Vanir (バニル) is Wiz's close friend, a Duke of Hell, and a former Devil King's General, who became Wiz's salesman at her shop after his defeat. He is a main supporting character in the KonoSuba and Limelight series, as well as the protagonist of the Consultation spinoff series.
Appearance[]
Vanir appears as a gentleman with slicked back hair, wearing a black and white mask with a small star design placed under each eye hole. Later, the roman numeral for 2 (II) replaces the star (signifying he had lost his life once). With this second mask, he states he is now reborn, now as "Vanir the Second".
He wears a black suit with white gloves which is the typical attire for the Dukes of Hell. However, his physical body in the mortal realm is only a mask and the current human body is just an add-on. Vanir's real body is hidden away in Hell and he can quickly resurrect into another mask if he is "killed."
Vanir also has a stunningly handsome face underneath the mask, enough to make the Adventurer's guild receptionist Luna fall in love with him when Vanir showed it to her.[2] According to himself, he can change his face for his clients to match to their taste.[3]
Personality[]
Vanir is defined by his eccentric behavior, such as talking in a theatrical and dramatic fashion, being very straightforward and confident, and bragging constantly like when he claims to be "stronger than the Devil King" and "the model citizen of Axel". Vanir is very spirited too, often letting out an evil laugh when he feels joy or fulfilment. Vanir also refers to himself as "Moi" (wagahai, 我輩).
Also, as a demon, Vanir feeds on the mortals' ill feelings like shame, jealousy and frustration. Hence, Vanir tries to extract these emotions at every available opportunity, usually using his divination to expose people's hidden feelings and secrets in public to mock them, playing pranks to humiliate and embarrass his victims, and even fueling misunderstandings between his acquaintances.
Given that Vanir sees humans as a mere food source, but since he doesn't enjoy emotions like despair, Vanir tries to stay on good terms with the people. He even acts as a role-model citizen, gossiping with old ladies, enforcing the trash dumping rules and chasing away crows from the dumpsters.[4] Vanir has a rule about not killing or hurting humans too, even though this rule doesn't apply to Gods.[5]
However, as a demon, Vanir is rather cunning, using his divination to manipulate people and events for self-profit or seize the right moment to make business, such as making an offer for all Kazuma's intellectual property by the exact amount Kazuma would need in an immediate future, with not a penny more.[6] He doesn't do any favor without getting something else in return either, like helping Kazuma to break into his mansion in exchange for buying needless stuff in Wiz's Shop.[7]
Even if Vanir usually looks carefree, he actually is quite stern and ruthless, even employing his Murder Ray and curses to keep those under his charge in line as if it were nothing, such as Wiz, even forcing her to work with no rest for 2 weeks, until she cracked from exhaustion, in order to prevent her bad business decisions.[8] Vanir may resort to curses or violence against the ones who harass him or his business too, as well as threaten him unjustifiedly.[9]
Moreover, Vanir has a great "death wish", since his ultimate goal is to build the world's largest dungeon in order to draw a group of powerful adventurers who, after a tough battle, would eventually kill him only to find out that the final prize is just an empty chest, so he could feed on his exhausted challengers' disappointment before passing on.[5] Most of what Vanir does, such as working at Wiz's Shop to gain money, is motivated by this sole objective.
Furthermore, since Vanir is a demon, contracts are absolute for him, thus he fulfills his deals to the letter. Even though he never lies, Vanir attains to his each of his contracts details and words, such as helping the Succubi after they showed him "true fear", but without stipulating who should show such fear (in that case, the Succubi themselves).[10] This is also the reason why Vanir keeps working at Wiz's Shop.
Lastly, as a Duke of Hell, Vanir often takes the demons in his territory under his wing, like the Succubi, Zeeleschilt and even his fellow Duke of Hell Maxwell. Despite being willing to assist these demons, like spending his extras lives to revive Zeeleschilt, Vanir still abides by the Hell basic rule about the survival of the fittest, not helping the ones who are unwilling to fight by themselves.[10] He also has a great disdain for the Gods and religions, mocking both the Eris and the Axis Orders.
History[]
For Vanir's history, see his History tab.
Abilities[]
Vanir is an extremely powerful and omnipotent entity, described as a being whose bare existence defies the laws of physics.[11] There is speculation among the Devil King's Army that led to rumors of Vanir being stronger than the Devil King himself.[5] Furthermore, Iris' escorts, Claire and Rain, expressed surprise, and subsequently fear, when Vanir dealt with a good deal of armed guards with a mere wave of his arm.[12]
- Divination: As the All-Seeing Demon, Vanir has the ability to look at people's mind, past and future. Thanks to this ability, Vanir can not only find out the person's location, thoughts and secrets, but also predict their and his own future. However, if he looks too much at the future, the events will change in order to backfire on him. This ability is also weaker against stronger targets.
- Mask: Vanir's true body is a black and white mask, partially composed of the bones from magic dragons. Vanir can possess someone's body by attaching the mask at this person's face, completely controlling their actions, causing a unbearable pain if they try to resist.
- Doll Creation: Vanir creates spare bodies out of the soil, being able to jump from one damaged body to a new untouched one quickly. He can also store those spare bodies or live within them at the store as if the real Vanir was there. Vanir also uses this ability to create doll-versions of himself that grab the target before explode. The self-destruction function can also be removed in order to do other tasks, such as cleaning.[13]
- Vanir-Style Murder Beam: After Vanir does a plus "+" sign with his arms like when Ultraman fires his generic beam, he shoots a beam out of his eyes that incinerates the target. According to him, since it is a murder ray, it should supposedly kill the user as well. It is usually used to punish Wiz, and even Darkness once, though their high magical resistances allowed them to survive it, albeit passing out due the damage.
- Vanir-Style Destruction Beam: Vanir shoots a beam from his right hand, that makes the target explode. It was used against a Hell Neroid.[14]
- Vanir-Style Eye Beam: A beam fired from the eyes. According to Vanir, it usually burns his eyes.
- Temporary Appearance: Vanir has the ability to change his appearance or copy someone else's. He usually uses this skill to seduce or cheer someone else before revealing himself in order to feed on their embarrassment (doing it with Yunyun[4] and Kazuma[15] before).
- Cursed Darkness: Using the power of darkness, Vanir can place any curse at the target, including removing or adding sexual organs, making mushrooms grows out of the target's rear, or even a death curse.
- Submission: A spell to force the target to submit, even to the point of making the target cry.
- Summon Demons: Vanir can quickly summon his underlings from Hell, by just using minotaur blood.
- Immense Strength: Vanir was able to wrestle and pin a dragon that was as big as a storage room despite having only one arm at the time.
- Extra Lives: Like other demons, Vanir can resurrect by sacrificing a partial soul, and although most demons take an entire lifetime to revive, Vanir is so powerful he can revive right after being slayed.
Trivia[]
- Vanir's name is the same on the norse pantheon of gods of the realm of Vanaheim, the Vanir, whose are associated to the wisdom and the ability to see the future.
- Vanir finds masochists like Darkness disturbing.[16]
- Although he takes the form of a man, Vanir admits that biologically, like all other demons and angels, he is sexless.[17]
- Vanir can't accept any quests in the Guild because he is so powerful he could destroy the entire ecosystem.[4]
- Vanir's real body resides in Hell. He just transferred his spirit to the mask.[18]
- Vanir claims to be stronger than the Devil King in a very matter-of-fact manner, due to the fact that he is a Duke of Hell.[18]
- The Devil King used to have headaches with Vanir constantly playing nasty pranks on his soldiers in order to feed on their negative emotions.[19]
- In the initial web novel, Vanir didn't make his first appearance in a dungeon, but trying to enter Axel, where he defeated Mitsurugi and Yunyun before being blown up by Megumin's surprise Explosion.
- Vanir was later summoned by Komekko to serve as her bodyguard for a day.
- Vanir ranked the 10th place in KonoSuba Popularity Poll.[20]
References[]
- ↑ KonoFan Twitter Account
- ↑ Consulting Light Novel, Chapter 3
- ↑ Vanir Q&A
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Consultation Light Novel, Chapter 1
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 3, Chapter 4
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 7, Chapter 5
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 11, Chapter 2
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 7, Chapter 1
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 8, Chapter 1
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Consulting Light Novel, Chapter 4
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 9, Chapter 3
- ↑ Consulting Light Novel, Chapter 2
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Anthology "Detour" Volume 3, Story 3
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 16, Chapter 2
- ↑ Preordered KonoSuba Television Anime Season 2 Blu-ray Disc Volume 1, Special Short Story Booklet
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 2, Chapter 4
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 2, Epilogue
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Consultation Light Novel, Chapter 5
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 17, Chapter 4
- ↑ Popularity Poll
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