Don't think I have only one needle!

The following information could contain spoilers, so I suggest you to read the whole volume 12 of the manga of Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas if you haven't.

Background

Kardia is among all, a proud, jealous and posessive person. He's also very competitive which is why he is always looking for a new strong opponent or a memorable match. He doesn't like easy tasks and complains about almost everything, he's not the kind of person who has the virtue of patience.

I could say Kardia is a child in a grown up man's body. Sometimes he's way too innocent, but passionate and gives it all when he feels he has to. Also, Kardia could introduce himself as "Kardia of Scorpio and his ego". He is always praising himself, introducing the name of "Kardia-sama" when he makes his appeareance in Chapter 100 of the manga, while torturing a Specter.

Kardia seems to be, in my honest oppinion, the kind of person that in the moment he's scared or doubts about something or someone, hides it by being hostile, or tries to make fun about the matter he's involved. He can be seen as an arrogant bastard, but deep inside he's just a kind soul as we can see further in the manga.

Something really curious about him is the fact he seems to get excited easily, but the one that actually loses his cool right after Unity gets killed is Dégel, and Kardia is the one who calms him down and makes him go after Poseidon's Will, saying he'd take care of Radamanthys since once he felt Radamanthys' power he couldn't help but feel he had to kill him, even if he didn't care about Unity. To make a summary here, I could say Kardia is very selfish, even with his dearest Dégel.

Even when he's in the worst of the cases or dangers, Kardia would laugh and joke about it, wanting to provoke his opponent to finish him off. Kardia does everything by instinct, he hardly ever thinks about what he says or does...perhaps he never does.

While looking or acting like a little child, he is also very mature. There is a duality into his character that makes him accept the fact he'll die soon, being a contradiction to all what I've said before about him, because due to an illness related to his heart he wouldn't live long; so all he wants to do is to live as much as he can while he fights and use all his power, he wants to die fighting.

He is very sure about what he wants and never doubts: doubting could be equal to dying, in Kardia's language.

Fighting Style

Typical of a person of Scorpio, Kardia has this arrogant and passionate way of being. Kardia is an addicted to fight and does so for his own entretainment. I would add a little bit of charm in the way he moves his arms, hands, his body in general everytime he talks. And the fact he fights only with his scarlet needle makes this more accurate. He doesn't make a big effort in fights, he just moves his nail around and everything is done! Of course this wouldn't apply to strong opponents in which Kardia actually uses all what he's got.

If he's not interested in his opponent then he won't make his nail dirty, he hates wasting his time with pieces of crap. However, he'd always say that fighting against Dégel would be an awesome match, I bet he can't imagine any other opponent than Dégel, even if at the same time he loves him deeply; He is his best buddy after all.

I think his attacks and his fighting weapon reflects a lot of what Kardia is as a human being. The needle is beautiful and deadly, just as Kardia is. He is kind (in Kardia's way of course, he isn't the corny type of guy) and protects the people he cares about (which would be Dégel in this case) and could sacrifice himself or do whatever it takes to do so.

At the same time, it seems like he likes the fact that using all his power could kill him. Risking his own life to accomplish something he wants badly excites him and makes him more interested on what he's doing: "if he's doing something then he has to do it right".

Techniques

スカーレットニードル (Scarlet Needle)

Kardia launches a crimson needle to 14 body parts (which represents the stars of Scorpius) to poison opponents, causing bleeding and excruciating pain, losing their 5 senses in the process, upon receiving several of the blows, the result can only be either madness or death.

アンタレス ニードル (Antares Needle)

Is the killing blow of the Scarlet Needle combination.

カタケオ ニードル (Katakaio Needle) - Translated as 'utterly burned' from the greek 'κατακαίω '

It causes Kardia's opponent's blood to boil within themselves, while connected to Kardia's heart lifeforce.

カタケオ アンタレス (Katakaio Antares)

After successfully inflicting 14 hits, Kardia finishes the Katakaio Needle with this technique, the fifteenth star of the Scorpius constellation, which delivers the killing stroke for his opponent.

Cloth & Myth

Kardia's guardian constellation is Scorpio, and his Gold Cloth represents the following myth which its associated with:

"In Greek mythology, associated with Scorpio almost invariably also contain a reference to Orion, a Greek giant who was a hunter and the most handsome man in the world. By no means impervious to the charms of females, Orion was said to have such an enormous stature that he could walk on the bottom of the sea without getting his head wet. One such tale involves Eos. She invited him to spend the night with her and he happily accepted but later bragged of the conquest and also boasted that he was such a magnificent hunter, that he would exterminate all of the wild beasts of the Earth. Apollo persuaded Gaia, to send a giant scorpion with impenetrable armor to sting Orion until the hunter was dead".

Kardia's Illness

Since the moment he was born it seems Kardia has had an illness that would eventually kill him.s It's still unknown which kind of cardiac illness he has but what it's for sure is that Kardia didn't give up. He was using a technique on his heart to prolongue his life much longer, just to achieve to his goal: use all his strength and life to fight againts a strong opponent, to feel as much heat and pain as he could while he still was alive.

Dégel then would be by Kardia's side when his fever was too high, trying to cool him down with his cold air. He was worried and didn't exactly know about why Kardia was falling ill all the time like that, until he reveals to him that the high amount of heat was coming from his heart.

Even so, Kardia became stronger and used all his will to fight against Radamanthys, making his own heart burn until its heat escaped from there and made his heart stop beating.

His relationship with Dégel

Dégel is Kardia's most important person, or so it seems. The first time we see Kardia, Dégel appears in his Temple to invite him to come to Bluegard, for a Mission that Athena had given him and that only Dégel could do, however even if only one Saint might have been enough, Dégel insisted to go with Kardia.

However, he considered Bluegard as a boring and cold place, and he had no interest in going even if I somehow know he'd do anything for him. And it seems Dégel knew this so he uses his plan 'b', saying that they might have to fight Poseidon. In the end, he can't resist and goes along with him, being even more excited than Dégel for the mission.

His relatonship with Dégel is something very complex and beautiful. I totally love it. While Dégel is calm, logical and tries always to think before acting, Kardia is all the contrary: just like a child, he acts before he can even think with a little bit of rationality, he gets cocky over anything and is always moving, doing something, yelling, talking. He can't stand still or silent.

The way the manga shows us their relationship makes me think they've known each other for a while, perhaps since they were very young, even before they became Gold Saints. Dégel seems to care a lot about Kardia, looking over him everytime he can and smiling only when he's around (of course, we can see Dégel's smile in other two opportunities: with Unity and Seraphina); however I still think his smile and kind attitude is special to Kardia, and Kardia only. Also, the Scorpio Saint is very possesive with him and this is just obvious when Unity appears. It seems Kardia can't tolerate not being the only one and special person to Dégel.

His battle against Radamanthys

Kardia said to him once they started to fight that he was the one who Kardia has been waiting to fight with, and the one who ignited once again the flame inside his heart. He said he was so excited to fight him his heart was burning.

He let Dégel go after Pandora so he could take care of Radamanthys, and because he explained no matter how much Unity was important to Dégel, Kardia felt he had more right to fight Radamanthys than anyone else, because nobody could feel like him in that moment.

They have some discussions as they fight and Radamanthys says that the Gold Saints are no different from the Specters, since they fight for their Gods' sake. Kardia agrees but at the same time he explains he isn't there because of Athena, but because he knew he had to come and fight him, because he wanted to choose where to fight, where and how to die. "I'm only living according my feelings".

He also says that if his decision would help the other Saints to be one step forward to the Holy War's victory, then he'd be glad.

Kardia's Death

To finish the battle againts Radamanthys, Kardia introduces a new technique called "Katakaio Scarlet Needle" which would make his opponent's heart burn and blood boil until he dies.

Radamanthys thinks this is absurd because Kardia would have to be in the same conditions and that is impossible for a human being, however Kardia explains to him why his heart is already burning.

When Radamanthys stops Kardia's Katakaio Needle it seems to be the end for him, but suddenly Kardia strikes him down with his left hand, saying he doesn't just have only one needle, but two.

He walks some steps, almost without breath and remembers how Dégel used to take care of him when he was sick and with high fever, what makes me think Dégel is without any doubts his most important person. He smiles and feels how his heart stops, wishing the best of the lucks to Dégel.

Even when I thought I wouldn't see Kardia again, he re-appears to save Unity right after Dégel orders him to go where Athena is and complete the mission, since he'd sacrifice himself to stop Poseidon's soul which was trapped into Seraphina's body.

With a little flame still ignited inside of him, Kardia takes Unity out of Atlantis and leaves him his scarlet needle which was burning, to help him survive with its heat until he could reach the Sanctuary.

I want to believe he's not alone since he died in Bluegard (inside Atlantis), next to Dégel. Even if I'm sad for his death, I'm also happy to think he was satisfied and happy to be together with his best friend.