Morrigan Aensland

Morrigan Aensland
Morrigan Aensland in Namco x Capcom
Series	Darkstalkers, Marvel vs. Capcom, SNK vs.
First game	Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (1994)
Designed by	Akira Yasuda (Darkstalkers) Aya Takemura (Namco X Capcom)
Voiced by (English)	Saffron Henderson (cartoon) Kathleen Barr (anime) Erin Fitzgerald (Cross Edge) Siobhan Flynn (MvC3)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Yayoi Jinguji (most games) Rie Tanaka (MvC3) Rei Sakuma (cartoon, anime, drama CD, Gunbird 2) Kikuko Inoue and Yumi Tōma (drama CDs)
Fictional profile
Birthplace	Scotland

Morrigan Aensland (Japanese: モリガン・アーンスランド, Hepburn: Morigan Ānsurando) is a video game character from the Darkstalkers series of fighting games developed by Capcom. Morrigan is a succubus who is very vain and lives for little more than the excitement of battle. While Demitri officially fills the role, it has often been 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 a protagonistic anti-hero, because despite her demonic appearance and nature, she is not evil.

Character design

Morrigan appears as a beautiful young woman with long, light-green hair, large breasts, a tight leather leotard with fur trim, purple sheer nylons with bat patterns, black knee-length boots, and bat-like wings on her back and on 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.

Morrigan was created by Akira Yasuda. Early in the development of Darkstalkers, the development team decided to have two female characters: a catwoman and a female vampire, characters who would become Felicia and Morrigan, respectively. Initially, Felicia was intended to be the "sexy" female character of the title, while the vampire would be the "cute" female character. However, Morrigan's design took on a tone that emphasized sexiness, causing Felicia's character concept to be altered accordingly.

She has had exactly the 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. While not technically a sprite, she finally received an updated 3D rendered character model in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars.

In video games

Darkstalkers series

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. Unaware of Belial's action, Morrigan grew up and found her life in the Aensland castle dull, so she frequently visited the human world to look for entertainment.

On one occasion, Morrigan was drawn to a strange power (which would turn out to be the fire demon Pyron) and ventured into the human world once again. Upon her return, she was informed of Belial's death and that she was the next successor to the Aensland throne. Although she is now rightfully the ruler of the Makai, she shirks her responsibilities and seeks to continue her life as before. Morrigan eventually meets Lilith, and the two beings merge into one, fully restoring Morrigan's power.

Other games

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 her intro-sprite, Lilith appears and merges with her in a nod to when the two merged in Morrigan's ending in Vampire Savior. In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, she is joined by fellow Darkstalkers Anakaris, B.B. Hood, and Felicia.

Morrigan acts as the sole representative of the Darkstalkers series in the Capcom vs. SNK games, making appearances in both Capcom vs. SNK and its sequel. Morrigan represented the series along with Felicia and B.B. Hood in SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium and was Darkstalkers representative for fighting crossovers with Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (accompanied in these titles by Felicia and Hsien-ko).

Morrigan has also represented Darkstalkers in non-fighting roles, appearing in the crossover tactical RPG Namco x Capcom and the multi-company crossover tactical role-playing game Cross Edge, in both cases appearing with other Darkstalkers personalities, as well as in the 2D shooting game Gunbird 2 and in the North American version of We Love Golf!.. With all of her appearances in Capcom crossover projects, Morrigan is the single most common Darkstalkers cast member to appear outside of the origin series.

Gameplay

Morrigan has moves based primarily on Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter.^{[citation needed]} Morrigan's Darkness Illusion was the first super move to use the button press sequence that is now commonly associated with the Shun Goku Satsu.^{[citation needed]}

In other media

In the American cartoon Darkstalkers, Morrigan received a drastic change in character and was changed into a villain. Morrigan's character in the cartoon was a typical cartoon female villain (jealous, rude, power-hungry, and despises men) and she was stated to be a direct descendant of Morgan le Fay. Her appearance was also drastically altered, making her much older and less revealing.

The anime OVA series Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge 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. Her father, Belial, is not mentioned. Morrigan's role as a hero was a focus, with her activities as a succubus downplayed. Morrigan is shown fighting Jon Talbain in the episode intros for the first three episodes. She battles Demitri Maximoff when he attempts to return to Makai but when they are sensed by the Huitzil's, their battle is interrupted. In the last episode, Morrigan goes to Earth after Demitri was bested by Pyron and she encounters him unconscious in the ruins of his castle. Demitri suddenly awakens and attempts to vampirise Morrigan, but she does not resist, much to his surprise. Morrigan tells Demitri that he may become the leader of Makai after all, since a change of leadership is needed to help its current disarray from falling into destruction. They both later observe Donovan's victory over Pyron.

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. In the special issue Morrigan vs Demitri it is implied that had Belial not sealed away her power, Morrigan might have evolved into a being similar to Pyron and destroyed the Earth.

Morrigan also appears in the Darkstalkers drama CDs Vampire Night ~Owarai Yoru no Saiten~, Darkness Mission ~Tokusen Batā Shōyu Aji~ and EX Vampire ~Night Warriors~.

Reception

Sega Saturn Magazine praised both her design and abilities as "awesome"

Morrigan is widely seen as the most iconic character of Darkstalkers as well as one of the most sexy characters of fighting games and the gaming in general. The 2009 book 500 Essential Anime Movies: The Ultimate Guide cited her as an example of the popularity of the Darkstalkers character designs, with fans frequently cosplaying as the character at various conventions since the original game's release. Play magazine featured her in their "Girls of Anime" special, later regretting her absence in Capcom Fighting Evolution in their "Girls of Gaming" special.

In 1998, Morrigan was named the 17th best character of 1997 by the Japanese magazine Gamest. In 2003, GameSpy ranked her third on the list of top ten "babes in games", calling her Capcom's answer to SNK's Mai Shiranui. In 2008, she was ranked as 43rd on IGN's list of top "chicks behaving badly" for her "penchant for magic and kick-ass fighting moves", her outfit described as "one that would make even Jenna Jameson blush." In 2011, UGO.com ranked her as the fourth in their list of the "foxiest fighting females to ever be pixelated" and GameFront featured her twice on the list of "greatest boobs in video game history", as 37th (Darkstalkers 1994 version, called the "reason 12 year olds packed arcades into the late 90s") and 11th (Marvel Vs. Capcom version, called "50% of all Comic Con costumes").

UGO.com included Morrigan on their 2008 list of "eleven hottest babes to ever hit the video game world", stating that "her appearances across the Capcom fighting franchises prove that the company has an excellent eye for the female form", as well as in the 2011 list of 50 "hottest girls in games", adding: "With a body like that, we can ignore those wings coming out of her head". In 2009, Manolith included her on the lists of top ten "sexiest video game women" and 25 "hottest female video game protagonists". In 2010, CraveOnline featured her on the list of ten "hottest video game girls of all time", commenting: "The iconic succubus from Capcom's Darkstalkers series is more than just an anatomic wonder - she's also one of the single most sexually stylistic ladies in gaming land." In 2011, Japanator.com included her among "Japanese gaming's top ten hottest girls", stating that "In fact, Morrigan is so popular that many people know of her sultry looks who have never touched a Darkstalkers game."

She was also included in GameDaily's 2008 list of ten "babes who shouldn't meet your mom" and in Virgin Media 2010 list of ten "game girls you wouldn't dare to date".

External links

• Morrigan Aensland - Stars - IGN
• Morrigan Aensland - IMDB