Halloween

Halloween (ハロウィン, Harouin) is a fictional character in the manga and anime series MÄR. He is a member of the Chess Pieces, the series' main antagonists, and belonged to the high rank of Knight, of which he was third strongest.

​ ==Background == Halloween was born in an unknown town, and as a child was abandoned by his parents. For this a defenseless Halloween, then known as Pamp, was often bullied by the town's other children. In an attempt to escape, Pamp would often climb up trees, though he apparently had trouble getting down from them. At some point Pamp met another young boy from his town, Alan, who would then onwards come to rescue Pamp. Pamp would later go on to gain a penchant for dismembering live animals, of which Alan would discourage.

One day, just after Alan had prevented another of the children's anti-Pamp crusades, Alan had shown Pamp a flame-producing NatureÄRM, and promised to present it to Pamp once he awakened his magical powers. Pamp, however, refused to wait to get this power, and stole it from Alan at night. While escaping through the woods, Pamp began to kick a two-headed dog along his path, of which its pack responded with chase. Pamp, exhausted, eventually could no longer run, awaiting his demise, when the ÄRM he stole from Alan activated and drove the animals away. Alan, having awoken to find his ÄRM missing, went in chase of Pamp only to find the killing spree he had caused. Although Alan attempted to encourage Pamp to admit his mistake, Pamp had little desire to fall to Alan's will and left, blocking Alan's path using the very flames of his stolen ÄRM. The next day, all the children who had bullied Pamp were found murdered, torn to pieces with a blade, leaving Pamp as the prime suspect, though his leaving town prevented them from ever meeting him again.

At some point Pamp would join the Chess Pieces, an army formed for the cause of conquering MÄR-Heaven, taking on the title ofHalloween and chaining himself to a cross ÄRM, and would eventually rise to the rank of third-strongest Knight. Halloween would take place in the final round of the first War Games, fighting off against Alan,  who has risen to the rank of second strongestCross Guard. They fought to a draw, with both fighters incapacitated to a near-death state. To commemorate the battle, Halloween activated his Darkness ÄRM to seal Alan inside the dog, Edward, the talking watchdog of Lestava's royal family. ==Personality == Halloween is a most sadistic character, taking enjoyment in the pain and sufferings of others. Like other Chess Pieces, Halloween takes enjoyment out of slowly killing his enemies in battle. A lover of war and bloodshed, Halloween is often put in charge of Chess Piece operations, particularly major invasions. Halloween has a fancy for punishing lower-ranked Chess Pieces, as seen with him enjoying the mental torment of Ian when informed about the upcoming punishment of his lover, Gido. Halloween's love of torment and punishment extends even to his fellow Knights, commonly making death threats to Rapunzel should her greed get out of hand. Several times he is the pun of a joke about tomatoes because of his mask, which is mistaken for a tomato, earning him the nickname 'Tomato Head' from Alan. Deep inside, however, Halloween is still the cowardly child he was when under his former name, as pointed out by Alan.

Halloween holds a deep hatred for Alan inside of his crippled heart. He was thrilled during both battles he had with him, loving how he was hurting the only living person who opposed him in his childhood. Halloween himself had been twisted into thinking that Alan was mocking him during their childhood together, transforming him into a perfect model of Chess Piece psychology. Once informed of Halloween's true identity, Alan would continue to refer to Halloween by his childhood name, which would become a major taboo for Halloween. Their rivalry would eventually be diminished by Halloween's defeat to Alan, with Halloween admitting to himself that Alan really was powerful. ==Plot == ===Pre-War Games === Halloween is first introduced alongside many other Chess Pieces during the resurrection of the no. 1 Knight,Phantom when Candice found out about Phantom's revival. Given the task to inform Ian and Loco (the two Chess Pieces Diana sent after Lestava's princess) to return to Lestava Castle, Halloween reunites with Alan (who had awakened from inside Edward). With words the two confronted each other, with Halloween discouraging the idea that Ginta Toramizu would ever be able to defeat Phantom. After mockingly greeting Alan farewell, Halloween takes the two Chess Pieces back to Lestava Castle, where it is discussed the second invasion of MÄR-Heaven.

Halloween participates in the mass murderings by leading a large army of Chess Pieces, including the KnightChimera, in an attacking on Acalupa Port. Within three days the entire city is destroyed and most of its population murdered. Halloween is then put in charge of punishing the Rook Ian and the Pawn Gido, who had abandoned the battles to go search for Ginta and crawled back with an embarrassing defeat. To torture them both mentally and physically, Halloween has Ian locked up in chains and tells Ian that he will decide which Knight will deal with Gido with Halloween having the idea of having either Candice, Vidar, or Chimera doing the job. What Ian didn't know yet is that Halloween had Chimera sadistically punish Gido, much to Ian's sorrow. Ian threatens to escape and murder Halloween, returned by Halloween with the mocking response of wishing Ian really was strong enough to kill him. ===War Games === Halloween made an appearance alongside Candice amongst the other Chess Pieces that see the fight between Ginta and Garon. Peta mentions to Phantom that Halloween is among the Chess Pieces that would like to fight Ginta.

Halloween makes his first reappearance preceding the second War Games' third round, where he again meets with Alan. Given a direct order by Phantom to allow Alan and Gaira, Halloween threatens the referee Pozun with death should he not cooperate. He later reappears alongside the Knights following the same round, and gets angered by Rapunzel's rash comments on how she would easily end the War Games.

He and the other Knights observed the fight between Rapunzel and Ian before the 6th Round of the War Games.

Preceding the final round, Halloween speaks with Loco and Chaton at Lestava Castle, looking forward to his upcoming match with Alan, though Chaton attempts to discourage Halloween from killing Alan.

<p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">After the defeats of Vidar, Rolan, and Chimera, Halloween begins his fight with Alan, both wishing to settle their grudge with this battle. Seeing as how Alan would not easily be killed, Halloween begins a killing spree by aiming his attacks towards the spectators, with Alan blocking as many attacks as possible with his own body. Deciding to torture Alan even more, Halloween reveals to Alan his true identity of Pump, much to the shock of Alan. Continuing his killings, Halloween sends wave after wave of powerful attacks towards Alan, hoping that he will eventually succumb to Halloween's, leaving the defenseless audience vulnerable. Alan, deciding to take his chances and attack Halloween directly, mocks Halloween by attempting to use flames to wound him, though this is successful in the anime. Wanting to finally kill his eternal rival, Halloween unleashes his Guardian Wakan Tanka, almost killing Alan with it, only being defeated by the activation of Alan's own Guardian Saint Anger. With Halloween being thrusted into the sky to unknown whereabouts, Alan is named victor with Halloween's apparent demise. ==<span class="mw-headline" id=".C3.84RM" style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">ÄRM == <p style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin-top:0.4em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0.5em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">Halloween is the Chess Pieces' third-strongest Knight, making him a formidable opponent in battle. His ÄRMs are:
 * Cross Dagger: Weapon ÄRM, the very cross tied to Halloween's back, that turns into, and shoots missiles of flame. Edited into a pole in the American dub.
 * Napalm Death: Weapon ÄRM which grows a large blossom from the back of Halloween's cross that shoots flames like a cannon. In the Anime the ÄRM became stronger with every shot fired.
 * Flame Hands: Nature ÄRM which is used to create hands for Halloween, since he got himself tied to the cross.
 * Antares: Nature ÄRM, creates balls of flame of multiple sizes used to throw at the enemy.
 * Sticks of Fire: Nature ÄRM, two sticks with the tips on fire that shoots blasts of flame at the enemy, held by Halloween using Flame Hand. Left unnamed in the manga.
 * Grave Hail: Darkness ÄRM, crosses, with several eyes and mouths on them, which shoots up from underground, similar to Alviss' 13 Totem Pole's Guardian style. Edited into polls in the American dub. In the anime this ÄRM instead summons several coffins, with the same eyes and mouths, which open up to reveal skeleton warriors to do Halloween's bidding.
 * Igniel: A Darkness ÄRM. Although specific details are unknown, it basically merges two living creatures together, as seen with Alan and Edward. It's apparent side effect may be decrease of age, or deformity.
 * Trick-Or-Treat: A Guardian ÄRM that creates explosive plant creatures with Jack-o-lantern heads.
 * Wakan Tanka: Though embodying the "divine sacred", summoning through Halloween's cross pendant ÄRM has minimized the "Great Spirit"'s omnipotence to the giant form of a winged skeleton-bodied skull, albeit retains some of its ascendancy - the scorching flame it breathes.