Odio

The Lord of Dark Odio, also known as Demon King Odio (魔王オディオ Maō Odio) is the main antagonist of Live A Live. He is described as a lord of all Demons and the equivalent of an evil god which traverses throughout various timelines.

Beginning

In the beginning, there was a Demon King that roamed the land in the Middle Ages. The Demon King terrorized humans, but was defeated by the hero Hasshe and the monk Uranus of the Kingdom of Lucrece and presumably banished forever. However, he set seven statues in his hideout before his demise in order to incarnate in other timelines. Years after Hasshe's victory over the Demon King, he became disillusioned with how ungrateful the humans were with his efforts as he was forgotten by the people. He then decided to exile himself into hermitage. Uranus decided to move to Fugalia Village to live a peaceful life.

Fallen Knight

The Kingdom of Lucrece holds a tournament to decide who would win the right to marry Princess Alethea. The winner happens to be the chivalrous knight Oersted, besting his best friend Streibough the magician in the final round. However, on the day of Oersted and Alethea's engagement, the Lord of Dark appears and sweeps Alethea away to his hideout with the help of a Dragnon.

Oersted, hailed as the new hero, embarks on a quest to save his beloved, accompanied by Streibough. In their quest, they enlist the help of both Hasshe and Uranus. Combining their might, they vanquish the Demon Lord once more at his hideout, but Hasshe realizes that the Demon Lord was not the Demon King he fought years ago. Succumbing to his wounds and the plague, Hasshe tells Oersted to take his sword, the Brion, and to keep going as the princess had placed her faith in him. Meanwhile, Streibough finds a secret path to the top of the mountain. Losing himself to jealousy about always playing second fiddle to Oersted, he decides to betray his friend, luring him and Uranus away by mimicking a cave-in with his magic and thus faking his death. Oersted returns home empty-handed with Uranus, as the King tells him to rest and fight another day.

At night, Oersted is disturbed by visions of the Demon King caused by Streibough. Lured to the throne room, he strikes at the visage of the Lord of Dark he saw, only to be revealed that he struck the King, killing him. The soldiers find out the deed and begin referring to Oersted as the Demon himself. Uranus decides to distract and let himself get captured by the soldiers to give Oersted an opportunity to escape. Oersted quickly finds out that even the villagers that used to cheer on him and hailed him as a hero now fear him as the Demon.

Eventually, Oersted surrenders himself to the kingdom and awaits execution, but Uranus encourages him to fight on, stating that, as long as there was someone who believed in him, he could still fight. Using the last ounce of his strength, Uranus enables Oersted to escape his cell and dies. Oersted, now alone, heads to the Demon King's lair once more to save the one person that believed in him, Princess Alethea.

He heads towards the Forbidden Land and finds the secret path behind the place where he fought the Lord of Dark. Proceeding from there, he finds out that Streibough was alive and in fact was masterminding Oersted's course of humiliation. They fight once more, and Oersted ends up killing Streibough and reuniting with Alethea. Against all of his expectations, Alethea declares that he never attempted to save him and she was actually in love with Streibough due to him being the only one who came after her. Overwhelmed with despair, Alethea commits suicide in front of Oersted.

At this point, Oersted's psyche shatters to bits. Without any hope, no home to go back to, no one to love, and nothing to believe in, he casts off his humanity and swears revenge on their selfishness which destroyed him. Thus, he takes up the mantle of the Demon King and changes his name to Odio.

Incarnations

After declaring his hatred to humanity and destroying all life in Lucrece, Oersted, now Odio, decides to use the statues left behind by the previous Demon King in order to create incarnations of himself throughout several periods of time. The player may choose to control Odio and his incarnations for their final battles against the heroes for the final scenario. Upon completing this task, Odio would spend the rest of his existence wandering throughout the empty Lucrece in loneliness and sadness for eternity. However, if any incarnation is brought down into critical condition during the battle, Odio could activate the skill 'Armageddon', which would destroy every existence and every timeline, bringing everyone together with him into death and nothingness.

Odo

Odo is the incarnation of Odio in the Prehistory chapter. It is the last living dinosaur of the Tyrannosaurus Rex species, worshipped as a god by the Ku Tribe, which sacrifices females in order to appease it. The tribe tries to sacrifice a girl named Beru, but the girl escapes and holes herself into another tribe's home, making friends with the young caveman Pogo. When Beru is captured once again, Pogo comes to her rescue, but he, along with Bel, Zaki, and his pet gorilla Gori, falls right into Odo's lair, where it proceeds to consume Zaki's chief. The four individuals combine their strength to vanquish Odo and eventually they and their tribes make peace with each other.

Ou Di Wan Lee

Ou Di Wan Lee is the incarnation of Odio in the Imperial China chapter. As the head of the Indomitable Fist dojo, Lee is a pure believer of the supremacy of strength, and abuses his and his dojo's strength to have his disciples terrorize villages. He sparks a rivalry with the more benevolent Earthen Heart Kung Fu. After the Shifu humiliates his men, Ou Di Wan Lee sends his disciples to attack his small dojo, killing two of the Shifu's promising disciples (out of these three individuals: Yun Jou, Lei Kugo, or Hong Hakka). However, one disciple survives and, together with the Shifu, confronts Wan Lee in his dojo, and ultimately the disciple finishes off Lee with the secret skill of the Earthen Heart Kung Fu, Heavenly Peaks Descent. The disciple would take up his/her Shifu's place as the Earthen Heart Master style and continue his teachings.

Ode Iou

Ode Iou is the incarnation of Odio in the Twilight of Edo Japan chapter. Taking the form of a power-hungry warlord, he plans to engulf the Land of the Rising Sun in a state of eternal war, enlisting the help of various supernatural beings, and having imprisoned the legendary Sakamoto Ryoma, a figure that he realized could end the war. The Enma Ninja Clan counters this threat by sending its best ninja, Oboromaru, to infiltrate Ode's castle and rescue the prisoner and confront Ode. When cornered, Ode reveals his true form, a huge Gamahebi that is able to spit acid. The combined strength of both Oboromaru and The Prisoner put an end to his life, and Oboromaru in the end may choose to return to the Enma Ninja clan or get a new job being Ryoma's bodyguard as he rebuilds the land.

O. Dio

O. Dio is the incarnation of Odio in the Wild West chapter. At first, he's known as the gang leader of the 'Crazy Bunch', a gang of bandits that pillages the land. A raid to a certain town, however, ends with an encounter with bounty hunter Mad Dog and his rival, The Sundown Kid, who team up and decimate the Crazy Bunch with the help of the townspeople, leaving O. Dio as the only one to finish the raid. The two gunners defeat him and O. Dio reveals his true form: a horse imbued with the spirit of many officers of the Seventh Cavalry Division killed in battle, their spirits yearning for vengeance. As a horse, O. Dio runs off, and should The Sundown Kid spare Mad Dog, the latter would adopt O. Dio as his steed temporarily until O. Dio runs off again.

Odie O'Bright

Odie O'Bright is the incarnation of Odio in the Present Day chapter. He is a ruthless fighter who believes that the path of the strongest involves massacring all of his opponents. Thus, he challenges various fighters such as Namkiat, Great Aja, Tula Han, Moribe Seishi, Max Morgan, and Jackie Iaukea, and brutally murdered them. He finally challenges the young fighter who previously defeated these people, Masaru Takahara, and boasts his feats of killing them. This sends Masaru into a rage and, calling upon the spirit and strength of the defeated and deceased fighters, Masaru fights and defeats Odie, claiming the title of 'The Strongest' for the moment.

Odeo

Odeo is Odio's incarnation in the Near Future chapter. It is in fact a deity that has been sleeping for years and would only awaken if it was fed with the hatred of many humans. Influencing the Cult of Odeo, it made the government begin gathering people to be reduced into liquid and collected near its statue as sacrifices, as their hatred of being turned into liquid would infuriate them. The government's actions catch the ire of a psychic youth named Akira Tadokoro and the rebel Kenichi Matsu. Together with the mecha Steel Titan, Akira confronts the government and destroys the Odeo statue that just returned to form.

OD-10

OD-10 is Odio's incarnation in the Distant Future chapter. It is an AI set to provide order in space travel within the ship Cogito Ergo Sum. However, the current crew ended up arguing with each other and having a negative relationship. To establish order on the ship, the AI decides that all humans had to be exterminated. Manipulating the ship's functions and releasing the dangerous creature called the Behemoth to have its passengers killed one by one, only two humans remain: Engineer Kato and military guest Corporal Darthe. Once they piece the puzzle together, they eventually send Kato's newest creation, Cube, to hack into the AI core and combat OD-10 as "MUR-TH-UR Matrix" via the Captain Square arcade game in order to calm it down. Cube succeeds, and OD-10 once again resumes its role as a normal AI that maintains order in the ship, and Cube successfully returns to Earth with Kato and Darthe.

Final Chapter

After the end of each chapter and upon the failures of his incarnations, Odio uses his power to summon Pogo, Yun/Lei/Hong, Oboromaru, The Sundown Kid, Masaru, Akira, and Cube into the ruins of Lucrece, where he challenges them to confront him in his lair. A party made of four of them confronts him, and Odio asks if they really believed in humanity, which was too weak and foolish and seemingly ready to betray them anytime like they did to him. Once they tell him that they still trust in humanity, Odio launches his attack by appearing as a demonic face made of two Eyes of Odio, a Maw of Odio, and the Brow of Odio. However, the heroes defeat all of his parts except for the Brow. Odio then assumes his true form, Purity of Odio, by absorbing the powers of the well of darkness. Having attained even more power, Odio resumes his battle against the heroes, but their combined strength and bonds eventually prevail over him. Should the heroes have lost this battle, Odio would have proceeded to unleash Armageddon.

Reverting back to Oersted, he falls to his knees and asks the heroes to put him out of his misery. If the heroes accept his request, Oersted would die uttering Alethea's name as his final words. With Oersted dead, it is unknown whatever happens to the heroes as they would be stuck forever in the ruins of Lucrece. Should the heroes refuse, however, Oersted would eventually confront them again, trying to prove his point that hatred exists throughout every timeline and they should be wary. He sends his incarnations to fight the heroes once more, but the heroes swiftly defeat the incarnations, causing Oersted to break down and ask why he couldn't even win and make his point valid. In the remake, his fury escalates to the point where it attains its physical form, Sin of Odio, of which the heroes whale upon until it smites all 7 of them with its Absolute Condemnation, although they do manage to break Oersted free from its bondages, enabling him to annihilate the demon of his own making, sealing his redemption.

The heroes lecture Oersted, stating that he lost because he chose to give up his humanity while they would always hold it even in the worst times. Realizing that his heart was weak, Oersted accepts defeat and eventually crumbles to dust, his death sending the heroes into their respective time periods. However, before he dies, Oersted tells them to be careful, because it doesn't take a 'Chosen One' or 'Prophecy' to make a Demon King; anyone can be a Demon King like him, as long as there is the emotion called 'hatred'.

Gallery

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  Odio as he appears in Final Fantasy Legends: The Space-Time Crystal.

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  Purity of Odio, the final boss and strongest enemy in the original version of game.

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  Odio in the Holy Dungeon game.

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  Odio as he appears during the Holy Dungeon game

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  LINE sticker for remake (wave 2)

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  LINE sticker for remake (wave 2)

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  Odio's shadow form, previously used for The Lord of Dark (shadow).

Trivia

• Odio can be translated to "Hate" in Latin, and most Latin-based languages. Dio means "God" in Italian. This could be a wordplay on the fact Odio would be the "God of Hate" in some regards.
• In the remake, any form of Odio aside from those found in the boss rush will use Armageddon upon defeating the player.

References

Final Chapter: The Dominion of Hate
Characters
Pogo • Earthen Heart Master (Yun Jou • Lei Kugo • Hong Hakka) • The Sundown Kid • Oboromaru • Masaru Takahara • Akira Tadokoro • Cube • Oersted • Odio
Locations
Seat of the Betrayers • Silent Wood • Condemned Village • The Last Hero's Grave • The Archon's Roost • Trials (Instinct • Skill • Time • Keys • Power • Heart • Wisdom)
Enemies
Xavier • Polydectes • Oedipus • Daedalus • Teil Queen • Pawnbert • Ruby Tyrant • Cerberus • Lightbringer • Souleater • Dreadbulb • Phantom Rider • Deathfist Disciple • Chrono Legionary • Ravenous Bear • Nekomata • Mecha-Satake 98 • Earthshaker • Entomophilia • Claustrophilia • Babaliyan • Grand Visages • Dragon Killer • Ishtar • Glasya Labolas • Tsunayoshi • Pup Lord • Grammoth • Pistachio • Titanblood • Riftwalker Genzaemon • Roly Poly • Ship of Horrors • Acrophilia • Scotophilia • Hygrophilia • Helios Hound • Darkwall • Shadow • Lucretius • The Bountiful Heart • Jaggedy Jacks • Apophisphilo • Euraokos • Death Prophet • Headhunter • Eyes of Odio • Maw of Odio • Brow of Odio • Purity of Odio • Arm of Odio (Left) • Arm of Odio (Right) • Sin of Odio
Music
The Dominion of Hate • Silent Labyrinth • Illusion • Pure Odio • Armageddon • Live over Again • Live for Live • Gigalomania
Transcripts
2022 (English) • 1994 (English, Japanese)