Seven Deadly Sins: Meliodas

 I've resolved to find the Seven Deadly Sins with you and stop the Holy Knights. Even if you were to die, I would fulfil the promise made with you.

~ Meliodas to Elizabeth Liones in Even If You Died

Introduction

Meliodas is the Dragon's Sin of Wrath and captain of the Seven Deadly Sins, formerly the owner of the renowned tavern Boar Hat, and is the main protagonist of the series. His Sacred Treasure is the Demon Sword Lostvayne and his inherent power is Full Counter. He was also the head of the Ten Commandments, as Meliodas the Love and a former member of Stigma. He is the older brother of Zeldris and the eldest son of the Demon King.

Despite having the appearance of a child, Meliodas is much older, being more than three thousand years old. He is exceptionally short compared to other characters, with messy blond hair and a pair of emerald eyes.

He also lacks facial hair, further accentuating his adolescent appearance. Regardless of his stature and youthful looks, he is relatively muscular, possessing an array of well-developed abdominal muscles. He often wears an ordinary, clean white button-front shirt and a black sleeveless vest on top with a loosely worn tie.

His Broken Sword's scabbard is held on by a green leather belt with gold-coloured buckles. Without any socks, he wears a pair of black boots. His most distinctive trait is his Dragon symbol carved at the top of his left bicep, just below his shoulder.

When Meliodas was the leader of the Ten Commandments, he wore a white, sleeveless coat adorned by a batch of black X-shaped buttons from all around the high collar, black lining on the coat, a dark red colour on the inside, and a coat's tail. He also had black pants with matching coloured boots. Meliodas also wielded a large, yet sleek sword, but during his battle with Elizabeth against the Demon King and Supreme Deity it was destroyed.

During his tenure as the leader of Danafor's Holy Knights, Meliodas wore their traditional armour, much like Cain Barzad's. Ten years ago he wore a full-body silver armour with a unique helmet, like the rest of the Sins. He also wielded a dagger that appeared to be his Sacred Treasure.

Meliodas was issued a wanted poster, like the rest of the Sins, after being framed for the murder of Great Holy Knight Zaratras. The most current issue of his wanted poster does not accurately depict him but, coincidentally, does depict his brother, Estarossa.

After the Kingdom Infiltration arc, Meliodas sports a new outfit; a long-sleeved, high-collared white tunic over an undershirt, a pair of gloves, knee-length black pants, and black boots. This outfit is a bit more formal like a uniform with the "Boar Hat" embroidered on his back.

After his time in Purgatory, Meliodas now has seven permanent scars where his hearts are located and sports a new Black Mark similar to the one he previously had as leader of the Ten Commandments. He now wears the debut outfit he previously wore.

In his Assault Mode, Meliodas shroud himself in darkness. This takes the appearance of a vest-like coat that only covers his armpits, which flares out at ragged ends, and has a very high collar which is spread wide. He also has two wrist bands, made up of the same darkness as the rest of his clothes. His pants are connected to his feet look like a bird's talons, but with five toes.

In Purgatory, Meliodas' emotions wear a V-neck blue vest, made with the skin of indigenous species, that has three silver diamond-shaped buttons; the vest covers his shoulders and slightly exposes his chest with a small up-turned collar, and slightly opens at the hem. The blue gloves and knee-length pants have a leather-like appearance to it, and both have the same diamond-shaped button on it. Meliodas also seems to wear shoes, rather than his usual choice; boots.

After absorbing all the Commandments and becoming a vessel for the Demon King, Meliodas' body became that of a tall and muscular adult with long hair, a white full-body leotard, golden boots, and gauntlets and two long, clawlike protrusions coming out of a dark matter accumulated on his back. He also has several black marks around his body, including his dragon's symbol on his shoulder.

After the Demon King was driven out of his body, Meliodas returned to his previous appearance. Meliodas also achieved a new form similar to when he was possessed by his father. However, the power was lost when he sacrificed it to destroy the Commandments forever.

Personality

Meliodas' dominant traits are his frankness and his utter fearlessness, shown when he remains composed seeing the Rust Knight who was later revealed to be Elizabeth Liones. Due to his horrible cooking, when his customers vomit onto the Boar Hat's floor, he instructs Hawk to clean up the scraps and scares him by saying phrases such as "roast pig" if he complains, hinting he may roast the talking pig.

He is also shown to be very bawdy and loves to frequently tell jokes. Occasionally, he takes advantage of Elizabeth's naivety and gropes her breasts, not even ashamed of doing so in public or in front of her father. He also has a strong sense of justice and is willing to help people in distress. Even when he is severely injured, he tries not to show weakness and stays strong in front of his companions. He holds resentment for himself, deeming himself a failure as an older brother to Zeldris due to the suffering he caused him.

Despite his title as the Sin of Wrath, he maintains the facade of a very calm person. However, if his companions or friends are harmed in any way, he is shown to be capable of extreme rage.

He is also enraged when someone tries to take his sword, with this rage being capable of scaring even a Holy Knight and causing him to leave a permanent scar on Ban's neck, despite his regeneration abilities. It has been hinted that Meliodas is guilt-ridden over the fate of Danafor, saying that his sin was being unable to save the kingdom. Ban and Cain point out that Meliodas tends to be soft and naive, due to him never killing anyone, even someone like Guila, who was a serious threat to the group. Meliodas dislikes killing, preferring to be merciful.

Despite all of this, however, Meliodas' personality was once much darker and terrifying, as he was revered to as the vilest and most terrifying demon in existence and no other demon would dare challenge Meliodas when he was the leader of the Ten Commandments and heir to the throne. Although not much has been shown of how he was, Meliodas displays a harsh, arrogant demeanour towards any lesser demon, coldly telling Bellion to get lost and calling him a hindrance and not even bothering to give him another thought as he began his battle with Mael.

He is not intimidated by any Goddess except perhaps the Supreme Deity, doing battle with them relentlessly each day and he also does not fear even the mighty Four Archangels, as he is aware of his strength dwarfing theirs and rivalling, if not, surpassing even the mightiest and the fact that even they fear him, as shown by how he does not at all look fazed at the idea of battling Mael. However, even while in such a state, Meliodas still had doubts about the war but due to his loyalty to his father, he never once faltered whenever doing battle with the Goddesses.

His angry reaction when the Demon King called him a destroyer for his plans to make his true self King of the Demons strongly implies that even in his prime, his father was still more demonic than he ever was. In the end, it was this aspect that allowed him to fall in love with Elizabeth and eventually abandon the Demons for her, choosing to stop the meaningless war. Whenever using his Demon Mark, Meliodas' personality changes to be similar to that of his old self, becoming cold, quiet, ruthless, and murderous as he kills and attacks anyone near him without mercy aside from Elizabeth. Despite being renowned as a pervert, the Seven Deadly Sins reveal that Meliodas never displayed any interest towards other females before meeting a grown Elizabeth.

After his time in Purgatory, due to having lost some of his emotions, Meliodas' personality changes drastically whenever he uses the black mark, becoming far more ruthless and at times even sadistic in his battles and wasting no time in his attempts to kill his former demon allies. He states that his outlook has changed and is merciless in his battle with Monspeet and Derieri. During his fight with Fraudrin, he sadistically toyed with his historic enemy using a clone with half his power to give Fraudrin false hope of defeating him, relishing his despair upon realizing Meliodas' true power. In the aftermath of the battle, Meliodas professes to Elizabeth that he is genuinely terrified of becoming that person again.

Beneath Meliodas' frank and bawdy demeanour hides immense amounts of emotional pain from having witnessed Elizabeth die over 106 times. Due to this, Meliodas has no fear of death and intends to lift his and Elizabeth's Curses, which he calmly admits will kill him for good, to free himself and Elizabeth from the torment and so they can be reunited in the afterlife.

Upon releasing his demonic powers in a desperate attempt to escape Melascula's Antan no Mayu Meliodas fully reverts to his old self as the leader of the Ten Commandments. With his old personality in control, Meliodas has been seen to be easily annoyed and angered, being far more brutal, sarcastic, sadistic, and cruel than ever, showing visible pleasure and clearly mocks Escanor while easily beating him up. He also looks down on humans like most demons, as evidenced when he called Escanor a lowly human.

He has also been seen to enjoy fighting, as evidenced by the fact that he toyed with Escanor rather than simply immediately going all out and killing him. While arrogant, he is not above complimenting his foes if they are truly powerful, as when he openly praised Escanor for putting up a fight against him.

This arrogance is well-known to the Demons, as shown by how Zeldris stated that the only reason Escanor was able to defeat Meliodas was that Meliodas had a bad habit of toying around with opponents to mock them even if they proved to be very formidable and noted that he deserved his defeat at Escanor's hands due to it.

Upon regaining consciousness after being defeated by Escanor, Meliodas regains his memories of Elizabeth and the Seven Deadly Sins. However, he had become solely devoted to breaking Elizabeth's curse and no longer cares about opposing the Demon Clan, even going as far as to ally with his former enemies and even become Demon King to accomplish it. With most of his emotions taken, Meliodas has gained a much calmer and collected attitude with no trace of his old frankness and is also much harsher and straight-to it, as shown when arriving on Camelot and confronting Zeldris and Estarossa, where he sternly says that both Elizabeth and the throne of the Demon King belongs to him alone and had no qualms pinning them down powerfully to make them submit to him. He does, however, retain some level of mercy towards the Seven Deadly Sins as rather as simply killing them, he offered them a chance to stand down and admits that the days he spent with the Sins were not all bad. He also offered Arthur, who he once acted as a mentor to, a chance to leave Camelot Castle on his own will, although he did so harshly, ruthlessly telling him that it is no place for humans like him anymore, and he has left the Sins, and had no qualms engaging him when he refused.

He is not above making deals with others rather than simply forcing them to do what he wants or getting rid of them, as he promised Zeldris that he will fulfil Zeldris' desire if he agrees to help rather than just killing him ruthlessly or beating him until he submits.

He also appears to still have affection and attraction towards Elizabeth, as he went out of his way to say when Estarossa said that he wants her that Elizabeth is his alone and patiently tried to make her understand that becoming the Demon King is the only way to save her, but he can now easily become rude at her, as he coldly told her that he felt nothing when she hugged him and had no qualms trying to force her to understand why he must become Demon King by saying bluntly that the only thing he had left is the promise he made to her and even told her openly that he considered her love for him to be imprinted by the Supreme Deity and not by her own will, a fact that he seemed bitter of. He apologized to Zeldris for being such a bad older brother, proving that his emotions were not completely gone.