Closing
I have a character type, and it's basically everything that Wingul embodies. When Tales of Xillia's localization was in the works, I wasn't interested in the game at all until I scrolled through the Card Evolve page and found this sharp looking feller – named after a Pokémon? Well, okay. He looked cool. In a totally shallow turn of events, I wanted to at least catch a Let's Play of Xillia once it released for North America. In the meantime, I took to haphazardly translating outside source material and discussing the game with more learned speakers of Japanese, because I'm a very impatient person.
What I liked – and still do – was the duality behind the character of Wingul. Obvious behavioral changes from booster usage aside, I mentioned in another article that he has the habit of swinging between extremes. Wingul is an extreme character who goes all the way all the time. He's every bit a cold strategist as he is the opposite – the beauty of him is his contradictory nature that gives us more than a mere trope, because he's so raw.
I'm also a voice gal and shouting out to the world that his voice is delicious. In both languages.
Wingul's story is elaborated upon in his side story, which is narrated from the point of view of Nils, who doesn't feature in the game, which is why the past sections of the site were significantly longer than the rest. Anyway, I don't think I would adore Wingul as much as I do now if I hadn't read the story and trudged through the gazillion kanji I had to look up at 2 o'clock in the morning to understand (and if I didn't adore him after all that, I'm sure I'd be feeling horribly slighted). The side story tells us about young men who felt out of place in their country and discovered a niche of their own through personal discovery. This journey applies to both Li Ying and Nils, and the parallels from here all the way to the game are both tragic and poetic while highlighting yet again that Alvin ruins lives (including his own).
Another interesting thing about Wingul is his blatant affection for Gaius, so much so that Leia wonders in a skit if the former "likes" the latter. In recent entries, the Tales of series has been more overt about the addition of homosexuality, the most significant example of which is Sorey and Mikleo's relationship from Tales of Zestiria. Considering the direction the series has been taking regarding this subject matter, many fans believe that Wingul is in love with Gaius. I, for one, think this is an exciting addition to the old franchise. Of course, other interpretations of this duo are legitimate, too.