Rocky Bank

"Rocky Bank"

- enthusiastically doing his best.

About
Rocky Bank is a former non-magic using slave of the magic nation of Zeth and the self-appointed servant of the warrior Rance.

Born and raised as a slave, Rocky spent the majority of his life being sold from master to master. These owners varied wildly in terms of their treatment of Rocky, with one being kind enough to teach him how to read, a rare skill for the average slave to possess, while others were outright abusive towards him. At some point, Rocky was sold by his then current master to Zeth's secretary of education Radon Alphorne, where he was immediately pitted alongside dozens of other slaves to fight to the death against Monsters in his arena. Rocky became the underling of Big G, the most powerful slave fighter in the arena, and continued to work under him as an errand boy for some time.

During the events of Rance VI, Rocky, after making one too many mistakes while serving him, was captured by Big G and his men to be executed. He was miraculously saved by Rance, who had recently been thrown into the slave arena by Radon Alphorne and was looking for a means of escaping when he happened upon Big G and his men about to execute him. Rance effortlessly killed Big G after he attempted to recruit him as an underling, unwittingly saving Rocky in the process. Not long after, Rocky began serving Sneech, another influential slave within the arena, where he continued to be abused due to his clumsiness. Sneech made an attempt to enter into a partnership with Rance, who had quickly made a name for himself as an incredible fighter, but was immediately killed by the brutal warrior. After being saved by him twice, Rocky determined that Rance was the person fated to be his master and begged him to allow him to act as his servant. As Rance hadn't intentionally tried to save Rocky on either occasion, he was somewhat confused by his proposal, but decided that Rocky would be fairly useful as a human shield and allowed Rocky to follow him around, reasoning that he could simply kill him if he ever became too big of a nuisance.

Rocky continued to fight alongside Rance in the arena for some time until the duo was rescued by Abert Safety, who was scouting for potential recruits for the rebel organization Ice Flame. Abert became impressed by Rance's strength and offered him freedom from the arena as well as a beautiful woman to sleep with if he agreed to join the group. Unwilling to be separated from Rance, Rocky asked Abert if he could also become a member of Ice Flame, which Abert half-heartedly agreed to. After the three successfully escaped from Radon's arena, both Rocky and Rance officially became members of Ice Flame. Not long after, Rance slaughtered the entirety of the White Corps, the division he was assigned to, after getting into an argument with his commanding officer. Recognizing his strength, Ice Flame's leader Urza Pranaice created a new division of the organization for Rance to command known as the Green Corps, which Rocky was placed into.

Throughout Rance's adventure in Zeth, Rocky continued to loyally follow him to the best of his abilities despite Rance's often harsh treatment, being the only member of the original Green Corps to remain a part of Rance's core team from beginning to end. Following the successful eradication of the monster army that had invaded Zeth after the nation's national defense system, the Maginot Line, had been deactivated, Rocky initially intended to continue following Rance as his servant, but was unable to do so as Rance, along with Sill Plain and Copandon Dott, had already escaped from the country during the ensuing confusion. Instead, Rocky remained a part of Ice Flame, where he assisted in rebuilding Zeth while also spending most of his free time playing with the children of Kimchi Drive's orphanage.

Rocky made a small offscreen appearance during the events of Sengoku Rance, where he briefly had a conversation with Urza over a magic phone. Unused to advanced magic technology, Rocky was too amazed by the phone itself to be able to speak with Urza for very long, but mentioned that he was doing his best to help Kimchi around the orphanage.

Rocky appeared again during the events of Rance Quest, where, after searching for several months, he successfully managed to reunite with Rance. As Zeth had stabilized significantly since its collapse, Rocky decided to leave the country in order to work under Rance full time. While Rance had initially completely forgotten who Rocky was, he begrudgingly allowed the young man to continue following him. Despite this, Rance refused to allow Rocky to live with him inside of Rance Castle, forcing Rocky to camp out on the outskirts of the area in the hope of eventually being allowed to enter the castle.

Personality and Appearance
Rocky is a very short man with a stocky and muscular build, fairly long and curly brown hair, and a very craggy face that is almost always in an upbeat smile. In a fairly disturbing contrast to his weathered appearance, he is actually very young, being only 14 years old during the events of Rance VI. His poor appearance relative to his age can likely be attributed to the harsh life he was forced to live as a slave within Zeth, causing him to look much older than he really is. Beyond his physical features, Rocky wears old, sturdy-looking light brown armor with a lightning bolt-shaped symbol on it at all times. Despite living a life of constant struggle, Rocky is an eternally optimistic person. Countless hardships have forced him to always look towards the positive side of things, allowing him to shrug off incredibly torturous misfortunes with a smile on his face and to become reduced to tears of joy at even the smallest good thing happening to him. He does not know how to live outside of serving others, and actively seeks out a master to serve when he is without one. As a result of this, he is extraordinarily kind, friendly and humble to everyone he meets regardless of how poorly they treat him, and becomes flustered and shy when praised. Due to the intense oppression he had suffered under mages, however, Rocky initially had a tendency to become much more hostile and less cooperative when in the presence of one. After encountering kindhearted mages such as Sill Plain, who treated him with both care and respect despite his aggression towards them, Rocky was able to overcome this prejudice.

Like most second class Zeth citizens, Rocky is an AList. He is shown to be very devout, regularly donating any extra money he has to his local Church and praying for mercy whenever he or someone else is going through extreme amounts of suffering. He expresses surprise when he learns that Rance does not practice ALism, but does not judge him, showing that he is considerably more open to outside worldviews when compared to other dedicated members of the religion.

Rocky has been devoted to serving Rance after his life was saved by him twice. Rocky believes Rance to be the fated master who he was born to loyally serve under. Rocky expresses constant admiration towards Rance, and mentions several times that he has never been happier than when he is serving him. In sharp contrast to Rocky's reverence, however, Rance treats Rocky incredibly poorly, constantly insulting him, physically beating him and even making numerous attempts at killing him simply out of boredom or annoyance. Despite this, Rance does seem to acknowledge that Rocky has a small amount of value as a lackey due to his ability to take attacks meant for him as well as handle menial labor, causing him to allow Rocky to serve under him despite his usual disgust towards working with men. As he has endured abusive and life-threatening treatment under previous masters, Rocky is exceptionally tolerant to Rance's generally poor treatment of him, much more so than the average person, allowing him to instantly recover from even his cruelest actions.

He has a strong friendship with Caloria Cricket, who is around his age and has had a similarly rough life prior to meeting Rance. The two seem to spend the most time with each other out of all of the members of Ice Flame, and continued to work closely following the collapse of Zeth by helping Kimchi run her orphanage. From the instant he saw her, Rocky has been smitten with Kimchi Drive, the gentle owner of the orphanage located in the Ice Flame headquarters. Rocky finds Kimchi's kindness towards the children that she cares for incredibly moving, and is equally enchanted by her considerable beauty, to the point of becoming tongue-tied simply from being around her. Despite this, Rocky has agreed to bury these feelings within himself out of loyalty towards Rance, who told him to stay away from Kimchi at all costs. Nonetheless, the two remain close as Rocky constantly assists Kimchi around the orphanage, causing her to greatly appreciate him.

He gets along extremely well with the children of Kimchi's orphanage, whose experiences remind him of his own. The children admire him as a surrogate older brother, and treat him with a level of respect that is comparable to their treatment of Kimchi herself. Notably, he is the only man besides Rance who Alfra Ray is comfortable being around, and while it required a large amount of work on Rance's part to earn Alfra's trust, Rocky succeeded in gaining it almost instantly, further showcasing his skill with children.

Abilities
Rocky is statistically an unimpressive fighter. He possesses a Level Cap of 19, which, while sufficient enough to allow him some capability in combat, is far too low for him to truly stand as a warrior. His unimpressive strength is noted by Rance, who expresses surprise at his weakness, to the point of describing him as "completely worthless". Despite this, he possesses an above average amount of resilience that allows him to survive attacks that could kill most people, including falling from a cliff several miles in the air, making him fairly effective as a guard.

In combat, Rocky relies on an axe to battle his opponents, which he wields with a considerable amount of skill. His most iconic technique is known as "Boomerang Axe", wherein he throws his axe in a spinning arc, allowing him to hit distant opponents. Despite his talent, his small size results in his attacks being substantially weaker than they otherwise could be, making him generally underwhelming offensively.

Rocky's true talent lies in his obscene determination. A survivalist above all else, Rocky's will to do his absolute best at all times has allowed him to accomplish things that a person of his ability should have no way of doing. His boundless desire to get stronger in order to better help his allies has earned him the favor of the Level God Starlevel the Great, who periodically visits Rocky whenever he begins to lose faith in himself in order to inspire him to continue doing his best. Starlevel the Great's visits always result in Rocky's level cap increasing by a substantial amount, an incredibly rare occurrence for a Human. This has resulted in him ending his adventures with a level cap as high as 65, giving him much greater potential than the vast majority of humanity and allowing him to continue to effectively fight alongside his more talented allies. Outside of combat, Rocky is exceptionally talented at performing mundane chores, such as running errands and cleaning. In particular, he is very skilled at cooking, and is able to make delicious-tasting food out of limited ingredients in a short amount of time. Besides this, he is also an adept teller of ghost stories, and is able to contort his face into a truly gruesome expression when doing so in order to enhance their scariness.

In-Game
For more in depth gameplay information of each game refer to:
 * Rocky Bank/Rance VI
 * Rocky Bank/Rance Quest

Trivia

 * Rocky came in 3rd place in the "Males" category as well as 18th place in the "Most Pitiably Cute Character" category of the Rance Quest: Popularity Poll, and 7th place in the "Males" category of the Rance X: Popularity Poll.
 * Rocky briefly mentions having several younger brothers during the events of Rance VI, though no further information about them is given beyond this.
 * Rocky's habit of reciting the word "pomade" three times whenever he is frightened is a reference to one of the supposed means of escaping from Kuchisake-onna, the subject of an infamous Japanese ghost story. According to popular rumors, the plastic surgeon responsible for scarring Kuchisake-onna's face wore heavy amounts of pomade in his hair, causing her to run away in fear and disgust whenever reminded of it.
 * During the opening sequence of Rance 5D, the name "Rocky" can be seen in Rance's party in the sole screenshot of the scrapped game Rance 5A. As the character is not participating in the battle and thus not visible in the screenshot, however, it is unknown if it was intended to be an early version of Rocky himself or a different character with the same name.
 * The original idea for Rocky's character was entirely different from the final version, and depicted him as an ill-mannered young boy with aspirations of becoming a famous swordsman who would begin following Rance around in the hope of being able to study under him. This concept was strongly opposed by Orion, the Rance Series' main character designer, who had grown to dislike having young boys as party members after finding the character of Maitrea Meishin to be "annoying" while working on the game Mamatoto. As a form of protest, Orion jokingly redesigned Rocky to have a haggard and completely unchildlike appearance, which proved to be unexpectedly popular with the rest of the development staff and resulted in his entire character being rewritten from the ground up to accommodate it. Elements of the original Rocky's personality were later transferred to the character of Dark Rance.
 * According to Orion, the primary function of Rocky's character was to serve as a representative for all 2nd class Zethan citizens, and the central philosophy behind his design was "big face".
 * In earlier drafts of Rance VI, Rocky was intended to become a girl after receiving his final level cap upgrade from Starlevel the Great, who would karate chop his head in half to reveal a cute girl inside of it. Concept artwork exists of Rance inspecting the now female Rocky's crotch, suggesting that Rance was initially going to be capable of sleeping with him.
 * Concept artwork of Rocky exists in the Rance IX Guide Book, suggesting that he was at some point intended to either serve as a party member or at the very least appear in the game.
 * Rocky is to date the only male slave that Rance has had in the series.