Aquarius Camus



Aquarius Camus (水瓶座のカミュ, Akueriasu no Kamyu) is one of Athena Gold Saint.

Personality and background
He is a Gold Saint, guardian of the temple of Aquarius, and also Cygnus Hyoga and Kraken Isaac's master in manga. In the anime, he was the master of the Crystal Saint, who was Hyoga and Isaac's master. Camus is a cold looking Saint, since he believes the Gold Saint, as the strongest among Athena's guards, should never show exasperation or it would draw the people into despair. In the manga, he reveals that he actually knew that the Pope wasn't working under Athena's will, but he still kept working under his orders to fulfill his role as the Aquarius Gold Saint. Even so, he was glad to see his pupil Hyoga fighting for the real Athena. Since Milo fought Hyoga, he mentioned Camus in a way that led the fans to believe they were close friends. Apparently, this was made official since the animation of the Hades saga included more personal interaction between them than the manga, and they are depicted as friends in Saint Seiya Episode G. He is named after Albert Camus.

Plot overview
Although he was one of the Gold Saints of Sanctuary, Camus spent most of his time living in the tundra of Eastern Siberia. During his years there, he trained a child named Isaac as his student. Some time later, he took another student, Hyoga.

When Hyoga first arrived in Siberia, Camus asked him why he wanted to become a Saint. Hyoga replied that once he becomes more powerful, he could salvage his mother, who was buried deep under the frozen seas of Siberia, within a sunken ship. Camus told him that he would eventually doom himself if he was fighting for such a reason. He pointed out to the icebergs far away, and told Hyoga that he must be as tough and emotionless as the eternal frozen icebergs of Siberia, only then will he become a strong fighter. Through his training, Hyoga had always respected Camus as a fatherly figure.

The Sanctuary saga
After the Pope had summoned all Gold Saints to return to Sanctuary, Camus returned to Greece as the Aquarius Gold Saint. However, before he left, he sank the sunken ship with Hyoga's mother to the deepest trench of the Siberian seas, and left a message to Hyoga, telling him to meet him in Sanctuary. Hyoga was shocked upon return.

When Hyoga fought the Gemini Saint (just a shadow manipulated by the Pope) in the Gemini Temple, he was struck by his Another Dimension attack, and when he awoke he was warped to the Libra Temple. He saw his master there, and demanded to know why he sank his mother's ship to the deeps. Camus replied that Hyoga's attachment to his mother is his weakness, and he sank the ship so he could not go down to see his mother anymore. His emotions and his feelings of love for his mother clouded his cosmos to achieve the awakening of the Seventh Sense, a crucial requirement to engage the Gold Saints in a fair battle. However, Hyoga's heart was filled with hatred and love towards the loss of his mother, the one being who inspired him to be a Saint.

The two fought, but Hyoga was no match for his master's overwhelming cosmos and mastery of ice. Sensing that Hyoga is in no condition to battle against the Gold Saint, Aquarius Camus decides to finish off his pupil using the Aurora Execution, his most powerful attack, and locking him inside the Freezing Coffin. Weeping over the tragic result of this battle (in his first open display of emotion in the story), Camus prays for forgiveness for having done this, but is still honeslty convinced that it was for the best.

When Hyoga was freed from the Freezing Coffin by Shiryu wielding one the weapons of the Libra Cloth, he faced his next opponent in Sanctuary, Camus' friend Scorpio Milo and finally arrived at the Aquarius Temple to face his master again in battle. During this battle, Milo had frequently questioned Hyoga's motives, asking Hyoga if he understood Camus' feelings and thoughts.

Camus told him that he was wrong to have just frozen his body, and would not show any mercy to him this time. Hyoga was still easily beaten by Camus, up to the point where Camus froze and shattered Hyoga's Bronze Cloth. However, Hyoga managed to awaken his 7th sense and hit Camus back with an attack, freezing the left side of his shoulder armour; when this happened, Camus commented that that Hyoga's powers of ice had reached absolute zero, but he would not be defeated since Hyoga didn´t wield a tecnique that could use the Zero Absolute at Full Power.

Much to Camus' surprise, Hyoga mimicked his Aurora Execution technique, and was ready to use it on him. Camus, shocked to see this, also readies his ultimate technique which makes the best use of his freezing power. Both Camus and Hyoga release the Aurora Execution instantly freezing the house of Aquarius.

Standing frozen, Camus commented that he was pleased that Hyoga was able to reach such a level of power and activate his Seventh sense, because he battled believing in himself, Athena, and his friends. Camus wished that he could let Hyoga continue his path to truth and justice, but lamented that he didn't have the power to do so. Having his whole body frozen, the Aquarius Saint fell to the floor, dying happily as his mission in Earth was finished. Hyoga cried upon his master's death, realizing that in the end, his master guided him to reach Absolute Zero and eventually to his learning in awakening his Seventh sense at the cost of his life.

Poseidon saga
Later on, in the Holy War against Poseidon, Camus' spirit remained in the Aquarius Gold Cloth, which came to protect Hyoga in the confrontation against Poseidon, similar to how the Sagittarius Cloth was guided by Aiolos to help Seiya. Aries Mu commented on how Camus, like Aiolos - has always watched over his pupil and the bronze saints - and thanked him for representing the Gold Saints in the battle against the Sea God.

In the manga, and therefore in the anime, Camus was resurrected from the dead by Hades, and, lead by Shion, attacked Sanctuary under the name of Hades together with Gemini Saga and Capricorn Shura. The trio fought through Aries Mu and managed to make it as far as the Cancer Temple before being attacked by Virgo Shaka's illusion. In the end, Shaka managed to warp them away.

The former Gold Saints killed three of the Spectres which followed them (Cube, Ox and Mils), disguising themselves as them, and using their Spectres's armour as a disguise to pass through the incoming houses. Upon reaching the Virgo Temple, the trio attack Shaka and injured him. Shaka then realizes that they are the former Gold Saints in disguise. Shaka kills all the remaining Spectres, and welcomes them to the inner part of the Virgo Temple. Shaka, deciding that this will be his place of death, attacks Saga's trio with his Tembu Horin attack, stripping them of their 5 senses. During which, he reminds Saga's trio of the forbidden technique Athena Exclamation. The trio hesitates, at such shocking revelation, but they are losing their senses fast and are becoming close to death. Although doubtful whether to go to such extremes, Saga, Shura and Camus eventually used this technique to kill Shaka.

Aries Mu, Leo Aiolia, and Scorpio Milo, arriving at Virgo temple, were shocked at this. Despite the fact that Saga's trio were still stripped of their 5 senses they were attacked by the first. However, the trio used another Athena Exclamation attack on them. To counter this, Mu, Aiolia and Milo charged up their own Athena Exclamation attack and used it against them. The collision of two Athena Exclamations was eventually unbalanced by Dragon Shiryu (in the anime, redirected by a combined effort all 4 Bronze Saints). Athena, hearing this and realizing their true plan, summoned both parties to here, where she eventually killed herself with Saga's golden dagger.

Returning to Hades' castle with Athena's blood, Saga's trio claim that they have successfully assassinated Athena. However, they quickly attacked Pandora and tried to hold her as hostage, demanding her to take them to see Hades, whom they plan to kill. However, Pandora reminds them that their resurrected bodies were a gift from Hades, and would only last for twelve hours that were already about to end. The trio fell onto the floor, powerless. Before disintegrating to dust once more, the Bronze Saints enter Hades' castle, and Hyoga was able to see his master once more before his death.

The Hades arc continued in Hades' realm. At the climax of the second part of the Hades arc, Camus joined the other Gold Saints in the final gathering at the Wailing Wall, and with their combined powers, managed to destroy it and open a path to Elysion. After this, his spirit and cosmos vanished, leaving his Aquarius Gold Cloth floating among the other Gold Cloths.

Episode G
Camus also appears in Megumu Okada's Episode G. Here, he is portrayed as a very honorable saint, protecting several soldiers of the Sanctuary various times.

He at one point faced one of the Titans, Current Oceanus. He exposes more of his beliefs, telling the Titan that, if gods like him had the right to toy with humans' lives, that it was only fair that humans had the right to choose which gods they wanted to worship.

He said that gods like the Titans, who did not comprehend the value of life, were unable to truly appreciate the immortality they possessed, and that gods like them did not deserve to be worshipped.

Power and abilities
Camus, unlike the other Gold Saints, specialized his Cosmo energy not in create power by the movement of atoms, but by stopping the same movement. Due to this, his power consists not in destroying the matter, but in freezing it. Among those warriors who use this kind of ability, Camus is considered the stronger since he is the one who can lower more the movements, creating a lower temperature. Having mastered the 7th sense, Camus is able to achieve with ease the lowest possible temperature: the Absolute Zero. In the Hades Arc it seems Camus awakes the 8th sense as he is able to enter the Underworld. His techniques are:
 * Diamond Dust (ダイヤモンドダスト, daiyamondo dasuto): A basic technique using the freezing Cosmo energy to shot a blast of freezing energy.
 * Kol'tso (Russian for ring) (カリツォー, karitsō): Although Hyoga used this attack sometimes in the original series, it was never said Camus also possessed it until he used in Saint Seiya Episode.G. It creates rings of icy wind that encycles the body of the target stopping its movements.
 * Freezing Coffin (フリージングコフィン, furījingu kofin): This is a technique used to lock a body inside a block of ice, but since it has a slow realization it probably is not effective against moving targets. Although he commented not even the combined strength of all 12 Gold Saints could break this, Griffin Minos destroyed it with a punch when used as a wall by Cygnus Hyoga. Even so, when someone is locked inside it, the only way to get out is creating a temperature lower than that of the coffin.
 * Aurora Execution (オーロラエクスキューション, ōrora ekusukyūshon): Camus's most famous and strongest technique, it claimed to be the technique that best uses the freezing power of its user.

Cloth, constellation and Temple
Camus's guardian constellation is Aquarius, and his Gold Cloth represents it and its associated myth : The beautiful youth Ganymede, loved by Zeus and carried off to Olympus to be his cupbearer, pouring water from his urn.

Although the Aquarius constellation is mostly represented by a young man, it is also sometimes depicted as a young maiden. Stereotypical androgynous manga/anime aestethics aside, it is the reason why Masami Kurumada designed Camus blending masculine and feminine traits in his physique: he drew him with long red nails and his hair was red in the manga. In the anime adaptation, his hair was turquoise-colored to generate a better color balance and contrast, and his nails had normal-length.

The temple he guarded was known both in manga and the anime adaptation as HouBeiKyuu, the "Temple of the Treasured Urn".

Previous Incarnations
In the side-story Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, the Aquarius Saint during the 18th century was known as Aquarius Degel (Degel, when translated literally to English, means "of frost" - it could theoretically however also be taken from French as "dégel", which means thaw.) He was sent, along with Scorpio Kardia, to Blue Grad to negotiate with Poseidon.