Big Hero 6 Wiki
Don't have an account?
Register
Advertisement
Register
Big Hero 6 Wiki
Big Hero 6 Wiki
459
pages
in: Big Hero 6 (Disney) characters, Humans, Males, Villains

Hardlight

View source

“ Hard core, high score, I am Hardlight! ”

Hardlight, also known as Ian, is a character in Big Hero 6: The Series. By day, Ian is a meek scientist at Krei Tech who works on force fields. By night, he operates as the gamer-based supervillain known as Hardlight.

Background[]

Little is known about Ian's past. At some point, he came under the employment of Alistair Krei. Like most of Krei's workers, Ian is mistreated and neglected by Krei, the latter pressuring Ian to keep up with the work for his company and causing Ian to feel undervalued. On the side, Ian is an experienced player of the online fighting game Mind Smith II Turbo under the username "Hardlight". Eventually, Ian figured out how to combine his force field research with the mechanics of the game to create solid light-constructs he could manipulate, which contributed to the creation of his villainous alter-ego.

Appearance[]

Ian is a scraggly young adult with a pale complexion and shaggy brown hair, as well as a short beard. As a civilian, Ian wears thick-framed glasses with green shades, a pale maroon T-shirt with a beige shirt over it, dark-green slacks, and red sneakers.

As Hardlight, he has a dark red-magenta suit of armor with red accents, kneepads, and right-hand gauntlet, with magenta circuit lines on the waist, right wrist, and neckline. He wears a black belt with an hourglass-shaped belt buckle. On his left arm, Hardlight wears a large metal gauntlet that powers the rest of his armor in a circuit board-like pattern. Hardlight's helmet is silver with a black screen where his face would be. On this screen, Hardlight has a magenta-colored left eye reminiscent of an arrow and two downward-facing lines where his mouth is, and on his right eye is a magenta optic lense. Over his armor is a dark purple cloak with pink trimmings.

Personality[]

Ian is a meek, bumbling scientist who speaks in a timid voice. He has low self-esteem when it comes to saying what he wishes to express, especially towards Krei. Based on Hardlight's statements, it can be inferred that Ian feels underappreciated for his genius.

As Hardlight, his personality takes a drastic shift; no longer soft-spoken, Hardlight is dramatic, theatrical, and imposing and speaks in a deep, synthesized voice. Hardlight is destructive, treating everything and everyone as part of his own game, even if civilians get caught in the fight. Consequently, he behaves similarly to an internet troll, as he enjoys mocking his enemies while basking in his winnings in an obnoxious manner. Hardlight apparently likes a strong challenge, for in all the fights he appeared in, he was hoping to attract worthy adversaries (ie. Big Hero 6) to battle, and was disappointed when they didn't show up.

Unlike most villains depicted in the series, he appears to commit crimes as a means of self-indulgence rather than personal gain as shown when he discarded a priceless gem he obtained as a prize for a fight he found unsatisfying.

Hardlight has a tendency to use gamer slang and colloquial, such as "NPC", "EXP", "K'O", "noob" or "easter eggs", and spouts video game tropes as metaphors.

Powers and abilities[]

  • Genius-level intellect: Ian has high intelligence, is computer-savvy and proficient in force-field technology.
  • Swordsmanship: Hardlight is shown to show some degree in Swordsmanship when wielding his force-field sword. He also showed this in a game where he defeated Hiro easily when he wield a blaster. It unknown if this is an actually ability in real life, as he manipulates his energy sword.

When equipped with his glove, Hardlight gains the following ability:

  • Force Field Manipulation: Hardlight generates a pixelated force field and he can manipulate it to turn them into whatever he wants/chooses. When using this ability, Hardlight summons a circle selection of elements from the game, where he then summons various entities from whatever he picks/selects, include monster enemies, symbols, weapons, and platforms, the latter he can also use to generate floating platforms to stand on. He can also use this to even appear from the ground, as if he can open it. In his second appearance, he later created a whole army of Big Chibi 6 heroes.
    • Sword: Hardlight signature weapon is a sword made of pixelated force-field energy. This sword is extremely powerful capable of cleanly cutting/slicing through metal and can also release long-range energy blasts or even deflect other energy blast.

Equipment[]

  • Gauntlet: Hardlight's left glove is a modified force field generator operating on the gameplay system of Mind Smith Turbo II. The glove powers the rest of the suit, which enables Hardlight to harness in both hands if necessary.

History[]

Season 2[]

While playing Mind Smith II Turbo, Ian—under the name "Hardlight"—challenges another player named "Hiro" to a duel; his opponent at first underestimates Hardlight's choice of a sword as a weapon, enabling Hardlight to win in one swoop. Later, at Krei Tech, Ian accompanies Krei during a meeting with Chief Cruz, the latter looking to acquire Krei Tech's Buddy Guards for the SFPD on the hunt for the now vigilante Big Hero 6. As they exit the elevator where Hiro is waiting at the front desk, Krei introduces Hiro to Cruz. Ian interjects trying to inform Krei of the Buddy Guard project, but he is cut off when Krei shoves him back into the elevator doors.

In the evening, Ian, donning his Hardlight suit, emerges from a crowd of people right as Wasabi, Go Go, Fred, and Honey Lemon are driving home from Frederickson Candy Co.. Using his gauntlet, Ian generates the weapon selection menu from Mind Smith II Turbo and presses a monster icon, causing swarms of bat-like monsters to emerge and wreak havoc. The police arrive within minutes, equipped with the Buddy Guards who take out the monsters until Ian summons a force-field broadsword, and slices them all with ease. Ian then introduces himself as Hardlight to Chief Cruz who demands the villain cease. Hardlight not only refuses but expresses disappointment, as he was hoping the damage would attract Big Hero 6 and was instead has the police for an "EXP grind". Before generating a platform and floating away, Hardlight requests that Big Hero 6 show up the next night at the San Fransokyo Museum of Art or he will steal the museum's diamond from the exhibit. Hardlight then escapes with the police in pursuit.

The police barricade the museum the following night, but as he promised, Hardlight appears right as Big Hero 6 sneak into the museum to confront Hardlight. Hardlight then summons more enemies to fight; their scuffle attracts the attention of Cruz outside, and he sends in the Buddy Guards to take care of the heroes. Though Hardlight manages to take the diamond, he complains to the heroes that he expected them to put up a better fight. At that moment, Cruz and the police flash a light on Hardlight threatening he surrender. Hardlight uses the distraction to escape, but not before he takes Cruz captive inside a force-field cage as a "saving-the-princess" challenge for Big Hero 6.

Hardlight awaits for Big Hero 6 in Night Market Square the next night, where he has constructed a digital pillar. Once the heroes enter, Hardlight greets his challengers at the highest platform with Cruz imprisoned nearby. Hiro and Baymax immediately fly towards him but collide with another force field, which Hardlight reminds them they have to progress through the levels first. Hardlight then spawns out more monsters to combat the heroes. Eventually, Hiro and Baymax reach the top and as they duel Hardlight, Wasabi and Fred try to free Cruz. However, Hardlight catches sight of this and blasts them into the boss Go Go and Honey are fighting. Hardlight appears to have the heroes overwhelmed, but Hiro throws his glove over to Cruz, who uses its magnetism to pull Hardlight's gauntlet and breaks it. With this, Hardlight's tower disappears, and Hardlight is surrounded by Big Hero 6 and the police. Though irate, Hardlight concedes Hiro won at his own game and responds that he has more than one life, as he then summons a beam of light on himself and escapes.

Afterward, Ian goes back to Krei Tech when Krei—carelessly calling Ian "Ethan"—checks in on him and notices Ian's force-field mock-up. Ian admits the technology has breakthroughs and setbacks, which Krei berates him for before leaving to check on Hiro's projects. Ian then stores his work on a flash drive and puts it in a drawer housing his Hardlight helmet.

Season 3[]

After keeping a low profile for some time, Ian watches Karmi's Big Chibi 6 webtoon at his Krei Tech workspace, which gives him a villainous idea for his return as Hardlight. While he laughs maniacally, Judy walks by as the door is open and Ian freaks out, but she simply ignores his weird behavior.

Learning that Karmi would hold an autograph session at Richardson Mole's Rare Comics shop, Hardlight decides to crash the event, announcing his return there and telling Karmi that he is her "biggest fan", then showing her his new Big Chibi 6 clones made out of his technology, commenting how Karmi's show inspired him. Yet, Karmi responds that she has no idea who he is because she wasn't living in San Fransokyo at the time Hardlight originally attacked. Hiro and the rest of the team, who were also at the shop to meet Karmi, witness the chibis wreaking havoc at the store, but find themselves unable to gear up or people would suspect. Hiro tries to defend Karmi from Hardlight, but he's pushed back by the villain, who soon leaves to attack the city after Karmi tells him that Big Hero 6 will defeat him.

While the Big Chibi 6 characters cause annoyances to civilians such as stealing people's items, Hardlight creates a chibi version of himself to accompany him whilst waiting for challengers to fight. It is then that Big Hero 6 show up and start fighting their own chibi clones, until Hiro figures they're a distraction and tries to go after Hardlight along with Baymax. However, Hardlight spawns an army of Chibi Captain Cutie clones which outnumber and overpower the team. Karmi then shows up and offers to help, but Hiro declines as he says it's too dangerous. Still, Karmi tells Hiro to focus on Hardlight while she handles the chibis, so Hiro agrees as he trusts her. Karmi then puts on a gauntlet of her own that is similar to Hardlight's, revealing that she learned programming inspired by Hiro to make it, and uses it to create hearts that cause the Chibi Hiros obey her after hitting them. She then orders the Chibi army to attack Hardlight and take his gauntlet to the real Hiro. The team watch as Hardlight gets beat up by the chibis, until Honey suggests Hiro saves Hardlight from them. Hiro then deactivates the gauntlet, causing all the Hardlight-made creatures to disappear.

Shortly after, the police arrive to arrest Ian, now unmasked. Judy passes by again and sees that Ian was a supervillain, while Ian shouts asking her to tell Krei that he's just "taking some personal time". Judy simply says it's gonna be unpaid and walks away, and Ian is put in the police car.

Etymology[]

  • Hardlight: Hardlight's name is based on the scientific concept of "solid light", which proposes that light can theoretically be formed into a solidified matter-like state.

Trivia[]

  • In the series intro for Season 2, Hardlight replaces Mega Yama in the villain hexagons. He is not replaced in the intro for Season 3.
  • Hardlight’s personality and appearance is reminiscent of that of Marvel’s Deadpool. They’re both mercs with mouths, they have a dark sense of humor, and a strange fixation with cute stuff. Unlike Deadpool, Hardlight doesn’t break the fourth wall.

Appearances[]

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Big Hero 6: The Series Intro
Hardlight
Big Chibi 6

Concept art[]

Gallery
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
More Fandoms
Advertisement

Fan Feed

More Big Hero 6 Wiki