Thymilph

Gorilla stock shows in every line of Thymilph's massive, heavily muscled frame. Blue metal covers him nearly head to toe: a crested hat, spiked pauldrons, gauntlets, an armored skirt, and matching footwear, offset by red plating strapped over his left arm. An enormous iron hammer accompanies him almost everywhere, a hint at how the general prefers to settle matters up close.

Decades of war have made Thymilph shrewd, cautious, and supremely confident, and like Viral he holds to a warrior's code of honor. Guame suggests that Beastmen across the empire idolize him. Years spent wiping out surface humans have left him with bottomless contempt for the species. His composure has limits, though; deny him victory enough times and the veteran's patience burns away into raw fury. He is close friends with Adiane, a bond Guame teases as being something more, and he represents the classical element of fire among the four generals.

Thymilph enters the story answering Viral's call for reinforcements, bringing the Dai-Gunzan to bear against Gurren Lagann. The fortress's sheer bulk nearly wins the day before the Dayakkaiser frees the trapped mecha and Simon's clever drill work sends the general's forces tumbling into a canyon.

When Team Gurren strikes the following morning, Thymilph directs the defense from the Dai-Gunzan's command deck, literally hurling his own troops into the melee while laying down covering fire. The assault proves to be a diversion: Simon slips into the fortress's blind spot and hijacks it, nearly catching the general himself with a Lagann Impact. Enraged by the theft, Thymilph sorties in his personal Gunman, the white tiger Byakou, and with Viral's support overwhelms Kamina, running Byakou's spear clean through Gurren's cockpit. The wound proves mortal, but the triumph lasts only moments. Kamina holds on long enough to combine with Lagann one final time; Byakou's Condemn Blaze is caught in Gurren Lagann's bare hand, the machine is pinned in place by hurled sunglasses, and the first Giga Drill Break ever performed destroys Thymilph and his Gunman together.

His name blends the DNA base thymine with the air spirit sylph, and the thymine-adenine pairing in every DNA strand mirrors his closeness to Adiane. Fittingly for the General of Fire, his last battle plays out beside a volcano that erupts as it climaxes. The anime pronounces his name "Tim-elf".