Bora

Bora (ボラ Bora) is a former member of the Titan Nose guild and the very first villain encountered in the series. He worked as a female slave trader, used illegal Magic and seemed to be infamously known with the epithet Bora of Prominence (紅天のボラ Purominensu no Bora).

Appearance
Bora is a relatively tall and slim man with mildly short, spiky hair jutting outwards, with a long fringe left hanging over the upper left part of his face. Bora's hair was given a dark blue shade in the anime. He possesses a mildly rectangular face with sharp features, dark eyes and thin, dark eyebrows. His most distinctive facial feature is most likely the dark tattoo covering the right part of his forehead, just above his right eyebrow, this being highly reminiscent of a thin, stylized pair of tongs placed horizontally, with the "handles" pointing towards Bora's right.

Living up to his impostor role, Bora wears ornate clothing, with the most visible piece being a dark, high-collared cape almost reaching down to his knees, possessing a lighter inner part and light edges adorned by a pattern consisting of many rhombs, or possibly many "X"s, lined up one after the other. Such cape is closed some centimeters below Bora's neck by a small fastener adorned by a stylized flame, in reference to his stolen epithet of Salamander, with a light ribbon hanging from it, and has large motifs adorning its sides, starting from the shoulders and going down several inches; each motif is shaped like a large, light and hollow circle from whose outer side many arrows jut outwards in every direction, and which has several wavy lines protruding towards its hollow center. Below such cape, Bora wears a simple, light short-sleeved shirt with outlined edges, paired with light pinstriped pants with visible hems, held up by a simple belt covered in elongated spots and largely hidden by his shirt, and polished dark shoes, with lighter soles and a light upper part going down from the ankle's front. He also sports three large metal bracelets around his right wrist and forearm, with a similar trio being visible on his left wrist as well during the flashback of his break with Juvia Lockser.

Personality
Bora is a cold-hearted and evil individual who was tearfully described by Lucy Heartfilia as "the worst Mage ever", due to his willingness to abuse Magic for his own purposes, cheat people and, last but not least, sell people into slavery. He's known for his use of illegal Magic, with the thefts he committed with Magic having caused him to be excommunicated from the Titan Nose guild. His posing himself as a kind, benevolent and chivalrous person was a ruse to pursue his corrupt goals, and Bora was not above falsely taking advantage of someone else's fame, pretending to be the known Mage Salamander, and even becoming upset if someone didn't acknowledge him as such. He is shown to be pompous, proud and willing to show off his magical abilities even for trivial things; similarly, he seems to hold disdain for others' Magic, disrespectfully throwing Lucy's keys in the sea due to his impossibility to use them. Had not been for Natsu Dragneel's intervention, Bora would have cynically marked Lucy a slave with a burning hot brand, further displaying his cruelty.

His subsequent appearances, however, seemed to have him less cold-hearted and evil than he was initially introduced and saw him in the company of his fellow former villains Bozo and Sue, with the three of them having seemingly become friends.

History
Bora was once a Mage that worked for the Titan Nose Guild but he was kicked out for using Magic to aid in thievery. After this, he started his own gang and continued his thievery under the guise of "Salamander". At one point, he was Juvia Lockser's boyfriend or friend for a short time, but he became annoyed with her rain and decided to break up with her.

Macao arc
Bora starts going through Hargeon Town claiming to be "Salamander" and using his Charm Magic to attract young ladies to attend a party on his yacht. During this time, he meets Natsu Dragneel, who thought he was Igneel. Seeing that he isn't Igneel, Natsu sadly leaves, but Bora gives him a fake autograph to "cheer him up". Later, after hearing that Lucy Heartfilia wants to join the Fairy Tail Guild, Bora pretends to be the Salamander of Fairy Tail to lure Lucy onto his yacht, as well as to keep her quiet about his use of Charm Magic in exchange for him helping her join Fairy Tail.

On his yacht, Bora reveals his true intentions to Lucy, stating that he is going to sell the charmed girls he has gathered on his boat at Bosco as slaves. He then renders Lucy incapable of fighting by throwing her Gate Keys into the sea. As he is about to brand Lucy with a slave mark, Natsu and Happy arrive to save her and the other girls. As Happy takes Lucy away, Bora tries to have her killed so the Magic Council doesn't discover his schemes. Despite this, Lucy manages to send his yacht back to the harbor using Aquarius' giant wave after recovering her keys.

Realizing his ruined scheme, Bora proclaims he is a Fairy Tail Mage to Natsu, but Natsu reveals that he is in fact a Fairy Tail Mage, exposing Bora's false claim. With this, Bora tries to kill Natsu with his Fire Magic, but much to his and his gang's surprise, Natsu eats the flames, revealing that he is the true Salamander of Fairy Tail. With Natsu powered up, he defeats Bora and his gang, leaving them for the Rune Knights to arrest.

Loke arc
At some point following his arrest, Bora is released from prison and reforms out of respect for Natsu. He is seen watching Team Natsu's play with various other familiar faces, personally wishing the team luck on their performance. Though Team Natsu seemingly ruin the play with their lack of acting experience, Bora and the rest of the audience are greatly entertained by their antics and give them a standing ovation after they accidentally destroy the entire theater.

Fighting Festival arc
He, along with Bozo and Sue, watches Natsu and Happy in the Fantasia Parade.

Magic and Abilities
Fire Magic (火の魔法 Hi no Mahō): Living up to the epithet he pretended to possess, Bora is capable of generating and controlling fire, even managing to do so in a peculiar way, producing solid, harmless flames which he uses to traverse over long distances. When employed offensively, he's able to assault his opponents with fierce blazes through simple hand movements. However, Bora's prowess with Fire Magic is debatable, as when Natsu Dragneel harmlessly ate the flames Bora had sent against him, he went on to comment that they were the most awful he had ever tasted, and teasingly wondered aloud whether Bora was really a fire Mage.


 * Red Carpet (レッドカーペット Reddo Kāpetto): Bora's most distinctive use of Fire Magic, a spell which goes unnamed in the manga but was given a name in the anime, in which the flames he generates take on particular properties, becoming solid, flexible and seemingly harmless. Bora snaps his right hand's fingers, prompting a small blaze to appear from the ground, not far from him. Such blaze grows larger and larger as it moves in a wide spiral around Bora, who proceeds to stand on its tip. Such flames, now much larger, act as a mean of transportation, allowing Bora to fly by standing on them, with the fire having taken on the shape of a fierce, flexible "column", or, fitting the spell's name and Bora's own VIP-like demeanor, an unconventional red carpet. Bora can also employ it to dodge enemy attacks, as well as to cast several of his spells while remaining out of the enemy's range.


 * Prominence Whip (プロミネンスホイップ Purominensu Hoippu): A spell named after Bora's epithet, he summons forth his Magic Seal in front of him with an arched movement of his right arm. From it, a number of fiery, curved purple beams are fired towards the target, with each beam tracking them down and moving to strike them separately from the others. On contact, such beams generate a large explosion, similar in appearance to purple fireworks.


 * Prominence Typhoon (プロミネンスタイフーン Purominensu Taifūn): Another spell having its name source in his user's epithet, Bora stretches his arms wide open to his sides. This prompts his Magic Seal to appear before his chest, from which a spiraling column of fire is sent flying towards the enemy.


 * Red Shower (レッドシャワー Reddo Shawā): Bora summons forth his Magic Seal, from which a number of fierce, purple flames in the form of elongated circles are fired at the enemy in a scattered formation, targeting a mildly wide area.


 * Hell Prominence (ヘルプロミネンス Heru Purominensu): Likely one of Bora's most powerful spells, bearing his epithet in it, it is initiated by him summoning forth his Magic Seal by placing his arms before him, and building up purple energy in front of it. Such energy is subsequently released into a large, long and powerful laser-like beam, capable of enveloping in an explosion a very long area before him, even a place as large as a town.


 * Red Skull: Bora conjures up a large sphere of fire in his stretched up hands and then throws it at his opponent. The sphere is adorned by a figure similar to a stylized, cartoonish skull. Its effects are unknown, due to Natsu Dragneel, whom it was used against, having consumed it with his Fire Dragon Slayer Magic; however, it seems to possess a somewhat material form, having been stopped by Natsu with his bare hand, and to have great force, causing Natsu to split the ground as he blocked it. Natsu also went on to describe the spell as being a "pretty good meal", possibly implying it to be of higher quality than some of Bora's other attacks. (Unnamed)

Charm (魅力（チャーム） Miryoku (Chāmu)): Bora can perform a type of Magic branded as illegal several years prior to the current storyline, Charm, which makes other peoples' hearts attracted to him; something which is made evident by the comedic stylized hearts formed on the victims' eyes. He employed such form of Magic to gather a loving crowd of girls and make them into fans of him, something which easily allowed him to trick them into attending his so called "party" on a ship, in order to sell them as slaves. The downside of Charm resides in the fact that, if a target were to be distracted from it by something else, they would realize that they are under the Magic's effects; this seems to be particularly true for Mages, as shown when Lucy Heartfilia was broken free from the Magic's control by the sudden appearance of Natsu Dragneel, while other, common girls were still affected by it. In the manga, Bora seems to utilize Charm as a form of Caster Magic, without the aid of external sources; the anime, however, portrayed him with a special ring meant to perform such Magic, thus making him a user of Ring Magic.

Telekinesis (テレキネシス Terekineshisu): Bora is capable of controlling things remotely through telekinetic ways, and seems quite proficient in this type of Magic, having been shown lifting a number of small wine drops from a glass while trying to impress Lucy Heartfilia and make her drink, believing the girl to be unaware that he had mixed a sleeping drug with the wine. To use Telekinesis, he was shown snapping his right hand's fingers, something which raised the drops in the air, and subsequently moving them around through a gesture of the same hand.

Ring Magic (指輪魔法 Yubiwa Mahō): Bora has different magical rings, which allow him to make use of several spells as forms of Holder Magic: his infamous Charm was assigned to a ring in his possession, and he was also made a user of Sleep Magic.


 * Sleep Magic (眠りの魔法 Nemuri no Mahō): Unlike in the manga, where he tried to render Lucy Heartfilia helpless through the use of a sleeping drug, in the anime Bora was portrayed as a user of Sleep Magic, employing it as a form of Ring Magic through a specific ring, and imbuing the wine with it.

Equipment
Rings: Bora is a user of Ring Magic, employing rings to cast both Charm and Sleep Magic, and possessing two separate rings, both taking on appearances reminiscent of signet rings, with metal bands circling his fingers, topped with golden, round parts housing small symbols. The one used to cast the former Magic was decorated by a stylized pinkish heart on a purple background; the other, instead, sported a stylized, yellow crescent moon shaped like a face, complete with a sleepy, closed eye and a nose, on a dark blue background.

Juvia Lockser
Prior to her recruitment into Phantom Lord, Juvia was in a relationship with Bora. Bora, however, was unhappy with the rain that followed her and decided to break up with her. This rejection resulted in Juvia's distant personality and her creating of an emotional barrier between herself and the rest of the world. This reclusive attitude continued up until Juvia met and fell in love with Gray Fullbuster, the person who released her from the gloomy weather that followed her.

Lucy Heartfilia
Lucy viewed Bora as the "worst kind of Mage." When they first met, Lucy realized that Bora was using Magic to attract girls. However, thinking that he was just using it to be popular, Lucy decided to ignore it, oblivious to the fact that Bora was a slave trader. Bora, not wanting to risk Lucy spreading the news about his Magic, tricked her into coming to his ship, promising to make her a member of Fairy Tail. Lucy soon discovered his real identity and tried to fight him, but was disarmed. She was later saved by Natsu, who revealed himself to be a member of Fairy Tail and took her back to his guild.

Fairy Tail Portable Guild
Bora appears as a playable character in the first Fairy Tail Video Game, Fairy Tail Portable Guild, and is playable from the beginning of the game. His element is fire and he possesses the following Spells in the game:


 * Prominence Whip: Cost 1 MP, Default Technique
 * Red Carpet: Cost 2 MP, Bora must be at lv15 to purchase it in the shop.
 * Red Shower: Cost 3 MP, Bora must be at lv25 to purchase it in the shop.
 * Hell Prominence: Cost 4 MP, Bora must be at lv35 to purchase it in the shop.

Trivia

 * Bora looked starkly different in his initial design than he did in his final one. In the initial one, he was very tall, thin, and lanky. His head, as well as many of his other features, were also very thin. His hair, instead of being short and spiky, jetted in three directions on top of his head, and he didn't have his signature tattoo on his face. Hiro Mashima changed his design when his editor asked him to make Bora more handsome.

Censorship

 * In the manga, Bora tried to brand Lucy with a slave mark, but in the anime this scene was omitted all together. This was also alluded in an anime-only event in Episode 30, where Bora mentions that when he first met Lucy, he was scouting for glamour models instead of slaves.
 * In the manga, Bora tried to put Lucy to sleep with a sedative while in the anime it was through the use of Sleep Magic.

Quotes

 * (To Lucy Heartfilia) "You are a bad girl. If you were just to sleep peacefully, you wouldn't have to get hurt... Welcome to our slave ship!"

Battles & Events

 * Natsu Dragneel, Lucy Heartfilia, & Happy vs. Bora