Paradoxes and Time Loops - TV Tropes

"I, Garland, will knock you all down!"

Jack Garland, Monster of Temporal Paradoxes (Red Garland, Stranger of Paradise, The Warrior in the Darkness, Warrior of the Cycle, Cyclic Warrior, Lord of Chaos, God of Discord, Cloudsea Djinn, Discord Incarnate, Hand of Destruction, Nemesis, the Stalwart, He Who Knocks Down, Knight of Discord, Sword of Desolation, Chaos, King of Reincarnation, Walker of the Wheel)

^{Jack Garland}

^Chaos

• Overdeity as the God of Discord. Greater God as Chaos. Intermediate God as Garland.
• Theme Music: Chaos Shrine, Chaos's Temple, Last Battle, Chaos Shrine -arrange-, Jack's Theme, Battle: The Warrior in the Darkness, Battle: The Warrior, Shadows Rising, Solitude, Battle: Become Chaos, Quickening of Darkness, The Dark Will Always Be With Us
• Symbol: The Dark Crystal
• Alignment: Chaotic Good as Jack Garland. Chaotic Evil as Chaos. Lawful Neutral as the God of Discord.
• Portfolio: Fallen Hero, Monster Progenitor, Love Makes You Evil, Blood Knight, Black Knight, Pragmatic Villainy, The Heavy, Hidden Agenda Villain, Tin Tyrant, Strong and Skilled, Badass Cape, Magic Knight, You Talk Too Much!, Protagonist Journey to Villain
• Domains: Knights, Crystals, Discord, Negativity, Darkness, Monsters, Disaster, Time
• Heralds: Four Fiends of Chaos (Jed/Kraken, Ash/Lich, Neon/Marilith and Sophia/Tiamat), Astos
• Allies: Golbez, Exdeath, Ultimecia, Kuja, Vayne Carudas Solidor, Snow Villiers, Arydn Izunia, Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, Tzeentch, Xehanort, Melkor, Ganondorf, Griffith, The Godhand, The Idea of Evil, Bowser, Arthas Menethil, Berkut, The Master, Maltruant, King Knight, Chaos Knight, Jin Kazama, Lucifer, Venom Snake, Apollyon, Ange, Tusk
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Emperor Mateus, Kefka, Sephiroth, Jecht
• Rivals: Sarda
• Enemies:
  • Final Fantasy: Warrior of Light, Cosmos, Shinryu, Cactuar, Malboro, Tonberry, Gilgamesh, Firion, Luneth, Arc, Refia, and Ingus, Cecil Harvey, Kain Highwind, Terra Branford, Locke Cole, Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart, Squall Leonhart, Rinoa Heartilly, Zidane Tribal, Tidus, Yuna, Lightning, Noctis Lucis Caelum
  • Others: Sora, Riku, Sigmar Unberogen, Altria Pendragon, Arthur Pendragon, Princess Zelda, Link, Lancelot du Lac, Artix Von Krieger, Alm and Celica, The Doctor, Rassilon, The Dahaka, Mario, Peach, Shovel Knight, Shield Knight, Guts, Merlina, Sonic the Hedgehog, Chaos 0, Time Eater, chaos, Embryo, YHVH, Chrono's Party, Lavos
• Annoyed by: Professor Paradox
• Respects: Serge
• Interests: Sailor Chaos, Chaos Elfilis
• Interested in: Aesir
• Conflicting Opinion: Elphaba Thropp
• A knight of Cornelia turned rogue, Garland tried to take off his former kingdom by kidnapping Princess Sarah and holding her to ransom. But the Warriors of Light came and defeated him, making him a little squabble before they moved on to destroying the Four Fiends that brought disaster to the world. Little did the Warriors of Light know that Garland was sent back in time by the Four Fiends whose true master is Garland, who created the Four Fiends himself. Thus, this loop lets Garland exist immortally as Chaos, the embodiment of humanity's darkness. However, the Warriors of Light followed a trail back into a past where they defeated Chaos. This caused a paradox far beyond the paradox of starting the cycle, erasing the existence of Chaos and therefore, erasing the Four Fiends and the purpose of the Warriors of Light. Due to the complicated events that led to Garland being Chaos, another paradox was created that allowed Garland to exist entirely in the Pantheon before Chaos took over.
• Perhaps Garland is more famous not for kidnapping princesses, but rather being seen as The Leader of the Warriors of Chaos as the first summoned. There are those among them who could strategize better, and there are those with greater strength. But Garland is noted how easily he navigated the entire situation, probably because Garland navigated the conflict. Probably because he knew the truth of the conflict as being to groom Lord Chaos towards destruction as the pact between him, Cid, Cosmos, and Lord Chaos cycles ago. He could let all the other genuinely unstable villains' plans slide as long as the plans of Chaos went along nicely. However, that agreement got thrown out the window when everybody targeted Shinryu for perpetuating the cycles, with Garland leading the Champions of Spiritus to help escape the war. While it would seem being sent back would just have the events from World A continue, Garland would not exist the way he is without the war between Cosmos and Chaos. Because Cid created a certain Manikin named the Warrior of Light, adding another paradox to Garland's role.

  Garland: I knew I'd be involved in some bullshit the second I saw you again. You've got the mood.

  The Emperor: I supposed your temporal shenanigans would make you gain a flowery language...

• Would it be believed that Jack Garland becoming Chaos is a ploy to destroy an even greater threat? Jack is the Stranger leader from Paradise, employed by the Lufenians to be the Warriors of Light to fight off the darkness. The Lufenians sought to create an ideal world by sending out those to bring the world balance for their ideal paradise, having reset the world multiple times because of its imperfections. Jack Garland turned on the Lufenians when he learned they intended to wipe out humanity so they wouldn't create a manifestation of their darkness. Knowing that light and darkness needed to be balanced, Garland deliberately became the host of human evil that would turn him into Chaos and his friends into the Four Fiends. It took many cycles for the Warrior of Light to be powerful enough to face him, bringing balance to the world and validating all the death he brought upon it. This sheds a massive light on everything he did in the cycles and the Chaos Shrine.

  Garland: For Cornelia's sake... For Sarah's... I'll create a feast worthy of Chaos!

• There are a lot of monsters named Chaos across the dimensions as Gilgamesh noted who also share the title of the Walker of the Wheel. If Jack Garland was still amnesiac, he would have hunted every single Chaos across dimensions even though Chaos at the time was just a concept. In the Pantheon, there are plenty of people who have either Chaos in their title or just simply being called Chaos. Either they are enemies with Garland due to his fabric of reality-harming existence, like Garland for his destructive presence, or are interested in how far Garland can go as an entity. The Chaos Gods are particularly keen on Garland fulfilling his true potential as they do find value in an embodiment of human darkness. An interesting viewpoint came from Chaos who says while Garland is a malevolent force, it should not be surprising that perpetual peace must prove itself against forces that seek to subvert it. If harmony reigns supreme, was it even there if the glass house crashes down in one crack?

  Garland: ARE YOU CHAOS?

  Chaos Knight: Chaos Knight. I might respect you, but at least get that right. Just ignore Fecto over there.

  chaos: I-I'm chaos if you wanted to know-

  Garland: I don't give a FUCK who you are!

• There is a certain fact that changes everything about Garland. In one cycle, Garland managed to wipe out the Lufenians to ensure the events that led to Chaos being created no longer existed. He absorbed a certain Crystal that transformed Garland into the God of Discord and one day with the God of Harmony, will bring a new world order. This could be chalked up to Alternate Universe shenanigans...But Garland managed to get the Warrior of Light in his role by creating a physical avatar of himself for the Warrior to fight against so that they would take the role of the God of Harmony one day. They are not Lord Chaos or Cosmos, but it raised many questions. As the God of Chaos, Garland made another paradox by being able to still be around even if he as a threat is not supposed to exist without the Lufenians. Theoretically, the Garland who became Chaos may be a Remote Body of the God of Discord. The Garland in the Pantheon is probably not Garland under these circumstances, as he is just another avatar for the real Garland who someone existed outside of linear time. And it's not known if the Warrior of Light became the God of Harmony yet.
  • YHVH and Lucifer did note that the seats of the God of Discord and God of Harmony were vacant when Cosmos and Lord Chaos reincarnated as the Goddess of Magic and God of Destruction respectively. What they did not expect was that the seat was filled already by their best underlings. Or at least Garland in this case because Warrior of Light always deflects the question. YHVH is absolutely against someone named Chaos while Lucifer managed to be a useful and tolerated presence around Garland. Lucifer noted that propping up the Warrior is not so much out of benevolence, but intent to keep balance. He cannot complain about that, since many joined Lucifer's Forces of Chaos under those pretenses.
  • Xehanort held similar goals of keeping the balance of the worlds by embodying darkness with the hopes that the darkness could be eliminated when dust from the Keyblade War settles. But Xehanort became corrupted by that darkness until he became unironic in his goal. It is unknown if Garland faced similar conflict when taking all of humanity's evils, especially when transformed into Chaos. Or at least the Garland avatar that became that monster. It must take incredible force of will if Garland has some sort of self-awareness as Chaos.

    Sora: Gosh, I am so confused. Cloud, is he evil or isn't he?

    Cloud: If he rants about immortality or something, he's evil at the moment. Anything else? Play nice.

  • There has been interest from Garland towards Aesir, the God of Chaos incarnate as that implies the God of Discord is an entirely differently meaning. From what Garland could surmise, chaos is a natural encompassing thing that harmonizes to order. Meanwhile, discord is when that order is broken and brings havoc around. He tries his best to research into Aesir to not overstep what he needs to do as Chaos through the Four Fiends, as being seen as a natural force is antithesis to his goals of being a plight across the land. If people normalize horrendous events, then there are no heroes to be propped up to stop something clearly wrong to society.
• Garland almost turned Merlina back into the Dark Queen becomes of Garland. He placed a bit of the power from the cycles within her that subsequently reawakened her existential trauma, as he recognized that a little bit of Merlina still wanted an eternal world. Garland also drew power from eternity as the cycles prepared him to become Chaos, so he understood her plight. Garland nevertheless exploited her weakness to measure how powerful his transformation can become with someone else. But Sonic came and managed to remind Merlina of the beauty of life, expelling the darkness out of her. Garland recognized Sonic must have some Chaos energy in him, though of a different flavor. Sonic wanted to thrash Garland for hurting his friend, but prioritized Merlina and escaped. Now Garland has a passing interest in those Chaos Emeralds that he sometimes hears about.
• Being a former honorable knight, many who held the honors of chivalry despise Garland for turning his back away. The purported reason they know is because of unrequited love from Princess Sarah. Garland lets this misinformation fly around as being the villain he propped himself up as. Many innocents may die but as long as Chaos exists, he will be satisfied. But he undeniably did love Princess Sarah as inappropriate as it was for his position. He forwent the knightly principles for power. This is why he relates to Berkut, even if the man sacrificed his love for power directly. In a way, Garland still sacrificed the one he loved, by making her a stepping stone to become something greater. While Berkut looks on at Alm and Celica with envy of their romantic perfection, Garland can only look to forlorn what he had to leave behind.
  • While Bowser has a far greater record, the king felt kinship with Garland kidnapping princesses. He saw the carnage Garland left behind and was surely impressed and thought to maybe recruit Garland as a knight for the Koopa Kingdom. But Garland refused because his loyalty lies to Lord Chaos first (which is both true and wrong at the same), which disappointed Bowser that such a great warrior was already taken. Bowser always wanted someone with a big sword around his castle. Maybe it was for the best since Garland is infamous for his big betrayal of his kingdom in the first place.
• Chaos may have been originally a myth but the Lufenians wanted to make it a reality for them to control as the Darkness Manifest, eliminating all those they deemed "imperfect" for their vision of utopia. Since Chaos incarnating was through humanity's culminating negative, it makes it similar to the Idea of Evil which is made from the human unconsciousness. The human unconsciousness must be in perpetual misery if it birthed something called the Idea of Evil which Garland found to be quite a pitiful implication. Regardless, Garland cannot speak as if he's better and sees the Idea of Evil as a necessary force if that is the case. There should be no complaints about the Godhand or Apostles either since there will always be people sacrificing themselves and others for power. If goodness exists, then naturally evil must too. His Four Fiends also knew that very well.
• Melkor likes Garland. Mainly for how he managed to unite villains together, despite their very prickly personalities and goals. He reminds me of himself, which is conceit per course with Melkor. Not that the ruler is wrong as Garland was on top of everything during the cycles under Lord Chaos, though the twist was that Garland was aware of the war's premise and helped to steer Lord Chaos to his intended path. In a sense, Garland was the true brain of that operation. But Lord Chaos has a weight to his name that Garland does not, especially not as Chaos itself yet. So he lets people run around with the assumption that he is Lord Chaos so people are manipulated to follow him.
• Due to his machinations involving time, Maltruant approached Garland with the hopes that he could utilize the potential growth that allowed Warrior of Light to defeat Chaos. Considering Malruant asked that in multiple visits, Garland never gave Maltruant that phase despite enjoying his company. It would be assumed that Garland never gave Maltruant that boon because it only applied to the Warrior of Light. But since Chaos controls a temporal loop, that is an iffy assumption and it would be easier to say that Garland does not want to. Professor Paradox for all of his annoyances, said that there would be so many more issues if Garland allowed another paradox with the powers of Chaos. There is only so much the fabric of reality could take.
  • The Time Lords kept an eye on Garland for the amount of crashes in time. Even the Doctor before the Time War was aware of how Rassilon-tearing Chaos was an entity. But the only reason the Time Lords never went to fix it was because Garland's role was a greater priority, which the Doctor would like to call out. After all, there have been worse cases in the Time Lords interfered. They probably just waiting for Chaos to get off his throne so that they could exploit the embodiment of Chaos instead.
• It was speculated if the full power of Chaos or the full power of Ganon would be superior. This is a moot argument because Garland and Ganondorf together are a force that is borderline unstoppable. Darkness manifest plus the Triforce of Power are a combination that the Warrior of Light, Link, and Zelda could barely hold back especially if the two decided to combine their forms thanks to their magic. What resulted was Chaos Ganon, a calamity of time. Chaos Ganon is a complete nightmare to deal and it took the entire Warriors of Materia to take them down together. That was the end of a short-lived monstrosity but it was a memorable reign of terror.
• King Knight admires Garland as a pillar of an awesome knight. That is aside from Garland's treachery which King Knight conveniently ignores, only seeing the superficial elements of ripping and tearing that Garland does against others. Garland lets a buffoon like King Knight fawn to keep up appearances, though had to reel back in when King Knight started to shout that, "He will knock people down!" Stealing his quote is one step too far for the knight. That devasted King Knight as latching onto a knight who was greater than he was gave him a sense of place in the world.
• Since Embryo is similar to the Lufenians in how he resets the world to accomplish paradise, Garland sought to oppose Embryo whenever he could but was unable to physically touch the man. Each tap to key parts of the body, even when entirely armored, incapacitated Garland with extreme pain. Embryo would have been kind to have Garland be in paralyzing ecstasy, but he thinks little of brutes. Garland had to shake the hand of Ange and Tusk for taking down such a bastard. Possibly interrupted his cycles to see Embryo get cut in half again. And again. And again. And again. His hate goes beyond considerations for space-time.
• Venom Snake knows what it is like to live a life of war, sensing that Garland is a warrior like him. It is more accurate to say that he is a knight who ascended to godhood, but that is a close enough sentiment. Garland also knows what it is like to take the identity of someone else as he did with Chaos twice over. Also being amnesiac, where their emotions are the phantom pain that drives their actions. However at the same time, one can find these two men arguing for something innocuous. That being their taste in music. The two could be seen with boomboxes blaring music from across the street. A person could file a noise complaint, though a Death Glare from one of them ends that thought.

  Ah, I'm searching for a reason / My mind is on a journey but I'm quickly running out of time / A storm is rising, on my horizon

• Since Garland became powerful through the cycles, Apollyon saw that the knight perfected the ultimate growth for warfare. Fight. Defeat. Return. Grow. That creates a Forever War that prevents staleness and also better warriors from it. She is more disappointed in the Chaos form of Garland because that does not symbolize a fighter attaining further mastery. Garland would not want to say to her that the cycles do not benefit him as much as it benefits the Warrior of Light so that the hero could end the conflict with darkness instead. But he lets her off with her fantasies, with him just shaking his head when he hears about war tactics. There's always something about a World War II there.
• Since Garland is a walking paradox, this made him a prime target for the Time Devourer to consume. The knight actually saw Lavos in the Darkness Beyond Time waiting to evolve into the Time Devourer and was completely horrified by it consuming timelines. Including different iterations of Chaos whose paradoxical natures led them to that void. He blames Chrono and his friends for not letting the future be simply destroyed. Lavos is just another lifeform at the end of the day and it is not as if life ceased to exist. Sucks for them at a moment, though tell that to the deleted alternate timelines. It brought balance by reaping the land and Garland does not think that the Time Devourer being spawned as a direct result of its defeat was worth it. He could at least respect Serge for managing to kill this mess of a creature as Garland wanted to stay as far away from its stomach.
• There could only be mixed opinions on Elphaba Thropp by Garland. For being the legendary Wicked Witch of the West, he would have thought that she would have absorbed her role as the villain. She did indulge in her villainy though apparently, not to the degree that there was no going back. Meanwhile, Garland slaughtered and betrayed those who nurtured him for the sake of being the Lord of Chaos. Yet he sees that the darkness in Elphaba does not consume or define. It brought some reflection on Garland's part as he wondered if it was the calling to darkness that made him not hesitate in his crimes. Or was it his resentment? Garland will not break into a song about it, though the food for thought is worth digesting.

And now, the end is near...

Mercurius, God of the Repeating Cycle (The Snake, Longinus Dreizehn Orden XIII, 4th Heaven, Kichi, Omega Ewigkeit, The Allfather and master of all existence, Acta Est Fabula, Karl Erst Krafft, Alessandro Cagliostro, Hermes Trismegistus, Count of St. Germain, Michel de Nostredame, Paracelsus, Johann Georg Faust, Christian Rosenkreuz, Albertus Magnus, Theophrastus von Hohenheim, NEET)

^{Mercurius' Law}

• Overdeity
• Symbol: A caduceus with two snakes encircling the Earth◊
• Theme Song: Ω Ewigkeit, α Ewigkeit and Jubilus
• Alignment: Neutral Evil
• Portfolio: God of the Multiverse, Being the Embodiment of His Law, Endlessly Repeating Timelines, Seeking Death, Created His Own Enemy, Likes to Run His Mouth, Speaks in Ornate Prose, Bored of Omniscience, Hated by Nearly Anyone Who Knows Him, Old As the Universe Itself, Carefully Planning Out and Manipulating Everything and Everyone
• Domains: Time and Space, Magic, Knowledge, Manipulation
• Herald: Reinhard Heydrich
• High Priest: The Pathfinder
• Special Relationships: Marguerite "Marie" Breuilh
• Allies: The House of Knowledge in general, especially the Analysis and Records branch, Dio Brando (Heaven Ascended Dio specifically), Rachel Alucard, Homura Akemi, Monika, Beatrice, Yukari Yakumo
• Enemies: Hajun, The Dahaka, The Living Tribunal, Captain America, Yuuki Terumi, Doc Scratch, the GUAD, Arthur Penhaligon
• A man of unknown origin, he once desired all the knowledge in the world and to know everything at any time. As a result, he rejected the law of the world and created his own law, a law where the souls of everyone would endlessly cycle back to their inception upon death, including his own and in turn the universe itself, reliving their lives time and time again allowing him to attain the knowledge he so sought. With this law, Vive Memor Mortis - Acta Est Fabula, he ascended to the Throne at the heart of reality and emanated across the multiverse, becoming the 4th Heaven after dethroning Nerose Satanel, the 3rd Heaven, the Thrones prior holder. Due to how his Law works and its paradoxical nature, he is also responsible for the creation of both alternate universe and timelines as well as turning the Throne from a regular reality-altering device into something that holds dominion over all of creation.
• This law is also the source of the phenomenon known as Déjà Vu that affects some individuals, making them sense as if things have already happened before.
• He eventually grew bored of this endless knowledge as there nothing left to learn and as such hatched a plan to end his own existence using the one being that was outside the influence of his eternal recurrence, Marguerite Breuilh, as well as allying himself with the infamous Reinhard Heydrich of the Third Reich to facilitate her growth. This started a chain of events that eventually lead to the Battle of the Three Colors that would finally end his reign.
• Upon his ascension, Mercurius quickly drew the ire of the Dahaka due to his constant use of time manipulation to alter the course of history on top of him already defying is very being as a god of Eternal Recurrence. Him restarting the recurrence and reversing time to undo Hajun's ascension to the Throne is a particular sore spot. However, due to the immense power-disparity between the two, there is little the Dahaka can do. His animosity towards Mercurius remains, however.
• Similarly, due to his use of the Throne, The Living Tribunal holds him accountable for disrupting and manipulating the multiverse, especially due to him doing so for personal gain. He also earns additional ire for trying to repeat the process again by making Marguerite Breuilh use the Throne, as well as being at least partially responsible for the Battle of the Three Colors, a battle where no less than three laws vied for supremacy, putting the multiverses integrity in jeopardy.
• As a result of having allied himself with the infamous hangman of the Third Reich, Captain America has more than a few things to say about Mercurius. And while he was only using Reinhard to meet his end goals, the means he went about it and allowing Reinhard to have such immense power still puts him on Cap's shit list.
• He has, however, earned some favor from the House of Knowledge thanks to the endless amounts of knowledge he has gained over the numerous eons he has undergone his cycle. Knowledge that Mercurius is all too willing to share. Additionally, he also found great enjoyment out of the vast amount of knowledge from beyond even his own time and world present in the House. He does, however, keep quiet about both the existence and nature of the Throne, mostly to avoid a repeat of the time Hajun rose to power.
• Due to his flair for theatrics and extensive use of prose, he can often be found in the House of Theatre and Spectacle, often either enjoying plays or planning his own. (The latter of which some are on the fence about due to Mercurius tendency to mix plays with his scheming).
• One deity that ended up really catching Mercurius' interest ended up being none other than Dio Brando, an individual that reminds him a lot of his lone true friend Reinhard, both in terms of charisma and way of thinking. Especially after Dio became Heaven Ascended Dio, Mercurius can't help but feel that he is someone he can speak to as an equal.
• Maintains a mutual if a bit of an uneasy alliance with Rachel Alucard. She is aware of Eternal Recurrence brought about by him and understands his reasons for trying to end it to allow the world to advance. That said, the uneasy part comes from the fact that she thinks he perhaps enjoyed his little "opera" a bit too much, something Mercurius doesn't try to deny. One thing they both unquestionably share however is a strong dislike for Yuuki Terumi.
• With all the things he has done in the name of his love for Marie, he has quite some sympathy for Homura, noting the things one can do can be impressive indeed. Homura's unpredictable actions that lead to her attaining greater power, however, ended up completely elating Mercurius, providing him with an ever so tantalizing taste of the unknown he so craves.
  • Similarly, as he is no stranger to being alien and a prisoner in his own world as well as doing some extreme things in the name of love, he has similar sympathy for Monika. He has also expressed hope for her that she will be able to find her own happy ending. In fact in some ways, just as with Dio, she reminds him of his own dear friend as has even gone so far as to try and invite her to become part of his Legion^{Note on Legion's}.
• Despite what may be initially believed, Mercurius loathes Doc Scratch in spite of many of their shared similarities. As Doc Scratch seeks the death of the universe to bring about his master, he is by definition an enemy of the universe that Mercurius sought to entrust to his beloved Marie.
• He has also allied himself with both Beatrice and Yukari Yakumo for some mysterious reason. When questioned regarding the alliance, none of the three individuals provided any satisfactory answers, frequently either dodging the question or answering in extremely cryptic ways.

Solaris, Deity of Being Erased From History (The Flame of Hope, Solaris the Sun God | Mephiles the Dark: Memphis Tennessee, Alpha Gamer | Iblis: The Flames of Disaster, Living Flame, The Grand Slam)

Solaris' first form

^{Solaris' second form}

^{Click here} to see Solaris' initial flame form

Mephiles the Dark

^{Click here} for the initial shape Mephiles took

Iblis

^{Click here} for Iblis immediately after being created

• Overdeity (Greater God as Iblis. Borderline Greater God as Mephiles the Dark.)
• Symbol: The Flame of Hope (as a group), an explosion of light shattering a clock (Solaris), a shadow of Shadow the Hedgehog with menacing green eyes (Mephiles), burning wreckage of Soleannan infrastructure (Iblis)
• Theme Song
• Alignment: Chaotic Evil (Neutral Good as the Flame of Hope)
• Portfolio
  • As a whole: Divided Deity and Eldritch Abomination That Is Off Their Rocker, Was Deleted From The Timeline, Unkillable In Any Other Way, Literal Split Personality, Big Bad of 06, Evocative Of The Devil In Different Aspects, Being A Contrast To Chaos, Mad God, Omnicidal Maniac
  • Solaris: God of Light That Is Evil, Angelic Abomination, Spacetime Eater, Exists Across Time Simultaneously, Started As A Flame, proves Evil Is Not a Toy, Motif Merger, The Final Fight Of The Game
  • Mephiles: The Bodiless Consciousness Of Solaris, Shadow's Figurative And Literal Shadow, Blob Monster, Crystalline Creature, Spent Ten Years Trapped In A Scepter And Well Aware What Being Removed In Time Entails, Complexity Addiction, Sadist, For the Evulz, Vile Villain, Saccharine Show, Killed Sonic, Exceptionally Evil
  • Iblis: The Power Of Solaris But None Of The Consciousness, The Reason Silver's Future Sucks, Evil Is Burning Hot, Living Lava, Imprisoned Inside Elise, And Later Blaze, Generic Doomsday Villain, Feral Villain, Will Always Regenerate From Deathly Blows, Go for the Eye
• Domains: Time, Destruction, Madness, Apocalypse, Temporal Erasure, Anger (in general), Light, Gods, Fallen Beings, Division (Solaris), Manipulation, Cruelty, Deception, Shadow (Mephiles), Fire, Beasts, Lava, Power (Iblis)
• Interested in: The Time Eater
• Interests: Trigon (Iblis)
• Allies
  • As Solaris/Mephiles: THE END, Dr Ivo Robotnik (Sonic the Comic incarnation), Cell, Majin Buu, Light of Destruction, Randall Ross, Sonic.exe, Fecto Forgo, Agent Smith, Unicron, Yuuki Terumi, AM
  • As Iblis^note : Ragnaros, Surtr, SCP-457, The Firebird, Giygas, Gohma Vlitra, The Icon of Sin
• Vitriolic Best Buds with: The Lich (Adventure Time) (Mephiles)
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork with: Apophis (in general), Infinite (Mephiles)
• Rivals: Zamasu, The Shadow Queen, The Dark Matter Horde, Void Termina, Bill Cipher, Aku (as a group), Lord English, Galeem and Dharkon, the Daleks, Rassilon and Omega, the Anti-Monitor, SCP-3125, Kronika (focused on Solaris), Black Doom, Erazor Djinn (focused on Mephiles), Lavos, Doomsday (focused on Iblis)
  • Friendly Rivalry with: Sutekh, Apophis (as Solaris), Eobard Thawne/the Reverse Flash (as Mephiles)
• Arch-Enemies: Shadow The Hedgehog (as Mephiles), Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat (as Iblis)
• Enemies
  • General enemies: Everyone not under allies, all other Sonic the Hedgehog deities (including every other version of Robotnik/Eggman), Whis, Ace, Chronos, Madoka Kaname, Homura Akemi, Clockwork, Xion, the SCP Foundation, Ragna the Bloodedge, The Master of Chaldea, Aesir, and by extension Loki and Loptr, Kirby, Fecto Elfilin, Finn and Jake
  • Enemies focused on Solaris: The Vex, Goku, Vegeta, Beerus, Present and Future Zen'o, Necrozma, Ezalor, Palutena, Sekhmet, Ra, Arceus, the Creation Trio (especially Dialga), the Xeelee, The Living Tribunal, Aurelion Sol
  • Enemies focused on Mephiles: The Elite Time Police Enforcers (especially Future Trunks), Erlking Heathcliff and Every Catherine, The Doctor (and every other Time Lord for that matter), Rory Williams Pond, both Flashes, John Connor
  • Enemies focused on Iblis: The Colossi, Spring Sprite, Jesse Custer, Rachel Roth/Raven, Flame Princess, Hestia, Agni
• Evil Counterpart to: Shadow (Mephiles), Chaos (Sonic the Hedgehog) (Iblis)
• Drinking buddies with: Father of the Homunculi, Dark Link (Mephiles)
• Respected by: Dis (in general)
• Solaris was a god worshipped by the people of Soleanna, personified as the Flame of Hope by the royal family. 10 years ago the Duke, wanting the power to manipulate time primarily in hopes of undoing his wife's death, ran secret government experiments on said flame to bring its power about. This ended in disaster when it manifested and splintered the being into a fire embodying the power of Solaris, and a shadow miasma embodying the mind of Solaris. A time-travelling Shadow and Silver arrived to deal with them; Shadow would lock the shadow in the Sceptre of Darkness, where it would get the name of Mephiles the Dark, while the Duke begrudgingly sealed the fire into his daughter Princess Elise, telling her not to cry and fall to despair or else what would be known as Iblis would be free. In the present day, Eggman would pursue Elise for the so-called Flames of Disaster in hopes of mastering control over time. He would accidentally free Mephiles from the Sceptre of Darkness, who took Shadow's shadow to form shape and banished him to the future. Then, 200 years in the future, it turned out that Elise's death had unleashed Iblis on the world as an immortal, apocalyptic adversary that rendered the world post-apocalyptic. Silver and Blaze were fighting trying to figure out a permanent solution, making them prime for Mephiles to manipulate him into thinking they needed to kill "the Iblis Trigger", Sonic, who would release Iblis on the world. A lot of temporal shenanigans occured like Mephiles and Shadow fighting in the present and future, Silver questioning the morality of his actions and even Blaze sacrificing hersel to seal Iblis in her being and be locked away in another dimension. However, Mephiles would come up with a simple solution to his problems...killing Sonic.
  • By blinding Sonic with a Chaos Emerald's flash Mephiles was able to launch a beam of energy and pierce his body, killing him. This finally got Elise to cry and Iblis to be released just the way he wanted, and with the seven Chaos Emeralds he could recombine with Iblis and become whole again. The superdimensional entity Solaris was reborn and swiftly began devouring reality. Eggman and a bunch of other heroes were in the eye of a storm looking to annihilate all timelines and burn time itself to nothing, unless they figured out a way to fight Solaris in the past, future and present simultaneously due to its multidimensional nature. Finding the Chaos Emeralds they were able to revive Sonic, and along with Shadow and Silver they went Super and managed to beat Solaris. However the damage to reality was so severe and Solaris technically still alive that there was only one solution Sonic and Elise had; go back before the experiment took place and blow the flame out, preventing the experiment and thus Solaris from ever existing. While they would have some degree of memory of the event, by all accounts what happened never did.
  • In the trans-temporal nature of White Space, nothing truly gets erased, especially when two versions of Eggman were using the Time Eater to trying to undo their past victories. This included a version of Crisis City, and by extension Iblis being present. That said, Iblis is an Almighty Idiot and never capitalized on the situation. Mephiles, however? He was very aware he was erased from the timeline and was desperate to get out. When Black Doom took advantage of the situation to restore his army and pull a Grand Theft Me on Shadow, he used Mephiles as a boss fight to proverbially "fatten him up" as a host. Unaware of the larger game being played Mephiles immediately jumped on the chance to escape causal limbo and started fighting with Shadow again, who to his frustration had no memories of him. Unfortunately for the shadow he lost and could only cry out "I WANT TO EXIST!" before being sealed away again in the Scepter of Darkness, remaining an exile from time. There are rumors, due to speculation and headcanons from Ian Flynn that the Time Eater is what remained of Solaris. However White Space demonstrates they are different entities, with similar traits probably being a coincidence.
• Solaris in general
  • As life continued in the Pantheon, reports of a god known as Solaris circulated throughout the place, though many weren’t able to find it directly. However, its components, Mephiles the Dark and Iblis, were present, both far from each other and the former looking for someone dumb enough to fall for his plans and the latter turning everything in its path into a firey wasteland. Sonic and his friends realized to their shock that Solaris had come back despite seemingly being erased from their world and by the time they reached Mephiles, it was too late and he merged with Iblis once more to become Solaris in an attempt to destroy the Pantheon and everything in it. With the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic, Shadow, and Silver powered themselves up and defeated Solaris once more. While the Pantheon was restored and the memory of that destruction wiped from the minds of many, that memory didn’t leave Sonic and his friends, who are already ensuring that another event like that doesn’t happen again. Mephiles was at least relieved that he and his "brother" Iblis have managed to anchor themselves to the timestream, albeit knowing they remain exiles from their own universe.
  • As a complete entity, Solaris is one of the most dangerous beings in the Trope Pantheon. While its whole existence is acknowledged here, steps are taken place to make sure Mephiles doesn't restore himself to his full glory. Though Iblis is the most openly dangerous Mephiles is probably more so because of his intelligence and ability to travel through time at will. It's not clear why Mephiles didn't just merge with the future Iblis though it's theorized Iblis "mutated" beyond it, which might be one way of keeping them from combining. With only the higher-tier Overdeities able to decisively manhandle Solaris into submission, the Elite Time Police Enforcers have mandated their actual temples be seperate. Mephiles tends to lurk in the pantheon while Iblis is placed in a replica of Crisis City. Perhaps the one Sonic deity who can surpass Solaris in its truest form is THE END, nihilistic entropy incarnate and just as interested in wiping everything out. Additionally, due Solaris' similarity to the Time Eater, Mephiles is very interested in the creature and seeks to command it for himself.
    • Horrifyingly, THE END is one of only two Sonic deities they count as a straightforward ally. The other is "Fleetway Robotnik", the one wholly Omnicidal Maniac version of the Mad Scientist, who's continued failure to maintain control had him decide to just end it all in a frustrated pique. This incarnation of Robotnik has experience with the Ret-Gone trope; his transformation from the kindly Ovi Kintobor was undone by the Brotherhood of Metallix so he'd never invent their Restraining Bolt and they could take over the planet, putting Sonic in the unenviable position of having to cause Robotnik's creation. When he became God Robotnik he was so powerful that causality was negligble for him, allowing him to make the timeline one where Sonic never existed. Part of why this incarnation of Robotnik is willing to go along with Mephiles' omnicidal ambitions is that he still lost in this state; this was kind of the point where he'd rather just throw away the proverbial chessboard than get checkmated again.
  • Solaris is not the devil, but he is as close to it in the Sonic series as Black Doom is. Solaris in its totality is the luminous Fallen Angel, Iblis the king of hell and Mephiles the tempter. The Emperor of the Kingdom Dolorous respects the deity about as much as one like Dis can, relating it to his own fall and grand degredation. There's an irony that a God of Light when split up becomes a lava monster and a spirit of darkness, though with the latter this seems to represent how supremely pissed he is. There is a legend among the citizens of Soleanna that the land was once threatened by a large fire, and that a giant eagle came to save the city; this eagle is likely a representation of Solaris himself. As such, there is a good chance Solaris was once benevolent before the experimentation took place too, but of course the devil was thought to have once been benevolent long ago. That said, while neither Mephiles nor Iblis look out of place in the Hall of Demons they rarely spend any time there.
  • While the enemies list applies to all facets of Solaris, certain incarnations and aspects of this being have particular beef. For example, Mephiles and Iblis are part of the same god but they count Shadow and Silver as their arch-enemies respectively. Interestingly despite being the only person to kill Sonic in any continuity^note  he had the least personal connection to him, which is probably how he was able to pull it off. Solaris is a Divided Deity like Aesir, except while Aesir is a benevolent being (though one aspect, Loptr, is pretty damn nasty) Solaris is wholly malevolent. Mephiles attempted to reach out to Loptr and make some sort of understanding, only to be summarily rejected because destroying everything goes against his own established goals. Solaris' split has an eerie similarity to one being; Yuuki Terumi. A Satanic Archetype and once a far nastier version of Susano'o, he was removed from his body but eventually managed to crawl back in. The two have some measure of a friendship out of their mutual sadism, love of manipulating others and 'burning contempt for all humanity.
  • Unsurprisingly, Mephiles' overall ambitions and psychopathy have made him the target of those dedicated to ensuring the stability of the overall timestream. Of those deities, Clockwork has taken Solaris’ destruction very personally as even if everything related to the god has been erased from time initially, Clockwork will still remember it and he’s been the one to spearhead many of the efforts to destroy Solaris entirely. Future Trunks was another time protector who is very determined in making sure Solaris and its components are gone entirely, especially after learning about Mephiles’ similarities to Cell via a talk from Goku and Vegeta and those similarities being something Future Trunks couldn’t ignore. The Master of Chaldea has gone through many time periods and fought against many powerful threats, so the mere concept of a God of Time that can destroy everything and is made up of two volatile components was something that put The Master of Chaldea on high alert, requiring all the help they can get to take Solaris down.
  • Solaris was fascinated by Majin Buu's immense power and capacity for destruction just to satiate his bloodlust, leading to them forming a bond. Zamasu, an omnicidal god made up of equally dangerous components, was well aware of their similarities and shared a misanthropic outlook. Unfortunately for them after seeing Buu and Solaris befriend each other he went on a tangent on how entities like the two should be destroyed, even if Mephiles was a component of a god. Mephiles retorted that for all of Zamasu’s bravado, power, and ambitions, there will always be someone who will defy him and that such a goal can’t be achieved with those obstacles. A catastrophic battle began with the two, which Mephiles found unfortunate as they would've made a great team. One Dragon Ball villain avoided this faux pass, that being Cell. Both were born of scientific experiments and are manipulative, time-traveling entities that can heal themselves extremely well and are seeking to attain their ultimate form by any means necessary. After encountering Mephiles, both of them got along with each other very well (especially concerning them being opposed by a time-traveler from the future) and are willing to help each other gain their ultimate power.
  • Beerus and Whis ended up witnessing the fatal confrontation between Buu and Zamasu, with Whis playing a role in stopping Zamasu and Beerus taking care of Buu. The two then told Goku and Vegeta of what happened and everything about Solaris and its components, including Mephiles’ alliance with Cell. The idea of someone with components similar to what Zamasu has, combined with the sheer destruction that Majin Buu wants to engage in and being very much like Cell in terms of goals, was something that Goku and Vegeta couldn't ignore. While Mephiles and Iblis on their own can be defeated by both Goku and Vegeta, should Solaris become whole once more, it’s not only going to require them, but Beerus and Whis' intervention to prevent another armageddon. Mephiles considers Whis to be a major obstacle in his plans considering the latter’s abilities to rewind time by a few minutes, effectively making whatever progress Mephiles made up to that point null and void. Solaris is well-aware of Silver's similarities with Future Trunks, which is why it singles him out as a fitting adversary among his 'verse.
  • Solaris wasn't the only entity to be erased and forgotten from existence. Xion ended up being forgotten from time, though she eventually came back to life and reunited with her friends after being freed from a plan that required her as a pawn. As Mephiles this is something he envies, and as a malicious entity of darkness it eventually led to battle between the two that ended with Xion barely able to drive off Mephiles. She made it clear that she and the rest of her friends from The Clock Tower will stop him, though Mephiles warned her that she and her so-called allies have no idea what they’re going up against before retreating. Another being to suffer erasure? Nier, who had the memory of him erased to save Kaine's life. A far more nobler and tragic reason to be Ret-Gone than Solaris, who is a threat to absolutely everyone and everything, and one he abhors like so many other do. Rory is another sympathetic individual that got deleted from history after being killed (though he recovered from both) and he feels no sympathy whatsoever for Mephiles's desperation as his endgame amounts to causing a Total Event Collapse, complete with leaving an "eye of the storm" that the good guys were only narrowly able to undo the cataclysm. If there's anything he comes close to pitying, it's the fact that he knows for a fact how horrible temporal erasure is yet still hasn't changed his ways a bit.
  • When a more complete being, Solaris has been known to tussle with the Anti-Monitor. He had a similar idea to retro-erase the rest of creation after his "blow up the multiverse" cannon went kaput, but instead went back to before the Big Bang and tried to alter it so only his Antimatter Universe would come to be. Mephiles and Iblis have a rivalry with Aku, though not as Solaris interestingly enough. A being of pure evil and a fragment of a primordial entity, Aku found his reign undone by a time travelling Jack. Like Iblis he ruled a Bad Future but like Mephiles he is a dark entity who takes great glee in being cruel and domineering for the fun of it. The Shogun of Sorrow doesn't think highly of their endgame, oddly enough. This might just be because having subjects to unleash "unspeakable evil" is just more entertaining than wiping everything out in his opinion.
  • Whether disembodied or even as the full Solaris entity, he doesn't underestimate Kirby for a second. Kirby is super cute and is an experienced fighter of cosmic threats such as the Dark Matter Horde and Void Termina, beings whom Mephiles is highly interested in. With the potential ties the Dark Matter Horde AND Kirby has to Void Termina, Solaris is keeping their eyes on them. As Mephiles he is particularly interested in Fecto Forgo as a cruel chessmaster that was disembodied and experimented on. Interestingly both Fecto Forgo and Solaris are implied to have once had capacity for benevolence. They also very much hate humanity for past experiments performed on them. The Light of Destruction thinks there's a tremendous irony that Solaris' brain is a mass of darkness, though otherwise they're...well as civil as you can get with them. A fellow malicious light-based entity, his ability to possess people and corrupt them through listening in on a conversation about it impressed Solaris. Solaris believed that Necrozma may be swayed as they were a deity of light who was abused by humanity and grew to devour light from whole worlds across multiple universes to be complete again. If the way it was once venerated is any suggestion Solaris may not have started as malevolent, and been a protector long ago in a different life. However the legendary doesn’t want to be manipulated into being a weapon of destruction and rebuked an argument to fall back into bad habits.
  • According to one source, it's rumored that Solaris was one of the Ixis Masterworks created by the Order of Ixis, under Mammoth Mogul. Mammoth Mogul doesn't understand why people are asking him for more details since as he points it out, that only potentially applies to one continuity. An alternate version of Mephiles was reported stewing in the No-Zone Jail with Void thinking Scourge needs to chill out and tried to get involved in a prison riot, though the power dampeners the prisoners had prevented him from doing much. The prime Mephiles ponders if his counterpart was mellow enough he was merely arrested instead of erased from history, joking they locked up "Memphis Tenessee" instead. He wondered if Sonic.exe was yet another evil Sonic from another universe like Scourge, only to learn Xenophanes is actually a sadistic Eldritch Abomination who took the form of Sonic and has a curious fixation with the franchise. They became fast friends when recognizing their similarities.
• Specific to Solaris as a singular entity
  • A god of the sun and a god of time, Solaris "eats dimensions for breakfast". Casually able to collapse entire timelines, Solaris' energy beams can damage even those in a super form. In this mightiest of forms, Solaris holds the express desire to obtain complete hegemony of time. All those who hold a domain over the fourth dimension are opposition to this goal because of what the deity plans. From Dialga to Chronos, the God of Light sees these beings as a serious threat because their ability to act across time means they can serve as counters to being a super-dimensional being. Its threat level is so great that it is one opponent Arceus has confronted in their true form instead of relying on the avatars it uses to interact with conventional space-time. Even Giratina, themselves one of the closest beings to the Devil in Pokemon, sees Solaris as a disgrace. Kronika was less angry and more intrigued by a fellow time deity, seeing the Eldritch Abomination as a rival. Because Solaris' goals are the destruction of all reality, and has more than enough power to back that up alongside a sadistic steak a mile wide as seen with Mephiles, Unicron considers the fellow Eldritch Abomination an ally.
  • Due to being in the Trope Pantheon no attempt to erase Solaris from time will stick forever, but fortunately whenever it forces itself back into the timeline it gets fragmented back into Mephiles and Iblis again. As Mephiles is Solaris' consciousness outside of the immense power boost they're essentially the same individual except he's not nearly as talkative in the pilot seat. Solaris in its totality is the focus of the real heavy hitters, and the SCP Foundation puts a lot in its article such as premiere Scranton Reality Anchors as a way to dampen its power. Infamously, Solaris once survived being erased by Zen'o, since as a super-dimensional being Zen'o only destroyed one frame of reference and the Mad God still existed in the past and future. This time god isn't as immortal or able to manipulate bootstrap paradoxes as far as Lord English can, much to its frustration, but for 99.99% of pantheon deities the difference is neglible. Of course Lord English is just as cruel and omnicidal as Solaris, so they are more rivals than enemies. Such is the threat of Solaris that they are one of the few entities the Living Tribunal doesn't hesitate to interfere and contain.
  • The Time Lords and Daleks don't hold back as Solaris threatens their own impressive control over time, though the Doctor sees Solaris as far more of an enemy than a rival. Mephiles finds the Doctor rather interesting yet infuriating because he is far more experienced with time travel, and has pointed out how manipulative he can be. Solaris is fascinated by the reality-bending events of the Last Great Time War, and like Zamasu it sees this as the perfect example of how mortal beings are bastards, though unlike Zamasu they don't try and proclaim a moral superiority. Rassilon notes Solaris' attempted destruction of the timestream as similar to his attempted use of the Final Sanction as a hail Mary Godhood Seeker tactic at the tail end of the Time War. Along with his friend Omega, he seeks to contain the power of the god to ensure his own hegemony over time. One being that got Solaris' attention was Sutekh the Destroyer, an immensly powerful alien seeking to make the universe empty of all life. Though he considers Solaris a rival, the two seem to like each other's aesthetics somewhat and both refuse to under-estimate the Doctor; not after Sutekh had the indignity of being leashed and dragged through and destroyed by the Time Vortex.
  • Learning about what The Vex wanted and their capabilities was something that frustrated Solaris because of just how versatile they are in terms of going through time. Their ability to ensure that they are the dominant species in the end, their ability to Ret-Gone things (even if that power is limited for the time being) have him apprehensive enough at their claims they see the god and its components as little more than obstacles to be rid of. However the Sun God is not worried about them as it is the Xeelee. Through technology along the Xeelee are effectively gods, having masterfully utilized a billions-year long Stable Time Loop and mastery of baryonic matter. Solaris actually has to be on the defensive dealing with them, and is actually considering to try to reach some sort of agreement with the Photnio Birds just to get them off its back. Solaris is also annoyed by SCP-3125, who has laid claim to material reality out of a desire to spread its concept and assimilate mortal beings. A hostile idea from a higher dimension, they often butt heads as rivals.
  • The vast temporal abilities of Solaris overshadow that it was primarily seen as a god of light and of the sun...a role it has certainly betrayed. While Ra acknowledges they are both solar deities, he considers the Mad God to be as dire a threat to the universe as Apophis itself. The dreaded serpent finds this to be hilarious and he's supportive of Solaris in many aspects, however he still regards the entity as a rival because of their elemental contrasts. What was once the Flame of Hope sees this as a little hypocritical of Ra since he created the sun deity Sekhmet to punish humanity, however Ra pointed out she was too bloodthirsty for his liking and had to calm her down via booze and a friendlier alter ego Hathor. Sekhmet herself considers Solaris and its aspects too vengeful and violent for her tastes, which is saying something. Aurelion Sol, a dragon god who crafts the stars, may have seen some degree of revenge understandable as he too has been bound by mortal hands but to collapse all of time is an insane and unacceptable response.
• Specific to Mephiles
  • The mind of Solaris borrowing the shape of Shadow the Hedgehog, Mephiles the Dark is a cunning if sadistic manipulator. Though weak relative to his "brother" Iblis, he makes up for it intelligence, time travel and a pragmatic and dirty combat style. With his overall goal being the complete destruction of time, Mephiles sought out other deities who shared the same ambitions that he has. He managed to quickly befriend Randall Ross, a deity who can travel through time and has a personal vendetta being the main reason for his plans. Randall found Mephiles as someone he can talk to easily and told him about another deity that sought to destroy time named Caius Ballad. Mephiles learned of how Caius' originally had a seemingly well-intentioned goal and how Randall won Caius over, a sign that he took as someone to manipulate. Randall stated that his initial conversation with Caius was only just a step of a larger plan and that he's willing to let Mephiles continue to use Caius as a tool to further destroy all of time. In any case, Randall is more than looking forward to seeing the full power of Solaris once everything has been accomplished.
  • To say he is relieved to exist in the timestream again is an understatement. Being locked in White Space broke his mastermind persona and while he has recovered confidence, he isn't as unflappable as he used to be. Mephiles is Shadow's shadow not just in a literal sense, but figurative too as he reflects what Shadow might've become had he had no loved ones or memories to ground him and remind him what's important. That said as Shadow himself points out, his supposed revenge is meaningless; he is motivated out of a lust for destruction. Mephiles hates Shadow more than anyone, but much like the Reverse Flash he's obsessed his his arch-nemesis. Black Doom's intrigue in the shade is because of his status as an Evil Counterpart to Shadow. Though Thawne and Mephiles figure they're going to get in each other's ways due to clashing ambitions, and Eobard mocks him for not being able to escape White Space as he's managed to become a walking paradox, there's this curious accord between the two.
  • Though his desire to destroy everything amounts to a sadistic kick and he is nothing short of The Sociopath, he does feel legitimately wronged by humanity for the Solaris Project. While it could be considered generous, it is possible to read that being imprisoned for ten years in a scepter plays a significant factor in his deranged personality. While Shadow accuses him of not wanting revenge, he at least subscribes to the Humans Are the Real Monsters diatribe and attempted to use it to sway Shadow to his cause, pointing that he was imprisoned in the Bad Future. He'd ask him he continues to fight and attempt to protect humanity when they'll only persecute him later on, demonstrating a nihilism worthy of Agent Smith. He can even clone himself into an army like the rogue A.I via two Chaos Emeralds; Smith would call this plagiarism but allows it as they agree the purpose of life is to end and reminisce over their obsession with their Arch-Enemy. Mephiles' bottomless hatred for humanity that essentially created it is something he has bonded over with AM, who would prefer a Fate Worse than Death to everyone but still enjoys the entity's company.
  • One of his first things he plans on doing, asides from trying to recombine with Iblis, which is get back at Black Doom for manipulating him without his knowledge. He's aware of the irony of that statement, and it's the basis of an intense rivalry. Doom noticed a similarity between him and Infinite as they were bested by Shadow in the past and it's shaped an obsession. Whereas Mephiles was able to succeed (at least temporarily), Infinite was so caught up in his own pride and sadism that his actions ultimately resulted in Sonic living and his and Eggman’s plan to fall apart. Infinite hates being reminded of his failures by Mephiles and that even if they’re working together to destroy Sonic and his allies, Infinite wants to be the one to defeat them no matter how complicated Mephiles’ plans may be. Of course, if Infinite does end up messing up a plan of Mephiles in some way, Mephiles will just find another way to enact revenge, regardless of whether or not he needs Infinite for it.
  • Mephiles is more than just a being who wants to kill everyone and overall watch the world burn. He is also a dick, despite his superficially eloquent and polite mannerisms; he also turns friends against each other, pretends he's helping people when he's manipulating them to get what he wants, and laughed when Elise cried. This could be part of why he and Eobard Thawne are semi-amicable, along with the fact they both play the Evil Counterpart card. He has a childish reveling in his cruelty to boot, which might explain why he likes to play pranks on Frollo and Gaston between schemes. Surprisingly he found jokes about him being an "Alpha Gamer" Actually Pretty Funny, and his line of "the ultimate game of Shadow tag" shows he does have a bit of a sense of humor, unlike say the Lich. But just like the Lich he is pretty damn dark for the series he's in. With the Lich's goal of the extinction of all life and manipulative nature the two make a good team, even if they often argue; while a Sadist the Lich is also a No-Nonsense Nemesis and has criticized Mephiles in not getting to the point. He will give props for learning from his mistakes though; the first thing he did seeing Shadow post-timeline reset is use the same killing move against Sonic.
  • Despite not having been involved in the war between Galeem and Dharkon, Mephiles couldn't help but be amused at how Sonic, his friends, and some of his enemies fell victim to Galeem's first attack. Mephiles did try to seek out the two abominations in the hopes of finding some powerful allies, though it became clear that things weren't going to work out in the long run. Being whole as Solaris would mean getting Galeem's attention, but the latter’s goals of wanting a world ruled by total order went against Mephiles' plans of destroying everything. Mephiles shares a bit more in common with Dharkon in that they’re beings of darkness with destructive ambitions, though once Mephiles merges with Iblis again, he'll probably end up having to fight Dharkon at that point given the latter’s hatred of light-based beings. For now, Mephiles would rather sit from the sidelines and see how Galeem and Dharkon’s battle plays out before getting involved with either of them.
  • At first, Mephiles did not think he had much in common with Father of the Homunculi. However over time he realized they had a few similarities. Both are science experiments of sorts who's true form is shadowy mass that borrowed someone's form, both have plans spanning centuries that involve them ascending to a god-like state^note , and both have a great disdain for humanity. Though their goals don't align they do recognize these similarities and occasionally go out to drinks. Dark Link sometimes joins in; he too is a Living Shadow taking the form of a hero. Another similarity? Their desperation to be free. Father hated being but the Dwarf in the Flask and his Ironic Hell was to be sealed inside the Gate of Truth, and after all the effort of becoming Solaris again Mephiles was condemned to an isolation outside of time. Also worth noting, while the Lich and Mephiles' alliance is still a bit shaky the disembodied shadow was impressed^note  that a wish to Ret-Gone him still wasn't enough to purge him from the newly created timeline, as the Farmworld Lich would incarnate in the present day when the Mushroom Bomb was stopped 1000 years prior, with his prime self's memories to boot!
• Specific to Iblis
  • The raw power of Solaris, in the present Iblis is a passive energy sealed within Princess Elise. By Silver's time, it is freed and holds dominion over the world. With Solaris' proverbial brains cast as the Living Shadow known as Mephiles, the Flames of Disaster acts oblivously and entirely in primal instinct. Because of this Iblis doesn't so much have "allies" as more "beings it gravitates to" or "being used as an attack dog As a lava monster capable of devastating entire landscapes, Iblis and his destructive traits got the attention of many villainous pyromancers. The likes of Ragnaros are more than welcoming of raw strength to their fiery alliance. The Spring Sprite started to oppose Iblis on that principle and is horrified that the monster makes up something that makes the Firebird look like a pocket lighter. Perhaps the being most like Iblis is the apocalyptic Living Lava monster Gohma Vlitra, who also has a number of smaller lava monsters as minions. Blinded with pure rage, its flavor of mad destroyer makes it "birds of a feather" with Iblis.
  • If Mephiles is Shadow's Evil Counterpart, Iblis is Chaos' even if they haven't properly met. Elementally the opposite of one another, they are destructive forces with rage as a core of their being that Eggman aspired to and failed to control, and who spent a good deal of their existence sealed away. However superficial similarities asides, they also have stark differences. For one, while Iblis lacks a conscious mind and its destruction is simply a consequence of being an Almighty Idiot Chaos has an intelligence and a personal vendetta against the world. Redeeming Iblis was a non-starter and thus never on the table while Sonic didn't just defeat Perfect Chaos but purified tehir rage. Also, Iblis used to be part of a god while Chaos was once a Chao that mutated, though the Chao are descended from a race that resembles Chaos . Having come to their senses, Chaos seeks to stop Iblis in order to protect the Chao, by also protecting the world. Gerald Robotnik has noted Iblis as being remarkably similar to the Ifrit, an other-dimensional lava monster who was responsible for one potential Bad Future for Silver.
  • Mephiles begrudgingly admits that he cannot control his "brother" nearly as much as he could, which might be another reason why he never tried to merge with him in the Bad Future. However he has had some success in gravitating Iblis to likeminded beings such as the Icon of Sin, another Beast of the Apocalypse. One of the entities Iblis has gravitated towards worth noting is Giygas. Like Iblis, Giygas is an Almighty Idiot, but under different circumstances. While Iblis is power removed from a mind, Giygas was an alien who's search for power and dealing with conflicted knowledge destroyed his mind and left him nothing but power. And both are responsible for a Bad Future the protagonists needed to go back in time to stop.
  • Lacking any brains, Iblis is defined by the threat it poses alone rather than any characterization. Much like Doomsday, who was also the result of a scientific experiment though without the fantasy elements. The circumstances for why are different. Doomsday is a genetically-engineered monster who's animalistic personality and hate and fear of all other life was because of how he was killed and revived to adapt over and over, while Iblis is what happens when you remove the brains of an evil god. Much as they're capable of it the two have a rivalry ever since Doomsday found itself in Crisis City and going on a rampage. While both will come back from whatever killed it, Doomsday is able to adapt to resist or be immune to what last killed it. Because of this, he developed frost breath and heat-resistant hide, and the still-lingering fear response in the Flames of Disaster were enough for it to make a subconscious decision of "screw this, this beef isn't worth pursuing right now" and it retreated. Doomsday was content for a bit since the devestated Crisis City lacks much in the way of fauna to anger him.
  • Iblis blends in easiest in the Hall of Fire and Heat. With the place being a volcanic wasteland, the damage it can do is a lot more controllable, and as much as it can like anything it does seem to like being there. Surtr was excited to see the Flames of Disaster show up as he sees it as a fellow emissary of the end times, though he wishes there was some level of intelligence behind the Feral Villain. Iblis' visits have only furthered the stigma of the hall being "a den of pyromaniacs", and a number of residents are all too familiar to play that stereotype straight. While there are a few deities present who want to join Iblis in burning the world together, there are also fire deities like Hestia who protests yet another pyromaniac getting involved. Agni certainly wasn't happy given his condition. The Beast of the Apocalypse is someone Hestia excludes from her general pacifism and has mused that it may not be as terrifying as Typhon, it manages to be even less open to reason.
  • The fact that Iblis can be sealed inside someone's soul and that he hasn't shown any attempt whatsoever to take control of them was a bit disappointing for those hoping to possess someone to become an out-of-control monster. Interestingly it never made an attempt to control its host, though that's probably down to lacking a conscious mind. At most it seemed to generate a protective barrier for Princess Elise. This is markedly different compared to the inner darkness in Raven that she inherited from her demonic father. While yet to act on everything, Trigon is curious as to what might happen if Iblis was sealed inside his daughter; just how might that overlap with her powers? Raven certainly doesn't want to find out. Jesse Custer has experience with a powerful but mindless force bonding with him, albeit a neutral instead of evil being, known as Genesis. He actually got powers from this, namely a Compelling Voice. Needless to say, he's not a fan of the monster either.
  • At first, The Colossi was an interesting subject to compare with Iblis, as they house fragments of a sealed god inside of them and are beasts like itself. However the sealed entity ended up being more of a neutral (relatively speaking) figure in the long run and Mephiles ultimately didn’t find any use for The Colossi in his plans. The Colossi are more or less passive figures if anything, but they don't really like Solaris as a whole, and avoid tussling with Iblis. Some have compared Iblis to Lavos as a Beast of the Apocalypse responsible for a Bad Future, and having a plot tied deeply into time travel with heroes trying to change things to stop said future. However Lavos has a deeper cunning that Iblis just doesn't, as that's its "brother's" forte. Lavos considers Iblis somewhat of a rival. Iblis seems to have an instinctual interest in the Flame Kingdom, and much like the rest of Solaris it's an evil Finn and Jake are ready to fight. While Flame Princess is Ooo's fire elemental and did have a love of setting things alight back in the day, she's matured and acts as a good leader to the Flame Kingdom. She thinks if she let her powers and rage control her, she'd be more like the Flames of Disaster.

Paddra Ballad-Caius, Destroyer of the Flow of Time (Caius Ballad, Caius of the Ballad Clan from the City of Paddra)

• Greater God
• Symbol: Chaos' Revenge
• Theme Music: Caius' Theme (Followers of Chaos, Heart of Chaos, The Doomed Soul), Invisible Depths
• Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
• Portfolio: Desire to protect those he cares about, invincibility, sending others to their heart's desires, using his own death for his plans, The Bad Guy Wins, wearing purple, calling Chaos Bahamut, Temporal Paradox, Time Travel
• Domains: Time, End of the World mythos, Paradoxes, Time Travel
• Followers: Xande
• Allies: Lord Chaos, Randall Ross, Polygon Man
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork with: Kronika and Cetrion
• Enemies: The Defiers of Fate, most of the House of Time and Temporality, Kain Highwind, the Fates, Enrico Pucci, Dante Sparda, Riku^note , Sora, Raiden (Metal Gear), Absol, Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Yog-Sothoth (Aforgomon)
• Opposed by: Chronos, Sir Daniel Fortesque, PaRappa, Jak, Daxter, Black Jack, Vergil Sparda, Kat (DmC), Nero (Devil May Cry), Trish, Lady
• On Speaking Terms with: Asura
• Annoyed by: Dolph Ziggler
• Pitied by: Son Gohan
• A mysterious man appears with an ominous presence and a history of clashes with the Farron sisters of the Defiers of Fate. Making for an intimidating sight, he bears down upon his enemies, brandishing his massive blade with ease. His icy exterior makes it impossible for others to read him, let alone approach him. This man is known as Caius Ballad.
• Caius is actually a Farseer warrior turned l'Cie from Gran Pulse, who was charged with protecting the seeress Yeul, the first human created in the Fabula Nova Crystallis universe, then later Blessed with Suck by the goddess Etro, who gave him her Heart of Chaos so he could stand at Yeul's side forever since Yeul was too desperate not to lose him. Caius' immortality and Yeul's cycle of reincarnation would become a continuous source of despair and madness for both of them, as every incarnation of Yeul's early death due to the world's malleable future split part of her soul into the world's chaos. Eventually, Caius' resolve to rescue Yeul from this cycle, and her desire to never lose him, became an apocalyptic combination, as he succeeded in killing the goddess Etro and destroying the concept of time in his universe. This act ultimately guaranteed his ascension, which has since been met with animosity by others of the House.
• Since reaching the Pantheon, Caius has requested several times that Yeul be given a place in the Pantheon. Her nature of reincarnation has made the request difficult to grant should the Main House decide to, and has been met with stern opposition from the Defiers of Fate, especially Lightning and Serah. Because of this, Yeul isn't even able to make a place in his temple as a Herald despite her, and his, best efforts, even after the use of this status for close acquaintances of deities became greatly expanded. As for High Priest, Caius has reserved that position for his once-protégé Noel Kreiss, however Noel refuses to follow his path.
• Asura and Caius have found a sort of kinship in the great lengths the two have gone to for the sake of Mithra and Yeul respectively. Still, Asura could not bring himself to outright support Caius due to the destructive nature of the bonds between him and Yeul. This also causes him to run afoul of someone from another Final Fantasy world, that being the Dragoon named Kain Highwind, who does not like sharing a voice base with such a destructive man.
• Caius once worked for Polygon Man, wanting to use the All-Star Power to prevent Yeul from dying over and over again, and was able to capture Dante Sparda and Riku for him. However, Sora's interference saved Riku, leaving Caius with no choice but to crystalize them both, and Dante was rescued by Raiden from both Caius and a corrupted construct of his own Nephilim counterpart. After Pa Rappa the Rapper freed them both, Caius took on his Chaos Bahamut form to fight the group, but he was defeated by Riku, Sir Daniel Fortesque, and Jak. Caius tried to free himself from his immortality by stabbing himself with Riku's Way to the Dawn Keyblade, but he was respawned in his temple... with two bills; one from Dante (for setting his temple on fire) and one from Black Jack (for breaking Sora's leg even further).
  • After hearing of the incident, Dante's Devil May Cry counterparts all dislike him for several reasons. Trish simply dislikes him for attacking Dante, while Lady claims she could easily envision him trying to become a demon if he thinks he could help Yeul. Kat considers him an obsessive killer, not much different from Vergil's Nephilim or Kyle Ryder, and has a problem with him and Polygon Man because of that dark clone of Dante's Nephilim. Nero sees him as a dark mirror of himself, a vision of what could happen if he and Kyrie take on more than they can handle. Conversely, Caius envies the Grandson of Sparda tremendously for being able to get Kyrie into his temple. Vergil's judgment, however, is the harshest of them all: he thinks Caius, Yeul, and even Etro herself are all worthless in general, feeling that Etro should've entrusted both of them with her heart so they could both be immortal, and Caius and Yeul should've both sought that out instead of him seeking a resolution that would end in both his and Yeul's final deaths and her not wanting to move forward at all out of fear of losing him.
• Kronika and Cetrion have also incorporated him into their alliance to bring the New Era into the Pantheon, promising him that in her recreated world Yeul's soul will not be blocked off from the afterlife, thus negating the cycle of reincarnation. Due to this he accepted their terms. However, he dislikes the concept of the New Era itself being an endless war, uncertain if he can truly trust them to ever allow him or Yeul to die if the time calls for it.
• Another source of enmity between Riku and Caius is his interest in Absol and Spider-Man as a potential placebo to Yeul's problem. He wonders if he can have Etro's "gift" of foresight transferred more easily from Yeul to Absol in the sense that it would blend into her own gifts, with Peter Parker's Spidey Sense also applying to a lesser extent. All three are aware he's trying to pass off Yeul's early death problem to them so she can live longer lives and reincarnate less often; while partially sympathetic to his reasons, this still makes him a threat.
• While the now-fallen city of Paddra is his hometown and he was a member of the Farseer tribe, he was never specifically born to the Ballad clan; his true complete origin is unknown to anyone else. He took the name in honor of a rival Farseer warrior from that clan who nearly killed him in a duel only to sacrifice himself Taking the Bullet for Yeul when an enemy raid interrupted, feeling that as Yeul's Guardian it should've been him. Because of this, he finds Dolph Ziggler's insistence that it should've been him to achieve world championship success instead of Kofi Kingston to be rather annoying, as it trivializes his own anguish. Gohan can sympathize with Caius as his biggest breakthroughs in power all came in some way or another from realizing his own failures to protect his loved ones due to his aversion to combat, even though he thinks the Farseer warrior takes things too far.
  • Interestingly, since Paddra is set within the larger world of Gran Pulse, whose naming structure goes City-Clan-Given Name, his name is listed in the database as Paddra Ballad-Caius. Yet his temple door, fitting how he's usually addressed, reads Caius Ballad, as he prefers to go by the simpler Given Name-Surname format as used by the floating continent of Cocoon.

Maltruant, God of Being Stuck In A Time Loop (Mr. Disassembled Clockwork Guy, The Rogue Chronosapien, Overgrown Wind-Up Toy)

• Greater God (drops to Lesser outside of time)
• Symbol: Himself
• Alignment: Neutral Evil
• Portfolio: Seeks Divinity by Sabotaging the Big Bang to His Favor, Clockwork Creature, Red and Black and Evil All Over, Time Master, Initially Split Into Pieces, Lacking Loyalty, Last Antagonist of the Original Canon, Narcissist, Knight of Cerebus, Lightning Bruiser, Weakened Outside of Time, Stuck In a Loop of Destruction and Rebuilding, Cause and Effect Looped, Complete Monster
• Domains: Time, Evil, Aliens, Clockwork, God Complexes
• Followers: Eternity Devil
• Allies^note : Vilgax, The Master, Krona, Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash, Dark Danny, Porky Minch
• Enemies: BEN TENNYSON and his friends, The Pantheonic Time Police (especially Professor Paradox and Dialga), The Doctor, Clockwork, anyone who protects the sanctity of time in general, Luke Skywalker, Fused Zamasu, Eternity, Arceus, LORD ENGLISH, Kronika, Rassilon, The Monitor and Anti-Monitor, Chronos, Mercurius, Homura Akemi, Team Dai-Gurren
• Avoids: Yuuki Terumi, Hakumen, The Time Eater
• Maltruant is a narcissistic and power-hungry Chronosapien who went rogue, having masterminded the Time War. Defeated at the dawn of time, he slowly had himself re-assembled. Out of sheer ego he sought to go back to when time began, in hopes of intervening with the creation of the universe and remake it in his image. He would be defeated by Ben Tennyson at the dawn of time, leading to him being re-assembled and the whole process repeating itself over, a Time Loop Trap he cannot get out of.
• Maltruant was supposed to be locked in his time loop forever but somehow managed to break out of the loop. Ben and Paradox were shocked, and Maltruant initially tried to explain it as "to paraphrase one renegade time traveller, time can be rewritten!". Eventually, he admitted his savior was, in fact, Reverse-Flash, who used his status as a living paradox to break Maltruant out of the loop for a larger goal involving the Time Breakers and to further his own ends. And Maltruant has chosen to help him out... for the moment.
• Has some impressive mastery over time, able to halt, alter, slow down and speed it up, and create after-images. He takes great pride and joy in manipulating time, however, there are time masters superior in strength to him. Clockwork and Chronos are temporal deities whose power is much greater than his, and to his great misfortune are opposed to his antics of subverting time to his desired outcome. Of course, he still believes he can exploit their power to his own, such as his ego.
• In his pursuit of gaining ultimate power through the manipulation of time, Maltruant sought out to capture and force Dialga to create a universe to his liking. However, if that isn't enough, he is perfectly fine with capturing Dialga's creator. He heard Arceus can make a new version of the Creation Trio in the Sinjoh Ruins, which has a lot of potential. Among those he's hunting are Kronika (to take her hourglass) and Eternity, for being the living representation of the Marvel universe.
• Zamasu hates him as much as Lord English, for being a mortal who breaks the Time Travel Taboo to use time as a means of achieving godhood. No less villainous that Maltruant, the rogue Chronosapien didn't even bother to point out all of Zamasu's hypocrisies, nor did he care. He did note that they do share one thing in common; absolute hatred towards Lord English. Maltruant hates English as much as he does Ben, as English' mastery over causal loops is an eternal reminder and threat of the infinite loop of failure his defeat and reassembling doomed him to until Eobard Thawne rescued him.
• He's also aware of other deities who've been in time loops, such as the SOS Brigade, Phil Connors and Homura Akemi. Of course, it's not like he cares for their plight or anyone but himself. If anything, he's deeply envious towards Homura since she was able to exploit it to achieve her goals.
• Though Lord English is the foe he hates most, their villainous ambitions towards time leads to them sharing enemies in the Pantheonic Time Police. Maltruant ends up prioritizing English and Ben over them despite the former being way out of his league, and being hit on even more sides worsens his chances of victory. But his ego won't allow it. On a smaller note, Luke Skywalker opposes him for being a megalomaniac like Palpatine and doesn't like how he sounds like Maltruant, but without the accent.
• Present before his universe began, he knows it was the fifth-dimensional Contemelia who made it. Given their higher state of existence they appear as whatever someone finds most pleasing, which in Maltruant's case was himself. Really says a lot about the guy. Maltruant has no interest in getting near the 5D imp Mr. Mxyzptlk due to his bad experiences at the dawn of time. He has a larger contempt for Mercurius, despite being way out of his league, for representing Eternal Recurrence; something that like Lord English's actions reminds him of the Time Loop Trap he was stuck in.
• Maltruant played on Krona's hunger for knowledge of creation by saying that together, they may learn the greater mystery and obtain great power. Inevitably it'll end in betrayal, but that's expected from him. As his plans for the dawn of time are similar to the Anti-Monitor, the Monitor opposes him on principle. As for the Anti-Monitor, Maltruant knows he isn't chatty and his Omnicidal Mania hinders his desire for domination.
• Had bartered with Vilgax for transport repairs, giving him a Chronosapien Time Bomb as payment. This weapon is almost as destructive as Davros' Reality Bomb (while also having much less set-up required), as Vilgax used it to destroy every timeline with a Ben Tennyson except for the one he was in due to that Ben never getting the Omnitrix. The Pantheonic Time Police is doing whatever they can to ensure he never gets one, as the detonation was only negated through time travel.
• Well aware that the Time Lords are similar to his race of Chronosapiens, and that the Doctor is similar to Professor Paradox. And safe to say the Doctor isn't a fan of him. Rassilon opposes Maltruant, but more on the principle that he is the supreme Time Lord and knows Maltruant is eyeing up his position. The Ultimate Sanction is something the Chronosapien is very intrigued by.
• His status as a rogue Chronosapien and desire for domination managed to strike a chord with the Master, who felt they would be able to work out an alliance of convenience. One that they will inevitably void, as is typical of them. He has also promised Dark Danny and Porky Minch free rein to abuse the timeline if it helps him get what he wants, but they know not to trust him in the long run.
• As egotistical as he is, even Maltruant doesn't want to mess with Yuuki Terumi and Hakumen. Their armor allows them to cut time itself without risk of a paradox. Maltruant couldn't use his time powers outside of time, even he doesn't favor his chances against their specific temporal power. He avoids the Time Eater for similar reasons.

Joseph Simmons, God/s of Temporal Suicide (Joe)

The two in a diner. Left: Old Joe, Right: Young Joe

• Demigod
• Symbol: A playing card with the young and old version backwards
• Theme: Closing Your Loop
• Alignment: True Neutral (Young Joe), Neutral Evil (Old Joe)
• Portfolio: Killed Their Future Selves In Different Ways, Hating Themselves, Stable Time Loop and Temporal Paradox
  • Young Joe: Byronic Hero, Nominal Hero turned Unscrupulous Hero, Kills Himself To Stop Old Joe, Becomes A Better Person and Hitman with a Heart, Redemption Equals Death
  • Old Joe: He Who Fights Monsters, Set Events In Play To Make The Rainmaker By Trying To Stop Him From Becoming A Threat, Future Badass, Willing to Kill Children to Avert a Dictator, Love Makes You Evil, Ret-Gone
• Domains: Time Travel, Hitmen, Self-Conflict (both), Development, Sacrifice (Young Joe), Loss, Revenge (Old Joe)
• Varying relationship with: Simon Petrikov/Ice King, The Doctor and The Master, both Shirou Emiya, Philip J. Fry and Lars Fillmore
• Allies:
  • Young Joe: Sarah Connor, Giorno Giovanna, Gunvolt
  • Old Joe: Victor Fries/Mister Freeze, SCP-2578-D, Nox (Wakfu)
• Enemies: Each other, Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash, Boris the Animal, Diavolo, Light Yagami
  • Young Joe: Old Joe's allies, SKYNET
  • Old Joe: Barry Allen/the Flash, Hiiro Kagami (with some Sympathy for the Devil from), Bender, Nibbler
• In the year 2044, assassins called Loopers get a high paying job, having targets sent back from 30 years in the future as it's extremely difficult to get rid of a body then without being discovered. As a way of covering up loose ends, 30 years later the said Looper is sent back to be iced by their past self, and they have bags over their head so you never know if it's you. But one Looper, Joseph Simmons, managed to get around that and sneak off. The younger Joe went up after him, and the two soon realized they have more to complain about than they thought.
• Applies to both
  • The young Joe was a mostly self-centered hitman, addicted to eye drops. The old Joe hates him for being immature, however over time the younger Joe became a better person and protective of Cid, even killing himself so Old Joe wouldn't harm him. And Old Joe's desperate need to stop the Rainmaker made him into an extremist willing to kill children to undo the Rainmaker and prevent his wife's death. Old Joe closed his loop back when he was young, and Young Joe ultimately made a Heroic Suicide to close his.
  • Don't want to discuss the mechanics of time travel or they'd be there for hours. Both versions of Joseph Simmons can understand where Bob and George get their hatred of time travel from. Easiest way to understand it is when Young Joe does something different, Old Joe's memory shifts. And thanks to the Trope Pantheon's Death Is Cheap status, Old Joe is freed from the Ret-Gone status that his younger self's suicide caused. This has only further incensed one version against the other.
  • He is not the only time traveler in the pantheon to kill himself. Missy stabbed her Harold Saxon incarnation, before he used his laser screwdriver on his future self and claiming it would permanently kill them, all over the argument of siding with the Doctor. Saxon was wrong. While Missy is the future version, having become a better person in the end she relates to Young Joe improving himself over time. The Doctor, ever the one to fight with themselves and having faced a dark possible future relate to their dilemma. While ultimately opposing Old Joe and siding with Young Joe's issues, the Doctor sympathizes with how Old Joe was screwed by a Stable Time Loop.
  • Depending on his mood, Simon Petrikov's opinion on the two varies. When sane, Simon respects Young Joe's decision to choose the right path even over his own life, however he does feel bad for Old Joe as he knows what love did to him. However he doesn't think it justifies what Old Joe did. When insane, the Ice King is somewhat more supportive of Old Joe in his pursuit to bring his own "princess" back, but still Even Evil Has Standards and thinks killing kids is a bit too much. Old Joe agrees, but has an "ends justifies the means" view on what he did.
  • They've come to hate each other, which is something Boris the Animal relates to. And they both hate Boris. First off, because he's a psychopath. Second, the only reason the two Borises hate each other is how they ended up being captured. As far as Joseph Simmons is concerned, Boris is so Ax-Crazy he wants any excuse to try to rage at and/or murder anyone and everyone, even if it's literally just him from a different point in time. Third, their reasons for hating each other are a lot more valid; Young Joe has a more straighforward case of Future Me Scares Me, Old Joe is disgusted with the driftless and immature existence he used to have.
  • Sometimes they talk about their experiences with trying to commit literal murder-suicide(murdercide?) with Shirou Emiya and EMIYA. EMIYA shares a similar contempt Old Joe has for his more immature younger self, however they disagree on what is right and wrong on "how to Set Right What Once Went Wrong". Given his already present issues before his future self got in the picture, Young Joe and the young Emiya have a fraught relationship but they both value the idea of a better future.
  • Fry and Lars Fillmore are on much better terms with each other compared to the two Emiya or Joe, and their feud was more about jealousy, unrequited love and being a pig about pizza. Both can understand what it must be for Old Joe to lose their wife, and they admit they would abuse time travel to undo it. But they wouldn't trade an innocent life for their love, even if they become a bad person in the future. On Young Joe, Lars was impressed to see how he managed to mature and did a brave thing.
• Applies to Young Joe
  • Suffers an addiction to eye drops, and the withdrawal syndromes are like heroin but much worse. He's trying to kick the habit as Old Joe did with his wife, and the fact that Diavolo is fueling the drug trade is getting in the way of it. Fortunately Giorno Giovanna is there to make sure he doesn't relapse. Joe may be a hitman, but he thinks Diavolo is a psychopath and fighting him might help him personality-wise.
  • Finds himself relating to Sarah Conner, interestingly enough. Mainly her own experience becoming like the force she sought to destroy, but unlike his older self she managed to pull herself away from the point of no return. While Young Joe's answer to "would you kill baby Hitler" is an emphatic no, he'll make an exception without thought for SKYNET. Given that SKYNET is a purely monstrous A.I who turned on humanity within the same day of being activated (and in some timelines not even having a clear trigger), SKYNET's exception to the rule is totally justified.
  • Also finds himself relating to Gunvolt. Though no initially, his growth led him to becoming a Hitman with a Heart ready to sacrifice himself in order to save Cid, thus averting his Start of Darkness that led him to become the Rainmaker. Both he and Gunvolt are Byronic Hero hitmen with their own Morality Pet.
• Applies to Old Joe
  • Because of what the Rainmaker did and his reign of terror in the future, he tends to go after dictators. His answer to the "would you kill baby Hitler?" is a definitive yes. He agrees with SCP-2578-D on taking out dictators with extreme prejudice, and will help it in Tyrannicide. Mainly, he wants to somehow install the SCP into the future as another way to prevent his wife's death. Old Joe is also a close ally to Nox, due to their ultimately benevolent intentions in trying to save their loved ones through time travel that ultimately ended in failure (though in a different way for Old Joe).
  • One might think, with his actions being akin to Precrime Arrest (well, execution) Old Joe would approve of Kira. He doesn't, as considering the sheer scope of what he does and the fact it's through supernatural means he reminds Old Joe of the Rainmaker. Mainly he critiques Light for targeting innocents if they get in the way, to which Light called him a hypocrite because he Would Hurt a Child. Old Joe countered this, saying he deeply regrets it and is only doing so to avert a future tyrant. He is not motivated by a god complex like Light is, but Light thinks otherwise.
  • Hiiro Kagami knows what it's like to lose one's love, but thinks what Old Joe did is going too far. Barry Allen agreed. Of course, Old Joe reminded him of the mess he caused with Flashpoint due to trying to stop the death of a loved one. Allen admits that was a mistake and while he understands Old Joe's tragedy, as does Hiiro, he doesn't approve of what he did. Old Joe does agree with Barry that Eobard Thawne is a depraved scumbag due to the absolute selfishness of his actions, and so does Young Joe, so at least that's something.
  • After some talk with EMIYA, Old Joe decided he would search for a way to kill Young Joe without doing himself in, as he's not a Death Seeker yet. Turns out, there is a way to ignore paradoxes. He's planning to hunt down Fry, his duplicate Lars, and Bender for the time code^note  so he can do whatever he wants to Young Joe without risking his own existence. Then whenever he fails to take down the younger Rainmaker, go back in time again to undo any "mistakes" until he gets what he wants. Probably create some more Old Joes to ensure the job is done. While he means well, Nibbler is doing whatever he can to prevent him from doing this as he dreads a second tear in space-time will finally bring the cosmos crashing down.

Lars Fillmore, God of Temporal Duplicates (originally Philip J Fry)

• Demigod
• Symbol: An old photo of himself, Fry, and Leela
• Theme Song: 30th Century Man by Scott Walker
• Alignment: Neutral Good
• Portfolio: Walking Spoiler, an Older and Wiser Alternate Self of Fry, Living Paradox Duplicate (Which He Didn't Know For 12 Years), Sort Of Future Badass, Rival Of Affection For His Original Self, Doomed Because Of His Paradoxical Nature, Heroic Sacrifice, Being The Source Of The Time Code That Created Him, Temporal Paradox
• Domains: Time Travel, Copies, Alternate Paths, The Head Museum, Love, Reveals
• Special relationship with: Philip J Fry (his original/alternate self)
• Allies: Fry's allies (especially Leela and Rory Williams), both Trunks, Flash Thompson, George, Tenri Ayukawa
• On good terms with: Mariente Dupain-Cheng and Adrian Agreste, Anzu Mazaki
• On speaking terms with: Ben Tennyson
• Enemies: Fry's enemies, The Hounds of Tindalos, The Dehaka, Fused Zamasu, Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash, Randall Ross, Nerif the Oracle, Porky Minch
• Opposes: EMIYA
• Sympathy for the Devil for: Nox
• Avoids: Funny Valentine
• Pitied by: The Doctor
• The Time Code allows one to ignore temporal paradoxes and go back in time, at the cost of being one way. When Fry was being chased by the scammers and sick of how Leela was dating Lars Fillmore, leading to him going back to half an hour after he was originally frozen. He used the time code to get pizza and created a copy of himself. The original Fry fell into the same tube the earliest version was in to return, the copy spent 12 years having to deal with unrequited love. Then after his larynx was burned and hair burned off, he realize he was Lars, and re-froze himself to meet Leela again.
• By his nature a paradox, though it wasn't until his wedding that Lars learned he was a doomed duplicate which is why he broke it off. He sacrificed himself to save Leela from Nudar with a doomed Bender duplicate. The Pantheonic Time Police was initially apprehensive of a living paradox like Lars ascending, but as he's otherwise harmless and fits the trope of Temporal Duplication his revival was permitted. While he's been restored, Lars has accepted he won't be able to be back with Leela as she's together with the original Fry.
• As he and Fry were the same entity for 33 years(technically 1033), Fry's allies and enemies are his allies and enemies. Besides Leela, he has a further appreciation of Rory due to how the flow of time has made him pine particularly hard for his beloved. While 50 biologically, Lars has spent an extra 1990 years of his life frozen. 988 of those involved three versions of the same person in the same facility.
• The Doctor pities Lars' situation as a doomed clone. He was forced to remove the Older Amy to save her younger self, after all, he doesn't like how the laws of time made Lars doomed. In turn, Lars has some sympathy for Nox as all the effort in time travel made to save his family was All for Nothing. That said, he doesn't approve of what he did.
• Because Lars Fillmore's existence is temporal and ontological (twice!) paradox, Clock Roaches despise him. The Hounds of Tindalos and the Dehaka have tried to hunt him down. Lars would also be destroyed if he touches Fry, though only if Funny Valentine and his Stand is in the proximity. So he tends to avoid being anywhere near the 23rd president.
• Though a paradox, Lars would rather not mess with time. He became a duplicate in the first place because he didn't want to abuse the time code for pizza like Fry. As such, he doesn't like how Nerif the Oracle caused a Reality-Breaking Paradox. He also hates how Randall Ross tried to use time travel to destroy time itself. On the other side of the coin, Zamasu is disgusted by Lars' very existence due to the time code, and Lars considers him reprehensibly evil.
• Lars really doesn't like how remorseless Eobard Thawne abuses time travel and changing things to get whatever his selfish heart desires, along with having Yandere tendencies to boot. Reverse-Flash regards Lars as suffering from a sore lack of ambition for a living paradox like himself, and prides being able to break and twist history without repercussion.
• George's hatred of how confusing and messy time travel has Lars' sympathy given the complicated relationship he had to Fry, and wants to see if he can help. Due to that complicated relationship he has with Fry and how it's complicated their love life, he can relate to Anzu's feelings towards and alter ego, and the weird two person love triangle that Mariente and Adrian have.
• Lars' sympathies are with Tenri due to her unrequited love, and the fact that as both Lars and Fry he had the belief of wanting his beloved to be happy, though with a twist due to his nature. During his new existence, Lars Fillmore was a whale caretaker and head feeder of the head museum. He's met the jarred heads of a number of historical figures, though the versions ascended have different recollections to what he's used to. But they do appreciate the job he held. He also does jar jobs for people who get decapitated.
• Interested to learn of a number of deities who've met their time-displaced selves. He was interested to see that the two Trunks in the pantheon share a similar dynamic to him and Fry, with one being immature and the other Older and Wiser. He appreciates how Flash Thompson matured and mellowed over time. He also finds Ben's interactions with various future selves of his to be interesting. On the other side of the coin, Lars Fillmore was disturbed by how psychotically childish and malicious Porky Minch became through his abuse of time travel, never maturing like Lars did.
• Finds EMIYA quite abrasive; sure, even he somewhat dislikes his other self but at least he didn't try to outright kill him out of shame which EMIYA did, only it was out of wanting to die for good . EMIYA understands Lars' reasons but was still irked that the latter is attempting to achieve something that will never be fulfilled, not unlike his own goal.

Phil Connors, God of Time Loops

• Demigod
• Theme: I Got You Babe
• Symbol: The groundhog Punxatawney Phil, alternatively his face inside a bell clock.
• Alignment: Chaotic Neutral with shades of Good after the loops.
• Portfolio: A weatherman who has no remorse towards others, is way too full of himself, suddenly gains the ability to repeat Groundhog Day, and initially takes advantage of this through dating other women and doing criminal acts, until his sanity breaks down due to his endless loops, considered dying to break the loops and fails anyway, decides to have a change of heart after multiple tries and drops his hopelessness, with the time loop eventually breaking after winning the heart of his love life
• Domains: Weather, Time Travel, Immortality, Values, Nihilism (and Anti-Nihilism)
• Herald: Rita
• Followers: Siffrin
• Relatable Deities (or those who share similar happenings): Subaru Natsuki
  • Those who seek his help: Tree Gelbman, Homura Akemi, Yuki Nagato
• Good Counterpart to: Angela
• Commonality Connection with: Ebenezer Scrooge
• Opposes: Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Yoshikage Kira
• Groundhog Day, a celebratory day that occurs every February 2. Many would usually find it to be a joyous event but for weather reporter Phil Connors, that is not the case. With his new task of reporting the joyous day, it would seem that Phil is different from the crowd, that being a genuine douche that cared less about the celebration around him. On the same day however, a blizzard struck and he was forced to stay in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for the night. Next day, he would go about his usual day, getting breakfast, watching the latest Jeopardy!, reporting for Groundhog D—, wait a second. It would seem that he did these things before he slept and after witnessing the same turn of events for a third and fourth time, did he realize that he is stuck in February 2. With this newfound power, he used it for his own wants, managed to date various women, eat as much as he wanted and even stole some money during the initial days of this time loop. But it was not until subsequent loops that he realized that he was bored and could not get out of this situation he was in, with his attempts at wooing Rita at a constant failure, a reflection of his boorish personality. Depressed, he would attempt ways to end this loop, first by killing himself in various ways, which did not work. When suicide was out of the question, he would try to help the local populace but it was not enough. Finally, after changing his outlook in life and accepting his love to Rita that finally freed him from the loop, ending what would have been years of insanity and with it, a changed man.
• The news is an ever-changing paradigm, after all so many newly made information are discovered everyday. Phil's life was already going fine and dandy until reports of a new plane came about in his script, which weirded him out upon him saying it out loud live. Once he did that however, the background around him froze and his fears of another time loop were coming up in his head, that was when he arrived in a gold-decorated room with mysterious figures surrounding him with noises that had the word "ascension". He already had experiences with godhood (a god but not the God) so to him this would be not a new experience with him, sadly his experience with the constant looping of February 2 made him a prime candidate for Time Loops, a moment that while he remembers, is not all too fond with it. With news of him accepting the title, he would be granted godhood, this time in the Trope Pantheons.
• Godhood in the Pantheons is usually thought as a paradise but for some of the usual demigods and quasideities, the normal people granted a place in the realm, they often assign themselves to certain roles. Phil took it upon himself to be the Pantheon's weatherman, reporting to everyone about the day's weather and such. While the House of Time and Space is his temple, he is present in either the House of Profession, continuing his work or the Hall of Weather to predict the next forecast. When asked why he would care for a job that can be easily discarded in favor of his position, he tells that he would rather have a purpose than have nothing. To him at the very least, the time loops have done some changes to him that is very different from his original personality, giving him a fresh look at life.
• Time Loops are an unnatural occurrence since time usually goes forward, these loops essentially repeat a certain timeframe over and over. How and why Phil got himself into such a predicament is a mystery. Some guess that it was all in his mind while others thought some higher cosmic being got real tired of Phil being an asshole so it subjected him the loop. Another detail that has made some thinking was the amount of years he endured on the loop with guesses going as far as either two weeks, an entire decade (preferably 30-40 years) to about 10,000 years. Even he has no idea and lost count in the middle of all that. Nonetheless, this made him the Pantheon's go-to man when it comes to time looping and similar scenarios.
• One of the first people to consult him was Subaru, who has gained a similar ability upon entering a new world and can return to a "checkpoint" before his death. Unfortunately for him, such ability is costly since it risks his death and others as well. Ironically, when both knew about their ability, they tried using it to their advantage but slowly realized it was a bad idea and both got punished. The fact that him and Subaru have maintained a somewhat calm posture after all that timey-wimey changes have surprised others to some degree though Phil is arguably the better man in regards to his attitude, except the teenager pointed out his issue of being committed after the loop. That being said, they had the better cases than the other unfortunate deities who had to go through the loops themselves.
  • Other deities who wished for consultation to Phil were far damaging in regards to their mental state either due awareness or some other factors. Both Yuki Nagato and Homura Akemi fit this bill and he has no idea how to approach them as there are too many factors that contributed to their loops whether it be a godlike entity or death. It really speaks to him when one of the most stoic members of the SOS Brigade somehow lost her sanity in comparison to him and his change from a once-hated man to a respectable one. Homura was even at a loss of words how he moved on from the inevitable death of one old man compared to her obsession with the remaining Magi. At one point, Tree Gelbman was found hurriedly banging on Phil's temple with fear on her face. Worried, he asked what happened to her and was shocked at her condition to be a repeated victim of a killer, on her birthday no less. Her hope to visit him is to found out how to get her out, sadly he even has no idea how to get her off.
  • If there was one time-based deity that would be considered an opposite to Phil, Angela would be that person. Her bio shows how she was an originally nice woman who endured from the repeated loops made by the corporation she was ordered to survey, however she was not free and was essentially bounded by a script to force her into a certain harsh mindset or else she repeats the entire thing from the start. If the comparisons between Angela and Phil are made, the key differences are freedom, as Phil had the chance to experience everything from hedonism, to nihilism and kindness while Angela had none of that, and the result. He changed into a better person while she could not move on from that mindset and has become her default state. She has found his case to be with jealousy as he had enough space to change himself and admits that had his conditions be implemented on her case, things would have turned so much better in the long run.
• He was shocked to hear that there were people who were able to control or at the very least manipulate their time loops, too bad they were the evil variety. When he received a visitor under the name of Kira, he was surprised by his calm demeanor and was able to chat with him normally, until Rita came and he attempted to flirt with her, of which he was about to touch him but felt a weird sensation. For some reason, he did not unleash his stand against him, stating that he did not want to waste his changed lifestyle though his sentence was cut short when a member of the Joestar family caught him and he was forced to escape. No one was hurt but it allowed Phil to read Kira's bio and was at a loss of words when he saw that he can create a time loop to benefit himself. Lucky for him he did not pursue the murder.
• When news of his ascension came to be, Heinz Doofenshmirtz was hesitant in getting out of his temple as some of his neighboring deities all know most of his "-inator" machines, among which was the Do-Overinator, which is as you would expect from a weird scientist like him, able to send a person back in time, unfortunately the manual did not state that time was at risk of being crunched to oblivion after usage. While in the effect of the machine, he did show his compassion to his nemesis, Perry the Platypus so it was not all too bad. Not for Phil however, since the consequences of the machine are something not to sneeze at, he was disappointed that all it took for him to change was a time loop that nearly broke the universe. Oh, and groundhogs were seen during the machine's usage, as if it was not enough to show who Doofenshmirtz was trying to reference.
• At one point, during the day of Christmas, a few children lead by his herald Rita pointed him to a house that accommodated the famous Scrooge. He was flabbergasted that he was lead to his temple, especially when the first greeting to him was he usual "Humbug!", until he heard his name and made him come in. There the two enjoyed a cup of tea and explained for his sudden change of mood. It was for the fact that the two of them are similar in their lives, how both of them were jackasses to others, until a few supernatural events occurred and made them change their ways. He wanted to meet him to also warn him of consequences that will occur after the loop, pertaining to him being non-committal. After a few hours, both Phil and Scrooge parted their ways with Phil saying that it was almost like talking to his own reflection.

  Phil: Sometimes I wonder what else can be discovered in this weird place. Godhood can't all be that bad right?

Subaru Natsuki, God of Reliving Time Loops to Save Loved Ones (The Half Elf's Knight, Purge King, Lolimancer/Little Girl User, Believer in Love, Archbishop of Pride, Barusu, Schwarz Natsumi, Chadbaru)

• Demigod (Lesser God when using Spirit Arts with Beatrice)
• Symbol: The stylized "N" on his tracksuit
• Theme Song: Styx Helix, Subaru Concerto
• Alignment: Neutral Good with Chaotic Good tendencies
• Portfolio: Reliving Time Loops To Save Loved Ones Through his ability called Return by Death, Deconstructing the Stock Light-Novel Hero, Action Survivor, All-Loving Hero, Always willing to help and save Emilia, Awesomeness by Analysis, Boisterous Weakling, Conditioned to Accept Horror, Hamminess hiding enormous insecurities, Desperately Craves Affection, Determinator, Friend to All Children, Hope Bringer, Became Emilia's knight, Loser Protagonist, Misery Builds Character, Nerves of Steel, Non-Action Guy
• Domain(s): Time Loops, Death, Darkness, Character Growth
• Herald: Beatrice
• Allies: Emilia, Puck, Rem and Ram, Ayato Amagiri, Touya Mochizuki, Ikki Kurogane, Kenny McCormick, Elizabeth Liones, Touma Kamijou, Ichika Orimura, Naofumi Iwatani, Sieg, Lux Arcadia, Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya, Shido Itsuka, Kazuma Satou, Issei Hyodo, Phil Connors, Tree Gelbman, Major William Cage, Homura Akemi, Rika Furude, Stefan Butler, Rintarou Okabe, Kei Shirogane/Shiroe, Shizuka Hanekura/Akatsuki, Sans
• Enemies: The Wicked Witch of the West, The Evil Queen, Mother Gothel, Airy, Mercurius, Yoshikage Kira, Avenger/Angra Mainyu, Flowey (except not really)
• Avoids: Moby-Dick, Monstro, The Kraken, Liopleurodon, Lagiacrus, General Woundwort, The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog, SCP-524, The Lepus
• Conflicting Opinion: Ainz Ooal Gown
• Subaru Natsuki was an originally an Ordinary High-School Student who was unable to live up to the expectations of being the son of amazing parents in his school and life. Prone to taking the "easy" route, he actively avoided people and eventually became a shut-in NEET. After buying consumer goods at a local Japanese convenience store, Subaru was suddenly transported to another world. Being familiar with the usual conventions of such circumstances, he initially believed that he had gained magical powers and that Emilia, a half-elf girl who had rescued him from muggers, was the one who had summoned him. However, his expectations turned out to be wrong and he additionally discovered that, whenever he dies, he returns to an earlier "checkpoint". Calling the ability "Return by Death", Subaru set out to use his knowledge of the future to rescue and protect his friends, especially Emilia, with whom he fell in love.
• Aside from Return by Death, Subaru was formerly capable of casting Yin Magic, although the only magic he could use was Shamak, which enabled him to trap his opponent in a area of darkness that confused their senses. However, after his gate collapsed, he formed a contract with the Artificial Spirit Beatrice in order use her as a gate instead. Additionally, Subaru has access to both the Authority of Greed and Authority of Sloth. The former being weaponized time control resulting in invincibility and unblockable, unresisted severing attacks and the latter being hundreds of invisible, intangible hands that can rip people to shreds. However, Subura's use of the Authority of Greed has since become a reverse form of what it was, instead allowing him to take on the burdens of others, be it physical or mental, and transfers them to himself temporarily in exchange for increasing their combat abilities. On the other hand, he is unable to use the Authority of Sloth without risking his sanity, thus limiting him to only being able to control one hand with minimal range.
• Upon ascending into the Pantheon, Subaru was surprised to discover Puck, of all people, had ascended prior to him. After a friendly reunion, Subaru was ecstatic to discover that Emilia was also present as Puck's herald and declared that he would do his best to ascend her as well. Subaru also appointed Beatrice as his herald upon discovering that, due to their contract, she had gained access to the pantheon as well. Eventually, Emilia managed to ascend to the Pantheon, much to his joy.
• Subaru was extremely disturbed to discover a multitude of alternate realities in which things took a much darker turn for him. Having witnessed the various alternate realities in which his attempts to rescue and protect his friends resulted in him becoming more manipulative, paranoid, resentful, insane and even outright villainous, Subaru began questioning his mental state and became worried that he was ultimately doomed to fail. However, he also felt conflicted upon seeing another alternate reality in which he and Rem ran away from the Kingdom of Lugnica and left everything behind, ultimately living a happy marriage and having two children. Due to Rem having fallen into a coma, Subaru felt guilty over not having run away that day, but also aknowledged that, if they had, all of their friends would ultimately have died. Eventually, Subaru declared that, regardless of how difficult things would get, he still wouldn't give up until he finally managed to bring about a better future.
• Subaru was quick to befriend various heroes in the pantheon who share a large number of similarities with him, such as Ayato Amagiri, Touya Mochizuki, Ikki Kurogane, Touma Kamijou, Ichika Orimura, Naofumi Iwatani, Sieg, Lux Arcadia, Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya, Shido Itsuka and Issei Hyodo. After discussing their various similarities and differences, Subaru became rather envious of how most of them actually became powerful fighters and didn't have as much trouble earning people's respect. However, many of them expressed a lot of respect towards him for persevering through numerous hardships and being willing to fight against opponents much stronger than himself. In general, he likes to frequently hang out with all of them.
• Subaru is also friends with the various other deities who've lived through time loops. Phil Connors approves of Subaru using his knowledge of the future to help those around him while Major William Cage and Tree Gelbman in particular strongly sympathise with him over the many deaths he's suffered over the course of his adventures, as they had both similarly died multiple times during their respective time loops. Subaru has also bonded with Homura Akemi, who had used her magical girl powers to constantly time loop in her effort to save Madoka, during which she had done terrible things in order to accomplish her goal. Being familiar with the feeling of desperation that had motivated her actions, Subaru was quite forgiving towards her. Subaru also strongly respects Rika Furude, who had not only been trapped inside a time loop for somewhere between a century and a millennium, but kept trying to save her friends regardless, and eventually succeeded. Finally, Subaru has also befriended Sans, with whom he bonded over their shared quirk of experiencing numerous, branching timelines; Subaru was however distraught to hear that the pun-loving skeleton has resigned to having his life controlled by a higher power, and wishes he could break out of it once and for all.
• To almost no one's surprise, Subaru became quick friends with Kenny McCormick over their shared ability of coming back to life; key difference is that while Subaru gets warped back to a previous point in time, Kenny straight-up resurrects. Kenny, on his part, respects Subaru's willpower and desire to protect his loved ones, something that reminds him a lot of his Mysterion alter-ego.
• Subaru was rather disturbed upon learning of the circumstances of the time loops that Stefan Butler experienced, in which he was being controlled by someone and had no control over his actions. The two quickly became friends. Similarly, Subaru managed to strike up a friendship with Okabe Rintaro, as the two managed to bond over their similar experiences in trying to save their friends and retaining their memories of past timelines.
• Subaru gets along quite well with Kei Shirogane/Shiroe and Shizuka Hanekura/Akatsuki. He bonded with Shiroe over how the latter similarly ended up in another world and quickly grew to like Akatsuki due to how much she reminded him of Felt.
• Due to his past experiences with the Witch Cult and the Witches of Sin, Subaru strongly dislikes evil witches and magic users of any kind. As such, he quickly became enemies with the Wicked Witch of the West, the Evil Queen and Mother Gothel. The fact that each of them had threatened and tried to kill a young woman has further enraged him and he does his best ensure that they never get anywhere near Emilia.
• Subaru quickly became enemies with Airy and Mercurius when he learned that both had used time loops for their own purposes. Airy's use of a time loop as part of her evil plan made him quite wary of her, and he was glad to hear that she was ultimately defeated. On the other hand, Mercurius' forced endless repetition of time in order to acquire as much knowledge as he could strongly reminded Subaru of how Echidna had offered him help and wisdom in exchange for him having to help with her research by dying multiple times. As a result, Subaru developed a particularly strong dislike of Mercurius.
• Subaru is also enemies with Yoshikage Kira, a serial killer who possesses an ability called Bites The Dust, which allows him to create a time loop in order to murder anyone who discovers his identity without getting caught. Although Kira initially regarded Subaru as merely an annoyance, Subaru's ability to retain his memories through Return by Death, something Kira isn't able to do, has resulted in Subaru becoming a surprisingly effective opponent, as he can predict Kira's action ahead of time and act accordingly. As a result, Kira prefers to stay far away from Subaru.
• When Subaru heard of how Avenger/Angra Mainyu had made a time loop to save the life of a friend named Bazzett, he initially remarked that it was quite similar to what he himself would have done. However, Subaru feels that he can't trust him after everything that Angra has done and prefers to stay far away from him. Angra himself doesn't particularly care about Subaru as long as he doesn't stand in his way.
• Subaru generally avoids both Moby-Dick and Monstro, as they strongly remind him of the White Whale that he had previously helped kill. He also, by extension, avoids other marine monsters such as the Kraken, Liopleurodon and Lagiacrus, who similarly rival Moby-Dick and Monstro in terms of ferocity.
  • He also refuses to have anything to deal with the Killer Rabbit, SCP-524, the Lepus and General Woundwort, as they all remind him of the ravenous Great Rabbit that once ate his insides and killed him in a time loop.
• Subaru is rather conflicted about what to think of Ainz Ooal Gown. On one hand, Ainz was similarly transported to another world, albeit as a lich, and has standards and a code of honor, even treating his subordinates and subjects with relative kindness. On the other hand, his lost emotions and Lack of Empathy, as well as the fact that he's a villainous sorcerer and ruler, make him far too unpredictable for Subaru to consider him an ally. In general, Subaru prefers to just avoid him entirely.