Libra Dōko

Libra Dohko (天秤座の童虎, Raibura no Dōko) is one of the Gold Saints. He is one of the oldest characters in the manga next to Aries Shion, as they both appear in the previous Holy War, and is most known by his role as Dragon Shiryu's mentor. He is also referred to as Old Master (老師, rōshi) by all of the Saints of Athena as a sign of respect, even though his only true student is Shiryu.

Personality and background
Dohko is one of the two survivors of the last generation of Athena Saints along with Aries Shion who is a close friend of him. After the war, Dohko received the order to watch the tower where Hades' Specters were sealed until the next Holy War. Dohko lives at the Five Peaks in China alone with Shunrei, an orphan girl he took on his care. Dohko is also the master of Dragon Shiryu and Ohko, who is an anime-only character. Dohko represents a father figure to Shiryu as well, and Shiryu often recalls on his wise teachings whenever facing difficulty in battle. He is often seen as an adviser of the main characters and a good friend of Aries Mu, Shion's disciple. When Dohko was young, he was much more vivid and rather impulsive. After regaining his young form during the Hades arc, he retains the behavior of his youth, albeit much more circumspect and mindful, result of his almost three centuries of experience as a Saint.

Aftermath
As he became one of the survivors of the ancient Hades War, after the war, Shion was assigned to be the pope of the Sanctuary while Dohko was assigned to guard the seal of Hades. (see Suspended animation ) Dohko on the other hand received a miraculous ability known as Misopetha-Menos, a way to preserve youth indefinitely. As a normal person has about 100,000 heartbeats per day, Dohko has about 100,000 heartbeats per year with the help of the Misopetha-Menos. Relatively speaking, the 243 years is a mere 243 days for Dohko. This enabled Dohko to live a long life, shrunk from his normal average human size to the one of an old purple man. The condition was that Dohko must stay in the Mount Lu as a watchguard. As the time Hades will be unsealed, Dohko can be prepared to fight off Hades and his Spectres with his youthful body. This divine gift is a secret that even Shion, the former Pope, was unaware of. It is also for this reason that he is exempted from mandatory meetings in the Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary arc
Dohko is Dragon Shiryu's Teacher, but Shiryu didn't know about Dohko's past, until Cancer Deathmask came to Mount Lu in an attempt to take the Libra Gold Cloth from him, revealing that he is one of the 12 Gold Saints of Sanctuary. It was implied that Dohko distanced himself from Sanctuary due to his suspicion that his old friend Aries Shion, the Pope of the Sanctuary, has been replaced. During the incoming fight, Dohko wasn't able to help directly the Bronze Saints, but sent his Gold Cloth to Shiryu so he could free Cygnus Hyoga from Aquarius Camus' Freezing Coffin. He also saved Shunrei from drowning when Cancer Deathmask struck her with a telekinetic attack as a gesture to taunt Shiryu.

The Asgard and Poseidon arcs
Aged Libra DohkoDuring Athena's departure from Sanctuary, Dohko, acting as the highest command aside from Athena and the Pope, ordered all of the Gold Saints to remain in Sanctuary to prepare for a greater battle that is ahead. However, his spiritual guidance has helped Shiryu overcome many enemies, especially against Megrez Delta Alberich, in the anime-only Asgard saga. To aid the Bronze Saints in the battle against Poseidon, he also ordered Kiki to deliver the Libra Gold Cloth to them, which helped them destroy the Pillars of the Seven Oceans.

The Hades arc


His most prominent appearance is in the Hades chapter, when he felt that the Hades seal finally broke, so he goes to the Sanctuary to fight against Hades, and then turns on the fire clock. Hades revives some dead Saints, including Aries Shion, the former pope. Shion and Dokho meet again, and eventually the two fight. During the fight Dohko attempts to use his supreme attack, the Mount Lu One Hundred Dragons Wave to defeat Shion, but it failed to defeat him. Shion stated that Dohko, being 243 years older, could not possibly stand a chance against him, having his youth restored by Hades. He proceeds to defeat Dohko, but then Dohko breaks the power of longevity and turns back to his original young form to be able to fight properly, and is now evenly matched with his former friend. Later on, it would be Dohko who tells the Bronze Saints (except for Seiya and Ikki) before they entered Hell that they had to acquire the Eighth Sense in order to advance in this realm without losing their lives.

His final appearance was along with his fellow Gold Saints to break the Wailing Wall, as only the combined powers of the Twelve Gold Saints can break the wall. Upon the gathering of the combined powers of the 12 Gold Saints, the Wall of Lament was destroyed and opened the gateway to Elysion, but doing so cost the lives of all of the Gold Saints.

EPISODE G
Libra Dohko (天秤座の童虎, Raibura no Dōko?) is the last living former-generation Saint, one of the two survivors from the previous Holy War along with Shion. Athena charged him with the secret mission to keep watch over a sealed evil and so, for the past 236 years, he has never left his post at Goroho, China, not even to answer the Pope's summon to an urgent meeting, the "Crusos Sunagein" (Golden Assembly) ( Kuryūsosu Shunagein?). When Pontos attacks Aiolia at the entrance of the Time Labyrinth, Dohko sends his Libra Cloth and creates a projection of himself to defend his fellow Saint.

The Lost Canvas
In Lost Canvas, Dohko is portrayed during his youth, he shows signs of slight rashness and immaturity, feeling great respect for his partners, turning pretty furious if they are in danger. However, in such occasions, he does not quite concern about consequences. He is a good friend of Aries Shion and Taurus Aldebaran to whom he often talks and confides his way of thinking is thanks to them.

According to the time line, he first appears in Lost Canvas during a mission to locate Hades. During his search, he stumbles upon Tenma using his Cosmo to save his village from a mudslide. Dohko saves Tenma's life and then offers him to become a Saint. During the next two years he visited Tenma during his training until Tenma became the Pegasus Bronze Saint and started seeing him as a younger brother, although other Gold Saints consider Tenma as Dohko's student.

Dohko aids Tenma in fighting Hades himself inside the Cathedral in Italy. After both are overpowered, Dohko helps Tenma and his friends escape while he confronts Hades alone, who pierces him with his sword. Dohko reappears healing his chest wound inside the smoke of Kanon Island volcano, unconscious for about one month being helped by Gemini Defteros and Bennu Kagaho. He is sent to revive Athena's Cloth back at the Sanctuary, being stopped by three Specters, Minotauros Gordon,Alraune Queen and Basilisk Sylphid. Defeating them after bloody battles, Dohko is greeted by the challenge of Bennu Kagaho, who reveals he must extract the divine blood in his veins, to revive Athena's Cloth, as Hades desires.

Dohko is punished by Kagaho's Crucify Ankh, causing him to bleed over Athena's statue, triggering the resurrection of the goddess' Cloth. As the Specter snatches Athena's Cloth, Dohko miraculously reincorporates and retrieves the Cloth from the Specter's grasp. As Dohko collapses from exhaustion, his body and the Cloth receive the protection of Gemini Defteros, who arrives at the battlefield. Dohko's knowledge about the secret of Athena's Cloth is removed from his memory by Defteros, who later sent him to the Lost Canvas, carrying the Cloth of the goddess. Following Tenma's Cosmo, Libra leaves the expansion of Defteros' Another Dimension, appearing in the Third Demon Temple: Terra, just in time to relieve Sasha, Tenma and Regulus from Bennu Kagaho's Crucify Ankh. He greets Tenma and then prepares to engage in battle with his sworn enemy, not before delivering Athena's Cloth to Sasha and letting her, along with Tenma and Regulus, go to the next temple. Both combatants' Cosmos clash, with Kagaho noticing that Dohko has became stronger since he still holds Athena's blood inside him. Then Dohko receives Kagaho's Rising Darkness technique, being dehydrated by the intense heat. During his anguish, Dohko reminisces about his time as a Saint apprentice in Mount Lu, afterwards he uses the Lushan Rising Dragon Force (廬山昇龍覇), a fearsome blow of tremendous strength that destroyed Kagaho's black sun soaring into the air as an image of a dragon devouring it. He later reveals to Kagaho that he shares the same spiritual pain that tormented his master, and intends to bring Kagaho back to the path of virtue. As he receives Kagaho's fierce attack, Dohko is sent flying against the Ankh that symbolized a grave in the Terra Temple, and is able to look at Kagaho's memories, finding out about his dead younger brother. He then grabs the Specter from behind and performs his final technique, Lushan's Enraged Dragon Force (廬山亢龍覇), an explosion of Cosmo that sends both the user and the victim flying upwards at high speed, to be burnt by atmospheric friction. As they leave the planet, Dohko is questioned by his rival about his reasons for dying along with him. Kagaho understands then Dohko's motives and remembers his brother, grabbing Libra and sends him back down to the ground to save his life.

Later, he teams up with Shion and the rest of the spiritual forms of the Gold Saints to defeat Hades once and for all. He receives the Misopethamenos from Athena and is then returned to Earth along with Shion. They part ways as he heads off to his hometown in preparation for the next Holy War 243 years later.

Power and abilities
As a Gold Saint, Dohko has mastered the 7th sense, giving him great strength and the ability to move at the speed of light. He also achieved the 8th sense so he could go to the Tartarus.

Dohko has shown some telekinetic abilities as well as telepathy. Although he only showed a few techniques during the story, it is implied that he can use all the techniques that Dragon Shiryu can (except Excalibur), since he taught him those techniques. Even so, the only techniques he has officially performed to date are: Dohko's armor, the Gold Libra Cloth, contains 6 pairs of weapons to be used by the Gold Saints. Despite this, those weapons should not be used freely and it is up to the Libra Gold Saint to determine when they are needed. The weapons of Libra are 2 Swords, 2 Tonfas, 2 Lances, 2 Nunchuks, 2 Sansetsukons and 2 Shields. Each weapon is highly powerful, able to do things that even the combined power of several Gold Saints could not do..
 * Rozan Hyakuryu Ha : Mount Lu One Hundred Dragons Force (廬山百龍覇, Rozanhyakuryūha): Dohko's ultimate attack. It takes the form of one hundred dragons.
 * Note: in the Anime-only Asgard arc, he was shown using the Shoryuha in a flashback to his youth. As the Asgard arc doesn't exist in Kurumada's manga, Dohko's appearance in it differs from Kurumada's official design.
 * Misopheta-menos: A gift from Athena herself. It slows down Dohko's metabolism in order to extend his life span for various generations.

Other media
In the Heaven Arc Prologue his soul is sealed with the other Gold Saints when they talk to the gods and say they always be loyal to Athena. Although being sealed he would encourage Phoenix Ikki and Andromeda Shun to fight against the angel of Artemis.

Dohko also appears in Saint Seiya Episode G, but to date he has not a prominent role. In the games for PS2 Dohko is an available character and he can use the same techniques of his pupil Shiryu.

Cloth, constellation and Temple
Dohko's guardian constellation is Libra, and his Gold Cloth represents it and its associated myth : The scales held by the goddess of justice Astraea. The temple he once guarded was known both in manga and the anime adaptation as TenBinKyuu, the "Temple of the Scales."

As Masami Kurumada revealed in his sidestory prequel Saint Seiya Next Dimension, Dohko was originally a Bronze Saint and was awarded the Gold Saint status and the Libra constellation later. Thus, the original guardian constellation Dohko bore is yet to be revealed. He is also one of the main characters in the Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas sidestory prequel. Since the two prequel exclude each other, which one is canon is unknown.

Unlike most of the Saints, none of the attacks he uses takes the form of his constellation, but instead take on the form of a dragon, similar to Shiryu. Even more unusual is that his symbolic creature, seen when his draws his full power, is neither the Libra nor a dragon, but a tiger.

Masami Kurumada used in his manga the Chinese concept of the duality of the tiger and dragon, in his characters Dohko and Shiryu. That's the reason for tiger and dragon images that appear on their backs when they burn their Cosmo.