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Jun. 22nd, 2016 04:50 pm| PLAYER INFORMATION |
NAME: Thea
AGE: 25+
CONTACT: PM this account
EXISTING CHARACTERS: N/A
| CHARACTER INFORMATION |
TYPE: Fate/zero
NAME: Waver Velvet
AGE: 19
MOTIVATION: To continue to work on balancing the desire to prove that he is just as smart, if not smarter, than his peers and that intelligence should get him respect against his newfound maturity and desire to follow after Rider’s example of winning people over and conquest without humiliation
ARRIVAL SCENARIO: The tear
HISTORY:
At the start of Fate/zero, Waver is introduced in his home university, called the Clock Tower, awaiting the response of his professor regarding a paper Waver wrote. The topic concerned the theory that a mage could become more powerful through experience rather than genetic lineage. The paper was mocked by his professor Kayneth in front of the entire class, and Waver fled both angry and humiliated. To retaliate, Waver steals a summoning artefact from Kayneth, aware that the man was going to participate in a ritual. This ritual is known as the Holy Grail War, where seven Masters summon seven Heroic Spirits to fight for an omnipotent wish granting device.
Waver summons Iskander, King of Conquerors (Alexander the Great) into the Rider class. The contrast between the two immediately clear: where Waver is small, angry, and desires recognition, Rider is large, boisterous, and inclined to let things roll off of his back as he attempts to re-conquer the world thanks to his summons into the 1990s. The first half of the season sees the two fight over small matters and reveals that Waver is clearly out of his element in this Grail War. The first fight that the two enter features the reappearance of Waver's professor, Kayneth, and the man makes a pointed death threat. Rider responds by defending Waver verbally, demonstrating that there is a modicum of respect for Waver underneath the fact that Rider does not seem to enjoy Waver's small minded desire for the respect of the Clock Tower. Waver's bratty personality continues to clash in smaller scenes of the two planning to fight other masters (and an argument about Rider wearing pants), but this starts to change when Waver and Rider participate in seeking out a murderous Master-servant pair. Using his alchemic abilities to perform magical forensics, Waver is able to find the two, and he and Rider end up finding a straight up murder show of mutilated bodies. Waver takes a moment to react in absolute horror, but the reaction is cut off as he and Rider are ambushed by the servant Assassin. Again, Rider defends Waver and the two leave the murder palace, but not before setting it ablaze in order to remove a base of operations for Caster and his master.
A few days later, after a drinking parlay with other servants spearheaded by Rider and then a peptalk where Rider remarks that while Waver is quite small, in the grand scheme of things they are equal, Caster returns to action in the war and proceeds to summon a giant sea creature in the middle of the river of the war's host city. The two help take the monster out with Rider using his army to chip away at the monster’s power and Waver remaining a support for Rider as well as a communications coordinator between Rider and his army and another master who helps detonate a bomb to finish the creature. During this fight, Rider does not draw on Waver because Rider had no desire to take on Waver's energy to the point where it could kill him. The two talk about it later when Waver goes back to where he summoned Rider to help Rider re-charge. Rider admits that he has concerns that the Grail might not exist, although this thought does not impact Waver's desire to keep fighting.
The next time the two appear, it is against the servant Saber with her on a motorcycle and the two on an ox drawn chariot. During this fight, Waver admits that he finds this exciting - a contrast against the outspoken yelling and desire to hide during earlier fights - and while they lose, Waver and Rider speak frankly about what to do next. It is clear they are on the same page, contrasting sharply with their constant fighting from the first half of the series. When they return to the home they have been staying during the war, Waver sits on the rooftop with the host he hypnotized into thinking that Waver is his grandson and Rider is a friend. The man reveals that he knew Waver wasn't his grandson - meaning that Waver's hypnosis failed - but that he didn't say anything because it made his wife happy. Waver is then asked to stay longer, but Waver admits that he cannot do that as he's risking his life. The response is that there's nothing worth dying for.
As the war draws to an end, Waver realizes that he cannot safely participate anymore and to withdraw. He uses all three Command Seals bestowed upon a master (unbreakable spells that compel a servant to do as ordered no matter what), instructing Rider to defeat the remaining servants, win the Grail, and then seize the world. Effectively, Waver gives up his position as Rider's master - which Rider recognizes, and he proceeds to have Waver come along to the last fight as his friend.
The last fight sees Waver seated up on Rider's horse with the man himself, charging with Rider's army against Archer. Ultimately, Archer manages to destroy Rider's army, and it is at that moment that Rider has Waver get off of the horse and stand aside. The two share a final conversation, where Rider asks "Waver Velvet. Would you be a servant, and serve me?" Waver confirms that Iskander is his king, that he desires the same dream as Rider, and that he will follow after Rider. In response, Waver is told to live through everything and speak of everything that passes.
At that, Rider gallops off one last time against Archer. He is stabbed, and dies while Waver watches. Immediately after, Archer approaches Waver and asks if Waver is still Rider's Master. When Waver responds that he is Rider's servant, Archer spares Waver's life and remarks on the boy's loyalty.
Waver returns to the house where he and Rider had been staying safely. It is clear that Waver's desires involve taking a break from his studies and traveling. He begins to clean up the mess that Rider left behind, saving the video game console that Rider bought. It is clear that he has regrets: the Holy Grail War ends in a fire that has him wonder if he and Rider could have prevented, and that he accepted being subordinate to Rider rather than an equal.
Fate/zero concludes Waver's story there, and it is from there that he would enter the game.
PERSONALITY:
Waver Velvet is quite a few things: smart, immature, arrogant, insecure, short tempered, and capable of great bravery and loyalty if he's given the chance to learn and grow. All of this is on display in Fate/zero, with the last two demonstrated in the form of character development over the show's arc. Before getting into any other aspect of the character, let it be made clear that Waver is extremely skilled in analysis and understanding complex magical theories. He is clever enough to know how to use environment to his advantage too - such as using water samples to pinpoint the location of magical pollution from various sewer pipes. He's capable of doing hard work, but he has the handicap of not having a lot of magical power to back up his analytical abilities.
That lack of magical power versus his brain smarts shows in his introductory scene, where Waver's professor brings up the thesis Waver submitted. Waver expects nothing but praise, but his paper is ripped to shreds, prompting the first display of his arrogance. He is understandably angry about being made fun of for an idea in such a public manner, but he is also shown to be arrogant enough to assume that being proven “right” about something will automatically cause everyone to respect him. It’s the mark of someone incredibly immature, and someone who puts too much stock in being right no matter what. That his next action is to steal an ancient and valuable artifact in retaliation for that kind of treatment demonstrates a short temper and a certain level of pettiness, never mind immaturity that reveals that when things don’t go his way, he will lash out, acting as another demonstration of his short temper.
This short fuse shows again and again throughout the first season of Fate/zero, primarily through clashes with the character Rider. Waver is frequently disobeyed or ignored - ignored for reading books, rebelled against over the matter of wearing trousers, ignored so that Rider can go into battle - and Waver’s response is to yell at Rider or else whine about how little he’s being listened to.
All of the above also helps to demonstrate Waver's insecurity. He’s been bullied by his professor for having outlandish ideals, he sees his own abilities as low and detrimental, and he’d rather do badly in a harder situation than succeed in an easier one. This is borne out when Rider praises Waver for finding Caster’s murder lair only for Waver to shrug off the compliment because it took him too long and circuitous a route. When Rider gives him a peptalk, Waver states that he’d rather be fighting with a servant that would make it harder to win, like Assassin, rather than have an easy victory through Rider. Rider tries to assure Waver that the Grail War won’t be the most important thing in Waver’s life as well, which is met with a lukewarm response.
Waver's bravery is grown over the course of the show, and at the beginning he's depicted as a coward. Besides resorting to theft in response to insult, Waver’s first outing with Rider features Waver and Rider atop a bridge and Waver yelling to get down, terror plain on his face. The first fight has him hiding behind Rider’s cloak while other servants duke it out. He has no desire to be on the battlefield beside Rider at first and he isn’t afraid to show it. In each subsequent fight, Waver's fear decreases, so that by the time that Waver and Rider are facing Saber on his motorcycle, Waver is just as ready and excited to head into a fight as Rider is, rather than afraid.
Waver's temper begins to cool after the fight against Caster’s sea monster, and also shows his growing maturity. When he and Rider pull together to defeat said monster, Rider refuses to draw on Waver’s magic energy- demonstrating a decreased animosity between the two. This continues to be chipped away at through conversations where the two seem to understand each other better, and the arguments between the two decrease considerably. This also connects to a decline in arrogance, thanks to Rider’s idea of conquest without humiliation. He sees that it is possible to win people over without being a total jerk about it, as Rider demonstrated throughout his life and through Fate/zero’s run by talking to others and if not winning them over to his side, then winning their respect and being seen as a worthy opponent.
All of the above development also allow for Waver's personality to show it's greatest strength - loyalty. In seeing Rider’s path of conquest, Waver realizes he wishes to follow in those footsteps and professes loyalty to that path and to Rider outloud. It is recognized and accepted as well as remarked on by both Rider and Archer.
By the end of the series, Waver is shown to be a more mature young man than the person he began as, with a better temper, a less arrogant approach to showing his intelligence, the understanding that one can win respect through other means than demanding it and looking down on people who don’t see him as being correct about something, and loyalty. The series conclusion doesn’t suggest that there’s a switch that has been flipped making Waver shed all of his older traits, but it implies that with more time they will fall away completely. After all, one doesn’t become a mature adult in two weeks.
Waver's growing maturity and the stamping out of these more childish traits are what I’d like to use this game to focus on.
SKILLS / POWERS:
NERFING:
I will accept nerfing, thank you.
INVENTORY:
TEST DRIVE LINKS: http://flawedmemes.dreamwidth.org/257.html?thread=8449#cmt8449
SAMPLE ONE: http://flawedmemes.dreamwidth.org/257.html?thread=61697#cmt61697
SAMPLE TWO: http://flawedmemes.dreamwidth.org/257.html?thread=130817#cmt130817
