Iris Midgar

Iris Midgar (アイリス・ミドガル) is the first princess of the Midgar Kingdom and the elder sister of Alexia Midgar. She is also the leader of the Crimson Order.

Appearance
Iris is a red-headed beauty. She has fiery straight hair that reaches down to her back and has red eyes.

Personality
Iris is a brave, diligent, and prideful swordswoman who earnestly strives to fulfill her duty to protect her kingdom. This leads many to revere her as an exemplary warrior, but she is not without her flaws. Despite being a princess, Iris lacks genuine political and leadership skills, as she was incapable of managing her organization, the Crimson Order, after founding it. This is symptomatic of an Inferiority Complex, as she even admits that Alexia is smarter than her after the terrorist attack on the Midgar Academy. At times, Iris's stubbornness prevents her from seeing that there are other beings in the world that are much stronger than her, as when she overestimated her abilities to defeat Shadow and was easily defeated by him.

When Shadow Garden became public, Iris's feelings of helplessness finally blossomed from their suppressed control, with her beginning to become more stubborn and rebellious, even against her own father, whom she addresses as King of Midgar. Even though she has understandable and justifiable reasons, her way of seeing and acting on things conflicts with what her father had been teaching her since she was little, to the point that if she wants to prove that everything she says is true, she aims to fight it into submission. Iris also believes that one is innocent, that they should show crucial evidence for it or something stronger, especially to guarantee the safety of the Midgar Kingdom. Such was the case with Cid Kagenō being held for nearly a week being interrogated and tortured for information to find the abducted Alexia.

After her defeat against Mundane Mann in the Bushin festival in front of an audiance, including her own father, Iris was devastated to learn that there were indeed others much stronger than her. Shortly after learning that she was actually fighting against Shadow, public enemy number one of the kingdom, she craved a strong desire for revenge, even going so far as to throw away all fighting honor, even if it cost her own life. This proved all in vain in the end, which left her devastated, and with her outlook beginning of turn unstable and gloomy.

Early Childhood
From an early childhood, Iris has shown tremendous power and a natural talent for the sword according to her instructors. Even being able to defeat her instructors on the first try, which surprised her and her little sister, Alexia. Upon Iris reaching adolescence, she achieved a strong reputation among the Dark Knights of the Midgar Kingdom Knight Order, being acclaimed and recognized among the Midgar citizens. But soon after, when she tried to help the people of her kingdom in her own way, her superiors told her to stop as the situations were something a person in her position should not be involved in. Being told that a situation wasn't important for her involvement has since caused her to start feeling powerless and fueled an Inferiority Complex within her.

Life of the First Princess of Midgar
Iris entered the God of War tournament, presumably when she was just a student of Midgar Academy. There, she had single-handedly defeated Viscount Olba. As time passed, Iris gained fame and popularity among the masses for her strength. Iris later watched Alexia practicing her swordsmanship and she complimented her sister that she liked it. But, Alexia wrongly interpreted the meaning causing a rift between them.

Kidnapping of the Princess
After learning her sister's disappearance, Iris desperately ordered the knights to find her. She later get into a fierce confrontation from Claire Kagenō whose brother, Cid Kagenō was suspected of kidnapping Alexia. Iris looked at the window, crying for her sister's return.

Later one night, the kingdom is under massive panic and Iris and her men head into the city to stop the chaos, eventually encountering a giant monster. Despite easily defeating it many times, the monster regenerates. Before Iris could resume attacking, Alpha stopped her and ended the monster's rampage.

Iris witnessed a huge explosion and head to its location where she finally finds Alexia much to her happiness.

Midgar Academy Terrorist Attack
TBA

Bushin Festival Incident
Fearing for her kingdom's future, Iris participated in the Bushin Festival in hopes her victory would raise her people's confidence. She also contacted a previous Bushin Festival champion, Beatrix, possibly to have her as an ally. When the festival began, Iris looked after Cid Kagenō.

As the festival progressed, Iris started noticing one of the contestants, Mundane Mann and his apparent strength however she was confident that she could defeat him. When the two finally meet in the arena, Iris charged in first and attempted to take him down before he could strike. However, Iris stopped herself as her instincts was wildly warning her about the dangers Mundane posed. Iris began to hallucinate herself suffering gruesome deaths and eventually came to realize that Mundane was responsible, having thrown feints at her. Iris came to the horrific discovery that Mundane might possibly be the strongest Dark Knight in the world but her pride and stubbornness refused to let her back down and she tried to once more attack Mundane. One strike later, Iris fell and was defeated.

Outcome in the Light Novel/Manga
Finally and due to the murder of the king of Oriana, Mudane decides to reveal his identity (with the intention of avoiding losing the leading role of the moment), right in from of the astonished look of Iris and all the spectators, easily defeating Perv's guards, before this fact Beatrix decides to fight Shadow, being evenly matched at first only to be easily outmatched after Shadow decides to get a little serious, Iris decides to join the battle with the intention of stopping Shadow by working with Beatrix to finish him off, however the plan doesn't work out and Beatrix shoots out due to Shadow's counterattack. Wounded, Iris asks why he doesn't just kill them to which Shadow replies that he only kills his enemies and that she shouldn't lose sight of her true enemies, immediately afterwards Shadow disappears in a halo of light.

Outcome in the Anime
After Mundane revealed himself to be Shadow, an enraged Iris got up and teamed up with Beatrix to try and stop Shadow. Iris planned to distract Shadow so she could grab hold of him long enough for Beatrix to deliver a decisive strike. However, Shadow defeated the two of them in an instant. Despite her injuries, Iris still got up and readied herself to continue the fight, along with Beatrix. However when Iris called Shadow out for fleeing, Shadow unleashed a massive whirlpool of magic out of his body in anger. Witnessing such power caused Iris to stop in her tracks in fear. But in the end the enormous magic attack turned out to be a bluff that Shadow used to escape. After the blinding flash of light, to Iris’s shock and disbelief Shadow had vanished. Causing Iris to break down in tears as she was forced to face the reality that she lost to Shadow and for the first time she feels truly powerless.

The Academy Disappearances
TBA

Powers & Abilities
Iris is widely considered to be the strongest swordswoman within the Midgar Kingdom, being the top student as the Royal Spellsword Academy before her graduation. However, by her own admission, her skills are nowhere near the level of legendary figures like Shadow and Beatrix.

Physical Skills
Iris Midgar has a good physical shape, both strength and stamina were close to Beatrix's and her speed being able to keeping up with the supersonic chase when Iris fought alongside Beatrix against Shadow, but Iris' magic level couldn't perfect this skill despite putting a lot of her best efforts into it. She was also able to withstand, albeit barely, the deadly punches and kicks that Shadow gave her (although the latter held back), though in the end, it took Iris a lot of physical energy to stay on her feet.

Without actively using her magic, Iris is able to run at speeds estimated to be over at 75 km/h when she doesn't have to force herself to fight and with the superhuman strength of being able to split reinforced wood with some effort to possibly concrete.

Swordsmanship
From an early age, Iris has been considered to be a prodigy with the sword, being the unquestionably strongest student at the Spellsword Academy during her time there and arguably the greatest swordsman in Midgar overall.

However, her abilities are still far inferior compared to Shadow Garden's "Seven Shadows", with Alpha effortlessly disarming her and defeating a monster the princess was struggling against in a single blow; albeit, she did get caught off guard.

Magic
Iris's magic in simple terms, in a big way, possibly being one of the descendants of the human heroes, without contracting the Diabolos curse, with an average handling of it, being able to use it aggressively when fighting seriously, but in turn, she can use it to strengthen her body to be able to tolerate or resist heavy damage, and it can heal her wounds over time, even if they still hurt. Depending on what type of weapon she wields, she can release more magic from herself for her benefit.

Equipment
In the anime, Iris wields a broadsword. In other media, she just uses a regular-sized sword, but these are normal metal swords since they can only conduct 20 to 30% magic power. So, the sword could soon be destroyed by themselves, after Iris used them because it couldn't hold her raw magic channeled and caused rather rapid wear and tear, to the point where she searched for a new sword constantly.

When she realized that Jimina was Shadow all this time at the end after losing to him at the Bushin festival, in the midst of the disaster, Iris regained her motivations and desire for revenge, which she took an artifact sword from one of the 3 heroes statue, who was in the VIP room that was destroyed after the clash of Beatrix vs. Shadow.


 * Iris Midgar, Sword magic.gifHero's Mithril Sword: A magical sword that is an ancient artifact that was once wielded by one of the three heroes (Freya) who defeated the demon king Diabolos. It is made of a special metal called Mithril that  is very hard to break according to those who have used this metal. The sword is also capable of conducting 35% of its user magical power. The magical inscriptions on the blade prevent anyone besides capable hero descendants to wield it. When wielding this sword Iris is capable of releasing a lot of raw explosive magical power, more than she could draw from  her own self thus allowing her to fight [[Cid Kagenō|Shadow]] for a short time.

Quick Slash
Iris can deliver fast and powerful cuts with her sword through the use of her magic, something that is usually very difficult for an elite magic swordsman to achieve. When fighting with the mutation of the Diabolos cult in Midgar, she wielded this.

Burst of Power
When she gets too angry, either by finding herself powerless against something or someone or hating them a lot, Iris can unleash tremendous magical power that surrounds her, enveloping her and allowing her to partially remove any trick or ability that tries to intimidate her in part, and at the same time time they further enhance their burst attacks, but in exchange they lose their reasoning of themselves in part and throw themselves like a killing machine. According to Shadow, they consider this as a pure waste of magic use and they see a form of disappointment that both Iris like her younger sister, Alexia Midgar, wild animals.

Exploding Sword
Iris has the ability to channel her magic into her sword and launch a powerful attack in the form of a flaming blast. Iris can only launch this attack once since the sword she uses shortly after channeling it is destroyed, it is speculated that wielding the "Hero's Mithril Sword", it can increase the damage power and execute this technique more than once.

When she combines this technique with her "Power Burst", it is said that she can increase magic damage by 10% more, but at the same time he loses a lot of magic to keep fighting.

Quick Flash
Iris possesses the ability through the use of her magic, to quickly move through any land that she can like any other elite magical swordsman.


 * Semi-Supersonic Flash: Although "Quick Flash" is a skill that is normally learned for a magic knight, when Iris decided to fight seriously and vengefully alongside Beatrix against Shadow, in her fury, Iris unleashed all her magic to channel it to be able to follow him, although with great difficulty, the supersonic, fast and subtle speed of Beatrix and Shadow to continue fighting, but since it was something she had never done, this quickly consumed her energy, so she could not be able to do much like that in that rhythmic state of fighting.

Walk on the Water
Iris has the ability to walk and run through the water for aquatic combat. It is speculated that this ability is of the standard type, that is, it can be learned in the normal way. But so far, only Shadow, Beatrix and she have been able to use this ability in a very effective, aggressive and evolved way.

Weaknesses
For all of her strengths in martial prowess, Iris has one fatal weakness: her intelligence. While far from foolish, she is short-tempered and prone to letting her emotions cloud her judgment, leading her to make bad decisions. She is also a poor judge of character, being easily manipulated.

Klaus Midgar
Unfortunately, Iris does not seem to have a good relationship with her father due to his constant inaction regarding Shadow Garden and the Cult of Diablos as well as his fanatical following of the Church’s preachings. Still, Klaus does seem to have a good understanding of his daughter, seeing that she is trying too hard to meet people's expectations.

Alexia Midgar
Alexia is her younger sister. When they were younger both Iris and Alexia used to spend entire afternoons training together, although Iris always defeated Alexia. With the passage of the next years, their relationship became very distant and strained due to her job as the first princess and leader of the Royal Knights. Iris confesses that she doesn't even remember the last time she and Alexia talked to each other, nevertheless she still cares for her sister and looks up to her most of the time. When she learned that Alexia was kidnapped, Iris did everything in her power to rescue her sister and when she found out the location where Alexia was taken, Iris didn't hesitate and went to that place. After discovering that her sister is safe and alive, Iris hugs her and feels relieved.

After the incident, their relationship begins to improve and now are closer than they used to be. Iris also trusts Alexia enough to let her participate in the investigation about the Cult of Diablos and all their connections with royal knights and the academy. They even spend time off together, with Iris going out with Alexia shopping.

Hubb
The new vice-commander of the Crimson Order under her following Glen's death. Unbeknownst to Iris, Hubb is, in fact, a member of the Cult of Diablos who successfully manipulates her into believing that the organization is merely a fabrication by Shadow Garden to justify their crimes.

Zenon Griffey
Her sister's ex-fiancé. Iris had always greatly trusted Zenon, to the point of placing him in charge of investigating Alexia's disappearance. Because of this, she was greatly shocked upon learning that he was, in fact, the mastermind behind the whole abduction plot.

Cid Kagenō / Shadow
Being one of Alexia's few friends, Iris was kind towards Cid and even looked after him when he was at the special booths during the Bushin Festival. She admitted that she was envious of his and his sister's close relationship, stating that she wished to have a similar bond with herself and Alexia. Iris is not aware that Cid and Alexia were dating and not just friends.

Iris' opinion about Shadow contrasted that. She initially viewed Shadow as an enemy that needed to be vanquished. Despite being told about his vast power, Iris merely believed that Shadow was using an artifact to enhance himself. Later, this hostility would then turned into pure hatred after Shadow, as Mundane Mann, bested and humiliated her in the Bushin Festival. She joined forces with Beatrix to defeat Shadow but in every turn, the Shadow Garden leader bested Iris with brutal ease. It's only after seeing Shadow performed "I Am Atomic!" that she lost the will to fight and begrudgingly accepted that he was one of the strongest Dark Knights in existence.

Claire Kagenō
After the Alexia kidnapping incident was resolved, Iris and Claire developed a level of friendship and empathy as they both cared deeply for their younger siblings, and are willing to go to any lengths for their sake.

Sherry Barnett
Despite her being just a student, Iris acknowledged Sherry's mechanical skills and trusted her with repairing the Artifact that the Crimson recovered from a Cult of Diablos base.

Perv Asshat
Iris held an obvious dislike toward the chancellor of the Oriana Kingdom. However, she remained blind to the true depths of Perv's megalomania and his brainwashing of king Raphael Oriana.

Beatrix
Iris had heard of the famed "Goddess of War" and, as a fellow swordswoman, held great respect toward her. During the events of the God of War Tournament, she teamed up with Beatrix against Shadow and worked quite well together, though they were ultimately still defeated with ease.

Trivia

 * Despite her mature and dignified image, she sleeps hugging a teddy bear and has bunny-print underwear.
 * Iris bears resemblance to Rias Gremory from the Light Novel, Highschool DxD. Fittingly enough, both characters were voiced by Yoko Hikasa.
 * Even Iris' mana color is bright red, which is also the same color as her eyes and hair.
 * Although everyone in the academy knows it, Iris is not aware that Alexia and Cid had a "love relationship".
 * According to her own words, when she fought Jimina Sehnen in the final match of Bushin Festival, she realized from the moment she lost, because what Jimina exercised was a skill that Iris's teacher told her, called, "Glance of the empty", something that only very powerful and above all skilled magical warriors possess and develop. But, what Jimina used on her was at a much higher level than she could ever reach, no matter how much she trained it in her own way.
 * Following Iris' humiliating defeat in front of the public including her father, King Klaus Midgar at the Bushin Festival against Jimina, she realized that Jimina's true identity is Shadow, which make her surprised and angry because she felt that her pride as the strongest also her own view has been insulted and shattered.
 * Iris Midgar has her pride as a magical swordsman, which indicates that she does not like to use any magical artifact, which increases her power, being forced and motivated by revenge when facing Shadow, she gets more angry with him, telling him She is surprised that she would have to use something like that to support herself in a fight against him, hinting that Shadow believed that she at least had her pride as a strong swordswoman.
 * Shortly before losing to Shadow, he confesses to Iris Midgar and Beatrix that only his name and his way of acting are all that he is, that everything else that has happened is just a pure fictitious invention of his mind (without know that everything is real), but they only take it as a strong insult that motivates them even more to fight.
 * Knowing that even Beatrix would not be sure of winning against Shadow, Iris offers herself as a bait to sacrifice herself in order to have a chance at defeating him. But, in the end it was of no use.
 * After Iris ultimate defeat with Beatrix against Shadow in the Midgar royal capital for ruining the Bushin Festival, also made the name of the Midgar Kingdom's pride and honor, even the kingdom's fighting style has been tarnished, she was traumatized by losing uselessly against him again, even along with Beatrix.
 * Beatrix tells Iris not to be obsessed with seeking revenge against Shadow, since she is still too young for it and his enemy is at a level that he can no longer be considered a human, but a very powerful demon. Even a demon are one of those beings that the world still cannot be defeated. But, Iris ignores her advice and already made up her own choice.
 * Afterwards, Iris had strong nightmares to which she swore to herself that anyone who stands in her way of vengeance against Shadow, she would have no mercy, not even his own younger sister, Alexia Midgar until eventually she was taken advantage of by the Cult of Diablos because they had infiltrated their people into her very own Crimson Order to manipulate Princess Iris for their own benefit and blaming Shadow Garden for all their crimes on her kingdom after her new Vice Commander Hubb showing the evidence that already fabricated by the Cult.
 * In the Anime, the end of the Bushing tournament arc shows a frightened and frustrated Iris due to not being able to do anything in the face of Shadow's immense power, this was done for purely dramatic purposes since in the Light Novel and Manga, after the fight Iris is just puzzled over the "true enemies" that shadow mentioned.