Arpegius

Arpegius in his original blue-skinned form

Arpegius was a main character from Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem and the lead guitarist of The Crescendolls.

Appearance

As his true identity, he had blue skin and a shoulder length wavy blonde hair with a full fringe and blue gray eyes as the scalerae of his eyes are yellow like the other blue skinned people including his band members. His outfit was similar to the rest of the band member's orange and white uniforms, accompanied by a headband, wristbands and a belt that had red jewels on them. In the later scenes, they are not seen without their headbands inside Shep's ship, but later wore it for their return concert on their home planet. When their clothes are destroyed by the machine to be modified as a human by Earl de Darkwood, he wore only a pair of black briefs that are identical to Octave's.

As a child as it was seen in Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, Arpegius's hair was shorter and wore the same uniform as his adult self.

Arpegius as a human during the events of the movie

After having his appearance modified to resemble a human, his skin was painted fair and his hair was turned to dark brown instead of blonde. His eyes became light blue instead of blue gray and the scalerae of his eyes are white like the other humans from Earth and his shoulder length wavy hair was modified into a long curly spiked short length hair. He wore a red t-shirt with ripped sleeves and one white stripe across it, black pants and red and white sneakers. Like the other band members, he wore a brown belt with a gray heart buckle on it. His sport sunglasses which was used as a mind control device are a transparent blue, but later being freed by Shep during the concert that was made by Earl. Afterward, he removed the glasses like both Octave and Baryl before Shep died from his fatal gunshot wound.

When Earl copied his childhood memories to be recorded inside the disc during his modification as a human like the rest of his group, his appearance as a child still remained, but in full fringe like in his adult self and his eyes remained light blue. He wore a red short sleeve shirt, orange shorts, white socks and blue sneakers.

Personality

Arpegius was shown to be confident in playing his electric guitar as the lead guitarist of the band as it was seen when he teamed up with Stella during the concerts and also had a strong sense of self. Like Shep, Arpegius was also shown to be brave and serious when fighting against injustice. The prime example was shown during Aerodynamic where Arpegius managed to take two of his captors down during his brief escape from Earl's captivity and Veridis Quo where Arpegius managed to break free along with Octave and Baryl from Earl's humanoid troops as he angrily tackled Earl to the ground as he dropped the last golden disc into the edge below just to save Stella from being extracted. Arpegius greatly respected Shep as their savior before his death and realizing his true identity even he and his band unveiled his statue in Too Long to pay his respects.

Story

The story began where Arpegius was the leading guitarist within Octave's band known as The Crescendolls performing the song, "One More Time" toward the fellow blue-skinned people. Afterward, the concert was later disrupted by Earl de Darkwood and his humanoid troops as they dispersed the pink gas which caused Octave, Stella and Baryl to be caught in the gas leading to their capture as he managed to escape. He even beated two of Earl's humanoid troops.

Arpegius briefly escapes from Earl's capture before being subdued by one of Earl's humanoid troops

However, his escape was short-lived as one of Earl's humanoid troops managed to hit him with an arrow shot full of gas from behind as Arpegius was knocked down afterward. He and the group are soon modified into humans by Earl as their skin was painted and wore human clothes even wearing glasses to make them controlled like a puppet. The band became popular to many people from Earth with their hit song, "One More Time". Just to make it on the top, Earl made an orchestra concert for them. The band was soon stressed and without sleep when doing activities.

Arpegius during Earl's mind control state as a human

However, their concert was soon interrupted by Shep who survived the crash landing in the forest on Earth as he freed Arpegius, Octave and Baryl from Earl's mind control, but he was unable to save Stella due to Earl blocking him. As they made an escape and being pursued by Earl's bodyguards, Shep was mortally wounded from a gunshot from one of Earl's bodyguards as they took refuge in the abandoned warehouse. After Stella was freed by Baryl during the awards night and escaping with Octave, Shep finally told them who they really are before dying which the trio mourned from his loss as Shep gave the triangular device to Stella which triggered a romantic dream sequence between her and Shep. Afterward, the device activated to show them their true identities as Shep died from his fatal gunshot wound that was inflicted on his right shoulder.

Arpegius before he buries Shep's remains

When he turned 30 in Something About Us, Arpegius was the only person to make a memorial burial for Shep at the grassy hill. On the night after burying Shep's remains, his purple spiritual essence emerged from the ground and ascended to the sky. He took the lead with the band to find out about Earl's true motives. At the manor called Veridis Quo, the group finally learned about Earl's motives. Earl kidnapped some aliens from different planets and from another place in the planet who are professionally skilled in music and using them for his personal gain was to gather several golden discs. After gaining these discs, the person that he kidnapped and mind controlling them would fall to their own deaths. With this knowledge, they are caught by Earl and his minions as he attempted to use Stella as a vessel to make him rule the whole universe as he gained the last golden disc which was the 5555.

A shocked Arpegius after he fails to save Earl from falling to his death

Arpegius eventually beated some of the cloaked humanoid troops along with Octave and Baryl as he angrily tackled Earl to the ground as the last golden disc fell into the lava causing Earl to be horrified and desperate to get the last disc which led to his own death as he grabbed Earl's hand as he letted go just for the disc as he fell to his death and his controlled humanoid troops as Arpegius was shocked to see his death and carried an unconscious Stella as he, Octave and Baryl escaped from the manor before it exploded by self destruct.

After the incident when Octave failed to get their copied childhood memory discs from their producer, he, Stella and Baryl are caught, but led them to revert back to their original forms after all of the people on Earth discovered Earl's true motives and was made in public. The trio visited Octave in the hospital who finally reverted back to his original form after being electrocuted. As the band are surprised to see the humans from Earth loving them, their Manager discovered what happened to them.

Arpegius finally makes peace with their Manager before departing

Arpegius happily shook hands with their Manager and finally made peace with them after restoring their original forms and fixed Shep's ship as they took a flight back to their homeworld. As they entered through the diamond wormhole, they are attacked by Earl's spiritual essence only to be stopped by Shep in his spiritual essence to make them proceed.

Arpegius was last seen having a concert with the group one final time to perform his guitar skills before they unveiled the statue of Shep as a memory for the blue skinned people who saved them from Earl's kidnapping.

Trivia

• It was implied by end of the story that Arpegius and Stella had feelings for each other and they ended up together as they are side by side in the music ending. The others speculated this to also be taken as a brother-sister comforting moment as their similar appearances and interactions throughout the film was given, they may instead be siblings.
• Arpegius's name was possibly derived from the term, "Arpeggiator" or "Arpeggio".
• Arpegius's human form bore a strong resemblance to Manabu Yuuki, the main character of the anime series, The Galaxy Railways. Both men had the same hairstyle as the color of their eyes are different. Arpegius's eyes are light blue while Manabu's eyes are brown.
• According to his falsified Cresendoll biography, Arpegius was born in London, England with a love for Jet skiing and gourmet cooking.