Gauron


 * For the Star Trek character, see Gowron

Gauron (ガウロン) is a fictional character and one of the main villains from the light novel, manga, and anime series Full Metal Panic!. His Japanese voice was portrayed by Masahiko Tanaka and the English voice was provided by Mike MacRae.

Overview
While little is known about Gauron at the present, he is Sousuke’s strongest and most formidable enemy throughout the TV series. He’s a terrorist of the highest caliber sponsored by a mysterious organization, but little is known about Gauron’s benefactors other than the fact that they appear to be more formidable and possess greater resources than even the notorious Soviet KGB. He previously piloted a Codarl Arm Slave. He is credited with having assassinated more than thirty VIPs, and bombed at least two important aircrafts.

He is believed to be from an Asian ethnicity, and is believed to hold citizenship in nine countries, thus said as nine dragons and hence Gauron ; some official materials claim he is ethnically Japanese. Gauron and Sousuke have a long and bloodstained history together. Sousuke left a big scar on Gauron’s forehead when he and then Soviet Spetsnaz commander Major Kalinin ambushed Gauron in a sniper attack back in Sousuke’s Afghan guerrilla days. This is but one of many battle scars Sousuke inflicts upon this vicious manslayer over the course of the series. Since then Gauron, refers to Sousuke as "Kashim" - the name assigned to Sousuke by the Afghan guerrilla leader.

It is shown that he is a sexual deviant that has intentions of raping minors. This is proven by his proclamation to Sousuke that he wanted to rape him after he kills him, along with expressing sexual attraction to Sousuke when Sousuke was eleven years old. He is also shown to get sexual arousal from violently cutting up and killing people, as well as choking them.

Character history
Before the events of the series, the earliest history that has been revealed of Gauron was that he was twelve years old when he fought in the Khmer Rouge. Every day, he would arrange the burned bodies of the victims his Pol Pot colleagues killed.

Many years later, during the war between the Afghanistan resistance and the invading Soviet forces, Gauron is shown to have been a mercenary camp Arm Slave instructor for "Anti-imperialist combatants" placed in Afghanistan territories. "Anti-imperialist combatants," according to Kalinin, was just a nice way of calling a terrorist group that would carry out attacks against the West, and whose training facilities were supported by the KGB. During this same time, Sousuke was a guerilla soldier fighting against Soviet forces in the mountain districts not far from Gauron's camp. At the time, they were neither enemies nor allies, as their mutual interests did not oppose one another's. The two first met while Gauron was driving his jeep, and happened upon an eleven year old Sousuke. Sousuke had just massacred a platoon of Soviet Arm Slaves, and was gathering their bodies to throw into a pit for a makeshift burial. At that moment, Gauron found Sousuke's eyes beautiful, and deemed the boy an "Assassin Saint." Gauron then found out that the boy was named "Kashim," and proceeded to ask him if he wanted to come with him, as the Afghanistan resistance was losing at the moment. Sousuke refused, and that was the end of the first of their many meetings.

Soon after this meeting, Gauron later chooses to side with the Soviets. This was the time when he first came into contact with Kalinin From the very beginning, Kalinin took an instant dislike towards Gauron, mostly for his cruel and unnecessarily violent and brutal ways. One of the many things that disgusted Kalinin was how Gauron had approved of his underlings starting fights and randomly killing guerillas for "practice." After bringing this to Gauron's attention, Gauron smiled and claimed that Kalinin should be grateful that he and his men were helping to "exterminate bugs." During the same time that this was going on, Sousuke was wreaking havoc on the Soviet forces, being known only as a mysterious guerilla in an Arm Slave that was massacring soldiers. On the subject of this, Gauron displayed great interest in Sousuke, and even recommended to Kalinin that he should capture this Guerilla alive. Since Gauron was witness to Sousuke killing numerous Soviet soldiers with his Arm Slave, it is very likely that Gauron already knew who the mysterious guerilla was.

After Kalinin deserts the Soviet forces, Gauron formulates a raid on the guerilla village that Sousuke and Kalinin were staying at. Bringing two Arm Slaves, he completely slaughters all of the villagers, including women and children. As Sousuke and Kalinin were sent off to spy on the Soviets, both were spared the unfortunate fate of the others. This event served to fuel the animosity both Sousuke and Kalinin felt towards Gauron, and is the start of the antagonizing relationship between them. After this, Gauron was sent by the Soviets to find and kill Sousuke and Kalinin. Both of them found this a perfect opportunity to exact revenge upon him. Kalinin acted as the bait, and Sousuke acted as the sniper, shooting Gauron while his guard was down. Satisfied that they had avenged their comrades' death, neither thought any more of Gauron.

During the beginning of the series, Gauron first attempts to kidnap Kaname by hijacking a plane with Kaname's whole class aboard (which Sousuke describes as the perfect plan). After landing in the Kanka region, Gauron takes Kaname to be tested to see if she really is a Whispered. Although Sousuke rescues Kaname (in a Savage), Gauron attacks them in his Codarl AS, which destroys the Savage and bests Kurtz in his M9. Sousuke, however, is able to defeat Gauron with his newly acquired Arbalest (destroying his first Codarl). Gauron is somehow able to survive his AS's destruction and reappears later in the series.

A formidable AS pilot of tremendous talent, Gauron's dangerous Codarl AS has bested Mithril's frontline AS, the M9 Gernsback, in battle on several occasions. Even Sousuke and his ARX-7 Arbalest have great difficulty competing against Gauron's fearsome skill in their many confrontations across the course of the series.

He also appears to have a nearly supernatural ability to survive certain death, including the destruction of his AS, and the sniper attack. His surviving the sniper attack was explained by a titanium plate in his skull, and his surviving his AS' self-destruct was explained by Gauron's use of the Lambda Driver at the last moment to protect his body. This trait is well known among the other characters, who comment numerous times on his evil luck.

A possible explanation for Gauron not fearing death, even in the face of his AS self destructing is revealed by Leonard Testarossa in the book 'Continuing on My Own' who tells Sousuke that Gauron was suffering from cancer.

It is later revealed in "The Second Raid" that Gauron worked for Amalgam, his code name being "Mr. Iron". It is implied that the other members of Amalgam did not get along with him, and therefore gave him this code name as a joke, as iron is a metal that cannot amalgamate with mercury.

Second Raid
In "The Second Raid", it is revealed that Gauron is alive, through the use of his Lambda Driver at the last second, though his injuries have turned him into a quadruple amputee cripple confined to a bed by his wounds. He informs Sousuke that, realizing his impending death, he was the one who ordered the two twins he raised to wreak havoc and destruction in Hong Kong thereby rendering it a "sea of flames." His reasons for doing so were partly due to how he wanted to take as many people with him to his death as he can, and partly due to his desire to get back at Amalgam and send the organization into a panic. However, he reveals that his main reason was to lure Sousuke to him so that he can spend his last moments talking with him. Realizing that Mithril would deploy Sousuke if Hong Kong was in such a state of turmoil, Gauron took the opportunity to spread a series of clues and cryptic messages that only Sousuke would understand. During Gauron's last moments, he reveals to Sagara that the young guerrilla Sagara he knew in Helmajistan would have been the perfect person to kill or be killed by him, but in the present day, he claims that Sagara has become 'weak' and 'soft' from his time at High School. He tells Sagara that one of his agents, one of the twins mentioned below, has killed Kaname. However, in truth, Leonard Testarossa's Arm Slave bodyguards killed the agent. Sousuke, in a rage, then kills Gauron (for good this time) by shooting him multiple times, further exemplified when a bomb underneath Gauron's bed explodes. He dies with a psychotic grin on his face, indicating that he was expecting Sousuke to kill him.

He had previously trained two twin sisters, who he named Xia Yu-Fan, and Xia Yu-Lan. They are both formidable fighters, with Yu-Fan specializing in piloting an Arm Slave (a Soviet/Amalgam Shadow at the beginning of the series, and a Codarl-M type in the end), and Yu-Lan specializing in close quarters combat as well as firearms. They do not survive the series, Yu-Lan being killed by one of Leonard Testarossa's bodyguards, the human-sized Plan 1211, Alastor, and Yu-Fan being killed by the psychotic leader of the Amalgam Execution Squad, Mr. Gates, in the final battle.