The Five Star Stories/Characters
Here are a selection of the large cast of The Five Star Stories.
Amaterasu-no-Mikado[1], the God of Light
The main character, Emperor of the planet Delta Belune. He has extremely potent supernatural abilities and a feminine appearance. The circumstances of his birth are among Joker's greatest mysteries, as are how he gained consciousness years after his birth.
Associated Tropes:
- Anti-Hero: Generally a type III.
- Bishounen: He's a tad too bishounen; see Camp Straight below.
- Camp Straight: You know you're fabulous when a female Fatima poses as your body double and no one notices the difference.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Although sometimes he is an actual lady .
- Gadgeteer Genius: A premier Mortar Headd meight of his time, he actually designed most of the MH AKD used throughout its history. Though it was his Ladios Sopp persona who usually was known as an engineer, not the Emperor.
- God-Emperor: Of Delta Belune.
- Healing Factor: The Emperor Rescue Mission shows a nasty example.
- Heroic Albino
- King Incognito: After taking over the galaxy, he hands the reins of leadership over to his Fatima double, Upandla Raymu, and goes around as Ladios Sopp for awhile, even aiding La Résistance.
- The Messiah: Kinda. He was prophesied to be the hero who would unite the Joker Cluster and stop the generally pointless wars that plague it. He did it, true, but it took him several millennia and a fair share of atrocities to complete.
- Older Than They Look: He's over 800 years old, which is impressive even though Joker years are shorter than Earth's[2].
- And that's before the Traffics arc. By the end of the story he qualifies as a Time Abyss.
- Overly Long Name: His full royal title is Amaterasu dis Grand Grees Eydas IV.
- And just as with the rulers of Trio de Colus, it isn't that he is fourth emperor of this name. Every Grees king (or, generally, queen)[3] bears the name "Amaterasu Grand Grees", and there were eighty three of them before. The "Eydas" part of the name is actually a tens' counter, so in pure numerical count he'd be Amaterasu dis Grand Grees LXXXIV.
- Physical God: Starts out as one.
- However, he may have been an actual god from the beginning.
- Definitely not impossible, given that the deity responsible for Joker is his court jester.
- However, he may have been an actual god from the beginning.
- Sdrawkcab Name: Not only mel Rince Usaretama readily jumps in a way, but "Ladios Sopp" also is a corruption of the backwards-spelled name of a Heavy Metal L-Gaim's villain(and Amaterasu's inspiration), Oldna Poseidall.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist
- White-Haired Pretty Boy
Lachesis[4]
A Fatima created by Dr. Chrome Ballanche, one of the three Fates. After meeting Ladios in her youth, she becomes devoted to him, and eventually names him as her master. She is one of two Fatimas capable of piloting the Knight of Gold. She is sometimes called Dr. Ballanche's best creation, but it's disputed -- her younger sister Clotho, BFOS-45, might be stronger and fancier in her design, and, although not finished by the time of Good Doctor's death, Maxy could still be considered at least partially his creation, and he's explicitly the strongest living being (as opposed to deities) in the multiverse.
Associated Tropes:
- Action Girl: She can hold her own in a fight.
- Action Girlfriend: As a Fatima she's an Amaterasu's copilot while in the Mortar Headd, but after getting her royal status she was essentially free from her legal[5] limitation of not hurting humans, and became essentially one of the Amaterasu's very top knights.
- Artificial Human: As with all Fatimas. Ballanche's creations are notable in that they lack the mind control placed on other Fatimas.
- Defeat Means Friendship: After kicking Schaft's ass between his years, she was met with such a devotion that no one would expect from that dangerous psycho.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After the destruction of Kalamity Goddarce and her disappearance in the space-time rifts caused by it and instabilities in KOG machinery in J.C.3239, she has spent 5,6 billions of years looking for Amaterasu and home... and did find it after all. In J.C.7777.
- Everything's Better with Princesses: After Amaterasu-no-Mikami[6], Amaterasu's mother and formal head of the Delta Belune's ruling house, adopted her and gave her a position of a crown princess.
- Which served as a cause for the infamous Emperor Rescue Mission, as Sarion was deeply affronted that some lowly Fatima was elevated to a Royal status and started a rebellion.
- Genki Girl: To say that she is playful is like saying that Pacific ocean might be somewhat wet.
- Lady of War
- Overly Long Name: Amaterasu mel Gibih Lachesis Fanatic B Guires, after she gets adopted into the Amaterasu house.
- The Pollyanna
- Victorious Childhood Friend
- Wife Husbandry: Has shades of that. She got a huge crush on Sopp from even before they ever met, from Dr. Ballanche and Clotho's stories, and asked that good doctor remake her specifically as a Fatima and wife for his royal friend. But it was Amaterasu, who wasn't involved in raising her.
- World War II: She fought in the Battle of Berlin. Somehow.
- On the Nazi side, apparently.
- You Are Number Six: Or, rather, 44, as she was Dr. Ballanche's forty fourth masterpiece Fatima and is said to be his best, although it's possible that she could be overcome by her younger sister Clotho.
Dr. Chrome Ballanche[7], Duke of Fates
A famous Fatima meight (said to be the very best in Joker's history) and Amaterasu's lifetime friend, he is most important as a creator of the best and the most significant Fatimas in the story. Dr. Ballanche was vehemently opposed to the treatment of Fatimas by a society at large, and thus tended to create them with less mind control, or, as in case of Three Fates, with no mind control at all (which is, in fact, highly illegal, but despite that being an open secret no one objects because, well, he's Amaterasu's friend).
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Both creating Fatimas without mind control, and his studies in the field of lifetime prolongation, and not without reason. Dr. Ballanche have died at the age of 529, almost twice of a normal Jokerian lifespan of 300 years (corresponds to 148 and 80 Earth years respectively) but his last years were plagued by illnesses and rapid aging brought by the various drugs and chemicals he used to increase his lifespan.
- Fantastic Racism: Quite unusually for the setting, totally averted.
- Heterosexual Life Partner: To Ladios Sop.
- It Runs in The Family: Most Balances in history were Fatima meights. Even non-blood relatives like Meeth (a good doctor's adopted daughter) usually were top-notch scientists as well.
- Parental Substitute: Not only for all his Fatimas, but for Meeth Silver as well, whose talent he noticed and promoted. Unfortunately they didn't have much time together, as he was already very old and died just one year after they've met.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections: Basically the only thing that saved Dr. Ballanche from prosecution (his dabbling in the forbidden was one of the worst kept secrets of Joker) was that he was a friend of Amaterasu. Nobody fucks with the Mirage Knights.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: His attitude to Fatimas. It's good that Amaterasu basically thinks the same, as he was almost arrested at least once, if not for the Mirage Knights intervention.
- Spell My Name with an "S": His birth name was Balance, but he later changed it to Ballanche. His adopted daughter and heir, Meeth Silver, changed it back to Balance, and her son Max used one more variation -- Ballance. Though it might have to do with a cavalier attitude the translation (and the author, to boot) have to the spelling of the names in general.
- Theme Naming: The Balance family tradition is to name the children after various metals (or semi-metals, as Dr. Ballanche's relative and also a famous meight Arsenic Ballance illustrates).
- Truly Single Parent: In additional to the creating Fatimas, Dr. Ballanche indeed was their father figure, to the extent that many of his "daughters" returned to his castle long after his death -- it helps that the Float Temple bought out and maintained it as a retreat for the Mirage Knights and their Fatimas (the attitude towards Fatimas being much more relaxed in AKD than in the Joker on average).
Colus III
Ruler of the Trio de Colus. Although he is an ally to Amaterasu, his descendant, Colus VI, will lead the resistance against his empire.
Associated Tropes:
- Expy: Of Kamon Myroad, a Heavy Metal L-Gaim hero about whom Nagano had creative disagreement with Yoshiyuki Tomino. In fact, the first arc of FSS is basically an L-Gaim retelling in a Nagano's way.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Though not to a Sop's level, but Colus is a gifted engineer as well. Indeed, their first meeting happened because Sopp was invited to refine and troubleshoot a new advanced MH designed and built by Colus, the famous Junchoon.
- Identical Grandson: Literally. Colus VI is very similar to his great-grandfather and replays the L-Gaim story once again with Amaterasu as Poseidall, and himself as Kamon.
- Overly Long Name: In an interesting way -- Colus III is in fact Colus XXIII, but both he and his subjects agree that "The Third" looks and sounds much better than "The Twenty Third".
- Shout-Out: Again, to L-Gaim.
Maximum HOLTFORS Eiz Fates Balance XII Kaien, Duke of Fates
Meeth Silver's son and heir, a hero of the later parts of the manga, he's a fruit of the long and painstaking research of Meeth and her adopted father in the field of recreating the Super Empire's true Super Soldier.
Associated Tropes:
- The Ace
- Ambiguous Gender: Almost as much as Amaterasu.
- Artificial Human: Based on a Dr. Ballanche's 46'th major project, he's at least part Fatima.
- Bishounen: See above.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Is sometimes said to be this, possibly because being the most powerful living being in Joker he entirely lacks fear and self-preservation instinct.
- Real Men Wear Pink: He himself might prefer crimson, but his Humongous Mecha is hot pink.
- Super Soldier: A finally successful attempt to recreate the one that might truly compete with the legendary Chivalries, the Super Soldiers of the ancient Super Empire. Turns out that even Argon Prominence, a mysteriously reborn ancient Chivalry in the body of one of the FEMC GL knights, is no match for him.
- Wham! Episode: His death after slaying the SATAN Tatsuminrey.
- Back to The Five Star Stories
- ↑ a.k.a. Ladios Sopp, a.k.a mel Rince Usaretama
- ↑ For those who want to know, this translates into about 200 years.
- ↑ Amaterasu house follows a matrilinear succession and there were only four kings over its entire history, including a current one.
- ↑ AKA BFOS-44, AKA Amaterasu mel Gibih Lachesis Fanatic B Guires
- ↑ Note that as a late Ballanche model she didn't have a technical limitation.
- ↑ AKA Amaterasu mel Grand Grees Eydas III
- ↑ AKA Chrome Eiz Fates Balance IX