| “ | Echo has no right to refuse. | ” |
—Retrace XXXIII: Echo of Noise | ||
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Introduction
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Echo (エコー, Ekoo) is a supporting character from Jun Mochizuki's Pandora Hearts. She works as the serious and devout valet of Vincent Nightray. As a servant of the Nightray Dukedom, she exhibits skill and ruthlessness in combat, and is aware of the nature of Illegal Contractors. Though not a Pandora agent herself, she assists her master in his missions for the government. Though she seems to have no interest in hindering the protagonists, she will follow her master's commands to the word, and thus her goals are often in opposition to Oz Vessalius.
This article contains plot and/or ending details for Pandora Hearts.
Read at your own risk.
Some time before the Tragedy of Sablier, a Baskerville girl formed a Contract with a Chain known as Duldee. This Contract was greatly traumatic for the girl. Her mind became fractured, and she lost all memories of her past prior to the Contract. Upon realizing her Contractor would not have the mental capacity to survive in her own body, Duldee created a second personality inside her, which the girl would call "Echo." This Echo would be the first of many, all inevitably perishing inside the girl's body as she continued to lose her mind. The girl would be dragged into the Abyss during the Tragedy of Sablier and reappear nearly a century later.
It is unclear when the version of Echo most present in Pandora Hearts's narrative was created, only that she is the longest lived and last of her kind. After an untold number of years, the girl, now named "Noise" by Vincent, would continue to degrade. She grows increasingly obsessed with Vincent, whom she perceives as like herself, and forces Echo to work as his servant so Noise can remain beside him. Echo is thus made to endure Vincent's abuse towards her without complaint, in the hopes of protecting Noise. Despite the conditions she experiences, Echo continues to care for Noise and desires a way to return Noise to her true self.
Appearance
Echo's appearance mirrors that of Noise. As such, Echo is shown to have had a more pale complexion than other characters. She has white hair that is mostly cut at jaw-length, with segments of her hair being purposefully cut longer; such as the side strands (reaching down to Echo's shoulders) and bangs (falling in light waves over the top half of her face). Echo also has pale gray eyes; however, unlike Noise, when Echo was in possession of their body her eyes would appear empty and almost soulless.
Echo wears a short blue dress with a white collar and front, bell-shaped sleeves that are longer in length and end with a ruffled frill-like fabric, eight blue buttons and silver outlining throughout the blue fabric of the dress. In actuality, Echo's dress is not stitched together with the sleeves, rather the two are attached via silver threads wrapped around silver buttons that have been inlaid into the blue fabric of the dress and sleeves. Underneath, Echo has been shown to wear a thin dress-shirt with a ruffled design along the center at the front. Additionally, Echo wears a short black sailor's tie that has a thin white 'V' towards its base, that is held in place with a blue button that matches those on the front of Echo's dress. Finally, Echo wears knee-length white boots that has the fabric at the top folded and held in place using blue buttons (matching those on Echo's dress) decorated with pale blue bows.
Personality
To begin with, Echo's overall persona seems emotionless, as she is only capable of accepting her orders for exactly what they are, never wavering, and only ever speaking in a basic honorable monotone vocal range. This is because Echo has been an incarnation of Duldum without much interaction that exposed her to her own individuality, leaving Echo as nothing more than an empty doll meant to carry out her purpose as Duldee had intended. As such, Echo also keeps all her inner thoughts to herself, as she feels that they have no place within her line of work as valet to Vincent and disciple of Duldee.
What makes Echo different from her predecessors is how long she has existed without being disposed of by Duldee, allowing Echo to not only absorb the fragments of Noise's heart that her predecessors have passed down to her, but also new fragments lost by Noise over time - thus making Echo the Duldum that possesses the most of Noise's heart within her. This allows Echo to have her own will, though she does not act upon it until after she meets Oz. Oz treats Echo as a person rather than just an empty doll, which makes Echo reassess her priorities and expand on her own identity. Though Echo's loyalty is still absolute, she is suddenly able to make her own decisions based on what she believes is right, such as saving the antidote Sharon Rainsworth needed after Vincent had poisoned them both and attempted to destroy it; spending time with Oz during the St. Bridget's Day Festival; and defying Vincent by revealing to Gilbert Nightray and Elliot Nightray that Xerxes Break had been fighting against Fang and Lily alone during Isla Yura's Feast. The more that Oz treats her as a person, the deeper the connection between him and Echo seem to develop. As a result, it seems as though Echo may have developed romantic feelings toward Oz, which flourish more and more as the series progresses. In the end however, such potential goes unnoticed, though Echo's death hits Oz harder than most - encouraging him to don Noise's Baskerville cloak and pursue Oswald with a greater sense of purpose.
Unfortunately, as Noise has adopted a more aggressive persona based on observation of both Vincent and Duldee, she is mostly antagonistic toward Echo, making Echo more vulnerable, sensitive and scared when around Noise. Even so, because she has not forgotten her true purpose of protecting Noise's heart - Echo acts against Duldee at the pinnacle of Noise's destruction in order to save Noise's heart for what it began as rather than allowing Duldee to destroy it in order to break Vincent's hold over Noise. Though Echo can see that Duldee only wanted to save her Contractor in a misguided way, she still can't allow such a thing to pass, thereby sacrificing herself so that she could restore Noise's heart before both of them die - showing that Echo's individual development of self has come full circle and allowing her to reach a peaceful end alongside the true Noise.
In battle, Echo's preferred weapon is twin blue-bladed short swords, which she keeps in the sleeves of her dress at all time in case she ever needs to use them. Curiously enough, Echo also draws a projection of her short swords within Noise's subconscious while fighting Duldee. Additionally, while Noise appears to be right-handed, Echo herself appears to be ambidextrous, wielding both short swords equally skillfully with both hands.
Powers and Abilities
- Possession: As a split personality created by Duldee, Echo has the ability to take the place of Noise as the active personality. However, due to Noise's adopted aggression, Echo tends to only take on her role as the active personality whenever Noise is ordered by Vincent to recede into her subconsciousness.
- Maintenance of Heart: Like her predecessors, Echo is capable of picking up the broken pieces of Noise's heart and absorbing them in order to keep them safe until the day that Noise can reclaim them herself - as is her duty as Duldum.
- Hand-To-Hand Combat: Echo is a skilled combatant, often making use of a unique acrobatic technique whilst sparring against opponents with her twin blue-bladed short swords. However, in battle Echo tends to focus moreso on the exact orders she would be given, and would even on occasion be compelled to take action in certain situations without consciously being aware of why she'd done so.
- Hyper Endurance: All Baskervilles possess enhanced speed, strength and endurance as an effect of being chosen to act as messengers of the Abyss. Thus, due to her connection with Noise, Echo possesses such qualities as well - allowing her to carry on in battle without tiring and endure against extreme conditions that regular humans would have difficult coping against.
- Healing: As a Baskerville, Noise is able to heal from her wounds at a rapid pace - even moreso than her older colleagues because of her young age. As such, Echo can also heal her wounds - only when serious wounds were inflicted on either personality, Vincent would have them switch so that either Echo or Noise could heal fully without interruption while their counterpart continues to do his bidding.
Quotes
- "Echo is a servant of the Nightray house."
- "It is just 'Echo'." (to Oz, whenever he calls her Echo-chan)
- "Echo needs to record everything, that is seen by these eyes."
- "Even if I'm to be tortured, to be mistreated, to be humiliated, Echo doesn't have the right to fight against it."
- (to Oz) "Today........ I'm really, very, grateful towards you..."
- (to Alice) "Oz,Oz,Oz. Can't you think of anything else to say? You sound just like Gilbert Nightray!"
- (to Oz) "Oz-sama... are you all right? - I knew it. You're not all right! I know you're not!"
- (to Oz) "That's not true. You and Jack are not the same person. Well that's... I don't know..."
- "Why are you saying such terrible things? Why are you... of all people... saying.. something... like that? (to Oz)
Appearances
- Retrace IX: Question (First Appearance)
- Retrace X: Malediction
- Retrace XI: Grim
- Retrace XII: Where am I?
- Retrace XV: Welcome to labyrinth
- Retrace XVI: Keeper of the secret
- Retrace XVII: Odds and Ends (Mentioned only)
- Retrace XXI: Discord
- Retrace XXIII: Conflict*
- Retrace XXXIII: Echo of Noise
- Retrace XXXIV: Noise of Echo
- Retrace XLVII: Unbirthday
- Retrace LIV: Blank Smile
- Retrace LV: Back To Back
- Retrace LVI: Rabbit Eyes
- Retrace LVII: Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
- Retrace LIX: Couldn't put Humpty together again
- Retrace LX: Egg Shell*
- Retrace LXI: Demios*
- Retrace LXII: Repose
- Retrace LXIII: Purpose
- Retrace LXIV: Tarantelle
- Retrace LXV: Collapse
- Retrace LXXIV: Broken Rabbit
- Retrace LXXV: Alone*
- Retrace LXXVII: Vacant
- Retrace LXXVIII: Decision
- Retrace LXXXII: Wish
- Retrace LXXXIII: After the Rain*
- Retrace LXXXV: Reverberate
- Retrace LXXXVIII: Answer*
- Retrace LXXXIX: Staccato Drop
- Retrace XCI: Juror
- Retrace XCII: A Story
- Retrace XCIV: Blaze
- Retrace XCV: Vincent
- Retrace XCVI: Disagree
- Retrace XCVII: I am
- Retrace XCVIII: Reverberate (†)
- Retrace CIV: Will
- Episode 8: Question
- Episode 9: Malediction
- Episode 10: Grim
- Episode 13: Keeper of the secret
- Episode 15: Who killed poor Alice?
- Episode 17: Hello my sister!
- Episode 23: A Warp in the World (Non-Canon)
- Caucus Race 1 — Story 2: Black Widow
- Caucus Race 1 — Story 4: Pink Curse
- Caucus Race 2 — Story 3: Lucky Day
- Maidora Hearts (Non-Canon)
- Magical Girl Ill-Omened❤Lacie (Non-Canon)
- Pandora Academy (Non-Canon)
- Gilbert in Wonderland (Non-Canon)
(*) - Denotes that the character did not appear physically, but as a part of another character's memories.
Trivia
- Echo, and every previous iteration of her, was given the name of "Echo" by Noise herself very early on into her Contract with Duldee, when the yet unnamed girl only began to notice the second personality residing within herself.[1]
- Echo and her relationship with Noise, particularly reflected in Noise's Contracted Chain Duldee and Echo being a version of Duldum, are directly based off Tweedledum and Tweedledee[2] who are characters from a nursery rhyme featured in Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the Looking-Glass.[3]
- Her likes are, in order, people watching and Jyanta dolls. She has no particular dislikes.
- She is strong when it comes to thinly shredded cabbage. She is weak when it comes to the color red.
- Mochizuki's comment on her is, from the moment of her conception as a character, Mochizuki has anticipated reaching her cathartic "I am me!" scene and was very happy to finally get to draw it.
- In Japanese, Echo always referred to herself in the third person (エコー, Ekoo), though the official English translation often translates her lines with the proper first person pronoun "I." The first time Echo referred to herself with a first person pronoun in Japanese was in Retrace XCVII: I am, when she switched to 私 (watashi).