Lio Fotia (リオ・フォーティア) is the leader of Mad Burnish and starts off as the antagonist of Promare. He later becomes a strong ally to Galo and the Burning Rescue.
Personality
Lio is the leader of Mad Burnish, a resistance movement against the experiments on Burnish. To the general public, his resistance is viewed as terrorism. Though he uses his abilities as a Burnish to burn buildings, he always leaves an escape route for those inside. He is adamant that Burnish should never kill. He is incredibly passionate about protecting those who cannot protect themselves. He's one of the most powerful Burnish, intelligent, and a reliable leader. However, his passion and abilities also lead to his downfall, as he will rampage due to his and others pain.
He is shown to mock those in authority, specifically Freeze Force and the Foresight Foundation. Their mistreatment of the Burnish only fuels this more. This is why he shows distrust with Galo at first, as Galo was affiliated with Kray before being betrayed. Lio was also quick to point out the issue with Galo's beliefs on Burnish, as Burnish are still human.
His and Galo's aggressive fighting styles are very compatible. This is evidenced by their cooperation together with Lio de Galon and Galo de Lio.
Appearance
Lio is of slender build and relatively short stature. He has pale skin, and light green-blonde voluminous hair. His eyelashes and eyebrows are the same color. His eyes are pink, though often reflect purple and orange hues.
Lio wears a black leather jacket adorned with military-esque cords, zippers, and belts. Underneath he wears a long-sleeved white shirt with frilled cuffs and a cravat. He wears a pair of cropped black gloves and pants thay resemble sleek biker pants with built-in kneepads and multiple fastening belts. His shoes are black with two buckles.
The armor he creates with Promare is jet black, sleek, and tall, with stilted blade-like legs with whitened segments. His helmet's visor resembles jagged pointed teeth and ends in two horn-like flairs. In an attempt to appear more intimidating, the armor is much taller and well built looking than he actually is. This occasionally results in the shock of others.
When consumed by rage and agony, flames cloak him and his entire form takes on a silhouetted appearance only defined by stark white outlines and his own bright eyes. He also appears to emit two horn-like flames from his head, resembling his armor.
History
Lio-Hen
Lio is first introduced during the prologue Lio-Hen, where he arrives to save the then lawless Mad Burnish from the Freeze Force. Following their rescue, Lio states that the Mad Burnish's thoughtless attacks are simply making life more difficult for the Burnish and if they go so far as to kill someone the government would crackdown on the Burnish ten-fold. When prompted for what they should do instead, he proposes they build a self-sufficient society away from humans. The former leaders of Mad Burnish agree to his plan and say they will follow him as their new leader.
Promare
Relationships
Galo
Mad Burnish
Kray
Gallery
Trivia
- Lio's last name, Fotia, comes from Greek word for fire.
- Incidentally, it is also the name of one of Greece's islands.
- Lio's first name comes from Leo, which is a Latin term meaning 'lion.'
- Lio Fotia was made into the leader of Mad Burnish in Lio-Hen. He seems to not have any affiliation with Mad Burnish beforehand, as Gueira and Meis are shown introducing themselves to him.
- Lio's armor has three horns on his head. Meanwhile, when in his enraged form, Lio has two horns sprouting from his hair instead.
- Between Lio, Gueira, and Meis, Lio is the shortest.
- Both Lio and Thyma are currently the only Burnish characters shown to create animals with their flames, with Lio having his fire dragon and Thyma with her snake.
- Lio's flames from being enraged were hot enough to evaporate an entire frozen lake.
- After the CPR kiss scene with Galo, the rest of Lio's jacket disappears for unknown reasons.
- Furthermore, unlike Thyma, Lio's wounds were fully restored by Galo giving Lio his flames.
- Lio is shown to have a fairly good memory, as evidenced by him remembering Galo's name and his matoi tech enough to be able to replicate it with Lio de Galon and Galo de Lion.
- In Lio's grocery bags for the escaped Burnish, there appears to be cans of Spam, Campbell's soup, a box of Twinkies, and Kraft Mac & Cheese.
- Lio can turn his flames into a variety of weapons. A few examples include a bow and arrow, a katana, scythe, and whip. He appears to have a preference towards his bow, as it is the one shown the most in Lio-Hen.
- In the 4DX release of Promare, when Lio's mask breaks off, Lio smells of roses.
- In pre-production, Lio was originally not going to be Burnish, with that role going to Galo instead[1].
- When it was decided he would be, Imaishi planned on having Lio be a human-shaped flame. Koyama scrapped the idea entirely.
- In the Memorial art book is a piece featuring Galo standing over a laying down, smirking Lio. When questioned about it, the artist of the piece, Gunyasu Shumpei, merely said it was up to interruption.
- In another piece in the Memorial art book, one image reveals that the strap belts on his pant legs aren't actually attached to them.
- Lio appears in the Japanese mobile game Monster Strike alongside other Trigger characters.
References
- ↑ "Some notes from the Promare panel yesterday!!!" https://twitter.com/Turbocrit/status/1196125354785529856