Laharl

"What fool dares awaken me, the great Laharl?"

- Laharl, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Laharl is a recurring character in the Disgaea series. Arrogant and self-centered, Laharl attempts to maintain the attitude of a typical demon. He is actually a half-demon, due to his mother being a human. He is known for his evil laugh which is heard numerous times throughout the series. The first game in the series, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness chronicles his attempt to inherit his title of Overlord after the death of his father, King Krichevskoy, and his eventual discovery of love.

Appearance
Laharl's appearance hasn't changed much between games, but there are some noticeable differences. In Disgaea 1 he is shown to have short blue hair with a set of antennae-like hair strands coming off of it, bright red eyes, pointy ears and a rather unimpressive body. He wears a red cape that by Disgaea 2 has been changed from one cape trail to two cape trails. His other clothes include a pair of red shorts, red-and-brown shoes and a set of gold bracelets.

In Disgaea D2, his outfit has been slightly re-designed. His shorts are now a slightly-longer pair of red pants, tied at the bottoms with small ribbons. His shoes have been simplified to all-brown boots, and his "hair stalks" have seemingly grown in length. He also now sports a set of black gloves and his body appears more physically mature overall. Laharl also possesses a female form in DD2, which has a very similar clothing design to his normal form. However, there are some noticeable changes. Her cape has gone back to one trail and her pants have been extended to a pair of ripped skinny jeans. Her chest has expanded greatly and now needs to be held back by a small red bra top, and her shoes are now all-black. She also has much longer hair compared to her male self as well as a much taller, skinnier and more feminine figure.

Personality
Laharl is incredibly arrogant as well as snarky and always tries to prove that he is the strongest demon in the Netherworld and takes being Evil seriously, finding virtues to be vices and vices to be virtues. He is, however, extremely powerful for his appearance, which, despite his age, is still that of a small human child (his large hair antennae and billowing scarf are meant to mask this fact). However, he has a weakness towards (as in, he literally gets hurt by) optimistic sayings (especially anything concerning the word 'love') and women with sexy bodies. Maderas took advantage of both weaknesses in both the game and the anime by having pretty girls say optimistic things (succubi in the game and miscellaneous pretty demon girls in the anime). He claims that Flonne and Etna don't bother him since they're flat-chested, something which they obviously take as an insult. He appears to have gotten over his aversion in his later appearances, as he isn't bothered by Rozalin's revealing outfit (Although a conversation with Machiko in Disgaea 3 after being recruited shows he's still highly nervous around them).

Although Laharl considers himself evil, he never does anything that may be considered truly immoral. He only briefly considers doing anything to the Earth, and the only things he can think of are making it rain pepper and giving kids an addicting video game. Laharl also loves to laugh evilly, believing it is an important part of being the Overlord. Even when towards the end of the first game when Laharl has clearly turned good, he still continues acting like he's evil, except for when Lammington turns Flonne into a flower. At that he point he displays outright hate for the Seraph, believing that he turned on Flonne after she believed in him. This is, and in the normal ending where Laharl sacrifices his life to revive Flonne, are the only times he admits to caring about her, any other time he denies doing so. It is strongly implied that he harbors romantic feelings for Flonne because the only way to cast the revival spell that takes the user's life is if the user has love for the person he/she revives, similar to how Laharl's mother took her own life to cure Laharl's deadly disease. This is the reason Laharl rejects love and thinks love is useless because it was the cause of his mother's sacrifice.

In Laharl's future appearances, he maintains his ego and view that he is evil, and displays outrage whenever he isn't the main character, and attempts to take the role from whoever it happens to be at the time. His obsession with this is perhaps best shown when he appears in Disgaea 3, where he accuses Mao of being the "Legendary Overlord" that stole from him, but reveals after fighting him that he knew it was really Baal and only accused him just so he could increase his screen time.

In Disgaea 4, Laharl again appears in the post-game, wanting to become the new protagonist of the story and take over the Presidency from the challengers aiming to get at it, after Axel, Raspberyl, and others try to take it. He loses against Valvatorez and his party, and joins the party, supposedly to increase the time he spends on-screen. He also asks Valvatorez if he could whip his prinnies back into shape due to current obedience problems he has with them.

In Disgaea D2, Laharl learns of his sister Sicily who comes to the Netherworld to live with him. Typical to his personality, he refuses to openly admit love or adoration for his sister, but constantly goes out of his way to make her happy. He becomes defensive of his sister's happiness, and openly argues with and fights back against Celestia and the Seraph to allow her to stay. In future appearances, Sicily lives with Laharl, although their familial relationship doesn't stop Laharl from assuming a party is actually a rebellion, and responds with his typical narrow-sighted anger.

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Laharl is the son of King Krichevskoy, ruler of the Netherworld. However, after awakening from a two year slumber, he discovers that his father is dead and almost all of his vassals are gone - most of them are, in fact, trying to take Laharl's place, rather than serving him. As the rightful heir to the throne, Laharl sets out to take the throne by force with his vassal Etna's help, and proclaim himself as the true Overlord of the Netherworld.

He begins by crashing the house of a nearby demon Vyers, "the Dark Adonis", defeating the newly christened "Mid Boss" as the first stepping stone on the path to the throne - a path to be built of his defeated foes. However, his plans are interrupted by the appearance of the angel trainee Flonne, sent from Celestia to assassinate (the late) King Krichevskoy. Chasing the would-be assassin, he eventually manages to corner and defeat her. Laharl then informs her about her target's death, and upon learning of Laharl's lack of grief for his father's demise, Flonne joins his party to study demon nature and threatens that, if in need, she will switch her target.

Flonne is at first discouraged by his evil behavior: crashing another demon's house, pillaging it, and then preparing to kill the house's owner, Hoggmeiser, one of Krichevskoy's former vassals. However, Laharl chooses to spare Hoggmeiser when his son, Porkmeiser appears to defend him, leading Flonne to believe that his heart is indeed capable of love. When Vulcanus, a stubborn angel, steals Flonne's pendant, which angel trainees need to survive in the Netherworld, Laharl is enticed by Flonne's promise of "something good" to go and find it. The group finally track it down to Vyers and defeat him once again, recovering the pendant. At this time, Laharl is relieved to find that the pendant burns him, meaning that his heart is wicked. Etna praises Flonne for deceiving the Prince, as her "something good" was giving Laharl the chance to see the kindness in his heart.

Even after Laharl is crowned the new Overlord half way through the game, he is still referred to as "Prince" by Etna and all those who still remain in the Overlord's Castle, probably out of habit (although there are hints that several of Laharl's vassals do not see him as worthy enough to replace his father as Overlord).

It is also shown that Laharl has incredible power within him that he unleashed only when the Seraph had turned Flonne into a flower. It could be that his true power is being held back by his human-half, and only releases the power when he's feeling incredible rage.

In general, the accepted ending is the good ending, in which Laharl spares Lamington's life and is stopped by Mid Boss before he sacrifices himself, allowing him to see Flonne become a Fallen Angel.

In the last episode of the anime, however, Laharl gives the title of Overlord to Etna, then he sacrifices himself in an attempt to revive Flonne. This ending is similar to the normal ending of the game, except that in the game Laharl succeeds in killing Lamington, who would've brought Flonne back to life had he been spared. In the last scenes of the final anime episode it is shown that he has become a Prinny, possessing all the powers he had before when he darkens the sky and very unwilling to work like a regular prinny since he is found in a sun lounger.

Etna Mode
In the alternate story Etna Mode in the PSP/DS version, Etna kills Laharl as he wakes up by accident. While playing this mode, the player will not have access to Laharl. In order to prevent suspicion from Maderas, Etna places fake antennas on a Prinny and passes it off as Laharl. By the end of Etna Mode, Laharl is actually revealed to be alive. The shot that supposedly killed him only knocked him out, and he is found by Etna in Stellar Graveyard.

Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten
Laharl is a boss in the game's post game and is unlocked after being defeated, much like in previous Disgaea games. When he appears, Etna is shown attacking him, as she believes that he's responsible for the abnormal phenomenon and thus responsible for stealing her "nice-body." Annoyed at her accusation (especially since he reveals that she disappeared and skipped work as his vassal for some time with no explanation), and learning that Valvatorez was the main character now, he decides to take over the presidency and the Netherworld again, as well as the spot of main character, but loses to Valvatorez and the gang, upon which he becomes impressed by their power and turns them all into his vassals. Fenrich expresses disapproval of this, as well as the idea of Laharl hijacking the "main character" role, but Valvatorez shrugs it off as he is more determined in finding the cause of the abnormal phenomenon in the Netherworld. Learning of this, Laharl decides to help discover the mystery as well, as he wishes the fight the person responsible for it as he "likes their ambition" (prompting Flonne to tell him to grow out of his selfiness). After defeating Asagi, Etna and Flonne asks if he feels upset over Valvatorez stealing the spotlight. Laharl, in a rare show of maturity, responds to their question by saying he's content with just getting screen-time and doesn't mind someone else being the lead for now.

There is DLC specifically for him, in which Laharl attempts to boost his popularity by copying Archangel Flonne's giant mecha, creating his own Gundam-like pirate ship called Laharl Kaiser V. When the main cast comes to witness this, Laharl gives them replicated parts of his mecha for them to create their own and leaves.

Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness
Laharl appears in Disgaea D2 as the main character (alongside Etna and Flonne). Laharl's outfit has been changed for this installment (with him wearing pants instead of shorts and fingerless gloves instead of his gold bracelets) though he retains his trademark scarf.

Taking place after the events of the first game but before Disgaea 2, this installment follows Laharl as he fights the Krichevskoy Group, who are three of the late king's former vassals that, like many other demons, do not believe Laharl is fit to bear the title of Overlord and seek to give that title to a more capable demon. They believe such a demon is Barbara, but only because she has no will of her own and only follows direct and specific orders. Taking advantage of this, the Krichevskoy Group planned to rule the Netherworld through ordering Barbara. Laharl also meets his younger sister, Sicily, a girl who was born an angel instead of a demon thanks to their deceased mother. After he defeats her when she tries to take his place as Overlord (after shipping herself to the Netherworld in a package), she joins him and he, despite denying it, comes to love and care for his sister. Lastly, Laharl earns respect as the Overlord after ridding the Netherworld of the Yuie Flowers by defeating Xenolith, a mysterious man who possessed the Artifact of Absolute Death, a relic that absorbs all of the magic and energy from everything around it, and Etna's supposed older brother.

Laharl also becomes a woman for a short while due to the wide-spread outbreak of Yuie Flowers in the Netherworld as demons get side-effects from being exposed to the Celestian plant. In this form, he retains his pants, gloves and scarf and adds in a top to cover his big chest. He frequently emphasizes his loss of balance with a pained expression due to the sudden enormity of his chest, much to the chagrin of his two female cohorts. He is also considered quite attractive and popular while in this form, rivaling even the flat vibes of Etna and Flonne. He happens to be very proficient at singing while in this form, managing to hold an idol concert that was deemed legendary and disappearing at the end due to turning back into a male.

Disgaea Infinite
Laharl overhears Prinny talking about a secret and easily learns that Etna ordered a limited-edition pudding from the Sea of Gehenna. Wanting to steal and eat the pudding for himself, he orders the Prinnies to look for the pudding. After the main Prinny finds TickTock and is rendered unconscious, Laharl enters the room. Furious, he orders the Prinny to find the pudding. Unfortunately, the Prinny trips and falls through a window. He decides not to trust the Prinnies and goes looking for the pudding himself.

Manga
In the Disgaea manga, Laharl's personality slightly differs. While he is selfish, arrogant, and is willing to use violence to solve his problems, he comes off more mature than his game counterpart, appearing to also be slightly smarter (when Flonne tells Laharl that the Seraph believes demons have love too, Laharl reminds her that her mission to assassinate the Overlord was given to her by the same person). Laharl also appears to hate his father even more in the manga as Laharl is often overshadowed by Krichevskoy, not to mention Krichevskoy's personality annoys Laharl.

Gameplay
Laharl could best be described as the usual "Hard-Hitting Warrior" character. Throughout the series, he retains consistently high HP and ATK aptitudes. His highest Weapon Mastery aptitudes lie in Swords, Fists, and Axes, giving him a degree of versatility. His unique special skills are Blazing Knuckle (獄炎ナックル), Overlord's Wrath (魔王玉), Meteor Impact (メテオインパクト), and, from Disgaea D2 onward, Overlord Dimension. Laharl's most recurring unique evility is Overlord's Dignity, which raises his stats by a fixed percentage per enemy unit he kills.

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny

 * Laharl


 * Girl Laharl
 * Gotta say, I'm fond of that Juice Bar! Means I don't have to stock up on drinks before gaming marathons!
 * Super Reincarnation's got nothing on me! I can change genders without it! Though changing back is a different story...
 * Sicily went on about calling me her big sis while I'm like this. I gotta return to normal before it sticks...
 * I saw this huge crab a minute ago. Wonder how that crab brain-loving idiot angel would react to it.
 * Someone replaced my clothes with a skirt when I got out of the bath the other day! Did I wear it...? Don't even ask, dammit!

Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories
Laharl first appears in Disgaea 2 after he learns that Etna has defeated Overlord Zenon, and goes after her to force her to come back to his castle, having had nothing to eat but canned tuna because she took the Prinnies with her. He encounters the party in episode 11 and defeats them easily. However, Rozalin stubbornly stands against him, causing Laharl to break the seal on True Zenon out of curiosity. True Zenon proves far too powerful for Laharl, who quickly runs away (though it should be noted that Laharl didn't even seem injured after the fight, just frustrated that he wasn't able to overcome her). He later returns and tries to make himself the main character of Disgaea 2, blaming not being the main character for his defeat. It's revealed that the reason Etna left was because Laharl stole her rare pudding. He is playable after completing the optional missions "I want to fight an Overlord!" and "Summon Laharl!". When completing the final mission, Laharl joins after tasting Hanako's cooking since he can't make her his chef. In the good ending, Etna goes back to serving him and Hanako joins her.

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice
Laharl appears before Mao, who Laharl assumes to be the legendary Overlord who stole his height (Claiming to be 6'6). Mao, however, believes that Laharl is the legendary Overlord and the two fight. When the battle ends, Mao and Laharl appear to be evenly matched until Almaz makes them realize that neither of them are the legendary Overlord. Laharl, along with Etna and Flonne, joins the party and reveals to Mao that the legendary Overlord they have all been looking for is Baal.

In an alternate battle, Laharl suddenly appears before Mao alongside Etna and Flonne, claiming to be Mao's father. Mao doesn't believe him at all, but later begins to call Laharl his old man after defeating him. However, it turns out that this was all an attempt to steal the lead role and he reveals to Mao that he is actually another Overlord after the battle. The game ends after this.

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance
Laharl returns in Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance as a DLC character in a released set, along with Etna, Flonne, Sicily and Pleinair. He was seen in a DLC story, along with Etna, Flonne and Sicily.

Also in this pack is his female counterpart, which exist as a separate character, and is already available to use unlike his original character.

Both Laharl retains all of his/her skills from Disgaea D2, including his/her fourth skill Overlord Dimension. He/She possess an overload skill Atrocious Prince, which makes a meteor fall at where he/she was standing, hurting anything near him/her within 5 spaces.

Laharl (Only the original) also has a combo skills which can be executed with Flonne called Conflagration Fury. He also has a combination attack with Sicily, another character obtained by completing his DLC.

Disgaea RPG
Laharl and his female counterpart appear as obtainable characters. Variations of Laharl can also be obtained.

Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?
Laharl appears as an optional boss in the game. In the game, he is in his Prinny form (from the Normal Ending) complete with his scarf, red eyes and antennas. During the battle, he attacks using his Prinny Knives, a smaller Overlord's Wrath that hits twice and using an alternate version of his Meteor Impact attack which first he uses a Gear Metal YAY, then an oversized bomb and a table.

Laharl can be defeated in 2 ways: By depleting his HP to zero or by lifting him up and throwing him (since he's a Prinny, he explodes when thrown). It is revealed that he was forced to work for Etna after returning to the Netherworld and that out of frustration from being overworked, stole Etna's Sea Of Gehenna Pudding and ran off, causing the game's events. Etna comes in and says that she was only overworking him because she wants him to be able to reincarnate back into his old body. Also, The Hero Prinny states that he heard Laharl's laugh somewhere before but can't put his finger on it, so thus he doesn't realize that he beat Laharl.

Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood!
In the sequel to the original "Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?", Laharl is an additional playable character. His abilities are more powerful then the Hero Prinny's abilities and he throws fireballs instead of attack with Knives.

Phantom Brave
Laharl is also present as a boss in Phantom Brave. He is trapped in a Bottlemail and after meeting the main characters Ash and Marona, he constantly tries to make them his vassals by defeating them.

After beating him 3 separate times, Ash and Marona fake a loss so that Laharl will stop fighting them, and Laharl gives them his Phantom Double, adding Laharl as a playable character. In battle, he specializes in ATK-based skills, but can also dabble in INT-based skills as well.

Makai Kingdom
In Makai Kingdom, Laharl is brought before Overlord Zetta after Etna and Flonne were defeated by him, and tries to show Zetta that he is the superior Overlord in an extra boss battle. He can be recruited after defeating Flonne and Etna by writing the wish "I wish to fight the Overlord of another Game!" Upon recruitment, he is an ATK-based character good with Swords, Spears, Axes, and Beam Swords. If Laharl is the leader character when you defeat Overlord Baal while he's in Zetta's body, Laharl destroys Zetta's body to prevent Baal from escaping which causes the credits to roll. However after the credits are done, the player is greeted with the Game Over screen, sending the player back to their last save point.

Soul Nomad and the World Eaters
"Hey you butthole! Whaddya mean 'Overlord's fine I guess'?! Do you know how much trouble... How much abuse I went through just to earn that title?!"

- Laharl scolds the player. He also makes a brief cameo appearance in Soul Nomad. In the demon path, should the main character choose to call himself the Overlord over the Devourlord ("Eh, Overlord is fine I guess."), Laharl scolds him/her for taking such a title lightly. Revya and Gig, however, ignore Laharl and the story continues from there.

Zettai Hero Project: Unlosing Ranger VS. Darkdeath Evilman
Laharl appears as a boss of the Mastery Cave : Veteran Hero level. If this battle is won, a Laharl costume is unlocked, which allows the Unlosing Ranger to don a Laharl costume, allowing one to, in a sense, play as Laharl. The costume can also be unlocked by talking to the Prinny at the bottom of the base 10 times rapidly. This can be accomplished by holding o, and button mashing x. In one of the possible endings, Laharl appears and proclaims that he is a powerful Overlord. After looking at the main character, he assumes the hero thinks he is short and as a result, burns him to death and burns the whole planet.

The Guided Fate Paradox
Laharl appears as a boss within an extra dungeon in The Guided Fate Paradox.

Trivia

 * Laharl, along with Etna and Flonne, appear in all Disgaea games, including spinoffs and remakes either during a main or side story. The exception is Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance, where they appear as DLC characters.
 * In the Cam-Pain HQ of Disgaea 4, one of the possible conversation you can have with Laharl will reveal that his scarf is a part of his body. This seems to contradict a possible scene in Disgaea Infinite where in a conversation with Gordon, one of the possible choices makes Laharl remove his scarf. It could be possible however that his scarf might be an independent/removable part of his body.
 * Both Laharl from Disgaea and Adell are the only main character to be defeated during tutorial. Mao, Valvatorez, Laharl from Disgaea D2, and Killia survive the attack with only a fragment of their HP remaining.
 * As of Disgaea D2, Laharl, along with Etna and Flonne, has four unique special skills contrary to the usual three, Laharl's being Overlord Dimension.
 * In Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness, it's been revealed that his female form has a surprisingly good singing voice.
 * Laharl suffers from Mastrophobia (fear of breasts). This type of fear was famously used as recurring running gag in both the titular series and other internet media.
 * Laharl is the only known demon that needs to breathe as revealed by Rainier in Disgaea D2, this is due to him being half human because of his mother.