Lina Inverse

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Lina as she appeared in the Slayers manga opposite Gourry Gabriev

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Lina Inverse

Lina Inverse is a fictional character, a sorceress from the anime series Slayers.

Lina has many aliases, both chosen by her and applied by others. Three of her most famous are "Bandit Killer", "Dragon Spooker", and "Enemy of All Who Live". Voices: Megumi Hayashibara (Japanese), Lisa Ortiz (English; TV), Cynthia Martinez (English; Movies/OVA)

Early life

Template:Spoiler Much of this information is found in the Slayers novels, from which the anime and manga are adapted or spun off.

Lina was born in a small village in Zefilia, the second daughter of merchants. Her parents owned what was in effect the town's general store, which helped build up Lina's love of food. Her elder sister, Luna, was the darling of both her parents and the town, excelling in martial studies and quickly beginning to make a name for herself.

At some point in her childhood, Lina concocted a plan which resulted in her deciding to seek a life abroad. Though it's unclear of her reasons (whether for profit or just childish mischief), Lina set up a magical device that projected an image over the entire town of her sister while she was in the bath. Luna's wrath was great, and Lina quickly fled from the town and has been terrified of even the mention of her sister ever since. (In Slayers Try, Lina built an entire pyramid complete with tunnels and a sarcophagus to hide from a letter sent by Luna.)

This was likely Lina's push to attend a prestigious magic academy... far away from home. Lina apparently did very well there, well enough to be assigned a color. In the world of Slayers, mages of great power or importance are awarded colors rather like titles, and most make a great deal of this, dressing in the color and introducing themselves with the full title. (Such as Rezo the Red Priest.) Lina, however, was completely embarrassed by the color she was awarded, and attempts to keep it a closely-guarded secret that her entire title is actually "Lina the Pink Sorceress".

Pre-Slayers TV Series

Chronologically in Lina's life, the events of most of the movies and manga take place in the period after Lina's early life and before the Slayers TV series began with her meeting Gourry Gabriev. (Generally, if any Slayers story, save for the very last movie, contains Naga the Serpent, it should be assumed to take place during this period.)

At some point after leaving the magic academy and beginning her travels, Lina became acquainted with Naga the Serpent, an eccentric sorceress with an ego that matched, or even exceeded, Lina's own. (Unbeknownst to Lina, Naga was also a disaffected princess from Seyruun, making her the first of two princesses from that royal family to annoy the spit out of her.) Naga eventually gained the nickname "Goldfish Poop", for the way that she followed Lina around, constantly insisting that Lina was her sidekick.

Despite their differences, the two actually worked rather well together... when not trying to kill each other. It's entirely possible that some very real affection existed between them, as Lina seems to treat her much like Gourry, like a nuisance, but a useful and not always entirely unwelcome nuisance. In their time together, they saved the world a number of times, and left an impression on a number of villages.

(Naga's presence, however, seems to have left less of an impression, despite being extremely tall, well-endowed, and scantily-clad. Many people are familiar with Lina, but no one ever inquires of her as to Naga's absence.)

It was at around this period in her life, either just before or during her association with Naga, that Lina earned her reputation as a Bandit Slayer, someone who tracks bandits and thieves and steals their ill-gotten gains for their own use. (Making her a somewhat questionable hero... on one side ridding the area of bandits, and on the other keeping stolen goods.)

Original Slayers TV Series

At some point between the manga and movies and the TV series (and the original novels) in Slayers chronology, Lina and Naga have apparently parted ways. Lina proceeds to meet a man of equally questionable intelligence but formidable martial skills, Gourry Gabriev, when he "saves" her from a gang of bandits Lina had injured the previous night.

Gourry soon reveals that he carries the Sword of Light (Hikari no Ken in Japanese), a powerful magical artifact that Lina greatly covets. She announces her intent to follow Gourry around until he gives it to her... the Sword of Light, that is... and proceeds to do so. Around this period, Lina proves just how truly formidable she is by killing a fragment of a Demon Lord, Shabranigdu, with a spell she herself came up with, called the Giga Slave.

Throughout her adventures involving Gourry, they are accompanied by a revolving band of adventurers including the chimera Zelgadis, Princess Amelia (Naga's sister, though this is not revealed until the very end of Slayers Try, and then only visually), the priestess Sylphiel, and the trickster-priest Xelloss, a mazoku.

Slayers Next

This story arc, after a long battle with a clone of Rezo in which Lina very nearly dies (and Gourry flips out in a most spectacular fashion), introduces Xelloss and his machinations (along with further insight on the mazoku). He appears first as a priest of a local temple offering information on the Clair Bible. Lina is interested both as a sorceress and a treasure hunter, while Zelgadis wants the Bible to see if there's a cure for his condition. All too soon, though, it becomes clear that Xelloss is simply using all of them as pawns, although they don't discover to what end because he always ends most discussions with his catchphrase, "That is a secret!" Eventually, the group get caught up in a power struggle between Maryuuou Gaav and Hellmaster Phibrizzo. Lina, temporarily deprived of her magic, eventually gains access to the Ragna Blade. She also discovers the true source of the Giga Slave as the Lord of Nightmares and vows to never use it again. Unfortunately for her, Phibrizzo is just as determined to have her cast it. In the final episodes of this arc, Lina does indeed use the Giga Slave at the cost of her own existence, but Gourry dives into the Sea of Chaos to rescue her, and they share a passionate kiss (which both seem to forget after they emerge).

Slayers Try

In this arc of Lina's story, she is recruited by the dragoness Filia ul Copt to save the world. (Filia originally wanted Luna Inverse for the task, but Luna was busy with her restaurant and fobbed the task off on Lina.) Reluctant to put herself in harm's way to save a world that is typically extremely ungrateful of her efforts, but nevertheless terrified of her sister, Lina sets off on the task.

During this time, Gourry lost the Hikari no Ken, meaning that theoretically, Lina now has no real reason to continue her association with him. However, she continues to do so in all facets of the Slayers universe, both novels and the following movie.

Differences Between Versions

Lina has varied only a little in her various incarnations, her general character not greatly changing between the novels, anime, and manga in which she appears.

In the novels, her hair is generally described as chestnut-colored, and her clothes are described as being more typical to a D&D magic user, including a cloak embroidered in silver with numerous mystical symbols, and fairly muted colors such as blue and white. (The original Slayers novels are based around a Dungeons & Dragons campaign.) In the Slayers anime, Lina's outfit was shifted to that of a more typical anime adventurer, with a fairly simple outfit of brighter colors such as red and yellow, with emphasis on the pauldrons at her shoulders, which were mentioned in text descriptions but downplayed in early illustrations of the character; her hair was also changed to a bright, vibrant, orange-tinged red color. A running gag in the anima is that Lina's embarrassed of her small bust.

The manga differs as to which outfit she wears, and she has been seen in both. The manga often holds to an even more slapstick style of comedy than the anime, more likely to feature chibi versions of Lina and the others. Lina, in keeping with this style, is often more over-the-top in her exclamations and actions than in the anime, and fires off explosive spells with even greater alacrity and even less serious effect. In the manga featuring herself and Naga, Lina is over-the-top but still fairly close to her anime self; the short run of manga featuring Gourry, however, often borderlined on the surreal, with brief and unexplained tangents into completely nonsensical humor that can nowadays be seen in American shows such as Spongebob Squarepants and Fairly Oddparents.

Other Linas

Several different versions of Lina populate the Slayers world itself, due to various plots.

In one story in the manga, Lina and Naga are exposed to a mirror that creates an exact opposite of whoever looks in it. The user expects this to produce an evil and violent version of the two that would be only too happy to work for him and destroy the originals. However, what comes out of the mirror are a Lina and Naga that are sweet, kind, generous, and extremely concerned about the feelings of each other and everyone around them. Lina and Naga state that the mirror's true power must be to dissuade people "with sheer disgust". In their attempts to break the spell (and the mirror), the two actually wind up creating dozens of similar copies of themselves, which go on to found an entire village full of philanthropic Lina and Naga dopplegangers. A slightly adapted version of this story, which resulted in the mirror being destroyed without creating more than the initial doppelgangers, was used for one of the Slayers OAVs, commonly titled "Explosion Array" (after one translation of a spell in Lina's arsenal).

Early in the first Slayers TV series, Gourry and Lina are both the subject of an attempt at cloning, which spawns a number of miniature, chibi versions of them both. The chibi clones fight to humorous effect, and after the mini Linas win, they all disintigrate.

Another, slightly more successful "evil" clone of Lina was also created.

Relationships

In strict interpretation of canon, Lina is never officially paired with anyone. While it is heavily implied to the point of outright statement that she and Gourry fall in love at some point, their relationship is never visibly consummated in any way, such as by kissing or dating, or making an outright declaration. (During the final movie, Gourry appears to tell Lina "I love you", but this is in fact the effect of a spell causing him to speak in the language of octopi. He is, in fact, saying "I cannot pay you back for this.")

Lina has also been the object of affection of various people, both men and women. Young, well-off men have proposed to Lina for numerous reasons, be it her looks, her reputation, or ulterior motives, and in many cases Lina has fully intended to follow through with the relationship in the name of pure greed. In at least one case (manga), her ardent pursuer was a young woman who was aiming to make Lina her next conquest, with Lina objecting strongly. (This could possibly be attributed more to the young noblewoman's tendency to drug her conquests before consummating her feelings for them, as Lina never specifically says she's disgusted because of the young lothario's gender.)

In fandom, Lina sees a much wider variety of pairings and relationships. One strong preference of fans is for Lina and Zelgadis as a couple, as they are both more serious magic users who desire great power. Lina and Xelloss are also a favorite in this vein, as it is believed by some that Xelloss' amoral nature and the sheer power he wields would be attractive to someone of Lina's temperament.

Lina is also frequently "shipped" with females of the series, with various levels of possible support in canon. Lina and Naga is probably the largest and favorite among these, as the two are without other adventurers for most of their travels together, and their antagonistic behavior while still working together is a standard by which many fans base such pairings.

Other Suppositions & Rumors

Various other tidbits about Lina make their rounds around the internet, and are hotly debated amongst fans.

Chief among them is the idea that Lina may have deific power contained within her. Some say that she may be a Knight or Avatar of a deity, much as her sister is a Knight of Ceipheed; which deity this is is unsure, and the primary guess is that it may be the Lord of Nightmares herself, which is why Lina can call upon her power to perform the Giga Slave. Other theories are that, like Rezo, Lina has inside her a part of the evil god Shabranigdo, explaining her red eyes, and her extreme handiness with the spell that calls upon his power, the Dragon Slave... her signature spell.

A rumor has long circulated that Lina may be over 500 years old, and merely keeps herself looking young through some magical art. This rumor is false, and is based on a misinterpreted phrase Lina says at one point. In the novels, Lina states outright that she is fifteen, and then several novels later points out that she is sixteen, as she had a birthday "just like everyone else".

Trivia

• Lina Inverse is a playable hero in the famous map of Warcraft III The Frozen Throne, DotA Allstars.

External links

• Slayers at the Anime Web Turnpike
• Inverse Lina Inverse character website