Ragna the Bloodedge

Ragna the Bloodedge is the main protagonist of the video game series BlazBlue. He is the older brother of Jin Kisaragi and Saya. He was a wanted criminal with an extraordinarily large bounty on his head (well in the trillions) for rebelling against the Novus Orbis Librarium.
He is voiced by in Japanese, and in English, both of whom also voice Drakon.
==Overview==
Ragna is a rebel outlaw with a bad attitude, a short temper, and an axe to grind with the Librarium, the international government. After destroying a branch of the Library and having a colossal bounty put on his head, he sets out for the city of Kagutsuchi in order to destroy the last "Cauldron" and prevent the resurrection of the Black Beast. As the story goes, he becomes more heroic and uses his power towards beating the genuine villains.
He's Jin Kisaragi's older brother. Their rivalry stems from when they were younger, when Jin used to bully their sickly sister Saya. One day, Ragna noticed that the church the three of them lived in was set on fire. When he entered, he was ambushed by Terumi, who took over Jin's mind, cut Ragna's arm off, and left him to die inside the burning building. A combination of the trauma and the Azure being implanted in him caused one of his eyes to turn red and his hair to turn white. He was then taken in and trained by his master Jubei, who gave him his signature coat and sword, as well as the title of "Bloodedge."
==Appearance==
Ragna is modeled after the traditional Japanese manga and anime hero. He is a young adult with white spiky hair and heterochromia: his left eye being green and his right being red, a side effect from assimilating the Azure Grimoire into his body. His clothing consists of a hybrid of modern, futuristic and old features. He wears a vibrant red sleeved jacket with two long thin tails hanging from the back. Under it is a black shirt with three red belts. He wears a pair of black gloves with a red shell on the backs of the hands. His right arm is prosthetic after having lost it when he was younger. The shell opens up to reveal the Azure Grimoire whenever he utilizes it. He wears a black hakama and steel-toed red boots.
When he was in his mid-teens, he had blond hair and green eyes before assimilated the Azure Grimoire into his body. After he is taken care of by Jubei, he wears a traditional Japanese style sleeveless red turtle neck top, long black gloves that reach to his elbows, baggy black pants, and red shoes.
==Powers and Abilities==
Ragna is one of the most powerful individuals in the world of BlazBlue. Having been trained by Jubei, the strongest creature alive himself, Ragna possesses incredible fighting skills and ehanced abilities, more than enough to take down a squad of the Librarium. Being the human form of the Black Beast, Ragna has incredible seithr powers. His elemental affinity is darkness. In battle he summons parts of the Black Beast to attack such as a pointed jaw or possibly its tail (for Carnage Scissors), claws (Back Spin Kick followup, Devoured by Darkness, and 6D), one of the many heads (Dead Spike and the Hell's Fang Additional Blow), its breath (the Ax Kick followup only in Continuum Shift) or a lump of seithr (5D and 2D), the hide for its skin (D version of Inferno Divider and j.D), and an angelic wing (Black Onslaught). Which all involve the use of drives and his ability to reap souls. He also has the ability to transform his entire body into a creature of pure darkness to devastate his foes. With this set, he earns the alias, 'Grim Reaper"
His weapon of choice is the Blood-Scythe, a weapon that supplements his ability to steal life force with each strike. The Blood-Scythe initially takes on the form of a giant sword with a giant slab of metal resembling a blade. The weapon can change into a scythe-like weapon to effectively steal more energy from the foe through his Drive, Soul Eater (which involves summoning parts of the Black Beast). 
His Drive ability, Soul Eater, drains his opponent's health, adding it to his own. He can also activate the Azure Grimoire in his right arm to strengthen this ability, at the expense of his own health. In Chronophantasma, his Overdrive is Blood Kain Idea, a former super move of his that grants him extra strength on his attacks and life-draining abilities. It used to drain his own life as well, but this is no longer the case in Chronophantasma. It also doubles the now-reduced damage of his Devoured by Darkness super.
His Exceed Accel (in BBCF), Seed of Tartarus, has him attack his foe with a chop of his sword. If it hits, he then turns his sword into a scythe and charges a powerful slash. His Astral Finish, Black Onslaught, has him using the fullest might of the Azure Grimoire and turn his blade into a scythe as he proceeds to repeatedly slash his opponent with it, using Soul Eater to empower it.
==Trivia==
*Ragna is called Shinigami (死神) in the Japanese dub, meaning God of Death. This was replaced in the English version with Grim Reaper, a more Western personification of death.
*Intriguingly, when Ragna ends his Astral Finish he unfolds a black/red angelic wing from his left side. When Jin ends his Astral Finish he unfolds blue/yellow angelic wing from his right side.
*Ragna currently has the most background musics in BlazBlue.
*During Ragna's flashbacks, his outfit resembles one of the concept designs for the early design stages of Ragna's character.
*A running gag in Continuum Shift is that Ragna is frequently mistaken for a pedophile/lolicon. In his story mode, he states (when he is accused of "lusting after (his) own brother") that he is "into young girls"/"actually a lolicon" but retracts the statement quickly when he realizes its double meaning. He is mistaken as such because he is frequently in the company of Rachel or Luna, both extremely important characters within the BlazBlue story. However, he makes it abundantly clear that he finds both irritating, although he will put up with Rachel's teasing if she has anything important to tell him.
*Ragna's unlimited form puts him in a constant Blood Kain state, allowing for increased health regeneration from drive attacks and special extensions, as well as use of Devoured by Darkness without having to prep it beforehand. He does not suffer health loss due to the Blood Kain state in this form. In the console version of Continuum Shift, he also gains the ability to follow up additional blows from any move other than their originals (i.e.: Dead Spike to Hell's Fang Additional Blow to the first hit of Carnage Scissors). He also can steal health with any attack that does not involve drives and his sword flashes red. This is the result of Ragna absorbing the Idea Engine, to the point his power vastly increases beyond limit. In Continuum Shift Extend, Ragna gains a new Distortion Drive in which he uses the first blow of Hell's Fang followed by grabbing the opponent (such as Devoured by Darkness) and exploding it.
*Ragna's fear of ghosts may derive from the fact that they are spiritual, and thus he cannot fight against them, especially seeing as how they rely on illusions and dark arts, which cannot be physically countered. Although in theory Ragna can absorb ghosts, them being simply souls by another name, it is possible that he avoids doing this because of some undesirable side-effect. Another explanation is that his fear stems from the fact that Hazama, his archenemy, is a ghost, and he is still suffering from the psychological trauma he inflicted upon him.
*The blade of Ragna's Blood-Scythe resembles an enlarged version of one of the 8 blades the Murakumo Units use during combat. In early concept art, the two are identical.
*Ragna is always comparing things to getting hit by trucks. He says it in his win quote against Tager, and in Noel's gag reel, he says it when Bang explodes of spicy puffer fish, and again in Rachel's gag ending when he wakes up after getting knocked unconscious by Rachel. Also, fans sometimes call Ragna's Hell's Fang Hell Trucker; this is Ragna's way of copying Jin's similarly fan-coined Ice Car.
*Ragna is the only character who has a vocal theme in English and does not use his main theme Rebellion.
*Ragna, similar to Jin and Noel, has "tails" on his clothing (namely his hakama). Unlike Jin and Noel, he never attacks with them.
*Ragna was bitten only once by Rachel, as she admitted it in her ending in Calamity Trigger. In all the other timelines, he was able to save himself by touching the Azure Grimoire, as it is described in Rachel's short story Endless Waltz.
*Ragna's name is a pun off of Ragnarök in Norse Mythology being the end of the world which can be a reference to him being the Destroyer of the World - the Black Beast - killing half of the world's population.
** In Continuum Shift, his name suggests another reference to Norse mythology, specifically to the legends of Ragnar Lodbrok, a hero who slays the serpent Jörmungandr. Interestingly, the serpent itself is the symbol of Ouroboros in Norse Mythology. The relationship between Ragna and Terumi, who possesses the Nox Nyctores Ouroboros somewhat reflects the relationship between Ragnar and Jörmungandr.
**Another fact attributed to this relationship is the name of Hazama's Over-Drive, Jormungandr.
*When Ragna fights Hazama, the intro scene is the collision of Ragna's First blow of Carnage Scissors with Hazama's Standing C, with later Ragna backdashing to avoid Hazama's 6C attack, however, if both Ragna and Hazama are in their unlimited forms, the intro will be Ragna and Hazama activating their Azure Grimoire. In the original arcade version of Calamity Trigger, the intro between Jin and Ragna plays in a similar effect. This could be a throwback to Guilty Gear: Accent Core's version of the Sol (Present or Order version) vs. Ky/Order-Sol vs. Slayer intros.
*Ragna's Crest seems to be a variation of the Black Beast's Crest, implying the fact that he is one of the two beings that need to be fused in the Cauldron in order to the Black Beast can surge.
*All of Ragna's D attacks involve either seithr or a part of the Black Beast.
*Ragna dislikes needles, as revealed by his dialogue in his Help Me, Professor Kokonoe! section.
*Interestingly enough, three of Ragna's Special Attacks which involves using his darkness element have names related to 'hell' (Hell's Fang, Gauntlet Hades and Inferno Divider). Both Hell and Inferno share the same meaning, while Hades refers to the ancient Greek god of the underworld. In Hell's Fang's case, the intended name might have been actually Hel (the name of the goddess of death in Norse mythology), but was changed to Hell in the English version due to the similarity in their kana. It happens the same with Belial Edge, in which Belial is one of the Four Crown Princes of Hell.
*Ragna, along with Jin, Hazama and recently added Rachel, is featured as a "Playable Character" in the MMO Action Game, Lost Saga.
*Ragna, along with Noel, is featured as a "Playable Character" in the MOBA game, Chaos Heroes Online.
*There is an artistic error found during the Calamity Trigger Reconstruction story in Continuum Shift Extend, when Ranga's right arm was cut off, he still has white hair instead of blond.
*Although the image in which Ragna transforms into the Black Beast is part of Ragna's Bad Ending in Continuum Shift, it is listed as part of the True Ending in the Gallery.
*Although Ragna has his own unlimited theme, Black Onslaught, this is not played in both Jin and Hazama's Arcade Mode in Continuum Shift, where the theme played is instead Under Heaven Destruction and Nightmare Fiction respectively.
** In Continuum Shift Extend, Black Onslaught is the theme that plays in both of their Arcade Modes.
*Unlimited Ragna's theme, Black Onslaught, is the only one with English lyrics for both original and L.A. versions.
* In the Chimelical Complex manga, when Ragna uses the Azure Grimoire, his arm changes to the black claw that he uses in Devoured by Darkness, instead of the black aura of seithr that normally surrounds his body. When he used it to defeat Jin, Ragna's body turns darker as it happens in Black Onslaught; black feathers can also be seen spreading around him.
*When Ragna is beaten by Platinum in the latter's story mode, his sprite is the bloody Ragna with his left arm torn off instead of the normal defeated sprite. This might be a case where the game loads the wrong sprite for the situation.
* He bears a resemblance to Dante from Devil May Cry. This is intentional, as he was a template used for Ragna's character design, which is shown in the Blazblue Material Collection where Ragna is seen wielding Dante's signature sword, Rebellion.
*While Jubei refers to him only as Bloodedge when he's telling Ragna the story in Continuum Shift, Phase 0 reveals that the time-displaced Ragna only used the name "Bloodedge" once. Near the end of the light novel, the latter tells Jubei his full name, saying that it's "Ragna the Bloodedge" immediately before he sacrificed himself.
*Bloodedge's Guilty Gear counterpart may be Order-Sol, since they're both the protagonists from alternates timelines (Bloodedge is Ragna being thrown on the past, while Order-Sol is Sol Badguy's past self during the Crusades), both of them had met with the main antagonists from their respective worlds (Order-Sol fought with I-No on the Crusades, while Bloodedge could have known Yūki Terumi before he went to fight against the Black Beast). Two key differences exist between the two, however; while Order-Sol has been a playable character, Bloodedge hasn't. Also, while Sol Badguy has fought (and defeated) his past self, Ragna has yet to meet Bloodedge.Though it' revealed that Bloodedge is actually Ragna during chronophantasma sent back into the past by Rachel and returned home after that.
*Ragna, along with Jin, Noel and Rachel, is featured as a Playable Character in the MOBA game, Chaos Heroes Online.
*Ragna is featured in the Square Enix game: Lord of Vermilion Re: 2, alongside Noel and Jin.
*Ironically, his birthday falls on "I Want You To Be Happy" Day.
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