Zelos Wilder

Zelos Wilder (ゼロス・ワイルダー "Zerosu Wairudā" in Japan) is a fictional character in the video game Tales of Symphonia. He is 22 years old, is 5'10", and weighs 149 pounds. He is voiced by Shiloh Strong.

Overview
Zelos is the Chosen One from Tethe'alla, the other world. He is rarely serious and acts as a comic relief for the group, always ready to cheer the party up at heavy-hearted moments. Quite the ladies' man (one of his possible titles is called Gigolo, which he gets by speaking to every female character in the world, while another, Casanova, can be received by his being in a party with three female characters), he has the ability to charm every woman he sees, who in turn give him gifts (the player will be able to take this advantage in the game). Zelos is quite handsome, and approaches most situations hoping to meet or impress any pretty girls nearby. He takes almost every opportunity to hit on his female team members, much to their annoyance, especially given the nicknames he gives him. He gets along poorly with Genis, whom he considers a brat.

However, he is actually quite perceptive, and can be surprisingly sensitive at times. After Corrine sacrifices himself to save Sheena at the Temple of Lightning, Sheena becomes depressed. In one of the optional Z-Skits, the player sees that Zelos is still acting lighthearted, as if Corrine had not just died. He is then chastised by the other members of the party for his lighthearted approach. When they leave, Zelos angrily says to himself that, if the party members continue being visibly upset, Sheena will only get more depressed, and will not move on with her life; the only way to help her get over the loss is for them to move on.

History
The first impression Zelos gives is that of a skirt-chasing, irresponsible and immature man. However, Zelos has more internal conflicts and emotional pain than he lets on (though clues are dropped throughout the storyline), a pain that is more severe than that of any other character in the game. As Zelos reveals to Lloyd in Flanoir (if the player chooses to talk to Zelos), his mother, Mylene, was told to marry his father, the Chosen at the time, by the Oracle of Cruxis, even though she loved someone else. Growing up, his home life was less-than-comforting. Neither his mother nor his father cared much for him; his father was already in a relationship with another woman. As such, Zelos' main caretaker was Sebastian, the family butler.

When Zelos was a child, his father's mistress, a half-elf, gave birth. The child, named Seles, was Zelos' half-sister. It is likely that Zelos and Seles were close friends as children; when they meet again in the course of the game, they seem familiar with each other. After the death of Zelos' father, the half-elven mistress attempted to kill the young Zelos. She knew that, if Zelos died, Seles (as the last relative of the half-siblings' father) would become the Chosen of Mana, resulting in a greater quality of life. It was a snowy day when she put her plans into effect- supposedly the first day Zelos saw snow. As Mylene and Zelos built a snowman, the half-elf unleashed a barrage of magic. Mylene was accidentally caught in the crossfire, and the snow that the snowman was made of ran red with her blood. Her last words to Zelos were: "You should never have been born."

After Mylene's death, Seles' mother was executed (as half-elves are at the bottom of the caste system in Tethe'alla, it is unlikely she was given a fair trial). Seles herself was imprisoned in an abbey for life. It is highly likely most of Zelos's narcissist-like behavior stems from the fact that he was neglected and unappreciated throughout his childhood.

It is likely that Zelos always felt guilty for the death of his mother, and blamed her death on his title as Chosen, a title he began to loathe. He grew up under the impression that he was worthless, a pathetic Chosen who could never save the world. This impression was further nurtured by the knowledge that Seles would have been a far more capable Chosen than he. Zelos lived in the knowledge that, had he died that snowy day in Meltokio, Seles would indeed be the Chosen, the greatest Chosen that Tethe'alla had seen in decades. Both this and the knowledge that he could not live up to the expectations set upon him as Chosen further deepened Zelos's self-loathing. Growing up in Meltokio's uncaring society, Zelos was forced to lock his emotions away and adopt a mask of confidence, self-assurance, self-esteem, and superficiality. This "mask" allowed him to differentiate between those who merely had a passing interest in him and those who truly wished to know and befriend him. It also allowed him to defend himself from further emotional trauma.

As he reached his teenage years, Zelos found that he was considered very popular amongst Meltokio's noblewomen. It soon became apparent that these aristocrats were not interested in him for his personality, nor for his good looks; they only wished to be associated with the Chosen of Mana. Zelos used this superficial interest to his advantage, and soon gained a world-spanning reputation as a womanizer. He was educated at the Imperial Research Academy in Sybak, where his good looks and status allowed him to manipulate his female classmates into taking notes and tests for him despite the fact that, although he was good at mathematics, he was far from the best at everything else. As such, he graduated at the top of his class.

Zelos is also somewhat prejudiced against half-elves, likely due to Mylene's murderess being half-elven and being taught from birth that half-elves were "disgusting, filthy creatures." Despite this apparent prejudice, he is actually more sympathetic to half-elves than his peers, exerting his influence to stop some of the Pope's radical anti-half-elf legislature from becoming law even before he meets Lloyd. After meeting Genis and Raine, he eventually learns to accept them, despite his conflicts with Genis, at one point commenting on how they're nothing like the half-elf stereotypes he'd been taught about, but remarking that he is not quite able to rid himself of feelings of prejudice.

When Zelos was six, he met a young Regal Bryant at the Princess' birthday party. He is thus somehow able to recognize who he is when Regal joins their group; he repeatedly implies that Regal is the President of Lezareno, but the party remains silent.

Zelos's fighting style
Zelos's fighting style is similar to that of Kratos. Zelos has some useful spells, although he prefers to fight on the front lines if left to his own devices. Although he uses the same weapons and armor as Kratos, his sword-play varies subtly from that of Kratos: Zelos' sword-play is quicker, reflecting his finesse rather than his strength (he resembles a dancing figure when swinging his sword). The varied sword-play style also affects some of his techniques. For example, when Kratos uses the technique "Victory Light Spear," he tends to lift himself up too fast, often missing the final mid-air spiral cut. Zelos, on the other hand, has no trouble flawlessly delivering all four hits from the same technique. Also, he is one of the three playable characters in the PS2 version (Raine and Presea are the other two) who has two ultimate techniques: Shining Bind and Divine Judgment.

Role in the plot
The player first meets Zelos with his entourage in Meltokio, where he attempts to woo (the then-unresponsive) Colette Brunel and Raine. When the party reaches the castle, he helps them negotiate with the King and the Pope in order to find a way to save Colette&mdash;as the Chosen, he is very influential, second in power only to the King of Tethe'alla himself. One stipulation, however, is that the party remain at all times in Tethe'alla. When the party plans to go meet Dirk in Iselia to see if he can help Colette, and convinces Zelos to allow them to do so, Zelos is branded a traitor for doing so and the Pope orders his arrest.

When the party attempts to retrieve the Rheiards on the Fooji Mountains, Zelos claims that he has some device to transport them. However, at the summit, he leads them into a trap (supposedly by accident), where Yuan and Pronyma find them. The party defeats Pronyma, but Yuan's Renegades reclaim the Rheiards.

Zelos also helps the party return to Meltokio through the sewers when the Papal Knights refuse them entry through the city's gate. Inside Meltokio, the citizens, despite being aware of Zelos's status as a traitor, still treat him as they always have. Even some members of the church do so as well; the pastor in the Hot Springs island agrees not to report Zelos' presence.

Inside the Tethe'alla Base, Zelos suspiciously disappears for a moment before reappearing. He then makes several odd references to betraying the group, such as "joking" that he would try deceiving Lloyd and being somewhat surprised when Sheena says "I hate traitors more than anything else," when referring to the very recent revelation that Kuchinawa is working for the Pope. These initially seem incidental, but ultimately serve to foreshadow future plot twists.

In the third main "act" of the game, in which the party attempts to cure Colette and ultimately reunite the worlds, Zelos cleverly tricks two Papal Knights into believing that Colette is Spiritua, an angel of death, and takes advantage of their fear of her to convince them to drop the charges against him and the others, as well as to try to capture the Pope(who escapes). He also succeeds in convincing Princess Hilda to persuade the King of Tethe'alla to write a letter to the Elder of Heimdall in order to let them into the village. Throughout the mission to cure Colette, Zelos is seemingly distrustful of Kratos' motives.

Zelos's choice
One of the major twists in the plot involves Zelos. After Altessa, the dwarf craftsman in Tethe'alla, is badly wounded, the party takes the Rheiards to the city of Flanoir to find a doctor. The doctor requests an entourage and takes the four characters who have the lowest relationships with Lloyd. That night, the three characters with the highest relationships with Lloyd will come to the his room at the Flanoir Inn, asking for him to go for a walk with them. The player may have Lloyd agree to the walk with any one of them, or may deny them all (in which case, Lloyd goes outside on his own, where he meets his father, Kratos). Morning comes, and Lloyd decides to make a direct attack on Cruxis, at the Tower of Salvation.

If Lloyd spoke to one of the first three guests, Zelos betrays the party at the Tower, revealing that he had been working for both Cruxis and the Renegades the entire time. This sheds new light on past incidents, and might suggest that he had planned for the party to be trapped on the Fooji mountains, and was speaking with a contact when he disappeared in the Renegades' base (Yuan says that their "friend" can help the Renegades find the party, which may be a reference to Zelos). Claiming to care only for himself, he decides to join with the group most likely to win the upcoming fight: Cruxis. (In reality, while in Flanoir, Kratos(unseen at the time) requested that Zelos retrieve the rare stone known as Aionis, a material needed to form the Ring of the Pact, and thereby wield the Eternal Sword. The only way for Zelos to obtain it would be for him to enter Cruxis' stronghold.)

Upon reaching the tower, Zelos then leads Colette forward, claiming that he wants her help in taking the Eternal Sword, but angels surround the two, and Pronyma reveals Zelos' betrayal, before leaving with him. While Lloyd's party makes their way to the Hall of the Great Seed, each and every single one of them falls, one-by-one, into various traps in an effort to allow Lloyd to challenge Mithos and save Colette and the world. Unbeknownst to Lloyd, Zelos releases them, and guides them to the Hall, where they reunite with Lloyd and help defeat Pronyma. Shortly thereafter (presumably after obtaining the Aionis), Zelos rejoins the party and helps to defeat Yggdrasill. He confesses that he did, in fact, deceive Lloyd when Lloyd asks him if all of what he did was to obtain the Aionis; as Kratos begins his plan to make the Eternal Ring midway through the second "act," Zelos may have been acting for other motives before Kratos approached him.

If Lloyd is paired with Zelos, he will receive the Chosen's Orb from him. When Lloyd is shot by an arrow fired from a trap in the Tower of Salvation, but the Chosen's Orb protects him. Lloyd is briefly conflicted, realizing that Zelos saved him but that he also betrayed the group.

On this path through the game, Zelos survives and will, if paired with Lloyd, be possessed by Mithos after Lloyd makes a pact with Origin. During the game's final cutscene, Zelos is seen requesting that an emissary of peace&mdash;specifically Sheena&mdash;be sent to Iselia, using his influence as the Chosen to do so.

However, if Lloyd spoke with Kratos at Flanoir, Lloyd will ask Zelos if he can trust him. This seems to prompt Zelos to confront the party on his own (rather than leave with Pronyma) when he betrays them. He says that he never earned their trust when Lloyd takes umbrage at his betryal (saying "You said I could trust you!" rather than "I still trust you, you hear me?"). He then fights the party, hoping that they will kill him and end his life. As the Chosen of Tethe'alla prepares for his last battle, he tells Lloyd how he only ever wished for a "fun, easy life", a simple life he couldn't have as the Chosen.

Zelos fights the party (in the place of a minor angel boss) and is defeated, being mortally wounded in the process. He tells the party where Colette is being held, and urges them to save her. He then says that after he is dead, Seles will become the Chosen and be freed from the abbey. When Lloyd expresses disbelief that Zelos would die for this purpose, he says that it is "just a bonus." With his last breath, he asks that the group destroy his Cruxis Crystal, then dies of his wounds.

Two skits are played, based on whether Zelos lives or dies. "Zelos' Betrayal" is played after the party enters the basement of the Tower if he lives, in which the party reflects on the warning signs of his betrayal. "Dear Friend" is played as the party exits the tower after saving Colette, in which they realize that he helped them.

Side plots

 * The player can fly to an island where the Church of Martel has hot springs. Only one hot spring exists, and as Sheena refuses to bathe with the other males (notably Zelos), only the males or females enter at once. When the females enter, Zelos spies on them, but when Lloyd catches him, he escapes and lets Lloyd take the blame.


 * If Zelos completes the Advanced Course in the Tethe'alla Arena, Seles will challenge him. Upon being defeated, Seles claims that she wanted to help Zelos. A subsequent skit in which Raine falsely claims that Seles is nearby and Zelos yells out to her that she is putting herself in danger reveals that Zelos hides his feelings about Seles in order to protect her, despite claiming that he does not care.


 * If the party revisits Meltokio late in the game, it is revealed that the Pope, who had been a fugitive since Lloyd exposed his scheme to poison the King, has kidnapped the Princess and wants to exchange her for the Chosen. However, the Pope has substituted his half-elven daughter Kate, whom he has poisoned, for her. Zelos escapes the trap and takes Kate back to his mansion, where he has Sebastian treat her, resulting in Sebastian commenting on his change in attitude towards half-elves. Zelos then catches the Pope in Gaoracchia Forest, who reveals his plan to kill Zelos in order to get his jewel and become king. Zelos, however, defeats the Pope's men with the help of his friends and has the Pope arrested. Zelos takes the credit for saving the Princess, and a dinner party is held to celebrate the occasion. This dinner party enables Lloyd and four other characters of the player's choice to gain their formal costumes.