Mun
Name: Tora
Livejournal Username:
flowingstarsE-mail: ginkawa_chan@yahoo.com
AIM/MSN: torastellar / laura_lawliet@hotmail.es
Character
Name: Phoenix Ikki
Fandom: Saint Seiya // Saint Seiya Next Dimension
Gender: Male
Age: 19 20 21 (August 15)
Time Period: Chapter 18 of Next Dimension, after rescuing Shun from one of Artemisa's warriors.
Wing Color: Golden orange with black feathers here and there and white tips.
History:
Wikipedia,
Ikki's Wikia article; if this doesn't suffice I can elaborate.
Personality: It's not easy to be Ikki, in more than one way. Though he's not the only one among Athena's Saints with a tragic childhood, not many of them have hold on their shoulders the same burdens he has been forced to carry. Though all of the Bronze Saints are siblings by being sons of the same father, only Ikki has always have a younger brother of whom he had to take care since early in his life. For Shun's sake, Ikki has been constantly pushing himself to grow up, to become more mature and strong, capable of taking care of him and protecting him. He has forced himself to keep from his brother many things, in hopes to protect him, always looking out for Shun, always living just for him. Even when he was sent to a living hell in order to win the Phoenix Cloth, Ikki kept moving because of his duty as an older brother, even Esmeralda, his first and probably only love, kept reminding him of Shun by appearance. It's not an exaggeration to say that in a way, Shun's existence trapped Ikki like a perfect jail, even if none of them wanted it to be that way, Ikki's sense of duty made it be. Probably because of that, after being physically and mentally tortured for years, after seeing his loved one die and learn that the man whom he considered the main responsible of all his torture was his father and was already dead... It was easy for Ikki to let the hate an anger devour him to the point in which he vowed to kill even Shun.
Probably, in a way, despite his best intentions, Ikki always felt that Shun's existence dragged him down and was the source of most of his problems. Probably, the fact of learning that the other Bronze Saints were his brothers too angered him because it meant that he would have more burdens, more duties, more siblings to take care of.
It's hard to tell how much anger and hate blinded Ikki, even if most of the people and Shun think that Ikki was totally overcome with it, there are many things that also point towards the fact that he wasn't blind at all. That he was acting consciously and with well thought movements instead of letting himself be dragged by the twister of emotions that built inside him. For starters, many have pointed out that despite turning to work for Athena and with his brothers, Ikki is still as full of hate and anger as always, which shouldn't be possible if he had really overcame it all upon being defeated in fight by his brothers. There's also the fact of how easy he accepted defeat once he couldn't fight anymore, and how he smiled, almost peacefully, upon accepting Seiya and the other Bronze Saints as brothers. Maybe, deep down, what Ikki really wanted was to fight them, not to kill them, but to see if they were strong enough to take care of themselves or if they would be just another burden for him. The fact that, even after he manages to get on friendly terms with the other Saints, he keeps his distance from them and even from his brother, also seems to point to the fact that he still sometimes feels resent against them.
Ikki is perfectly well the type of person who would go through a living hell in order to protect someone even if no one asked him. Despite what his elemental attribute, fire, may suggest, Ikki isn't the most impulsive person in the world, in fact he's often collected and perfectly capable of thinking strategies and planning carefully his actions. This allows him to make a serious and fair judgment of most of the people around him, and even of himself. It's possible that, seeing himself unable to overcome the hate and anger due how deep were the emotional wounds that he had, Ikki himself would choose to keep himself apart from the others, to avoid a situation in which he could end being really devoured by his feelings and hurt them. However, that he keeps himself away from the others has never meant that he left them alone. On the contrary, Ikki is known for keeping a close vigilance over Shun and the others, not hesitating for a second to come in their aid even when he's still badly injured himself and has proved to be more than ready to let himself be killed in order to protect them and Athena.
Bitter and ironical, Ikki is a ruthless warrior who doesn't think twice about killing an opponent. He's also arrogant and proud of himself, and has proved to be quite stubborn several times. He's also said to be emotionless, yet at the same time many say that he's completely driven by his negative emotions. Truth to be told, not even Shun, his own brother, can be sure of how Ikki really is. Though it's true that he's a lone wolf and isn't one to trust anyone easily, Ikki isn't entirely emotionless, neither is actually as proud of himself as he makes others think. In fact, a huge amount of the hate and anger that lives inside him is directed to himself, considering himself a loser and by far the weakest of the Bronze Saints, even when he has a fame that says that he's the strongest one. He cares deeply for Shun and his other brothers, but he rarely shows this to them unless they are unconscious as he considers it a weakness and fears that if they learn how he really feels towards them they will try to reach to him even more than they already do at times. The only people who are allowed to see even a glimpse of his true self are his enemies, and so far none of them has survived a meeting with the Phoenix to be able to tell others about it.
Strengths:
Mental: Ikki's mental strength is something hard to define. Many would consider him weak on this field, however he has proved several times that that's not the case. Ikki's mental strength is one that feeds on its own weaknesses. He's rather analytical despite not showing it to others and his capacity, or incapacity, of dealing with his brothers in a social positive way is actually born from his analytical mind. Because he's capable of judging others seriously, he is able to know what exactly will trigger them and doesn't hesitate to pull that trigger in order to protect his own emotions. Because if others hate him it'll just make it easier to be alone. Ikki has a strong sense of duty and it's that what drives him on the most in his live, not loyalty or love but the duty he feels he has towards his brothers and Athena. It's basically impossible to shake that sense of duty out of him, not even when he's consumed by his emotions does it vanish entirely, and it's that strong will in completing his duty what allows him to not fall in the temptation of letting his negative feelings take control of himself.
Physical: Fortunately or not, Ikki has been trained for fighting since he was really young (roughly around 6 years old), this means that despite being just a teenager he has a very well built body and a great strength just by itself. He's also a good fighter even without relying on his rank as an Athena's Saint. However, his natural strength, speed and agility increases exponentially when he starts using his Cosmos, and even more when he wears is Cloth, which also improves his resistance and the flow of energy in general. While using his Cosmos, Ikki become a fearsome opponent, with hits capable of cracking craters in the ground and attacks that rival light's speed, back in his world he's known by allies and foes as one of the strongest among the Bronze Saints, in fact many do consider him as the strongest, despite his claims that there are many others stronger than him, Seiya and his own brother, Shun, for example. His connection to the Phoenix Cloth also gives him a great gift, just like the mythological Phoenix, Ikki is capable of resurrecting by himself shortly after being killed, raising from his own ashes and with a boost to his Cosmos that grants him even more strength. However, this doesn't mean that Ikki will resurrect every time he's killed as there have been times in which it has taken him a long time to be resurrected.
Emotional: Ikki's strength regarding emotions relays in his capacity of not letting them show or control himself. He is really good at this and at sending the wrong signals to fool others about what he's really feeling, only allowing his anger and his hate to be shown clearly but without a specific target for those emotions. Ikki cares a lot about his brothers and Athena, he does appreciate them and loves his brother deeply, he can be caring and gentle, even somewhat sweet if he really allows himself such a moment of weakness. However as he regards those emotions as weaknesses he does his best in blocking them and in not letting others see them, specially the people whom he cares about. This contradiction that he forces in himself allows him to be a difficult person to understand and manipulate through emotions, the only way to do that would be through his anger and hate and even through that he has proved several times that he won't be completely manipulated, only as far as he himself wishes to be manipulated.
Weaknesses:
Mental: Despite Ikki's mental strength, it can't be denied that most of it is born from him trying to use his weaknesses to feed his strengths, what this basically means is that despite all his strong will and wishes, Ikki's mental strength is mostly a facade. Though it's not easy to destroy it totally, it's not impossible to do so or to dig up his deepest fears and use them against him. Ikki is already seriously scarred mentally from his training to become a Saint and those are wounds that will never heal completely, those wounds are his greatest weakness while at the same time feed his strength. They are deeply concealed in his mind and many are fooled into thinking that they don't exist at all unless they search for them really hard, however, once found, Ikki will shatter as easily as crystal.
Physical: Being honest, despite his status as an Athena's Saint, Ikki is normally just as strong as any trained man, same for speed and agility. He can pass up for a normal human at any time and the only give-away in his persona that would tell about his strength would be the fact that he's well trained and thus has his muscles perfectly developed. In the same vein he's as vulnerable as any person, bullets can kill him and punches will hurt him, even when he's actively using his Cosmos he can still get hurt by the same things as any other human, if only he may be a bit more resistant thanks to the Cosmos but not by much. Ikki isn't a stranger to exhaustion and in fact he can be found easier to tire out due all the energy he keeps using when fighting.
Emotional: Ikki's emotional weaknesses are closely tied to his mental ones. They almost work as a team, Ikki's mental strengths protect his emotional weaknesses, while his emotional strengths protect his mental weaknesses. Shatter one and both will shatter in small pieces. One has to be careful though as Ikki can get desperate and use his anger and hate as fuel to protect himself further if he feels he's being cornered in either of those areas. At any rate, despite how well he conceals his real emotions it's a given that his love for his brothers is a great weaknesses, however because of how he keeps denying it openly this is not really one easy to exploit as Ikki is quite capable of killing any of them should it be necessary, burying any remorse deep in his heart. It would be his love for Esmeralda, his first love, the one that would prove to be the biggest weakness, as part of Ikki has wished to die and reunite with her in the afterlife since her death. However, as mentioned before, this weakness is deeply hidden and buried, only one person was able to find it by mind reading and he was already almost dead when he found the way to defeat Ikki for sure so the knowledge was passed to no one nor was it ever used.