VIRM

"My children, you have had the good fortune to be chosen as parasites. Your great predecessors defended out cities and our people, and they splendidly took flight as our representatives. Turn your life into a blaze of glory and shed every last drop of blood you have. I pray that you will become a shining ray of hope for humanity."

- Papa trying to cover his sociopathic nature with his benevolent mask by trying to lie to the People that he rules "Damned human wannabes."

- Klaxxosaurus Princess about VIRM

Papa is one of the characters in the anime Darling In The FranXX. He is a chairman of an organization known as APE, an organization that rules the plantation in the distant future. He was portrayed as a Bigger Good of the series considered his seemingly benevolent nature towards the people that he ruled, The Parasites and tries to protect the plantations from a hostile species called the Klaxxosaurus and in return, the Parasites religiously referred to him as a god who rules the plantations. Not only that, he is also orders the FRANXX units to fight against the Klaxxosaurus. However, towards the end of the series, it turns out not to be the case.

It was revealed that near the end of the series, Papa is the true enemy of both Parasites and Klaxxosaurus alike and the main antagonist of the series. And it turns out Papa and his Vice Chairman of APE is a member of a starfish like creature known as VIRM. An immortal parasitical alien lifeform who tries to assimilate with other creatures and do everything in their disposal to achieve their goals.

He is voiced by Tessho Genda in Japanese Version who is also the same voice actor of Kratos from God of War and Christopher Sabat in the English version who is also the same voice actor of Roronoa Zoro from One Piece

Appearance
Papa wears white robes embellished with golden detailing and a red interior. His masks is the most human of all the APE members compared to their mask who almost looks like primates, and his outfit has a striking similarity with an outfit that the Pope of the Catholic Church wears.

As VIRM however, Papa looks like a giant flying Starfish like creatures shined by white light and has a two purple smaller faces that also looks like starfish for their eyes.

Personality
At first, Papa values the protection on both APE members and the parasites above anything else. However, he also has no qualms to use the Parasites as the troopers in opposition to the ravaging species in Earth known as Klaxxosaurus and doesn't care if they're meet their demise or not. He also has no compunctions to go so far to achieve what he wants such as bombing the plantations that the Parasites live in order to defeat the Super-Lehman class Klaxxosaurus. He also exhibit no mercy towards those who opposed him to the point that he would orders to mind-wipes some of the people who opposed him. Case in point, Hiro and Zero-Two brainwashing in their childhood days when they try to rebel against them in Episode 13.

Despite his merciless nature, he will also tries to pay attention towards the wishes of the Parasites Children as when they completed their mission, Papa will routinely took care of their well-being and gives them with the rewards that they deserved after the Parasites complete their mission. Case in point, when Squad 13 finishes their mission, they were delivered to the beach to enjoy their vacation. He also promised Hiro to release the Squad 13 from their responsibilities as Parasites if they completed the missions and emerged victorious in the battle. Although at the end of the day, his love is mostly pretending due to the fact that he only saw the Parasites as a disposable tool for warfare that should worship him like the center of the universe.

As VIRM however, the true nature of Papa is revealed when the negotiations with the Klaxxosaurus Princess regarding that they need to surrender against them failed big time. VIRM is revealed to be a selfish and narcissistic life form because they think of themselves as a superior life-form and the most important ecosystem in the universe. They also believe that they are free to do anything as they please towards other life forms they come across when traversing the universe to the point that they brutally annihilate their species and their planet so that they could be forced to assimilate with them when they refuses the offer. Papa/VIRM shows no hesitation to brutally massacre the group that has been loyal to him from the start, The Nines, and fleeing from the great war against the Klaxxosaurus even if he knew that doing so would probably resulting the people and the Klaxxosaurus alike dying on their planet.

He also believes that emotions and interpersonal connections such as love, friendship and true bond to be futile as he saw it as nothing but an annoyance. He even mocks Hiro and Zero Two for believing that they will come back to destroy the VIRM as long as their souls exists to reincarnate after their sacrifice.

Prelude to the Main Story
Sixty million years ago, a species called Klaxxosapiens inhabited a planet that will be known as Earth with their advanced civilization. However, VIRM came to Earth and tried to invade it. At first, VIRM tries to negotiate with Klaxxosapiens in peace so that they could assimilate with them and obtain greatest pleasures. However, the Klaxxosapiens refused VIRM's offer and as a result, VIRM tries to annihilates their species and their planet when the Klaxxosaurus refused to subjugate and as a result, a war has erupted between the two. Despite the VIRM has a larger army due to the amount of the life forms they assimilate with VIRM, Klaxxosaurus won the battle against them due to the advanced technology that they had and also using their ultimate weapon to win the battle, Star Entity. Even if the Klaxxosaurus is seemingly won against the VIRM after centuries of bloodshed, they were in a brink of extinction and as a result, they try to hibernate in the deepest parts of the Earth and absorbed an energy known as Magma to enhance their evolution so that they could fight against VIRM in case they're coming back in the future.

Disguising as Humans
Unfortunately, some of the members of VIRM survive the battle and come back in later future disguising as humans so that they could blend in with the human society. After they disguised as human, they formed a group known as APE which is consisted of scientists with unknown origins and nationalities and it operates with the Lamarck Club at its core. It was also revealed that APE themselves introduce a new energy that could benefited the human race known as Magma Energy which is mined from the underground. Said energy was actually low-cost and could appealed to everyone. As a result, humanity then sped up to the apex of its civilization while APE ended up influencing international politics and economy thanks to the energy that they had invented.