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 with fiery straight hair that reaches down to her back and has red eyes. She normally wears a knight order uniform sans cape, a royal dark violet uniform with light edges and black should straps, with cuffs folded back one-third up her arm from the wrist. Part of her attire requires her to wear white gloves for her dressing, a black shirt with matching edges to her uniform, and a ruby-like gem with a single ribbon necktie that stretches down into her uniform. Iris wears white trousers and knee-high heeled boots with single-tie laces at the collar which folds over, and she can normally be seen with her sword adorning her side on her waist belt.

After the Black Rose incident, Rose amended her attire to a more professional Crimson Order uniform, as well as added a braid in her hair along with small jewelry down a lock of hair. She wears a gray uniform with black trims and a crimson interior. A black detachable cape with red lining rests on her shoulders, with two crimson braided cords connecting from the left breast pocket to the shoulder's rank strap. She sports a green-colored gem with a single dark velvet ribbon necktie that stretches down into her uniform, with red buttons with black borders. The right side of her uniform lifts a little to short the bottom of the waistcoat, colored black with red lining to match the cape. She retains her white gloves and trousers, but her knee-high heeled boots are recolored to match her uniform.

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. Though she takes her duties with high priority, this is overshadowed by her love for her sister, Alexia because she is very protective of her sister, so much that she is willing to give harsh treatment to those suspected of hurting her.

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 indicated that Iris have symptomatic of an Inferiority Complex, which shown that she was concerned about how others saw or expected her. She also even admits that Alexia is smarter than her after the terrorist attack on the Midgar Academy, which led her to devote everything to improving her skills. 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 and Cult of Diablos 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 audience, 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 as her repeated failures took such an effect on her that she became obsessed with getting stronger and resulting her outlook personality beginning of turn to 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.

Acclaim to Fame
Supposedly when she was just a student of Midgar Academy, Iris entered the God of War tournament and single-handedly defeated Viscount Grease, and soon gained fame and popularity among the masses for her strength. Iris later watched Alexia practicing her swordsmanship and complimented her sister when saying she liked it. However, 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 got 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, but ordered the knights resume their interrogation. Late 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 slashing it many times over, the monster regenerates, and before Iris could resume attacking, Alpha stopped her and ended the monster's rampage. Iris witnessed a huge explosion and headed to the source, where at the location, she happily and finally found Alexia.

Midgar Academy Terrorist Attack
Iris and Alexia along with her two personal subordinate, Glen and Marco Granger went to the Midgar Academy to meet Sherry Barnett and showing an artifact they found in the Cult's hideout, which they can't decipher it and asks for Sherry, who is the most brilliant mind in the kingdom, if she can decipher it. Her father, Lutheran Barnett encourages Sherry to do the job, which she accepts and Iris decides to assign the Crimson Order to keep watch on them. Lutheran hears that's the new knight order that Iris formed and Iris confirms, and that it's a small order, but it made by people she trusts. Alexia also wishes to help her for investigate Shadow and Iris accepts.

After Alexia escape from her attacker due to Shadow saved her, she tells Iris that the killer was impersonating Shadow Garden. Alexia adds that Shadow is fighting the Cult, and Iris hopes that they will learn something more when the artifact gets deciphered. Alexia then asks her who she thinks is the real enemy, Shadow Garden or the Cult. Iris states its both and that she won't allow anyone to wreck havoc in the kingdom.

When Iris had Alexia dropped off at the academy to resume her studies, she was alerted by her little sister about the terrorist attack taking the school hostage.

As the Knight Order were kept at bay due to their sealed magic and snipers at vantage points, Iris attempted to intercede and meet with her Crimson Order subordinates inside. However, she was rebuffed by the senior authorities attempting to keep the situation stable for the time being, with one of the knights exclaiming that Iris would be of no use without her magic if she entered. Offended by the thought, Iris still had to respect the chain of command and withheld her frustration, waiting until the magic-sealing bubble lifted and the knights could swarm in.

Once on academy grounds, Iris met with Princess Rose Oriana to learn that there were two groups calling themselves Shadow Garden, with one responsible for the attack and the other for freeing the students. However, all Alexia called about was that Shadow Garden was involved and thus deemed them responsible, listing their crimes in the Wanted posters and seeking to apprehend Shadow.

Bushin Festival Tournament
Fearing for her kingdom's future, Iris participated in the Bushin Festival with hopes that her victory would raise her people's confidence, in both her strength and their security. 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 the apparent strength of a particular contestant, Mundane Mann, but she was confident that she could defeat him.

When the two finally met in the arena, Iris charged in first and attempted to take him down before he could strike, but stopped herself out of an instinctive warning Mundane posed. Iris began to hallucinate herself suffering gruesome deaths and eventually came to realize that Mundane was responsible, having thrown feints at her that told her exactly what each possible motion could result in. 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 once victorious, and due to the murder of Oriana's king Raphael Oriana, Mundane revealed his identity as Shadow, which dumbfounded Iris and all the spectators, before he easily defeated Perv's guards. An enticed Beatrix decided to fight Shadow and was evenly matched at first, only to be easily outmatched after Shadow decided to get a little serious, and Iris joined their battle soon after with the intention of stopping Shadow by working with Beatrix to finish him off.

However, the plan didn't work out, as Iris was not even a hinderance and Beatrix was bested by Shadow's counterattack. The wounded Iris asked why he didn't just kill them and Shadow replied that he only kills his enemies, departing while reminding her that she shouldn't lose sight of her true enemies. Immediately afterwards, Shadow disappears in a halo of light, leaving a clear sky in his wake.

Outcome in the Anime
After Mundane revealed himself to be Shadow, an enraged Iris stood and allied with Beatrix in the fight to suppress Shadow, even going so far as to take hold of the legendary mythril sword. Shadow chided Iris for the "crutch" while he outmatched and outpaced Iris and Beatrix, including using Crowbars as temporary fighting weapons. As their battle wandered the city, Iris and Beatrix eventually clashed with Shadow at the central clocktower, where Iris planned to distract Shadow with a grapple long enough for Beatrix to deliver a decisive strike, but Shadow defeated the two of them with instant counters and melee might.

Despite her injuries, Iris still stood up readied to continue fighting alongside Beatrix, even calling Shadow out for "fleeing" before her opponent cackled like mad at the thought. The offended Shadow unleashed a massive whirlpool of enraged magic out of his body, encompassing the whole capital with the size of its range, and the witnessing Iris stopped cold in her tracks with fear. When the enormous magic attack turned out to be a bluff that Shadow used to escape after the blinding flash of light, Iris was in shock and disbelief as Shadow had vanished, breaking down in tears as she was forced to face the reality that she lost to Shadow, and to feel truly powerless for the first time.

The Academy Disappearances
Iris alongside the Crimson Order investigated the student disappearances and the autopsy of the deceased head librarian. Alexia tried give her testimony and evidence but was too late as Iris believed in Hubb's over hers. Alexia tried to reach out to her sister only for her to be written off and threatened by her if she got in the way before leaving.

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 is in good physical shape, both her strength and stamina were close to Beatrix's and her speed is able to keep up with the supersonic chase when Iris fought alongside Beatrix against Shadow. But Iris's magical level couldn't perfect this skill despite putting a lot of her best efforts into it. She was also able to barely withstand the near-deadly melee attacks that Shadow gave her, even when he held back. By the end of the fighting, it took all the physical energy Iris had to stand 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 when caught off-guard and defeating a monster the princess was struggling against in a single blow.

Magic
Being of royal lineage, Iris is possibly being one of the descendants of the human hero from the fabled Three Heroes, and thus has an incredible quantity and quality of magic without contracting the Diabolos curse. She has an average handling of her magic, being able to use it aggressively when fighting seriously, but can also use it to strengthen her body to be able to tolerate or resist heavy damage, able to 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. However, despite the prestige of her magic, her utility of it is primitive and focuses more on strength of the strike as opposed to the refinement of the energy. This is notable as her magic takes shape indicative of a flame or wildfire, blazing and raging with the force channeled to overwhelm an opponent.

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 a rather rapid wear and tear, to the point where she searched for a new sword constantly.

When she realized that Jimina was Shadow 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. As such, she took the artifact sword from one of the Three Heroes statue in the VIP room, destroyed after the clash of Beatrix vs. Shadow had begun.


 * 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 much more raw explosive magical power, more than what she could draw from herself, 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. At the same time time, this further enhance her burst attacks in exchange for losing their reasoning of themselves in part, and throw themselves like a killing machine. According to Shadow, he consider this as a pure waste of magical use and thus sees disappointment in Iris like her younger sister, Alexia Midgar, comparing them to 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 she consequently loses a more 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.

Their relationship would become strained once more as Iris became dead set against Shadow and his organization during the auto spy of the deceased head librarian. Alexia tried to give her testimony and even reach out to her sister when she was being manipulated by Hubb. This failed as it showed how exasperated Iris' view of Shadow became as she would even threaten Alexia if she were to obstruct her in the matter.

Glen
Glen was a trusted knight Iris knew and was her first choice to join her Crimson Order as well as be her Vice-Commander. His death during the terrorist attack on the Midgar Academy was not only a personal loss, but a professional loss also as Glen's popularity amid the knightly ranks had future candidates doubt Princess Iris's capability to lead.

Marco Granger
Marco was her junior from the Midgar Academy as well as a protege of Glen's, thus he was also Iris's choice to join her Crimson Order concurrent to Glen. It is unclear how Marco feels about Iris after Glen's death, but he remains in their ranks most likely out of loyalty.

Their relationship appeared to have been strained as he watched Iris believe in Hubb's fabrications over anything and even apologized to Alexia about it.

Hubb
The Crimson Order's new vice-commander following Glen's death. who is secretly a member of the Cult of Diablos, a spy who successfully manipulated Iris into believing that the Cult was merely a fabrication by Shadow Garden to justify their crimes and all past evils of the Cult were Shadow Garden's.

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. But because of this, she was greatly shocked upon learning that he was really the mastermind behind the whole abduction plot. She was also concerned to learn of his true allegiance to the Cult when Shadow Garden made themselves publicly known.

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 Claire'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, as she initially viewed Shadow as an enemy that needed to be vanquished. Despite being told about his vast power and having seen his "I Am Atomic" blow a hole across several city blocks, Iris merely believed that Shadow was using an artifact to enhance himself to cause the havoc he did. Later, this hostility would then turn into pure hatred after Shadow was disguised as Mundane Mann, having bested and humiliated her in the Bushin Festival. She joined forces with Beatrix to defeat Shadow but was countered in every turn, as the Shadow Garden leader bested Iris with brutal ease. It's only after seeing Shadow perform his "I Am Atomic!" at close range 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.

Rose Oriana
Their interactions were little and brief; however due to her status as Student Council President and royal background, Rose was the only known witness Iris spoke to when the Academy was terrorized by Diablo Cult members posing as Shadow Garden. Her testimony confirmed both organizations existence and forced Iris to investigate them and ponder whether Shadow is an enemy or not.

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, which were overlooked due to the festival and Shadow's appearance.

Beatrix
Iris had heard of the famed "Goddess of War" and held great respect toward her as a fellow swordswoman. During the events of the Bushin Tournament, she teamed up with Beatrix against Shadow and worked quite well together, even knowing that Beatrix would not be sure of winning against Shadow, Iris offered herself as bait to sacrifice in order to have a chance at defeating him. But in the end, they were ultimately still defeated with ease by Shadow's superior fighting prowess and power.

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, and resembles fire.
 * Iris disliked modern underwear that was exclusively for women which created by the Mitsugoshi Company because she considers it obscene and indecent, unlike her sister Alexia, who does like it. But ironically, in the game she shows some interest in wearing red thongs on the advice of her sister, when she is in a drunken state.
 * Also, unlike her younger sister Alexia, Iris doesn't have a good tolerance for bitter things like coffee, just like Sherry Barnett. On Cid advice, she could only drink coffee when she mixed it with milk and mostly sugar, which came as a surprise to the nobles who saw her do that in front of those present at the VIP seats during the Bushin Festival.
 * 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 Mundane Mann in the final match of Bushin Festival, she realized from the moment she lost, because what Mundane exercised was a skill that Iris's teacher told her about, called "Realistic Feint Sensation", something that only very powerful, and above all, skilled magical warriors possess and develop. But, what Mundane 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 public defeat, including in front of her father, at the Bushin Festival against Mundane, she realized that Mundane's true identity was Shadow, which made her concurrently surprised and angry because she felt that her pride as the strongest, and also her own views, had 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 progressively more enraged with him after he tells her that he was surprised that she would have to use something like the Mithril Sword 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, but she only took that as an insult, motivated even more to fight.
 * After Iris's ultimate defeat with Beatrix against Shadow in the Midgar royal capital, and for Shadow's ruining the Bushin Festival also tarnished the name of the Midgar Kingdom's pride and honor, as well as the kingdom's fighting style. Iris was traumatized by losing against him again, feeling useless despite having Beatrix's aid.
 * Beatrix tries to warn Iris not to be obsessed with seeking revenge against Shadow, since she is still too young and her enemy is at a level that can no longer be considered a human, more like a very powerful entities that no mortal could ever hope to defeat and to give up the foolish idea of facing Shadow again. But, Iris ignores her advice and already made up her mind.
 * Afterwards, Iris had strong nightmares that lead her to swear to herself that she would have no mercy on anyone who impeded her vengeance against Shadow, not even Alexia.
 * Because of this, she was eventually manipulated by the Cult of Diablos after they infiltrated her Crimson Order to manipulate Princess Iris with their spy, new Vice Commander Hubb, and blaming Shadow Garden for all past evils of the Cult on her kingdom.
 * 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, Iris is just puzzled after the fight over the "true enemies" that shadow mentioned.
 * Interesting to note, Iris similarity to Alexia is much more then their outburst, they both take what people think of them too seriously. Iris being praise since childhood always attempts to fulfill people's expectation but due to her position as First Princess of Midgar was not allowed to is similar to Alexia who was always being compare to Iris that she tries to be as good as her that led her being called "The Fencer Ordinaire", cause both of them to be desperate.
 * After Iris lost to Shadow/Cid, Iris humiliation is similar to when Alexia lost in the Bushin Festival. Both became depressed and even lashed at the other. The one difference is Alexia is smarter and didn't take it as seriously as Iris as Iris was fooled easily by Hubb while Alexia was able to quickly notice Zenon.