Every mainstream action anime comes with its protagonist and related side characters, and a lot of focus on those, Akame ga Kill is no exception. But there is an added feature in this anime, that antagonistic characters are also important in this story. General Esdeath is a powerful character among those.
General Esdeath may be an antagonistic character in the story but not by any means, she is of any less importance.
She may as well be considered one of the most important characters in the story.
To know further about General Esdeath in her entirety and her importance in the story we need to look deep into the story and understand her individuality.
General Esdeath
General Esdeath first appears in 5th episode of this series.
Although she first appeared for a brief period, she came with an impact.
In this episode, she conquers the great strategist and hero of the North tribe Numa Seika.
She broke his spirit making him behave like a dog, licking her shoe.
In the end, she killed him with a kick in the head.
Disturbed by the activity of Night Raid, Prime Minister Honest ordered to call General Esdeath back to the capital. Even the ally officials were fear-stricken by that.
She was a person, whose name did strike fear in the hearts of enemies, and allies alike.
She was considered the next strongest person after the Commander-in-chief Budou, the strongest in the Empire.
The main reason to fear her wasn’t her strength, but her cold and cruel nature.
As an example, we saw her burying four hundred thousand northern indigenous people alive.
Even the corrupt and cruel Prime Minister Honest mentioned her as an ice-woman.
Details on General Esdeath
General Esdeath is a barbaric, torture-loving, sadist.
There is a wordplay in her name in Japanese, “S” being, a sadist and “Desu” being, I am/she is, “S”+”Desu”= Esdeath or “I am sadist”/” She is sadist”.
She believes in “natural selection” of, strong prey on weak, as taught by her late father.
By birth, she wasn’t of the capital.
She belonged to a small tribe named Parthian Clan nested up in the Northern Frontier Lands of the country.
Esdeath was the strongest hunter in the village after her father.
She had a tragic past, where her mother was killed by a Danger Beast, which according to her father was due to her weakness.
She was the only survivor of the clan as her village was destroyed by a rival clan.
The character of General Esdeath
Even from her early childhood, something was broken inside General Esdeath.
Being a skilled hunter and powerful individual was her strong suit, but she never felt any emotional attachment towards the weak.
Even when her village was destroyed, except being perplexed by her father’s death, she didn’t feel anything else.
Even after her village was destroyed, she didn’t mourn but started her hunt for Danger Beast to become strong enough to not face an ending same as that.
After she was bored of her prey, she moved to the capital and changed her prey from Danger Beast to humans after becoming a General.
This transition meant nothing to her, as both Danger Beast and Human were weaker than her.
So she viewed both Danger Beast and Humans as simple prey.
She was drunk on power and arrogance.
There was an instance, where she captured a tribal village, which opposed the Empire, and captured its leaders.
But, all she did was pillage the village to keep her army’s morale high and let those leaders go.
She was confident about defeating them anytime.
General Esdeath and her power
General Esdeath and the Teigu
There are many instances, where Teigu(Imperial Arms) are shown as important and deciding factors in a battle.
General Esdeath owned one of the most powerful Imperial Arms.
Every Teigu generally never works with every person.
Every Teigu has its entitled holder, who is compatible with it.
Being the blood-crazed person that General Esdeath was, she was compatible with a unique and dangerous Teigu.
The Teigu she owned was named “Demon Extract”.
It activated “Demon God Manifestation”.
Demon extract was created using the lifeblood of a super-class Danger Beast that lived in the Northern parts of The Empire.
To achieve the power of that Teigu, it was necessary to at least drink a glass of the lifeblood and there was a full urn of it.
Due to the murderous aura that was emitting out of the lifeblood, many sane people went crazy after drinking that.
But General Esdeath countered that murderous aura with her murderous nature and bloodthirsty.
General Esdeath made a daring move and drank the lifeblood of the whole urn.
She gained subsequent abilities due to that action.
She could make ice out of zero resources and freeze the vicinity.
There was one instance, where she froze an entire river.
That river did cut her army off from the opposing tribe’s main village.
She used this makeshift ice bridge to cross over and defeat them, capturing their leaders.
She used her ability to form an ice column to fight Dr. Stylish’s remaining gigantic experiment subject in episode 14.
This ability was used multiple times to freeze enemy soldiers entirely.
Her ace in the hole was “Makahadoma”, a unique ability to freeze space and time!!
She used this ability only two times in the whole series.
Personal Ability
Except for her Teigu, she is an exceptional sword specialist.
Her ability to smell danger was exceptional.
The threat she presented to her enemies by only existing nearby was an exclusive ability itself.
Those factors made her more powerful than ever.
Her decisiveness and ability to strategize excellent and cold-hearted plans led to victory most of the time.
This quality could also be included as her power factor.
General Esdeath and subordinates
General Esdeath was ruthless to the enemies but was considerate towards her allies.
She placed the interest of her subordinates foremost and allowed them to do as they pleased as long as they followed orders.
There were times she allowed her army to pillage enemy residents to keep their morals high.
She even gave her share of the reward from the Emperor away to her army to keep their loyalty.
There were an elite team of three members, named the “Team of Three Beasts” under Esdeath.
One of the members of that team was Liver, the prior superior of Bulat of Night Raid.
He was falsely charged by the corrupt Prime Minister Honest and was imprisoned, but was bailed by General Esdeath as she needed her.
This action made him so loyal to her that he was ready to kill his former favorite subordinate Bulat.
Except for him, there was Daidara, who planned to gain experience through battles with strong opponents, which she allowed.
But at some point, she with her concern seemed like a phony, as when the members of “Team of Three Beasts” died at the hands of Night Raid, she only said, that, they died because they were weak.
The next team was a secret team formed without any directives, named “Jaegers”.
This team was built specially to deal with the Night Raid and to kill every person who is connected with the Revolutionary Army.
She showed great importance to each member of this team.
Be it, showing self-blaming Bols, that his scarred face was nothing to worry about among allies.
After Seryu Ubiquitous lost her mentor Captain Ogre and benefactor Dr.Stylish, to Night Raid, she comforted Seryu by hugging her like a mother figure.
She worried for Kurome in her sickness like a family member.
General Esdeath and love
There was a foreshadowing of the change in the mindset of General Esdeath in the 7th episode.
It was there, she stated her wish to find love as a reward from the Emperor.
She even sent a list of required qualities in her potential partner to his royal highness later.
In episode 9, she holds a fighting tournament to find the user of the Teigu left behind by the “Team of Three Beasts”.
She had a hidden wish of finding her potential partner there.
Even though she showed her tenderness by showing interest in romance, she remained true to her ideal.
She had some strict requirements for her potential partner.
She found those qualities in Tatsumi and became enamored.
General Esdeath & Tatsumi
Tatsumi simply came to the tournament for money and information regarding General Esdeath.
General Esdeath was indirectly related to the death of a Night Raid member and one of Tatsumi’s mentors Sheele.
Still, he forced himself to play along as she forced her love on him.
At first, he thought of making her switch sides to revolution forces.
As he got to know her more, the true nature of her was revealed to him.
He understood the futility of his plan.
After Tatsumi escaped, General Esdeath often found herself searching for him unconsciously.
The heart which has been frozen for a long time, started to melt.
Even when Tatsumi was captured as a Night Raid member, she stopped others from torturing him.
She asked him to leave his cause to stay by her side.
But when he refused, she declared she would execute him herself as she didn’t want anyone else to sully him.
Even at the end, when Tatsumi died and she was about to die after being sliced by Teigu of Akame, “Murasame”, she accepted her death in the hope of being able to be with Him.
She used to say that she didn’t understand, what is the feeling of the weak.
According to Akame, she understood that just fine, as love was the answer all along.
Conclusion
General Esdeath is the epitome of the true nature of humans.
She is ruthless to enemies but considerate of allies.
She is cruel but capable of showing compassion.
General Esdeath is cold but has a passion for love.
All those opposing natures residing inside her make her more humane than any other character in the series Akame ga Kill.
