Birdy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
feathersharp) wrote2013-10-25 01:31 am
feathersharp) wrote2013-10-25 01:31 am
application ★ luceti
PLAYER
Name: Sora.
Journal Username:cinnamonical
E-mail: alchymic.aria @ gmail
AIM/PLURK:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
cinnamonical
Current Characters at Luceti: Revy (tickle_me)
CHARACTER
Name: Birdy.
Canon: Bomberman Jetters.
Gender: Male.
Age: 19.
Wing Color: Red tipped and speckled with teal.
Canon Point: Between episodes 41 and 42.
Canon Point Explanation: This is roughly when the series enters its final story arc, thus raising the stakes. What would have served as closure for Birdy over the death of Mighty has been thrown into question, and the friendly (or at least non-lethal) rivalry of the Jetters vs. the Hige Hige Bandits has turned into a life-or-death situation, requiring Birdy to take a more active role in the Jetters.
History: Birdy is a member of the Jetters, a group founded by Dr. Ein that is dedicated to thwarting the Hige Hige Bandits in their scheme to steal as many unique treasures in the universe as possible. Due to his combat skills as well as his intellect and levelheaded personality, he could be considered the unofficial second-in-command of the group, with Ein providing the mission briefings and a girl named Shout currently leading the Jetters on the field. The previous field leader was a bomberman named Mighty, whom Birdy was close friends with. When Mighty disappears after a successful mission on Nonbiri Planet, Birdy is so distraught that he quits the Jetters in order to find out what really happened. However, Birdy returns when Ein and another friend of his named Nightly convince him that he doesn't have to take on this burden alone. By the time Birdy comes back, Shout has been made leader in Mighty's stead and Mighty's younger brother Shirobon has joined the team as their new bomberman.
Not long after, Ein voices suspicions to Birdy about Mechadoc, a mad scientist who joined the Bandits at some point during Mighty's tenure and whose presence heralded more dangerous missions for the Jetters. Birdy agrees to look into the matter, leading him to skip out on a lot of Jetters missions or only provide emergency backup on them in favor of doing detective work. During one mission he's actively on, however, a Space Thief named Max makes his debut, stealing the unique sheriff's badge that the Jetters had assigned to protect and which Mujoe (military commander of the Bandits) intended to steal himself. Mysteriously, Max exhibits the same abilities and fighting style as the vanished Mighty.
Subsequent sleuthing unearths a slew of other strange details about him. Supposedly an experienced Space Thief hired by Bagura (leader of the Hige Hige Bandits), Max is an unknown to Nightly, who has spent years as an informant and would have heard of such a figure if Max's reputation were true. And despite being in the employ of the Bandits, Max seems to have his own agenda, having no problems with snatching treasures away from his official ally Mujoe or sneering at the Bomber Shitennou (a team of four artificially-created, elemental-themed bombermen serving under Mujoe). Most importantly, however, a recording discovered by Mujoe himself points strongly to Max being involved with Mighty's disappearance, showing Max's spaceship speeding away from the exploding battleship that Mighty was last seen on. In the full-scale direct attack that Max launches on Jetters headquarters, Birdy and Shirobon work together with the rest of the Jetters to take Max out of commission, leaving Max's body for dead in the rubble of Jetter Planet's moon.
The Jetters' missions return mostly to normal, despite some weaponry upgrades on Mujoe's part. However, that changes once a mysterious cloaked bomberman named Zero shows up at the B-1 Grand Prix tournament on Bomber Planet and wins it, also showcasing a fighting style very similar to Mighty's. Upon watching the footage of the fight, Birdy remembers that he saw Zero some time earlier accompanying Misty, a catgirl Space Thief he's known ever since Mighty's days with the Jetters. He, Shout, and Shirobon confront Zero and Misty to settle the issue, and Zero lowers his cloak hood in their presence to reveal that he's actually Max...if Max had amnesia and looked like a slightly unfinished or broken android. Birdy, for his part, is convinced that Zero's amnesia is just an act. His suspicions grow when Max -- as the Jetters first saw him -- shows up to steal a warp device from Dr. Gaskets, a former student of Dr. Ein's. Nightly confirms not long after that Zero disappeared two days before Max made his grab for the device.
With the situation getting as troubling as it is, Birdy and Ein finally explain to Shirobon and Shout about their work investigating the Hige Hige Bandits alongside the regular Jetters missions. The available evidence suggests that Mechadoc is trying to take over the Bandits for a yet unknown reason, and may be using Max to help him do so. Mechadoc himself confirms the first part in a direct message to the Jetters, warning them that with Bagura (a former friend of Ein's) out of the picture, he doesn't care about guaranteeing their lives in future conflicts. In light of this, Ein offers the Jetters the chance to walk away from such dire straits, but no one budges an inch. Still, they're dispirited when they arrive to protect a unique treasure and the Hige Hige Bandits don't show up to fight for it, despite Birdy making sure that information about the treasure would have spread to them by now.
To further muddy the waters, Zero appears again, standing up against Max as Max is trying to kill Shout and Misty. Max reveals that Zero is an android called MA-0, while Max himself bears the serial code MA-10, the "perfected version" of Zero's model. The two androids get into an altercation, and at the last moment Zero regains the ability to consciously use his bombs, forcing Max to retreat for the moment. Zero escapes with Misty, and the Jetters are left wondering why there seem to be two Maxes.
Personality: Birdy is probably the most competent and mature member of the current Jetters line-up (and yes, we're including the elderly Dr. Ein in that count). Calm and serious, he twice silences a loud argument between Shirobon and Shout without needing to raise his voice or even say much of anything at all, and he even manages to intimidate a foe into submission with just a glare three times (twice against Mujoe, admittedly). He keeps the rest of the Jetters in line, whether it's telling them to ignore an escaping Max in order to tend to a collapsed Shirobon or telling Shirobon not to blab to everyone and their dog about Max possibly being Mighty until Birdy can definitively determine otherwise ("I don't believe any information from others. Until I confirm it myself, that is"). Birdy also has an eye for detail, noticing the particular way that Shirobon makes a last-ditch attempt to save himself from getting hit with a powerful bomb, as well as being the first one to point out the nigh-imperceptible appearance of Max's spaceship in the last known footage of Mighty's mission. He's constantly giving out advice to Shout about how to lead the group, telling her that there are some things she can't help Shirobon with and advising her to keep a positive demeanor so as not to demoralize the rest of the team. And while Birdy lacks the raw firepower of even a trainee bomberman like Shirobon, he's still a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. He can take out multiple Hige Hige Bandit robots at a time in hand-to-hand combat as long as the element of surprise is on his side, and his background as a bird-person-thing-something-or-other grants him the ability to fly and the ability to throw feathers sharp enough to pierce metal (one is seen slicing through a bundle of wires, even). Though he appears to be of slight build, Birdy is physically strong enough to carry up to two people at a time while in flight (and if they're light enough, like young Shirobon, he can manage to hold one in his talons!). In short, Birdy is one of the Jetters' greatest assets. When he actually shows up for missions, anyway: it's noted very early on in the series that he skips out on them a lot, and the missions he's active in feature him in either in a support role (babysitting the Cosmo Jetter, performing last-minute heroic rescues) and/or still doing his own thing.
To be sure, Birdy's reasons for playing hooky are far from frivolous. He is haunted by the disappearance of his best friend Mighty, and who can blame him? There are very few glimpses of what Birdy and Mighty's friendship was like, but nevertheless it's readily apparent that Mighty brought out a happier and more playful side of Birdy. In the first episode, when a Jetters mission takes them to Bomber Planet, he accuses Mighty of being too serious to visit Shirobon, then turns around and says that if the Hige Hige Bandits get away with their crime on this mission, he'll just blame Mighty for it. (Mighty gets back at him later by pretending to let Birdy take the reins on the mission to Nonbiri Planet, claiming that he just wanted to "let [Birdy] be in the limelight sometimes.") However, Birdy lowering his emotional barriers around Mighty also means that his hotheaded streak, usually kept to a simmer in the present, boiled over more often in the past -- particularly when it came to the Space Thief Misty, whom Mighty seemed to be attracted to and whom Birdy did not trust or personally like at all. He has no problems complaining about Misty being extra weight to carry after catching Mighty in his arms to save him from a fall (Mighty himself was carrying Misty in his arms at the time), and when he runs into Misty again and sees that she's concerned about the rumor that Mighty went missing, Birdy snaps at her about it (although to his credit, he apologizes for his attitude later). And though Birdy comes off as being the smartest person in the Jetters these days, Mighty apparently overshadowed him in this regard in the past, impressing Birdy with an unconventional approach to a mission. Arguably, Birdy's personality in the Jetters when Mighty was still around was that of a volatile and competitive firebrand -- the same personality exhibited by 10-year-old Shirobon in the present-day.
It's not that those traits of Birdy have completely disappeared, though. Rather, the personality dynamics of the current lineup of the Jetters simply require him to behave a little differently most of the time in order to get optimal results from the other members (for example, his lighthearted teasing in the past is now deadpan snarking when people are starting to get on his nerves). As well, Birdy bears a strong sense of responsibility over Mighty's fate that weighs him down. For much of the series, he blames himself for Mighty dying because he had been in too much pain from his own injury acquired from the confrontation on Bomber Planet to notice that Mighty was also severely hurt. Birdy passed out en route to Nonbiri Planet, and by the time he awoke, Mighty was gone, leading Birdy to quit the Jetters posthaste in order to get to the bottom of the matter. Though Ein and Nightly eventually talk him back, Birdy continues to harbor personal guilt over the circumstances. Once Mechadoc raises the stakes in the Jetters/Bandits conflict, Birdy vehemently insists that the rest of the Jetters take his advice on missions because it's "all I can do for you guys," and he simply can't bear the thought of "letting" them die in addition to Mighty. Despite Birdy's admission that he "get[s] irritated and make[s] lots of mistakes" when it comes to Mighty, though, this sense of responsibility seems to be an innate trait. In a later episode, when Mujoe seemingly sacrifices his life to buy the Jetters time to escape from the Schumulvault (the home base of the Bandits), Birdy chastises Shout for hesitating in warping the Cosmo Jetter to safety, telling her "not to waste Mujoe's death." And then when it suddenly seems like Mujoe's sacrifice was entirely in vain, Birdy growls in frustration and quietly apologizes to Mujoe. Though he projects an aloof and disinterested air, and though he does prioritize mission objectives above sentimentality, Birdy is nonetheless clearly capable of caring deeply.
With as much of a badass as Birdy is, why isn't he the leader of the Jetters? Surely with his skills and how closely he worked with the previous leader, he's the logical successor, right? Well, putting aside issues of lingering loyalty to Mighty...Birdy just has very little patience for the social graces required of the role. He passes on a picnic with the Jetters, saying that he "didn't want to play house with a bunch of brats," he refuses to humor a request to hang out with Shirobon's pet rabbit Rui until Rui reminds him that Birdy owes a favor from losing a race against Shirobon and Rui earlier, and he's brusque with most of his taxi customers when he's not just being stoic and untalkative. He even admits during one episode that he's not cut out for the job, having his hands full with Rui and the rest of the Jetters after Shout is temporarily incapacitated by the flu. Shout is far from perfect as a leader, but her naturally boisterous personality and her experience in helping to run her father's ramen shop make her well-equipped to be the public face of the Jetters. Birdy functions best as -- and seems to be content with -- being the behind-the-scenes brains and brawn.
Strengths
Physical: Well, Birdy can fly, which is pretty handy, and he's strong enough to carry up to two people at a time while doing so (within reason, of course). He's quick on his feet in battle and can utilize that speed to land precise strikes that take down targets. He's also adept with throwing blade/needle-like feathers (presumably from his wings, although this is never elaborated on) that are sharp enough to penetrate metal and which appear to have the auxiliary effect of stunning a target...somehow.
Mental: Birdy possesses some measure of mechanical aptitude, as he's seen working on the Cosmo Jetter multiple times throughout the series. While not a genius at it like Bongo, he'd know his way around the basics, especially since he has a small spaceship of his own that he needs to maintain. He also has a knack for noticing details (see the first paragraph of the personality section).
Emotional: Birdy is the member of the Jetters who can be most trusted to keep his head cool and his priorities straight when on a mission. He assesses situations clearly and honestly, such as admitting to the Jetters that his plan for cornering Max on Jetters Planet's moon has only a 50-50 chance of succeeding. He also has no problems taking the heat when he has to, such as ordering Shout not tell Shirobon about Mighty being confirmed dead because he'd handle that dialogue himself when it seemed that Shirobon would be more receptive to the news.
Weaknesses
Physical: Birdy is practically ninja-like in battle, but it's really almost by necessity: he lacks pure power and a diversified moveset. Though he has a personality suited for melee, he seems to work best when he's support or being supported. As a birdpersonsomething, it could also be inferred that he's a bit lighter than a normal human male would be at his weight, and so he'd be more prone to being knocked around.
Mental: Birdy doesn't care to deal with the minutiae of personal interactions outside of select individuals, which can make him a little offputting and which doesn't set him up to be the most ideal leader (although I imagine that he would fare better with a less rambunctious group than the Jetters). That being said, it's also possible to rankle his pride to the point of threatening a fight or at least a competition of sorts, such as when Shirobon and Rui goaded him into a race by insinuating that his supposed reputation as the fastest driver on Jetters Planet was just a farce. Birdy's pride was such that he refused to back down -- even when he realized that Shirobon and Rui had misled him about the nature of the race.
Emotional: With the return of Max, the supposed culprit behind Mighty's death, Birdy feels as though he still hasn't fully carried out his responsibility to properly avenge his friend, making him vulnerable to making rash decisions in situations that leave him in a similar state of helplessness. Additionally, with Mechadoc declaring subsequent confrontations between the Jetters and the Bandits to be no-holds-barred, Birdy has an increased investment in looking after his teammates, so he'll be even more upset than usual when Luceti takes him away from such a crucial moment. In this world, he's likely to turn down any manipulation that involves him doing something morally suspect for the sake of ensuring the Jetters' well-being, since it'll be difficult for the other party to prove that this would actually be the outcome of him agreeing to the deal, but it'll bother him enough to weigh heavily on his mind. And if the manipulation involved people he actually grew to care about deeply enough in Luceti, well...who knows?
Anything else?: Two things!
➜ Since it's difficult to tell from sight alone due to the nature of the art style, and there isn't any canon on this, I'm specifying Birdy's height in Luceti at about 5'6"-5'7"not including his hair.
➜ There are some names/terms I romanize differently than the subs out of personal preference, but many of these changes do have official English precedent in the Bomberman game series. (This includes but is not limited to: Jetterz ➛ Jetters, Iein ➛ Ein, Mujyou ➛ Mujoe, Higehige-dan ➛ Hige Hige Bandits.) If it becomes an issue with potential castmates castmates what castmates for whatever reason, I'll discuss it with them.
SAMPLES
First Person: At the Test Flight Meme here and here!
Third Person: Birdy will be the first to admit that he has no idea how to deal with kids, or that he even desires to deal with them at all. Nevertheless, when he sees a young girl sitting by herself in an isolated area of the base the Malnosso is using to house draftees, he decides that he should at least bring her something to eat. What the hell are the Malnosso thinking, enlisting brats on something like this? They're a liability.
"Here," he says, holding out a wrapped sandwich to her. When she ignores it in favor of staring at him in wonder, he only sighs, entirely unsurprised by her reaction. "Yes, they're my real wings, and yes, I can fly with them."
Conscious of the defining physical feature of the Third Party, Birdy has taken to leaving his true wings out while walking around allied areas, in the hopes of acclimating friendly eyes to the strange sight that he apparently is in this world. It's a little cumbersome, given the close quarters, but he'd rather not have a bullet-riddled wing again, thanks.
The girl smiles. "Do you like flying?"
"...I suppose." He doesn't dislike it, at any rate. It's just a mundane activity to him -- although he'll admit that the views afforded to him are pretty great. And it's convenient, to be sure.
"I wish I could fly," she murmurs. "I'd go all over the world and visit all the other enclosures."
"Tch. You'd have to get past the barriers first." He gestures at her again with the sandwich. "Come on, eat."
The girl takes it from him, but she only gives it a brief glance before gazing up at Birdy again. "Do you eat worms?"
Birdy just sighs again, wondering why he'd bothered with talking to her in the first place.
Name: Sora.
Journal Username:
cinnamonicalE-mail: alchymic.aria @ gmail
AIM/PLURK:
Current Characters at Luceti: Revy (
tickle_me)CHARACTER
Name: Birdy.
Canon: Bomberman Jetters.
Gender: Male.
Age: 19.
Wing Color: Red tipped and speckled with teal.
Canon Point: Between episodes 41 and 42.
Canon Point Explanation: This is roughly when the series enters its final story arc, thus raising the stakes. What would have served as closure for Birdy over the death of Mighty has been thrown into question, and the friendly (or at least non-lethal) rivalry of the Jetters vs. the Hige Hige Bandits has turned into a life-or-death situation, requiring Birdy to take a more active role in the Jetters.
History: Birdy is a member of the Jetters, a group founded by Dr. Ein that is dedicated to thwarting the Hige Hige Bandits in their scheme to steal as many unique treasures in the universe as possible. Due to his combat skills as well as his intellect and levelheaded personality, he could be considered the unofficial second-in-command of the group, with Ein providing the mission briefings and a girl named Shout currently leading the Jetters on the field. The previous field leader was a bomberman named Mighty, whom Birdy was close friends with. When Mighty disappears after a successful mission on Nonbiri Planet, Birdy is so distraught that he quits the Jetters in order to find out what really happened. However, Birdy returns when Ein and another friend of his named Nightly convince him that he doesn't have to take on this burden alone. By the time Birdy comes back, Shout has been made leader in Mighty's stead and Mighty's younger brother Shirobon has joined the team as their new bomberman.
Not long after, Ein voices suspicions to Birdy about Mechadoc, a mad scientist who joined the Bandits at some point during Mighty's tenure and whose presence heralded more dangerous missions for the Jetters. Birdy agrees to look into the matter, leading him to skip out on a lot of Jetters missions or only provide emergency backup on them in favor of doing detective work. During one mission he's actively on, however, a Space Thief named Max makes his debut, stealing the unique sheriff's badge that the Jetters had assigned to protect and which Mujoe (military commander of the Bandits) intended to steal himself. Mysteriously, Max exhibits the same abilities and fighting style as the vanished Mighty.
Subsequent sleuthing unearths a slew of other strange details about him. Supposedly an experienced Space Thief hired by Bagura (leader of the Hige Hige Bandits), Max is an unknown to Nightly, who has spent years as an informant and would have heard of such a figure if Max's reputation were true. And despite being in the employ of the Bandits, Max seems to have his own agenda, having no problems with snatching treasures away from his official ally Mujoe or sneering at the Bomber Shitennou (a team of four artificially-created, elemental-themed bombermen serving under Mujoe). Most importantly, however, a recording discovered by Mujoe himself points strongly to Max being involved with Mighty's disappearance, showing Max's spaceship speeding away from the exploding battleship that Mighty was last seen on. In the full-scale direct attack that Max launches on Jetters headquarters, Birdy and Shirobon work together with the rest of the Jetters to take Max out of commission, leaving Max's body for dead in the rubble of Jetter Planet's moon.
The Jetters' missions return mostly to normal, despite some weaponry upgrades on Mujoe's part. However, that changes once a mysterious cloaked bomberman named Zero shows up at the B-1 Grand Prix tournament on Bomber Planet and wins it, also showcasing a fighting style very similar to Mighty's. Upon watching the footage of the fight, Birdy remembers that he saw Zero some time earlier accompanying Misty, a catgirl Space Thief he's known ever since Mighty's days with the Jetters. He, Shout, and Shirobon confront Zero and Misty to settle the issue, and Zero lowers his cloak hood in their presence to reveal that he's actually Max...if Max had amnesia and looked like a slightly unfinished or broken android. Birdy, for his part, is convinced that Zero's amnesia is just an act. His suspicions grow when Max -- as the Jetters first saw him -- shows up to steal a warp device from Dr. Gaskets, a former student of Dr. Ein's. Nightly confirms not long after that Zero disappeared two days before Max made his grab for the device.
With the situation getting as troubling as it is, Birdy and Ein finally explain to Shirobon and Shout about their work investigating the Hige Hige Bandits alongside the regular Jetters missions. The available evidence suggests that Mechadoc is trying to take over the Bandits for a yet unknown reason, and may be using Max to help him do so. Mechadoc himself confirms the first part in a direct message to the Jetters, warning them that with Bagura (a former friend of Ein's) out of the picture, he doesn't care about guaranteeing their lives in future conflicts. In light of this, Ein offers the Jetters the chance to walk away from such dire straits, but no one budges an inch. Still, they're dispirited when they arrive to protect a unique treasure and the Hige Hige Bandits don't show up to fight for it, despite Birdy making sure that information about the treasure would have spread to them by now.
To further muddy the waters, Zero appears again, standing up against Max as Max is trying to kill Shout and Misty. Max reveals that Zero is an android called MA-0, while Max himself bears the serial code MA-10, the "perfected version" of Zero's model. The two androids get into an altercation, and at the last moment Zero regains the ability to consciously use his bombs, forcing Max to retreat for the moment. Zero escapes with Misty, and the Jetters are left wondering why there seem to be two Maxes.
Personality: Birdy is probably the most competent and mature member of the current Jetters line-up (and yes, we're including the elderly Dr. Ein in that count). Calm and serious, he twice silences a loud argument between Shirobon and Shout without needing to raise his voice or even say much of anything at all, and he even manages to intimidate a foe into submission with just a glare three times (twice against Mujoe, admittedly). He keeps the rest of the Jetters in line, whether it's telling them to ignore an escaping Max in order to tend to a collapsed Shirobon or telling Shirobon not to blab to everyone and their dog about Max possibly being Mighty until Birdy can definitively determine otherwise ("I don't believe any information from others. Until I confirm it myself, that is"). Birdy also has an eye for detail, noticing the particular way that Shirobon makes a last-ditch attempt to save himself from getting hit with a powerful bomb, as well as being the first one to point out the nigh-imperceptible appearance of Max's spaceship in the last known footage of Mighty's mission. He's constantly giving out advice to Shout about how to lead the group, telling her that there are some things she can't help Shirobon with and advising her to keep a positive demeanor so as not to demoralize the rest of the team. And while Birdy lacks the raw firepower of even a trainee bomberman like Shirobon, he's still a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. He can take out multiple Hige Hige Bandit robots at a time in hand-to-hand combat as long as the element of surprise is on his side, and his background as a bird-person-thing-something-or-other grants him the ability to fly and the ability to throw feathers sharp enough to pierce metal (one is seen slicing through a bundle of wires, even). Though he appears to be of slight build, Birdy is physically strong enough to carry up to two people at a time while in flight (and if they're light enough, like young Shirobon, he can manage to hold one in his talons!). In short, Birdy is one of the Jetters' greatest assets. When he actually shows up for missions, anyway: it's noted very early on in the series that he skips out on them a lot, and the missions he's active in feature him in either in a support role (babysitting the Cosmo Jetter, performing last-minute heroic rescues) and/or still doing his own thing.
To be sure, Birdy's reasons for playing hooky are far from frivolous. He is haunted by the disappearance of his best friend Mighty, and who can blame him? There are very few glimpses of what Birdy and Mighty's friendship was like, but nevertheless it's readily apparent that Mighty brought out a happier and more playful side of Birdy. In the first episode, when a Jetters mission takes them to Bomber Planet, he accuses Mighty of being too serious to visit Shirobon, then turns around and says that if the Hige Hige Bandits get away with their crime on this mission, he'll just blame Mighty for it. (Mighty gets back at him later by pretending to let Birdy take the reins on the mission to Nonbiri Planet, claiming that he just wanted to "let [Birdy] be in the limelight sometimes.") However, Birdy lowering his emotional barriers around Mighty also means that his hotheaded streak, usually kept to a simmer in the present, boiled over more often in the past -- particularly when it came to the Space Thief Misty, whom Mighty seemed to be attracted to and whom Birdy did not trust or personally like at all. He has no problems complaining about Misty being extra weight to carry after catching Mighty in his arms to save him from a fall (Mighty himself was carrying Misty in his arms at the time), and when he runs into Misty again and sees that she's concerned about the rumor that Mighty went missing, Birdy snaps at her about it (although to his credit, he apologizes for his attitude later). And though Birdy comes off as being the smartest person in the Jetters these days, Mighty apparently overshadowed him in this regard in the past, impressing Birdy with an unconventional approach to a mission. Arguably, Birdy's personality in the Jetters when Mighty was still around was that of a volatile and competitive firebrand -- the same personality exhibited by 10-year-old Shirobon in the present-day.
It's not that those traits of Birdy have completely disappeared, though. Rather, the personality dynamics of the current lineup of the Jetters simply require him to behave a little differently most of the time in order to get optimal results from the other members (for example, his lighthearted teasing in the past is now deadpan snarking when people are starting to get on his nerves). As well, Birdy bears a strong sense of responsibility over Mighty's fate that weighs him down. For much of the series, he blames himself for Mighty dying because he had been in too much pain from his own injury acquired from the confrontation on Bomber Planet to notice that Mighty was also severely hurt. Birdy passed out en route to Nonbiri Planet, and by the time he awoke, Mighty was gone, leading Birdy to quit the Jetters posthaste in order to get to the bottom of the matter. Though Ein and Nightly eventually talk him back, Birdy continues to harbor personal guilt over the circumstances. Once Mechadoc raises the stakes in the Jetters/Bandits conflict, Birdy vehemently insists that the rest of the Jetters take his advice on missions because it's "all I can do for you guys," and he simply can't bear the thought of "letting" them die in addition to Mighty. Despite Birdy's admission that he "get[s] irritated and make[s] lots of mistakes" when it comes to Mighty, though, this sense of responsibility seems to be an innate trait. In a later episode, when Mujoe seemingly sacrifices his life to buy the Jetters time to escape from the Schumulvault (the home base of the Bandits), Birdy chastises Shout for hesitating in warping the Cosmo Jetter to safety, telling her "not to waste Mujoe's death." And then when it suddenly seems like Mujoe's sacrifice was entirely in vain, Birdy growls in frustration and quietly apologizes to Mujoe. Though he projects an aloof and disinterested air, and though he does prioritize mission objectives above sentimentality, Birdy is nonetheless clearly capable of caring deeply.
With as much of a badass as Birdy is, why isn't he the leader of the Jetters? Surely with his skills and how closely he worked with the previous leader, he's the logical successor, right? Well, putting aside issues of lingering loyalty to Mighty...Birdy just has very little patience for the social graces required of the role. He passes on a picnic with the Jetters, saying that he "didn't want to play house with a bunch of brats," he refuses to humor a request to hang out with Shirobon's pet rabbit Rui until Rui reminds him that Birdy owes a favor from losing a race against Shirobon and Rui earlier, and he's brusque with most of his taxi customers when he's not just being stoic and untalkative. He even admits during one episode that he's not cut out for the job, having his hands full with Rui and the rest of the Jetters after Shout is temporarily incapacitated by the flu. Shout is far from perfect as a leader, but her naturally boisterous personality and her experience in helping to run her father's ramen shop make her well-equipped to be the public face of the Jetters. Birdy functions best as -- and seems to be content with -- being the behind-the-scenes brains and brawn.
Strengths
Mental: Birdy possesses some measure of mechanical aptitude, as he's seen working on the Cosmo Jetter multiple times throughout the series. While not a genius at it like Bongo, he'd know his way around the basics, especially since he has a small spaceship of his own that he needs to maintain. He also has a knack for noticing details (see the first paragraph of the personality section).
Emotional: Birdy is the member of the Jetters who can be most trusted to keep his head cool and his priorities straight when on a mission. He assesses situations clearly and honestly, such as admitting to the Jetters that his plan for cornering Max on Jetters Planet's moon has only a 50-50 chance of succeeding. He also has no problems taking the heat when he has to, such as ordering Shout not tell Shirobon about Mighty being confirmed dead because he'd handle that dialogue himself when it seemed that Shirobon would be more receptive to the news.
Weaknesses
Mental: Birdy doesn't care to deal with the minutiae of personal interactions outside of select individuals, which can make him a little offputting and which doesn't set him up to be the most ideal leader (although I imagine that he would fare better with a less rambunctious group than the Jetters). That being said, it's also possible to rankle his pride to the point of threatening a fight or at least a competition of sorts, such as when Shirobon and Rui goaded him into a race by insinuating that his supposed reputation as the fastest driver on Jetters Planet was just a farce. Birdy's pride was such that he refused to back down -- even when he realized that Shirobon and Rui had misled him about the nature of the race.
Emotional: With the return of Max, the supposed culprit behind Mighty's death, Birdy feels as though he still hasn't fully carried out his responsibility to properly avenge his friend, making him vulnerable to making rash decisions in situations that leave him in a similar state of helplessness. Additionally, with Mechadoc declaring subsequent confrontations between the Jetters and the Bandits to be no-holds-barred, Birdy has an increased investment in looking after his teammates, so he'll be even more upset than usual when Luceti takes him away from such a crucial moment. In this world, he's likely to turn down any manipulation that involves him doing something morally suspect for the sake of ensuring the Jetters' well-being, since it'll be difficult for the other party to prove that this would actually be the outcome of him agreeing to the deal, but it'll bother him enough to weigh heavily on his mind. And if the manipulation involved people he actually grew to care about deeply enough in Luceti, well...who knows?
Anything else?: Two things!
➜ Since it's difficult to tell from sight alone due to the nature of the art style, and there isn't any canon on this, I'm specifying Birdy's height in Luceti at about 5'6"-5'7"
➜ There are some names/terms I romanize differently than the subs out of personal preference, but many of these changes do have official English precedent in the Bomberman game series. (This includes but is not limited to: Jetterz ➛ Jetters, Iein ➛ Ein, Mujyou ➛ Mujoe, Higehige-dan ➛ Hige Hige Bandits.) If it becomes an issue with potential castmates castmates what castmates for whatever reason, I'll discuss it with them.
SAMPLES
First Person: At the Test Flight Meme here and here!
Third Person: Birdy will be the first to admit that he has no idea how to deal with kids, or that he even desires to deal with them at all. Nevertheless, when he sees a young girl sitting by herself in an isolated area of the base the Malnosso is using to house draftees, he decides that he should at least bring her something to eat. What the hell are the Malnosso thinking, enlisting brats on something like this? They're a liability.
"Here," he says, holding out a wrapped sandwich to her. When she ignores it in favor of staring at him in wonder, he only sighs, entirely unsurprised by her reaction. "Yes, they're my real wings, and yes, I can fly with them."
Conscious of the defining physical feature of the Third Party, Birdy has taken to leaving his true wings out while walking around allied areas, in the hopes of acclimating friendly eyes to the strange sight that he apparently is in this world. It's a little cumbersome, given the close quarters, but he'd rather not have a bullet-riddled wing again, thanks.
The girl smiles. "Do you like flying?"
"...I suppose." He doesn't dislike it, at any rate. It's just a mundane activity to him -- although he'll admit that the views afforded to him are pretty great. And it's convenient, to be sure.
"I wish I could fly," she murmurs. "I'd go all over the world and visit all the other enclosures."
"Tch. You'd have to get past the barriers first." He gestures at her again with the sandwich. "Come on, eat."
The girl takes it from him, but she only gives it a brief glance before gazing up at Birdy again. "Do you eat worms?"
Birdy just sighs again, wondering why he'd bothered with talking to her in the first place.