Helios

"Take care not to get too distracted, Helios. There's still much to do. Once I'm crowned queen of Camelot, you may indulge yourself all you wish."

- Morgana to Helios

Helios was a warlord and a powerful ally to Morgana Pendragon. He was a master swordsman, notable for being one of the very few to defeat Arthur Pendragon in a swordfight. He was later slain by Isolde, although he managed to kill her in the process.

Biography
Helios makes an alliance with Morgana and install her as its queen. While he awaits the fulfillment of her end of the bargain - that she will bring the plans of Camelot's siege tunnels - he and his men raid the village that Gwen is staying in during her exile. One of Helios's men is about to kill her, but at the last moment Helios intervenes and spares her, claiming there is "fun to be had".

Helios takes a liking to Gwen, bringing her back to his cavernous hideout, unaware of her affiliation with Arthur and Camelot. The two dine, but are interrupted by Morgana's arrival, at which point Gwen retires to avoid Morgana seeing her. Helios speaks briefly with Morgana, lured by her promise of indulgence when she becomes Queen of Camelot, but they are disturbed by Gwen, who is making her escape. When Morgana realizes Gwen was present and heard their plans, she sends Helios and his men to chase her, but ultimately catches Gwen herself. Morgana then receives the tunnel plans for Camelot from Agravaine, at which point Helios helps her plan their full siege of Camelot (The Hunter's Heart).



Soon after, Morgana and Helios, with Agravaine's help, commence their planned attack on Camelot. It isn't long before the kingdom falls and Morgana proclaims herself Queen once again. However, Arthur escapes capture and the citizens of Camelot refuse to swear allegiance to her, and so she sends Agravaine to find the King. During Arthur's campaign to retake Camelot, Helios stays by Morgana and, when it becomes apparent that her powers are failing her, he pushes her back to take on Arthur himself. Helios bests Arthur and prepares to kill him, but at the last instant he is stabbed from behind by Isolde, though he manages to fatally wound her in return before he dies (The Sword in the Stone).

Personality
Helios was shown to be a sophisticated, impulsive, dangerous, confident, brash, arrogant, brutish and warlike man. When a village's youngsters refused to join his army, he and his men razed the town to its knees with Helios justifying this by claiming he needed more recruits. He was also a sadistic person as he took pleasure in Morgana torturing Elyan and threatening Agravaine. He was also shown to have a weakness for women and an eye for female beauty, preventing Gwen's death because he took a liking to her. His more civilized and charming character surfaced in the company of women, producing an elegant meal for Gwen and commenting to her that he considered a person's origins unimportant compared to what they could become.

According to Morgana, Helios was often lured in by women. He was attracted to Morgana, who, knowing his lustful nature, kept his interest with implications and innuendo relating to his reward when she'd been crowned Queen of Camelot. Helios seemed something of a womaniser, picking Gwen up to dine with her, only to flirt with Morgana immediately afterwards. Helios also appeared to be sexist, and although he liked women, he did not respect them, dismissing Gwen as "just a serving wench I picked up". Possibly the only woman he actually had any respect for was Morgana.

Although Agravaine thought that Helios could not be trusted, he was shown to be loyal to Morgana, sacrificing himself to give her time to escape from Camelot. He also tried to comfort Morgana about Emrys' appearance in Camelot showing that he did care about her. He also protected her when Morgana lost her powers against Arthur. However his reasons for being so loyal to Morgana were probably because he was sexually attracted to her and because Morgana had promised that he could indulge himself after she became queen. He was even brave enough to hold off Arthur, Tristam and Isolde so that she can escape. In battle, he was a man of few words and remained totally focused on the fight at hand, not even taunting his opponent when it came to a one-to-one swordfight.

Abilities
Helios was an exceptionally proficient swordsman, capable of defeating many opponents at once with relative ease. Helios's skills were so great that he was able to best an Excalibur-wielding Arthur Pendragon in a duel (though Arthur was slightly wounded), insofar that he would have killed Arthur had it not been for Isolde's timely intervention. Furthermore, even as he was dying, Helios still had the strength to fatally injure Isolde. Helios was extremely aggressive in combat but he was also very ambidextrous, able to switch from offense to defense in a split second. He had something of a one-handed style, wielding his sword with one hand and having something of a fencer's style. Additionally, he preferred to redirect and deflect attacks and then go in for the killing blow. Altogether, Helios's prowess in swordsmanship marked him as one of the most skilled swordsmen in the entire series, along with Lancelot and Albin (who are the two other non-magical persons known to have bested Arthur in a duel).

Helios also had exceptional physical strength, as he was easily strong enough to toss a grown man over his shoulder. He was fast and agile enough to easily keep on par with the Excalibur-wielding Arthur and eventually outpaced him, knocking him down with a single blow to the head.

Helios was also an adept leader, in command of number of men who followed his every command and responded to his summons. Although he was undoubtedly helped by knowledge of the siege tunnels, Helios, fundamentally, had the capability as a commander to defeat the Army of Camelot - perhaps the most formidable opponent of all.

Etymology

 * Helios is greek for "Sun".
 * Helios was the name of the greek god of the sun. It is presumed that the character was named after the greek god.
 * In the film Wrath of the Titans, the lead character, Perseus has a son named Helius.
 * Helius is another version of the name Helios.

Appearances

 * Series 4
 * The Hunter's Heart
 * The Sword in the Stone: Part One
 * The Sword in the Stone: Part Two

Gallery
Helios Helios Hélios Helios