Meliodas and Elizabeth have one of anime’s more tragic love stories, though it only plays a secondary role in the story ofThe Seven Deadly Sins. The two are destined to reunite across the centuries only for her to die in front of Meliodas each time.
In the anime, Meliodas, Elizabeth Liones, and the rest of the Seven Deadly Sins must unite to defeat the newly returned ten commandments. This quest makes many of them confront their pasts, and especially brings back the memories of the past lives lived by Meliodas and Elizabeth, a tragic love story spanning many years.
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Meliodas and Elizabeth the Goddess
3000 years ago,Meliodas was a demon, second in power only to the demon king himself, and leader of the ten commandments. His commandment was love, but he eventually rejected his commandment and abandoned his relationships with the demons after rejecting his younger brother Zeldris and killing two of the other commandments. His motivation for this defection was the angel/goddess Elizabeth with whom he had fallen in love.
When the Supreme Deity and King of Demons grew weary of the holy war and sought to punish Meliodas and Elizabeth for their tryst, they overcame the pair quite easily and both were killed. This was not, however, the end of their story.The Supreme Deity cursedMeliodas with a form of immortality, wherein every time he died he would be revived, but lose some of his emotions. This would go on until he was returned to the emotionless demon he once was. The Demon King for his part cursed Elizabeth to become a mortal and suffer through countless reincarnations. Each time the pair were fated to become reunited but she would die in front of Meliodas’ eyes in every life. Meliodas awoke from this encounter with no memory of the curses and saw that Elizabeth lay dead next to him.
Meliodas and the Savage
After he finally left behind the scene of his punishment, Meliodas wandered the Earth with no purpose until stumblingupon a savage womanwho looked identical to Elizabeth, simply without wings. Meliodas grew close to her and lived with her until one day her goddess powers returned to her. Meliodas told her about her previous life and all of her memories returned as well. Sometime during their life together, Meliodas learned of the curses that were placed upon them and had to watch Elizabeth die for a second time, though he promised to release the two of them from their hell.
For the next 3000 years, he interacted with Elizabeth in every generation, sometimes she lived short lives, and other times she died of old age, but every time in front of his eyes. Meliodas quickly realized that while she doesn’t always regain her memories she always dies shortly after regaining them. Once, as a small child who died in a house fire.
Meliodas and Liz
The next notable relationship with Elizabeth that Meliodas had came in the form of the fiery pink-haired Liz. At the time he was working for the kingdom of Danafor as a knight. Liz was brought into the city as a slave, but when Meliodas realized that she wasone of the reincarnationsof his love he quickly stepped in to save her life and offered to fight anyone who objected to the death. The other knights of Danafor, being well aware of Meliodas’ skills, chose not to challenge him and he was allowed to take Liz home.
During his time in Danafor, Meliodas conferredwith the powerful sorceressMerlin to see if she could help him break the curses upon them. Her only suggestion was to release the ten commandments and use his little brother Zeldris as a means to use the Demon King’s power. Meliodas refused due to the danger that he knew this would pose to the humans.
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Eventually, the people of Danafor broke the seal that held the ten commandments at bay and released Fraudrin who made it his mission to release the rest of the commandments at any cost. When he attacked Danafor in an effort to open the Coffin of Eternal Darkness, Meliodas and Liz fought against him. Fraudrin then murdered Liz in front of Meliodas, leaving him enraged and barelycontrolling his powerful emotions. He did not truly confront those feelings until much later with the help of magic.
His rage at once again having lost his love caused him to release sucha tremendous amount of dark energythat he wiped Danafor off the face of the Earth entirely, killing all residents and leaving nothing but a smoking crater behind. In the aftermath, he found the Dragon handle which he passed off as a sword hilt, and an infant, reborn Elizabeth. He entrusted Elizabeth to the King of Liones as an adopted daughter and joined their army with the help of Merlin, creating the Seven Deadly sins as an opposing force for the Ten Commandments.
While Meliodas does eventuallysucceed in breaking the cursesplaced upon himself and Elizabeth, their story remains one of the most tragic in anime. Eternally fated to find one another, just to be torn apart, makes every strive forward a step toward assured pain. This has never stopped them, however, and likely never would.
