Oz Vessalius

"The peace and quiet of daily life is something that's meant to be broken out of the blue, right?" - Oz

Oz is the protagonist of Jun Mochizuki's Pandora Hearts. He is the oldest child of the Vessalius dukedom and its rightful heir. He is thrown into the Abyss, where he creates an Illegal Contract with Alice, a Chain also known as the B-Rabbit. Under threat of arrest, he joins the government research organization Pandora.

A prophecy by the Baskerville Clan declares him the "key to the Intention of the Abyss," and Pandora finds him to be the reincarnation of its founder, the hero Jack Vessalius. Thus, he is tasked with finding and defeating the reincarnation of Glen Baskerville and aiding Pandora's quest in gaining control of the Intention of the Abyss.

He, along with Alice, and his childhood friend Gilbert Nightray, are the central protagonists of Pandora Hearts.

Appearance

z is identical to how Jack Vessalius looked in his teens. As such, he has blond hair and large green eyes, and while he was notably larger than Gilbert Nightray at fourteen, he is remarked as short and frail, coming up only to 164cm (5'4"). His hair is short and spiky, shown to be hard to control. He has a cowlick at the front of his head, jokingly compared to a banana. When using the power of the B-Rabbit, his eyes turn red. When drawing him, Jun Mochizuki pays special attention to his smile.

He wears several outfits over the course of the series. For the first few arcs, his default outfit consists of civilian clothing, chosen to be inconspicuous. He wears a white shirt with a brown vest and a red tie, along with plaid green shorts and brown boots. He eventually switches to an all black outfit, with a long, double breasted coat, black shorts, and black boots. Following the deaths of Noise and Echo, he picks up their red Baskerville cloak and wears it in Echo's honor for the rest of the series.

Personality

Oz is initially depicted as a heedless, headstrong teenage boy with few reservations or concern for the world around him. Though usually not outright rude, he has a haughty, aggressive speech pattern characteristic of self confident young men. When he meets new girls, his first impulse is usually to flirt, regardless of whether this behavior is appropriate or not. He enjoys teasing others, particularly his valet Gilbert, and ignores rules and tradition in favor of acting on his whims. While trapped in Abyss, he was undaunted by the terrors found there, something Alice assumed was a consequence of stupidity.

However, Oz is deeply sensitive to the emotions of others, his rash behavior a calculated effort to manipulate those around him. He is terrified of rejection and thus seeks to hide all vulnerabilities, refusing to express his true emotions. He has little fear of danger, having internalized threats as a natural part of his life from a young age. Similarly, he refuses to express anguish, even when betrayed, punished, or met with the death of a loved one. He adopted the philosophy of "acceptance," allowing him to easily adapt to new dangers, but rendering him unwilling to resist dire conditions. Though he acknowledges him as talented and studious, Gilbert described Oz as a taut thread on the verge of snapping. Xerxes Break referred to him as "freaky" and "warped" for his behavior, something Oz struggled to deny.

Though never shown to directly harm himself, Oz acknowledged he was suicidal and admitted his ostensible recklessness was a cover up for deliberate attempts to die. His father's open disdain for him and the danger his political position put him in made it difficult for him to acknowledge others' care for him as genuine. Along with numerous suicide attempts, Oz occasionally exhibits violent outbursts, though he was remarked as seeming unaware of his own actions during and after these episodes. Oz nonetheless cares about the feelings of others, and upon coming to terms with the emotional impact his suicide would have on those who loved him, resolved to work on his suicidal ideation. He subsequently began to open up to others more and set goals for himself, much to the relief of those around him.

Oz was shown to have numerous skills and hobbies, though he is in fact rather naïve as a consequence of his sheltered upbringing. He told Echo he had never once seen a festival in person before, and his lack of knowledge of the world causes occasional missteps, such as forgetting to pay a vendor for food he'd received. His sensitivity nonetheless causes him to appear precocious at times, particularly in his moral development and capacity for empathy, as he will quickly attach great meaning to the lives of even near strangers. As such, he exhibited a nobility and selflessness unusual for his age from when he was very young.

It is eventually revealed that Oz was initially a pair of stuffed rabbits created by Lacie Baskerville as a gift to the Core of Abyss, his existence serving as a link between the two when not allowed to meet. Unable to move or talk, Oz would observe the lives of Lacie and the Core up until the former's death. He then was passed down to Lacie's biological daughters, and was particularly fawned over by the earthly incarnation of Alice. Though he described Alice as "horrible," he loved her deeply, she being the one to give him a name and a sense of self. He was grateful to his creators for allowing him to be a companion to Alice, though he still could not communicate with her, and thus sacrificed his earthly body to deliver Lacie's final message. He would come to regret this, however, for the grief it would cause Alice, and the subsequent violence it would force him to commit.

Overall, Oz is intelligent, manipulative, and at times spiteful and sadistic. Despite this, his ultimate concern is the wellbeing of others, and his attempts at concealing his true nature are all in the hope of relieving others. He at times displays unusual maturity for his mental age, but is nonetheless childish in his interests and his understanding of romance.

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