| Heathcliff | |
|---|---|
| |
| Information | |
| Appearance | •Sword Art Online franchise •Tales of Link |
| Age | 28 |
| Race | Human |
| Occupation | Leader of the Knights of the Blood |
| Weapon | Liberator (Straight sword and Kite shield) |
Heathcliff (ヒースクリフ Hiisukurifu?) is the avatar of Akihiko Kayaba (茅場晶彦 Kayaba Akihiko?), a character from the Sword Art Online franchise who makes a cameo appearance in Tales of Link as a minor antagonist.
Appearance and Personality
Akihiko Kayaba was the only player in Sword Art Online whose avatar did not match his appearance in the real world. As a result, Heathcliff, Akihiko's avatar, bore no resemblance to his true skinny body at all. Significantly idealized, Heathcliff was muscular, tall, and physically strong, with sharp scholarly features and steel-gray hair that had a strand hanging over his forehead. He was almost always seen wearing the colors of the Knights of the Blood, though the background and foreground colors were reversed.
Although Heathcliff appeared as his true form only a few times throughout the series, he was always very calm, soft-spoken, and had a cool demeanor. Despite being incredibly skilled, Akihiko was not boastful or arrogant, as when Kirito defeated him and cleared Sword Art Online, he humbly accepted defeat.
Heathcliff seemed to be very sincere and thoughtful, as shown when he told Kirito of his dream about creating a floating castle as the basis for creating Sword Art Online.
Heathcliff had little to no empathy, with a complete disregard for human life, including his own, and instead was completely taken in by the virtual world. When he accidentally struck Asuna, which caused her apparent in-game death, he showed no remorse, and instead seemed rather amused, even though it caused Kirito an incredible amount of grief at the time. He chose to fulfill his dream by making a death game which cost thousands of lives, and simply noted that their minds were gone from both worlds. His fascination with computers was very much like Kirito's, with the major difference being Akihiko having no regard for the lives of others, and Kirito doing everything he can to protect them.
In spite of this, Heathcliff had a level of honor and fairness. He designed Sword Art Online to be a beatable game by anyone who had the skills. He never interfered with the players' progress to keep them from advancing through the game; in fact, as Heathcliff, he was actually fighting on the players' side, helping them clear floors. The one exception to this was the fact that he made himself invincible until his battle with Kirito, although this was necessary to survive the game until the 95th floor was reached, where Heathcliff planned to reveal his true identity and become the final boss on the 100th floor.
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