Demitri Maximoff

Demitri Maximoff
Darkstalkers series, Street Fighter series, SNK vs. series character
File:Demitri Maximoff.jpg Demitri Maximoff, as he appears in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom
First game	Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors

Demitri Maximoff (デミトリ・マキシモフ, Demitori Makishimofu) is a vampire character and the main protagonist in the Darkstalkers fighting game series. In Gamest's 1997 Heroes Collection, Demitri was voted as the staff's forty-sixth favorite character. He shared the spot with seven other characters, including Samurai Shodown character, Hattori Hanzo, and Art of Fighting character, Robert Garcia.

Story

Deep within the mountains of Romania lies a castle that appears only on a full moon. The castle, named after the owner of the land, was called Zeltzereich. This castle belonged to a Makai noble, Demitri Maximoff. Roughly 100 years ago, he had challenged Belial Aensland. He lost the battle and was exiled from Makai to the human world with his castle. Sunlight was something that was troublesome for people of Makai, especially for Demitri, who was wounded severely from his battle with Belial. If he were to be directly exposed, his body would be destroyed from the inside and he would disappear.

To avoid the sunlight and humans, he used what he had left of his powers and created a field to cover his castle. He used this field to recover his strength and heal his wounds. For 50 years, he stayed within his casket. As he slowly regained his strength, he would step out only on a full moon with a field around his body.

By this time, there were already people that would wander into the castle. They would somehow hear rumors of treasures within. They would bring crosses, stakes, garlic, holy water, and silver bullets thinking they were safe and recklessly attack Demitri. Demitri couldn't help but smile as such weapons had no effect on him. To Demitri, humans were a low class vulgar race, yet he enjoyed their blood. He savored the blood of innocent girls the most, as it reminded him of the finest Makaian wine. Those who had their blood sucked by Demitri had their body and soul consumed by evil. They would become loyal servants to Demitri. Currently, 40 people settle in Demitri's castle and care for him.

When Demitri recovered 80% of his powers, he was able to temporarily create an aura around him that would protect him from sunlight. Demitri had conquered both night and day and had no weaknesses. There were no means for humans to defeat him. After 100 years of humiliation for his loss, he had gained much. The Prince of Darkness steadily readied himself to take over Makai once again. He was confident that he was strong enough to challenge and defeat the ruler of Makai, Belial. When he returned to Makai, he found out that Belial had died and his daughter, Morrigan, had taken heir to the Aensland family and the ruler of Makai. As Demitri prepared himself to challenge Morrigan, he and his castle were sucked into the Majigen by Jedah. Believing that defeating Jedah was an important step, he went off to fight him. The outcome of the battle remains unknown.

Midnight Bliss

In Vampire Savior, along with the Darkstalker series, Demitri uses an attack known as the Midnight Bliss, where he transforms a character into another, more arousing form, then drains their blood/life-force. If the victim is male, he turns them into a female version of themselves before he steals their souls(which causes them to shrivel up into a skeletal husk, before being burned and returned to normal). This move is used again in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom and Capcom Fighting Evolution. Certain female characters like Morrigan and Lilith actually receive comedic forms. Demitri also has the Midnight Bliss as a skill in Namco x Capcom that can be used on the map screen; however, it merely drains a single enemy's health and does not transform it.

Other appearances

In the Night Warriors anime OVA, Demitri has blocked out the sun over the city he resides for a solid century and the villagers have had enough. Now awake, Demitri sets into motion his plans to retake the demon world for himself, which he announces at a party where he has invited several human worshipers - which he promptly kills. Morrigan ultimately interferes and battles him, but when the Huitzils attack them, they focus their attention on ridding them from entering Makai and destroying Demitri's castle, respectively. The Huitzils later study the recordings of Demitri's battle with the earlier ones and discover he is the strongest being on Earth. Pyron scoffs at this and unleashes his power to remove the clouds blocking the sun. This delays Demitri from attempting to retake the demon world due to his vulnerability to sun. When Pyron invades Demitri's city, hoping to find a good competitor on his ascent to be the world's leader, Demitri takes the bait and sets out to meet the cosmic entity in open battle. He does well at first, even landing a punch on Pyron's face, a feat no other character had achieved, but the tables get turned on him. Pyron's energy attacks send him slamming into his castle's foundation and making it topple over into the city. But unlike the other Darkstalkers Pyron fought who had their fates unrevealed, Demitri survives his onslaught with Pyron after Morrigan arrives at his ruined castle and when she approaches Demitri, he revives from his unconsciousness and bites her on the neck. But he relents and seems to form a friendship with Morrigan. She tells him his desire to be the leader of Makai may come true after all since the demon world has been in disarray since the beginning of the story and a change in leadership is beneficial to helping it survive. He is last seen with Morrigan witnessing Donovan's victory over Pyron. He is voiced by Paul Dobson in the English dub.

In the American cartoon, Demitri was awakened by Pyron to be his servant, offered rewards for doing so. Demitri is portrayed as a coward whose power stems from his control of Pyron's weapons, and no personal strength. Exemplifying this, he once sought power from the Crystal Skull at Count Dracula's urging; thus armed, he nearly won before being overpowered by Harry Grimoire, the show's bumbling child protagonist. In the show, Morrigan is his rival for Pyron's favor and the two often berate each other. Demitri had a dark, brownish-green skin tone which (to some) made him look like he was sick. He is also said to be Dracula's loving, faithful nephew. Towards the end of the cartoon series, Dracula summons him and says that he (Demitri) must take the reins of power as the new Lord of Vampires as Dracula is exhausted by his battles with Van Helsing.

He will be a character in the upcoming game, Cross Edge, along with Felicia and Morrigan.

Trivia

• He especially enjoys AB blood types.
• His true form can only be seen during the Midnight Bliss and Demon Billion, and occasionally when Demitri takes damage as well as his ground recovery in SVC: Chaos. It can also be seen briefly when he uses light punches and kicks in Darkstalker games.
• On the last track of the Darkstalkers 3 disk, there's a match between Jedah and Demitri in audio only. Due to what move Jedah defeats Demitri with, it's considered by most fans that Demitri dies at Jedah's hands in the game's canon.
• Demitri's physical appearance has slightly changed in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom. His skin is pale and the sclera and pupils of his eyes always appear to be glowing red (his pupils are naturally red, but the sclera of his eyes will usually become red only when he is enraged or when he reverts to his demonic vampire form). His blocking sprites show him in his demonic form wrapping one of his wings around himself, as oppose to his Capcom Darkstalker blocking sprites, which show him wrapping his cape around his body, while still in human form.
  • Also, in the same game, his last name is misspelt as "Maximov".
• Much like SNK's Geese Howard, Demitri seems to be the only Darkstalker to retain a constant theme. His song in Night Warriors (Vampire Hunter) is a modified version of his original theme, and his theme in Vampire Savior is a remix of his old theme as well. In the game Capcom vs SNK, Morrigan's stage theme is actually another remix of Demitri's theme.
  • Also, he is one of 3 characters to retain their stage. The other 2 are Morrigan and Donovan.

External links

• Demitri's Darkstalkers entry at StrategyWiki.org