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—Croix Meridies, Chariot and Croix | ||
Croix Meridies (クロワ・メリディエス Kurowa Meridiesu) is the main antagonist of the Little Witch Academia anime. She is the new teacher of Modern Magic in Luna Nova Magical Academy and an old acquaintance of Ursula.
Appearance
Croix is a young woman of tall stature with a pale skin complexion. Her eyes are a greenish shade of teal. She paints her eyelids with dark pink eyeshadow. Her short, lilac hair has a wavy hairstyle, with a lock that usually covers her left eye.
She wears a red, gray and white suit that covers most of her body, with a lapel that reaches the height of her ears. She has a brown leather saddlebag. In the same colors as her suit, she also wears a large red cape and high-heeled boots. Sometimes she wears purple-rimmed sunglasses.
As a student, Croix's hair was significantly longer and she wore eyeglasses, in somewhat of an inversion of Chariot's (whose hair was originally short and later started wearing glasses) disguise as Ursula. Unlike Chariot, however, Croix kept her original hair color.
After the Noir Rod missile was destroyed, Croix left her hair down, similar to how it was when she was younger. She started wearing a taupe full-sleeved shirt, brown pants, and a tan cloak with burgundy stripes worn over her shirt. She also no longer paints her eyes with eyeshadow. In this sense, she looks very plain and removed from magic.
Personality
In her youth, Croix was a timid and reserved child who was known as a prodigy for her academic excellence. She also used to be a kind and considerate friend of Chariot du Nord, the charming and talented witch with poor proficiency in academics and a tendency to make blunders. Beneath this exterior, Croix held a great dream to become the world's greatest witch that would result in her being chosen by Claiomh Solais' power so that she could obtain the World Reconstruction Magic. Therefore, her efforts in her studies were singularly focused on it.
Croix changed upon seeing the power choose Chariot instead. She then rejected Chariot, becoming bitter, selfish, cold and calculating as her biggest dream ended up in her best friend's hands against her wishes. Although she initially set aside her resentments, Croix could never shake the envy towards Chariot, especially upon seeing her not taking her quest for the Seven Words of Arcturus seriously. The increasing frustration and envy ultimately caused her to forcefully play her role in her stead by bypassing the traditional ways of opening the Grand Triskellion, even if it meant she had to betray Chariot by tricking her to employ Dream Fuel Spirit on innocent audiences including young Akko and Diana as part of the said scheme.
After her separation and eventual falling out with Chariot, Croix had delved so deeply into the darkness that she developed into a highly logical but deeply ruthless, vengeful, ambitious, and cold-hearted person who hid her worst traits underneath her charismatic and cool persona. She doesn't take the welfare of the many innocent people who become part of her "experiments" into account, and this has made her commit a number of fairly horrific deeds, such as nearly ruining the bonds between Akko and Chariot, harming innocent people, and coming close to sparking a potential all-out war between England and its rival nation just to activate her Noir Rod; all of which she did without any signs of hesitation or remorse; she didn't even hesitate to kill or at least demoralize those who stood in her way either.
Despite how different her adult personality seemed, traces of goodness within Croix's heart still remained. Even with how far she had fallen, in "Wagandea", Croix was shown genuinely panicking when her robots made Chariot fall unconscious on her broom and nearly plummet to her death, and Croix's cries to awaken Chariot saved her life and let her chase Akko while her Magitronics were ready to fight again. Also, in "The Road to Arcturus", when Woodward confronted Croix after she broke the seal of Grand Triskellion and found that what she sought for is not what she wanted, Croix unleashed her anger and called Woodward out for what went wrong in the past and not helping her cope with the Shiny Rod's rejection.
Croix can remain uncannily cool under pressure no matter the situation. She also proves to be a very intelligent strategist as well as an expert manipulator who meticulously devises many safeguards and people to ensure that things go in the direction she wants them to. Even when it seems things might not go quite how she's planned, she is confident that even Chariot is powerless to stop her nefarious plot to obtain the magic of the Grand Triskellion. True to this, she pioneered in the field of Magitronics, having surveyed Akko for months before revealing herself. Croix was also responsible for planning the fairy staffs' strike as she infiltrated Luna Nova by posing as a new teacher, lulling all of the campus' inhabitants into a false sense of security, commencing the chaos at Appleton Academy so she could take a sample of the rage-based Fuel Spirit from one of the witch-hating students there to confirm whether anger produces more power by being processed into the Fuel Spirit, she instigated attacks during the Wild Hunt, attempting to murder by exposing Akko to Wagandea pollen, and harvested anger from the strike over the soccer verdict. However, her inability to see possible flaws in her plan in harvesting anger-based Fuel Spirit energy and fathom that things she sought might not end up like what she wanted ultimately caused the witch's undoing.
Towards the end of the series, Croix's personality changes after Chariot saves her from being devoured by the Noir Rod, despite everything Croix had put her through. Croix eventually reverts to her original kind and considerate self, and makes up with Chariot, telling her she would devote herself to finding a cure for the Wagandea curse and restore Chariot's broom to full-flying ability.
Abilities and Equipment
Having an advanced knowledge of technology and magic, Croix has several mechanical inventions that she has made by merging both concepts in a technique called "Magitronics". While Croix is a skilled witch, she generally prefers to use her Magitronic devices over casting magic, and when she does cast magic, it is often through Magitronic mediums like her tablet. During her time as a student of Luna Nova, she was recognized as a prodigy, although she was never able to match Chariot in her magical power.
Her traditional uses of magic include the creation of powerful sentinel statues guarding her laboratory, the creation of magical, protective clothing and the memory erasure of a large group of people.
Sorcery Units
One device made by Croix is a broom that she describes as an "evolved" flying broom. It has great enough strength to support a human being and can even withstand heavy blows. The broom is also able to project holograms, is equipped with weapons that shoot energy beams and is capable of storing the Fuel Spirit Devices. It can also clean, as is expected from any "evolved broom".
Fuel Spirit Devices
The Fuel Spirit devices are devices capable of absorbing the Fuel Spirit of people's emotional energy and turning it into magical power by using the Noir Fuel Spirit. By joining the two spirits, they can be transformed into different monsters under Croix's control.
Smartphones and Tablets
Smart devices designed to interact with and control the different magitronic devices. Croix is able to invoke magic directly through them.
Noir Rod
The Noir Rod is a huge, mechanical replica of the Shiny Rod able to transform and feed on the emotional energy of the Noir Fuel Spirit. Thanks to the combination of the replicated power of the Shiny Rod and the accumulated emotional energy, the Noir Rod is able to undo the seal of the Nine Olde Witches on the Grand Triskellion, but eventually, the Noir Rod's power became so much that Croix was no longer able to control it.
Sorcery Solution System
The Sorcery Solution System is an invention created in the likeness of the working of the Sorcerer's Stone. It can absorb all the magical energy emitted by the Sorcerer's Stone that goes to waste when the witches aren't using magic. If several sorcery systems are active at the same time, it allows a much greater magical energy reserve that is also transportable.
Voice actors
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Misc.
Trivia
- The monster that appears during Shiny Chariot's magic show in the flashback at the beginning of the first episode resembles Croix's magitronic devices closely and makes the same sound before it materializes.
- Croix's name in the English dub is pronounced as "Croy".
- Croix's Japanese seiyuu, Junko Takeuchi, also provides the voice for Naruto Uzumaki from the Naruto series. Coincidentally, both Croix's and Naruto's favorite food is ramen noodles.
- In some ways, Croix's character is depicted as both foil and dark reflection of Diana Cavendish. Croix and Diana are both rivals and friends of bearers of Shiny Rod, both of them wished to be chosen as the bearer of Shiny Rod only for the Rod to choose their friend/rival. Croix was dismayed that Shiny Rod chose Chariot over her, Diana was similarly upset upon finding out that Akko had become the current bearer of Shiny Rod after learning the Rod's true nature and purpose. They are also very frustrated at the current bearers of the rod's lack of interest in their duty to restore magic. However, whereas Diana starts as a rival to Akko but develops a friendship with her over time, and her intention to gain Shiny Rod was for a noble cause; Croix starts as a friend but develops a strong envy against Chariot, proceeds to forcefully play her role in her stead by bypassing the traditional ways of opening the Grand Triskelion, and just wanted to be the world's greatest witch.
Etymology
- "Croix Meridies" is the French term for the Southern Cross constellation. This may be a reference to the similarly named antagonist group from Inferno Cop, a previous work by Trigger.
- "Meridies" is of Latin origin and can mean both south and noon, the latter which could be a reference to Croix's position in the final of an anti-villain.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Little Witch Academia Chronicles, page unknown
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Caitlyn Elizabeth on Twitter