#rezo the red priest

[90sfantasyanimestuff]

[the-bar-sinister]

[get-along-try-again]

• slayers ep. 03 "crash! red and white and suspicious all over!"

[light-arted]

Maybe the worst thing you did to him was be his family.

[pkettles]

some FEA x Slayers

just bcuz i can. lol!

[araalia]

Slayers Artober 2023 - Day 9: Divine conflict

How much is pawn and how much is agency in what Rezo does?

It doesn't excuse his villainy and his misdeeds, of course, but there is much tragedy in his story and in how he is used by Shabranigdo for his own purposes. Undoubtedly, one of the characters whose fate is most strongly tied to the divine conflict.

[bitter-byte]

Day 31: Impossibility cool clothes

[thelongestway]

Not to comment on something you posted over a year ago, but based on my impressions of the SHC system I think Rezo would, like Zel, also be a Lion/Bird (albeit I am basing this partly on his Revo/Evo-R characterization as well as his Slayers Prime characterization.)

Ha! Long-term engagement is fantastic, so thank you for asking! Let me do A Take on this - but I don't remember Revo/Evo nearly as well, so if you've got something to add from that point, please do!

Rezo the Red Priest, one of the primary antagonists in Slayers, is an interesting case - the Lion Primary is certainly there! That single-minded devotion to curing his own eyesight has A LOT in common with how Zelgadis wants to cure his body. Actually, I think it's fairly safe to say that Zel probably copies his way of dealing from the one adult in his life. However, as far as Secondaries go... There are indeed points to be made for Bird. The sheer breadth of his knowledge - this is a man who goes on to master all the known types of magic to cure his ailment. But there's something to it that's more than tools. Rezo's... I want to say, expansive and systematic in a way few Bird secondaries ever reach, and he is also more nose-to-the-grindstone about it. Where Zelgadis picks up relevant tricks of the trade, Rezo just goes "well, if anything can fix this, it's magic." And he learns everything about magic. Not just what he thinks he needs to. He learns everything.

And the social side of how he works! Even though he doesn't really care for other people's blindness - at least at the point we see him in the first season of the anime - he acquires a reputation as one of the kindest mages, who goes on to heal other people in droves. It's this interesting combination - Rezo doesn't care about other people; but he also... Doesn't lie about his capabilities. He doesn't make up a Persona, the way Zel perhaps would have ("heartless swordsman!") Instead, he lets people project onto him and becomes what they need; he uses them for his own purposes but in a way that they are glad to be used.

He also doesn't keep people around for specific purposes. Bird secondaries have contacts; Rezo has minions and likely more than a few people who owe him their life and health. Even though he, too, has a lonely, ultimately selfish cause, he is enmeshed into Community to an extent Zelgadis would be terrified by.

And the way Zel gets through to him, when fighting Shabranigdo! "Do you really wish to destroy the world you wanted to see so much?" While I wrote earlier that Zel appeals to an Idealist morality here - and I think he does, Lion to Lion - I do think that this appeal also stirred the Badger, which is by its nature very global.

When Zel succeeds, Rezo doesn't bring down Shabranigdo from the inside. He holds him off. Endures. Just enough for Lina to do her thing.

This could be a Bird Secondary... But I think that's a Badger Secondary. In her description of the SHC archetypes, @wisteria-lodge calls the Lion/Badger "The Lynchpin", and notes how they are often the center of a wheel, and the center of events. Rezo would be an unusually non-group oriented Lynchpin - perhaps because we see him at a very desperate point - but the sheer amount of Things revolving around him certainly fits the bill. Also, the Lynchpin is a very common "Sleeper Villain" sorting, and what is Rezo if not that.

Tl;dr: the original Rezo, I think, is a Lion/Badger. Kopii-kun, on the other hand...

[panette]

[scrik]

[franksfishies]

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[goodbyenorthernlights]

[the-bar-sinister]

Zelgadis sat on top of the big, humming machine in his grandfather's workshop, kicking his feet idly as he watched him work. He yawned quietly.

Rezo turned, reaching out a hand toward him. "You're still there, Zel? I thought you had gone upstairs."

Zel leaned over until his cheek brushed his grandfather's warm, outstretched hand, and Rezo cupped his face fondly.

"Sorry," Zel murmured. "I was just watching."

"I can't be angry about that. But my lab can be dangerous."

"I know, grandfather."

"I wouldn't want you to get hurt." Rezo kissed the top of Zelgadis' head. "Let's go upstairs."

-

AO3 link

[trans-zelgadis]

priest facts

[light-arted]

A present from Godfather Greywords.

[umbrasdoodles]

HO HO HO HERE COMES MORE OF THE SECRET SANTA TRAIN! For Slayers Secret Santa for @goodbyenorthernlights here is Rezo not being evil for once and offering you some tea! Will you drink it?

@slayersweek