Earl Bendek

"It's in my honor. I must protect my home, family, and those whom I love." ―Earl Bendek, Part 3/3, Lap 69
Earl Bendek is a main character in F-Zero: Seppuku who primarily serves as a mechanic to Chiya Flower and Lieutenant Seppuku.
Born in Korea just prior to its civil war against the Manchu, Earl signed on with the Korean Army at a young age but was almost immediately transferred to war college to study advanced mechanics and tank warfare. Excelling at his studies and producing outstanding results in wargames, Earl would controversially become one of the youngest in Korean history to lead his own armored battalion of which he and his men decided to name 'Angels of Korea.' Earl and the Angels of Korea gained great recognition within Korea for its outstanding discipline and resourcefulness on the battlefield, making him and his unit a very popular and demanded presence at military parades.
Come the very bloody secession of the Manchurian region from Korea, Earl's service to the country was proven constantly with the many victories he would steal from the Manchu rebels. The height of Earl's fame would come when his unit became trapped in the mountains of northern Korea and presumed as doomed, only to perform the impossible and secure a decisive armored victory in the mountains. Fate would later have Earl lead the Angels of Korea into Manchuria itself and sneak around a city where intelligence led his unit to the conclusion that a Manchu rebel leader was present. Despite being ordered by his commanding officer to leave the city be, a very young and foolhardy Bendek ordered his men to fire high-explosive shells at the city's government tower, collapsing it over the city and leaving countless people dead. While this insubordination did kill the Manchu leader and effectively play a role in ending the civil war, Earl was discharged as a war criminal in Korea. Rather than face his war crimes, Earl snuck aboard a ship en route to Mute City, Japan, leaving behind his friends, family, and home, and promising never to return.
During his days in Mute City, Earl performed various odd jobs of a mechanical nature to help afford his stay in the metropolis, but also picked up on binge drinking, gambling, and picking up women as a means of coping with the sins of the war now behind him. At some point while lurking around the rich Upper City, Earl made an acquaintance out of entrepreneur and coffeeman, Bart Lemming, who would help him get a more stable job by recommending him as the secret mechanic of Captain Falcon, though due to Falcon's impressive racing expertise, he was seldom in need of any major repairs, and so it was a job with inconsistent pay to Earl.
Finally, after watching an F-Zero race in-person, Earl would be a witness to the newer F-Zero racer, Lieutenant Seppuku, being ganged up on by violent Blood Falcon fans. Earl intervened on Seppuku's side, blindly offering to fight off the rabid fans, at first offending Seppuku, but then interesting him. The result of this bizarre interaction would have Seppuku seeking to steal Earl away from Captain Falcon as his personal F-Zero mechanic, but more than anything, wishing to form a two-person vigilante group in the Lower City—Earl accepted, essentially forging what would become Team Seppuku.
==Appearance==
Earl is a somewhat short man with unmaintained hair and on some occasion whiskers around the jaw.
On a day-to-day basis, Earl will wear pale blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a brown leather jacket; often he will leave the jacket off, especially following the events of Part 1/3. The belt he wears, while nothing special, is often fitted with tools relevant to whatever project he is working on.
The only formal wear Earl will on the rarest occasion put on is his Korean tank commander uniform. Due to his deep regret and trauma linking back to his war crime, he tends to only put the uniform back on for storytelling.
==Personality==
Earl is a friendly person but can be quick to agitate given the wrong words or action. He lives life by a code of honor seeking to protect his family, home, and those whom he loves; this code of honor informs him on how to lead his life for better and worse.
A flaw in Earl's personality is his impulsive tendency to take matters into his own hand without the request or input of others, even if potentially dangerous. Much of this behavior comes back to his background as the commander of a tank battalion, where he had the ideal situation of calling the shots; conversely, he takes such decisions out of a belief that he must pay for the sins of his past.
A significant part of Earl's personality revolves around maintaining proficiency in the futuristic Korean martial art known as Seoli Idong. Earl attempts to teach Lieutenant Seppuku the ways of Seoli Idong, but is passionately rejected due to its nature as a defensive form; Chiya, however, entertains Earl's desire to spread the art and even utilizes it.
Following Earl's escape to Mute City, he picks up a curious obsession with taking women on dates with primary objective of stroking his ego and feeling validated as being desirable; he seeks neither a long-term commitment nor even sex from these dates. Only when finally forced to see the same woman over and over again and get to know her on a deep level does Earl seriously consider his place in the world of romantic commitment. 
Outside of the F-Zero: Seppuku canon, Earl is portrayed as the loyal boyfriend of Chiya and a good friend of Kim Young, Earl's spiritual successor from EngelReise. To a much lesser degree, Earl has a similar relationship to Shrouded Piety's Seth Myland.
==Key Relationships==
===Allies===
====Lieutenant Seppuku====
"Actually, no one likes you Seppuku-you're honestly the biggest piece of crap I've ever met." ―Earl Bendek, Part 2/3, Lap 35
Earl and Seppuku carry a very toxic friendship and business relationship with each other largely held together by F-Zero and drinking beer. The two met prior to the events of Part 1/3 when Seppuku was ambushed by violent Blood Falcon fans after a race, in which Earl intervened on the former's side. While Earl, on paper, did not interest Seppuku much, the Man of Darkness recognized Earl's proficiency in repairing vehicles as well as his rare ability to handle supercharged vehicle parts. Furthermore, upon learning of Earl's desperate situation, Seppuku surmised that he could essentially be 'captured' by a decent enough job opportunity, and so he made him the mechanic of the Red Dove and member of his Lower City vigilante group.
Not long into their meeting, Seppuku recognized that Earl's trauma made him an alcoholic, giving the two an unhealthy trait in common that they could build a relationship on. Seppuku and Earl became common visitors to Mute City's many bars, and common drunks at that. This era stood as the peak of their positive relations, as the two-man vigilante group essentially became a little men's drinking club. More innocently, Seppuku would name Earl as his primary teammate in bowling, a longtime passion of his, and thus strike back at his old team (comprising of Jody Summer, Dr. Stewart, and Dr. Clash) in the lanes. These positive relations between Earl and Seppuku were severely damaged in early Part 1/3 when Chiya Flower joined the team, which enabled Earl to change some of his behaviors in a way Seppuku condemned. The most severe offense during this era came with Chiya's ambition to build her own F-Zero machine, which Earl had a tendency to focus on more than his actual job of repairing the Red Dove. Further straining came from Earl's common defense of Chiya whenever Seppuku would assault her verbally, leading to the perception that Earl was attacking Seppuku's role as team leader. Lastly, the presence of Chiya on the team led to Earl cutting down on drinking—leading to Seppuku spending much of his time alone again.
Earl and Seppuku, while still friends as of Part 1/3, are known to also bicker regularly and even get into physical altercations. The height of their problems rest in Seppuku's knowledge of Earl's war crimes, which he holds over his head as leverage, threatening to expose Earl to people like Chiya if he steps out of line.
====Chiya Flower====
"But if ever I fail to protect you... if you die, I will turn myself in and face judgment. That is my promise." ―Earl Bendek, Part 1/3, Pre-Finale
Chiya and Earl boast one of the strongest and most iconic relationships in the entire Siontix Realm. In Part 1/3, Chiya and Earl cross paths with their own unique problems, and both contribute to each other in their own unique ways. A uniting problem the two face is day-to-day toxicity from their employer, Lieutenant Seppuku, and most often leads to the two calming each other down when tensions are high. Come Part 2/3, the two begin to explore the possibility of romance. Even without romance, the two grew their bond so strongly that around Christmas in Part 2/3, the phrase "we die together" was coined and shared as a meaningful way of suggesting that an attack on one is an attack on both, and that if one falls, so would the other.
There are very few moments in F-Zero: Seppuku where Chiya and Earl hold any ill feelings toward each other, with the standout moments tending to be matters of politics or values they do not agree on. While F-Zero was what ignited their relationship, over time a plethora of other common interests would bond the two together further, such as Earl picking up an interest in Chiya's cat, Mauser, or Chiya picking up interest in the Korean martial art, Seoli Idong. Chiya's open-mindedness to new ideas helped elevate Earl's feelings toward her, as did her existing expertise in mechanic work; her rare proficiency in supercharging engines was especially fascinating to him, even though he could supercharge other parts as well, and better.
While Earl's feelings toward Chiya was not always extreme, her safety would become one of his utmost concerns in life, going on to believe that life was not worth living if he could not keep her safe.
==Concept Art + Inspiration==
====Concept Art====
While an exact date for Earl's concept art is forever lost, it can be presumed that it was created shortly after June of 2013.
The concept art for Earl featured a very different face, largely due to his Korean background not being developed until near the end of Part 1/3. Furthermore, the concept art for Earl depicts him in a medical lab coat due to an earlier intention for Earl to be the team doctor as well as a mechanic.
====Inspiration====
*Pip Bernadotte (Hellsing Ultimate) - While almost impossible to see, Earl was heavily inspired off of mercenary captain Pip Bernadotte, and for a long time there was even a non-canon presumption that Earl had an eyepatch. The biggest influence Pip had over Earl was the invention of the Angels of Korea, which was inspired by Pip's Wild Geese. Pip's influence over Earl would fade quickly come Part 2/3.
*Sean Devlin (The Saboteur) - Very likely inspired Earl's outfit and often inspired Earl's hotheaded moments in the story based off of Sean's tendency to fire up quickly when provoked. Furthermore, Sean being a mechanic that worked on race cars made him a fitting inspiration for Earl, who did the same.
*Siontix - Earl's appearance was largely inspired off the author's own style of clothing, except that instead of a black jacket, Earl has a brown one. Most notably, Earl's code of honor ('Protect family, home, and those of whom I love') was inspired off of a similar code of honor that the author lived by as a teenager.
==Trivia==
* Original Plan - Before Revival Day, Earl was planned to be an American fan of F-Zero who simply filled the role of being Chiya's boyfriend. In this old plot, Earl would not know about her association with Lieutenant Seppuku, which she would hide from him until the end of the story. Earl took on a much simpler role in the original plan, not being anyone exceptional aside from being the lover of an F-Zero pilot.
* Chiyrls United - In 2013, a group of fans adoring the idea of 'Chiya x Earl' came together and formed a small fan group known as 'Chiyrls United,' which was a precursor to the Siontix Realm. Its founder, Royaleness, would be invited to the Siontix Realm as its first and last Vice President following the merger.
* ROK/DPRK/Joseon - For many years, when drawing Earl in the context of Korea, it was unknown what the political status of Korea was as of F-Zero: Seppuku. Therefore, an overly complicated decision was made to have two illustrations made when it came to Korea: One showing the Republic of Korea, the alternative showing the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. There was always a preference for the latter, however, as the official chapter illustration usually ran with the more provocative design. This matter was eventually ended once and for all when it was instead made canon that Korea united and reverted back to the old flag of the Joseon kingdom.