The characterization of Aphrodite in the Saint Seiya Universe
This is a translation of a post originally submitted on May 23, 2015, in Brazilian Portuguese. Thank you so much, Arukas. You’re the best!! ♥ ♥ ♥
After his recent spectacular participation in Soul of Gold, I found myself thinking about how the character was dealt with in the various works he was present, and I decided to draw a parallel between them, because I see that many people don’t realize (or understand) the always present essence of the character.
Initially, Aphrodite was created by Masami Kurumada as a warrior who is fearless, proud, and very concerned about peace on Earth. After seeing in Saga the strength required to keep that peace, he decided not to follow Athena – until then a weak and unknown girl to the Gold Saints. He does not hesitate before an enemy threat and since then he proves himself a powerful opponent at direct and indirect battle, being able to knock Pegasus Seiya unconscious without laying a single finger on him. Moreover, Aphrodite shows an enormous inflexibility in the face of Shun’s arguments, not giving in at any moment nor hesitating about his ideals of justice. He would die for what he believed to be right and made it clear since his first appearance in the series.
“Strength is justice, and the winner is the absolute sovereign”.*
“Peace has been among us thanks to Pope Ares”.*
Remember that even in the encyclopedia his concern for peace is exalted.
The second work he appeared in was Episode G, in a less prominent role, but that followed the same line of fighting as the one seen before. Aphrodite faces and easily defeats a Giga, while protecting and healing Aiolia, showing the same distinguished, imposing and proud posture that we saw in front of Andromeda Shun, in the virtual future of this saga. And once again he shows himself as extremely inflexible before the enemy, having a goal ahead of him and nothing is capable of divert him from his path until he achieves it.
“My side is and always will be the same. I will always be on the side of the most beautiful justice, for beauty is the only absolute justice, incapable of betraying us”.*
(Notice that, in this saga, he uses euphemisms to talk about strength. And here we can also see an extension of his techniques with roses, in which he is able to create huge vines and control them freely).
Later he is inserted in the chronology through Saintia Sho. Here we get to know more about his personality rather than his strength. We’re given a great and enlightening dialogue between him and Saori Kido, in which all his position is explained and justified. Once more, the reason of his actions is the search for peace and for protection of those who are weaker.
“One needs to win to protect”.*
“As a Saint who protects the Earth, to swear loyalty to an unreliable stranger would be the same as betraying the people of this world…And this is something I cannot do at all”.*
Aphrodite was aware the Earth was at risk of being invaded by other divine entities, such as Hades and Poseidon, and in the face of an unexperienced and weak girl, he preferred to follow Saga until she proved being able to defend those who needed protection. She understands that attitude herself, and admits it is reasonable to expect that from someone at his position.
His participation in the Legend of Sanctuary movie doesn’t take a minute, but we can see in his lines that he was at Athena’s side this time. He believed she was in the Sanctuary and went after the Pope to take her to a safe place.
(This is the only film in the series that I will mention, since the others don’t make any sense to be analyzed and used as any kind of foundation for the characters).
At last, we have Aphrodite resurrecting along with his comrades in the current Soul of Gold saga. Insightful, intelligent and distinguished, noble: that’s how he was shown so far. His first thought upon arriving at unknown territory, unaware of why he was revived, was to investigate the enemy directly in order to know the reasons for them to be there and for all the adverse situations the Gold Saints were facing. In this saga, he displays a skill unknown up to then: Aphrodite can communicate with plants, and by using such skill, he gets to the God Warrior Fafner. His posture was the same he had in all his serious combats so far: Inflexible and determined to reach his goal. Aphrodite extracted from Fafner all the information he needed, and immediately passed them on to Mu. There was no hesitation, fear or doubt when confronted by all the adversities he met: he had a goal and would achieve it by any means.
In this scene, he shows again his concern about the well-being of people above everything else, telling Fafner that he could not forgive him for the suffering he caused to Asgard’s inhabitants. Before being imprisoned, we see that – somehow – he passed through Andreas, released Helena and got her out of the place, sacrificing himself in the process.
After minimally analyzing each of his participations, I can conclude that Aphrodite is and always has been characterized in the same way. In some sagas there were euphemisms in his words, while in others he was more brutal and even violent, but in the end, he always had the same characteristics when fighting seriously: Strong, fearless, imposing and extremely focused on his goal. The fact that he prizes for peace and the common good is also present in all Saint Seiya works, and is even highlighted in all of them, either with words or attitudes of his. This is Pisces Aphrodite, created and worked on through several works, but whose essence was maintained in all of them: the tireless search for peace and justice.
*translator’s note: Unfortunately I couldn’t find the episode nor the scans in English so those are translations of the lines as seen in the Brazilian dub/version.
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