morrigan

Morrigan is a succubus and a character from Darkstalkers. She was voiced by Yayoi Jinguji in the Darkstalkers games, until her appearance in Capcom vs. SNK 2. Starting with Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, 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).

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. She appears as a beautiful woman with long, light green hair, and bat-like wings on her back and the sides of her head. She is a versatile fighter, having a wide range of physical and magical attacks.

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. Morrigan can be considered something of an anti-hero, since despite her demonic appearance and nature, she is not evil. She is a woman with a lovely figure. Her measurements are: 86-56-83 (B-W-H).

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. 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.

Personality

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.

It is unknown if she is aware of the implications of taking souls, but she has not killed humans so far, in canon.

In other media such as the Udon comics of Darkstalkers, Morrigan is shown to be selectively malevolent to humans as well through her seduction.

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 ki 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 manuevers, her wings can boost like a rocket booster and give off visible thrust. She can increase this thrust by expelling a large amount of ki 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 ki 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. 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) and can also feed on dreams. 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 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.

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 Silhoutte Blade, where she creates multiple Lilith clones that all use Lilith's Shining Blade attack. In Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, 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 reach a new higher level, if Belial's portion of her powers were to be combined back with her. Sadly, that other part of her power is lost forever with Belial's demise.