Takenaka Hanbei (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
strategicnaps) wrote2014-04-16 05:06 pm
strategicnaps) wrote2014-04-16 05:06 pm
Consignment App
PLAYER INFO.
✖ Handle: Timpeni
✖ Contact:Timpeni
✖ Are You Over 16: Yep!
✖ Other Characters Played in Consignment: N/A
CHARACTER INFO.
✖ Character Name: Takenaka Hanbei
✖ Canon: Samurai Warriors, coming from after the Invasion of Chuugoku and his last cutscene from his route in Samurai Warriors 3
✖ Character Appearance: Canon artwork and In-game model render.
✖ Character Age: 34. I’m serious.
✖ Pick A Number: 456 and 743
✖ Canon Setting:
Once upon a time, there was this one guy called Nobunaga Oda. The country he was born in, Japan, was in constant turmoil, war after war, upheaval after upheaval. Clans were clashing, territory was being fought over, and no one was catching a second of rest. So, Nobunaga was all ‘hey you know what fuck that noise’ and long story short, he gather an army only the fraction of the size of the army at Okehazama and still beat the shit out of them. And killed their leader, Yoshimoto Imagawa.
And that’s where Hanbei comes in! Born as a vassal under the Saitou clan and thus their current head Lord Tatsuoki, he quickly learnt that ineffective leaders was basically a death sentence to any clan or army. Because Tatsuoki is pretty fucking ineffective. Clans are basically half ‘family blood relations’ and half ‘we control an army so this land belongs to us thanks’. The Oda army was on the way to punch the Saitou clan in the face to get the Saitou clan’s land. Revered as a natural genius at war- hell, Hideyoshi actively tries to recruit him to his side while they’re fighting!- Hanbei knew he was probably worth more than cannon fodder dying for a half-wit. Bad experience with Lord Tatsuoki basically taught him to choose his leader wisely. Since being raised in chaotic times already made him a pretty good strategist, he decided to work under the sincere and kind Hideyoshi. …Which basically also means serving Nobunaga, since Hideyoshi worked under Nobunaga.
But anyway. Hanbei basically became Hideyoshi’s strategist, alongside the line-facing gloomy Kanbei. And being a strategist for a force that was steamrolling through Japan to unify the land and crushing everything in its path? Samurai Warriors probably makes everyone see their own fair share of shit, but the Oda army really gets a generous heap. For example, Hanbei had to kill a man, Nagamasa, at his own hand- just for being on the opposing side and being too honorable to betray despite the fact that he was well aware they were on the losing side. And even if he didn’t kill Nagamasa himself, he and his wife would have died by the hands of the army following a battle plan Hanbei himself alongside Kanbei made. By being Hideyoshi’s strategist, he is part of the first movement dedicated towards and ultimately bringing peace to the land. He is also a monster that has to kill people to get it, as he understands it.
People who still try to live by values are everywhere. The fact that Hanbei knows they’ll still die and that he’ll have to backstab, swindle and trick in order to win battles probably makes him even more cynical towards war.
Such is the role strategists play. He succeeded in helping Hideyoshi abundantly while he (Hanbei) was still alive, using his wits to win battle after battle. Still, despite how bloody and brutal the circumstances of his world were, he does make an effort to spare Motonari’s life in the Invasion of Chuugoku, so he still understands that there was alternative outcomes to all situations instead of just killing everyone. Watching so many people die by his own hand and the battles unfold like he planned doesn’t make him lament his existence and hate everything, but it probably bashes him in the face with mortality more often than your average soldier.
So, yeah. Things aren’t exactly going great in his world, everything is in flames, and Hanbei is kind of to blame for that. Hurrah. But while the Oda army ultimately fights to beat up all the clans and opposing armies in order to gain control over the whole land and therefore enter a world of peace, the means to that good ending aren’t so pretty. It’s important to understand that war is basically all Hanbei really knows and that’s what makes him think it’s kinda a big deal to be a genius, to know what you’re up against, to not let people know everything about yourself right off the bat etc. etc.
Because as much as he’d like to be optimistic and look at all the possibilities, he’s pretty sure humans are a pretty fucking volatile and violent species.
Oh yeah, a big note: All the Samurai Warriors games take place in the same setting, but different timelines. In the different games, different events happen… well, differently. So Character A from Game 1 may remember shooting Character B pointblank in the head, but not Character A from Game 2. They follow roughly the same sequence of events, but Koei really really likes to mess up death timings, retcon their own games, and go ‘hey you know what let’s make these two friends now YEAH THEY’RE FRIENDS NOW WOOHOO oh wait or maybe we can put this guy in a battle they weren’t necessarily involved in last game LET’S DO IT’.
Even within games, sometimes, your choices effect the way events go. (Because people can totally change history that way right…) For example, Hanbei dies in battle on Motonari’s story route in Samurai Warriors 3. Buuut, Hanbei wins the battle on HIS own story route, and makes friends with Motonari.
So if Koei characters come from different games or routes… expect a mess.
✖ Character History:
Link! Note: He’s following the Samurai Warriors 3 timeline. Also, it’s not stated under his Samurai Warriors 3 history, but he also falls ill and dies of TB. It hasn’t happened yet at his canon point. (...Timelines in SW are majorly skewed compared to history, yes.) So the order of battles in his route go:
1. Invasion of Inabayama Castle, where Hanbei fights against the Oda forces under the Saitou. He joins the Oda forces afterwards, not because of their leader Nobunaga, but one of their officers Hideyoshi.
2. Battle of Anegawa, aka WHOOPS MY HAND SLIPPED NOW THE ENTIRE AZAI-ASAKURA CLANS ARE DEAD
3. Battle of Nagashino, where everyone thinks Shingen is dead, but he really isn't.
4. Battle of Kizugawa, basically Hanbei + Kanbei vs Motonari round 1.
5. Invasion of Chuugoku, where Hanbei beats Motonari and then spares his life. Kanbei isn't very amused but accepts it in the end.
Aaand... in history, he actually LOST the Invasion of Chuugoku. So. He can't really die at Kouzuki Castle like before, so I will be guessing that he just dies a terrible, untimely death just a month or so after the end of his route. Tada.
I will also be making references to Samurai Warriors: Chronicles events in the other sections. While those events obviously never happened from where he’s coming from (for one, the lack of a Customizable Self-Insert Protagonist in Samurai Warriors 3 during story mode), they are still said by the same person and relevant to his character.
✖ Character Personality:
Hanbei’s first impressions always tend to go something like this- “WHY THE FUCK IS THERE A KID IN THE ARMY?”
With his ridiculous baby-face, that’s hard to avoid. It’s even harder to stop thinking that simply due to the fact he really does keep up the ‘little boy’ façade. Adopting a childishly confident way of speaking, acting carefree, even having a very youthful voice (at least… in the Japanese version). Sometimes speaks like a snarky little ass and acts like a dick. Not only that, he gives off the impression that he has a really, really skewed sense of priorities for a strategist. Downright immature, even. In one scene in Samurai Warriors: Chronicles, when his friend Kanbei said he would essentially kill everyone in the castle, instead of saying outright that his plan was unnecessarily violent, Hanbei simply said ‘If you say things like that, you’ll never be popular’. He rarely, if ever, gets flustered or loses his cool in battle; Hanbei only really gets desperate when the situation is foreign and out of his control. And even then, he recognizes that freaking out won’t help matters.
However, in aforementioned castle incident involving Kanbei, Hanbei does manage to save the remaining people in the castle siege by sending them a letter telling them to surrender and they’ll spare their lives… in Kanbei’s name. A smart ploy that would save lives- something noble- and also make his friend Kanbei ‘popular’, something childish.
So as of now, we know Hanbei is a mischievous person who also seems to be pretty smart. He is, in fact, a self-proclaimed genius. He has reason to be confident (but not necessarily too arrogant) about that claim. Hanbei is a war strategist- the one who looks over the battlefield and sends armies to their possible demise. In his Samurai Warriors 3 route, after accidentally being involved in an attack on Mt. Inaba Castle (because he sneaked into the building to threaten his lord, Tatsuoki, to GET HIS SHIT TOGETHER), he manages to fend off the approaching Oda Army on an incredibly short notice. At the same time, he was aware that the Saitou Clan and Lord Tatsuoki would eventually fall with or without his help, so Hanbei decided to abandon the Saitou Clan and join the Oda forces. So, yeah, he’s probably pretty intelligent.
But he didn’t join the Oda forces just to save his own skin, though. Hanbei isn’t just a genius, he’s one with ambition. In his Image Song (something of a character song) duet with Kanbei, Hanbei mentions ‘my goal is perfection’. He ambitiously wants a world that many would consider foolish- when he heard Nobunaga (the guy leading the Oda forces) was a ‘first-class fool’, he replied: “In that case… perhaps my foolish wish may be granted.”
Living in the Warring States period of Japan makes you wish everyone could just stop fighting and live in peace. Hanbei wants that- and at the same time, is realistic enough to know he still has to fight to get it. In his words, he states he ‘wants a world where everyone can sleep all day’, but Hanbei does support the vision of someone under Nobunaga, who basically managed to convince Hanbei to become the Oda Army’s strategist. Hideyoshi is someone else who dreams of a world where everyone can live in happiness. In the end, Hanbei joins the Oda forces for Hideyoshi and not Nobunaga, the latter turning out to kinda be an asshole who treated human lives like they were worth nothing. Hanbei is a realistic person who wants to be idealistic, acting like a little boy to both take people by surprise and because he wants to.
His character doesn’t end there, though. More events in Samurai Warriors: Chronicles and his dialogue in general show another core aspect of him- he takes death very seriously. Perhaps partly because he faces it himself almost constantly.
Breaking his carefree, childish composure for a moment, he says this to the player character of Samurai Warriors: Chronicles, referring to his own strategist abilities. “But no matter how much you learn from trial and error, there will always be bloodshed. People will die no matter how much you plan ahead. What am I, as a strategist, supposed to say to those people? I’m sorry? I tried, but I failed? You have to die because it's more convenient for us? I can't say that. I'd be a failure as Lord Hideyoshi's strategist.”
He even states in the same event that for every actual battle they go into, he runs a trial battle through his mind ’10,000 times, killing millions’. He’s almost obsessed with the idea of saving as many lives as possible. While he doesn’t let it show, it obviously lurks in the background- Hanbei tends to ‘take naps’ a lot while others work. In actual fact, he’s running those ‘trial battles’ in his head over and over, thinking non-stop about minimizing losses.
“We won the battle today, but people still had to die. As a strategist, I'm to blame.” And we can see it’s partly because he blames himself for the deaths in the army. Even though the player character (in Chronicles) ends up convincing him that he should focus on the numbers he saved rather than the body count, it most likely still weighs heavy on his conscious. WHY does he care so much about saving people? Not just out of kindness. As someone who is ‘sickly’ at best and ‘terminally ill’ at worst, his shitty immune system reminds him that he’s constantly at Death’s doorstep.
He recognizes his own mortality and tends to downplay it, never really mentioning out loud. It’s quite easy to notice, though- sometimes, he just doesn’t act like a healthy person. Getting tired easily, suddenly having coughing fits out of nowhere, just never really putting on weight and being unable to stomach much in the first place… in the games, he always tends to die pretty young. And he even gets a death scene in Chronicles in his individual events. Historically, he most likely dies of TB or pneumonia. In canon, should be contract any major disease or get beaten up particularly badly… RIP, Hanbei. This all fuels his obsession with saving as many people as possible. Knowing the finality and frightening prospect of death firsthand, he wants to keep people from the same fate he faces.
This happy, cheeky little troll actually takes his job and death in general seriously. The one time he loses his temper for real in the series is at Nobunaga, after the man in question acts like human lives are expendable. He cares about everyone- even the enemy, but most of the time, their circumstances are out of his control. Hanbei makes an effort towards being humane, and isn't afraid to use alternative methods than the usual ‘WE DO THIS AND KILL EM ALL’ strategist plan. In his story mode, instead of getting the enemy strategist’s head like Kanbei wants him to, Hanbei captures Motonari (said enemy strategist) and spares his life… so Kanbei, Motonari and Hanbei can all work together for peace. He really likes to avoid bloodshed when possible.
All in all, Hanbei is someone who really desires to do what he wants and just kick back and relax. But he knows it’s not possible, and limits his carefree attitude to only when it won’t render him a burden. He takes great pride in his intelligence but also accepts the responsibility of the jobs his intelligence gives him… perhaps a bit too much. In the end, all he wants is a world of peace where he can do fuckall, enjoying his remaining days with his own sickly state.
✖ Character Powers:
While Hanbei doesn’t have supernatural power over ~FUCKING MAGIC~ like other people in the game happen to possess, he does have his own fair share ofoverpower.
-Crazy arm strength. Probably how he’s able to use his giant killer compass yo-yo. (6:07 onwards) Even though he does have the stamina to fly around and swing it around like a bat, he still has the lowest attack in the whole game, though… so it’s not that crazy.
-Speed. He is fast. A speed-based character, he doesn’t hit well, but he hits pretty fast a lot of times. Being so small helps him run around a lot. Of course, if he strains himself he’ll still get sick, but he can bolt place to place like an overexcited gerbil when he needs to.
-Strategizing skills. He is a genius, after all- and was even dubbed the ‘all-knowing Hanbei’ after his death. Hanbei was considered a natural genius at war, to be more specific. His name became an idiom for high intelligence in Japan. He can predict pretty fucking well how humans fight, so maybe non-humans might stump him. Still, he tries to adapt as quickly as possible to unfamiliar situations- such is a golden rule of being in a war. Adapt or die.
-Understanding people. Other than knowing how to handle people in battle and plan very, very well, he also tries to dig deep into people psyche. As said by his friend Kanbei to him: “Very funny. No one is skilled at shaking the foundations of people's hearts as you are.” Technically, both this and strategizing are not supernatural abilities, but they are honed to the point that they're mighty impressive.
CHARACTER SAMPLES.
✖ First Person POV: Test Drive!
✖ Third Person POV:
[Well, that went better than expected.
Kanbei would obviously still be paranoid of Motonari- but Hanbei wouldn’t really have it any other way. They kinda did need a paranoid in each team, after all! They spot the real trouble sooner than everyone else. They also see trouble where there isn’t any, but it’s a fair trade.
Motonari’s room has a lot of books lying around, though- Hanbei’s pretty impressed. The old strategist must really make a point to read. He’s flipping through one now. The sun is still shining into the room, where Motonari and Kanbei were a few minutes ago.
Just because he’s reading, though, doesn't mean he misses the presence that walks up a bit too close. Hanbei doesn’t reach straight for his weapon- it would be rude to activate it now and scatter all the books. And plus, this was inside the confines of the Mori Clan, correct? Even if those footsteps don’t belong to anyone he recognizes, it probably isn’t someone hostile.
…They’ve been standing there for an awfully long time.] If you want something, you’ll have to speak up! I might be genius strategist, but I can’t read minds, regardless of what you’ve heard.
[No, he totally did not spend around two minutes thinking up a smooth conversation opener. Really, though… did they want something? He (almost unconsciously) notes where the weapon is in the room, and puts the book down, leaving it open on the last page he was on. Reading about strategies was always invigorating and a good brain exercise- even if he’s already heard of all of them before.
Back to the stranger. They have a rather imposing figure- nothing like Kanbei and his gloomy face, but they don’t look approachable at first glance, either. They're... they're fidgety, though. As if they're unsure about something. (Or, they're just new to the job.) Hanbei almost wants to ask if they're alright.
Then, they say something.
Would you take the chance to protect those you know, even if you did not know what it would cost?
…That’s certainly a question.] Uwaaaah, why would a stranger ask me something like that? …Is that a threat, mister?
[The stranger shakes their head. Hanbei isn’t completely convinced- but he’s not going to be a paranoid strategist like Kanbei. Instead, he chooses to chuckle.]
Well, it’s a hard question. Maybe I’ll answer it after a nap. [No, no, he’s joking.] But we do live in a war. Aren’t I already doing that all the time?
So, yes, I would-
[And suddenly, he’s enveloped in white.]
CHARACTER ITEMS.
✖ Pick a Team: Blue Team. Hey, he’s a strategist!
✖ Mission Freebie: Make sure Hideyoshi succeeds in making a world of peace and happiness.
✖ Personal Item or Weapon: Northern Cross. Aka, this thing.
✖ Character Inventory:-This ridiculously baggy thing (you should confiscate his hat)
-Northern Cross as his personal weapon
CANON UPDATE