Concerning the Sacred Garments

The concept of the progressive evolution of the Cloths is an original idea of my own creation, not something proposed by Kurumada. The author never established such a system. My reason for introducing this concept is to offer an explanation for why the five main characters frequently change their Cloths. After all, those familiar with the original work know that the Cloths are bound by a kind of fate—each one is tied to its destined constellation. Someone whose stars do not align cannot possibly wear a Cloth that does not suit them. Take, for instance, Hyoga and Ikki: Hyoga is associated with ice, Ikki with fire—two diametrically opposed elements. Even without specifically labeling them as such, it’s clear their Cloths could never be swapped. Or consider Hyoga’s Cygnus Cloth and Camus’s Aquarius Cloth—both share the power of ice, their attributes are a perfect match, which easily explains why Hyoga is able to don the Aquarius Gold Cloth. It’s not simply because Camus looked after him.

There’s also the oft-discussed point that the constellations from which Saints are chosen always come from the twelve constellations of the zodiac—never from among the eighty-eight constellations as a whole. Without establishing a hierarchical progression among the Cloths, making the other constellations subordinate to the zodiac constellations, it would be truly odd for a Saint of the zodiac to be wearing a Cloth from outside the twelve.

I know some will undoubtedly bring up the thirteenth Gold Cloth—the Ophiuchus Cloth. This was actually introduced in Kurumada’s Heaven Chapter continuation, a work that was, honestly, something of a superfluous afterthought. His original plan for the Saint Seiya story was to end after the defeat of Hades in Elysium. It was only later, unable to resist, that he picked up his pen to continue. As a result, the existence of the Gold Ophiuchus Cloth feels out of place among the other twelve Gold Cloths. Personally, I suspect it was a gimmick to attract attention (and perhaps to align with the astronomical concept of the thirteenth zodiac sign). For this reason, we’ll set aside the Gold Ophiuchus Cloth from our discussion for now.

One last point: Kurumada loves to exaggerate, and sometimes he gets carried away. The Ophiuchus Cloth is not as extraordinary as he makes it out to be—a mere Gold Cloth awakening to the point of causing universal collapse? Where would that leave the Divine Cloths worn by the gods of Olympus? Let’s not forget, the Cloths were created by the alchemists of Mu under Athena’s orders as imitations of the Divine Cloths—they are secondary products. Even Athena herself likely couldn’t bring about the destruction of the universe. Most importantly, the original Ophiuchus wasn’t even a match for Hades—he was simply sent to the stars, becoming the Ophiuchus constellation. How could the successors of the Ophiuchus Cloth possibly overturn the heavens? Kurumada really went overboard with his praise! His glorification of Ophiuchus in the Heaven Chapter should be taken as entertainment, nothing more. To claim it could even destroy the universe... his imagination truly knows no bounds. Ha!