Notes: The background is a bit vague and there's just one detail to really AU, so to expand on it slightly: Dr. Sophia Nate proposed the Earth Cradle, a gigantic, ostensibly impenetrable bomb shelter operated by a supercomputer called Magus and housing many people in cryogenic sleep, as a way of ensuring humanity's survival in the case of an apocalyptic event. It was put to its intended use at the last possible second before the Second Impact. Sanger was the security team leader; it was his job to wake up and fight off any hostile elements who somehow broke into the Cradle.
This does not go as planned when a woman named Kukuru, on Dr. Hell's orders, smashes a hole in the Cradle and Sanger is not awoken immediately...
Personality: Sanger thinks he is a samurai. Well, no, not literally. But he's very interested in Japanese warrior culture as a result of his kendo training (or perhaps he got kendo training as a result of that) and follows a random assortment of old-fashioned samurai traditions (especially battlecries and attack names), despite being a white German guy from the distant future. Chief among these, of course, is his sense of honor. He's more of a Warrior than a Soldier, and he adheres faithfully to a simplified kind of samurai movie version of bushido. When he decides to serve under someone, they have his intense loyalty, at least until he has a crisis over some melodramatic need to change sides. You know how Gundam/SRW politics are.
Despite his devotion to, say, Sophia Nate—he straddles the line between loyalty to a great leader and being in love with her—his first priority is usually Ideals. He calls himself the Sword That Cleaves Evil for a reason; he strongly believes that those who fight should fight honorably and for peace or the protection of the innocent. He respects courage and resolve, and has zero tolerance for the kind of enemy who lacks them. He's a hardass to soldiers he outranks, but kind to children.
All this paints a picture of a kind of melodramatic character, which he is—sometimes comically so. Sanger is so goddamn serious business and intense all the time that it kind of precludes him from having normal social skills. He goes about his day by default with a piercing gaze, and doesn't really understand how senses of humor work even when he tries to. He's a man who doesn't have a Relaxed Mode. His best friend, Elzam von Branstein/Ratsel Feinschmecker, comes in handy for bringing out his human side and keeping him from boiling over into a Samurai Elemental.
No matter how confident he seems (and is, really), there is always some fraction of Sanger's mind dealing with guilt, either because he has failed Sophia and his duty to the Earth Cradle in general or because he betrayed his allies at some point (depending on canon and time, of course). He doesn't forgive himself for his failings easily, especially because he has a bit of an ego. One doesn't have a fancy title and a catchphrase about his ability to bisect anything without being pretty self-assured. It probably shouldn't be described as arrogance, though, because arrogance implies that one's confidence is unwarranted.
First? Sanger Zonvolt 1/2
Personal LJ:
AIM Contact: Captain Gardock
Character Name: Sanger Zonvolt
Source Canon: Super Robot Wars (Alpha)
Community Tag: “Sanger Zonvolt”
Background:
http://akurasu.net/wiki/Super_Robot_Wars/Characters/Sanger_Zonvolt
Notes: The background is a bit vague and there's just one detail to really AU, so to expand on it slightly: Dr. Sophia Nate proposed the Earth Cradle, a gigantic, ostensibly impenetrable bomb shelter operated by a supercomputer called Magus and housing many people in cryogenic sleep, as a way of ensuring humanity's survival in the case of an apocalyptic event. It was put to its intended use at the last possible second before the Second Impact. Sanger was the security team leader; it was his job to wake up and fight off any hostile elements who somehow broke into the Cradle.
This does not go as planned when a woman named Kukuru, on Dr. Hell's orders, smashes a hole in the Cradle and Sanger is not awoken immediately...
Personality: Sanger thinks he is a samurai. Well, no, not literally. But he's very interested in Japanese warrior culture as a result of his kendo training (or perhaps he got kendo training as a result of that) and follows a random assortment of old-fashioned samurai traditions (especially battlecries and attack names), despite being a white German guy from the distant future. Chief among these, of course, is his sense of honor. He's more of a Warrior than a Soldier, and he adheres faithfully to a simplified kind of samurai movie version of bushido. When he decides to serve under someone, they have his intense loyalty, at least until he has a crisis over some melodramatic need to change sides. You know how Gundam/SRW politics are.
Despite his devotion to, say, Sophia Nate—he straddles the line between loyalty to a great leader and being in love with her—his first priority is usually Ideals. He calls himself the Sword That Cleaves Evil for a reason; he strongly believes that those who fight should fight honorably and for peace or the protection of the innocent. He respects courage and resolve, and has zero tolerance for the kind of enemy who lacks them. He's a hardass to soldiers he outranks, but kind to children.
All this paints a picture of a kind of melodramatic character, which he is—sometimes comically so. Sanger is so goddamn serious business and intense all the time that it kind of precludes him from having normal social skills. He goes about his day by default with a piercing gaze, and doesn't really understand how senses of humor work even when he tries to. He's a man who doesn't have a Relaxed Mode. His best friend, Elzam von Branstein/Ratsel Feinschmecker, comes in handy for bringing out his human side and keeping him from boiling over into a Samurai Elemental.
No matter how confident he seems (and is, really), there is always some fraction of Sanger's mind dealing with guilt, either because he has failed Sophia and his duty to the Earth Cradle in general or because he betrayed his allies at some point (depending on canon and time, of course). He doesn't forgive himself for his failings easily, especially because he has a bit of an ego. One doesn't have a fancy title and a catchphrase about his ability to bisect anything without being pretty self-assured. It probably shouldn't be described as arrogance, though, because arrogance implies that one's confidence is unwarranted.