| Goenitz | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Series |
The King of Fighters |
|
Debut |
The King of Fighters '96 (1996) |
|
Console of origin |
Arcade |
|
Species |
Human |
|
Gender |
Male |
Leopold Goenitz (レオポルドゲーニッツ, Reoporudo Gēnittsu) is a video game character who made his first appearance in the Neo Geo fighting game The King of Fighters '96 as the last boss, following Chizuru Kagura. He is one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Orochi; with the power to command wind, his full title as a heavenly king is Goenitz of the Wildly-Blowing Wind (吹き荒ぶ風のゲーニッツ, Fukisusabu Kaze no Gēnittsu).
History[]
Ever since Goenitz was young, he knew his duty as a Heavenly King and made haste to revive his lord Orochi. In an attempt to reach this means, he became a religious missionary who would travel to those in need. When he was eighteen, he challenged Rugal Bernstein and easily defeated the older man by taking out one of his eyes. As an experiment, he granted his opponent some of Orochi's power to see if he could become a valid host for the entity. Goenitz eventually assigns the task of observing the crimelord to two other Hakkeshu, Mature and Vice.
Meanwhile, he paid a visit to a remote village where a Hakesshu member, Gaidel, was staying. To his surprise, Gaidel was living a peaceful life and had no interest in their lord's mission. In response, Goenitz activated the Riot of the Blood in his daughter, Leona, which lead to the death of her parents and everyone else in the village. Pleased with the results, he sealed away her memories and continued to look for ways of speeding up his lord's revival. He noticed that the seal containing Orochi is too strong for his lord, so he paid a visit to the Yata household. He murdered the current head of the clan, Maki Kagura, to break the seal's power.
Sometime after the 1995 tournament, he also decided to track the Three Sacred Treasures that previously defeated his lord. Since he had previously judged Chizuru Kagura, and Mature and Vice were keeping an eye on Iori Yagami, Goenitz decided to personally test Kyo Kusanagi's strength. Although he expected a glorious fight from the 1995 champion, he defeated the Kusanagi heir with ease. Later, he interrupts the 1996 tournament to finally end all three heirs at once. In the final events of the tournament, he is defeated by Kyo with the help of Iori and Chizuru. Humiliated, Goenitz commits suicide in the aftermath of the tournament, making Kyo the champion of the tournament.
According to the original online stories in the Maximum Impact universe, Goenitz and the other deceased Hakkeshu still haunt the mortal realm at Orochi's behest. His master wants him to study the current mentality of humans, and Goenitz obeys by occasionally materializing his spirit into the mortal realm to have philological conversations with random people. He shares one such chat with Ninon Beart.
Personality[]
Though influenced by Orochi, he retains much of the mannerisms and civility of a priest, which is reflected in his winning poses and his elegant, somewhat flowery speech. He sports the same "messiah" attitude that aspires to "save" people and dispatch disbelievers. In SvC Chaos, he shows great hostility towards characters of demonic origins, such as Demitri Maximoff and Red Arremer. He seems to be respected by the New Faces Team (as they are allies), and reciprocates the gesture with a bow, as seen in KoF '98 UM and KoF 2002 UM.
Fighting Style[]
Goenitz fights mainly with his control over wind with little concern for utilizing any established combative techniques. Like the other Four Kings, his moves are all written using the Cyrillic alphabet into Roumaji. His trademark move, Yo no Kaze, is a tornado that comes up at random, slicing any foe it touches, done while uttering his "infamous" catchphrase "Here?" (ここですか？, Koko desu ka?).
Goenitz seems to posses an 'enhanced' version of a fighting style used by a main character like with the other three kings; in this case, he has shown to possess a "true" version of the Yasakani-Style martial art; namely, some of Iori Yagami's moves done in a different fashion, such as the "true versions" of Iori's Aoi Hana, Koto Tsuki and Ya Otome/Maiden Masher. While the other kings of Orochi sport one signature super from each member of the Japan Team, Goenitz has had much on the speculation of the actual origins of his copied techniques. Though it hints that most of the Yasanaki-now-Yagami's techniques ever since the curse, have added most of the Orochi's techniques to their regime, with Goenitz being an original practicioner.