Info - App
In Character Information
character name: Rigaldo
Fandom: Claymore, manga
Timeline: Post-death, at the very end of Chapter 59
character's age: ...good question. He was in the first of 79 generations of Claymores, which makes him very... very very old. He looks about 20, though. So bishi uguu~
powers, skills, pets and equipment:
An awakened being is a Claymore warrior that has, basically, evolved into a more powerful form of yoma through overuse of their abilities. This means they have everything a normal Claymore would have - enhanced senses, speed, agility, and strength; regeneration of one form or another; and the ability to use and detect yoki - turned up to 11. In Rigaldo's case, this is taken to a bit of an extreme. As a male he's generally more powerful than a female awakened of the same rank, and as a former rank Two, he's essentially more powerful than... any awakened being aside from the Abyssals themselves, and Priscilla. Until her awakening, he would have been the fourth most powerful being on the island with quite a bit of a gap.
In addition to the basic abilities listed above, he has two specializations. One, speed - he's ridiculously fast, and can move faster than the average eye can even track, shown in canon by his eliminating 3 Claymore captains before anyone could get a decent defense up and nearly forcing the protagonist to awaken herself just to keep up with his attacks. Others with similar specializations could probably just keep up with him, but he does get a boost over most Claymores* from his awakened state. His agility is consequently very high, which is good because he doesn't have much in the way of actual defense. He's far more likely to evade an attack than absorb it.
Oh hey and he can turn into a lion. :B
All awakened beings have a secondary form in which they gain even more overall power, and use more of their yoki. Rigaldo's is a giant lion! He attacks with his claws, which can elongate, twist in any direction, and are razor sharp and very fatal at high speeds. This form can't be maintained indefinitely DURING INTENSE BATTLE, however, and if he were to run out of yoki he would need to revert to his human form.
Another trapping of being awakened is that he'll need to eat human guts to survive, but luckily lacks the morals that may make this a problem. As a former warrior, he'll have been trained in various melee weapons but likely hasn't had to utilize this in a very long time.
No pets, no equipment. This is all canon and he definitely does not need any extra abilities.
*Exceptions made for protagonists.
canon history:
Rigaldo's history is pretty much non-existent. What we know about his human life is precisely jack all nothing, and what we know about his life as a Claymore is that he was among the very first (experimental) generation of Claymores, which at the time were all male. Male hybrids, unfortunately, don't work all that well - they would quickly become intoxicated by their yoki powers and awaken almost instantly, and Rigaldo was no exception. Prior to his awakening he was ranked as the first Number Two, behind Isley (who would later become the first Abyssal One) and ahead of Dauf (who would later become Riful's bitch). According to these two sources, Rigaldo had a very confrontational temperament and the three of them were constantly at each other's throats. Rigaldo in specific had designs to take the Number One rank from Isley, believing himself superior, although he never succeeded. Because he wasn't.
Soon the enduring spirit of Freud intervened, and one by one the male generation fell into awakening. They were quickly replaced by females with a much higher success rate.
At some point after awakening Rigaldo gained an exceptionally savage reputation and earned himself a title, the Silver-Eyed Lion King. Presumably it began around here, because soon he returned to confront Isley one last time, with the understanding that the loser would obey the winner. Isley later claims that this was meaningless bluster, but apparently Rigaldo took it much more seriously, because after getting his ass thoroughly curbstomped he swore loyalty to Isley and proceeded to stay by his side as his lieutenant in the north for a very
very
long
time.
This means he was expected to take care of general annoyances that Isley wouldn't bother with, such as beating up people who cause too much of a disruption in his territory. One such example came some years prior to the beginning of the manga, where some creature managed to destroy four towns in the span of only a few days. Rigaldo followed his orders and confronted the girl with the assurance that killing her wasn't anything personal, which was immediately followed by him getting curbstomped a second time and badly enough that Isley (who had vastly underestimated the girl's power) had to intervene.
He also got his ass handed to him, and ended up pledging loyalty to her in an attempt to harness her immense power for his own. Which more or less worked. Suffering from amnesia and a bad case of moe, Priscilla quickly became the favored guest of Isley, who doted on her and took her to live with them in Alfons.
Several years after that, a war is being ignited in the north. A large number of Claymores were sent to Pieta, ostensibly to exterminate some rebellious awakened beings, although it is later revealed to be more of a suicide mission. We see Rigaldo again reporting to Isley that three male awakened beings doing reconnaissance fell victim to the Claymore brigade, adding that they were pretty crap anyway and he would have done a better job of it. Isley admits that the three he sent were expendable anyway, and orders Rigaldo to have the Claymore army - as well as everything else in Pieta - to be utterly wiped out.
Which of course means Rigaldo feels capable of doing this entirely on his own. After calmly evaluating the best course of action, he rips through four of the five Claymore captains in more or less the blink of an eye, ignoring those too weak to be a threat. Naturally this does not work out well for him when one of those he dismissed finally comes to the defense of the final captain; in an incredible burst of speed, Clare - ranked 47, the weakest of all Claymores - awakens only her legs and intervenes, taking his arm off. Rigaldo reacts perfectly reasonably as he stops to admire her technique before fighting back. Even with a missing arm, the battle is intense and Clare is pushed to her limits, driven by the need to avenge the fallen captains, but when she almost completely awakens, the battle ends rather decisively.
personality:
It's probably safe to say that Rigaldo is not a very pleasant person, even aside from being a guts-eating monster. He is deadly serious as pointed out by Isley for how strictly he followed their old wager, even hundreds of years after it was made. He tends to be silent in Isley's presence when not sharing information, even sometimes refusing to offer his opinions on things he claims he has no authority on. When he does speak, it's concise and direct - a brief apology for having to kill you just before he does so, or a blunt insult. Even his posture is that of someone who doesn't bother with irrelevancies, who is ready to take orders no matter how much he may disagree with them. A solider eager to serve, if not for the sake of serving then for the sake of keeping to his word to serve you. He appears observant, intense, and remarkably obedient.
Well okay mostly obedient. The fact is that the Rigaldo we see is not the one that has always existed. As a warrior he's described as being arrogant and ambitious, picking fights over the slightest thing and firmly believing in his superiority to his... well, superior, even to the point of risking his life to prove it. Basically, he was an elitist asshole, and while Isley claims he's now so different and reserved there's still some of that old fire that can be seen around the edges of the lid. It shows up in casual (meaning business, because what is casual even) discussion, when he emphatically insists that the recon mission would have been successful if only someone capable - i.e. him - had been sent instead. In battle he moves boldly and with perfect confidence, and is given to dismissing anything he doesn't consider a direct threat. Strangely he doesn't do away with them but actively ignores them by removing them from his path, if necessary. He has all the earmarks of a barely restrained alpha, eager to prove himself to others as capable as he's already certain he is, going only after the strongest opponents when given the choice. He is also a snobby prick and doesn't especially seem concerned about hiding it.
...Again, mostly. As it happens, he also has the earmarks of someone forced (albeit by his own restrictions) into a frustratingly humble position. Isley's teasing will earn either a weak protest or complete silence. Even with showing surprise at the order to annihilate an entire town down to the last insect doesn't meet with so much as a complaint - he carries out his orders anyway (or tries to). When presented with a final decision Rigaldo clearly knows his place in the chain of command, even if he isn't always pleased with it. It's implied that he's not even that fond of Isley - when teasingly accused of wanting to wait for an opportunity to take Isley's head, Rigaldo replies that if it were possible he would have done it by now - but an order is, in the end, an order, and he is loyal quite literally until death.
In all of this negativity, there's one thing he truly appreciates: power. He has a habit of stopping to admire any great or unusual power even if it's in the middle of said power cleaving him limb from limb. In the battle against Priscilla he reacted with some mix of horror and wonder when she revealed the (apparent) (but not really at all, surprise) extent of her strength, and expositioned almost reverently about Isley's skills. With Clare, he marveled at her ability to partially awaken while she was killing him. This is the flipside of his elitism; weaklings won't so much as put a dent in his attention, but if someone is strong enough to catch it, he's practically captivated.
Between this and his overconfidence against unknown threats, he tends to get his ass kicked. A lot. One might say that his role in the story is specifically to provide an ass to be kicked, but this shouldn't be cause to underestimate him. He's still relatively powerful, intelligent and dangerous. Four out of the five Claymore captains in Pieta fell easily against his surprise attack, and even before he made it to the battlefield Miria (the surviving captain) reacted to just the presence of his released yoki with fear. By Isley's account, Rigaldo's heavily restrained nature hides a bloodthirsty, "almost uncontrollable" monster when unleashed. So as arrogant as he is, it's not entirely unfounded. Which is probably why he seems so pissed about being the perpetual runner-up.
...
AND NOW, THE SHORT SHORT VERSION:
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