- "If there's one thing you taught me...it's that you're never too late to turn things around."
- —Luger to Trellis in Escape From Lucien
Luger (ルガー Luger) is an antagonist turned supporting character appearing in the Amulet graphic-novel series created by Kazu Kibuishi. He is the eldest son of the Elf King, and older brother to Prince Trellis. As a warrior and Stonekeeper, he was a formidable opponent, proving his skills against Emily and Leon and even defeating them with relative ease. He served under his father for many years until his initial defeat at the hands of the Resistance.
After Emily destroyed his amulet, he became more gentle and timid, as well as significantly older in his appearance. Luger currently serves somewhat as a mentor to Emily, and is shown to be very knowledgeable in the stone's power.
History[]
Early Life[]
Luger is the Elf King's firstborn, although it is unknown thus far when in particular. It is also unknown of when he received his Amulet.
When Trellis was young, Luger often took responsibility as the older brother. He advised Trellis not to listen to what others say about their father, and was careful in the presence of their uncle Virgil, believing him to be a negative influence.
Over the years, Luger excells over Trellis in both skill and loyalty to his father, gaining more favor.
At some point, Luger's memories were taken away by Gabilan under orders by the king. The knowledge that he is the son of the Elf King and the brother of Prince Trellis is lost to him.
Life as a Soldier[]
Luger is assigned by the Elf King as the leader of a squad of foot soldiers whose purpose is to aid Prince Trellis hunt down Emily Hayes and her associates after his initial failure. Luger takes pleasure in Trellis' disdain for his situation, making remarks such as telling how to 'gain his father's trust.'
The two of them clash on and off again up until their first encounter with the primary members of The Resistance. This results in a battle through city streets, in which Emily and company are ultimately victorious. Luger later orders his troops to fire a cannon at an occupied hospital, despite Trellis' discord. However, the Resistance and the patients are able to escape underground.
Thoroughly annoyed with Trellis, Luger later decides to act further and turns on the younger elf while travelling through Demon's Head Mountain, beating him to the ground, telling him that the hunt will be more successful without him. He tracks the Resistance to the Gadoba Trees, where he recognizes many of the bones and corpses scattered around the trees from picking the wrong fruit belonging to elves. Sensing that Emily is no longer present, Luger accuses the trees of murdering many of his people, and sets fire to the forest, killing everything that lives inside it.
He tracks Emily out of the forest, and is able to overcome her easily enough as most of her energy is employed in keeping her stone from gaining control over her. With Emily preoccupied, Luger duels Leon Redbeard in a swordfight and wins. Before he can cause further damage, however, Trellis arrives and stuns him with his own amulet. This enrages the older elf, who threatens him. Trellis replies with a simple reminder: The Elf King has taught him everything he ever taught Luger. Luger responds to this with an abrupt fit of maniacal laughter and the telltale phrase, "No...not everything." He then gives himself over to the complete control of his own stone. This results in an abrupt and terrifying transformation into a giant. He wastes no time in attempting to crush Trellis, and successfully drives Emily and Leon off the edge of a cliff, only for them to be saved by Navin, who is piloting the Charnon House.
Luger proceeds to combat Navin, who is using the house as a means of somewhat equalized combat. He quickly causes serious damage, and rips both arms off of the Charnon house. However, Luger is soon defeated after Emily repairs the house using the magic from her Amulet. Luger's hand is burnt by Emily's magic during the fight, and he receives a clean, hard blow to the face from the house that topples him and plunges him over the very cliff he tried to force them off of. His Amulet is destroyed in the process.
Life after defeat[]
The combination of transforming into a giant through loss of control and having his stone destroyed drastically changes Luger. He ages significantly, loses his great strength, and his personality changes from ruthless and cruel to timid and kind. He takes refuge in a cave and smashes a large rock against the remains of his Amulet when he is approached by Trellis. Initially fearful of his fate, Luger claims that he destroyed his stone, but Trellis tells him that it was Emily, and that she is the only one besides the Elf King whom he has seen destroy a stone. Luger expresses his fears for returning to the King without their mission completed, as the King will hang them for failing him. Trellis says that they won't go back, despite Luger's protests that they will be hunted. After watching Trellis supposedly "seal their fates" by contacting the Elf King, he and Trellis leave to go to a town nearby. Luger asks why Trellis is helping him, to which Trellis simply replies, "I don't know. I just feel I have to."
In Nautilis, Luger and Trellis take refuge in an alley, where elf soliders find and capture them while they were sleeping. The soldiers drag them into the Drinking Hole where their commander is. Emily Hayes uses her stone's power to help them escape, and they run away to the Luna Moth.
On board the airship, when Karen Hayes doesn't understand why Emily can't leave, Luger recognizes that she is affected by the curse of her stone. He expresses his gratitude to Emily and Karen for their rescue, and specifies to Karen that he is not Trellis' father.
Siding with Emily, and Co.[]
Luger cooks a meal for the crew and passengers of the Luna Moth, where he reveals that he has no memory of his early life. Later, at Selina's station, he explains to Emily and Trellis that the deceased Elf King has been reanimated by its stone and that they will need to destroy the stone in order to defeat him.
The crew comes to a floating temple providing a beacon to Cielis, where they are confronted by the assassin Gabilan. Luger recognizes Gabilan as the one who stole his memories of his life. Gabilan tells Luger that he was following the orders of his father, and Luger, Trellis and Emily come to the conclusion that Luger is Trellis' brother.
In Cielis[]
Luger and Trellis are immediately taken prisoner by the Cielis Guard upon arrival to the city. They are taken to Yarboro Prison and locked up in Cell Block Four. Luger concedes that all they can do is wait until the Elf King finds and kills the two of them, but Trellis tells him that Cielis is already corrupted.
Luger and Trellis are soon sprung by Leon and Alyson Hunter. Luger stays out of the fighting when the guard confronts them and Trellis and Leon fight them off.
Later on, when Trellis learns that stonekeepers have the ability to access memories of their pasts, Luger warns him of the dangers of doing so, telling him mastering the ability will take years, that the two of them must understand their past before fixing it, and that he would no longer be able to help him if something were to go wrong. Luger desperately tries to stop Trellis from entering the Void, but fails to do so. He encourages Emily to go rescue Trellis, and he survives the attack on the Luna Moth and its loss of a wing.
The Voyage[]
TBA
Characteristics[]
Appearance[]
As the older brother of Trellis, he is shown to be considerably taller. His features are chiseled and his face angular. As a commander, Luger wore black, metallic armor, typical to high-ranking officials in Gulfen. Following his defeat, his features appeared more gaunt, and he appeared to had aged significantly and his back hunched over. He also seemed to become much shorter than before.
Personality[]
Prior to his initial defeat, he was shown to be a cunning and powerful warrior, nearly crushing the fledgling Resistance during his introduction. In battle, he has proven to be an excellent strategist and seemed to maintain a calm demeanor throughout, but was also willing to take extreme measures in his pursuit of Emily. He was willing to detonate a hospital clinic that he knew was fully occupied in his attempt to kill Emily and her companions, despite Trellis' desperate desire for a less violent method. Luger simply responded with the statement, that sacrifices must be made for the greater good, despite the risk being unnecessary considering that he had many other options for defeating them at his disposal.
Following his defeat, his personality fluctuated from cruel, proud, and overbearing (all likely gained from his stone) to subdued, gentle, and timid. He is currently somewhat of a mentor to Emily and Trellis, and appears to be quite knowledgeable in the stone's power. He is more soft-spoken and when Emily's mother says that Trellis should be more like his father (to which Trellis storms off) he defends Trellis, saying that she must understand that he isn't his father.
Relationships[]
Elf king[]
The Elf King is Luger's father. He places great trust inside Luger, and the relation between the two were good until the third book. Luger was never aware that the Elf King was dead and possessed until after his defeat.
Virgil[]
Virgil is Luger's uncle. It is seen that the two had a nice relation, but it seemed that Luger was jealous of Virgil's attention to his younger brother.
Trellis[]
Trellis is Luger's younger brother. It was seen that Luger and Trellis got along when they were young, but kept having squabbles after both growing up, as shown in the second book. They now enjoy being together, Trellis going to the point of caring for Luger, despite not knowing at the time they were brothers. It can be assumed that both of them had their memories wiped by Gabilan.
Powers and Abilities[]
As a stonekeeper, Luger was a formidable opponent, taking on Emily, Trellis, and Leon at Demon's Head Mountain with relative ease. It is shown that due to his superior skill over Trellis, the Elf King favors him greatly and immediately recruits him following Trellis' failure. Also, possibly thanks to his way of looking at the larger picture than at smaller details, Luger was less occupied by smaller battles, leading to an overall better success rate than Trellis, who usually ran head-first into battle. The fact that Luger succeeded at his tasks more than Trellis, made their father (the Elf King) favor him more. Luger also demonstrates a vaster knowledge in regards to the stone's powers and limitations, as he was able to catch Trellis by surprise when he used its power in order to transform himself into a towering giant (also called Colossal beasts).
In this form, Luger becomes a vast, grossly disproportionate being, presumably identical to the ones depicted in the memories of various character. He now lacks the power of speech, and seems to be primarily animal in nature, more of a force of mindless destruction than a living being.
Luger's powerful strength and skills were stripped away from him after the destruction of his stone. It's possible that it was thanks to the stone that he received such strength.
He is shown to have fairly good cooking skills, instructing some of the house's resident machines on how to cook properly.
Luger is also shown to be an excellent player of the game Othello.
Featured[]
- The Stonekeeper's Curse
- The Cloud Searchers
- The Last Council
- Prince of the Elves
- Escape from Lucien