Joule

Joule is a major supporting protagonist in the first Azure Striker Gunvolt and Azure Striker Gunvolt 2, and the central character of the side stories Admiration to Peace and Joule's Story. She also appears in Mighty Gunvolt Burst as both a supporting protagonist and DLC playable character.
She is an artificial Adept created by the Sumeragi Group with the transplanted Septima known as The Muse, an electronic singing ability which can detect and empower the Septimas of other Adepts, as well as influence their minds. Having spent all of her life in Sumeragi's clutches, she is eventually freed by The Azure Striker, Gunvolt, and for several months is able to assume a civilian life while living with him. Her Septima manifests as Lumen.
Following the loss of her physical body, Joule's soul takes on Lumen's form and became attached to Gunvolt, her residual thoughts being with him at all times while she is invisible to almost all others. This condition proves very detrimental to both their mental states, but after meeting Quinn they begin recovering. During Gunvolt 2, Zonda seals and fractures most of Joule's power, reducing her form to a more child-like one.
At the end of the battles with Eden, Joule's soul is fused with the original owner of The Muse, Mytyl Kamizono, with the shock of the fusion causing a loss of both of their memories. GV leaves the fused girl in the care of the Kamizono family, allowing her to live a free life under Mytyl's identity. 
==Website Description==
===Azure Striker Gunvolt===
===Azure Striker Gunvolt 2===
===Card-en-Ciel===
== Appearance ==
In Azure Striker Gunvolt, she is a young teenage girl with red eyes and light purple hair, with a large ahoge on the top of her head and two long, slightly darker strands of hair. She wears a short pale blue dress with cream highlights and three zippers on the front, with matching shoes. She has two metal bracelets around her wrists.
In Azure Striker Gunvolt 2, Joule's appearance changes to become virtually identical to her former alter ego Lumen. After her loss of power, her appearance changes to be much more child-like.
===Gallery===
Main article: Joule/Gallery
Joule ASG2 Concept.png|GV2 design
==Personality==
In contrast to the confident, mischievous Lumen, Joule is a rather shy, withdrawn girl. Held prisoner since her creation, she fell into a depression, both because of her lack of freedom, and the pain and suffering caused by her Septima.
When she meets Gunvolt, who breaks her out and takes her into his home, she becomes much more cheerful and active, much like one would expect of her age. She also has developed strong feelings for Gunvolt, though she fiercely denies this.
She also displayed some lack of knowledge regarding the world or society given how she had spent most of her life as a test subject: despite this, some Sumeragi scientists who sympathized with her, used to provide her with things to expand her knowledge such as a poem collection.
In Azure Striker Gunvolt 2, Joule has been emboldened by her perpetual connection to GV, even acting a little like Lumen on occasion. Not even being shattered by Zonda is quite enough to bring her down. She gets jealous when GV and Quinn have anything resembling a moment together, and gets nervous if it seems like they are becoming closer.
She also sulks a bit about no longer having a physical body, meaning she can't perform activities like hugging GV or cooking for him. She appears to dislike Quinn at first, seeing her as a rival for GV's attention, but gradually warms up to her.
==History==
===Background===
Joule was created in Sumeragi's laboratories as a "designer child", a clone intended as a match for Septimosome implantation.Dengeki Nintendo Magazine/Armed Blue Gunvolt Official Complete Works, "Designer Child" section Before her birth,Dengeki Nintendo Magazine/Armed Blue Gunvolt Official Complete Works, Joule's GV1 profile she was implanted with the Septimosome of The Muse extracted from the still-living Mytyl Kamizono, making her a sort of living Glaive for Mytyl.
Joule survived the implantation of The Muse and went on to be born and raised in Sumeragi's custody. At some point Sumeragi began broadcasting her Septima against her will, presenting its manifestation Lumen as a virtual idol to the public, in order to locate Adepts.
At least one year prior to the first Azure Striker Gunvolt, Sumeragi began planning Project Muse, a venture to broadcast Joule's Septima to control the minds of all the world's Adepts.
===Azure Striker Gunvolt===
====Anthem (1st Sumeragi)====
Following a hacking incident in Sumeragi's MMORPG September Record, the conglomerate's overreaction causes the anti-Sumeragi resistance group QUILL to begin investigating, and they discover Lumen's use as Adept detecting sonar. Still believing Lumen to just to be some sort of technology, QUILL sends in Gunvolt to destroy her, but to his surprise he finds that Lumen is the Septimal avatar of a girl, Joule. As Gunvolt prepares to free her, Asimov is wary of her being a potential trap and danger if brought to QUILL and asserts that the mission goal of eliminating The Muse hasn't changed, which Joule herself is fine with, as she'd rather die than continue having her power abused by Sumeragi to hurt Adepts. Gunvolt, a former test subject himself, heavily sympathizes with Joule and chooses to quit QUILL rather than follow the order, resolving to save and look after her like Asimov originally did for him. As they escape, Joule can only see Gunvolt as an angel because of the sparks of his Septima looking like azure feathers.
Despite the initial order, QUILL covers for their escape and ends up assisting in setting up a fake civilian identity for Joule, allowing her to live a normal life with Gunvolt and even attend school for a period of several months. During this time Joule becomes acquainted with Asimov, Moniqa, and Zeno, with Zeno even visiting their apartment and introducing her to certain video games.
====Joule's Story====
Taking place in the six month time gap. One of Joule's school friends Hatano invites her to play September Record with her to get exclusive bonus items. Gunvolt at first was against it due to the game being made by Sumeragi until Lumen convinced him to ask Zeno who told him the game is safe. Given the go ahead, Joule makes her avatar. From the list of available races Gunvolt suggested the Sect a race of insects which are designed for beginners. This offends both Joule and Lumen due to their grotesque looks and they choose the elf because Lumen is a cybernetic elf.
After completing her avatar and the game's tutorial, Joule runs into a scary looking human who turns out to be Zeno. Using the communications system provided by QUILL for safety, Joule teams up with Zeno to get some practice and level up in a limited dungeon designed for beginners while waiting for Hatano. In the dungeon, the two encounter a monster with a giant hammer designed to stop players from staying too long which took out Zeno and giving Joule a hard time. Gunvolt seeing her struggling suggested she change to the Sect instead but corrects himself. Hearing this, Joule unintentionally activates her Septima and hacks the game to gain an advantage which shocks both Gunvolt and Zeno. As Joule is about to finish the monster Gunvolt calls her out for cheating which snaps her back to reality and loses.
Afterward, she meets Hatano online and tells her that she has been banned from playing anymore net games. Later players that show what happened started spreading rumors about her become known as the “legendary lucky elf” within the game community.
====Admiration to Peace====
====Hostage (Urban Run)====
Following the deaths of several Sumeragi Adepts, Sumeragi finally locates Joule and Nova Tsukuyomi, the leader of Project Muse, immediately sends "him" to retrieve her. When Joule welcomes Gunvolt home from a mission, Merak, one of those Gunvolt defeated, appears out of nowhere and kidnaps Joule.
Gunvolt gives chase, but loses them as Merak uses his Wormhole Septima to flee with Joule back to Sumeragi. After defeating a Mantis Legion sent after him, Gunvolt is contacted by Nova, who taunts him by revealing what he intends to use Joule for.
====Idolatry (Firmament)====
Furious, Gunvolt heads to the satellite base Firmament and finally encounters Nova, who has Joule hooked up to a machine that grants him full control over her Septima. Using his newfound power as well as his Septima, he attacks Gunvolt, at one point even absorbing Joule into his Glaive-release transformation.
Eventually, Nova is beaten, and Joule is set free. As she and Gunvolt leave, they find Asimov, the leader of QUILL, waiting for them. He proposes that the two of them join him in his quest to destroy all non-Adepts, now that the Sumeragi Group is in shambles.
However, when the two refuse, Asimov simply pulls out a gun he stole from Copen, and shoots the both of them, and takes his leave while lamenting how easy it would have been if GV and her had cooperated.
What happens at this point is divergent. In the Bad Ending where Gunvolt is not wearing Joule's pendant when this occurs, the two of them die, and at a later time Asimov has the Muse Septimosome extracted from Joule's corpse and returned to Mytyl as part of the creation of the Butterfly Effect.
====Azure (Firmament)====
In the True Ending, the shot does not immediately kill Gunvolt. Joule awakes soon after in the body of Lumen. She realizes that her consciousness was transferred to Lumen, her Septima, when she died. Seeing Gunvolt, she is surprised to see him wearing the pendant she gave him, which happened to stop the bullet, saving his life.
Thinking quickly, Joule enters Gunvolt's body, reviving him and pushing his power beyond his limits. They then set off to stop Asimov.
After a quick fight with the resurrected Adept Carrera, Joule and Gunvolt find Asimov on the orbital elevator, Babel. Mildly impressed that Gunvolt is still alive, Asimov engages Gunvolt in combat.
After a lengthy battle, Asimov is killed just as the elevator hits the ground, revealing Gunvolt's QUILL allies, whose questions he ignores as he walks past. Joule reminds him that it's just the two of them now as they both disappear into the distance.
=== After GV1 to GV and Quinn's Story===
The events that occurred and mental fusion took a heavy toll on both Gunvolt and Joule. The constant presence of Joule's residual thoughts wore away at Gunvolt's heart every day, to the point where it could be called a curse.Dengeki Nintendo Magazine/Armed Blue Gunvolt Official Complete Works, Gunvolt's GV2 profile Having lost her ties to the living world and flesh, Joule became very selfish and stopped paying attention to anything but GV.Dengeki Nintendo Magazine/Armed Blue Gunvolt Official Complete Works, Joule's GV2 profile
By a certain point GV begins to fear that the real Joule died on Firmament and the presence with him is nothing but an identical Septima construct. While lamenting how he's on the run, Joule anxiously tries to assure him that he still has her, but he yells that she's just a ghost.
===Azure Striker Gunvolt 2===
Following the encounter with Quinn and Gunvolt being harbored by her, Quinn's kindness helps Joule recover her human nature.
==== Infiltrator (Seraph) ====
Gunvolt infiltrates the Sumeragi airship known as the Seraph with Joule following suit. Midway, Joule activates her Anthem to let GV rush to the control room, keeping her song going even through a strange Septima's effects and a fight with a Sumeragi Plasma Legion.
However, even the enhancements by her Anthem can't help GV bypass the code's protections.
==== Aggressor (Downtown) ====
When GV comes face to face with a robot holding a girl inside the Seraph, an interference begins to fray Joule's link with GV and cuts off the Anthem.
Even after GV saves the girl, Joule feels uneasy just looking at her, not to mention slightly jealous at how much attention GV is paying to this girl. When reminded of the Seraph's malfunctions, Joule reactivates Anthem to help GV stop the ship from crashing.
Joule's link with GV is still weakened, however, preventing her from lending him enough power to stop the Seraph. Only by Copen and Lola's intervention are they able to move the airship safely away. Afterwards, Joule ends the Anthem and GV uses his Flashfield to safely carry the girl from the airship to the ground below, where he encounters Copen. Copen identifies the girl as "Mytyl" and threatens GV away from her. Tenjian and Zonda then suddenly appear, with the former freezing GV and Copen in place, prompting Joule to materialize and remind them that GV is under her protection.
But then, Zonda imprisons Joule in one of "his" mirrors, which Tenjian shatters, trapping Joule's power in the mirror's nine shards. GV and Tenjian then fight, Lola manages to snag one of the shards, she and Copen escape with it and Mytyl, and Tenjian escapes with the other eight shards. Joule then manifests before GV, revealing that her consciousness has remained with him, though her reduced powers have forced her into a childlike form.
==== Gunvolt's Route ====
The shards that Eden stole from Joule each contain a portion of her power. To get Joule back to tip-top shape, GV has to defeat The Seven and take their shards back, as well as reclaim the one shard in Copen's possession.
While this goes on, she and GV continue to live in Quinn's home and interact, though she gets jealous of the time Quinn and GV spend together.
===== Savior (The Garden 3) =====
When GV and Joule finally make it to Zonda, Zonda reveals that the true purpose of the shards and their usage was to prepare The Muse Septima to be fused with her own, allowing her to use the power to incite a worldwide Adept revolution. Zonda exploits Mytyl's destabilizing presence and the shards' "normalized" state to rip all of the shards from GV, along with Joule's consciousness this time.
However, Joule's last words, telling GV that her song is always within him, give him the strength to overcome Zonda's new power. But even with Zonda's defeat, Joule still doesn't come back.
===== Prayer (The Garden 4) =====
With Zonda gone, GV sees to Mytyl, only to find her dead. It is at this time that Copen rushes in, witnesses the scene, and attacks.
As GV and Copen clash for the final time and GV is on the verge of winning, Mytyl's body rises into the air. Joule materializes beside her, along with Lola, who's been hijacked by an unknown force. They all begin to use Anthem and sing Indigo Destiny, reviving Copen and causing a second round of the fight.
===== Ending and Epilogue =====
After GV defeats Copen for the final time and begins approaching him, at its conclusion Mytyl awakens and stands in the way. Gunvolt immediately recognizes that she now has hair similar to Joule's and that their faces were identical, but just as suddenly, she asks who the two are, and who she herself is; the shock of the fusion resulted in memory loss. Gunvolt chooses to leave her with Copen and leaves the scene.
Several weeks later when GV is out in the city with Quinn, the duo have a chance encounter with Mytyl and Nori. From out of the blue, Mytyl says to GV "are...are you an angel?" and asks if she knows him and Quinn, but GV denies it, and he and Quinn leave.
== Other Appearances ==
===Luminous Avenger iX===
An alternate universe version of Joule is briefly mentioned in Luminous Avenger iX, having been killed alongside Gunvolt by Asimov. Not letting go of his plan, Asimov would have Septimal Inducers extracted from her corpse and returned to Mytyl Kamizono to create a new "Queen" piece: the Butterfly Effect.
===Mighty Gunvolt Burst===
Joule appears as a DLC playable character in Mighty Gunvolt Burst, where she can use her songs to access different abilities.
She appears as a collectible sticker for clearing the "Not Even a Scratch" challenge, achieved by completing a stage without taking any damage.
=== Blaster Master Zero ===
Joule makes a cameo appearance in Blaster Master Zero as part of Gunvolt's DLC. To reach her, players must require Wall Climb in Area 6 and heading to Area 1. At the start of Area 1 before entering the route to Area 2, the player must use Wall Climb on the tree trunk and climb until there are some floating platforms and follow them until they could find Joule on a large floating platform. Upon reaching her, Gunvolt will learn Voltaic Chains from her. She then disappears afterwards. Joule won't appear in other playable characters' gameplay.
=== Card-en-Ciel ===
Joule's GV1 and GV2 versions appear in the crossover roguelite card-battling RPG Card-en-Ciel as cards representing the first Azure Striker Gunvolt game world and Azure Striker Gunvolt 2. As Muse cards, they appear and sing certain songs which grant abilities when certain conditions are met.
Card 	Character 	Effect
Cyanotype 	Joule (GV1)	Cond: Apply 2 Break Points.Effect: Draw 1 card whenever Break Points are applied.
Indigo Destiny	Joule (GV2)	Cond.: Activate Break Points 2 times.Effect: Gain 3 [Damage+] whenever Break Points are activated.
Joule's cards have synergy with Gunvolt's GV1 and GV2 cards, which also focus on Break Points as a stand-in for the tag and zap mechanic.
Curiously enough, both her and Lola's GV2 version Muse sprites lack a glint in their eyes, which is contrary to their official appearances in the series and their Muse sprites for other versions of them.
=== Blade Strangers ===
In the crossover fighting game Blade Strangers, in which Gunvolt is playable, Joule's spirit appears alongside him in the story mode segments. She makes some comments about Gunvolt's opponents. Oddly, even though Gunvolt wears the New Model Protect Armor that he canonically received after GV2's intro stage, Joule appears identical to Lumen, which was only the case in canon before Zonda stole most of her power in GV2's intro stage.
== Abilities ==
Joule possesses a form of psychic ability in her Septimal power, allowing her to cause a resonance within the powers of other Adepts. Her lack of control over it led to the power manifesting with its own form and will, named Lumen. Sumeragi used Lumen as a virtual idol to locate adepts for capture, as well as keeping Sumeragi Adepts in line by essentially drugging them with power-high inducing music. Joule’s Septima uses Lumen’s songs as a medium to interfere with other Adepts’ consciousness. It’s a consciousness induction ability.
It’s one of the derived lines of the “electron-controlling Septima” that was discovered during the process of the Thunder Adepts mass production scheme, “Project Gunvolt”. This Septima is said to have a very close relation with an Adept’s consciousness state, and if it’s someone whose got Joule-Lumen’s wavelength, it can increase their Septima by encouraging their consciousness. When GV gets into a dangerous state during his battles, Lumen’s song “Anthem” activates his abilities and bodily functions. That’s because his Septima “Azure Striker” and "The Muse” have a very close nature, and is cited as the biggest reason of why that phenomenon takes place.
When Adepts listen to Lumen’s songs, Sumeragi can detect a special interference wave, so they use this power as a sonar to track other Adepts’ locations. It’s established that a lot of adepts were discovered through this ability, and were forcefully imprisoned by Sumeragi’s deployment unit. A Septima with a personality of its own is an incredibly rare case, and no other similar cases have been confirmed across history. Sumeragi scientists had expectations that it could become the key to a lot of still unknown portions of the Septima.
She also displays cyberpathy, once using it to hack a MMORPG to maximize her player character to the highest level and pretty much cheat the RNG in her short story. She apparently has minor craftsmanship skills, as she can make Gunvolt a pendant if he collects seven gems and gives them to her (which unlocks the True Ending of the game).
After her fusion with GV, she is apparently capable of further boosting his abilities. After an incident in the second game, she becomes severely weakened to the point of taking a child-like form, but is still able to support GV using her Anthem.
== Designer Comments ==
Source: Armed Blue: Gunvolt Complete Works
Azure Striker Gunvolt 1:
Azure Striker Gunvolt 2:
==Musical Themes==
(C) = Composer
(A) = Arranger
(L) = Lyricist
Title 	Context 	Musicians 	Audio
Joule's Wish(少女の祈り, The Girl's Prayers) 	Joule's theme, and the GV1 home convos and bad ending music. 	Ryo Kawakami (C) 	
One With the Electronic Waves(電子の波となって, Becoming a Cyberwave) 	Beginning of GV1 true end. 	Ippo Yamada (C) 	
Cyanotype 	Song composed and sung by Joule (Megu Sakuragawa) for GV. True ending credits theme of GV1. 	Ryo Kawakami (C)Yamajet (A)Hakofactory (L)	
The Warriors(戦士たちの寄辺, The Warriors' Home) 	GV2 Gunvolt mission select. Remix of "Formulate the Battle Plan" (Japanese name: "Warrior's Everyday") from GV1. Has three sub-melodies to reflect GV having three allies.	Ippo Yamada (C) 	
At the End of the Battle(戦いの果てに) 	GV2 Gunvolt normal ending credits. 	Ryo Kawakami (C) 	
Innocent Prayers(無垢なる祈り) 	Mytyl/Joule is revived (Gunvolt's perspective). 	Ryo Kawakami (C) 	
The Fulfilling Hope(満ちゆく希望) 	Gunvolt's epilogue in GV2. 	Ryo Kawakami (C) 	
The Blue Bird by the Window(窓辺の青鳥) 	Mytyl's epilogue (has Joule's leitmotif in the background) 	Ryo Kawakami (C) 	
Joule's Wish(少女の祈り, The Girl's Prayers) 	8-bit remix included as a bonus track in the Mighty Gunvolt Original Soundtrack. 	Ryo Kawakami (C) 	
Joule's Wish(少女の祈り, The Girl's Prayers) 	8-bit remix featured in Mighty Gunvolt Burst. 	Ryo Kawakami (C)hally (A) 	
Gunvolt 1 track notes by sound designer Ryo Kawakami:Armed Blue Official Soundtrack
*Joule's Wish
It’s Joule’s theme track. Someone with whom to share a humble peace; even if they don’t talk to each other their hearts are interlinked. That’s what I imagined as I made it. The soft and hugged sequence phrases and the portion in the second half where the melody chases as if it was a recitation were imagined with Lumen looking after Joule.
*One With the Electronic Waves
Joule and Lumen have become one. According to Ippo-san “her consciousness has separated from her body and is subdividing into atoms and particles, swallowed into a bigger existence and melting” was the image for the track. The world between life and death might also be the world between reality and dream. That’s what I think whenever I read those lines after I beat the game.
==Early Draft==
In 2013 an early draft of Joule's character concept was submitted to Nintendo,Gunvolt Official tweet with a number of factors that were changed in the final version. Below is a translation of the submission contents.
*Big text: A heroine with the charm of both adult and youth
*White text above Feather (QUILL) logo: Heroine
*Slogan (right side, inside of orange frame): “I ONLY BELIEVE YOU AND SING FOR YOU”
*Design subject to changes
*Description: Cybernetic Singing Fairy (Cyber Diva). Morpho, Cyber Version: 18 / Female. Cyan, Human: 13 / Female. A man-made Virtual Idol who has enormous popularity in the real world, called an entertainer idol. She guides people as a propaganda (tool) of the Sumeragi Concern. Her songs have the special ability to resonate with 7th Wave, and it contributed a lot for Sumeragi, who used her as part of its strategy to find matches (core donations) who resonate with her songs from within civilians. Gunvolt is able to open up her heart to activate a resonating effect that overcomes the limitations of his own abilities. At first, Gunvolt thought she was but computer data and took part in a mission to destroy her. When he reached the system that he had to destroy, he learned that the human girl linked to it was the core of it, he was unable to kill her and took her away from that place.
==Trivia==
* Joule dislikes spicy food, and loves sweets like sweet bean jelly.
* The "joule" is the unit of energy in the International System of Units (SI).
* Joule's characteristics are likely based on Ciel and the Mother Elf in the Mega Man Zero series, also developed by Inti Creates.
** Both Ciel and Joule are their games' heroines respectively.
** They developed romantic feelings for Zero and Gunvolt respectively.
** They also have extraordinary abilities through artificial means.
** Their voice actors are also singers.
** Both Mother Elf and Joule have fairy motifs.
** They are also the targets of their games' antagonists due to their extraordinary powers, which can be used to enhance or control Reploids/Adepts. The antagonists succeed in harnessing their powers to at least some extent, but they are freed by Zero and Gunvolt respectively.
*Once Joule merges with Gunvolt, it becomes unclear what the criteria is for being able to see and hear her, with only a select few being about to do so. This includes Gunvolt, Asimov, Carrera, Quinn, Zonda and Tenjian.
**Gunvolt and Asimov both possess the Azure Striker Septima, which belongs in the same Septima family as The Muse.Dengeki Nintendo Character Profiles: The Muse Additionally, Gunvolt is the host of Joule's Septima after the death of her physical body.
**Quinn had apparently possessed the power to see ghosts.GV3 "GV's Spiritual Friend" conversation
**One potential explanation for the remaining three is that it is noted that Glaives possess more spiritual and magical power than Grimoires.Dengeki Nintendo Character Profiles: Grimoires Thus, it's plausible that Glaive wielders, such as Carrera, Zonda, and Tenjian (during the intro stage) were able to sense Joule's presence.
*Some speculate that because in Luminous Avenger iX her body was preserved and her septima factors could be extracted and returned to Mytyl, her body didn't truly vanish in GV1. Instead, because she is a "Living Glaive", it may have merely teleported away like those of the Sumeragi Adepts upon their first defeats.
==References==
== Navigation ==
===Azure Striker Gunvolt 1 Navigation===
===Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 Navigation===
===Mighty Gunvolt Burst Navigation===
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