Valon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Valon |
|
| Appears in | anime: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (second series anime) |
| Debut | Season 4, Episode 1 |
| Birthday | Unknown |
| Deck | Armor |
| Sign | Unknown |
| Age | 20 years |
| Height | Unknown |
| Weight | Unknown |
| Blood type | Unknown |
| Favorite food | Unknown |
| Least favorite food | Unknown |
| Status at debut | Swordsman of Doma |
| Relations | None |
| Seiyū | Tsuyohsi Maeda |
| Voice actor(s) | Marc Thompson |
Valon (ヴァロン Varon) is a fictional character in the Waking the Dragons (or Doma) story arc of the Yu-Gi-Oh! second anime series, known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Japan. Many fans of the series render his name as Varon.
Valon is one of Dartz's three swordsmen. He does not seem to get along with Alister, as evidenced by the one scene where they actually converse, and end up arguing. He and Rafael seem to get along fine, however. He is responsible for leading Mai Valentine (Mai Kujaku in the English manga and Japanese versions) to Dartz. Valon has a deck of armour monsters that the duelist can wear. When Valon discovered that Mai wanted to get rid of Joey Wheeler (Katsuya Jonouchi in the English manga and the Japanese version), he designated Joey as his target.
In the English dub, Valon has a cockney accent. He also bears a strong visual resemblence to Taichi Kamiya from Digimon.
[edit] History
Valon is shown as a child that loves getting into fights. He appears to be an orphan, but apparently looked after by a kind nun. One day she is in the church with Valon, cleaning wounds from a previous fight, when a group of thugs enter, telling the nun that their boss has bought the church and that they must leave. Valon is ready to fight, but the nun tells him not to. That night a fire is started at the church, Valon is there and spots the thugs from earlier, who are sniggering about it (the nun is also suspected to have been in the church at the time of the fire). Valon thinks they are responsible and later he is seen in an alley holding a length of pipe, the bodies of the thugs on the ground around him. It is uncertain whether he killed them or not, as they have been briefly seen in later scenes. (This entire sequence is from the Japanese version of the anime and is cut from the US version.)
Valon is taken to prison (or a Juvenile Detention center), where he gets into more fights. Eventually he is taken to the headmaster, who tells Valon that he will let him leave if he defeats all the other prisoners on an island, using the Seal of Orichalcos (the headmaster is obviously working for Dartz). Valon defeats all of his opponents. He is then encountered by Dartz and offered to work for him, and Valon accepts. Valon doesn't know that Dartz had the church burnt down. In the US version, Dartz had instead framed Valon for his first crime.
Valon eventually becomes infatuated with Mai Valentine, although she does not appear to return those feelings as strongly as he wished she would. Partly out of jealousy, and partly to help Mai let go of her past, Valon duels Joey Wheeler, a young man Mai loved in the past. While Mai is initially angry at Valon for this, once he loses she shows great concern for him, but quickly regains her composure and duels Joey. Valon's soulless body, along with Mai's, is rescued by Rafael, and they are both restored when Dartz is defeated.
[edit] Deck
Valon utilizes an Armor Deck, a unique deck in which the monsters he summons are equipped to his own body and he uses himself as a weapon. The majority of his strategy revolves around Psychic Armor Head, which has the ability to search out any Armor Monster he wishes from his deck and it also regenerates itself from the Graveyard when it is destroyed. In addition, nearly all of his Monster Cards have a powerful effect of some sort, ranging from Magic and Trap negation to powerful forms of Monster destruction.
The Seal of Orichalcos is critical to Valon's deck, as all of his Armor monsters have zero attack points and only certain cards can gain respectable attack points through their abilities. Furthermore, Valon uses cards that can summon his Armor Monsters in mass and the Seal allows a player to use their Magic and Trap zones for their Monster Cards, effectively doubling the number of Monster Cards that can be played. Valon has little subtlety in his moves, and thus uses few Trap cards while his Spells mostly rely on summoning his Armor cards. He prefers a straightforward offense to crush his opponent and the duels he has been involved in are extremely fierce.
