Nobunaga Oda

}} A powerful warlord who seeks to rule Japan. He is often referred to as the "Demon King", due to his cunning, his sheer ruthlessness, and his habit of burning rebellious cities to the ground, often full of innocent civillians. His aim is always to unify and rule Japan, and is one of the three unifiers, along with Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Ieyasu Tokugawa. He is married to Nō(hime), a relationship which is close in the first title, but less so in the second. Oichi is his sister, and therefore Nagamasa Azai is his brother-in-law. In the second title, he is also close to Mitsuhide Akechi, who is his apprentice of sorts. He wields a two-edged straight sword imbued with dark energy. He is the series equivalent to Cao Cao. The video game series Samurai Warriors defines Nobunaga by his ambitious and resolute unscrupulous means of thinking, as primarily depicted in his infamous slaughter of the Ikko rebels. Unlike in actual history, Nobunaga does not disdain Nō for being married to him but instead treats her with the etiquette of any typical retainer (other than some remarks about their bipolar relationship.) Meanwhile, he haughtily belittles others such as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who is continuously called "monkey." The only exceptions to this is his relationships with Mori Ranmaru, his bodyguard, and in the second installment, Akechi Mitsuhide. In manner of his appearance and social persona, Nobunaga is contrasted by others as a demon king or someone of ruthless nature, which is romanticized into the glowing, humming mystical sword that he wields. (This appearance has led to some game reviewers to jokingly refer to him as Darth Vader... inadvertently reinforced by Nobunaga being the only character to use an overtly supernatural power, a "Force push," in his ending and not just in gameplay.) More than anything else, Nobunaga's most dominant of appearances is within the Honnoji Incident, in which he openly declares before Akechi Mitsuhide to prove that he is the better leader among men by attesting whether he can take his life and show to the country that his justice is absolute.