Phantom

Phantom
Characteristics
Name	Phantom
Gender	Male
Age	30
Affiliation	Chess Pieces: Strongest Knight
Family	Father Mother
ÄRMs	Babbo Allu Majuu Phantom Glass Phantom Cannon Soul Infinitia Hexagonal Shards I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X
Seiyū (Japanese)	Mitsuki Saiga
Voice actor(s) (English)	Derek Stephen Prince

Phantom is a character in MÄR, fighting for the Chess Pieces, he is currently the strongest knight in the chess.

Personality

Being the primary villain throughout most of the story, although he appears suave, charming and even benign on the outside, Phantom is unstable, sadistic, callous and like other Chess Pieces, revels in bloodshed and destruction. He especially likes to be entertained at all times, hoping during each Great War that a strong enemy will appear and trying his best to make each battle as enjoyable as possible, even to the point of allowing Ginta's power to grow equal to his. As opposed to the main protagonists, who respect life and unite in their love for MÄR-Heaven, he considers humans vile, rotten and above all, seeks emancipation from their transient lifespan with its natural weaknesses by means of immortality. Despite this, he still appreciates certain human values such as courage.

As the Chess Pieces' de facto commander, Phantom rules the four classes with an iron fist, tolerating no cowardice in his men or even haphazard killings of lowerclass members. At the same time, his charisma elicits great love and respects from many of his followers, i.e. Rolan, Peta and Candice. Later in the story (more obviously shown in the anime than the manga), Phantom's revealed to treasure those who are close to him, and his desire for eternity partly originates from his unwillingness to part with them. On occasions, he openly laments his solitude in their passings: his parents, his lover Alma, and in the course of the War Game, his best friend Peta.'

History

Phantom was born thirty years before the main part of the series takes place in the magical island nation of Caldia within MÄR-Heaven. Phantom, at age ten, found a mysterious door while exploring through Caldia's Floating Castle, inside of which he discovered Caldia's Orb, a magical orb in which was sealed the consciousnesses of the world's greatest evils. Seduced by the orb, he began to visit nearly every day, until one day he was discovered by the guards. By Caldia's law, Phantom's parents would have to kill him. Unwilling to do so, however, they commit suicide (by hanging in the manga, and a knife originally intended for their son's murder in the anime). Because of this, Phantom, having no other relatives, was imprisoned for life. He still reflected bitterly on this incident up until this day, misunderstanding his parents' love for him, and this view was not to be changed until Candice showed him her love.

10 years later, while Phantom was rotting in prison, Diana came to him and with her beauty, the dream of conquering the world, the abhorrence towards deservingly inferior humans, easily made a faithful follower out of him. Together they stole 798 ÄRMs out of Caldia's vault and Babbo (with the Orb's soul downloaded into it), then deserted Caldia for a journey across MÄR-Heaven, recruiting warriors for the army they called Chess Pieces. In 2 years' time, Phantom befriended Peta and fell in love with Alma, a Vestrian sailor - until Diana was chosen as the bride of Lestava kingdom and enthroned herself Queen of the Chess Pieces. With the mantle of Chess Pieces' number 1 Knight and the completion of its construction falling onto Phantom, Diana tattooed him with the Zombie curse, weeding out his ability to die. This, however, resulted in the wane of Phantom's romance as while he was infatuated with immortality and believed it would deliver him of the flawed, limited human existence while Alma desperately sought the opposite, respecting its constant cycle of death and rebirth. Seeing the disharmony, each took their own leave and Phantom set out on another journey to assemble brethrens whose ideals were akin to his.

Another 2 years passed as the Chess Pieces mustered enough power to wage war against MÄR-Heaven and Phantom, in command of its thousand fighters, quickly suppressed every opposing force. In reply, the kingdom of Lestava, MÄR-Heaven's sovereign superpower, incorporated a mass of worldwide fighters into a retaliating army, the Cross Guard. The Chess Pieces, in an attempt to fight off the Cross Guard, then initiated the War Games. During the last round of the War Games, Phantom and Danna fought to a draw, Phantom's arm being torn off and Danna receiving a fatal wound in the attack. As Peta went on to explain to the Cross Guard, Phantom would one day come back, and the war would continue.

Plot

Pre-War Games arc

Shortly after Babbo was released from his seal by Ginta Toramizu, Phantom was resurrected, and went to visit Diana to learn of the world's current state. Phantom, inside Lestava Castle, then greeted all of the Chess Pieces and told them that they would fight again. Within three days after that, the Chess Pieces had conquered almost half of MÄR-Heaven, much to Phantom's excitement. Hearing of Ginta through Peta, Phantom took the guise of Tom and befriended Ginta, watching from the background as Ginta fought the Chess Piece Bishop Girom on a ghost ship. While leaving, Phantom killed the Bishop Orco for his cowardice.

War Games arc

Throughout the second War Games, Phantom watched the battles between the Chess Pieces and Team MÄR, the force opposing the Chess Pieces of which Ginta was a member of, from the sidelines and having several meetings with both Diana and the Chess Piece Knights. Following the fourth round, Phantom led an invasion of Caldia (killing one of the guards at the gate), and killed two Chess Pieces attempting to escape the fight against Dorothy. While in Caldia, he found Ginta, who was exhausted from defeating several Chess Piece Rooks. The two had a short battle, where Phantom completely outclassed Ginta, which later proved only to motivate him. Phantom later had Ian, a Rook in the Chess Pieces, kill the Knight Rapunzel to be promoted to Knight class, commenting on how rage and hatred increased Ian's strength.

During the Final Round of the War Games, Phantom had his second fight with Ginta. Phantom, following the final revelation of his wizard identity, sent Guardian after Guardian at Ginta, and Ginta revealed his sixth version of Babbo, Puss in Boots, a giant cat that could use other ÄRM. During the fight, Ginta tore off Phantom's sewed on arm, leaving only two of Phantom's ÄRM left to use. Following their destruction he tried to best Ginta physically, however was crushed by an enlarged Babbo and lost the match. Candice, one of Phantom's most devoted followers, then carried Phantom to his throne in Lestava Castle.

Post-War Games arc

His eventual death, although consistently preceded by Diana's announcement of his dismission from her service (as she now considers him useless), progresses with different sequence in the manga and anime adaptions:

Manga Ending

In the manga, Phantom awaited for Team MÄR's arrival to end his life, which Alviss volunteered for. Seeing the Purific Ave Alviss held in his hands, Phantom is reminded of his long lost love, Alma, and knew she entrusted them with the key to stop him, to which Alviss remarked that with all his sins, Phantom was not likely to join with her in heaven. Mentally and physically exhausted, Phantom apologized to a lamenting Candice and did not resist when Alviss put the key into his body. His last word was a farewell to MÄR-Heaven.

Anime Ending

Diana was furious with Phantom's defeat and cast him away, considering him now a useless puppet. The Ghost Chess teleported Phantom, Candice, and Rolan (who was with them) to a decrepit fortress on a desolate island, where the Ghost Chess then proceeded to activate Alviss' Zombie Tattoo, putting him under Phantom's influence, and defeat each of MÄR. After Alviss was freed and returned to finish Phantom off, Candice led Phantom out of their hiding place in an attempt to save him. They were finally cornered at a cliff looking out to the sea; however, seeing how much Candice cared for him, Phantom understood he wasn't so unloved like he thought he was. He used the last of his energy to protect Candice from Ginta's attack and this led to him seeing a vision of Alma, who reconciliated with him. With his heart set at ease by Alma's encouragements, Phantom embraced death by voluntarily putting the Purific Ave into his body (to the awe of Alviss, who was actually half-reluctant to after witnessing his act of selflessness). Before Phantom's last breath, Alviss gave him a rose, which was Rolan's gift to him when he died, and erased the Zombie Tattoo mark off his hand. Alviss then covered Phantom's body with his shirt and, as a sign of respect, asked Jack to grow back the withered plants on the barren ground Phantom was resting on, entombing him amidst a green field of flowers. As Alviss departed with his friends, he remarked that Phantom would always live on in everyone's hearts.

ÄRMs List

Phantom keeps all of his ÄRM sewn onto his newly attached arm, having lost the original during his fight with Danna, and usually hides the arm with a large number of bandages. Phantom's skill level is also powerful enough to call forth more than one of these Guardians at a time. His ÄRMs are:

• Babbo: Phantom's previous ÄRM, inside which 6 years ago Orb resided. After he was killed by Danna, it also was secretly taken out, and the ÄRM was sealed. It is now used by Ginta.
  • Zombie Tattoo: Not an ÄRM, but a tattoo given to him by Diana. It allows Phantom to resurrect himself every time he is killed and only by removing the tattoo can one truly finish the Knight off. By using one of Babbo's old powers Phantom was able to pass on the tattoo to other people. These other tattoo are conected to him so when Phantom's tattoo is removed all tattoos cast by him are removed to. To remove his tattoo, one must place inside a hole in his chest the Holy ÄRM Purific Ave.
• Allu Majuu : A Unique-typed ÄRM in the shape of a fiendish flame orb chained to a black halberd. When ordered, the orb will enlarge itself and engulf opponents, killing them in a deadly explosion.
• Phantom Glass: A Unique-typed ÄRM, a mirror which traps opponents inside it and shatters after a short amount of time (presumably coherent to the victim's magic level in the manga, while works on a mechanism with a hourglass in the anime), sharing the trapped ones a same fate. Phantom uses this to kill cowards in the Chess Pieces too.
• Phantom Cannon: (anime) Unique-typed ÄRM, releases blasts of energy from his palm. The beam is extremely powerful and nearly destroyed Puss n Boots.
• Hexagonal Shards: Another Unique-typed ÄRM, a mass of hexagonal fragments. In its defense mode the fragments construct an impenetrable shield, and when discharged in attack mode they will launch consecutive shoots at the target. When inactive, these are kept along Phantom's sewed on arm, giving the effect of scales.
• Soul Infinitia: A ghostly Darkness ÄRM that takes the form of a darkly colored ribbon. After draining the life force of all around it besides the user, it launches itself at its master's intended target.
• I (Eins): Guardian ÄRM, the sentient type, a knightly armored creature which attacks with a long spear. Destroyed during his battle with Ginta. It can be said Eins is the strongest of the five gaurdians Phantom summoned at once.
• II (Zwei) - Remrace: Guardian ÄRM, the insentient type, one of the only two to be named and strongests - a Herculean version of these common dark souls. Destroyed during his battle with Ginta.
• III (Drei): Guardian ÄRM, the insentient type, a muscularly built wood monster. Destroyed during his battle with Ginta.
• IV (Vier): Guardian ÄRM, the insentient type, a four-legged puppet with its head twisted upwards. Special ability: crossing space. Destroyed during his battle with Ginta.
• V (Fünf) - Dead Dragon: Guardian ÄRM, the insentient type, one of the only two to be named and strongest - a dragon with decaying skins and reeky breath. Destroyed during his battle with Ginta.
• VI (Sechs): Guardian ÄRM, the insentient type, a gigantic stuffed rabbit with a sewn mouth which, each time it opens, will release a destructive beam. Destroyed during his battle with Ginta.
• VII (Sieben): Guardian ÄRM, the sentient type, a Humpty Dumpty-like midget, donning an outfit of late 18th/earlier 19th century style (as its top hat and cane suggest). Not much of its ability is known but it can be said Sieben as the weakest as seen when he tried to run away rather than fight. Destroyed during his battle with Ginta.
• VIII (Acht): Guardian ÄRM, the insentient type, a stone monster. Destroyed during his battle with Ginta.
• IX (Neun): Guardian ÄRM, the insentient type, a levitating cloaked monster with invisible gloved hands and a log for a head. Destroyed during his battle with Ginta.
• X (Zehn): Guardian ÄRM, the sentient type, a skeletal hooded phantom, which assails the opponent emotionally. Special ability: once the opponent falls for its words, X's outwardly harmless appearance will transform into a more malignant one and finishes the prey. Destroyed during his battle with Ginta.

Trivia

• All of Phantom's numbered Guardians are the German words for the numbers 1-10. Additionally, all ten of those Guardians also bear on them the Roman Numerals for their number.
• He ranked seventh in the character popularity poll.