligerent Sexual Tension: She is often bickering with Xellos, who loves teasing her or frustrating her.
• Break the Cutie: Firstly done humorously, by forcing her to travel with the self-centered, impulsive and irresponsible Slayers crew. Then done very seriously when she learns, and then is forced to confront the fact that the Golden Dragons of the temple she belongs to are not the Saintly Church she believed them to be as they are willing to sell out an entire other world simply to ensure their world remains unscathed and having massacred an entire race of dragons (with Valgaav being the Sole Survivor) to try and claim the magical weapon they believed they should be the ones to possess. When the poor girl learns that, she's so horrified that she almost crosses the Despair Event Horizon.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: She and Valgaav sorta have these dynamics later in the series, after she learns about his past and why he's a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. Especially obvious towards the Grand Finale, where she repeatedly tries to prove to him that she's sorry for what her ancestors did to him and his people, attempts to talk him down from destroying the world, and insists on asking him what she can do to make him reconsider his decision.
• Canon Foreigner: She was created exclusively for the anime's third season, TRY which was completely original material.
• The Comically Serious: In the beginning, she was the only one who took the mission seriously, meaning she frequently had stress attacks with how laidback and casual the others were over the matter.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Both in-universe and out of universe. Filia is a Golden Dragon, but spends most of the time transformed into a human form, for the convenience of her companions and of the viewers, who might find it harder to relate to a dragon.
• Glamour Failure: Her dragon tail shows when she is upset.
• Good Shepherd: She's a Priestess of Ceipheid, but even though her arrogance mars the image, she's still a heroic character.
• Guest-Star Party Member: She's only present for the third season.
• Holier Than Thou: Being a priestess from what she thinks is a Saintly Church, she takes a dim view of the Anti-Hero vagabonds she has to travel with. After learning the Awful Truth she becomes more humble and somewhat closer to a Good Shepherd.
• Holy Hand Grenade: Her specialty in magic is holy magic (distinct from white magic).
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Less innocent than naive about how the world works and how its history played out.
• Lawful Stupid: Reaches poor choices at times due to her Holier Than Thou attitude.
• Light Is Good: She is a Good Shepherd of Ceipheid, wears white, and has holy magical abilities.
• Morphic Resonance: Both her forms share the same hairdo and the pink bow.
• Naïve Newcomer: It's obvious that she hasn't had much contact with humans.
• Parental Substitute: Once Valgaav is destroyed and then reborn as an egg/embryo, she takes the "egg/embryo" in so he'll have a happier life once he's properly born.
• Put on a Bus: Once TRY is over, she is never mentioned again in any other media; this also applies to the other characters originating from that season except Jillas, who is mentioned once in Revolution as the engineer behind Seyruunian cannons.
• Secret Test of Character: Does this to Lina and her party in the first episode in order to prove themselves worthy of saving the world. Although she was testing their fighting skill more then their character.
• Ship Tease: With Xellos by way of Belligerent Sexual Tension, and one instance of Bridal Carry.
• Straight Man: The butt of jokes; usually from Xellos.
• Tsundere: Type B. She usually is "dere-dere" and only goes into a crazed "tsun-tsun" fueled by her Holier Than Thou mentality when Xellos is around.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Due to her cloistered temple life, she has a black and white morality thing going on. Instead of making her bitter, breaking actually made her more this trope because it stripped away her arrogance.

Valgaav

Voiced by: Wataru Takagi (Japanese), Scottie Ray (English), Paul Gillman (Latin American Spanish), Juan Logar, Jr. (European Spanish), Benjamin Pascal (French)

The main antagonist of TRY. Originally an Ancient Dragon named Val, Valgaav witnessed and survived a holocaust against his own kind from the Golden Dragons. This left him a bitter and hopeless man, but his life changed when he met the Mazoku Lord Gaav; finding him suitable for his goals, Gaav gave Val a portion of his power, making him a being with dragon and Monster abilities. His anger comes to a head after Gaav's death.

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• Avenging the Villain: He is driven by a desire to avenge the Chaos Dragon Gaav.
• Big Bad: The head villain of the TRY series.
• Break the Cutie: He bluntly forces his cynical views on the naive and prissy Golden Dragon Filia frequently. It takes a viewing of the massacre of his race and what happened to him after in order for her to completely snap.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: He and Filia could be seen as this, since he believes her to be naive for not knowing about the part of her ancestors in the destruction of his tribe and refuses her increasing sympathy towards him.
• The Cameo: Briefly appears along with Gaav and Phibrizzo in the opening for Evolution-R.
• Canon Foreigner: He was created exclusively for the anime's third season, TRY, which was completely original material. Whereas Hajime Kanzaka, the novel writer, disregards the third anime season, he stated that he is fond of Valgaav. Also, Valgaav was the only anime-exclusive character to make it in the top ten of a character popularity contest.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His Ancient Dragon Tribe was slain... by the Golden Dragons of the past, aka Filia's ancestors.
• Despair Event Horizon: Crossed it in his backstory, when his tribe was slaughtered and he was turned into a part demon creature. At that point, there was no more hope for him.
• Energy Weapon: His magical lance, Ragudo Mezegis.
• Facial Markings: Two slash-like ones on each of his cheeks. This may or may not be an Ancient Dragon thing since he's the only one left.
• Fantastic Racism: He loathes just about everyone, but most of his hatred is against the Golden Dragons (and dragons in general). Given what they had done to him, (and given that many of them are cowardly and manipulative) it isn't entirely unjustified.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Being an antagonist, his angel wings are pitch black.
• Happily Adopted: When he turns back into an egg, he is adopted by Filia. Since he's still an egg when this happens, it's unknown what he thinks about it.
• Kick the Dog: More than once, especially when he tries to make Filia's hand hold the weapon that would bring destruction to the world.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Xellos' beatdown and torture of him, since he's a villain. Conversely, Valgaav can be seen as delivering this once he turns the tables on Xellos, as Xellos himself has taken a lot of lives and even offered to brutally kill Lina himself if Valgaav were to join him.
• Last of His Kind: The Golden Dragon tribe made sure he was the only Ancient Dragon left.
• Misplaced Retribution: Has a vendetta against Lina for killing Gaav - it's misplaced because it was Phibrizzo who killed Gaav, not Lina, and, technically, it wasn't even Lina who killed Phibrizzo but the Lord of Nightmares.
• One-Winged Angel: He transforms after fusing with Dark Star, just in time for the climax of TRY.
• Painful Transformation: The demonic arm that was given to him by Gaav occasionally grows and moves on its own. It's shown to be a painful experience and Valgaav has no control over it.
• Perpetual Frowner: Aside of the occasional Slasher Smile, he only frowns because of his cynicism.
• Pet the Dog: Taking Grabos and Jillas in, at least from their POV.
• Put on a Bus: Once TRY is over, he and the other TRY characters save for Jillas are never mentioned again in any other media.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Combined with Hellish Pupils for good measure, since he's a dragon/demon hybrid.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Never wore a shirt under his short cape, other than a flimsy, abdomen-baring top at the season's start, and was constantly shirtless in the Grand Finale.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: At first he was mostly P.O'd at pretty much everything and everyone after the death of his mastter, but later became this because he wanted to "purify" the world by destroying everything and thus ending the vicious conflict put into place by the Lord of Nightmares. Considering that his race was destroyed because the golden dragons were afraid of their power. This would make anyone angry and vengeful. In the end, he was killed by the cast but almost immediately was reborn as the unhatched egg of a full-blooded Ancient Dragon, which Filia is seen taking care of towards the end with help of Jillas and Grabos.
• You Killed My Father: He at first believes that Lina killed Gaav, who is sort-of his second father.

Starting in Slayers Revolution/Evolution-R

Pokota (Prince Posel Korba Taforashia)

Voiced by: Yumiko Kobayashi (Japanese), Colleen O'Shaughnessey (English)

Prince of Taforashia, currently searching for a cure to the Durum sickness that basically wiped out his father's kingdom.

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• Badass Adorable: He's a plush toy that can cast Dragon Slave.
• Big Eater: He eats as much as Lina and Gourry, despite his small size, because he has a large bucket load magical capacity.
• Canon Foreigner: Created exclusively for Slayers Revolution and Evolution-R.
• Composite Character: Pokota has Lina's Dragon Slave and Gourry's Sword of Light (though the latter is a replica). His personality and eating habits are a lot like Lina's, but like Gourry he talks a lot about duty especially to his country.
• Destructive Savior: Like Lina, he can cast the Dragon Slave and startled Lina the first time he did it.
• Fun with Acronyms: Posel Korba Taforashia. Get it?
• Heroic Sacrifice: Attempted when he uses the Hellmaster's Jar to send his spirit to fight Shabranigdo in the finale of Evolution-R since he can take control of his original body, which the Demon Lord is possessing, long enough to give Lina a fighting chance. Ends up averted when Rezo's dying spirit casts him back into his chimera body.
• I Shall Taunt You: Constantly calls Lina "Flatty". The first time he taunted her, he dared to call her "Flatty King that came from Flat Kingdom to spread flatness!" Needless to say, that set her off enough to throw an Amplified Dragon Slave at him.
• Laser Blade: Carries a replica of the Sword of Light in his body, which has a tendency to fizz out if overheated.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Pokota is a prince, bound into the bizarre but adorable shape of an alien bunny looking thing with gigantic wing-hand-ears, a cape, and a zipper up his stomach that opens on to L-space. He is, of course, Stronger Than He Looks.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: He is quite devoted to the wellbeing of his people. In fact, it is what drives him.
• Skinship Grope: Grabs Lina's chest when the two of them are asleep.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Presses ALL of Lina's Berserk Buttons in the course of 26 episodes. Never seen anyone discover them all so fast in-universe, yet they work together.

OVA/Novel only characters

Naga the White Serpent

Voiced by: Maria Kawamura (Japanese), Kelly Manison (English), Eva Kaminsky (English; As Nama in Evolution-R).

A flaky, sometimes obnoxious, drunkard, scantily clad sorceress, Naga was Lina Inverse's first travelling partner, with whom Lina gladly parted ways before she eventually met up with Gourry Gabriev. After her Missing Mom was murdered by an assassin, Naga became a vagabond wandering the world and learning Black Magic. She soon declared herself Lina's rival and began following her around.

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• Aloof Big Sister: Amelia's. Though she lacks the typical personality, she's her prodigiously talented older sister who became a wandering drifter after a falling out with her father.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Spikes of Villainy on Naga's costume. They look really cool, but a Running Gag is that she stabs herself in the face when she casts Freeze Arrow.
• Boob-Based Gag: Naga is typically regarded as the bustiest woman in the Slayersverse, and numerous sight-gags are based on how stacked she is — including one scenario where her breasts almost pushed her off of the narrow ledge she was trying to cross.
• Broken Bird: Naga's entire reason for leaving home, the reason she faints at the sight of blood, and the possible cause of her Sanity Slippage is because her mother was murdered right in front of her, and she responded by brutally killing the assassin using a particularly bloody spell.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite getting treated as a joke most of the time, Naga is one of the most powerful white mages in the setting, almost comparable to Lina in black magic. Word of God has stated that she has the potential to surpass Lina's magical power, but her Sanity Slippage and aversion to blood get in the way.
• Canon Immigrant: Inverted, if she and Nama are indeed the same person.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite her black clothing and spiky appearance she's not a villain.
• The Ditz: Just as bad as Gourry, if not worse thanks to her near Suicidal Overconfidence and her compulsion to meddle in Lina's affairs...
• Easter Egg: The royal crest of Saillune, seen briefly in one or two episodes, incorporates a white serpent. Also several references in the TV series to Naga, such as a woman resembling her passing by during a crowd scene in the first season, and Lina casting one of Naga's signature spells (Zelas Gort) in the second.
• Fainting: Naga faints at the sight of blood, a result of walking in on her mother's assassination... as well as the resultant bloodbath when the assassin tried to complete his mission and take out his real target, Naga herself, only for Naga to kill him with a spell of her mother's creation. That spell? "Chaos String"
• Foil: She's a rather skilled practicioner of White Magic, even mastering the powerful spell "Flow Break" (which dispels everything except white magic), and in contrast to Lina she relies primarily on Water and Earth shamanism spells to attack. She's also incredibly busty compared to the flat chested Lina.
• Friendship Denial: Lina was NOT her friend! She was a rival, no, wait, a sidekick!
• Goldfish Poop Gang: Lina actually nicknames Naga "goldfish poop" for following her around like... yeah.
• Genius Ditz: Just as Gourry is an expert swordsman, Naga is still a high caliber sorceress capable of casting powerful and complicated spells, and even created one of her own. And being a princess, she must know a thing or two about royal etiquette.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: She's the only main Slayers character who is not only a Big Eater, but also a hard drinker.
• Hidden Depths: She has shades of this, as it's hinted that a good deal of her ditzy behavior is a mix of Obfuscating Stupidity and Sanity Slippage, given her traumatic past. Despite acting like she's Lina's rival when the two hunt for treasure, careful attention shows that in many of the OVA closing segments, Naga is rarely seen actually carrying that much treasure. This would make sense given that she's actually the crown princess of Saillune and thus probably doesn't need the money. She's also shown to genuinely care about Lina. In one notable example, the two of them are fighting a group of bandits, and Naga sees Lina in trouble. Her frantic cry of "Lina!" when she sees the other sorceress in danger sounds very genuinely panicked and quite out of character for her.
• An Ice Person: Naga's primary attack spells of choice are Freeze Arrow and Freeze Bullet (the Water Shamanism counterparts to Flare Arrow and Fireball). Her greatest non-Golem-related spell is a Water Shamanist spell of her own creation which causes a continual cascade of Freeze Arrows to rain down over a target area. Unfortunately, she can't shut it off once it starts.
• The Lancer: Only ever travels with Lina when she's by herself and serves as her immediate foil.
• Male Gaze: The first time she's seen in The Motion Picture are shots of her breasts and butt.
• Memento MacGuffin: The reason Naga goes around in that Stripperiffic costume all the time is that it used to belong to her mother and is her last keepsake.
• Ms. Fanservice: The huge boobs, the skimpy outfit, and how she flaunts both of them certainly make her this trope.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: By and away her most defining feature is her haughty laughter. It is literally taken up to eleven when she gets 10 clones and all them start laughing and buildings crumble around them.
• Noodle Incident: Why Naga stopped traveling with Lina shortly before she met Gourry is never explained.
• Playful Cat Smile: Complete with a Cute Little Fang when she laughs.
• Stripperiffic: Her "clothing" reveals far more skin than it covers. It's a wonder she doesn't catch a cold.
• Third-Person Person: Refers to herself as "Nama" in Evolution-R.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: She may be even better looking than Amelia but she was still sired by a man who could pass for an orc or a bandit.
• Unknown Rival: Naga truly believes herself to be Lina's "strongest and greatest rival", and is quick to refer to Lina as being Naga's rival or even her sidekick. Unfortunately for her, though a legitimately talented and powerful sorceress, she's still not quite at Lina's level of power and, more importantly, is much, much flakier. While Lina can't forget about Naga, as hard as she tries, nobody else seems to have ever heard of her. Word of God states that Naga actually does have the potential to be as powerful as, if not more powerful than, Lina, but due to a fair bit of Sanity Slippage, she is unable to mentally tap into her full potential. On the occasions where the two of them have genuinely fought one another, Naga managed to hold her own in spite of being considered far less capable with attack spells.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: She is constantly bickering and sometimes even fighting with Lina. Yet, all her appearances show them traveling together for no other reason than each other's company.

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