Halloween

"When I was prepared to die, mortifying feelings came up from the bottom of my heart. Once! I wanted to take revenge on those that made a fool out of me just once! Right then- I learned the pleasure of tormenting the weak. Thanks to that ÄRM, I was able to get my revenge on those that bullied me. Now I've joined the Chess, and am enjoying my days killing everything. Thank you, Alan."

―Halloween

Halloween
Japanese	ハロウィン
Rōmaji	Harouin
Other Names	"Halloween the Crucified" "Tomato-Head" (by Alan) Pump (birth name)
Debut	Episode 7 Chapter 19
Gender	Male
Status	Unknown
Homeland	Lestava
Team	Chess Pieces
Class	Knight
ÄRMs	Cross Dagger Napalm Death Flame Hands Antares Sticks of Fire Grave Hail Igneal Trick-Or-Treat Wakan Tanka
Seiyū (Japanese)	Dai Matsumoto
Voice Actor (English)	Richard Epcar

Halloween (ハロウィン, Harouin) was the third strongest Knight of the Chess Pieces.

Personality

Halloween was a most sadistic character, who, like many other Chess Pieces, Halloween took enjoyment out of slowly killing his enemies in battle. A lover of war and bloodshed, Halloween was often put in charge of Chess Piece operations, particularly major invasions. He had a fancy for punishing lower-ranked Chess Pieces, as seen with him enjoying the mental torment of Ian when informed about the upcoming punishment of his lover, Gido. Halloween's love of torment and punishment extended even to his fellow Knights, commonly making death threats to Rapunzel should her greed get out of hand. Several times he was the pun of a joke about tomatoes because of his mask, which resembled a tomato, earning him the nickname 'Tomato Head' from Alan. Deep down inside, however, Halloween was still the cowardly child he was when under his former name, as pointed out by Alan.

Halloween held a deep hatred for Alan inside of his crippled heart. He was thrilled during both battles he had with him, loving how he was hurting the only living person who opposed him in his childhood. Halloween himself had been twisted into thinking that Alan was mocking him during their childhood together, transforming him into a perfect model of Chess Piece psychology. Once informed of Halloween's true identity, Alan would continue to refer to Halloween by his childhood name, which would become a major taboo for Halloween. Their rivalry would eventually be diminished by Halloween's defeat to Alan, with Halloween admitting to himself that Alan really was strong.

History

Halloween was born in an unknown town and was abandoned by his parents as a child. For this, a defenseless Halloween, then known as Pump, was bullied by the town's other children. In an attempt to escape, Pump would often climb up trees, though he apparently had trouble getting down from them. At some point, Pump met another young boy from his town, Alan, who would from then onward come to rescue Pump. Seeing that the bullies were afraid of Alan because he was strong, Pump became obsessed with becoming stronger so no one would dare to mess with him.

In the manga, Pump's obsession to become stronger is shown when he gains a penchant for dismembering live animals only because they are weak, of which Alan would discourage. The next day however, all the children who had bullied Pump were found murdered, torn to pieces with a blade, leaving Pump as the prime suspect. Pump left the village after this incident, preventing Alan from ever meeting him again.

Alan offers to train Pump to teach him courage.

In the anime, the circumstances of his descent to the dark path was different: one day, after Alan prevented the bullies' anti-Pump crusades, Alan had shown Pump a flame-producing Nature ÄRM, and promised to present it to Pump once he awakened his magical powers, encouraging him to become a better and stronger person. However, refusing to wait to get this power, Pump stole the ÄRM from Alan while he was sleeping.

While escaping through the woods, Pump began to kick a two-headed puppy along his path after a failed attempt to attack it with the ÄRM, to which its pack responded by chasing him. Pump, instinctively running to the tree that he frequently climbed to hide from the village children, found he was too exhausted from running to climb up the tree and saw the dogs just behind him. In sheer terror he awaited his demise, when the ÄRM he stole from Alan activated and set the animals ablaze. Alan, having awoken to find his ÄRM missing, went in chase of Pump only to find the killing spree he had caused. Although Alan attempted to encourage Pump to admit his mistake, Pump had little desire to fall to Alan's will and left, blocking Alan's path using the very flames of his stolen ÄRM and referring to his only friend as a hypocrite who acts like a hero. Soon afterwards, houses where the bullies lived spontaneously combusted, with Pump himself gone. Though no one sees him again nor blames Alan for this, Alan still blames himself for what happened.

First Great MÄR Heaven War

Many years would go by, and Pump (through unknown means) had changed his appearance drastically, discarding his birth name in the process and assuming the new name "Halloween". He joined the Chess Pieces, an army formed for the cause of conquering MÄR Heaven and would eventually rise to the rank of third-strongest Knight.

Alan and Halloween's match ends in a draw.

War Games

Halloween would take place in the final round of the first War Games, fighting against Alan, who has risen to the rank of second strongest Cross Guard. They fought to a draw, with both fighters incapacitated to a near-death state. Filled with resent at the match's outcome, Halloween activated his Darkness ÄRM, Igneal, to seal Alan inside of Edward, the servant dog of Lestava's royal family.

Six-Year Interlude

Halloween is first introduced alongside many other Chess Pieces during the resurrection of the no. 1 Knight, Phantom, when Candice found out about Phantom's revival. Given the task to inform Ian and Loco (the two Chess Pieces Diana sent after Lestava's princess) to return to Lestava Castle, Halloween reunites with Alan (who had awakened from inside Edward). With words the two confronted each other, with Halloween discouraging the idea that Ginta Toramizu would ever be able to defeat Phantom. After mockingly greeting Alan farewell, Halloween takes the two Chess Pieces back to Lestava Castle, where the second invasion of MÄR Heaven is discussed.

Second Great MÄR Heaven War

Halloween participates in the massacre by leading a large army of Chess Pieces, including the Knight Chimera, in an attacking on Acalupa Port. Within three days the entire city is destroyed and most of its population is murdered.

Halloween is then put in charge of punishing Ian and Gido, who had abandoned the battles to go search for Ginta and crawled back with an embarrassing defeat. To torture them both mentally and physically, Halloween has Ian locked up in chains and tells Ian that he will decide which Knight will deal with Gido, with the idea of having either Candice, Vidar, or Chimera execute the punishment. What Ian didn't know yet is that Halloween had Chimera sadistically punish Gido, much to Ian's sorrow. Ian threatens to escape and murder Halloween, returned by Halloween with the mocking response of wishing Ian really was strong enough to kill him.

War Games

Halloween made an appearance alongside Candice among the other Chess Pieces who watched the fight between Ginta and Garon. Peta mentions to Phantom that Halloween is among the Chess Pieces that would like to fight Ginta.

Halloween makes his first reappearance preceding the second War Games' third round, where he again meets with Alan. Given a direct order by Phantom, Halloween informs Pozun that Alan shall receive permission to participate in the War Games. He later reappears alongside the Knights following the same round, and gets angered by Rapunzel's rash comments on how she would easily end the War Games.

After the fifth round, the Knights are called into Phantom's room for a meeting. Phantom then specified that the only Knight who needed to be punished was Rapunzel, for her senseless murder spree of Chess teammates during the fourth round. Phantom offered her a chance to save herself by dueling against a Rook named Ian.

Halloween and his fellow Knights go outside to the surface below where the castle floated to observe the duel between Rapunzel and Ian. Ian effortlessly brushes off Rapunzel's attacks and immediately kills her with one attack. Phantom promotes Ian to the Knight class, taking Rapunzel's position, and hands him the Knight pierce. Ian turns to the other Knights and announces his intentions as a new Knight to kill whichever one of them hurt his beloved.

Round 7

After Chimera is defeated, and Alan calls out Halloween to have them finish what began six years ago in the first War Game. Alan's composure changes after Halloween refers to him as a "hypocrite with a hero complex", only for the conflict to be stopped by Pozun. The match begins the next day, with both of them itching to attack.

Within fractions of a second after Pozun signals the match to start, Halloween activates the Nature ÄRM, Flame Hands, and extends them to attack but Alan activates his Dimension ÄRM, Air Hammer, to blow them away with little effort. Pozun frantically scurries out of the line of fire while Halloween laughs that Alan hasn't lost his touch since their previous battle. Alan points out that he began the battle with the same attack in their previous battle as well, questioning if he's going easy on him. Beckoned by the dissatisfaction, Halloween activates a new Nature ÄRM, Antares, and summons a huge fire ball that is thrown towards him. Alan effortlessly turns his shoulder to evade, but turns around in horror to see innocent spectators behind him set ablaze. Halloween responds that since Alan won't die easily, he'll target the audience because they're far easier to kill. Halloween lobs more fireballs at the audience while Alan cancels them out with his Air Hammer to defend them. He misses one of the fire balls and turns around to see Dorothy snuff it out with her Nature ÄRM, Zephyrus Broom. She reassures him that the rest of the team will defend the audience and he can focus on the match.

Halloween activates Weapon ÄRM, Napalm Death, which summons a huge cannon which then proceeds to fire a huge shot. Dorothy realizes that she and her teammates can't block the cannon due to such strong magic power it utilizes. Alan calmly holds his ground and the first shot. Halloween taunts Alan by calling him a "hypocrite" for risking his life to shield his teammates, and continues to fire more shots to test how long his "fake heroism" lasts. Alan continues to endure each hit, leaving bits of his clothes torn and charred and his skin burned.

Halloween commends Alan for having grown strong again, and summons his Guardian ÄRM, Trick-or-Treat. The stage fills with scarecrow like plants with jack-o-lanterns for heads and they begin to wobble past Alan. Alan punches all the plants into oblivion while calling Halloween a coward for attacking the innocent. One hops down to Team MÄR, and Ginta tosses Babbo at its head, causing it to explode. Entrusting the ones behind him to his teammates, Alan punches all of the ones in front of him into oblivion and shows off to his team for being slow at finishing up.

Alan hollers at Halloween that if he is a hypocrite then the latter is a coward. Amused, Halloween observes that Alan hasn't changed since they younger and shouldn't have forgiven him. Alan realizes Halloween is his former childhood friend, Pump. Halloween laughs in confirmation, admitting that he was glad to see Alan again in the previous War Games as them being on opposing sides was fitting. Alan agrees that is shocking that they have an entwined history, thus all the more reason to take down Halloween and end their feud.

With nostalgia on his mind, Halloween uses the Darkness ÄRM, Grave Hail, which summons coffins possessing mouths and eyes. The coffins open up and reveal the skeletal corpses of deceased Cross Guard soldiers, reanimated to do Halloween's bidding. Alan hesitates, knowing that the zombies were his comrades in life, but resolutely attacks each of them with Air Hammer, remarking that it's unlike him to be sentimental. The zombies reform and repeat attacking, with one of them nearly swiping at Alan with a sword. Alan resorts to punching with his fists, and tosses one outside the arena. When he sees that it dissolves, he switches back to using his Air Hammer to wipe them out and destroy the coffins to prevent them from reforming.

Alan then taunts his opponent by referring to him as "Pump". Enraged, he yells that he is Halloween of the Zodiacs and activates the Nature ÄRM, Cross Dagger, which Alan takes head on. As the flames clear, Alan wounded comments that the flame was tepid. Halloween asks Alan how it feels to be fighting a childhood friend. He returns the question and mocks Halloween for having quit humanity to be a tomato. Giggling, Halloween expresses desire to turn him into a dog again.

Alan states that Halloween isn't the only fire manipulator and activates his Nature ÄRM, Flame Dragon. Halloween counters with his own Nature ÄRM, Sticks of Fire, and says that he won't lose to fire. With neither backing down, Ginta cheers Alan on from behind. Hearing the boy, Halloween's bitterness rises and intensifies his attack. Alarmed by this change, Alan responds to match and exceed the power with Flame Dragon, knocking Halloween's stick out of his hand and gives an arrogant hand gesture.

Halloween explains his perspective that Alan was looking down on him when they were kids, finding his offer to help him with bullies as establishing a power dynamic. Alan shook his head, saying he only wanted to be a friend due his own isolation of being feared as the toughest kid. Insulted by such a simple reason, Halloween denies the misunderstanding as they've lived in different worlds from the very beginning. Accepting that this was likely the case, Alan gives both his greeting and his parting words to Pump, deciding to put an end to the fight.

Having enough of Alan, Halloween also decides to finish the fight and summons his Guardian ÄRM, Wakan Tanka. Alan runs to meet its charge, kicking and punching it with every swoop it attempts to make. It manages to knock him back, but he gets back up to catch it by jaws with his hands. Wakan Tanka exhales intense flame onto Alan. Struggling to endure, Alan uses his rising magic power to summon his new Guardian ÄRM, Saint Anger. Caught off guard by the giant pair of hands, Halloween shrieks in fear as the right crushes Wakan Tanka to pieces. The left hand grabs Halloween and tosses him through the air as he screams. At the moment of impact by the punch of the right hand, Halloween acknowledges Alan to truly be strong. The punch sends Halloween flying into the sky to his demise, having dropped the flame ÄRM that he stole from Alan long ago.

ÄRMs

Halloween was the Chess Pieces' third-strongest Knight, making him a formidable opponent in battle. His ÄRMs were:

• Cross Dagger: Weapon ÄRM. The very cross tied to Halloween's back, that turns into, and shoots missiles of flame. Edited into a pole in the American dub.
• Napalm Death: A weapon ÄRM that grows a large blossom from the back of Halloween's cross. It shoots flames like a cannon.
• Flame Hands: Nature ÄRM which is used to create hands for Halloween, since he got himself tied to the cross.
• Antares: Nature ÄRM. Creates balls of flame of multiple sizes used to throw at the enemy.
• Sticks of Fire: Nature ÄRM. Two sticks with the tips on fire that shoots blasts of fire at the enemy, held by Halloween using Flame Hand. Left unnamed in the manga.
• Grave Hail: Darkness ÄRM. Crosses, with several eyes and mouths on them, which shoots up from the ground, similar to Alviss' 13 Totem Pole's Guardian style. Edited into polls in the American dub. In the anime this ÄRM instead summons several coffins with the same eyes and mouths, which open up to reveal skeleton warriors to do Halloween's bidding. The side effects of using this ÄRM is not specified.
• Igneal: A Darkness ÄRM. It merges two living creatures together, as seen with Alan and Edward. Its side effects are unknown.
• Trick-Or-Treat: A Guardian ÄRM that creates explosive plant creatures with Jack-o-lantern heads.
• Wakan Tanka: Though embodying the "divine sacred", summoning through Halloween's cross pendant ÄRM has minimized the "Great Spirit"'s omnipotence to the giant form of a winged skeleton-bodied skull. It has the power to breathe scorching flames.

Trivia

• When Ian and Loco were waiting in the Frozen Castle for Halloween to bring a fire ÄRM, the latter arrived unusually late. The reasons for his tardiness are unknown, as Halloween himself is a fire manipulator and should've otherwise been able to arrive promptly with a fire ÄRM to complete the mission of capturing Princess Snow.

Gallery

Pump and Alan