Versus Character Analysis: Rumi blog
Background
Generations ago, Demons have haunted the world, stealing human souls and offering them to their king, Gwi-Ma. Until one fateful day, three huntresses arise to defend a village from being invaded as they all battled off the demons. The power of their voices held the power to drive back the darkness and their music ignited the souls of people, connecting them in harmony that strengthened their power to create an invisible barrier to protect the world known as the Honmoon. Every generation, the torch gets passed down to a Pop Star trio to unite the people with the power of their music so the Honmon wouldn't waver and one day evolve into a Golden variation that is so impenetrable that demons will be sealed off from the world for eternity. Rumi is considered the leader and lead vocalist of Huntr/x, playing alongside her close friends and founding family, Zoey and Mira. After completing a world tour, Huntr/x defeats demons disguised as their private jet’s pilot and crew, showcasing their combat skills and teamwork. Mira and Zoey are relieved to have a chance to relax but Rumi cancels their planned two-week vacation to focus on recording a new single, “Golden,” which is meant to strengthen the Honmoon and potentially complete the Golden Honmoon, a final seal to eradicate demons permanently. From a young age, Rumi was seen as abnormal due to possessing a demonic pattern on her arms despite her affiliation as a demon hunter. A secret she must hide from even her closest comrades, going off Celine's words that the Golden Honmon could rid her of the marks and release her from ostracization. However, Rumi begins losing her voice, a critical issue since their singing powers the barrier. Rumi’s demonic heritage causes her to struggle with self-loathing and fear of exposure, weakening her voice.
The group faces a crisis when the Saja Boys, a rival K-pop boy band secretly led by the demon king Gwi-Ma, plot to weaken the Honmoon by stealing Huntr/x’s fans and their spiritual energy. After the two groups confront each other face to face, Rumi went after their leader, Jinu and in a brief scuffle had the fabric on her arm ripped revealing to the demon in front of her that she is one of a kind having both of the qualities of a Demon and Hunter. The two began to connect through their shared burden as Jinu, who abandoned his family for fame under Gwi-Ma’s influence, no longer hears Gwi-Ma’s manipulative voice after singing with Rumi. This connection inspires Jinu to question his loyalty to Gwi-Ma, but the demon king confronts him, threatening to haunt him with the voices of his lost loved ones unless he complies. Rumi confesses to Jinu that her shame over her demonic heritage has weakened her voice, but their conversations help her regain confidence.
At the Idol Awards, the Saja Boys fail to appear, and Huntr/x takes the opportunity to perform the hit song “Golden,” a song meant to promote how far they have come together. But right as the song ends, Gwi-Ma has Jiniu orchestrate a trap through his demons impersonating Mira and Zoey in “Takedown” to play mind games regarding Rumi's identity crisis which exposes her demonic marks to the audience. Rumi in shambles runs off stage only to find out that the ones on stage were fake as her real friends stood in front of her in shock. This public revelation breaks Mira and Zoey, who feel betrayed that Rumi hid her heritage which ends up straining their bond. In this moment of vulnerability, Gwi-Ma decides to take advantage of the broken hearts of the audience, including Mira and Zoey, forcing them to attend the Saja Boys’ performance, which aims to further weaken the Honmoon while in turn offering their souls to him.
Devastated, Rumi seeks out Celine, begging for death to escape her shame, but Celine refuses as she made a promise to her mother in the past and offers different alternatives by making up more white lies to cover the truth from the public. Rumi pushes her away and tells her caretaker that this is who she is and becomes distraught upon seeing that Celine refuses to accept what she truly is. Rumi, in a cold tone, states that if this is what their own Honmon is supposed to value then she is relieved that Gwi-Ma destroyed it, teleporting away while leaving Celine in utter shock. Arriving at the Saja Boys’ performance, Rumi shows up to confront Gwi-Ma as the demon king reiterates that she has no hope of changing the world when she couldn't even do that for herself and now the Honmon is destroyed. Rumi, while under his trance, agrees with his points but her eyes light up with a burning resolve, no longer under his grasp while saying that she'll just have to make a new Honmon instead. Rumi sings “This is what it sounds like” as she reminisces over her past mistakes and begins embracing her true self, the song’s power breaks Gwi-Ma’s hold over Mira, Zoey, and the audience, enabling them to fight back.
In a heated encounter against the demon king,Jinu, fully rejecting Gwi-Ma, makes a heartbreaking sacrifice by taking the brunt of his flames, saving Rumi in the process. Rumi looks up to see Jinu's withering as he apologizes for his mistakes. She cries as she states that she wanted to set him free only for Jinu to say that she already accomplished that, allowing him to make peace with his humanity. In his final moments, Jinu transfers his soul to Rumi as she takes this newfound drive to keep pushing forward as she reunites with her friends and through their combined harmony mixed with the crowd's admiration, they obliterate the demon king for good.
In the aftermath, Rumi takes the spa trip that her friends recommend to her as the trio rebuild their bond and cry alongside each other from everything they've been through. As the story comes to a close with the trio interacting with fans, with Rumi no longer hiding her demonic marks. At the end of the day, Rumi underwent a wild journey hiding shame and self-doubt of who she was to embrace the empowerment through solidarity, emphasizing the beauty of imperfections while finding strength in showing vulnerability even in the darkest of times.
Experience & Skill
As the lead vocalist of Huntr/x, she's an exceptional singer that inspires hope and joy into the hearts of her audiences. Rumi is a trained demon hunter under the discipline of Celine to fend off demonic entities from feeding off the souls of their fans for years. Her fighting style takes a more hands on approach but remains controlled, leveraging her strength and speed to overpower her opposition as she incorporates her acrobatic movements to evade attacks and strike from unexpected angles. She can parkour buildings and take on entire hordes of demons without breaking a sweat.
Abilities
Weapon Conjuring
Hunters harness the power of their spirits to manifest a weapon of their choice for combat and Rumi is no exception, she forges a mystical sword that she uses to hack and slash demons.
Energy Projection
Astral Awareness
Due to her spiritual affinity as a hunter, she is shown to detect changes in the Honmoon's state which is portrayed to be an invisible barrier and in addition, she can read demonic patterns which are normally visible to that of the naked eye.
Flight
In the climax of the movie, Rumi and her friends were shown flight of great heights during their final confrontation against Gwi-Ma.
Empowerment
The voices of Hunters can unleash the spirit energy of the civilians and weaponize it to amplify their own capabilities. Huntr/x and previously the hunters that existed before them, used it to strengthen the barrier that traps demons from entering the surface world over the many years and Celine mentions that the Golden Honmon is the perfected variation of the barrier that would seal off all demons from entering for good. Rumi, when filled with sheer determination, went from struggling to fend off Gwi-Ma's flames to slicing him in half with a single sword slash.
Demonic scream
Inherited through her demonic patterns, Rumi, when enraged, can release a powerful scream that is potent enough to shatter several stage lights. Her voice is capable of sending magenta shockwaves across the honmon.
Teleportation
Rumi's demonic patterns provide her access to abilities normally exclusive to demons. In this case, Rumi can teleport through magenta smoke. The climax of the film has her utilize it to teleport to the stadium and we've seen other demons like Jinu use it offensively to maneuver around Rumi's attacks.
Misc. Demon abilities
In a Q&A Reddit thread by the film’s director Maggie, Rumi is viewed as anomaly having shared abilities from both hunters and demons with the film showing that she can cause a ripple in the Honmon which isn't something demons are capable of, with the full extent of her power remaining a mystery. Although Rumi herself doesn't directly use some of them, her demon ties should give Rumi access to them.
Soul Manipulation: Ordinary demons throughout the film have shown the ability to suck out the souls of the living and Jiniu flat out gave his own soul to Rumi in his heroic sacrifice.
Intangibility: Jinu’s demon pet, derpy tiger can become intangible and phase through objects.
Biological Manipulation: Jinu, Gwi-Ma's right hand, can disguise his minions by making them share the same voices and figures of Zoey and Mira.
Illusion Manipulation: Her arch rivals, a demon boy band, the Saja boys altered the perception of the surrounding buildings with a paint job look.
Resistances
Mental Influences: She broke out of King Gwi-Ma's influence despite her bearing his demon mark that allows him to telepathically connect to his demons and overtake their mind. Her voice alone was able to break Zoey and Mira out of their trances and later the entire stadium worth of people.
Feats
Overall
Defended the surface world from Gwi-Ma's hordes of demons on a daily basis
Freed Jinu from the shackles of his past that plagued for 400 years
Restored and created a new honmon of their own design
Put a stop to Gwi-Ma’s international influence over the world
Power
Brawled with and slaughtered a group of Gwi-Ma’s demons (see above)
Launched Jiniu back with single kick and pinned him against a wall
Comparable to Zoey and Mira, who tossed a water demon through a bathhouse wall
With their combined efforts, Huntr/x dispersed Gwi-Ma’s world encompassing mass of darkness(26.25 Zettatons of TNT, 8.75 Zettatons of TNT for each) {Small Planet Level}
Speed
Comparable to the first hunters, who covered the circumference of the world in their barrier, the Honmon (1.671% Sol) {Sub Relativistic}
The Huntr/x’s harmonic resonance vanquished Gwi-Ma's international world- wide influence and forged a new Honmon (2.67% Sol) {Sub Relativistic}
Durability
Took a slash from Jiniu (see above)
Her barriers withstood Gwi-Ma's flames for a extended period of time
Weaknesses
Rumi definitely has her shortcomings in spite of everything she has accomplished. Although she is adept in combat, Rumi is more used to coordinated team battles alongside Mira and Zoey. She also has a tendency to act impulsively when placed into high pressure scenarios as seen in several of her run-ins with Jiniu when she let her fury override her rationale or how she released the golden promo at a rapid rate to complete the Golden Honmon without thinking of potential hiccups that could happen.
Summary
Small Planetary and Sub Rela speeds
Adept H2H fighter and acrobatics make her a tricky opponent to deal with
Her flight provides better mobility
Her sword slash and shockwaves are potent long ranged options
Astral awareness offer extrasensory perception for incorporeal phenomenons
Teleportation provides her with greater maneuverability
Theoretically could devour the souls of her enemies
Illusionary manipulation and biological alterations
has several ways of amplifying her power to even greater heights
All the KPDH songs slap Don't @ me
Potential Matchups
Rumi vs Nimona
This is probably Rumi's most thematically fitting MU and my favorite for now. Both were ostracized as being a force of nature that goes against societal norms, Rumi's demonic heritage and Nimona’s ability to alter her form but through the help of their found family, they accepted their identities as what they truly are. Their powers are very different from the other but at the same time, it adds a unique contrast with Rumi’s sword proficiency, powerful screams and energy projection against Nimona's vast assortment of forms.
Calamity Trio vs Huntr/x
Both were prophesied to become the legendary warriors to fend off the darkness much like the previous MU above this, with the two groups holding an inseparable bond, akin to found family. As their bond becomes severed because one kept a secret that changed how the others viewed the one (Rumi hiding that she was part demon and Marcy hiding that she was the one to send them to Amphibia).
But after a lot of emotional repair and reconciliation, they’d reunite stronger than ever against the epitome of chaos (with Core and Gwi-Ma, who weaponized their right-hand’s hidden demons to overtake the world and remold it in their own image). This could be a fun match to see the Calamity Trio's constructs clash against Huntr/x's harmonic voices, plus their similar stats could paint for an interesting debate.
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