A Certain Magical Index/Characters/Gremlin

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


A new organization that emerged from the remains of WWIII that was formally introduced in New Testament 2. They are a group of Magicians that are going against the Science Side, who are considered the victors of the war after Fiamma's defeat. However, this is merely a cover. They are actually an organisation that supports Magic God Othinus in her attempt to regain her full power.

A new generation of the occult that had only started being passed down by humans once the concept of machines had been created, in that world where the winners of World War III, the Science side, had greatly spread, a type of occult that would devour it had been born. [context?]

Tropes common to the organization:

  • Attack Its Weak Point: Gremlin hates and yet fears Touma so much that they have either crafted or gathered spells specifically to use against him.
  • Colony Drop: They attempted to drop Radiosonde Castle on Academy City.
  • Hostage Situation/I Have Your Wife: They LOVE this.
  • It's Personal: They hold Touma responsible for losing everything during the war and have marked him. They went so far as to level mountains and rivers to change the ley lines of the planet in order to track him down.
    • Subverted as of Volume 3 of New Testament, where it is revealed in the end that the members who have a personal grudge against Touma and the Science Side are actually a front for the real GREMLIN and have no idea of the organization's true intentions.
  • Meaningful Name: They called themselves GREMLIN due to the fact their magic and tactics are specifically developed to combat Touma and the Espers of Academy City, like how stories of gremlins involve the creatures disrupting technology.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: They would have caused an Ice Age that could wipe out the world if they had dropped Radiosonde Castle.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: They were willing to cause an Ice Age in order to either destroy Academy City and the Espers, or just to track down Kamijou Touma.
    • And they even had the foresight to predict that there was a chance of him surviving it and left a message.
      • It's implied that they planned for the Colony Drop to fail just so that they could locate/determine the existence of Touma. It's remarked upon by Kaori when she's fighting Mjölnir that the enemy seems rather apathetic and isn't opposed to destroying large portions of their own weapon during the battle, which indicates that they didn't put much stock in the attack actually succeeding.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness


One-Eyed Othinus

One-Eyed Othinus is the one behind GREMLIN and currently holds the title of current Majin (Magic God). It's just Odin to friends. After the events of New Testament Volume 10, she has become a nearly-powerless fairy and is now living with Touma.

  • The Archmage
  • Always a Bigger Fish: She's vastly more powerful than anyone in the original series. In her first appearance, she easily crushes Imagine Breaker and then the Invisible Thing, even remarking that she expected more from the latter. She's on the receiving end of this when the true GREMLIN is revealed - an organisation of Magic Gods that she never knew existed.
  • Badass: Without contest.
  • Blessed with Suck / Cursed with Awesome: She has infinite potential as a Majin, however her success rate is always 50/50. While she may defeat the strongest opponents 50% of the time, she might also lose to the weakest opponents 50% of the time. She wants Gungnir to overcome this problem.
    • Funny enough, this proves to be a formidable advantage when battling Imagine Breaker, and later, the Invisible Thing; since Touma has very bad luck, it tilts the scales in her advantage, to the point where victory is deemed miraculous.
  • Big Bad: For New Testament Volumes 2 to 9.
  • Brought Down to Normal: At the end of NT Volume 10, she's a 15 centimetre tall fairy with no usable magic.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Gungnir has been at the center of one short story, although it was a replica--what Othinus wants is the real deal.
  • The Chessmaster
  • Deliberate Injury Gambit: When Touma proves able to dodge all of her attacks, she launches the last one from behind her, piercing through her body and hitting him. She immediately recovers from the injury.
  • Deity of Human Origin
  • Driven to Suicide: After restoring the world to its original state, she's prepared to let the anti-GREMLIN alliance kill her for her crimes. And after seeing Touma go through even more pain and suffering to protect her, she concludes that she shouldn't be saved and activates the Fairy spell again to kill herself. However, she survives, due to intervention by the true GREMLIN.
  • Exposed to the Elements: She wears the same Stripperific outfit even in the cold of Baggage City and Denmark. Actually a plot point in the latter case - since she's losing her power, she's now susceptible to the cold but doesn't realize it.
  • Eyepatch of Power
  • Eye Scream: She is missing an eye, as expected of Odin, and wears a patch to cover it up. She creates the completed Gungnir by pulling it out of that eye socket, the damage immediately healing itself.
  • Final Boss: She is the final enemy Touma has to fight in NT Volume 10. Having decided that she doesn't deserve to be saved, she uses her crossbow again to keep Touma away until the Fairy spell kills her.
  • Fun Size: She's now fifteen centimetres tall.
  • Healing Factor: A powerful one, allowing to rapidly heal her head being split apart or her chest being pierced.
  • Heel Face Turn: After realizing that Touma truly understood her - something she was after all along - she heals his injuries and restores the world. She then resolves to die for her crimes, although Touma talks her out of this.
  • I Am Not Left Handed: It turns out that she doesn't need any external help to create Gungnir - she could do it herself the entire time. She had her subordinates perform other tasks to fool her enemies into thinking that this was necessary to make Gungnir.
  • Last-Episode New Character: Was mentioned by Ollerus in the last line of Volume 22.
  • Manipulative Bastard: She tricked people that were loose members of GREMLIN into doing her bidding so she and her close affiliates didn't have to show themselves. And then she reveals that she tricked even the other members of GREMLIN into thinking that their help was needed for Gungnir, when she could make it herself the entire time.
  • Meaningful Name:Othinus is the Latin name for Odin. It is used in the book Gesta Danorum, which tells Danish history using Norse Gods as characters.
    • Prophetic Name:Othinus symbolizes the Norse God Odin, much like Ollerus does; and from what we know, this carries over to their relationship, as that also symbolizes how Ollerus temporarily took Odin's throne--hell, Ollerus has the power of Hliðskjálf, which is the name of Odin's throne for crying out loud! But then, Odin reclaimed the throne--much like how Othinus claimed the title of Majin by stealing it from Ollerus.
  • Morality Chain: Ollerus notes that Touma has become this for her in NT Volume 10. He believes that if he died, she'd become an even greater monster.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast
  • Necromancer: She is able to create Einherjar by inserting gold into corpses.
  • Norse Mythology/Rule of Symbolism: Her Evil Plan relates to crafting Gungnir, the legendary spear of Odin.
  • Our Fairies Are Different: She's now a tiny fairy.
  • Physical God: She's a Majin--the highest position next to The One Above God Fiamma attained briefly. Not only does she take on the weakened Fiamma and Ollerus, but also goes against Touma then the Invisible Thing. No longer the case as of NT Volume 10.
  • Power Copying: She immediately learns the Fairy spell when Ollerus tries to use it on her, and uses it to depower Ollerus.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: She destroys Dáinsleif, since the end of the world would ruin her plans.
  • Reality Warper: An extraordinarily-powerful one. At full power, she can alter the entire universe into whatever she wants.
  • Really 700 Years Old: She's at least ten thousand years old, yet looks like a fourteen year old girl.
  • Samus Is a Girl: It's implied that she might have originally been the old bearded man that Odin is usually portrayed as. Since she's a god, she may have simply changed her appearance. This trope is exploited in NT Volume 10, since while most people know of Othinus as an infamous terrorist, very few know that she's a girl.
  • Stripperific: Supposedly, it's to show off her invincibility.
  • The Unfettered: Consider the Radiosonde Castle incident in which entire mountains were flattened just to track Imagine Breaker, and the fact she had her puppets make Kilauea erupt so Dvergr could use it as a forge to get closer to crafting Gungir, and you've got a case in point. Don't even get started on the whole "theocratize the United States" plan. And all this was done as a mere distraction from her actual plan.
  • Villainous Breakdown: After killing Touma countless times, she can't understand why he won't give up.
  • Walking Spoiler: She's the Big Bad who actually wins, only to undergo a Heel Face Turn, lose her power and end up becoming a main heroine.
  • Winds of Destiny Change: If she gains Gungnir, she will be able to control her success rate and change it to a 100% chance of victory, making her pretty much invincible.
  • Worthy Opponent: Sees Touma as this, when he manages to use his experience of being killed by her to dodge her attacks.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: In the past, she remade the world to the point that she could no longer remember what her original world was like. When Touma finally surrenders, she has the opportunity to use Imagine Breaker as a reference point and return to her original world. However, she gives up on this and remakes Touma's world instead.

Mjölnir

Mjölnir is a magician who was at first mistaken for a spiritual item but in actuality has optimized their physical body into various the forms of the hammer. She guarded Radiosonde Castle and fought with Kanzaki Kaori on even ground for a time.

Cendrillion

A magician of GREMLIN who appears in New Testament 3. She uses Cinderella as the basis of her magic, and attacked Kamijou and the group in the airport before being defeated by Birdway.


Saronia A. Irivika

A Russian magician of GREMLIN who appears in New Testament 3. Her powers initially appear to revolve around mind control. She's also indirectly responsible for Robert Katze going AWOL, as her machinations tipped him off to the occult taking over the American government.

“It truly is frightening,” the magician (Saronia) whispered. “All I had to say was that I would have you tear your head apart like a frozen orange and he was ready to do it.”

  • Kick Chick
  • Manipulative Bitch
  • Revenge/Revenge Before Reason: She wants to get revenge on the nations and individuals who profited from World War 3 while Russia was torn apart, even if it means going after Olay Blueshake, GREMLIN's apparent client/sponsor in the invasion of Hawaii, and Touma.}
  • Rule of Symbolism: Her ability is based off the legend of the Leshy, a male woodland spirit of Slavic mythology. The Leshy is the ruler of the forest and the king of all animals that live there, and loves gambling.
  • Unwitting Pawn: To the real GREMLIN.


Marian Slingeneyer

A Dvegr and a member of the real GREMLIN.

  • Body Horror: Her human reshaping magic, used on Mjölnir and later Cendrillon. In fact her primary form of fighting revolves heavily upon this.
    • And I Must Scream: Does this to everyone she doesn't kill.
    • Bloodier and Gorier: Part of the reason she creates so much carnage is to get a psychological advantage over her opponents.
    • Cruel and Unusual Death: What she does to everyone she does kill. One example is when she fused both of a Mook's hands together and turned them into a faucet. Then she turned the faucet on and let him watch helplessly as all the blood drained from his body.
  • Can't Hold Her Liquor
  • Cool Sword: Dáinsleif - an incredibly dangerous weapon linked to Ragnarok which Marian is forbidden from unsheathing.
    • Artifact of Doom: If the blade is unsheathed completely, it will trigger Ragnarok.
    • Emotion Bomb: When the blade is unsheathed slightly, it causes a foe's heart to stop out of fear of what would happen if the blade was fully unsheathed... It doesn't work on Touma, even without Imagine Breaker, because he does not fear it at all.
    • Gravity Master: The scabbard can be used to create a miniature black hole, which sucks things in until the wielder decides to release it as a powerful blade due to the pent up energy.
    • Summon Magic: After being modified in NT Volume 10, she can now use the sword to cut away phases, summoning the demon kings and other evil figures of mythology.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Morally absent or not, she didn't take Bersi AKA Kihara Kagun's death well.
    • Unstoppable Rage: In response to Bersi's death she tried to summon the Apocalypse!
  • Meganekko
  • Razor Wire: Loki's Net.
  • Summon Magic: She's able to summon her creations using gold as a conduit.
  • Talking the Monster to Death: While fighting Touma, she gets so angry and frustrated over how well Touma is doing that she threatens to draw Dáinsleif completely and trigger Ragnarok. Touma counters that if she had the guts to do that, she would have done it immediately. Marian then realizes that she is too afraid to draw the sword.
  • Vapor Wear: All she wears are overalls with nothing underneath.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl

Bersi

Bersi is a magician, a member of the true GREMLIN, and a former Kihara named Kagun.

  • Badass Longcoat
  • Badass Teacher: Was a teacher in Academy City right before he left.
  • Came Back Wrong: He's brought back as an Einherjar by Othinus. He retains his memories and skills, but has neither personality nor emotions.
  • Death of a Thousand Cuts: His magic makes him immune to attacks that would instantly kill him, but he can still be injured by anything weaker. This is how Byouri kills him.
  • Death Seeker: He became this after killing an attacker manipulated by another Kihara.
  • Genre Savvy: When he finds a girl who seems to be in a situation way over her head, he tells her to find Kamijou Touma if she wants to live, as girls around him tend to do inexplicably fine, irregardless of the situation.
  • Laser Blade: His sword, Whitting, manifests as one of these.
  • Man in White
  • Mutual Kill: With Byouri.
  • Near-Death Experience: His field of study when he was a researcher.
  • White Sheep: The 'Black Sheep' of the Kihara clan.

Útgarða-Loki

One of the true members of GREMLIN who was sent to oversee the events in Baggage City.

Sigyn

One of the true members of GREMLIN who was sent to oversee the events in Baggage City.

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/A_Certain_Magical_Index/Characters/Gremlin?oldid=1548281"