[OOC: Character Analysis]
[Edit] Since it's convenient and located at the top of my journal anyway, I'm also leaving this up as a generic HMD post, so comments will be screened with anon allowed and ip logging off. If you have anything to say re: my interpretation/playing of Raiel, say it here. [/Edit]
Inspired by this:
HEADCANON/RANDOM FACTS MEME
-What are the little quirky things that developed over time?
-What are their likes and dislikes?
-How did you come to explain random canon behaviors?
-What makes your character yours?
Feel free to be nosy and and ask personal questions!
But derailed into a full-out analysis of my interpretation of the character for the most part. Still, feel free to ask about anything.
Volume 27; Right after shipping off across the channel but before any of the canon events on the boat.
Let's address his relationship with Hamel first, eh?
-> Quotes: "That is why, with all my heart, I wish to make [Hamel] happy." "I wish for Hamel's happiness, more than anybody."
-> He was Hamel's first and only real friend.
-> Hamel sort of built up a dependency on him, I think? Because when they were kids Raiel was the one always chasing away the bullies for him.
-> Losing that protection is part of what turned Hamel into a cold standoffish jerk? Because suddenly he had to protect himself and so he did it the only way he could figure out how.
->> Raiel might feel partially responsible for that? So he's trying to correct it by giving Hamel back that security so he doesn't feel the need to supply it himself anymore.
-> Of course Hamel's ALWAYS had a jerk streak but I think this really only came out once he and Raiel were comfortable enough in their friendship that they could BE jerks to each other without hurting feelings.
THEN HAMEL GOES AND KILLS RAIEL'S PARENTS
-> Okay so Raiel at the age of 5 gets to watch EVERYONE IN HIS VILLAGE GET KILLED BY MAZOKU HAMEL
->> Hamel kills Raiel's parents but not Raiel; lucky break or conscious effort? Either way Raiel's pretty fucking traumatized I MEAN HE'S FIVE.
-> Hamel breaks down crying afterward and Raiel totally doesn't get it because you know he's traumatized AND FIVE. (He later explains that he didn't understand at the time, so canon support there.)
->> I think he ran off here and this was the last time they saw each other.
->> He resented Hamel for a while, I think? Because you know HIS PARENTS ARE DEAD and there was Hamel crying about his own mom getting trapped in a crystal oh no HOW TERRIBLE FOR YOU, YOU SELFISH PRICK
->> (I think this is part of what turned Hamel into a selfish jerkass. Losing Raiel's support.)
As adults...
-> Several points in the story where Raiel tries to get Hamel to open up to him and Hamel kind of blows him off. Raiel keeps trying, though; he's very determined to break this shell.
-> At times I feel like Raiel is trying to hold onto a friendship that might not actually be there anymore?
-> He would rather kill Hamel than watch him suffer through something like Anthem again. (Fight in Score as evidence.)
->> Hamel's happiness/mental health is THAT IMPORTANT to him that he'd rather see Hamel dead than wracked with guilt.
->>> That's pretty fuckin' gay man.
->>> Seriously he's totally gay for Hamel.
->>> Why do you think he's so homophobic?
->>> Gaaaaaay.
-> They sure do fight a lot. 8|
->> Raiel always loses, too. Sigh!
->> This is a result of Hamel trying to push him away and Raiel pushing back.
->> ...Maybe Raiel loses because he doesn't REALLY wanna go all-out against Hamel? Haaa sticking around as a punching bag means Hamel won't ever ditch him because WHERE WOULD HE BE THEN? Wow that's a fucked up mentality isn't it?
He hates mazoku.
-> Like, to a ridiculous extent.
-> Mazoku are the reason his entire hometown was massacred, after all!
-> So he spent most of his life learning how to fight them with his music.
-> There's a reason he's actually fairly widely known as a hero. He spent a lot of time traveling from town to town, protecting people from mazoku.
->> He never asked for a reward because his reward is love! The love of vindication against mazoku, I'm sure. Basically I think he enjoyed being able to rid the world of mazoku while also helping people enough that he never felt the need to be rewarded for it. Getting to kill the mazoku was all the reward he wanted.
-> So Raiel actually has a lot of experience with this whole being a traveling hero thing. He's probably been doing it for a REALLY long time.
What about that big gap in his backstory between ages 5 and 20?
-> We know he spent some of it hunting down mazoku while searching for Hamel.
->> Searching for Hamel TO KILL HIM AHAHA we'll get to that later actually.
-> This really is just a huge question mark, isn't it?
-> I think he struck out on his own after this. Packed up his piano and left for the wilderness. Of course Raiel's a smart kid so he made sure he was prepared, first. Probably impressed a lot of folks by being out on his own at such a young age?
-> He probably lived off the kindness of others for a while, traveling from village to village. Seeing how the Mazoku were ransacking the countryside just helped cement his hate for them, and eventually pushed him into deciding that it was his job to stop them.
->> He blames Hamel for controlling all the monsters in the world during their battle. This is his own personal delusion built up through years of resentment and hate.
-> HE CARRIES AROUND A PIANO he's obviously pretty physically strong. So he probably did a lot of helping out with menial labour to get by. Work in return for room and board, while honing his magical music skills so he could eventually take on the mazoku.
-> I think he took on his HERO OF LOVE persona at like age 12. That is also when he started seriously fighting the mazoku and endeavouring to protect towns that could not protect themselves. SO HE'S BEEN DOING THE TRAVELING HERO SHTICK FOR A LONG TIME.
-> Obviously he wouldn't have been strong enough to drag the solid gold piano with him when he left the first time. I think he went back home for it when he decided he was going to be a mazoku killer, and he was using the upright one until then.
So about that trying to kill his best friend thing.
-> The more mazoku he killed, the more his hate for Hamel grew. He let the memory of his childhood trauma fester and consume him and while on the surface he was a nice guy helping out folks in need, deep down he was kind of a crazy muhfugga just biding his time until he could have his revenge.
-> Canon point: Every town he saves, he asks whether they've seen Hamel or not. He's always trying to track Hamel down, no matter what else is going on.
-> He's convinced Hamel is the bad guy in this situation. When he finally catches up with Hamel he tries to get onlookers onto his side by explaining how Hamel is the successor of Chestra and how he killed Raiel's parents.
->> He then proceeds to do EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER to kill Hamel, including marionetting an entire town and getting Flute to kill him herself.
->> He's been waiting for this revenge for a REALLY LONG TIME, he wanted to make it as fulfilling as possible.
-> Re: that revenge, I'm certain that time and distance made him so much angrier about the whole thing than he would've been if he'd actually stuck by Hamel and gotten over it back when he was five. IT DROVE HIM MAD (a little, anyway.)
->> I think really he's just kind of predisposed toward crazy.
-> After seeing Flute break his marionette and cry he realized he was making a mistake and that he wasn't being very heroic at all. But that didn't dispel the LINGERING HATE, it just made him realize he was going about this the wrong way.
->> So he decides to trail the group for a while and figure out what his next move should be!
->> He finally comes to terms with exactly what happened and decides that Hamel doesn't actually need to be killed unless he loses it again.
->>> I think Raiel realized that, well, he just REALLY MISSED having a friend around. Sure, he was the HERO OF LOVE and all, but he was ALONE. He wanted his friend back, so he justified the reasoning to himself with "I need to be here to stop him in case he goes mazoku again." He eventually dropped the justification and just got over it.
Raiel's homophobia
-> Okay seriously how many times do he and Hamel wig out about "homos" over the course of the series?
-> He's a really nice guy though so he's not gonna just HATE ON PEOPLE because of something like that.
->> As long as they keep in mind he's not homo everything's fine, right.
->>> Right.
->>>> Because he's not homo.
->>>>> Really.
-> Most of the basis of his friendship with Hamel is I WANT TO MAKE HAMEL HAPPY AT ALL COSTS. Tell me that isn't gay.
->> He doesn't see it that way, of course, and probably never will until somebody else points it out to him and forces him to really think about it.
->> So far in the closet he doesn't even realize it.
->>> So far in the closet he's in NARNIA.
-> Basically he's justified this so hard that he doesn't even realize it. But being around HOMOS kind of threatens his sexuality because he's not 100% confident in his own. Subconscious reaction to establish his heterosexuality by putting down homosexuality or reasserting his own heterosexuality.
-> Of course he's actually straight as evinced by you know copious nosebleeds around girls, but Hamel is an exception to that.
-> This is going to disturb him so badly if he ever actually does figure it out.
He reads an awful lot of shoujo manga.
-> Canon supports this so hard. I don't even need to cite evidence. His fantasies are all straight out of shoujo manga. His idea of romance is taken from shoujo romance.
-> Shoujo manga doesn't actually exist in his world does it??
->> If it doesn't these are probably all things he's made up over the years while being a HOPELESS ROMANTIC and daydreaming endlessly. His own thoughts and opinions on what ~LOVE~ is like.
->> If it does then he spent a lot of his adolescence reading shoujo manga because it appealed to the hopeless romantic in him.
-> It's given him a lot of interesting ideas about romance. Second guy always wins is one of them. Others...well, check any point in the series where he tries to woo Sizer.
-> Exchange diaries!!
-> This shoujo obsession is why he's the hero of LOVE and not the hero of some other metaphysical idea.
He's very perceptive and intelligent.
-> Not that you'd notice unless you were looking for it.
-> He knows quite a bit about the four Kings of Hell's Army and shows a knowledge of worldly stuff on several other occasions.
-> He's the one who buys the map and starts planning the route.
->> He likes to know his surroundings and also likes to have a plan.
-> He's the first person to notice the tension between Sizer and Trom before they ever actually snap.
Making people happy is his biggest goal in life.
-> Raiel is seriously the nicest fucking guy in the world when he's not being a spazzy weirdo.
-> He is CONSTANTLY trying to cheer everyone up. It's his role in the party. Making sure everything is not a gigantic downer all the time.
-> He enjoys helping people, too! He will offer aid to anybody who needs it.
->> I think this may have been picked up from his time spent as a traveling hero. He ran around helping people and really enjoyed the rewarding feeling it gave him.
->> And the world is SO DEPRESSING that being able to make others smile cheers him up too.
-> Not being able to help folks out is his number one least favourite thing ever.
->> It makes him feel powerless and helpless.
->> See: situation with Trom and Sizer! Where he couldn't figure out what to say to either of them and just broke down completely about not being able to help.
->> I wonder if this desire to help stems from not being able to do anything about his town getting massacred?
On the same lines, he also doesn't want people to worry.
-> Reason he did not tell Flute about what happened after she left. She didn't need to know because it'd just make her worry needlessly.
-> Because of this, he keeps a lot of things to himself. He bottles up his negative emotions so he can put on a cheerful face and continue being the guy who cheers everyone up.
->> Gosh that kind of makes him a Stepford Smiler sometimes, doesn't it? I guess that fits.
-> This also leads him to make situations a lot worse in his head than they really are. See: whole debacle regarding revenge against Hamel.
-> Of course when I say "negative emotions" his flipping out about random stuff is, of course, excluded. See Raiel-land for that one.
Overactive imagination slash Raiel-land
-> He has a habit of FLIPPING OUT over the most random shit, what the hell.
-> He lets his imagination get away with him. He'll pick up on some minor thing and then just expand it into some crazy delusion and continue justifying this as truth for like EVER.
->> Results in SERIOUS TOPIC DIGRESSION. Don't fucking encourage it, drag him back to the matter at hand, man.
-> This also means he will decide something is true and then not listen to people who try to tell him it's not. (EG, Clari being a homo.)
Raiel is a Flute/Hamel shipper!
-> He wants Hamel to be happy. That is his DESIRE. But Hamel has developed to a point where Raiel can't be the person who makes him happy anymore.
-> Flute has the ability to pull Hamel back from the edge, which Raiel lacks!
-> Thus the obvious answer is that Hamel and Flute need to be together because Flute makes him happy!
-> This means Raiel is the love-triangle member who would step out of the triangle because he thinks his rival is better for the job. SACRIFICING HIS OWN HAPPINESS FOR HAMEL'S. god i'm such a shipper.
Sizer.
-> fuuuuuuuuuuck don't ask me about Sizer I don't actually ship them I just don't see it .____.
-> I think Raiel is just being kind of obsessive because she's moemoe and has a nice rack. Seriously. This thing is unrequited for like 30 volumes.
-> He shoulda picked Fife.
-> NONETHELESS. He's pretty down about this whole Sizer situation! It's pretty big in his mind right now, though he's been trying to shove it aside under the justification of "the me back home is taking care of it." Not to say he isn't still INCREDIBLY WORRIED about her, but he's trying not to let it consume him.
->> Speaking of, the situation back home? Incredibly worrying. He tries not to think about it, because there's no point in worrying since he can't do anything about it here.
->> He also feels like he has nobody to talk to about this since he doesn't want to worry Flute so SEE THREE SECTIONS UP.
His favourite colour is green.
-> THIS I BELIEVE.
-> He is pretty stuck on his Green/White/Orange colour scheme.
-> One day he'll wear something that is not any of those colours and nobody will recognize him.
-> Then again it'd be pretty funny if NONE of those were his favourite colour, but I feel like double-subverting expectations because that's too predictable.
His favourite food is fish.
-> SERIOUSLY HE STARTS A FIGHT WITH HAMEL IN THE MIDDLE OF AN INN OVER HAMEL STEALING HIS FISH.
-> ...But he eats fish FOR BREAKFAST i don't even fucking know 8|a
-> Quote: "In the morning, you wake up with an emptiness in your stomach. You go to fill it with the white breakfast...and the main dish of that is usually fried fish."
->> seriously idevenk wtf he's talking about BUT TRUST ME HE REALLY LIKES FISH OKAY.
-> I don't even know why, it probably reminds him of his mom or something typical and mundane like that. IT IS A CHILDHOOD FAVOURITE MAYBE WHO KNOWS.
MAMA PANDORA.
-> ...she's kinda weird, man.
-> He knows she's really a good person, though! She just has trouble trusting people!
-> She uhhh...tried to kill him sevvvveral times when he was a kid.
->> He now looks back at these incidents fondly (??? seriously.)
->> It's kind of like, "Oh haha good ol' Mama Pandora!! She's such a character!"
->> Getting poisoned and forced to sign a contract with the devil to be Hamel's friend FOREVER in order to get the antidote -- THE GOOD OL' DAYS
-> Pandora being a friend of the family and teaching him how to play Magic Music made him pretty close to her.
->> He views her as a secondary mother figure, especially now that his own mother is dead.
-> I think this is a very severe case of absence making the heart grow fonder. Seriously.
His love for music.
-> Reminds him of the better days of his childhood. Learning piano from Pandora and having something amazing to pour his energy into.
-> Magic Music IS amazingly powerful and he's been using it as a weapon for so long he couldn't fathom using anything else!
-> He really does just have an appreciation for music. The emotions it conveys and the sheer power it has fascinates him and he loves learning new music.
-> Dude he has all these amazing pieces MEMORIZED. This kid has a MIND for music. HE IS A SAVANT okay maybe not technically but still.
-> It was probably the one thing he was able to take comfort in while he was on his own after his parents were killed.
The heck is with that hat?
-> He seriously thinks it's cool okay don't diss.
-> HATS ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF CHARACTER. Without his hat he is nobody! THE HAT IS AN EXTENSION OF HIMSELF, A SYMBOL OF HIS PERSON.
-> The Hero of Love would be nothing without his symbol! THE HAT STRIKES FEAR INTO THE HEARTS OF HIS ENEMIES BECAUSE THEY KNOW WHO THEY FACE.
Shift key?
-> Raiel doesn't use it?
-> Why not?
->> The bottom line really is that he's just too lazy and doesn't feel like reaching over for it all the time.
->> He had to learn how to use a keyboard first, man! Shift key was just adding one more thing to it and even if he's since learned to type alright he still hasn't picked up a shift key habit.
-> All-caps are done with capslock. Still no shift key involved!
->> He could just double-tap capslock to capitalize single letters?
->> Too much trouble!
-> Besides, the no-caps typing has a certain charm to it, wouldn't you agree?
Some misc stuff:
-> His favourite dessert is apple pie
->> It reminds him of his mom though, so whenever he's already in a weird emotional state he can't quite handle eating it
-> Chocolate cheesecake is a close second!
-> His birthday is November 24th (THE DAY BEFORE MINE WTF)
-> Blood type is AB+ (I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY MICHIAKI WATANABE HE IS NOT TYPE A)
-> Favourite song is Für Elise
-> Height: 176 cm, Weight: 61 kg
-> Canonically, Firebird's name is "Hi no Tori-kun". Which is really just Firebird-kun or Phoenix-kun. I think I will just call him Firebird.
Hey Raiel is kind of a doormat:
-> I wonder if this is in part because of Pandora?
->> I mean he only just had to worry about being physically abused by her if he so much as inched out of line.
->> And he didn't really show any inclinations of letting people walk all over him before meeting her... He stands up to bullies on Hamel's behalf regularly.
->> I think Pandora's abuse has him trained to be completely submissive to the wills of women? A stern glare is enough to make him completely cave!
Inspired by this:
HEADCANON/RANDOM FACTS MEME
-What are the little quirky things that developed over time?
-What are their likes and dislikes?
-How did you come to explain random canon behaviors?
-What makes your character yours?
Feel free to be nosy and and ask personal questions!
But derailed into a full-out analysis of my interpretation of the character for the most part. Still, feel free to ask about anything.
Volume 27; Right after shipping off across the channel but before any of the canon events on the boat.
Let's address his relationship with Hamel first, eh?
-> Quotes: "That is why, with all my heart, I wish to make [Hamel] happy." "I wish for Hamel's happiness, more than anybody."
-> He was Hamel's first and only real friend.
-> Hamel sort of built up a dependency on him, I think? Because when they were kids Raiel was the one always chasing away the bullies for him.
-> Losing that protection is part of what turned Hamel into a cold standoffish jerk? Because suddenly he had to protect himself and so he did it the only way he could figure out how.
->> Raiel might feel partially responsible for that? So he's trying to correct it by giving Hamel back that security so he doesn't feel the need to supply it himself anymore.
-> Of course Hamel's ALWAYS had a jerk streak but I think this really only came out once he and Raiel were comfortable enough in their friendship that they could BE jerks to each other without hurting feelings.
THEN HAMEL GOES AND KILLS RAIEL'S PARENTS
-> Okay so Raiel at the age of 5 gets to watch EVERYONE IN HIS VILLAGE GET KILLED BY MAZOKU HAMEL
->> Hamel kills Raiel's parents but not Raiel; lucky break or conscious effort? Either way Raiel's pretty fucking traumatized I MEAN HE'S FIVE.
-> Hamel breaks down crying afterward and Raiel totally doesn't get it because you know he's traumatized AND FIVE. (He later explains that he didn't understand at the time, so canon support there.)
->> I think he ran off here and this was the last time they saw each other.
->> He resented Hamel for a while, I think? Because you know HIS PARENTS ARE DEAD and there was Hamel crying about his own mom getting trapped in a crystal oh no HOW TERRIBLE FOR YOU, YOU SELFISH PRICK
->> (I think this is part of what turned Hamel into a selfish jerkass. Losing Raiel's support.)
As adults...
-> Several points in the story where Raiel tries to get Hamel to open up to him and Hamel kind of blows him off. Raiel keeps trying, though; he's very determined to break this shell.
-> At times I feel like Raiel is trying to hold onto a friendship that might not actually be there anymore?
-> He would rather kill Hamel than watch him suffer through something like Anthem again. (Fight in Score as evidence.)
->> Hamel's happiness/mental health is THAT IMPORTANT to him that he'd rather see Hamel dead than wracked with guilt.
->>> That's pretty fuckin' gay man.
->>> Seriously he's totally gay for Hamel.
->>> Why do you think he's so homophobic?
->>> Gaaaaaay.
-> They sure do fight a lot. 8|
->> Raiel always loses, too. Sigh!
->> This is a result of Hamel trying to push him away and Raiel pushing back.
->> ...Maybe Raiel loses because he doesn't REALLY wanna go all-out against Hamel? Haaa sticking around as a punching bag means Hamel won't ever ditch him because WHERE WOULD HE BE THEN? Wow that's a fucked up mentality isn't it?
He hates mazoku.
-> Like, to a ridiculous extent.
-> Mazoku are the reason his entire hometown was massacred, after all!
-> So he spent most of his life learning how to fight them with his music.
-> There's a reason he's actually fairly widely known as a hero. He spent a lot of time traveling from town to town, protecting people from mazoku.
->> He never asked for a reward because his reward is love! The love of vindication against mazoku, I'm sure. Basically I think he enjoyed being able to rid the world of mazoku while also helping people enough that he never felt the need to be rewarded for it. Getting to kill the mazoku was all the reward he wanted.
-> So Raiel actually has a lot of experience with this whole being a traveling hero thing. He's probably been doing it for a REALLY long time.
What about that big gap in his backstory between ages 5 and 20?
-> We know he spent some of it hunting down mazoku while searching for Hamel.
->> Searching for Hamel TO KILL HIM AHAHA we'll get to that later actually.
-> This really is just a huge question mark, isn't it?
-> I think he struck out on his own after this. Packed up his piano and left for the wilderness. Of course Raiel's a smart kid so he made sure he was prepared, first. Probably impressed a lot of folks by being out on his own at such a young age?
-> He probably lived off the kindness of others for a while, traveling from village to village. Seeing how the Mazoku were ransacking the countryside just helped cement his hate for them, and eventually pushed him into deciding that it was his job to stop them.
->> He blames Hamel for controlling all the monsters in the world during their battle. This is his own personal delusion built up through years of resentment and hate.
-> HE CARRIES AROUND A PIANO he's obviously pretty physically strong. So he probably did a lot of helping out with menial labour to get by. Work in return for room and board, while honing his magical music skills so he could eventually take on the mazoku.
-> I think he took on his HERO OF LOVE persona at like age 12. That is also when he started seriously fighting the mazoku and endeavouring to protect towns that could not protect themselves. SO HE'S BEEN DOING THE TRAVELING HERO SHTICK FOR A LONG TIME.
-> Obviously he wouldn't have been strong enough to drag the solid gold piano with him when he left the first time. I think he went back home for it when he decided he was going to be a mazoku killer, and he was using the upright one until then.
So about that trying to kill his best friend thing.
-> The more mazoku he killed, the more his hate for Hamel grew. He let the memory of his childhood trauma fester and consume him and while on the surface he was a nice guy helping out folks in need, deep down he was kind of a crazy muhfugga just biding his time until he could have his revenge.
-> Canon point: Every town he saves, he asks whether they've seen Hamel or not. He's always trying to track Hamel down, no matter what else is going on.
-> He's convinced Hamel is the bad guy in this situation. When he finally catches up with Hamel he tries to get onlookers onto his side by explaining how Hamel is the successor of Chestra and how he killed Raiel's parents.
->> He then proceeds to do EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER to kill Hamel, including marionetting an entire town and getting Flute to kill him herself.
->> He's been waiting for this revenge for a REALLY LONG TIME, he wanted to make it as fulfilling as possible.
-> Re: that revenge, I'm certain that time and distance made him so much angrier about the whole thing than he would've been if he'd actually stuck by Hamel and gotten over it back when he was five. IT DROVE HIM MAD (a little, anyway.)
->> I think really he's just kind of predisposed toward crazy.
-> After seeing Flute break his marionette and cry he realized he was making a mistake and that he wasn't being very heroic at all. But that didn't dispel the LINGERING HATE, it just made him realize he was going about this the wrong way.
->> So he decides to trail the group for a while and figure out what his next move should be!
->> He finally comes to terms with exactly what happened and decides that Hamel doesn't actually need to be killed unless he loses it again.
->>> I think Raiel realized that, well, he just REALLY MISSED having a friend around. Sure, he was the HERO OF LOVE and all, but he was ALONE. He wanted his friend back, so he justified the reasoning to himself with "I need to be here to stop him in case he goes mazoku again." He eventually dropped the justification and just got over it.
Raiel's homophobia
-> Okay seriously how many times do he and Hamel wig out about "homos" over the course of the series?
-> He's a really nice guy though so he's not gonna just HATE ON PEOPLE because of something like that.
->> As long as they keep in mind he's not homo everything's fine, right.
->>> Right.
->>>> Because he's not homo.
->>>>> Really.
-> Most of the basis of his friendship with Hamel is I WANT TO MAKE HAMEL HAPPY AT ALL COSTS. Tell me that isn't gay.
->> He doesn't see it that way, of course, and probably never will until somebody else points it out to him and forces him to really think about it.
->> So far in the closet he doesn't even realize it.
->>> So far in the closet he's in NARNIA.
-> Basically he's justified this so hard that he doesn't even realize it. But being around HOMOS kind of threatens his sexuality because he's not 100% confident in his own. Subconscious reaction to establish his heterosexuality by putting down homosexuality or reasserting his own heterosexuality.
-> Of course he's actually straight as evinced by you know copious nosebleeds around girls, but Hamel is an exception to that.
-> This is going to disturb him so badly if he ever actually does figure it out.
He reads an awful lot of shoujo manga.
-> Canon supports this so hard. I don't even need to cite evidence. His fantasies are all straight out of shoujo manga. His idea of romance is taken from shoujo romance.
-> Shoujo manga doesn't actually exist in his world does it??
->> If it doesn't these are probably all things he's made up over the years while being a HOPELESS ROMANTIC and daydreaming endlessly. His own thoughts and opinions on what ~LOVE~ is like.
->> If it does then he spent a lot of his adolescence reading shoujo manga because it appealed to the hopeless romantic in him.
-> It's given him a lot of interesting ideas about romance. Second guy always wins is one of them. Others...well, check any point in the series where he tries to woo Sizer.
-> Exchange diaries!!
-> This shoujo obsession is why he's the hero of LOVE and not the hero of some other metaphysical idea.
He's very perceptive and intelligent.
-> Not that you'd notice unless you were looking for it.
-> He knows quite a bit about the four Kings of Hell's Army and shows a knowledge of worldly stuff on several other occasions.
-> He's the one who buys the map and starts planning the route.
->> He likes to know his surroundings and also likes to have a plan.
-> He's the first person to notice the tension between Sizer and Trom before they ever actually snap.
Making people happy is his biggest goal in life.
-> Raiel is seriously the nicest fucking guy in the world when he's not being a spazzy weirdo.
-> He is CONSTANTLY trying to cheer everyone up. It's his role in the party. Making sure everything is not a gigantic downer all the time.
-> He enjoys helping people, too! He will offer aid to anybody who needs it.
->> I think this may have been picked up from his time spent as a traveling hero. He ran around helping people and really enjoyed the rewarding feeling it gave him.
->> And the world is SO DEPRESSING that being able to make others smile cheers him up too.
-> Not being able to help folks out is his number one least favourite thing ever.
->> It makes him feel powerless and helpless.
->> See: situation with Trom and Sizer! Where he couldn't figure out what to say to either of them and just broke down completely about not being able to help.
->> I wonder if this desire to help stems from not being able to do anything about his town getting massacred?
On the same lines, he also doesn't want people to worry.
-> Reason he did not tell Flute about what happened after she left. She didn't need to know because it'd just make her worry needlessly.
-> Because of this, he keeps a lot of things to himself. He bottles up his negative emotions so he can put on a cheerful face and continue being the guy who cheers everyone up.
->> Gosh that kind of makes him a Stepford Smiler sometimes, doesn't it? I guess that fits.
-> This also leads him to make situations a lot worse in his head than they really are. See: whole debacle regarding revenge against Hamel.
-> Of course when I say "negative emotions" his flipping out about random stuff is, of course, excluded. See Raiel-land for that one.
Overactive imagination slash Raiel-land
-> He has a habit of FLIPPING OUT over the most random shit, what the hell.
-> He lets his imagination get away with him. He'll pick up on some minor thing and then just expand it into some crazy delusion and continue justifying this as truth for like EVER.
->> Results in SERIOUS TOPIC DIGRESSION. Don't fucking encourage it, drag him back to the matter at hand, man.
-> This also means he will decide something is true and then not listen to people who try to tell him it's not. (EG, Clari being a homo.)
Raiel is a Flute/Hamel shipper!
-> He wants Hamel to be happy. That is his DESIRE. But Hamel has developed to a point where Raiel can't be the person who makes him happy anymore.
-> Flute has the ability to pull Hamel back from the edge, which Raiel lacks!
-> Thus the obvious answer is that Hamel and Flute need to be together because Flute makes him happy!
-> This means Raiel is the love-triangle member who would step out of the triangle because he thinks his rival is better for the job. SACRIFICING HIS OWN HAPPINESS FOR HAMEL'S. god i'm such a shipper.
Sizer.
-> fuuuuuuuuuuck don't ask me about Sizer I don't actually ship them I just don't see it .____.
-> I think Raiel is just being kind of obsessive because she's moemoe and has a nice rack. Seriously. This thing is unrequited for like 30 volumes.
-> He shoulda picked Fife.
-> NONETHELESS. He's pretty down about this whole Sizer situation! It's pretty big in his mind right now, though he's been trying to shove it aside under the justification of "the me back home is taking care of it." Not to say he isn't still INCREDIBLY WORRIED about her, but he's trying not to let it consume him.
->> Speaking of, the situation back home? Incredibly worrying. He tries not to think about it, because there's no point in worrying since he can't do anything about it here.
->> He also feels like he has nobody to talk to about this since he doesn't want to worry Flute so SEE THREE SECTIONS UP.
His favourite colour is green.
-> THIS I BELIEVE.
-> He is pretty stuck on his Green/White/Orange colour scheme.
-> One day he'll wear something that is not any of those colours and nobody will recognize him.
-> Then again it'd be pretty funny if NONE of those were his favourite colour, but I feel like double-subverting expectations because that's too predictable.
His favourite food is fish.
-> SERIOUSLY HE STARTS A FIGHT WITH HAMEL IN THE MIDDLE OF AN INN OVER HAMEL STEALING HIS FISH.
-> ...But he eats fish FOR BREAKFAST i don't even fucking know 8|a
-> Quote: "In the morning, you wake up with an emptiness in your stomach. You go to fill it with the white breakfast...and the main dish of that is usually fried fish."
->> seriously idevenk wtf he's talking about BUT TRUST ME HE REALLY LIKES FISH OKAY.
-> I don't even know why, it probably reminds him of his mom or something typical and mundane like that. IT IS A CHILDHOOD FAVOURITE MAYBE WHO KNOWS.
MAMA PANDORA.
-> ...she's kinda weird, man.
-> He knows she's really a good person, though! She just has trouble trusting people!
-> She uhhh...tried to kill him sevvvveral times when he was a kid.
->> He now looks back at these incidents fondly (??? seriously.)
->> It's kind of like, "Oh haha good ol' Mama Pandora!! She's such a character!"
->> Getting poisoned and forced to sign a contract with the devil to be Hamel's friend FOREVER in order to get the antidote -- THE GOOD OL' DAYS
-> Pandora being a friend of the family and teaching him how to play Magic Music made him pretty close to her.
->> He views her as a secondary mother figure, especially now that his own mother is dead.
-> I think this is a very severe case of absence making the heart grow fonder. Seriously.
His love for music.
-> Reminds him of the better days of his childhood. Learning piano from Pandora and having something amazing to pour his energy into.
-> Magic Music IS amazingly powerful and he's been using it as a weapon for so long he couldn't fathom using anything else!
-> He really does just have an appreciation for music. The emotions it conveys and the sheer power it has fascinates him and he loves learning new music.
-> Dude he has all these amazing pieces MEMORIZED. This kid has a MIND for music. HE IS A SAVANT okay maybe not technically but still.
-> It was probably the one thing he was able to take comfort in while he was on his own after his parents were killed.
The heck is with that hat?
-> He seriously thinks it's cool okay don't diss.
-> HATS ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF CHARACTER. Without his hat he is nobody! THE HAT IS AN EXTENSION OF HIMSELF, A SYMBOL OF HIS PERSON.
-> The Hero of Love would be nothing without his symbol! THE HAT STRIKES FEAR INTO THE HEARTS OF HIS ENEMIES BECAUSE THEY KNOW WHO THEY FACE.
Shift key?
-> Raiel doesn't use it?
-> Why not?
->> The bottom line really is that he's just too lazy and doesn't feel like reaching over for it all the time.
->> He had to learn how to use a keyboard first, man! Shift key was just adding one more thing to it and even if he's since learned to type alright he still hasn't picked up a shift key habit.
-> All-caps are done with capslock. Still no shift key involved!
->> He could just double-tap capslock to capitalize single letters?
->> Too much trouble!
-> Besides, the no-caps typing has a certain charm to it, wouldn't you agree?
Some misc stuff:
-> His favourite dessert is apple pie
->> It reminds him of his mom though, so whenever he's already in a weird emotional state he can't quite handle eating it
-> Chocolate cheesecake is a close second!
-> His birthday is November 24th (THE DAY BEFORE MINE WTF)
-> Blood type is AB+ (I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY MICHIAKI WATANABE HE IS NOT TYPE A)
-> Favourite song is Für Elise
-> Height: 176 cm, Weight: 61 kg
-> Canonically, Firebird's name is "Hi no Tori-kun". Which is really just Firebird-kun or Phoenix-kun. I think I will just call him Firebird.
Hey Raiel is kind of a doormat:
-> I wonder if this is in part because of Pandora?
->> I mean he only just had to worry about being physically abused by her if he so much as inched out of line.
->> And he didn't really show any inclinations of letting people walk all over him before meeting her... He stands up to bullies on Hamel's behalf regularly.
->> I think Pandora's abuse has him trained to be completely submissive to the wills of women? A stern glare is enough to make him completely cave!