Ezekiel Ibanez

## **Profile**

**Ezekiel Ibanez** (more commonly known as "Zeke") is a student of Beacon Academy, a member of Team HEVY who acts as the team's second in command and field tactician, and is one of the primary protagonists alongside Oren and AL. He is also the guitarist and backing vocalist for Grimm Eklipse.

Zeke makes his first appearance, albeit briefly and vaguely, in ORGN: Volume 1, Chapter 1: Oren Koga, and was officially introduced in ORGN: Volume 1, Chapter 3: Ezekiel Ibanez.

## **Appearance**

Zeke is a pale, boyish looking young man, with dark brown eyes and raven black hair. He wears a pair of thin glasses, and is usually seen sporting a crimson headband, fingerless gloves, and a chain wallet in most of his outfits.

Zeke's Year One design consists of a long black coat, a metal band's t-shirt underneath, navy blue distressed jeans, red high tops that resemble Converse sneakers, fingerless gloves, and a chain wallet.

In Year Two, Zeke wears a dark grey denim vest with a black hood attached to it, a metal band's t-shirt underneath, navy blue distressed jeans, black sneakers, fingerless gloves, and a chain wallet.

For Year Three, Zeke's outfits combines elements of his Year One and Two designs, wearing a long black coat with a buttoned up dark grey denim vest underneath, navy blue distressed jeans, fingerless gloves, and a chain wallet, but also adds some new elements, namely the crimson headband, a tattered crimson cape, and black leather combat boots.

His Year Four design has him wearing a black and crimson bomber jacket that has long coattails, dark blue jeans, a chain wallet, fingerless gloves that have steel plating on the knuckles and are fastened by two small belt buckles, A crimson headband with a steel plate on the forehead sporting his emblem, a crimson cape, light armoured shoulderpads obtained from Huo Village, and black leather steel-toed combat boots.

Zeke's formal wear consists of a black suit, pants, dress shirt, and dress shoes, with a crimson vest and tie, and a matching black and crimson trilby on his head. Zeke's pajamas are simply just a black t-shirt and blue jeans, though he will sometimes substitute jeans for black and red plaid pajama pants. For his Beacon Academy uniform, Zeke wears his school blazer unbuttoned with a white dress shirt and red tie underneath, and also wears his headband, fingerless gloves, chain wallet, and sneakers alongside his uniform as well.

## **Personality**

Zeke seems like a rather aloof and quiet individual at first, but is actually somewhat socially awkward in reality. That said, he will become talkative and open up more to someone the more familiar and trusting he becomes with a person. Zeke is also quite prone to sarcastic and snarky remarks, especially towards his foes in battle. He also hates saying more than needs to be said, as he is quite stouthearted and somewhat stubborn, leading some to perceive this as him acting above his actual ability. Zeke is a blunt, earnest, and passionate person, with said passion often showing during combat, when it is something to do with music, and especially towards Blaze. He has never held any prejudice towards the Faunus, due to being raised to be accepting towards them by his father, and having a number of childhood friends that were Faunus, including Valerie.

Zeke also has a rather selfless attitude, choosing to throw himself into the fray for the defense of others without hesitation, regardless of the risk and the opponent he faces. His readiness to fight for others can often be quite dangerous and even fatal, as he will often end up risking his life for the sake of protecting others. Despite his apparent awareness of the risk to his life and rather fatalistic approach to fighting, it more often than not ends up being to his advantage, since it allows Zeke to remain calm and calculated during a fight, as well remain steadfast, which is no doubt exacerbated by his stubborn and tenacious nature, all of which adds to his fearlessness and ferocity in combat.

## **Relationships**

### **Team HEVY**

Zeke has a rather close and tight-knit relationship with his team, as they are all both close friends and bandmates. This strong bond that he shares with HEVY is what allows him to know their strengths and weaknesses, and as such, be able to direct and synergize with them accordingly on the field. Yuki acts like the brother that he never had, and is very supportive and caring towards Zeke, often giving Zeke words of encouragement and making efforts to cheer him up whenever he's down. Haley shares a similar dynamic with Zeke, though she acts a little more energetic and pushy in contrast to her twin brother's carefree and casual attitude. Valerie is perhaps the one he shares the deepest connection with out of everyone in HEVY, as they have been best friends since childhood. Valerie can also be rather overprotective towards Zeke as well, sometimes taking it a little too far, typically in the form of stalking, which she refers to as being his "guardian angel". This behavior is motivated not only by romantic feelings Valerie harbours towards Zeke, but also out of a desire to repay him for protecting her in the past. Despite being somewhat possessive over Zeke, she is still willing to respect his feelings and support his relationships with others, and is even willing to go to great lengths to protect those Zeke deeply cares about as well.

### **Team ORGN**

Zeke is closest with Oren out of everyone in team ORGN, being close friends, accompanying him on many adventures, and fighting alongside one another. Zeke also sees Oren as something like a brother. While Zeke is simply acquainted with the rest of ORGN's members, he still has equal respect for all them, and even views them all as strong comrades.

### **Team BLAZ**

Blaze is perhaps the person that Zeke shares the strongest bond with out of anyone, due to being a couple. The two of them have a very strong mutual love and connection towards one another, to the point where they are much stronger together than separate, which is more often than not, a rare occurrence. Both are quite affectionate and protective of one another, to the point of being to lay down the line for one another if need be. They bring out the best in each other, and have a relationship that is grounded in equality and support for each other. Though largely acquainted with the rest of Team BLAZ, Zeke seems to have a slight friendship with Zach in particular.

### **Others**

In a similar fashion to Oren, Zeke is rather close with AL, also seeing him as like a brother. While others may view him as obnoxious, Zeke actually doesn't mind AL's general disposition, seeing it as liveliness instead. He's also appreciates AL's ability to lighten up tense situations, and often joins him in making quips and engaging in banter with foes midbattle.

Most others he is acquainted with by association, and though some may view him as a friend, Zeke is for the most part unsure as to whether they're friends or not from his perception.

He and Weiss, or rather their families, seem to have sort of rivalry with one another, as seen in ORGN: Volume 1, Chapter 10: Friendly Competition, the extent of this rivalry isn't entirely known, however, as this was the only time it would be mentioned.

He and Shayd are rather fierce rivals, always trying to better one another, and even seemingly harbouring some slight hatred for one another. Whether this is due to mere competitiveness, or something more, is not certain. However, during the events of Volume 13, they seemed to have gained some slight respect for one another after fighting alongside each other as allies.

Zeke's archnemesis is perhaps Zander, due to a brief love triangle with Blaze, as well as Zander believing that he had "stolen" her from him, and thus wanting Zeke dead.

Zeke has a rather resentful attitude towards Raven, due to her abandonment of Yang, likely reminding him of his own mother, as shown in ORGN: Volume 13, Chapter 2: Broken Mirror.

With his father, Saulo Ibanez, Zeke has a good relationship, as he is rather supportive and acts as a guide to his son, while also giving him the freedom to figure things out and make decisions on his own.

Professor Oobleck is apparently Zeke's favourite professor in Beacon, due to history being one of his favourite subjects in school.

## **Powers and Abilities**

Zeke's Semblance is called Melodist, which gives him the power to perform a variety of feats, and influence the field in a variety of ways, through the use of melody and rhythm. With the power of song, Zeke can accomplish things from offensive sonic attacks (that can also be augmented with Dust to give them further offensive capability), to inspiring and invigorating his allies in battle, and even intimidating and immobilizing enemies as well. Though Melodist has rather low power compared to other Semblances, it is perhaps the one with the highest potential, due to its extremely versatile and practical application, and is only limited by one's skill and imagination. Melodist's effects can also be further bolstered by allies, or even the environment, musically accompanying Zeke while it is in use, which is something that he often utilizes to his full advantage with Team HEVY, who are also armed with weapons that double as musical instruments for the sole purpose of synergizing with him.

Zeke's weapon of choice is a guitar with an axe blade attached to it, which enables him to effectively and efficiently channel his Semblance, and also be conveniently used as a melee weapon at the same time. In this manner, he can easily hold the guitar by its neck and wield it like an axe, and then quickly flip it to strum the strings on the fly during combat. Though it is a little on the heavy side, Zeke is still able to wield and swing it with surprisingly relative ease, though it requires him to use both hands to do so. He also manages to fight surprisingly nimbly and deftly with it, having some slight agility in his fighting style.

## **Etymology**

Ezekiel is a Hebrew name meaning "God will strengthen", named after a major prophet of the Old Testament, and the author of the Book of Ezekiel. He lived in Jerusalem until the Babylonian conquest and captivity of Israel, at which time he was taken to Babylon. The Book of Ezekiel describes his vivid symbolic visions that predict the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. Zeke, on the other hand, is commonly used as a shortened form of Ezekiel.

Ibanez was likely derived from Spanish luthier Salvador Ibáñez, who was known for making high quality guitars, mandolins, and ukuleles during the 19th century. It may have also been derived from the Japanese guitar manufacturing company of the same name.

## **Trivia**

* Zeke's Semblance was inspired by the Bard class in Dungeons and Dragons
	+ It may have also taken inspiration from the video game Brutal Legend, due to his affinity for metal music.

* His weapon is a play on guitars commonly being referred to as an "axe" in musician slang.
	+ It may also have been inspired by Gene Simmons' bass guitar
* Zeke's first weapon, Sangre, is named after the Spanish word for "blood".
	+ Thyrfing, his second weapon, is named after Swedish viking/black metal band, Thyrfing.
* Zeke's birthdate is June 4th.