Characters/Chabil

This character only appears in this timeline.

Picture, in your mind, the stereotypical ideal of the hardworking farmer. You know the type: handsome, tanned, well-muscled in appearance, kind, humble, simple in personality, and spiritually in tune with nature and the land he works. This is Chabil, a farmer so incredibly farmerlike that it's difficult to even remember his face for long, let alone his name. It is easily safe to say that his farmland is heaps more interesting than he is, considering that his farm is located on a huge island and that that island is mysteriously floating in the air far above the ground.

Chabil plays host to Afura, Miz, Mr. Fujisawa, and Rune Venus for most of "The Alternative World" series. He is completely unfazed by their arrival, which involves falling out of the sky and impacting his fields with enough force to leave a small crater, and is happy to extend his hospitality to them. Before the former three arrive, though, he and Rune Venus are able to spend some time alone together. After an almost instant attraction to one another, the two of them settle into an almost sickeningly cute romance, something that the other three quickly notice once they arrive, inspiring mild envy in Miz (who sees their romance as "competition" for her own) and mild worry in all three (who are afraid that Rune's royal standing could doom the relationship).

Life on Chabil's farm seems idyllic. His land yields a plentiful bounty and the scenery is lush and beautiful. But not all is sunshine and turnips for this humble, peaceful farmer. The lands are owned by the government of Creteria, and all too frequently, they send a contingent of well-armed soldiers to collect a tax from the farmers of the floating colonies. This tax consists of pretty much EVERYTHING they've harvested. Needless to say, this is a situation that does not please the farmers of the floating colonies and Chabil is no exception. Some of the farmers have decided to revolt against Creteria, allying themselves with Creteria's enemies. Whether Chabil is entertaining such thoughts is unknown, but it is a certainty that he resents the harsh payments he is forced to make.

Chabil's romance with Rune, and its heart-wrenching resolution, is one of the most fulfilling and emotional aspects of the series. At least, that's what I'd LIKE to tell you. Truthfully, though, there is no resolution, heart-wrenching or otherwise. Chabil just disappears. That's all. In one episode, he's bravely rescuing Rune Venus from a nasty fall, and the next, POOF! Gone as if he never existed. Rune Venus, for all her blushing attraction to him earlier, never thinks or speaks of him again, and neither does anyone else. Of all the many dangling plotlines lying around at the end of "The Alternative World", this is probably the most blatant and irritating.

Theories abound as to what might have become of him. The simplest answer is that he plummeted to his doom when his farm was shaken apart near the end of the series. For those who wish him a more merciful fate (and one which does a better job of explaining why Rune neither mourns nor worries about him), perhaps Afura Mann carried him to safety; there was a period of time when she was absent, and she might have accomplished such a task then. Perhaps the Eye of God, in its throes, accidentally erased Chabil from the pages of history, so that Rune Venus never even met him. Maybe the animator suffered a fatal heart attack, and the cartoon farmer was no more. Choose whichever explanation you prefer, or even make one up yourself, because otherwise, there's no explanation at all.

Portions of this page originally belonged to The Wanderers' Guide to El-Hazard: The Magnificent world, co-authored by Jason Bertovich (Makoto) and Aaron Ziegler (Spanner). The original page is no longer available on-line.