ValGaav
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Valgaav is a fictional character in the series Slayers. His Japanese voice actor is Wataru Takagi and his English voice actor is Scottie Ray.
Valgaav appears as one of the main antagonists in the third season, Slayers TRY. He is the last surviving member of the Ancient Dragons and is also a part of the Mazoku race.
Name: Valgaav, also spelled Valgarv
Age: Unknown. Probably slightly younger than Xellos, which would put him over 1,000 years old.
Race: Ancient Dragon originally, appears to be half mazoku as well in TRY.
Mazoku Lord: Gaav [Deceased]
Because of the things that he had to endure in his past, Valgarv has become a bitter figure. It seems as if all the forces of the universe have collaborated and decided it would be fun to turn Valgarv's life into a twisted roller-coaster ride of misfortune. When we first see Valgarv, we know nothing about him other than the fact that he is a follower of Maryuu-oh Gaav, wants revenge for his demise, and desires the possession of the Gornova (Hikari no Ken). However, only a few more episodes into the series, we learn something about Valgarv that we would have never expected...
We knew that Valgarv was a mazoku, it was clear from the start. However, in episode eight, we learned that Valgarv is also an ancient ryuzoku. This surprised not only the viewers, but Lina's group, Xelloss, and even the golden ryuzoku! Sprouting feathery wings from his back, and his arms transforming into long black claws, Valgarv told about the genocide of his kind, the way his kin were killed in cold blood at the hands of the golden ryuzoku. Imagine the pain that Valgarv had to endure, growing up in a world where he was to be hunted as some sort of lesser being. It is a harsh reality, watching loved ones get slaughtered in front of your eyes.
Fortunately for Valgarv, he managed to elude the golden ryuzoku long enough to be killed and brought back as a mazoku by Maryuu-oh Gaav. However, Valgarv must carry the pain and suffering of all of the ancient ryuzoku upon his shoulders on a daily basis. This has led him to a bitter existence. When the only person he could truly trust in was killed, Valgarv had no one left in the world (with the exception of Jiras and Glavos). Doing the only thing he could do, he vowed revenge against the person who was responsible for Maryuu-oh Gaav's death.
Eventually, as the number of allies on Valgarv's side decreased, his hatred for the world increased. His actions became more twisted as he was betrayed by Armace, and took it upon himself to take the Dark Star weapons, Ravdomezehis and Gornova. By this time, not only has his race been executed, but his mentor was killed and he was betrayed by people he thought he could trust. A person can only take so much. With the Ravdomezehis in one hand, and the Gornova in the other, Valgarv declared that he would open the gate of ruin, and bring Dark Star into the (Slayers) world.
He succeeded in doing so, giving up his own life for this ambition, and disappearing into the pitch blackness that is Dark Star. ...... Or so we thought. In the very last few episodes of the series, Valgarv re-appears. However, something about him has changed so greatly that no one could have ever expected it. The only thing we know about the ancient ryuzoku's lifestyle was that it was a peaceful one. While we don't know what Val Agares' life was like, we can assume that he lived a fairly peaceful and normal one until the golden ryuzoku attacked his race. How Val managed to be the only one of his kind to survive is a mystery. Was it fate? Destiny? Or was it sheer luck? Either way, it was Val Agares who was the last one of his kind left.
In a desperate attempt to survive, Val Agares retreated to the desert. He spent most of his time hiding in the sand dunes, trying to stay out of the golden ryuzoku's sights. It's unsure of how long this went on but one day, he crossed paths with Maryuu-oh Gaav (who, at the time, had become half-mazoku, half-human). Gaav, in an act of either sympathy or convenience, gave Val Agares the choice to die or get revenge for his people. Val, not hesitating, chose revenge and was "killed" by Gaav and brought back as a mazoku (or, more specifically, half-mazoku, half-ryuzoku). Val Agares was now known as Valgarv.
How long Valgarv spent time with Gaav isn't clearly defined but we can safely assume that it was at least half a millennium. For this length of time, Valgarv learned the art of battle and stayed with Gaav faithfully. The two were not always together... Valgarv had taken to wandering around the country and in the process, came across Glavos and Jiras. Extending a hand in friendship, Valgarv gave both Glavos and Jiras the same option that Gaav gave him -- death or revenge. Both beast men chose revenge and in turn, became loyal servants of Valgarv.
Time passed and Gaav's plan to foil Mei-oh Phibrizo's plot to destroy the world came into effect. Unfortunately, Gaav was destroyed by Phibrizo in the process... although when the news reached Valgarv, he was informed that it was none-other than Lina Inverse who slayed his precious master. Enraged, Valgarv vowed to get revenge for the one true friend he had since his race was slaughtered and he set out to get revenge on Lina.
Before he met up with Lina, however, Valgarv was prepositioned by an outsider by the name of Armace. In turn for helping him gather the five Dark Star weapons, Armace would aid Valgarv in getting revenge for Gaav. Three weapons (Ravedomezehis the Spear, Mezard the Trident and Vodiga the Axe) had been found so far and all that was left to find was Gornova the Sword (Gourry's Hikari no Ken) and Galveria the Bow. Valgarv felt that it was time Armace did his part and requested the use of Ravdomezehis... but Armace declined, saying it was too dangerous. Angered, Valgarv decided to take it into his own hands and he left to attack Lina Inverse.
This is where Slayers TRY starts, at episode three and four.
Valgarv: Valgarv is a half-mazoku, half-ancient dragon, a trusted servant of Chaos Dragon Garv. His Japanese voice actor is 高木渉 Wataru Takagi, and his English voice actor is Scottie Ray.
Valgarv is approximately 1000 years old, as he was apparently alive during or after the Kōma War, although only as an infant.
All his relatives were slaughtered by the golden dragons. Shortly after, Chaos Dragon Garv turned him into a mazoku. Many years later, he was absorbed by Dark Star-Vorfeed, and shortly after that, he was resurrected to his original ancient dragon form and adopted by Filia Ul Copt.
Before becoming a servant of Garv, he was an ancient dragon known as Val. With no future as a dragon, Garv turned him into a mazoku and thus, he became Valgarv. He lives to revenge Garv's death and fulfill all of Chaos Dragon's wishes, which means he is against Shabranigdu and all of his followers. He seems to be angry at everyone - Shabranigdu for his involvement in sealing Garv into a human body; Lina Inverse for supposedly killing Garv; Xelloss for being against Garv; the golden dragons for slaughtering his original race... Thus, he made a contract with a shinzoku of Dark Star's world, Armace, to collect all of Dark Star's weapons and bring the ma-ō into the Slayers world. His intentions were not to mindlessly destroy all of creation - he wanted to "purify" the world, destroying the shinzoku and the mazoku and ending the vicious conflict put into place by the Lord of Nightmares. He assured Lina and her friends that they would be reborn, and allowed to live their lives over again. This obviously did not happen, as Lina and the others decided they did not want to lose their memories or experiences. Thus Valgarv was destroyed, and in a twist of fate, Vorfeed resurrected him as an ancient dragon with her last vestiges of strength. (This is a subject of debate, as others believe that his resurrection was caused by the intervention of the Lord of Nightmares. No explicit canon information is available on this matter.)
As the ancient dragon ValValgaav is a mazoku with the full abilities of an ancient dragon, making him extremely powerful. He is even a match for Xelloss, which means that although he is not Garv's priest or general, he can be counted as a high-ranking mazoku. When he gets angry, his dragon arms and wings manifest. This is very painful for him, as he is not able to fully transform into his rightful form. Throughout much of TRY, he uses the Dark Star weapon Ragudo Mezegis as a supplement to his magical powers.
[edit] Relationships
Valgarv wrongly believed that Lina Inverse was the one who killed Garv (while it really was Hellmaster Fibrizo), and he vowed revenge on her. She could do nothing but fight back in order to defend herself.
He also hated Xelloss for being against Garv and trying to thwart his plans. Xelloss was sent to Valgarv in order to attempt to turn him to Shabranigdu's side, and of course Valgaav said no, meaning Xelloss had to kill him. However, this never happened, as Xelloss underestimated Valgarv's power, and was wounded by him.
Valgarv was very cynical to Filia Ul Copt, declaring her naive for not knowing what her race did to his in the past. She does everything in her power to convince him that she is truly sorry for what her ancestors did, but he does not accept. Several times, he tries to show her the truth by making her hand hold the weapon that would bring destruction to the world. After he is killed and resurrected as an unhatched ancient dragon, Filia takes the initiative of being his caretaker and surrogate mother.
Valgarv saved both Jiras Jiros Jires and Grabos Maunttop from death at the hands of humans. As a result, they are both loyal to him and want to do everything in their (limited) power to help him and his objectives. In the end of the series, they remained by his side, working in Filia's store: The future:
In most series, the tragic antagonist never gets a second chance at life. They die and their death is the end to the story of their tragedy. This is almost the case for Valgarv. Many moral and ethical questions arose when Lina, Filia and the rest are forced to fight Valgarv for the last time, knowing full well how he's not a villain but a misguided, hurt and confused creature. "Who's really the bad guy?" The situation's no longer just black and white.
Lina and company destroyed Valgarv. And they thought that was it. Filia was distraught because she knew that Valgarv was not at wrong. However... Everyone was surprised when snow began to fall and a small egg descended from the sky, right into Filia's hands.
The egg contained a baby ancient ryuzoku. It was Valgarv, reborn. It seemed as if someone took pity on him and gave him a second chance where he could lead a normal, peaceful life once again. Filia, determined to make up for her people's wrong doings, vowed to take care of Valgarv and make sure that he go the chance to lead a life like he should have been able to lead. Jiras and Glavos both agreed to help her... and all four of them were left in a pottery shop as Filia decided to make an honest living.
Will Valgarv's life be completely without problems? Most likely not... but at least he won't have to face the tragedy he faced in his previous life. He'll certainly learn about what happened to him in the past (it's inevitable with both Jiras and Glavos there) but hopefully, it won't get in the way of him having a normal life... it may be unsettling to learn that in your past life, such a disaster happened but... let's all hope that Valgarv can cope with what's been left behind.
In Battle:
Valgarv, in battle, is extremely reckless. When he gets serious about something, he doesn't care about his surroundings at all. He just wants to get his job done and if that means totaling the landscape, it's fine with him. He's also very cocky when he fights, throwing insults and acting rather arrogant. Although, his arrogance isn't necessarily misplaced -- he is a very powerful being.
However, his tendency to throw himself into battle can make him very dangerous even to himself. In a rage of fury, Valgarv attempted to transform into an ancient ryuzoku without really thinking of the consequences and was forced to endure very severe pain for his thoughtless actions.
Valgarv also doesn't waste time playing with his prey either. While someone like Xelloss takes the time to torture his opponents and play with them, Valgarv wants to get his job done as fast as possible. He doesn't see why he has to waste his time on someone that can be destroyed immediately. He really enjoys a good battle though, which is perhaps the reason he didn't kill Lina Inverse right away (and also why he was so disappointed that she wasn't as strong as he believed her to be).
[edit] Powers
Valgarv is extremely powerful and is able to use both the power of a high level mazoku (parallel to Xelloss even) and the power of an ancient ryuzoku (just one has the strength of 100 golden ryuzoku). While there are many disadvantages to being a half-breed, there are a few benefits... one being able to harness the immense power of both races.
As a mazoku, he has all of the abilities that Xelloss does. He is able to teleport instantly to any location, is invulnerable to physical attacks (not even the Gornova can damage him) and is able to generate his own power to be used in attacks (blasts of energy, for example). As a ryuzoku, he is able to transform into his dragon form (although not without severe pain) and use powers that ryuzoku can use. Generally, his mazoku-related attacks are generally red in colour while his ryuzoku-related ones are green.
It's unclear but Valgarv claims to have taken Gaav's power for his own. Whether he means he has taken Gaav's place in the world or if he actually has gained additional power after Gaav was destroyed is never explained.
RAVDOMEZEHIS Ravdomezehis the Spear is one of the five weapons forged by Dark Star himself, and sent to the Slayers universe. Armace came from Dark Star's world to search for these five weapons so that he may destroy Dark Star. At the beginning of Slayers TRY, Ravdomezehis is the most powerful weapon in Armace's possession (Gornova and Galveria were still unfound at the time). Valgarv took Ravdomezehis into his own hands to fight Lina-tachi and later stole it permanently from Armace after Valgarv was betrayed by him.
Ravdomezehis is so powerful that it takes quite a great effort to control the blade of light coming from each end. Valgarv is powerful enough to use this weapon without any effort but someone as weak as Glavos isn't able to. Valgarv uses Ravdomezehis in battle a number of times and he eventually uses it along with Gornova to summon Dark Star into the Slayers world. Using the spear of light for this purpose was probably on Valgarv's hidden agenda when he stole it.
Problem With Mazoku:
Valgarv's hatred towards the mazoku most likely stems from the fact that he is half-ryuzoku. It's a well known fact that ryuzoku and mazoku are bitter enemies with each other and even though Valgarv is half-mazoku himself, he still has a strong ryuzoku mentality within him. The only mazoku that Valgarv had a relationship with was Gaav.
Gaav was the only one to come to Valgarv's aid when both the ryuzoku and mazoku wouldn't have anything to do with him. He was Valgarv's one and only friend for a very, very long time and Valgarv believed that he owed Gaav everything for saving his life and offering him a chance of revenge for his people. Since Gaav's dual-nature was being shunned by the mazoku, Valgarv's hatred for the race only grew stronger. The fact that the mazoku would have Gaav dead didn't please Valgarv one bit.
While it's never actually stated in the series, it's implied that another reason for Valgarv's hatred towards mazoku is because they never came to Gaav's aid when he was destroyed by Lina Inverse. While we know that it was actually Phibrizo who was the cause of Gaav's demise, Valgarv believed that it was Lina. Believing that the mazoku just let Gaav be destroyed at the hands of a human didn't strengthen his resolve.
What really seals the deal is when Xelloss prepositions Valgarv to join the mazoku to make them stronger. Valgarv is absolutely disgusted by this show of selfishness and betrayal and promptly declines Xelloss' offer. Xelloss, unsuccessful in trying to recruit Valgarv, tries to kill Valgaav.
Problem With Ryuzoku: Valgarv loathes the golden ryuzoku. Valgaav's hatred stems the incident that caused the ryuzoku to destroy his entire race.
During the Kouma War, the golden ryuzoku asked the ancient ryuzoku for their help. However, being a peaceful race and wanting no part in the war, the ancients declined. They would stay neutral. However, this didn't go over well with the goldens. They knew how powerful the ancients were and became enraged that they wouldn't use their strength to fight. More-over, they were afraid. So scared, they jumped to the conclusion that if the ancients didn't help them, there'd be a possibility that sometime in the future, the ancients may turn on them.
What scared the golden ryuzoku the most was the fact that they may lose their place as the most powerful of the ryuzoku. They knew that the ancients held the most powerful weapon -- Galveria the Bow -- and they wanted it for themselves to ensure their place at the top of the food chain. Their solution for this fear? Genocide. Orders were given to the goldens to slaughter the entire race of ancient ryuzoku. Every last one of them -- men, women, children, eggs -- were to die. All because the goldens were too selfish and power-hungry.
This act of pure selfishness, to Valgarv, was no better than what the mazoku would do -- if they can't have it their way, kill whatever is stopping them. Valgarv finds it utterly disgusting that the golden ryuzoku took it into their own hands to play god and take the lives of so many innocents. It's the fault of the goldens that Valgarv's life was ruined, that his friends and family were senselessly murdered. He can't forgive them for their sins.
What's worse is that the goldens tried to make it so that the ancient ryuzoku were the bad guys. Not only was it bad enough that they killed them but trying to shirk the blame is just too much for Valgarv.
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