I don't have art or fic for this one but I wanted to throw out some love to this crazy side villain, the jellyfish Barian dude, Kurage/Chironex xD My favorite villain is definitely Vector but the existence of this funky lil dude over here opens up a lot of fun questions.
Not only did I kind of love his design and the way he was introduced was very classic magical girl anime villain (the creepy puddles on the hospital floor etc), his duel with Nasch/Shark and IV is an interesting one for me because it shows a fun facet of Shark and IV's relationship and where Shark is at mentally at this time in the show. There's a little bit of foreshadowing to Nasch and IV's later duel because in this one, IV is crying out for Shark to fight the weakness in his own body due to the enemy's jellyfish toxin (not to mention Shark is struggling a bit with reconciling his childhood memories as Ryouga with his possible identity as a Barian emperor), and in the later duel Nasch is fighting what he perceives as weakness in his own heart while IV is trying to make him remember and value his identity as Ryouga, a human being. In this first duel though, IV really tries to appeal to Shark's pride and his attachment to Rio, and almost comes off as a bit cruel, though it's all for the sake of getting Shark to fight for his life and not give up.
I'm a sucker for the kind of angst where a character's body sort of betrays them so the poisoning slowly taking away Shark's ability to move is great. Though I always have to laugh at the idea that you can't duel while sitting down, apparently :P
Meanwhile, this guy intrigues me by existing at all. I love the concept of Vector being able to "find" lost souls in the sea of ill intent, which he makes reference to when we're introduced to Mr Heartland's fly form. Why are the Barian emperors such a different-looking "species" if you will from these Barians, who have both humanoid forms and forms which are based on insects or other critters? What about all the Barians who came from the destruction of Nasch's kingdom, who we only ever see as glowing orbs of light or as their human selves? Do they actually also have creature forms that we just don't see? Or are creature forms generally reserved for actually evil souls? Are certain especially evil souls like Mr. Heartland's lost in the sea of ill intent until an emperor like Vector uses their power to give them a body?
But beyond all that I just find a creepy jellyfish guy with a big-purple-hatted bishounen form a really fun design choice lol.
Especially for how often Shark's hair gets compared to a purple octopus!
