When Juggler was young, he wanted to be a hero. He and his friend Gai climbed their way up to the top of Warrior's Peak, where they would consult the Light and one of them would be chosen to be a Warrior of Light. Both thought it would be Juggler, but it wasn't. Gai became Ultraman Orb, and Juggler was left to deal with a massive blow to his self-worth. Rejected from his goal and forsaken by the light, he ultimately took the opposite road and became a villain, and Gai's lifelong nemesis.
If you asked him, Juggler would be the first to tell you, proudly, that he lives and thrives in darkness. He revels in destruction, and generally enjoys making people uncomfortable. He'd be happy to pull just about anyone down with him, pointing out all the ways they're worse than their own self-perceptions. He loves drama; he'll exaggerate movements for the added flair, wax poetic about negativity, and do things like appear directly behind someone and speak into their ear just for the element of surprise. Life is a stage, Juggler is the star player, and he would claim that there isn't any further meaning to existence, except for possibly proving that he's actually stronger than Gai once and for all. But as much as he's spent many, many years convincing himself and everyone else of these notions, they're still pretty far from his actual reality.
In truth, he's insecure. He's been disappointed in himself since the Light rejected him, and fell increasingly to his nihilistic philosophies over time because Gai, formerly his friend, didn't see how he was suffering and failed to offer him the support he needed. He fell back on finding any way possible to be strong, no matter how destructive or detested. When it comes down to it, he wants to be acknowledged—by Gai, by the Light, by anyone who can sufficiently prove to him that being rejected as the Warrior of Light doesn't equate to being a complete and utter failure. He built up his dark powers to fight against Gai, because he thought that if he could at least get Gai to say, honestly, that he was the stronger of them, it would mean he was worth something.
Even though he tries to deny it, he also can't negate the good part of himself that wanted to be a hero all those years ago. If actions speak louder than words, and one is paying close attention, it quickly becomes clear that he isn't nearly as evil as he'd claim. He continually says he wants Gai dead, but he never makes a serious attempt on his life, despite ample opportunity. He intentionally makes Naomi, the series's leading female, uncomfortable by invading her personal space and putting on a flirtatious act, but always does so in a way that's actually pretty harmless. He does have the capacity for murder, but the only people we ever see him kill are invading aliens who could arguably be considered more evil than he is.
To cap it off, he saves people from danger despite himself. In a noteworthy incident prior to the main series, he engineered a fight between Ultraman Orb and a giant monster that resulted in a huge explosion (set up as an exact mirror to the Tunguska event, though they don't actually name it that), but wound up rescuing Gai's girlfriend at the time from the blast, even going out of his way to heal her. He never told Gai, letting him come to his own wrong conclusion that she'd died in the explosion, but that was motivated by his own confusion and shame over it conflicting with his own dark self-image. (Letting Gai suffer over it for the next 100 years was an unintended bonus, and by the time the series rolls around, he makes a lot of subtle hints that Natasha didn't actually die, seeming to enjoy watching Gai fail to connect the dots.) Toward the end of the series, he does something similar with Naomi, protecting her from danger even when he'd been threatening to kill her moments before.
It's when Gai witnesses that that their issues finally start to resolve; Gai sees that Juggler still has it in him to do good deeds, and Juggler can no longer pretend that isn't the case. It leads to the acknowledgment that Juggler has so desperately wanted from Gai for so long, and while Juggler spends a moment being intensely emotionally confused about what he even wants anymore, it's actually enough that he doesn't need to pretend to be the villain anymore, and he decides to fight alongside Gai to defeat the final monster of the series. The canon point I'm taking him from is before this, but the note is important; after everything that had transpired between them over thousands of years, all he actually needed in order to change his viewpoint was a hug and a thank you.
The sequel movie shows what he's like once he's free of that desperation for acceptance. Still dramatic, still likes to make people uncomfortable, still inclined to make people wonder whether he might still actually be a bad guy—but ultimately willing to step in and fight along with the heros without any prompting whatsoever, and to destroy something that was once a source of power for him to keep it from falling into the wrong hands (even if he literally tells this device that he loves it first. No, seriously.). Once he has people he might legitimately consider friends, all of his interactions become much more playful, rather than malicious.
Though in a certain sense, Juggler has always been playful. It seems like fun and entertainment are his primary drives when a situation doesn't immediately involve Gai or monster summoning. He seems to enjoy flirting in general; he makes a particular point of making Naomi uncomfortable with it once he knows Gai is attached to her, but he was flirting with her a bit even before that. And he's actually completely shameless, overhearing some of the other characters being curious about Gai's alien body in the public bath and responding by showing off his own naked alien body instead as he dramatically exits the bathhouse. Aside from that, he likes games, and has been seen using his monster cards (primarily a source of power for him) to play poker and to give someone a tarot reading, which he may or may not have been just making up on the spot. Sometimes he'll be found cheerfully whistling as he swaggers through some of his confident moments. Though ironically, if he hears Gai playing the same melody on his harmonica, he reacts badly to it. It's never stated exactly why, but the versions are a little different, and it's very possible he hears Gai's version as being very out of tune; just one more way that Gai messes things up, really.
Jugglus Juggler | Ultraman Orb | Reserved
Name: Wei
Are you over 18?: Y
Contact: Plurk: zeroq1 Discord: nobody#7007
Characters: Gladion
IC Information
Character: Jugglus Juggler
Age: Something like 4000. Looks about 30.
Canon: Ultraman Orb
Canon Point: After Episode 20
History:
http://ultra.wikia.com/wiki/Jugglus_Juggler
Personality:
When Juggler was young, he wanted to be a hero. He and his friend Gai climbed their way up to the top of Warrior's Peak, where they would consult the Light and one of them would be chosen to be a Warrior of Light. Both thought it would be Juggler, but it wasn't. Gai became Ultraman Orb, and Juggler was left to deal with a massive blow to his self-worth. Rejected from his goal and forsaken by the light, he ultimately took the opposite road and became a villain, and Gai's lifelong nemesis.
If you asked him, Juggler would be the first to tell you, proudly, that he lives and thrives in darkness. He revels in destruction, and generally enjoys making people uncomfortable. He'd be happy to pull just about anyone down with him, pointing out all the ways they're worse than their own self-perceptions. He loves drama; he'll exaggerate movements for the added flair, wax poetic about negativity, and do things like appear directly behind someone and speak into their ear just for the element of surprise. Life is a stage, Juggler is the star player, and he would claim that there isn't any further meaning to existence, except for possibly proving that he's actually stronger than Gai once and for all. But as much as he's spent many, many years convincing himself and everyone else of these notions, they're still pretty far from his actual reality.
In truth, he's insecure. He's been disappointed in himself since the Light rejected him, and fell increasingly to his nihilistic philosophies over time because Gai, formerly his friend, didn't see how he was suffering and failed to offer him the support he needed. He fell back on finding any way possible to be strong, no matter how destructive or detested. When it comes down to it, he wants to be acknowledged—by Gai, by the Light, by anyone who can sufficiently prove to him that being rejected as the Warrior of Light doesn't equate to being a complete and utter failure. He built up his dark powers to fight against Gai, because he thought that if he could at least get Gai to say, honestly, that he was the stronger of them, it would mean he was worth something.
Even though he tries to deny it, he also can't negate the good part of himself that wanted to be a hero all those years ago. If actions speak louder than words, and one is paying close attention, it quickly becomes clear that he isn't nearly as evil as he'd claim. He continually says he wants Gai dead, but he never makes a serious attempt on his life, despite ample opportunity. He intentionally makes Naomi, the series's leading female, uncomfortable by invading her personal space and putting on a flirtatious act, but always does so in a way that's actually pretty harmless. He does have the capacity for murder, but the only people we ever see him kill are invading aliens who could arguably be considered more evil than he is.
To cap it off, he saves people from danger despite himself. In a noteworthy incident prior to the main series, he engineered a fight between Ultraman Orb and a giant monster that resulted in a huge explosion (set up as an exact mirror to the Tunguska event, though they don't actually name it that), but wound up rescuing Gai's girlfriend at the time from the blast, even going out of his way to heal her. He never told Gai, letting him come to his own wrong conclusion that she'd died in the explosion, but that was motivated by his own confusion and shame over it conflicting with his own dark self-image. (Letting Gai suffer over it for the next 100 years was an unintended bonus, and by the time the series rolls around, he makes a lot of subtle hints that Natasha didn't actually die, seeming to enjoy watching Gai fail to connect the dots.) Toward the end of the series, he does something similar with Naomi, protecting her from danger even when he'd been threatening to kill her moments before.
It's when Gai witnesses that that their issues finally start to resolve; Gai sees that Juggler still has it in him to do good deeds, and Juggler can no longer pretend that isn't the case. It leads to the acknowledgment that Juggler has so desperately wanted from Gai for so long, and while Juggler spends a moment being intensely emotionally confused about what he even wants anymore, it's actually enough that he doesn't need to pretend to be the villain anymore, and he decides to fight alongside Gai to defeat the final monster of the series. The canon point I'm taking him from is before this, but the note is important; after everything that had transpired between them over thousands of years, all he actually needed in order to change his viewpoint was a hug and a thank you.
The sequel movie shows what he's like once he's free of that desperation for acceptance. Still dramatic, still likes to make people uncomfortable, still inclined to make people wonder whether he might still actually be a bad guy—but ultimately willing to step in and fight along with the heros without any prompting whatsoever, and to destroy something that was once a source of power for him to keep it from falling into the wrong hands (even if he literally tells this device that he loves it first. No, seriously.). Once he has people he might legitimately consider friends, all of his interactions become much more playful, rather than malicious.
Though in a certain sense, Juggler has always been playful. It seems like fun and entertainment are his primary drives when a situation doesn't immediately involve Gai or monster summoning. He seems to enjoy flirting in general; he makes a particular point of making Naomi uncomfortable with it once he knows Gai is attached to her, but he was flirting with her a bit even before that. And he's actually completely shameless, overhearing some of the other characters being curious about Gai's alien body in the public bath and responding by showing off his own naked alien body instead as he dramatically exits the bathhouse. Aside from that, he likes games, and has been seen using his monster cards (primarily a source of power for him) to play poker and to give someone a tarot reading, which he may or may not have been just making up on the spot. Sometimes he'll be found cheerfully whistling as he swaggers through some of his confident moments. Though ironically, if he hears Gai playing the same melody on his harmonica, he reacts badly to it. It's never stated exactly why, but the versions are a little different, and it's very possible he hears Gai's version as being very out of tune; just one more way that Gai messes things up, really.
Etc:
Persona
Name: Focalor
Branch: Combatant
Type(s): Dark/Light
Style(s): Healer
Passive: Offensive
Writing Sample
TDM