Laios Touden

Laios Touden (ライオス トーデン, Raiosu Tōden^?) is one of the main protagonists and the leader of his adventuring party.^[11]

Appearance[]

Laios is a Tall-man with short blond hair and light gold eyes. He prefers to keep his hair short and be clean shaven in order to look less like his estranged father. His outfit while dungeon-crawling is a set of silver plate armour that reaches his mid-thighs with a belt around his waist. He also wears a pair of silver gauntlets, a white shirt under his armor, silver knee guards, and simple brown boots.^[12]

He is shown to have a meatier build, most likely due to his diet which consists of protein in order to survive longer without food in the dungeon, though he still has obvious muscles.^[13]

Gallery[]

Headshot of Laios.

Laios' build.

Laios and Falin at ages 13 and 10.

Personality[]

Despite being looked down on by most characters, Laios is an incredibly strong fighter and the leader of the party. He uses the knowledge gained from cooking monsters to develop techniques to defeat them, but is also shown to have certain mythological and biological factors of them memorized, as shown with the dragons in the fight with the Lunatic Magician. He is a very calm and gentle person but gets very passionate when he talks about monsters, which irritates most of the people around him. He tends to speak very quickly when excited and makes animated hand gestures as well as facial expressions, a complete 180 from his usual demeanor.^{[citation needed]}

He is shown to be much more interested in monsters than people as he couldn't remember every coming across Kabru's group after running into their corpses again until he saw their Kobold member.

As an adventurer and leader he is incredibly talented and effective. Apart from his ability to keep calm under pressure, issue orders and is quick on his feet he is exceptionally observant and above all else smart; when the group is attacked by living armors he is the only one that notices that their odd behavior goes against what is written about them and is quickly able to deduce that they are not in fact suits of armor controlled by a magic user but an actual living organism that lays eggs. He is able to deduce whether something is a threat or not based on their footsteps and is able to quickly formulate plans and strategies to defeat monsters and keep his group safe. He is also shown to care greatly about his teammates prioritizing their safety and has no issue abandoning treasures or prioritizing their safety over rewards.

Though he's intelligent and passionate when it comes to monsters, as well as talented with combat, he falters in most situations outside of the dungeon. He's shown to struggle with other people, missing social cues, being overly blunt, and doesn't seem to understand how things he says could be taken such as trying to compliment Marcille's half-blood nature by comparing her to a mule or remarking how if Falin hadn't been eaten by the dragon they would never have the good fortune of trying Holy Water Sorbet, which often leads to arguments with others. Falin appears to be the one person who truly understands what Laios is saying and is unbothered by his eccentricities, even sharing in them; After offending the party with his comment about being lucky that Falin got eaten as they had the opportunity to try a special monster sorbet because of it, he notes that Falin would undoubtedly agree with him understanding that he meant it in a an innocent "might as well try to find the positive in anything" sort of way.^{[citation needed]}

Throughout his life he has shown to have trouble fitting in with people wherever he goes, being unable to understand them to the point where he develops a slight hatred of them. The Golden Lion notes that a part of his fascination with monsters is their power over humans, claiming as a child he wished that monsters would attack his village leaving only Falin and him alive.

Many note in general he seems odd due to the fact that shows no interest in fame, fortune or any human motivations in exploring the dungeon like other adventurers. He is shown to be a simple man who needs very little.

Despite having good intentions and seeing most people as his friends, those same people are uncomfortable around Laios and see him as someone who has the potential to become "evil" due to not understanding him. They are often unsettled by his reverence and adoration of monsters, dispassionate response to people and violence and interpret many of his blunt responses as alarming as he often unintentionally says things that can be taken as borderline sociopathic. They often fail to realize that, while awkward, Laios does in fact care about and consider other people's emotions and safety to the point where he puts their lives above his own. Though this struggle persists throughout the show, he stays extremely friendly and accepting towards others, even if they do not do the same for him, being quick to forge friendships with other groups and even orcs. Possibly due to his indifference towards most living things other than monsters, he doesn't really see a difference between himself and other races, including the orcs.

Despite his odd love of monsters and social awkwardness he is by no means naive, he is well aware of the dangers monsters pose and is extremely wary of them, even more-so than other "normal" adventurers; when Senshi introduces the group to the Kelpie Anne who he claims is safe and a friend of his, Laios is adamant that it would be better to kill the creature citing that it cannot possibly have good intentions. At the same time he is savvy enough to not try and kill it against Senshi's wishes and seriously offend the Dwarf instead letting Senshi ride the Kelpie and rescue him when things inevitably turn south.^{[citation needed]}

Abilities[]

Laios is skilled in swordsmanship, knows simple magic, and is very knowledgeable when it comes to monsters.^[14] Despite Laios being a versatile leader, he has extremely poor people skills that hold him back.^[14]

He's able to do an amazing impression of a dog, which is very effective when threatening monsters, though a bit weird to see.^[15][16][17]

Ever since his childhood, Laios has been drawing monsters from his The Dungeon Gourmet Guide over and over, because of this he's become quite talented when it comes to drawing monsters.^[18]

His sword, Kensuke, is able to sense danger and alert Laios when troubles nearby, as well as move and grab things as shown later in the series.

Relationships[]

Falin Touden[]

"My little sister. She's incredible."

Falin is Laios' younger sister, and seemingly the person he cares most about. His quest revolves around getting her back, no matter what it takes. Laios and Falin were raised together by their parents in a village in the North. As children, they seemed to be very close. However, Falin was ostracized due to her magical talent, which frustrated Laios to the point of leaving the village alone as a teenager. Laios feels guilt over leaving Falin behind, stating that it hurts his chest to think about her having to eat alone. After getting a job that required him to travel to the island containing the Lunatic Magician's dungeon, he decided to quickly visit Falin at the Magic Academy. During this visit, she ran away from the school to go to the Island with Laios. On their arrival they began work as protection for gold strippers in the dungeon. Up until the manga's events, they spent most of their time within the dungeon.^[19] Laios and Falin are both considered strange by other characters, likely due to their respective fascinations with monsters and biology. They both also tend to not get along with other people very well, likely leading to their strengthened bond.

Marcille[]

"My little sister's friend. I respect her."

Marcille was introduced to Laios by Falin, four years after she dropped out of the Magic Academy to adventure with him.^[20] Initially, Laios was nervous towards Marcille, worrying that she'd blame him for taking away Falin to the point where he made plans to 'save her' from walking mushrooms in order to better her opinion of him, though he was shown to have underestimated her as she was able to kill the mushrooms with a single spell.^[21][22] After being revived from a death caused by a slime,^[23] Marcille and Laios made a mutual agreement to explore the dungeon together because of similar interests^[24] (Marcille's fascination with ancient magic and dungeons,^[25] and Laios' fascination with monsters).^[26] Marcille is initially distraught by Laios' monster-eating obsession,^[27][28] and continues to make it clear that eating monsters upsets her, though Laios tries his best to adapt to her wishes by making food and choosing ingredients more akin to normal foods on the surface and acts gently when persuading her into eating it.

Though their relationship is complicated, they are still shown to care about each other, with Laios being the one to try and save Marcille from her nightmare, giving her the neck armor to protect from the dungeon rabbits, and very often prioritizing her life over the others due to her being a mage.

Despite Laios never meaning to hurt Marcille, his dense nature has lead him into putting her into stressful situations on occasion without much consideration to her feelings, though later on in the series he notes this and tries to become more accommodating to her.^[29] They share a love and respect for Falin, with their end goal of getting her back being nearly identical. They are usually quite friendly with each other as well, Marcille even praising Laios when he grows adept at healing magic.^{[citation needed]}

Chilchuck[]

"A reliable companion"

Chilchuck is one of the original members of Laios' party, in charge of picking locks and locating and disarming traps. Laios appears to respect Chilchuck's skills, viewing him as a professional in this regard^[30] and reminding other members of their party of the pressure on Chilchuck to keep the rest of them alive.^[31] Laios enjoys talking to Chilchuck, and they share a common interest in alcohol. Laios was very obviously surprised and shocked when Chilchuck was revealed to be 29 years old, asking if he should call him 'mister' and treat him with the respect of a senior. Chilchuck himself takes an almost parental or older brother like role with Laios at times occasionally lecturing him about his responsibilities as a leader or gently chiding him for his blunders though these are always done with the best intentions.

Senshi[]

"My ambition. I dream of living like him."

Senshi joins Laios' party due to his fondness for eating monsters. Laios is fascinated by Senshi's cooking wisdom, with their conversations usually revolving around preparing monster meals. Senshi seems to be the only other person who respects the act of eating monsters as Laios does, never once ridiculing Laios and rather working with him to make new cooking discoveries.

Namari[]

"Knows a lot about weapons"

Namari is a former member of Laios' adventuring party.^[32] Although they have had disputes in the past about weapons, Laios admires and respects Namari's expertise.^[33] Laios holds no ill feelings to Namari for leaving the party.^{[citation needed]}

Shuro[]

"He's foreign. I want to be friends."

Shuro is a former member of Laios' party.^[32] Although Laios thinks highly of him and considers him a friend,^[34] Shuro finds his oblivious nature to be troublesome and difficult to deal with. When they had a fight, Shuro yelled out in the moment that he always disliked Laios and was mainly nice to him for Falin, causing them to have strained interactions from there on out.^[35]

Izutsumi[]

"Cat"

Izutsumi, also known as Asebi, was previously one of Shuro's servants but is currently a member of Laios' party. She does not like to eat monsters and has a complicated relationship with the party, being protective of them but aggressive at the same time. Laios tries his best to be nice to her and doesn't hate her despite her lack of cooperation. Laios also expresses interest in her status as a beastkin and often wondering about her anatomy, being mixed with an animal and human.

Winged Lion[]

"It's a bit different from a regular monster..."

Kensuke[]

Kensuke is a mollusk-like monster that lives with-in the cross guard of the sword Laios found while fighting Living Armor. Laios immediately takes a liking to the monster on finding it, hiding it from discovery by Marcille and the rest of the party.^[36] He recognizes it's usefulness after noticing its response to the presence of Treasure Insects and alerting him to danger,^[37] where after, he joyfully gives it the name Kensuke.^[38] However, during their second fight against the Red Dragon, Kensuke leaps out of Laios' grasp in self-preservation, leading to the group to scramble to find another weapon and almost killing them. Despite his compassion for the monster, as soon as Falin expressed interest in eating monsters Laios didn't hesitate to propose eating Kensuke. In the later chapters, it's revealed that the Winged Lion is seeing out of and controlling Kensuke to an extent, causing the relationship between the two to change immensely.

Laios' Parents[]

Laios holds animosity towards his parents, likely due to the treatment him and Falin received as children. According to a nightmare he experiences, his parents have high expectations of him, and do not approve of his living of exploring and challenging dungeons.^[39] Laios believed his father to be negligent towards him and Falin, their father rarely spoke to them or told them anything.^[40] In Daydream Hour 3, it is stated that Laios keeps his appearance tidy in order to distance himself from his father.^[41] Laios' mother is sickly and emotionally fragile, Laios isn't comfortable around her either.^[18]

Trivia[]

• His favorite foods are dairy products, especially cheesecake.
• His least favorite type of foods are squid/octopus.
• His first cause of death within a dungeon was blood loss due to a Living Armor attack.^[42]
• Laios was once depicted having blue eyes in an illustration for Harta's eleventh issue.^[43]
• Laios' age is unknown for the earlier portion of the series. When Chilchuck said he would turn 29 later in the year, Laios referred to him as "Mister Chilchuck" (チルチャックさん, Chiruchakku-san^?), implying that Chilchuck is older than him.^[44]
  • In Daydream Hour 2, it is stated that he is approximately three years older than his sister Falin.^[45]
  • It is later revealed that Laios is 26 years old.^[46]
• Despite his deep love and admiration of monsters, he has no illusions to the threat they pose. If anything his reverence of them has made him extra cautious to them.
• Laios does an excellent impression of a dog, noted first by his sister^[15] and then by the rest of his party.^[16] This is seen when confronting the Shapeshifter, where he sounds identical to a hunting dog.^[47]
  • The names of the dogs he has owned are: Anowtrid (アノートリド, Anōtorido^?), Fucci (フッチ, Fucchi^?), Nussa, Muimui, Dustrag and Boff.^[16] Anowtrid and Nussa were the pets his father owned and named.^[48]
• According to Falin, Laios looks like his father when he grows his hair out.^[41] Due to Laios' animosity towards him, he usually keeps it cut short along with a clean shave.^[49]
• In a Daydream Hour short comic, it's shown that when they arrived to the Island, his sister shaved his beard and cut his hair for him to seem more professional for their employers, which is possibly when she made the comparison to his father and caused him to upkeep his appearance from there on out.
• During Laios' dream, he mentions that he hasn't seen his parents in over 10 years.^[50]
• When trying to sleep, instead of counting sheep, Laios appears to count satyrs/fauns.^[51]
• Both he and his sister were engaged individually in the past but had their respective engagements annulled.^[52]
• In Laios' and Falin's village, they often had to deal with nomads who lived in the mountains near their home. They describe these nomads as savage and unreasonable, and the village would have to kill them if they got too close to the village.^[53]
• After Falin awoke in Chapter 97, a party to celebrate Falin's awakening commenced but right before it started Laios collapsed from exhaustion after watching over Falin while she slept.^[54]
• Even after reverting from his Ultimate Strongest Monster form, Laios still retains some abilities from that form.
  • For example, several forests were created from Laios' poop, though this ability gradually disappeared.^[55][56]
  • Another one of the Ultimate Strongest Monster's abilities was the ability to change shape.^[55] After defeating the Winged Lion and washing up on the Island, Laios transformed back into a tall-man and removed parts of his monster off himself. "As if he threw them off", according to Izutsumi.^[57]
• When Laios dies he wants to have a sky burial, a funeral practice in which a corpse is left on a mountaintop to be eaten by scavenging animals. He specifically wants to be eaten by monsters and become apart of the food chain.^[58]
• Though not canon, Laios is believed to be on the Autism Spectrum by many fans due to events throughout the series. His lack of social cues, intense obsessive fascination with monsters and not knowing when people dislike him are the main reasons for this implication.^[59] In an argument with Shuro, it was mentioned that these behaviors where a major strife in their relationship, Shuro saying "Pretty much anyone would have picked up on it from the way I was acting!" and Laios responding "How the hell could I figure that out?!"^[35]
  • It's less implied, but many fans speculate that Laios is aromantic and/or asexual as he seems to lack any romantic and sexual attraction , however romantic love of any kind is not a major part of the series or explored much making it possible that that aspect is simply not explored in this series. The primary reason he is suspected to be asexual is that when encountering the succubus, a creature that takes the form of what it's prey is most attracted to, he is completely indifferent to the creatures attempts to seduce him as Marcille and only responds when the succubus turns into a monster/Marcille hybrid. However the "attraction" the succubus appeals to doesn't necessarily have to be a sexual one; when the succubus preyed on Izutsumi it took the form of her "mother" offering parental love instead of something that would sexually attract her.

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