In Fate/Zero, there are some soldiers from Rider's Ionioi Hetairoi that look somewhat important. All of them are heroes so they probably a named hero as well. Who are they? Do they have any name?
-
1The first one is very likely supposed to be Waver himself. That's pretty much exactly how Waver looks as an adult. – senshin May 07 '17 at 04:49
2 Answers
In short, we don't know who they are, although there is some evidence on who the black-haired adjutant might be.
The Seven Warriors
Ionioi Hetairoi means "The Companions of Ionia", so I would expect some, if not all, of these important-looking soldiers to be Alexander's bodyguards, which
consisted of seven men, drawn from the Macedonian nobility, who also acted as high-ranking military officers, holding command positions such as general or chiliarch.
In fact, included in Sound Drama Fate/Zero Vol.2 "The Orgy of Kings" is this image (with some text edited out) of Iskander, and around him, seven men whose designs stand out from the crowds in the back:
But here's the problem: none of Alexander the Great's bodyguards were much older than his master, so who is that old man wearing a turban? Furthermore, six of these outstanding men are easily recognized as having appeared in the Fate/Zero anime, so if the seventh one, the guy in the middle wearing a black armor, has also appeared in the anime, he is most likely Mithrenes, who is not a Somatophylax. So it seems futile to try to match them to the Somatophylakes.
Designations by Fans
Immediately after the airing of episode 11 of Fate/Zero, someone, possibly from 2chan, posted this fan-annotated image that names these important-looking people:
From left to right, top to bottom: Eumenes, Parmenion, Hephaestion and Ptolemy.
It's actually quite an educated guess. Eumenes was known for his loyalty to his master and his role as the private secretary of Alexander. In this sense, it can be said that Eumenes and Waver are quite similar.
Parmenion was an experienced general who killed to ensure Alexander's succession to the throne was a smooth one. Being Alexander's second in command and also 40-50 years older than him puts Parmenion as the number one candidate to the identity of the man in turban.
Hephaestion's and Ptolemy's names are on there probably just because they are more well-known.
Eumenes in Fate Derivative Works
But "Hephaestion" does actually make an appearance in Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, and she has this to say about Lord El-Melloi II:
「ケチ。せせこましい。暗くて偏屈。寝起きが悪い。黴びた書物ばかり読んでる。卑屈なくせに傲慢。さも苦労人でございって顔をしてるくせに、終わってみれば一番事態を搔き回してる。どうだ、全部当たってるだろう」
「気に入らない。まったく気に入らない。そんな偏屈な顔はエウメネスで見飽きてるというのに、この時代でも見せられるのか」
I can't provide a faithful translation, but she's basically saying she hates to see that perverse, arrogant and miserly face of Lord El-Melloi II even though she has seen enough of them already from Eumenes.
Also, in Fate/Grand Order, if you have both Zhuge Liang (Lord El-Melloi II) and Iskander as your Servants, then talking to a Bond Lvl 5 Iskander in My Room will trigger Dialogue 4:
Hm? You have a strategist with a stern countenance. I’d like to see him compete with with Eumenes- Ah, he’s still an immature youth on the inside. How amusing it would be if he met Hephaestion!
These two derivative works seem to corroborate the fact that Eumenes gives off the same vibe or even the same look as an adult Waver, and we have one such person in Ionioi Hetairoi!
Eumenes or Waver?
We don't know, and for all we know, Eumenes might just be one possible future of Waver. After all, time warping is not an alien concept in the Fate universe.
Nicknames in Sensha Otoko
It's regrettable to say that we aren't able to identify the subjects in question with confidence. But if nicknames satisfy you, these are what they're called in Sensha Otoko:
Other Remarks
- The design of "Erect Member" is really peculiar: he seems to be wearing a paludamentum and a helmet with a Sphinx on it (absent in the one-shot manga).
Why is the world of Ionioi Hetairoi a desert with no cavalries but only foot companions? The simplest explanation is that to draw horses and sceneries more complex than sand dunes is to create more work for the animators. However, I can't help but think that it is depicting Alexander's feat of crossing the Gedrosia desert, of which one theory argues
was an attempt to punish his men for their refusal to continue eastward at the Hyphasis River.
Most animals perished in this sixty-day death march. Iskander's final fight with Gilgamesh, where his Ionioi Hetairoi got destroyed by Enuma Elish and he hears the sound of the ocean upon his death, resonates with a passage in this article:
The horses soon began to succumb to the heat, so he left most of his party behind and rode off with only five men. At last they found the sea, and scraping away the shingle on the beach came upon fresh, clear water.
- 9,603
- 8
- 57
- 96
I would argue that the old man with a turban is actually the Indian king Poros, not Parmenion. For three reasons:
1) The obvious Indian appearance of the character 2) Parmenion was executed by Alexander, because his son Philotas plotted against him. 3) Poros was also an old man, and swore loyalty to Alexander after the battle of the Hydaspes. He served him and remained loyal to him until Alexander's death in 323.
At the battle of the Hydaspes, Alexander was impressed by Poros' courage and determination (he fought personally in the battle despite his old age), so he spared him and his kingdom, and took him as a subject. His presence in Ionioi Hetairoi would be logical.
As for the others, Eumenes is indeed an educated guess for the Waver lookalike, but it's basically impossible to determine the identity of the others.
- 21
- 2