Morrigan Aensland

For other uses of the word Succubus, see Succubus (disambiguation).

Morrigan Aensland is a succubus video game character from Capcom's Darkstalkers fighting game series. She is voiced by Yayoi Jinguji.

Morrigan is very vain, and lives for little more than the excitement of battle, although her endings in the games as well as various media show that Morrigan slowly takes up more of her responsibility seriously. She appears as a beautiful woman with long, light green hair, a very revealing top, and bat-like wings on her back and the sides of her head. Morrigan can reshape these wings into spikes and blades when attacking her enemies, as well as using them to shield herself from enemy attacks. Her wings can also separate from her, and form into a cloud of bats. She uses a variety of magical attacks as well.

Although Demitri would seem to fill the spot, it is often suggested and implied that Morrigan is the main character of the Darkstalkers series, due to her importance in the overall story as well as her many appearances outside of her game series. She may even be considered the protagonist or something of an anti-hero, since despite her demonic appearance and nature, she is not evil.

Story

She is the daughter of Belial, one of the rulers of the Makai, or "demon world". She became head of the Aensland family after the death of Belial. Morrigan is a succubus and the adopted daughter of Belial Aensland. When she was born, Morrigan was extremely powerful (an "S Class" according to some Japanese source books), so much so that Belial sealed away part of her power, one-third in himself to be returned upon his death, and one-third in a pocket dimension, which eventually became a being of its own, a succubus named Lilith. Without knowing this, Morrigan grew up. She found her life in the Aensland castle dull, and so she visited the human world many times to look for some kind of entertainment. One night, she was drawn to a strange power (later identified as Pyron) and ventured into the human world once again.

After she returned from the human world, she was told that Belial had died and that she is the next successor to the throne of the Aensland family. Although she is rightfully the ruler of Makai, she keeps avoiding her responsibilities and continues her life as before. But when Jedah created the Majigen, she and her castle were pulled into Jedah's dimension. Sensing Lilith, Morrigan sets off hoping to find some sort of enjoyment. After she meets Lilith, the two become one again.

Gameplay

Morrigan has moves based primarily on Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter. Morrigan's Darkness Illusion was the first super move to use the button press sequence (LP, LP, F, LK, HP) that is now commonly associated with the Shun Goku Satsu.

One of the many running jokes (and points of criticism) among fans is that she has had the exact same sprite set as far as Capcom vs. SNK 2 (2001) as she did in the original Darkstalkers (1994). Her sprites looks especially out of place in the Capcom vs. SNK series as they gain a black outline in the borders.

Marvel vs. Capcom series

Morrigan was the original Darkstalker to break out of her original fighting game series and be transplanted in to the Marvel vs. Capcom series. In the first Marvel vs. Capcom game, not only was Morrigan present, but an alternate "Lilith-style" Morrigan was a secret character. In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, she is joined by fellow Darkstalkers Anakaris, B.B. Hood, and Felicia.

Namco X Capcom

Morrigan is one of the many protagonist characters in the game Namco X Capcom. She is initially introduced to the plot paying a courtesy call on Dimitri Maximoff, who initially wishes to fight her in a duel (as he would in a Darkstalkers/Vampire game), but she informs him of strange events causing dimensional disturbances in the Infernal World (an amalgam of the demon worlds from the Ghouls And Ghosts series and that of Darkstalkers/Vampire) and persuades him to look into it, where they soon meet up with the protagonist of The Legend Of Valkyrie, whom they assist in escaping a hopeless battle with Red Arremar (also of the Ghouls and Ghosts series, localized in America as "Firebrand") and his forces.

Soon after, they join forces with the other displaced warriors from different worlds and assist them in fighting the multitude of foes that threaten the fate of all their worlds.

Morrigan's role in the story is a major supporting role, as she is pivotal in securing Dimitri's cooperation with the other protagonists, and her reluctant acceptance of her duties to the house of Aensland (per her source canon) is a plot point.

Lilith Aensland is also connected to her story as a piece of her soul ripped away by the "Soul Edge" (the cursed sword from the Soul Calibur series), and she and Lilith are initially antagonists, but the connection that was binding Lilith to the Soul Edge is eventually broken and she persuades Lilith to join the protagonists.

Morrigan has a support attack with Dimitri called "Midnight Festival" and is one of the few people in the game who he tolerates speaking to him in a casual manner. Her "Super Attack" initially consists of herself and shadow clone of herself hitting an opponent with several powerful attacks, but after Lilith partners up with her over the course of the story, her "Super Attack" changes to have Lilith take the place of the shadow clone of herself.

A comment made by Dimitri to Morrigan at the end of the game confirms the events of Namco X Capcom are set after the final game in the main Darkstalkers/Vampire canon, and given Morrigan's reappearance in the upcoming Project X Zone alongside the two main heroes of Namco X Capcom (Reiji and Xiamou), the events of the Endless Frontier series by Bandai Namco take place during the interval between Namco X Capcom and Project X Zone.

UDON Comics

In the UDON Comics version of Darkstalkers, Morrigan is a brash 300-year-old succubus who wants nothing more than to visit the human world and have a good time, often at the expense of the men she seduces, and completely ignores her duty as future ruler of the Makai Realm; this annoys her father, Belial, and gets her two servants, Lucien and Mudo into heaps of trouble. Eventually she hears of Demitri's restoration, and goes to her father to warn him, only to find that he is in no position to fight. For the first time, she takes on the responsibility that she has often put aside, and returns to the human world to fight Demitri, and prove herself worthy of the Makai Realm and the power that Belial sealed away many years ago.

American Cartoon

Amongst the drastic character changes was Morrigan, who was changed into a villain, much to the dismay of fans of the games. Morrigan's character in the cartoon was a typical cartoon female villain (jealous, rude, power-hungry, and despised men). She was also stated to be a direct descendant of Morgan le Fay, and not the daughter of Belial or a resident of the Makai (let alone the ruler). Her appearance was also drastically altered, making her much older and less revealing.

Anime

The Japanese-produced Night Warriors: Darkstalker's Revenge anime featured Morrigan more like her game appearances, portraying her as a semi-innocent demon world inhabitant, a member of the royal family who was more interested in going to Earth than in her duties. The picture of idle rich, she would often leave at will out of mere boredom, much to the frustration of her guardians, elder men of the Aensland family. Morrigan's role as a hero was a focus, with her activities as a succubus downplayed; although the OVA depicts Donovan Baine as the main hero of the story, some say that Morrigan was also a little more stoic and pretentious than her usually upbeat personality depicted in the games. She is also shown fighting Jon Talbain in the episode intros for the first three episodes.

Fighting game appearances

• Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors - 1994
• Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge - 1995
• Darkstalkers 3 - 1997
• Vampire Savior 2 - 1997 (Japan only)
• Vampire Hunter 2 - 1997 (Japan only)
• Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes - 1997
• Pocket Fighter - 1997
• SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium - 1999
• Vampire Chronicle for Matching Service - 2000 (Japan only)
• Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes - 2000
• Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 - 2000
• Capcom vs. SNK: Pro - 2000
• Capcom vs. SNK 2 - 2001
• Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection - 2005
• Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower - 2005
• Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes - 2008 (Japan) 2010 (US)
• Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011)

Non-fighting game appearances

• Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo - 1996
• Gunbird 2 - 1998
• Namco x Capcom - 2005 (Japan only)
• Cross Edge - 2008 (Japan) 2009 (US)
• Project X Zone - 2012 (Japan only)

Gallery

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  Official art of Morrigan in her Darkstalkers appearances.

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  Official art of Morrigan in her Tatsunoko vs Capcom appearance.

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  Official art of Morrigan from her Marvel Vs Capcom 3 appearance.

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  Figurine of Morrigan Aensland

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  Figurine of Morrigan Aensland

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  Figurine of Morrigan Aensland

See Also

• Lilith Aensland

External links

• Morrigan's Darkstalkers and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 entries at StrategyWiki.org
• GameSpy.com's "Top Ten Babes in Games" feature.