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."

- Klaxosaurs 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. At first, 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 Klaxosaurs 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 Klaxosaurs. 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 the Japanese dubbed version (who is also the same voice actor of Kratos in God of War), and Christopher Sabat in the English dubbed version (who is also the same voice actor of Roronoa Zoro in 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 Klaxosaurs 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 Klaxosaurs. 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 Klaxosaurs Princess regarding that they need to surrender against them failed big time. Any of the Well-intentioned goals that VIRM had in the past is severely undermined as 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 Klaxosaurs even if he knew that doing so would probably resulting the people and the Klaxosaurs 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
60 million years ago, a species called Klaxosapiens 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 Klaxosapiens in peace so that they could assimilate with them and obtain greatest pleasures. However, the Klaxosapiens refused VIRM's offer and as a result, VIRM tries to annihilates their species and their planet when the Klaxosapiens 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 Klaxosapiens 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.

In 2025, APE tries to hire a professor named Werner Frank by sending one of his men to them because they were intrigued on the illegal experiments such as cloning that he committed. Werner then accepts APE's offer after the man gave him a huge amount of funding for his project and they also hired a scientist named Karina Milsa. Together, they tried to fulfill APE's wishes by making immortality a reality by extracting Magma energy.

5 years later in 2030, the two scientists test the magma energy and find no signs of aging. While Karina is happy with the results, she also said that human race will lose its reproductive functions in exchange for immortality. However, what Karina said was true. A lot of human tries to become immortal by undergoing a treatment which resulted them losing their reproductive organs. However, as a result of said treatment, the social class is severely divided because the people who only benefit from immortality treatment were rich people while the poor were left to dust. Due to the population explosions that occur years later, a law was passed in East Asia by heavily taxing people who had a childbirth while at the same time, a rapid desertification began to occur in southern parts of North America due to the huge amount of extraction of Magma Energy from underground but the problem got ignored including the ones who works on mass media.

6 years later in 2036, humanity's immortality rate become much common to the point it raises its bar into 70%. Despite Karina and Dr. Frank were scheduled to complete the procedure, the latter refuses to do so and prefers to be mechanically modified considered that he doesn't like his body being messed with someone. By that time, desertification of the lands had become a pressing issues across the world and as a result, Papa and his cohorts from APE introduce the nations about a new project known as "Plantation Project" which is considered to be the last hope of humanity after severe amounts of desertification due to overuse of Magma Energy. As a result, APE becomes the leader of the humanity itself.

1 year later in 2037, a strange creature known as Klaxosaur (They were called that because it means screaming reptiles) appeared at the offshore magma energy mine and destroyed the facility by making a landfall. Only to be stopped after several nuclear missiles hit the Klaxosaur. However, even if one of them is defeated, several of them began to appear everywhere in the world and is attracted with the magma energy that humans extract from the ground. As a result, APE turned the plantations as a fortresses to fight against Klaxosaurs. However, cities that human inhabited were deserted and mankind is nowhere to be seen in the surface.

Around 2042, when trying to researching one of the Klaxosaurs corpse that was found in Alaska, it was revealed that the bodies of the Klaxosaurs were made from organic and mechanical material which is beautiful and it was also revealed that the corpse contained the XX chromosome that could be seen in female humans. As a result, Papa and his cohorts from APE appointed Dr. Frank to spearheading the project for making a weapon that could be used to fight against the rampaging Klaxosaurs, the FRANXX.

After the 13th startup trial for the FRANXX prototype hit a roadblock and after amount of testing, it was revealed that the pilot needed to possess reproductive functions and as a result, Karina volunteered to become a pilot. Unfortunately, she dies during the test and APE still continues the experimentation which resulted the loss of many lives. To prevent it, the test subjects were injected with a substance known as yellow blood cells that could act as a passage for the FRANXX and have the test-subject ride in both male and female pairs to make the weapon functional. Not only that, Papa and his cohorts from APE creates the children that will be known as "Parasites" after mankind loss its reproductive functions. And as a result, Papa and his cohorts were referred to as adults by the children.

After massive sacrifices from test subjects of the FRANXX as they developed the weapons that could worked against the Klaxosaurs, Papa and his cohorts then builds a facility known as "The Garden" so that they could store the children for the upcoming battles and the plantations ended up becoming a quarantine zone for them. Due to the fact that Parasites needs emotions to live, Papa and his cohorts tries to raise them in an old fashioned way such as their conditions were almost checked everyday so that they could keep them healthy in the best possible shape.

However, as a result of some of the adults tries to raise the children, some of them forgot the Klaxosaurs even existed and reach their state of boredom. At the same time, a strange rumor about Klaxosaurs has a leader or "Queen-Bee" of some sorts began to spread in the plantations and as a result, Papa and his cohorts discovered where it was hiding and orders Dr. Frank to bring back the sample of the Klaxosaurs DNA to them. However, as they found the Klaxosaurs leader hideout (which is revealed to be the remains of an advanced civilization), a lot of people that was sent by APE with the exception of Dr. Frank was killed by the Klaxosaurs Princess and he was brought in the hospital bed.

As The Plantations Ruler
Despite portraying himself as a benevolent figure towards the people that he rule such as praising them in inauguration ceremony and telling them that they could become a ray of hope of humanity or sometimes giving them a good care towards the subjects that he ruled or reward for them to those who succeeded their mission. In reality, Papa rules the plantation with an iron fist. Anyone who defies him will either have their memory erased or forcibly placed in a cryo-storage in "The Garden". One of the known victims of Papa's iron-fist control over the parasites in the past were Hiro and Zero Two.

Once upon a time, Hiro used to be an sweet, optimistic and hopeful kid to the point that the kid ended up liking him and saw him as a role model on becoming a best pilot after he gives them names because he felt it was unique. However, Hiro is also a curious child that wanted to know everything surrounding the world itself. As a result, Hiro then had a fateful encounter with a humanoid girl with red skin that looks like a Red Oni called Code 002.

Code 002 herself has a troubled childhood as she is a victim of torture thanks to Papa's orders. Some of the scientists, including Dr. Frank (Now named Dr. Franxx) were torturing her with inhumane experiments so that they could test her special abilities. After Hiro had witnessed her suffering several time, he pleaded to the adults to stop the inhumane experiments that they had committed. However, the adults refused to do so.

Unable to see Code 002 suffer any longer, Hiro tries to rescue her and teach her some new things while she was outside. Hiro then reads a book that Code 002 gave called "The Beast and the Prince" which Code 002 showed to him, Hiro promises to protect her. He also gave Code 002 a name: "Zero Two"

Unfortunately, Papa discovered that both Hiro and Zero Two escaped the plantations and as a result, he sends the adults to capture them. When Hiro tries to read a book and adults tried to approach them, Hiro and Zero-Two then fled to a nearby mistletoe. After Hiro finishes reading the book that Zero Two give, Hiro then teaches Zero Two a word "darling". Unfortunately, the adults manage to capture her and despite Hiro's efforts to protect her, he was shot by one of the adults while Zero Two cried and shouted for her "darling".

After they got captured, Papa then orders Dr. Franxx to erase the two's memories together. As a result, Hiro become an antithesis compared to what he was in childhood: a stoic,gloomy and pessimstic person who is obedient towards his superior and his skills of piloting the Franxx began to dip thanks to the incident while Zero-Two was placed in a special squad known as The Nines.

Overtaking Gran Crevasse
Several years later, Papa and his cohorts from APE tries to overtake an area as their new target known as Gran Crevasse--an abandoned plantation that was infested by Klaxosaurs--so that they could free themselves from the shackles of humanity. To this end, he sends all of the children, including Hiro's squad (Squad 13), to fight against the Klaxosaurs that plagued Gran Crevasse.

However, it was revealed that Gran Crevasse is also a hideout of a Super Lehmann-Class Klaxosaurs which is a huge Klaxosaurs that almost resembles a titanic. When APE and the parasites were in the state of peril when fighting against the Super Lehmann-Class Klaxosaurs and the swarm of other smaller Klaxosaurs, Papa then orders squad 26 to act as suicide bombers and tries to defeat the Super Lehmann-Class Klaxosaurs by sending plantations towards it and detonates most of them. After the Super Lehmann-Class Klaxosaurs were defeated thanks to the efforts of Hiro and Zero-Two who were reconciled together, it was revealed that the core of said Klaxosaurs is a collective mass of cores that almost shaped like humans. It was also revealed that a giant hand appears out of nowhere and tries to squash the Parasites and the plantation. But fortunately they were left unharmed and only left Mistleteinn as it's sole plantation.

Post Gran Crevasse Incident
Several months after the Gran Crevasse incident passes, APE ordered the parasites to survive in the remaining plantation, Mistleteinn. However, there has been no communication from the adults and the supervisors alike and as a result, Mistleteinn itself has an environmental problems and the children can't live a good live as they are in the past. However, despite this, they try to find new and creative ways to survive in Mistleteinn.

Until it was revealed that in the same episode, APE was discussing about the deterioration about the Parasite Reserve down to 60%. However, both Papa and the Chairman doesn't care about it as they took the control of Gran Crevasse and says that their ultimate weapon, known as the Hringhorni's, construction has entered the final phase. APE then has some further discussion regarding how to deal with the Klaxosaurs Princess and as a result, Papa sent some of his messenger into Klaxosaurs Princess hideout so that they could negotiate to surrender against them and says that there is no need for two keys. However, Klaxosaurs Princess rejects Papa's offer and kills one of the messenger which is revealed to be nothing once the Klaxosaurs Princess uncover the messenger's mask and thus calling them "Damned Human Wannabes".

Crashing a Wedding
In Episode 18, one of the Mistleteinn supervisors, Hachi, told the leader of Squad 13, Ichigo, to abandon the Mistleteinn. Before they leave, Hiro wants to conduct a ceremony marriage for one of his friends in Squad 13, Mitsuru and Kokoro, so that they could share a wonderful memories together.

Unfortunately, one of the members of Papa's special squad, the 9s, discovers Mitsuru and Kokoro's wedding in secret and as a result, give a report for Papa regarding the wedding. When Mitsuru and Kokoro tries to exchange vows and kiss with each other, Papa then sends his soldiers to Plantation 13 and then capture Mitsuru and Kokoro for extreme indoctrination by wiping their memories together. The reason why Papa and his cohorts of APE did this is because they want to get rid of unnecessary emotion and feelings such as love that could hinder their plans to fruition.

Because of this, Hiro then demanded Papa and his cohorts from APE to return Mitsuru and Kokoro's memories immediately. Papa refuses and his Vice-Chairman said that what they had doing was against their protocol and normally would be punished. One of Hiro's friends, Futoshi demanded to apologize towards Mitsuru and Kokoro about the thing that they had done while another friend's of Hiro, Zorome, asks on how many Klaxosaurs they should have killed before becoming an adult in which Papa and his cohorts of APE refuses to answer. Hiro also figured out that it was them who erased his and Zero Two's memories in the past and as a result, his point of view of Papa and APE almost began to change and asks them to be freed once the battle is over. Papa is seemingly agrees about it as long as they complete their final mission.

Star Entity and the Revelation
In Episode 20, Papa then commands the Parasites, including the ones who were on Squad 13, and the 9s to go for the final battle against Klaxosaurs and control a massive weapon that was stored in Gran Crevasse known as the "Star Entity" so that they could implement Strelizia on Star Entity's core. At first, Zero Two and Hiro were skeptical with the former being uninterested about defeating Klaxosaurs. However, Papa manages to trick them under the pretense that they will control their destiny and the future will be on the humanity side after they defeated Klaxosaurs once and for all.

At the same time, the construction of a weapon known as Hringhorni is also completed so that they could use the two weapons to combat against the Klaxosaurs. However, the Klaxosaurs Princess notices APE's plan and then tries to follow Hiro and Zero-Two while they're in Gran Crevasse. When the two heroes are unable to enter the room that contains Star Entity, Klaxosaurs Princess then sneaks into the security room and injures Zero-Two while forcing Hiro to link with her so that she could take control of Strelizia.

However, thanks to the Klaxosaurs Princess trying to implanting herself on the Star Entity, Papa and the Vice Chairman reveals themselves to be an alien species that has been plaguing the universe a long time ago known as VIRM and reveals that VIRM had manipulated APE all along and using mankind as tools to fight against the Klaxosaurs. And not only that, VIRM also absorbs the consciousness of the rest of the APE members who are humans. It was also revealed that the Star Entity itself is a thing that could disturb universal peace and because of Klaxosaurs refused to subjugate against VIRM, VIRM then implanted a self-destruction mechanism on the Star Entity that could destroy the planet.

Battle Against VIRM (Part 1)
Because of the VIRM's insistence on destroying the Earth, Klaxosaurs Princess then tells Hiro about the story regarding VIRM annihilates her home sixty-million years ago in the past and lets Hiro and Zero Two take control of the Star Entity with Strelizia so that they could save the human race while the Klaxosaurs Princess ended up dying due to the wounds that she received.

When Hiro and Zero Two takes the control of Star Entity by kissing with each other while the latter's skin turns red, Strelizia suddenly changes its form into "Strelizia Apus" and then began fighting against VIRM while the bomb that will try to self-destruct the earth began to disintegrate. As a result, VIRM then brings the Hringhorni towards the space while promising them that they would return again with a huge fleet to destroy the Earth. After VIRM seemingly retreated to the space, some of the Klaxosaurs also flying towards it to battle against VIRM and so does Strelizia Apus. However, Zero-Two's body ended up becoming lifeless while her last horns crumbled.

Battle Against VIRM Part 2
As a result of Zero-Two merging her consciousness with Strelizia Apus, Hiro still took care of her. However, he notices a blood that was bleeding through her clothes and receives a mysterious cuts on her body. Until it was revealed that Strelizia Apus, along with the army of Klaxosaurs, fighting against the VIRM in space.

Trying to stop her suffering, Hiro tries to go into space. However, some of his friends arguing about Hiro's safety and the latter being apathetic towards everyone's surrounding with the exception of Zero Two. However, as the time went by, they make amends and then goes to space to save Zero Two along with the redeemed 9s.

During the battle in space, they spot VIRM armies battling against Strelizia Apus and the army of Klaxosaurs while Strelizia Apus creates a shield against VIRM. Hiro and the leader of the 9s, Nine Alpha, tries to reach Strelizia with everyone as a backup in battle. However, VIRM blocks their attack and unable to land on Strelizia. Due to the lack of magma energy, Nine Alpha launches Hiro into Strelizia Apus and have a realization of becoming human while saying that this is as far as he can go and saying that his home is the Battlefield. After this, then Nine Alpha kills himself by self-destructing his mecha which in turn, kills some of VIRM's fleet.

During the battle, A VIRM fires an attack on a certain ship and as a result, it began to crumble while the Parasites supervisor, Nana and Hachi were still on the ship. Fortunately, Hachi tries to rescue Nana however, he was injured to do so and while he tells Nana to go alone, she refuses and she wants to protect the children as it's their responsibility. As the battle continues, VIRM tells the children to surrender against them, claiming that they will end the cycle of hatred and discrimination. However, they simply refuses as the children tries to choose their own destiny.