Balmung (.hack)
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| Balmung | |
|---|---|
| .hack character | |
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| First appearance | .hack//Sign |
| Voiced by | Nobuyuki Hiyama (Japanese) Crispin Freeman Doug Erholtz (English) |
| Profile | |
| Gender | Male |
| Class | Blademaster |
| Player Information | |
| Name | unknown |
| Age | 17-18 |
| Gender | Male |
Balmung (バルムンク Barumunku?), also referred to as Lord Balmung, is a character from .hack, a franchise that encompasses several video games, anime and manga. A legendary player of the mega-popular MMORPG The World, Balmung is an ally and acquaintance to many of the other characters in the franchise. His name comes from the sword of Siegfried who defeated the dragon Fafnir in the Nibelungenlied. Balmung is known as "Balmung of Azure Sky", while his partner Orca is called "Orca of Azure Sea". Together the two are collectively known as "The Descendants of Fianna".
His avatar resembles an angelic white-winged knight with white-silver hair, silver body armor, and azure arm and leg armor. He and his partner's class is Blademaster, wielding a short sword in one hand.
Balmung appears on two cards in the .hack//Enemy trading card game. One is his personal character card, the other is on an action card. Although Balmung is never actually shown explicitly using his wings to fly, in-game cinematics in .hack//Infection show Balmung leaping clear across a room (an impossible action in-game) and in .hack//Mutation Balmung is revealed to be in an inaccessible location to earthbound players, then spreads his wings to stop himself in mid-air twice; first to float for a moment before landing from a long jump, second to keep himself from being blown away by artificial winds, and then hovering for a few moments before gating away from Net Slum. Also, in .hack//Legend of the Twilight anime series Balmung descends from the sky to catch Rena high in the air. No character could have simply leapt high enough to descend in such a manner. Balmung is the only character to be in .hack//Sign anime series, the PS2 games and the .hack//Legend of the Twilight anime/manga series.
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[edit] Summary
Personality wise, Balmung is originally very formal and assertive of his views, following a strict moral code of doing good in The World, leading some to consider him arrogant or rude at times. He often speaks in a more archaic fashion than regular players. He truly loves The World, and takes playing it very seriously, to the point of investigating disturbances within it personally and refusing to speak with hackers or associate with them. It has been stated he plays to escape the outside world, and he strongly dislikes speaking of it while in The World. By the time of .hack//Legend of the Twilight he's much more care-free and less serious with new players, though still completely business-like with his superiors and associates.
The novel .hack//AI buster reveals Balmung was one of a select few chosen to beta-test the early version of The World, called Fragment, when he was in his last year at high school. It is made clear he at first played the game by teaming up with others, but after a bad experience he chose to play alone. After some time, he met Orca, who charmed him into becoming his partner. Since then, the two played together as a team of only two, although the game allowed for more members.
[edit] One Sin
Early on in The World, there was rumored to be a field full of absurdly powerful monsters and one undefeatable one, referred to as the "One Sin" event. Balmung and Orca refused to believe there could be such a thing as an undefeatable monster in the game, believing the game to be perfectly balanced. The undefeated monster, a giant dragon called the Spectrum Dragon, was eventually found and indeed its hit points were never depleted by attacks of any kind. Only after an unknown length of time did the duo discover that the dragon changed colors to signify what element type had struck it, and in order to harm the creature, they would have to strike it with that element's opposite immediately following the first attack. Even then, the monster's hit points were still at 9,999. Albireo, a system administrator, witnessed this battle, noticing that only a team of two players could discover the monster's weakness, as three or more players' attacks would be too chaotic. Orca and Balmung managed to defeat the creature. Balmung won MVP status for the battle, receiving an ultra-rare character upgrade. This was how he received his wings. Balmung became the only character in the game (aside from the small-winged female Heavy Axemen such as Subaru and Legend of Twilight short-story character Luke) with wings.
[edit] Anime
Balmung had been mentioned early on in .hack//Sign, but appears only briefly in episode 22, Phantom, where he follows the main characters into a dungeon and saves Subaru from being attacked by a virus-ridden monster by engaging it alone. He was invited to join the main characters later on, but Helba's presence kept him from attending. Balmung also appears in the special episode Unison, in which he, Kite and Orca are looking for remaining data bugs.
Balmung was famous enough to be mentioned in the first episode of .hack//Liminality, despite its story taking place entirely outside the game itself.
In .hack//Legend of the Twilight manga/anime, Balmung is a system administrator of The World who likes to plan (odd) events for the users.[1] Unlike his appearances in other parts of the series, his personality, usually blunt and serious, is more light-hearted and laidback. He seems to be much more sympathetic to others and allows himself to get close to his companions, as never before. He works his assistant operator Reki quite hard, but shows great affection toward him despite pushing him so hard. He is later fired for continuing to help Shugo and Rena in their quest to find Aura (in the anime Shugo is trying to find Rena after she is kidnapped and put into a coma). Also note that in the anime version of this story it appears that Balmung is reinstated as a sys-admin at the end of the final episode. In the manga, Kamui's underling Magi poisons his coffee mug.
It should be noted that in all three of his premiere appearances in .hack//Sign, .hack//Infection, and .hack//Legend of the Twilight (both manga and anime), he saves a female character from attack by a data bug monster. This furthers Balmung's persona as the stereotypical "knight in shining armor."
[edit] Infection to Quarantine
In the first game, .hack//Infection, he attacks Kite after witnessing Kite use Data Drain, which to Balmung is an unnatural/illegal action in The World. Because of this Balmung views Kite as part of the virus that's spreading throughout The World, and remains suspicious of Kite and his friends. Throughout the first two games, Balmung refuses to aid and remains suspicious of Kite, preferring to find his own solution to The World's problems alone. He finally joins Kite at the beginning of the third game, .hack//Outbreak, after being assisted in a duel with an enormous data bug. He becomes one of the core players seeking to put an end to the corruption of The World along with Kite, BlackRose, Helba, Lios, and Wiseman.
[edit] Roots and G.U.
By the time of these events, The World has changed such that Balmung no longer appears. However, his legacy lives on. In the final episode of .hack//Roots, a corrupted version of Balmung appears alongside Azure Kite and a corrupted Orca near the end. This "Azure Balmung" has an emaciated figure, light purple hair, a large red sword, and jagged golden spines jutting from his back instead of wings. Like Azure Kite and Azure Orca, Azure Balmung appeared with only one visible eye. In the video game .hack//G.U., the three are referred to by players as the Azure Knights, with Azure Balmung being commonly referred to as "The Winged Man."
[edit] References
- ^ Blackwings.net character profiles. Accessed 2007-02-10.
[edit] External links
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