OUT OF CHARACTER:
Name/Handle: Moth
Contact: ephinea / blooming.dreams @ AIM
Reference: Yuff (Zelos Wilder/"Kaneis Major" & Allen Walker)

IN-CHARACTER:
Character name: Lloyd Irving
Character journal: idealistic
Series name: Tales of Symphonia
Canon notes:

Lloyd is going to be taken from about a year and a half after the first game, several days before his disappearance and the Palmacosta Blood Purge from the beginning of Dawn of the New World.

What should be noted about Tales of Symphonia is that it follows several "routes" depending on how much affection a character accumulates for Lloyd. With the exception of one due to a character death, they all follow the same timeline of events with only minor differences, those differences being who Lloyd ends up closest to and invites to join him on his quest on collecting the remaining Exspheres. Lloyd here in particular will be taken from Colette's route, A.K.A. the "default" route.

In addition, Tales of Symphonia has a lot of extra canon goodies that can be found in several different forms, those being an animated OVA, a manga series, light novels, and drama CDs. I will be taking some extra details from these media, such as a couple of the extra chapters from the manga (The events that happened when Dirk found Lloyd and Colette's birthday party), the light novel Successors of Hope, and some of the more serious drama CDs, to help fill in the blanks that occurred before and after Tales of Symphonia. The OVA, however, is considered an AU of the original events and will not be included in any of his history.

Species:

Short answer: We just don't know.

Long answer: No matter how you look at him, Lloyd is physically, mentally, and emotionally human. He bleeds, he breathes; he has a brain (although many people are convinced it's collecting cobwebs), a heart, lungs; he laughs, he cries, he mourns... you get the idea. Despite that, there is something that is Not Quite Right with Lloyd, something that only those who know him personally know about and those sensitive to souls might be able to figure out. On his left hand is where, what could be, a special Exsphere known as a Cruxis Crystal is mounted: a soul-sucking rock that grants the wielder enhanced strength and abilities. The more finer points on it will be saved for the Abilities section, but in short, it fucked up his humanity-- whether it was for better or worse is debatable. The moment endgame events happened (again, will be covered in Abilities), he essentially became a pseudo-immortal being with the ability to summon wings at will; in Tales of Symphonia, these beings were commonly referred to as angels.

Still, we're not quite 100% sure on whether or not Lloyd became a tried-and-true "angel" like Colette or Kratos, as he's yet to display any other abilities that could only be done by angels (see: angelic magic), even in the sequel. Thus, we just don't know.

History:

Lloyd
Tales of Symphonia
ToS: Dawn of the New World

Personality:

If someone had to pick a single word that accurately encompassed everything that was Lloyd Irving, that word would be "simple".

That's it. He's just simple.

Having grown up in a quaint village that's a ways away from the rest of the world, Lloyd grew up with a fairly black-and-white mindset. It's not until he's metaphorically thrown into the lake before learning to swim where he realizes that the world is not quite as simple as his mindset is. While for others, a simplistic mindset could be considered ignorance and their ultimate undoing, for Lloyd, it's his biggest weapon and his saving grace.

One thing to note about Lloyd is that he's not very smart. In fact, he's plain book dumb. He does hold a surprising amount of logic, though the way he tends to take things literally has a tendency to skew his logic ("That's weird. If one sword has a power of 100, then using two will make it 200, right?"), but there's no denying that Lloyd still gets piss poor grades (though whether it's because of his lack of knowledge or because of such disinterest in learning that he goes so far as to falling asleep during punishment for falling asleep in class) and ends up as the butt of the joke more often than not. Several examples are spread out throughout the more lighthearted parts of the game: For example, in a test where the final score was 400, Lloyd ended up with the lowest score at 25. Another prime example would be when he properly used the word "avaricious", which is a bit above his pay grade when it comes to vocabulary-- it brought Raine to a point that's very similar to her "ruin mode", exciting her and scaring the bejeesus out of Lloyd, ruining what could have been a rather serious moment.

In combination with his stupidity, Lloyd can be qualified as a bona fide shonen hero since he's known to be rather emotive. Unlike most of the characters that are a part of his group, he doesn't hide behind a "mask" of emotions; He wears his heart on his sleeve and if he's feeling something, he'll display it with a fierceness that could set anyone back. If he's upset or angry at something, he will let you know. If he's happy or excited about traveling through a new area, he will annoyingly let you know. If he quickly grew bored of whatever he was excited about, he will (much to others' chagrin and annoyance) let you know. His emotive nature also lends to how he's a bit of a hothead and impulsive, which often leads him into trouble. If it weren't for the other characters holding him back as he was kicking and thrashing, it's very likely that Lloyd's impulsive nature would have led him to a premature death.

Even though he has his usual flare ups, what sets Lloyd apart from other hotheads is that he's not only able to acknowledge what he did or said and where he messed up, but genuinely apologize for it and learn from it so that he (probably) won't make the same mistake again. He may be harsh in some cases, but Lloyd is genuinely a good person through and through, and seeks nothing but the protection and wellbeing of his friends-- which can extend to more than just the party thanks to his "make-ALL-the-friends" attitude. Though he If he discovers something that's been ailing his friends too late, he's quick to blame himself for not catching onto it sooner. A prime example of this is Colette: The guilt that he feels for not noticing what the angelic transformation is actually doing to her eats away at him so much that he breaks down into tears.

He may have achieved feats that no ordinary person can, there's no denying that Lloyd is still human, both physically and mentally. He's dealt with blow after blow, falling many times and discovering that life is plain unfair. From being banished from Iselia, to discovering that Colette was slowly dying and Kratos turning on them at the Tower of Salvation, to discovering that very same traitor is also his biological father-- Lloyd has had his fair share of Heroic BSODs that could easily cause him to fall into despair just as Mithos had before him. The only difference between Lloyd and Mithos, as Kratos and Yuan pointed out, is that Mithos gave in and fell to despair whereas Lloyd always managed to pick himself back up regardless of how bad things looked, whether on his own or with the help of his friends, and always searched for another solution to a problem even if he had to make one himself. His stubbornness could count as one of his more endearing traits, as it was because of his stubbornness that he was able to sway Origin, who had lost all hope in humanity and refused to help them (THANKS, MITHOS), to help their cause.

As stated several times before, Lloyd is a very chummy guy. He's impressionable in a sense, but only through what he sees and not through word of mouth. He's able to see the good (or bad) in a person, even if it takes him a while to fully acknowledge it, and is usually quick to forgive or befriend someone even if they didn't have a good reason. When Raine and Genis are revealed to be part of the scorned half-elves rather than full-blooded elves, Lloyd thinks nothing of it-- to him, Raine is still his teacher and Genis is still his best friend. When Colette approached him about how her becoming an angel made her weird or how she technically had two fathers, Lloyd reassured her that no matter her lineage or what she became, she's still Colette Brunel to him. When Zelos "betrayed" the party in order to go behind enemy lines, Lloyd quickly welcomed him back into the party with open arms. Even Kratos, who had betrayed Lloyd's trust several times over, had earned Lloyd's forgiveness and mercy ("I defeated Kratos, the angel, the one who betrayed us. And I forgive Kratos, the hero of the Ancient War, who helped us."), who in turn chastised him for being "as soft-hearted as ever". At the same time, he holds regrets if he isn't able to help a friend of if he's too late in helping them: Zelos could also be an example of this if he does honestly betray the party, for Lloyd will regret never helping Zelos when he needed it so that he wouldn't have to resort to betrayal. Mithos also applies to this: after finally destroying his Cruxis Crystal, Lloyd laments at how they could have been great friends because they shared similar ideals.

All in all, Lloyd is just a teenager who loves his friends, hates tomatoes with a burning passion, is kind of really stupid, and has seen more than most kids his age, yet still wants nothing more than a world where everyone is accepting of each other. In Dawn of the New World he's wisened up a little from his abrasive attitude, though he seems to take a page from Kratos's book in turn and distances himself from his friends to work on a secret agenda that would benefit his loved ones, making him into something of a massive hypocrite. Delving further into this could shed some insight into why he's behaving like this in the first place — which, to put it simply, was to protect his comrades from a force that only he could handle without having his mind destroyed — but since he's yet to be given the big task that caused him to behave this way, one can probably assume that he's still more or less the same seventeen-year-old boy that contributed to the Journey of Regeneration, but a touch more mature.

Just a touch.

Abilities:

Swordsmanship
I wouldn't exactly call Lloyd a genius at swordplay. Hell, it's a joke to call him a genius at all: his only reasoning for wielding two swords is because he believed that double the swords meant double the power. Regardless of his reasoning for wielding two swords, however, Lloyd manages to make it work. He's had a significant amount of training in dual-wielding — at first on his own and then with guidance from Kratos — and has developed into a very formidable opponent that could best even an immature ex-summon spirit with hardly a turn of his blades. It'd be a bit unfair to say that he's such a great swordsman to the point of being OP, but he can certainly hold his own in a battle, though he still has quite a bit to learn.

Exsphere
Even with his received training from Kratos — who was a knight in his prime — on his own, Lloyd's ability at swordsmanship could be described as "good" at best. The majority of Lloyd's abilities actually comes from his Exsphere: a mysterious parasitic stone that grants the wearer enhanced abilities. On its own, an Exsphere is dangerous when attached directly to the skin, as it feeds off of the host body until it is matured and gradually kills off the host-- ironically, the positive effects of an Exsphere only work if it's directly attached to the skin. Lloyd's Exsphere, however, does not feed off of Lloyd as it is also attached to a Key Crest: a dwarven accessory with a charm inscribed on it to negate the negative effects.

Since Lloyd kind of needs it to survive for reasons both explained here and will be explained later on, he will be keeping it and its combat abilities will simply be dampened.

Artes
Lloyd's collection of artes (which can be viewed here and here) leaves him as a purely offensive fighter, allowing him to manipulate mana to enhance his attacks by allowing him to send out shock waves or things of that nature. His hidden special attack, Divine Justice, is a rendition of his first special attack (Falcon's Crest) that could only be done when he has the Material Blades equipped. Unlike Falcon's Crest, which could only activate when he's under stress (read: low on HP), Lloyd is able to perform Divine Justice at any time.

Craftsmanship
Despite his sometimes brash attitude, Lloyd is actually surprisingly good with his hands. Having grown up under the tutelage of a dwarf, Lloyd is capable of crafting some basic dwarven works, which is usually limited to simple accessories (such as necklaces or bracelets) or crude key crests. He is also shown to be able to operate basic machinery after some investigating and pick locks with ease; a skill that's been demonstrated more than once when he ended up behind bars. Under further tutelage, he may be able to craft other things such as basic weaponry, though that ability is still a ways away.

Exsphere Pt. 2 (Cruxis Crystal???)
Based on events from the end of Tales of Symphonia, it is implied that the remnants of Mithos's Cruxis Crystal allowed Lloyd's Exsphere (whose host was originally the subject used for the Angelus Project, Lloyd's mother) to fully evolve into a proper Cruxis Crystal. What this implies is that Lloyd has entered and endured the first stage of the Angelic Transformation-- having endured only the first stage, however, his abilities as an "angel" are very limited in comparison to someone like Colette, who has endured all of them. Such abilities thus far are:

- Enhanced senses, specifically hearing
- No longer required to consume nutrients (food or drink).
- Halted metabolism, meaning a prolonged (indefinite) lifespan.*
- Ability to summon large blue translucent wings to allow him to fly.

It is unclear whether the wings were a "one-time wonder" or if he still does hold the ability to summon them and simply chooses not to, as he has yet to summon them again in Dawn of the New World, where he constantly traveled using a rheiard. For simplicity's sake, let's just say that his Exsphere did properly mutate into a Cruxis Crystal and he does still have the ability to summon his wings along with having his other "angelic" abilities, but he simply chooses not to acknowledge them just yet.


*Despite having an indefinite, near-eternal lifespan, this does not mean he is immortal. Lloyd is still susceptible to death through outside circumstances such as severe injury, poison, mana exhaustion, etc. Destroying his Exsphere in particular would theoretically end his life as well.

Augment Skillset: Engineering Augment
Sample:

[ IN THIS EPISODE, there's something hinky going on with the ship's ventilation system, and who better to fix it than the ship's resident baby engineer?! the transmission comes on in the ships bowels, the communicator perched fairly high - about eye level with Lloyd - as he turns back to the ventilation hood behind him once he's sure it won't topple over. ]

Okay guys, I'm pretty sure this is the last spot I need to check. All the other ones looked okay, but I found this... weird fur in the last one, so whatever's been messing around in our vent's definitely around this spot!

Now if I could just... [ grunt ] Get this... [ pull ] Stupid--!! [ yeah that sucker's not budging. Lloyd puts his foot on the wall for extra leverage as he tries again. ]

Nrrgh... Come on-- WAAUGH! [ the door pops open and out comes dozens, possibly hundreds, of what could basically be described as brown, football-sized fur balls with a larger amount of small, white ones from the vents. they almost seem to be never-ending as Lloyd is effectively buried by them while they continue to fill the room.

eventually they finally stop, and out comes Lloyd from the pile, trying to catch his breath. he pulls off a white one that just so happened to stick it out on his head, staring at it with wide eyes before he looks around. ]

...The hell are these things?!