Vidar

Vidar
Japanese	ヴィーザル
Rōmaji	Vizaru
Other Names	"Weasel" (Viz Media translation)
Gender	Male
Age	84
Status	Alive
Team	Chess Pieces
Class	Knight
ÄRMs	Seed Cannon Bomb Grass Deadly Field Yggdrasil Bird of Rotten Wood Floating Leaf
Seiyū (Japanese)	Kenichi Ogata

Vidar (ヴィーザル, Vizaru) is the 6th strongest Knight of the Chess Pieces, and the last and oldest of the top-level knights.

Appearance

Somewhat resembling a Rübezahl, Vidar is easily distinguished due to his eccentric appearance with a tree growing out of his head containing all his magic power, and always seen holding a wood cane inside which he hides all his ÄRMs.

Personality

As a Chess Piece, Vidar is wicked, but is overall an amicable figure to his Chess fellows, and is civil enough towards his opponents.

Etymology

Vidar's name comes directly from Norse mythology after the god of vengeance, Víðarr. Víðarr is described as the son of Odin and the jötunn Gríðr and is foretold to avenge his father's death by killing the wolf Fenrir at Ragnarök, a conflict he is described as surviving. Víðarr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and is interpreted as depicted with Fenrir on the Gosforth Cross. A number of theories surround the figure, including theories around potential ritual silence and a Proto-Indo-European basis.

History

Like many plant manipulators, Vidar dreams of growing a plant that will reach the sky and after finding a devilish plant called Yggdrasil, which grows by causing pain, joined the Chess for the sole purpose of making Yggdrasil grow.

First Great MÄR Heaven War

War Games

Vidar battling Jake during the first war.

In the last round of the War Games, Vidar faced off against Jake of the Cross Guard. The two were evenly matched, with Jake obliterating Grass Bomb and Vidar repelling Magical Mushrooms. Upon Yggdrasil's activation, they took their battle up amongst the tree branches. Attacking Vidar head-on with his shovel against his cane, he asked how a plant manipulator could join the Chess. Vidar explains that it's due to Yggdrasil's nature to feed off of emotional and physical pain of humans as nutrients for it to grow. Jake was disgusted by such motives, but Vidar empathized with the fellow plant manipulator's dream and recognized his potential. Vidar then offered him a chance to save himself by joining the Chess, but Jake immediately turned him down and charged at him. Yggdrasil's Snaky Bough caught Jake mid-air and wrapped around him, and he cried out that someday another plant manipulator would defeat him. Vidar laughs and accepts such a challenge, confident that he would win against that person, too. Yggdrasil's Snaky Bough then attacks Jake and kills him.

Six-Year Interlude

Vidar was present at Phantom's revival.

Second Great MÄR Heaven War

In the Chess Piece's war campaign, he attacked Heinl Castle by covering it in wood.

War Games

Peta later mentions to Phantom that Vidar is amongst the Chess Pieces that would like to fight Ginta Toramizu.

He was seen with the other Knights after the 3rd Round of 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.

Vidar 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

The last round of the War Games has arrived, setting itself to take place at Reginleif Castle. Jack volunteers to go first for Team MÄR. As the sixth strongest Knight of the Chess Pieces, Vidar steps forward to battle against Jack. Vidar asks Jack how old he is to which Jack responds, 14. Vidar chuckles, saying that puts a 70 year age difference between them. Pozun names the fighters of both sides, and signals the match to begin.

Jack immediately rushes Vidar attacking with punches and kicks, which Vidar effortlessly avoids. Jack notices that he isn't going to make any progress in the fight with unarmed attacks and summons his Earth Scoop and delivers a blow to Vidar's body. Vidar asks where Jack obtained his scoop. Jack responds that it belonged to his father. Vidar tells Jack that he really is Jake's son and that in the previous War Game he was Jake's killer. Gaira confirms this on the sidelines, and goes on to name the ÄRM that killed him but Jack shouts back to not say a word, seeking to defeat Vidar with his own skills.

Vidar then activates his Nature ÄRM, Seed Cannon, and fires various fruits and vegetables at Jack. As Jack avoids them, but the ammo ends up hitting the audience behind him. From the crowd, Pano calls out to cheer for Jack. Leno tries to reason with her, but Pano is quick to argue back, stating that Jack was more handsome than anyone else in Team MÄR. Feeling invigorated by Pano's love, Jack's magic power increased. Vidar attempted to attack again with Seed Cannon but Jack whacks each crop back by using his Earth Scoop as a baseball bat, protecting the audience from further harm.

Vidar activates his Nature ÄRM, Bomb Grass, that causes plants to grow out of the arena floor. Jack comments that even though he is a plant master, he's never seen such plants before and touches one of the flower bulbs which causes a massive explosion. Alan yells at Jack to not leisurely touch the enemy's attack. Jack uses his scoop's technique Earth Wave to wipe out all the bomb plants and clear the arena. Vidar chuckles and says that Jack's father used the same move to clear out the Bomb Grass so he'll respond the same way he did in the first War Game. Jack briefly puts away his Earth Scoop to attempt more punches and kicks, but instead of dodging them as he did before, Vidar merely takes each hit. Jack smirks, revealing that his strikes were actually to plant Magical Mushrooms on his body. The little tree on Vidar's head shakes and the mushrooms vaporize. Vidar laughs, acknowledging Jack to be Jake's son due to them using the same strategy and tactics. Vidar then reaches into the foliage of his staff and pulls out a ring. He summons his Guardian ÄRM, Yggdrasil, which causes an colossal tree to grow in the center of the arena.

Vidar invites Jack to follow him up the tree. While climbing, Vidar uses one of Yggdrasil's offensive techniques, Dance of Leaves, which launches a storm of razor sharp leaves at Jack. Jack plants some seeds in a crack in the tree branch he was pinned to, and uses his Earth Beans technique to grow them into vines which ensnare Vidar. Vidar then activates his Darkness ÄRM, Deadly Field, which causes all plants to wither with the exception of the one on top of his head. Jack changes tactics and crushes a seed in his right hand to form Beans Shield Version 2 to block more leaves. Wielding his scoop in his left hand, he leaps at Vidar to strike. Yggdrasil changes attacks to shooting gigantic fruits at him. He initially runs but remembering that his mother was likely watching the War Games at home causes him to stop and hold his ground by slicing the incoming fruit with his scoop.

Vidar then attacks with Yggdrasil's Snaky Bough, which causes large branches with fangs to appear and charge at Jack. Jack activates his Guardian ÄRM, Mehitos, which summons the fly trap guardian to tear apart the Snake Bough, reducing them to splinters. After some thought about how to deal with Mehitos, he voluntarily right into Mehitos jaws which swallow Vidar whole.

Alan warns Jack that something is coming as Mehito's jaws begin to emit light. Suddenly Mehitos explodes as Vidar's tree-like Guardian ÄRM, Blinding Bird, emerges and destroys Mehitos. Vidar informs Jack that this guardian causes all the plants Jack could attack with to wither and die. Vidar mentions this is the guardian that killed Jack's father, as he could do nothing to counter it.

Jack, not giving up hope, tells Vidar that it isn't over yet and he still has the second ÄRM given to him by country of Caldea. Jack exclaims to Vidar that he knows the weakness of Vidar's guardian because the guardian's body is made up of a tree. Jack activates the Guardian ÄRM, Kikazoku Fire. From the ÄRM emerges a tiny djinn boy with flaming hair. Floating up to Blinding Bird, he giggles as he gently sets his hand on the tip of wooden bird's face, setting it aflame and reducing it to ash. Jack instructs Forêt to burn Yggdrasil. However, both Jack and Forêt are confused when the the fire fizzles out is left unscathed.

Jack defeats Vidar.

Vidar says to give up as it wouldn't do any good to continue as more Snaky Boughs surround Jack, one of which attempts to bite him. Forêt jumps in front to protect Jack, continuously igniting each of the wooden snakes and asking Jack for more magic power. Jack punches the branch at his feet in frustration, thinking of his parents, when he remembers some advice his dad once told him regarding observation. He realizes Yggdrasil's weakness is the mini tree that rests on top of Vidar's head, and jumps up to Vidar himself to grab ahold of it and calling Forêt to burn it.

With Forêt's final attack, Yggdrasil disappears and the dust settles. Ginta runs up on the arena to praise Jack for surpassing his dad, but Jack corrects him, saying even in the final moments of the battle he still relied on him. Jack then turns to Vidar and says that he'll cultivate a plant one day that will reach the sky without having to feed on the suffering of people. Vidar chuckles, gracefully acknowledging his defeat. Pozun declares Jack the winner.  

ÄRMs

Vidar is a plant Guardian ÄRM user:

• Seed Cannon: A Nature ÄRM summoning cannons to fire fruits and vegetables as bullets.
• Bomb Grass: A Nature ÄRM which summons a strange kind of exploding plants.
• Floating Leaf: An unnamed Nature ÄRM, a large leaf that is used by the user to float in the air.
• Deadly Field: A Darkness ÄRM, used to wither all the plants around the users, with the exception of the tree on top of Vidar's head.
• Yggdrasil: A Guardian ÄRM which calls out an enormous, invincible tree. Vidar can control various parts of the tree for an attack. In the anime, it feeds on the suffering of others to grow very large.
  • Dance of the Leaves: An attack of Yggdrasil, many leaves launch themselves towards the enemy and cuts them.
  • Snaky Bow: An attack of Yggdrasil, grows large 'snakes' out of the tree's branches used to attack the enemy.
• Bird of Rotten Wood: Guardian ÄRM, a bird born with wooden structure of such blighted plant that will wither any greens to its own bleak figure.

Trivia

• In the manga, Jake is said to have died from his injuries after his battle in the War Game instead of during it. As such, Vidar himself did not seem to know that Jake had died after the battle, and had a complicated look on his face when he found out about his death.