Morrigan Aensland is a fighting game character from the Darkstalkers series and one of its two primary main characters (the other being Demitri Maximoff). Although Demitri would seem to fill the spot, Morrigan took the role of protagonist of the Darkstalkers series, due to her popularity, importance in the overall story as well as her many appearances outside of her own game series.
Biography
Appearance
She appears as a beautiful woman with straight long hair, varying from lighter or darker shades of green, and bat-like wings on her back and the sides of her head. Her hair is a hime cut which was a sign often used in Japanese media to indicate a woman was rich or of high status. The outside of her wings are black and the inside of her wings are either purple or hot pink mixed with purple. For her outfit, it consists of a black leotard with feathers that mostly reveals her cleavage, purple or magenta/hot pink bat-patterned tights, rose colored fingerless gloves and black heeled boots.
She can transform into a variety of different outfits and will remove her wings to appear more human. Her Midnight Bliss transformation is a weird sailor doll thing that seems to have a hair style that might be ojou-ringlets\curls.
Personality
Morrigan Aensland 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.
Confident, conceited, and playful, Morrigan may be called many things given that she is a succubus, but she is not really evil like the other demons of the Makai realm are rather, she is strangely friendly and approachable despite her glamorous and imposing good looks which might be due to her spending most of her time in the material world enjoying hedonistic delights. She's just always out to satisfy her own hunger and shirking her responsibilities as a member of the Aensland family. Morrigan has also found herself willingly aligned with the forces of good on many occasions.
It is unknown if she is aware of the implications of taking souls, but she has not killed humans so far in the current canon. In Darkstalkers 1 canon, Morrigan’s motivation was fighting just for the sake of stimulation and enjoyment but she still needed to drain life in order to survive. This is the reason why she drained Pyron’s life in her own ending. Eventually Darkstalkers 1 became a retconned game and few if not lots of the canon was rewritten as the first game had a lot of “experimental” ideas that Capcom was trying to figure things out, as it was the start of the series. Even if the canon got lots of rewriting by game 2 the game 1 endings would be reused. In current canon, Morrigan would be given more unique physiology with both her motivation and and need for survival to be stimulation and only succubi outside of Morrigan’s biological family need to drain souls partially to survive. Strangely, normal succubi in Darkstalkers can only consume a limited amount of spirit energy from an individual.
The UDON Comics however depict her as a malevolent being that justifies her killing of humans as giving them bliss in exchange. Despite the complaints by many fans that this depiction of Morrigan was evil, UDON responded by saying it was “not only morally grey but accurate” and while consuming life is accurate to her, albeit retconned, DS1 self, things like killing people to give them “eternal bliss” and making them into her bats are not part of the original games at all.
Concept
Originally during the development of Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors the team had decided on having two females in the game. Morrigan was originally intended to be the "cute" one, while Felicia the more "sexy" of the two. This was later changed. Morrigan was also going to be a vampire originally and was planned to have a sibling rivalry with Demitri Maximoff. Alex Jimenez, an employee of Capcom, oriented the Japanese development team of the nature of the succubi, influencing Morrigan's development to what she is today and indirectly, the image of the succubi in video games. Her concept art would later influence the redesign of Jedah Dohma. While Jedah Dohma was an already existing character in the canon, he was just another noble who was left dead and the designs that eventually would be his redesign were originally planned for what would have technically been a new character called “Belial Jr.” which would have been a brother for Morrigan. Eventually this Belial Jr. concept was just merged into the Jedah most know of today. Despite this, Belial Jr. is often looked at as an early version of Jedah and not someone remade for a redesign of a pre-existing character.
She was named after the Celtic crow goddess of war.
Story
The succubi are one of many races living in the Makai realm and a portion of them reside within the Aensland clan. Morrigan was born into this particular group and Belial, one of the rulers of the Makai, took her as his adopted daughter and heiress to his throne as the head of House Aensland and extension, as the ruler of Makai. He saw great potential in her, even to the point that she would become an S class darkstalker. This revelation increased the tensions House Aensland was already dealing with from the other noble houses.
Belial also foresaw the dangers of the powers residing in Morrigan's body. If she could not properly control these powers, their energies would consume her body and Makai would also suffer catastrophic damage in the aftermath. To counter this event from unfolding, he 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. When the time was right, Belial would return these energies to Morrigan. By then, she would know how to handle her abilities.
Without knowing this, Morrigan grew up. Due to her status, she was tended after by two lesser demons named Lucien and Mudo. If they were to fail in caring for her in anyway, they would mostly likely suffer the wrath of Belial. She found her life in the Aensland castle dull, and so she would visit the human world secretly many times to look for some kind of entertainment. She found the taste of human souls and dreams to be quite enjoyable, but primarily indulged on the latter. She could never find this sort of nourishment anywhere in Makai and fed off of it as much as she could. Initially, there were so many dreams across the realm that even Morrigan herself could not keep up with them all. But eventually she only became lucky enough to enjoy a good dream every ten years. The succubus race itself also went into decline. However, Morrigan did not care. She felt no connection with her race. Searching for fun mattered to her more than anything else. However, even these journeys into the human world would have their occasional pangs of boredom and Morrigan began to feel desensitized.
One night, she was drawn to a strange power (later identified as Pyron) and ventured into the human world once again. She most likely encountered him in battle but the ultimate victory went to Demitri Maximoff, her father's sworn enemy. She returned to the demon world and 16 years later, Belial passed away. She became 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. Demitri returned to Makai shortly after learning of Belial's death and offered a match to Morrigan to prove who should rule Makai. She initially ignored his requests but eventually agreed to the fight. But before this could happen, Jedah created the Majigen. Morrigan and her castle were pulled into Jedah's dimension. Sensing Lilith, Morrigan sets off hoping to find some sort of enjoyment. She battles Lilith and comes out on top as victor. However, when Morrigan feels Lilith's sadness, she allows Lilith's spirit to combine with her own. Her fate after this is not known, although other games, particularly Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, hint that she did, to some degree, finally accept her role as the new Queen of the Makai.
Gameplay
Powers and abilities
Morrigan is one of the strongest beings in the Darkstalkers universe. In addition to traditional punches and kicks, she can reshape her wings into spikes, tentacles, and blades when attacking her enemies, as well as using them to shield herself from enemy attacks. She can also channel her own soul fist energy into her attacks, making them much stronger. Her wings can also separate from her, and form into a cloud of bats. During her dashing maneuvers, her wings can boost like a rocket booster and give off visible thrust. She can increase this thrust by expelling a large amount of soul fist during her Valkyrie Turn and rebound her opponent by forming her wings into a drill. Her hair can also be used as a weapon, as seen in her basic punch. She is best known for her Soul Fist, a blast of energy from her fists. If she uses it with regular power, it will appear as a large glowing yellow bat but if used with more power in an EX move, it will appear as a beam with a ghostly skull at the apex. She can also create a temporary doppelganger in her Darkness Illusion spell who will mimic her movements and attacks. In her Finishing Shower move, her wings form cannon-like protrusions and expel multiple ki blasts. Her body can also be a lethal weapon, as when she performs double Deep Crescendo as her finishing attack in Darkness Illusion hyper combo; her kicks appear with a blade-like afterimage, implying her extremely powerful kick.
She can also change her costume instantly into whatever she desires at the moment. When doing this, she will always hide her wings. Presumably, this is for when she travels into the human world to avoid attention. She may also be the only Darkstalker that is capable of crossing into the human dimension without the use of the "Gate", simply relying on her own translocation ability. She can also change herself into a cloud of bats to avoid enemies' attack which is performed when she fights against Iron Man in the Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds intro. She is also quite athletic and flexible which is visible in some of her attacks as she retains flexibility, doing rolling kicks in midair.
Being a succubus, she can draw out the life force of a human (unknown if it is through sex like traditional succubi or through some other means), but Aensland succubi are said to be a unique strain of their own kind, as they are able to also mainly subsist purely on an internal fluid created by physical and mental stimulation alone. They can also feed on dreams, through which the substance is also found in the dreams of others. These traits are said to make succubi of Morrigan's line less threatening as a whole, but also more weary, as a lack of stimulus is able to kill them over the course of two days.
It's implied that if she were to combine with Lilith, her powers would be much stronger. While this has not been seen in the Darkstalkers games, this incarnation has appeared in the Vs. series. In this form, some of Morrigan's attacks look different and she's also much faster (though this could also be due to the game's engine). Her Finish Shower attack is replaced with the Soul Eraser, where her wings form a giant laser cannon and she also gains the Silhouette Blade, where she creates multiple Lilith clones that all use Lilith's Shining Blade attack. In Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, when Morrigan uses Darkness Illusion Hyper Combo, instead of a mirror image of herself appearing and attacking the enemy from the other side, Lilith appears instead.
Morrigan's power would have reached a new higher level, if Belial's portion of her powers ever returned back to her and when she assimilates Lilith into her body. But since they have been loss with him this is not the case. Fused with Lilith in Lilith’s ending, it is assumed that Morrigan eventually takes over as the head of the Aensland family and rules over Makai.
Moveset
Her moves can be seen here.
Other appearances
- Capcom vs. SNK
- Capcom vs. SNK 2
- Marvel vs. Capcom - Also includes an alternate "Lilith-style" Morrigan as a secret character, who is actually Lilith in her body, popularly called Morrilith.
- Marvel vs. Capcom 2
- Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
- Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
- Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
- Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix
- Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars
- GunBird 2
- Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite
She is also featured as a playable character in non-Capcom games such as the Sega Dreamcast port of Psikyo's arcade shooter Gunbird 2 (published by Capcom - in this game, she is voiced by Rei Sakuma, who voiced her in the Night Warriors OVA), Cross Edge, Namco x Capcom, Project × Zone (all of which published by Namco), SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters' Clash series (published by SNK). One of the victory poses of Ananzi from The Black Heart has her dress up as Morrigan.
A portrait of Morrigan can be seen in Capcom Fighting Evolution, placed on a wall in the Underworld stage and in Demitri's ending in the game.
Morrigan's likeness appears in the game We Love Golf! as an unlockable outfit for Stephanie.
Trivia
- She was voiced by Yayoi Jinguji in the Darkstalkers games, until her appearance in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Starting with Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds/Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, her Japanese voice has been provided by Rie Tanaka. Her English-language voice actresses in the games are Erin Fitzgerald (in Cross Edge) and Siobhan Flynn (in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds/Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3).
- Tsubomi from Ultimate Girls makes an appearance dressed as Morrigan Aensland in episode 2, 8:22 minutes.
- It has been a running joke (and a point of criticism) among fans that Morrigan has used the same sprite since her first appearance. The introduction of her 3D character model in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars changed this.
- Morrigan has made more appearances outside of Darkstalkers games than any other character in the franchise, or even the series itself.
- Morrigan is considered one of Capcom's most sexualized characters across Capcom's roster of characters and is perhaps, the company's unofficial sex symbol, as evidenced by numerous unofficial doujin and adult works credited under her character.
- She is said to be the first succubus in Japanese media and popularized them in the country.
- Japan has its own different types of yokai that are similar to succubi, so it can be a bit understandable how she may have been the first succubus seen in the country when she is a foreign creature and the country already had its fair share of similar monsters itself.
- Morrigan was featured in her own cell game in Japan, the game was titled Osanpo Morrigan ("Morrigan Taking a Walk").
- Morrigan's influence in later video games can be seen in the following:
- Lili Rochefort in Tekken 6 can be customized to resemble Morrigan.
- In BlazBlue, one of Litchi's color palettes is a reference to Morrigan.
- In Skullgirls, one of Ms. Fortune's color palettes is a reference to Morrigan.
- Some entries of Castlevania has an enemy succubus taking inspiration from Morrigan's design.
- While it is sometimes mentioned by fans who state trivia from early concepts that Morrigan and Demitri were going to be siblings when they were both vampires, an even less known trivia is that Belial, Morrigan’s adopted father, was originally planned as Demitri’s brother. It is unknown when in development Belial was made and when the switch from Demitri’s brother to Morrigan’s father was made. There is currently no known concept art of Belial’s early designs, if he had any.
- Aside from character backstories, what is exactly canon in Vampire Savior from when the game starts to end is left ambiguous. The only canonical thing explained in Vampire Savior is that Morrigan and Lilith fuse together and their personalities now co-exist as one. It is never confirmed which one has won the fight so neither of their endings have been confirmed as canon. But fans are more likely to stick with Morrigan’s ending being the canon one as Lilith’s one is the much less preferred and more ignored of the two.
- Capcom has confirmed that Jedah will target Morrigan (who is now fused with Lilith) eventually. So them fusing with the Shintai was practically inevitable.
- It should be noted, while many fans believe Morrigan as the one to defeat Jedah, no one officially has beaten Jedah. The actual idea was for an awakened Anita to be the sole being to defeat Jedah and Darkstalkers 3 ended on a cliffhanger. Presumably leaving the Jedah and Anita battle for next game until it got cancelled. So while it hasn’t been confirmed when exactly Jedah would get Morrigan and Lilith, it is known that at some point he will have them fuse with the Fetus of God as they aren’t the true ones meant to stop him.
- Morrigan has a very rare set of winposes of different animations in her Midnight Bliss form that only appear based on specific type of instances. A few videos of it can be seen online.
Gallery
For more images of this character, see their Gallery.