Morrigan is a character from the game Vampire Hunter, or Darkstalkers in the US. Along with Dimitri the vampire, she is one of the protagonists of the Darkstalkers universe.. though not much of any of this is touched upon in the gameplay. The gameplay is a typical fighting game, more in the vein of Marvel, with massive combos and special ending moves that have near full screen FX.
Morrigan is the adopted daughter of Belial. That’s a big deal because Belial, in real life mythology (wait, so is it real?) is quite the heavyweight. He’s referred to as the leader of all dark beings, and sometimes even contrasted with God. (are you with God or Belial?) So whatever the technicalities, Belial seems to be the top ranking bad guy, or at least very, very high ranking.
Morrigan herself is a succubus. Visually, she totally has a vampire theme going, with bat wings.. actually 2 sets of bat wings, one on her back and another set on her head. (wtf?) BUT, she is a succubus as can be seen from her outfit, which ranks somewhere between NSFW and “how does that even work”. As a succubus, her job is to have sex with humans, where the lore surprisingly points out she is gender fluid, and to take people’s life-force. That’s what a traditional succubus does, but succubi of the Aensland family are a bit more evolved. If they can’t get outside to uh.. get life-force, a normal succubi would die after 2 days, Aenslandian succubi can excrete urm.. fluids, which can give them energy. (wait, if you can excrete it, don’t you already have the…) I have no idea how any of this stuff works… and it’s kind of gross if you think about it.. surviving on your own bodily excretions.. doesn’t seem to be the most hygienic solution. But Morrigan can do that… yum? There’s even a cut scene during the title intro where Morrigan has liquid dripping into her hands. (uh, so it comes from.. where? Is that sanitary?)
There’s also this whole story about Morrigan being too powerful for her own good… growing up, her powers would grow to the point of destroying her and a wide area around her. (like a nuke, basically) So Belial decides to split her soul in to three.. Which sort of explains why in the game Morrigan can summon a clone, and gang up on the opponent. Ok, that sort of makes sense, but where is the 3rd clone? The 3rd clone was contained by Belial (ya, these mythical types do mythical things) until his death. When Belial died, some other dude (Jedah) took over his position as the ruler of the underworld. The new leader took Morrigan’s split spirit and gave her a body. That was Lilith.
-she’s not exactly just a palette swap, Lilith has short hair!
Now Lilith is a succubus in actual real life mythology. (so is it real?) During the game’s sequel, Morrigan joins with Lilith (like, spirit-merge), and becomes whole again, since now she has herself, the clone, and Lilith. (collect all 3!) I don’t think it changed Morrigan in any way though.. you’d think she’d explode, but she’s mastered the art of not going nuclear critical I guess.
Morrigan has a strange temperament. Throughout the series, she doesn’t seem evil at all, and seems mostly just interested in keeping entertained. She just wants to have fun, ‘s all. That’s great protagonist material, but maybe not so good as head of the Aensland clan. She’s also a succubus, so seems to be able to make friends and get along with humans very well. To get their life-force? It’s hard to tell, but throughout the series, she seems to genuinely care for some humans, not in a romantic way, but an altruistic way, to just look out for their welfare. Of course, as a protagonist, she can’t be helplessly evil. She seems “nice” in many cases, and friendly and approachable beyond doing so just to get your life-force. Not very demon-like, or even succubus-like. I think the creators worked really hard to bend the worldview to make her morally acceptable.
Dimitri the vampire, on the other hand I think was conceptualized as the main protagonist, but I think Morrigan overtook his popularity. Dimitri is a vampire, and he looks terrifying at times, has a cold, conceited attitude.. and my impression of him is that he’s just not very nice. He’s fine being a vampire doing demon-like things… but that’s about it. He’s not friendly. I don’t want to meet him or any of his friends. So.. just not very good protagonist material. His condescending comments about every encounter doesn’t help too. It makes you wonder why the creators made him so… unlikeable, while they went so out of their way to make Morrigan so affable.
- I am Dimitri, will you be my –NOPE NOPE NOPE.
The one major aspect that I don’t see explained is her ability to fight. Why does she fight, and why is she good at it? With many other monsters, the traits are built in. Vampires have insane reflex and strength. Automatic good fighter material. That just doesn’t apply to a succubus. Sexy, friendly, excretes life supporting bodily fluids that she CONSUMES.. k, that establishes she is extra on a new level. She fights because it’s fun. Ok, take your horse excrement and go sell it somewhere else.
Her latest incarnation is in Marvel vs Capcom, Infinite, where she is very much at the center of the story pretty much the whole way. She’s in full 3D, and as everything becomes more realistic, it progressively becomes questionable how her outfit works at all. I mean, her pair of -bodyparts- are about to fall out while she’s standing. I guess the rest is magic. She’s a demon, so physics probably works differently for her and other entities not from the normal dimension. Maybe those aren’t even clothing, but just a part of her skin.. an anatomical organ that’s biologically stuck to her -bodyparts-.
“Men always look at them, I don’t find them interesting at all. They’re both a part of me. Lilith and my clone.”
So that’s about all I know about Morrigan Aensland. Maybe there’s more lore out there that’s been retconned in to rationalize the sequel or her subsequent showing up in other games. She’s one of the most recognized and well liked female fighter characters. I definitely remembered her from the one game I played with her in it. Didn’t know any of the lore at the time though. Just that she was so awesome she didn’t even bother walking.. just floated around. That’s pretty insane for a fighting game character.
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