Job Description: Peace is among the most powerful forces known to humanity...but it is also the most dangerous. What is often seen as peace is too often a suppression of conflict rather than a resolution of it. In other words, peace can manifest in our choosing to bury our problems away rather than facing them head-on. This condition is called "negative peace" or "silence," and can have very drastic effects on people, especially on children, who must learn how to properly solve their problems in order to grow stronger and wiser.

And it is the difference between this peace and truly "positive peace" the representative Guardian must learn.

Easier said than done.

Much like how Sandy protects the children’s ability to have good dreams, Nathan does the same for their ability to feel calmness.

For every negative emotion, there are spirits that embody them, and for hate, it’s the Ferox, their name derived from the Latin word for “fierce”. Vicious and unfeeling, they feast off of people’s anger, hate, and cruelty, and so tend to congregate around areas that contain massive amounts of violence, mostly commonly battlefields although they have appeared in non-combat situations.

If left unchecked, their powers can affect children by numbing their self-control and amplifying whatever anger they may be feeling at the moment. If Ferox become strong enough, they can eventually become visible to adults and affect them as well.

As such, Nathan’s job is to keep the Ferox from growing out of control by tracking down and exorcising them so they can’t gain sufficient power from the children. The difficulty of this task increases if he has to deal with a Ferox leader or a malicious spirit that means to harness their energy.

At times like that, he sometimes needs backup from either a fellow Guardian—usually Cupid since the Ferox oppose Love as well—or, in the event of a non-Ferox opponent, a local spirit.


History: Bunnymund was not the only survivor of the Pooka massacre. Unbeknownst to the future Guardian of Hope, his thirteen-year old godson had been kidnapped that night by Pitch's nightmares, his memory wiped and his age reverted to infancy by a dark entity named Jezebel. The dark spirits, with the aid of a mysterious queen, sought to "take him under their own wings" in a plot to control the future Guardian and have his incredible powers at their disposal.

They failed to anticipate, however, the Man in the Moon extending his power to Nathan, whose powers, suppressed by Jezebel's magic, began to reawaken as a result. When the villainous trio took notice, they whisked the young, unsuspecting Nathan to the Lost Lands, a war-torn, alternate future in which the Guardians failed to stop Pitch in time and thus faded away, as well as in which the forces they tried to stop (Jezebel's hatred, mostly) leaked into reality and brought about the end of human civilization.

Even then, Manny did not relent.

Not wishing to give up so easily, Manny, with help from Warp, the Guardian of Time, managed to send a piece of his essence into the alternate future Nathan had been taken to. From that point on, though, Manny could only speak to Nathan through the moonlight, and only when he knew for certain no one else was listening. Fortunately, thanks to Manny's efforts, Nathan gradually, albeit slowly, regained his memories but could never bring himself to tell his "mother" about them. Something about the thought of her and her allies knowing terrified him for reasons he couldn't understand yet.

Sadly, even with Manny's companionship, Nathan could not help but feel alone.

Everything changed, however, with the arrival of Hally, Roy, and Cupid.


Personality: Nathan, in many ways, is the polar opposite of Bunny: submissive, low self-esteem, quiet, shy, awkward, and, most of all, very easily scared. Deep down, Nathan is actually very strong yet gentle in spirit and heart, just like Bunny; he just needs to learn how to believe in himself more.

His faults aside, Nathan is a true gentleman at heart, preferring to treat others--women especially--with respect and kindness, even if they're his enemies. He hates seeing his friends sad, and will do anything to cheer them up (just as long as it's not too dangerous). On the reverse, his manners, combined with his docile personality, can be mistakened for him being a pushover, but, thanks to time spent with Cupid and eventually Bunny and Jack, he learns how to be more assertive.

Time spent with Jack, on an interesting note, reveals that this Pooka actually has a manipulative side. He has a surprisingly natural affinity for persuading others and has even managed to convince veteran Guardians like Bunny and master silver-tongues like Pitch otherwise.

Last of all (but certainly not least), Nathan has always been a child at heart, never losing his sense of wonder, curiosity, and creativity, even after the horrors he's seen in both the Lost Lands and the real world. This isn't to say he hasn't grown up; he's merely become less naive about how the world functions as a whole without sacrificing his sense of optimism.


Powers/Abilities: Nathan's powers center around water, which he can manipulate in a fashion identical to waterbending. As a result, he can create various attacks and defenses from the element. In addition, bubbles, magical manifestations of his soul, lay at his disposal and can shapeshift to take on a variety of forms--phoenixes, bo staffs, naginata, whips, ships, and so much more--just as long as he doesn't lose consciousness, of course. They also serve as a means of teleportation, similar to Bunny's tunnels.

There's a dark side to his power, however. As the Guardian of Peace, he is also a Guardian of balance both externally and internally. Deep in his mind lies an unknown part of himself birthed from the tragedies he's suffered in his life. This dark form of himself is called "Eclipse" (voiced by Daniel Henney), but is not as evil as his description depicts him to be. In fact, he is rather benevolent, if not highly protective of Nathan, and largely responsible for maintaining the boy's inner peace. If the inner peace is disturbed enough by something or someone on the outside, Eclipse will try his best to urge Nathan to face the cause.

More importantly, Eclipse keeps Nathan's core under control and prevents it from consuming the boy, an event that can only happen either if Nathan suppresses him far enough or if Eclipse is somehow ejected out of the boy. At that point, Nathan becomes consumed by his core to the point that he loses all emotion and no longer cares for his friends and enemies.

On a more mundane note, Nathaniel is highly trained in ninjutsu. As such, he specializes in stealth and sneak attacks and possesses great agility. Interestingly, sometimes he throws in a few dance moves into his attacks, an new idea suggested to him by Jack.


Weapons: Nathan carries no real weapons, but makes up for this weakness with his changeable bubbles.


Relationships:

North: Like with Jack, North wants Nathan to feel as if he's part of the family, even though his efforts can come off as a little overenthusiastic at times. All the same, Nathan, as he does with the other veteran Guardians, respects North and enjoys the man's jolly company.

Bunnymund: Having been there for the first thirteen years of Nathan's life, Bunny secretly feels responsible for the heartache and betrayal his godson faced at the hands of Jezebel and her allies. Plus, Bunny isn't very thrilled at the idea of seeing the boy after so long, especially since people can change so much with time. He doesn't realize, however, that Nathan shares his feelings to the dot.

Tooth: Even though Jezebel disguised herself as Nathan's deceased mother, Nathan's care for her, even after he learned the truth, always remained one-sided since the evil woman only saw the boy as a tool.

Tooth treats Nathan differently. She knows next to nothing about him, yes, but that fact doesn't keep her from showering the bashful bunny with attention and love. When she looks into his eyes, all she sees is another young boy in dire need of a family. And that's all the reason she needs to hug him and coddle him with every chance she gets. Nathan can never bring himself to tell her to stop partly because he enjoys the attention, but also because Tooth acts more like a mother than Jezebel ever did.

Sandman: Sandy and Nathan easily click together due to their quiet personalities. Even so, though, the golden Guardian tries his unvocalized best to help the young adult open up more.

Jack Frost: Nathan once knew an alternate version of the trickster during his time in the Lost Lands. In his "second childhood," Nathan stumbled upon a dimly glowing sheperd's crook that housed a sentiment of Jack--the last remnant of the Guardian of Fun after he and the other Guardians faded away. Nathan, for once in a long time, finally found a friend he could relate to and the alternate Jack no longer had to fear being alone again...at least until Jezebel, unbeknownst to the Pooka until further down the road, destroyed the staff, killing Jack in the process.

Ever since his discovery of the staff's fate (and particularly after discovering the identity of the culprit responsible), Nathan couldn't help but feel responsible for what happened. It's also why he's taken upon himself the task of being a big brother to the original Jack, his way of making amends for the Jack he knew in the Lost Lands. Jack himself, flattered as he is, tends to get flustered by the rabbit's clinginess and over-politeness, but, like Cupid, adjusts to the rabbit's personality and even finds delight in getting his help for jokes.

Cupid: Her brash, sarcastic nature unnerved Nathan in the early parts of their friendship, but the Pooka has gradually learned to take it in stride. In fact, he eventually comes to view her as an out-of-species sister.

Hally O. Ween: Like Sandy, Hally is all up for helping Nathan socialize with others, the Guardians in particular. Her mysterious nature and motherly tendencies interest and touch the Pooka, but her eccentric behavior tends to confuse him.

Roy G. Biv: Roy had a hard time trusting Nathan at first. For one reason, the boy's silence always unnerved him. Never knowing what was on that boy's mind--always beware the quiet ones after all. Thankfully, the two of them grow more comfortable with time after Nathan joins the Guardians, even though they still have some moments of misunderstanding.

Pitch: Being one of the boy's nannies never sat well with the King of Nightmares (and perhaps he felt a bit of sympathy for Nathan), which is why he left Jezebel and the Queen to their own devices in the Lost Lands and returned to the real world to deal with the Guardians in his own way. When Nathan returns with the other Guardans 300 years later, however, Pitch starts to wonder whether he actually does care about him...and whether he'll need to do some damage control for his reputation.

Nathan isn't too sure himself what to think of Pitch. True, the King of Nightmares is meant to be one of the Guardians' mortal enemies yet Nathan, like Jack, can't help but feel sympathy for him being alone and not believed in.

Sophie: Ever since they first met, something special always sparks in Nathan's heart whenever he thinks about her, much more when he's around her. It feels like romance as far as he can tell a few years down the road, but he's deathly afraid of how Sophie might react to the idea of him, a giant rabbit, being in love with her, a beautiful human female--and that's disregarding the fact that Bunny views both of them like his own children.


Voice Actor: Daniel Henny. He has a way of lending his voice to both youthful, optimistic voices (Tadashi from BH6) and more serious yet still earnest ones (Matt Simmons from Criminal Minds).


Theme: I chose "New Bodhum" (from Final Fantasy XIII-2) for Nathan's normal theme to reflect both the rabbit's childlike nature and gentle yet determined personality. The theme works, in my opinion, due to the upbeat tempo, light, soothing beats, and uplifting lyrics.

Meanwhile, "Don't Let Me Down" by Blackmill (featuring Cat Martin) is his aggressive (fighting) theme because it also uses light beats, except the beats crescendo into heavy beats that remind me so much of the power of tsunamis, the ultimate manifestations of Nathan's core and powers.

Nathaniel Hopson and all other non-canon characters and elements belong to me. "Rise of the Guardians" and all related canon characters, movie- or book-wise, belong to Dreamworks and William Joyce.

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