Melvin
From Odin Sphere Wiki
| ♦ Melvin ♦ | |
| |
| Melvin, adviser to the Fairy Queen | |
| Titles | Nidhogg (real name) |
| Relatives | Queen Elfaria (aunt) Mercedes (cousin) Oswald (adopted son) Matthew (possible grandfather) |
| Affiliations | The Fairy Race (loyal subjects) Lilipats (loyal subjects) Unicorns (loyal subjects) |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Fairy |
| Homeland | The Forest of Ringford |
| Profession | Royal Adviser, King (very short time) |
| Abilities/Powers | Leadership skills |
| Weapon | None |
| Voice Actor | Uncredited |
| Seiyū | Show Hayami |
Melvin is the nephew of Queen Elfaria, he attempted to overthrow her daughter Mercedes and rule Ringford. He also took Oswald in and adopted him after finding him wandering around in the forest.
Contents |
[edit] Personality
As expected of a member of Ringford's royal family, Melvin takes on the qualities of an aristocrat and a politician. Intelligent, competent, and charismatic, Melvin's actions, despite seeming rather Machiavellian, are well-measured and calculated, designed to be in what he believed to be of Ringford's best interest. Even after the Vanir's initial defeat to the Aesir in the Cauldron War, he was extremely calm in the face of adversity. He was courteous and cultured, showing the proper respect to his superiors and subordinates, at least superficially.
At the same time, Melvin was also extremely ambitious and ruthless. He created the cursed Psypher weapon, the Belderiver, in hopes to strengthening Ringford's armed forces, and sacrificed his adoptive son Oswald to find the proper master for the blade. He had little patience of dissent, and had Brom, his conscience-troubled blacksmith, exiled to the Land of Misery and Despair after the dwarf blacksmith revealed the weapon's cursed nature to Oswald. A skilled liar, Melvin was able to repeatedly ward off Oswald's worries that the Shadow Knight may have been betrayed by his own adoptive father, worries that later turned out to be valid.
There were many who believed that the experienced and competent Melvin would be a better successor to Elfaria after her death, as opposed to his young and inexperienced cousin, Mercedes, who was the rightful heir to the throne. Indeed, Melvin, who was described to have had aspirations for the throne even during Elfaria's rule, usurped Mercedes' regime in her absence and launched a coup d'etat. Despite the rebellion, however, Melvin seemed to possess a certain degree of respect and concern for his aunt, Queen Elfaria, and was genuinely concerned about the welfare of the nation. He did not actually plan to initiate a rebellion until after Mercedes took the throne. Despite Melvin's dying claim that he never saw his adoptive son Oswald as anything more than a tool for the crown of Ringford, it is implied by King Gallon during the Armageddon that Melvin did rescue and raise Oswald with pure intentions at some point in the past.
[edit] Story
Melvin's backstory is not elaborated upon, and other than the fact that he is nephew to Queen Elfaria and cousin to Mercedes, little is known about his past. What is known, however, is that when Edgar, a prince of Titania and son of King Gallon, was exiled for attempting to marry a common girl, assassins were sent after him and his family of a wife and a child, who was Oswald. Although Edgar loses his life to the assassins, Melvin was able to intervene at the last moment, thus saving an infant Oswald's life, whom he took as an adoptive son.
Melvin soon enlisted the help of a dwarf blacksmith, Brom, in order to create a Psypher weapon to empower Ringford's army. The Belderiver, therefore, was created with the power of Odette, Queen of the Dead; the weapon granted great power to its wielder, but also sapped away at the user's soul. After several unsuccessful attempts to find a suitable master for the Belderiver, the blade was eventually given to Oswald, who could wield it proficiently and became the fearsome Shadow Knight. Melvin was eager to mass produce Psypher weapons for Ringford's army, and repeatedly sought Queen Elfaria's approval for such an action, attemptting to prove the power of the Belderiver several times by having Oswald kill the dragon Hindel, infiltrate Nebulapolis, and participate in the Cauldron War.
Brom, however, grew increasingly guilty of creating the Belderiver, knowing the weapon was sapping away at Oswald's soul. However, when Brom informed Oswald of such, Melvin exiled the dward to the Land of Misery and Despair to serve under Queen Odette. After providing false reassurance to Oswald that everything would work out, Melvin helped Elfaria with preparations for the war against the Aesir, led by Demon King Odin, but the Vanir experience a devastating defeat when Odin manages to kill Elfaria. With Elfaria passed away, the crown is passed to her young and inexperienced daughter, Mercedes, Melvin's own niece. Despite having been asked by Elfaria to assist Mercedes when she became queen, Melvin, having always had ambitions for the throne, was unwilling to hand power over to the incompetent Mercedes, and launched a coup d'etat in Mercedes' absence with the support of many of Ringford's nobles and soldiers, as well as the Wise Man Beldor, whose assistance he procured with Oswald.
However, Mercedes' counterattack proved to be more devastating than expected, and Oswald's power was drained by the Halja seeking his soul through the Belderiver, and the rebellion ended in failure. Mortally wounded, Melvin is confronted by a weakened Oswald, who demands to know what he had been to Melvin. Melvin died ridiculing Oswald, telling him that he was no more than a tool to the throne. After uttering his true name, Melvin passes away as his body dissolves into Phozons, and the rebellion finally ends.
[edit] Legacy
Melvin's actions continued to haunt Oswald even after his death. Because he had taunted Oswald, having seen Melvin as a father, by saying the Shadow Knight had never been anything but a "tool" to him, Oswald develops loathing towards all forms of manipulation. When he attempts to seek the love of Gwendolyn, his bride as promised by Odin, Oswald repeatedly insists that he will not treat her as an "object", He spitefully kills Skuldi after realizing the Wise Man had attempted to use Gwendolyn as a tool to ignite war between Odin and Onyx, and expressed disgust towards Onyx when Oswald believed the Inferno King saw Gwendolyn as merely a political tool. However, when Oswald eventually learns of his lineage from King Gallon during the Armageddon, he is told that Melvin was the reason why assassins sent after him and his father, Edgar, were not able to kill the infant Oswald. This leads to Oswald wondering if Melvin had originally raised him with pure intentions.
[edit] Trivia
- Nidhogg, Melvin's true name, is the name of a serpent who tried to eat the roots of the world tree, Yggdrasil in Norse mythology. This is a reference to Mercedes, whose true name is Yggdrasil, as Melvin attempts to sabotage Mercedes' rule in a rebellion.
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