TV-Series
Description
Po Bidau Gustang is an Irregular and the family head of the Po Bidau Family, one of the ten Great Families that hold power within the Tower. Tens of thousands of years ago, he entered the Tower alongside Zahard and the other eleven Great Warriors, a group of Irregulars who climbed together and eventually became the most influential beings in the Tower's history. Because of that shared climb, Gustang is one of the oldest living characters in the setting and carries the weight and authority of a founding figure. He is also recognized as the first living being to systematically record shinsu, the fundamental energy that governs the Tower, and this connection to shinsu has made him the Tower's most famous Wave Controller and its most well-known writer. Aside from the eccentric researchers of the Workshop, Gustang likely understands the Tower and its workings better than almost anyone else.
In his outward presentation, Gustang is elegant, refined, and intellectual, and his calm scholarly demeanor can make him appear detached or erudite. That composed surface hides a more dangerous nature, as he has a marked tendency to turn to violence and brutality as quick solutions in any given situation. He also has a talent for infuriating and angering others, particularly his former companions from the original climb, and he seems to take pleasure in provoking and bullying them. Another defining trait is his complicated relationship with natural talent. The phrase of Gustang looking at Blossom has become a saying used to describe envying someone else's natural gifts while possessing considerable talent oneself, a reference to his wife Eurasia Blossom, a Great Warrior whose innate ability he holds in high regard and, in some ways, resents.
His motivations center on a quiet but deliberate opposition to Zahard and the empire that Zahard established after the climb. Gustang is one of the first family heads to take direct action within the main story, and even early appearances establish him as a force shaping events from behind the scenes. He is revealed to have helped Garam Zahard escape from the Zahard Empire by setting up the Floor of Death and by keeping information about it hidden from Zahard for a long period. Long before that, he proposed the idea of selecting exceptional female children, gradually injecting them with Zahard's blood, and having them compete against each other as they climbed the Tower, a proposal that eventually grew into the Princess of Zahard system. In the events of the Return of the Prince anime and the surrounding story, his role becomes more active and consequential. During the events on the Hidden Floor, Gustang steals Zahard's Bracelet using a special shinheuh known as the Treasure Eating Stingray, an act that provokes Zahard into issuing the new Three Orders for the first time in centuries and pushes the conflict between the empire and one of its founding families into open tension.
His relationships reflect his position among the founding generation. He shares a long history with Zahard and the other Great Warriors, but that history is marked by friction, teasing, and eventual estrangement rather than lasting unity. His connection to Eurasia Blossom defines part of his personality, as his envy of her natural talent coexists with admiration and affection. His loyalty to his own family is also central to his character; the Head Librarians of the Po Bidau Family wield powers that originally came from Gustang himself, and their abilities are treated as extensions of his own. In a broader sense, his relationship with the Tower's system is one of quiet subversion, as he uses his knowledge and his family's resources to undermine the empire he helped found.
His abilities place him among the strongest beings in the setting. As one of the Great Warriors and a High Ranker, his power is on a scale that ordinary residents of the Tower cannot approach, and even among the Tower's elites he is considered terrifyingly powerful. His most distinctive achievement is being the first to systematically record and study shinsu, and as a Wave Controller he has few equals anywhere in the Tower. The unique powers possessed by his Head Librarians are all originally his own abilities, and it is implied that if any of his creations die, their powers return to him or that he can reclaim them whenever he chooses. He also learned a skill directly from the god of the Guardians during his climb with Zahard and the other family heads, though the full nature of that skill has not yet been shown.
In terms of development, Gustang stands apart from the other Great Family heads because he is willing to act against the order he once helped create. His arc moves from an unseen background figure to an active participant whose theft of Zahard's Bracelet sets major events in motion and forces the empire to respond. His personal struggles with talent, his bond with Blossom, and his antagonistic relationship with his former allies combine to make him one of the more layered figures among the Tower's founding generation, and his introduction marks him as the first family head and one of the first beings ranked within the top twenty to directly affect the ongoing plot of the story.
In his outward presentation, Gustang is elegant, refined, and intellectual, and his calm scholarly demeanor can make him appear detached or erudite. That composed surface hides a more dangerous nature, as he has a marked tendency to turn to violence and brutality as quick solutions in any given situation. He also has a talent for infuriating and angering others, particularly his former companions from the original climb, and he seems to take pleasure in provoking and bullying them. Another defining trait is his complicated relationship with natural talent. The phrase of Gustang looking at Blossom has become a saying used to describe envying someone else's natural gifts while possessing considerable talent oneself, a reference to his wife Eurasia Blossom, a Great Warrior whose innate ability he holds in high regard and, in some ways, resents.
His motivations center on a quiet but deliberate opposition to Zahard and the empire that Zahard established after the climb. Gustang is one of the first family heads to take direct action within the main story, and even early appearances establish him as a force shaping events from behind the scenes. He is revealed to have helped Garam Zahard escape from the Zahard Empire by setting up the Floor of Death and by keeping information about it hidden from Zahard for a long period. Long before that, he proposed the idea of selecting exceptional female children, gradually injecting them with Zahard's blood, and having them compete against each other as they climbed the Tower, a proposal that eventually grew into the Princess of Zahard system. In the events of the Return of the Prince anime and the surrounding story, his role becomes more active and consequential. During the events on the Hidden Floor, Gustang steals Zahard's Bracelet using a special shinheuh known as the Treasure Eating Stingray, an act that provokes Zahard into issuing the new Three Orders for the first time in centuries and pushes the conflict between the empire and one of its founding families into open tension.
His relationships reflect his position among the founding generation. He shares a long history with Zahard and the other Great Warriors, but that history is marked by friction, teasing, and eventual estrangement rather than lasting unity. His connection to Eurasia Blossom defines part of his personality, as his envy of her natural talent coexists with admiration and affection. His loyalty to his own family is also central to his character; the Head Librarians of the Po Bidau Family wield powers that originally came from Gustang himself, and their abilities are treated as extensions of his own. In a broader sense, his relationship with the Tower's system is one of quiet subversion, as he uses his knowledge and his family's resources to undermine the empire he helped found.
His abilities place him among the strongest beings in the setting. As one of the Great Warriors and a High Ranker, his power is on a scale that ordinary residents of the Tower cannot approach, and even among the Tower's elites he is considered terrifyingly powerful. His most distinctive achievement is being the first to systematically record and study shinsu, and as a Wave Controller he has few equals anywhere in the Tower. The unique powers possessed by his Head Librarians are all originally his own abilities, and it is implied that if any of his creations die, their powers return to him or that he can reclaim them whenever he chooses. He also learned a skill directly from the god of the Guardians during his climb with Zahard and the other family heads, though the full nature of that skill has not yet been shown.
In terms of development, Gustang stands apart from the other Great Family heads because he is willing to act against the order he once helped create. His arc moves from an unseen background figure to an active participant whose theft of Zahard's Bracelet sets major events in motion and forces the empire to respond. His personal struggles with talent, his bond with Blossom, and his antagonistic relationship with his former allies combine to make him one of the more layered figures among the Tower's founding generation, and his introduction marks him as the first family head and one of the first beings ranked within the top twenty to directly affect the ongoing plot of the story.