Morrigan Aensland

Morrigan Aensland (モリガン・アーンスランド) is a video game character from the Darkstalkers series of fighting games developed by Capcom. She is voiced by Yayoi Jinguji in many of her video game appearances, except in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds where she was voiced by Rie Tanaka.

Morrigan is a succubus who is very vain and lives for little more than the excitement of battle. She 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.

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.

Conception and design
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.

In video games
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.

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 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 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.

Crossover 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. This is a nod to when the two merged in Morrigan's ending in Vampire Savior, and thus, shows Morrigan's maximum power. 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 for the Neo Geo Pocket Color. Morrigan would resume being the Darkstalkers representative for fighting crossovers with Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Morrigan has also represented Darkstalkers in non-fighting roles, appearing in the Namco collaboration-RPG Namco x Capcom and the multi-company crossover tactical role-playing game Cross Edge, in both cases appearing with other Darkstalkers personalities. 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.

However, Morrigan doesn't always appear in every Capcom Versus' crossover games. The only games Morrigan was not present are SNK's SVC Chaos, who was replaced by Demitri Maximoff and Capcom Fighting Jam, which featured Anakaris, Demitri, Felicia, Pyron, and Jedah.

In other media
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 Morrigan vs Demitri issue which only became widely available in the TBA of the six part comic book series, 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.

In the American Darkstalkers cartoon, 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). 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. Her appearance was also drastically altered, making her much older and less revealing.

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. Her father, Belial, is not mentioned. 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. 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 Demitri's 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.

Critical reception
In 1998, Morrigan was named the 17th best character of 1997 by Gamest magazine. Sega Saturn Magazine praised both her design and abilities in the series, stating "the she-vampire is awesome". The 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. UGO.com ranked Morrigan at number eleven in the "Top 50 Videogame Hotties" article, stating a preference for her appearance and attire. In a later article covering the "Top 11 Girls of Gaming", they described her as "an anatomic wonder" and iconic, adding "her appearances across the Capcom fighting franchises prove that the company has an excellent eye for the female form." She ranked number 43rd on IGN's "Top 50 Chicks Behaving Badly List", describing her outfit as "one that would make even Jenna Jameson blush." Play magazine featured her in their "Girls of Anime" issue, later bemoaning her absence in Capcom Fighting Evolution in volume 2 of their "Girls of Gaming" special. GameSpy listed her at number three on in ther "Top 10 Babes in Games" article, calling her "Capcom's answer to Mai Shiranui." GameDaily included her in a list of "Ten Babes Who Should and 10 Babes Who Shouldn't Meet Your Mom", stating that she is not only nearly undressed almost all the time, but she also has wings that can be used as weapons.