Medusa

冥府女王メデューサ

Meifu Jo'ō Medyūsa (Underworld Queen Medusa)

First Appearance: Kid Icarus (1986) Latest Appearance: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018) Title(s): Queen of the Underworld, Goddess of Darkness Gender: Female Race: Goddess Homeland: Underworld (Underworld Castle) Affiliated Faction: Underworld Army Other Allies: None Status: Deceased (defeated byHades) Voiced By: English: Venus Terzo Captain N: The Game Master Cree Summer Kid Icarus: Uprising Medusa's Revenge Japanese: Naomi Shindō Kid Icarus: Uprising Medusa's Revenge

Medusa (メデューサMedyūsa) is the goddess of darkness and reoccurring villainess of theKid Icarus series. Prior to her banishment to theUnderworld byPalutena due to her evil deeds against humanity, she co-ruled with the goddess of light.

Characteristics

Appearance

In the originalKid Icarus, Medusa is typically shown as a monstrous gorgon with scaly green skin, a single eye, and four snakes in her blonde hair. Before she was cursed by Palutena to take a form of a monster, the manual of the NES game states that Medusa was a beautiful goddess. Also, the anime short,Medusa's Revenge, depicts her before her transformation as a relatively attractive-looking young woman with pale skin and long black hair.

Her greatly revamped look inKid Icarus: Uprising gave her a much more human-like appearance while retaining some of her gorgon features such as snakes on her hair and scaly hands. Her hair contains a dozen snakes, eleven of which are green, and a single orange-colored one. Medusa has ghostly white skin, long black hair instead of the previous blonde, and a black tattoo running down her left eye. Her dress seems to be made from dark purple velvet with gold and crimson decorations. Her dress is also very long, making her legs and feet not visible. She wears numerous gold accessories and ornaments to give off a regal look to fit her title as queen. Medusa is usually seen wielding a violet serpentine staff that seems to resemble theOuroboros or theCaduceus.

During the final battle with her inUprising, Medusa is forced to utilize her full strength to defeat Pit. She removes the spell that conceals her face in a mask of beauty, forcing her to reveal her true monstrous form. Her monstrous form is similar to the one from the first game, but is a floating disembodied head. Like before, Medusa has scaly green skin, a single red eye, and two tongues. The snakes in her hair become orange.

Personality

Medusa is a goddess with a very sinister and wicked heart. She has a strong hatred of humans and desires to see them suffer. Medusa is very sadistic, shown by her love for killing humans and tendency to add gruesome details whenever she makes colorful threats. Medusa openly claims to Pit and Palutena that there is no better way to celebrate her return than by starting a bloodbath. She also claims to Pit that she will tear off his wings to sever him from the heavens forever.

She is a vengeful deity that does not go down lightly and will hold life-long grudges against those who oppose her. Her entire motivation in the game stems from her seething hatred for Pit and Palutena. She blames the goddess of light for turning her into a monster and banishing her from Skyworld. As such, she takes every opportunity to mock Palutena, such as when she taunts the goddess by stating thatDark Pit's power of flight lasts far longer than Palutena's. Her hatred for Palutena is so strong that it allowed Hades to revive her, albeit weaker than she was previously.

Medusa is also significantly much more serious compared to the other gods as she rarely ever jokes or breaks the fourth wall. She does however, seem to possess a barbed and twisted sense of humor, as she begins to laugh upon Dark Pit's attempts to destroy Pit. She doesn't appear to view her minions too highly either, as she expresses little to no remorse over the defeat ofTwinbellows,Thanatos, andPandora.

Despite all these nefarious traits, Medusa has been shown that she can be willing to help herown enemy in order to stop acommon foe, though she states that she only did so to stop Hades from constantly reviving her.

Abilities

Like Medusa from mythology, she is capable of turning others into stone by using her glare. However,Medusa's Revenge depicted her turning people into stone using magical bolts fired from her fingers. As the goddess of darkness, Medusa specializes in dark magic. As such, Medusa primarily makes use of it in battle. Medusa attacks with various dark magic blasts such as various eye beams, dark energy mines that float for a few seconds before exploding, energy barriers, and energy orbs that spawn multiple energy orbs. Medusa also uses her magic to create a mask of beauty and hide her true appearance. However, when forced to use her full strength, the disguise falters. In her true form, the snakes in her hair can fire energy blasts.

Medusa seems to have a preference to strictly teleport as a way to move around, instead of combining the ability with levitation like most gods do. She also seems to possess telekinesis, able to keep Pit away from her with a powerful gust of wind and bombard him with petrifiedSkuttlers. When not using any of her magical abilities, she can attack ferociously with her sharp claws or deliver a powerful punch.

She has some limited ability to read the minds of other as shown inChapter 9 ofUprising. She states to have used Pit's andHewdraw's memories to recreate parts ofThat Burning Town, albeit it wasn't too accurate. This also shows Medusa is capable of illusionary magic and can create things that are not really there.

Like Hades, Medusa appears to have the ability to manipulate souls and mold them into any shape or form, as soul-made copies of Twinbellows, Hewdraw, and Pandora can be found in her castle. However, this ability is far less powerful than Hades's, as she can only create copies of others rather than revive them fully. Also, the clones are imperfect, as Medusa couldn't make the Pandora clone talk. Like many of the other deities, she can create large astral projections of herself and communicate via telepathy.

Appearances

Kid Icarus

Prior to the events ofKid Icarus, Medusa originally co-ruledAngel Land with Palutena. Whereas Palutena fostered the growth of humanity, Medusa hated them, and took enjoyment in drying up crops and petrifying the humans. As punishment, Palutena changed Medusa's form to a hideous cyclopic, snake-haired monster and banished her to the Underworld. Angered by this, Medusa vowed revenge to overthrow Palutena and retake her position in thePalace in the Sky. Medusa eventually gained the allegiance of the Underworld monsters and led an attack againstPalutena's Army. After the ensuing war, Medusa successfully imprisoned Palutena, stole theThree Sacred Treasures, and turned all theCenturions to stone.

When Pit encounters Medusa in thePalace of the Sky, she has taken refuge in a large effigy of herself. Pit must dodge deadly rays andTanatos snakes from her hair, all while attempting to hit her withArrows of Light. By positioning himself just a little bit under eye-level, he can avoid the majority of her attacks easily. Once she's taken enough damage, the eye will disappear, revealing a crumpling Medusa. TheMirror Shield will block her eye beams, but only if the shield is up (when Pit's not firing).

Manual Description

The big, evil gatekeeper who has occupied the Palace in the Sky. The goddess who was turned into a monster by Palutena, she does all she can to be evil and nasty.

Kid Icarus: Uprising

Medusa makes a reappearance as the primary antagonist of the first main story arc. Her new design has a closer resemblance to her original sprite which is seen after she is defeated, rather than the boss form that Pit fought her in. However, she takes on a much more gothic look in contrast to Palutena's angelic appearance. Revived after her defeat in the first game, Medusa returns with her army, ready to attack the world and get her revenge on Pit and Palutena for her defeat twenty-five years prior.

During the beginning ofChapter 1, Medusa appears as an astral projection in the sky and greets Pit and Palutena by taunting them both. She reappears after Pit defeatsTwinbellows, but only laughs at Pit's threat before retreating. Medusa later appears inChapter 6, where she offersDark Pit some help to defeat Pit, but he refuses the offer and desires no involvement with theUnderworld Army whatsoever. The goddess of darkness doesn't appear to be too bothered, but rather amused as she watches the doppelgänger angel attempt to destroy his lighter twin.

Medusa makes her second to last appearance inChapter 9, where she finally faces against her arch-nemesis. She greets the angel again via astral projection when he arrives in front of her castle. After mocking Pit, Medusa summons theUnderworld Gatekeeper as a last line of defense, which is destroyed by Dark Pit. As Pit infiltrates deeper inside the castle, Medusa's anger begins to show as she accuses Palutena of being the evil one. However, Pit is quick to defend his goddess and blames Medusa for her own punishment while managing to question why she was revived in the first place. Medusa states that she does not remember and it doesn't matter because she is most importantly here to exact her revenge. After a small heated argument, Pit reaches the real Medusa in a final battle. As the fight continues, Medusa reveals her true monstrous form as seen in the original game as a last resort. After Medusa's defeat, her castle is shown crumbling away and the credits begin to roll. Pit and Palutena celebrate their victory, thinking they have defeated the final boss of the game, but shortly afterHades interrupts and reveals that he revived Medusa as a distraction.

Despite her destruction previously, Medusa makes a surprise final appearance inChapter 25 during the true final boss battle against Hades, claiming that she was annoyed by being constantly revived by the Underworld god. She saves Pit from a powerful attack by decapitating Hades, only to be obliterated by Hades when he reforms his head.

Idol Descriptions

Medusa, Queen of the Underworld
The one-time Queen of the Underworld, exiled by Palutena long ago. Twenty-five years ago, Pit defeated her once and for all...or so it seemed. Now resurrected and thirsty for revenge, Medusa leads an army far more powerful than before.

Medusa (Battle)
The only comfort throughout Medusa's quarter century in exile was the thought of bloody retribution against Pit and Palutena. Now, facing the angel after all these years, Medusa's wrath is only matched by her fervor for revenge.

Medusa (Monster)
Long ago, Palutena cursed Medusa with this hideous form. Unable to face the monstrosity she had become, Medusa used her magic to maintain a mask of beauty - a face that falls when she's forced to put all her strength into defeating Pit.

Medusa vs. Hades
Spoiler alert: Medusa saves the day! Medusa's surviving spirit stops Hades before he can deliver the finishing blow to Pit. In her weakened state, she can't hold him off forever, but the goddess gets an A for vindictive tenacity.

Medusa (Rare)
Hades reconstructs Medusa from countless souls woven around a core of pure hatred for Palutena. Oblivious to the true cause of her resurrection, Medusa sets out to take revenge and conquer the three worlds completely.

Other Appearances

Captain N: The Game Master

Medusa made an appearance in theCaptain N: The Game Master episode "Mega Trouble for Megaland", where she was guarding theThree Sacred Treasures on Mount Icarus. Her design is a mix between her human and monster forms, and she has a beautiful voice to trick her victims into a false sense of safety. This ability worked on the easily fooled Simon Belmont, although Medusa was ultimately defeated by accidentally looking into theMirror Shield and turning herself into stone.

Kid Icarus 3D Anime

Medusa only appears once in theKid Icarus 3D Anime, playing the role of the main character in her eponymous short,Medusa's Revenge. The animated feature depicts Medusa 25 years ago when she started to attack humanity and 25 years later when she becomes revived.

NES Remix 2

Medusa appears as a boss in Stage 8 of theKid Icarus challenges inNES Remix 2. Tanatos snakes also appear.

Super Smash Bros. series

Medusa appears as one of the many collectible trophies inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, and as a spirit inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate.Palutena has a pallet swap based on Medusa's color schemes.

Trophy Description

Medusa is the goddess of darkness and the leader of the Underworld Army. Although she was defeated in the past, Hades has secretly resurrected her to fight again. Those slithering snakes on her head are really unpleasant. That's got to be the worst bad hair day ever.

Gallery

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  Medusa inKid Icarus

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  Medusa's very early design from an alpha footage ofUprising

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  Medusa's CG appearance in the North American commercial forUprising

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  Medusa facing Pit inUprising

Trivia

• In Greek mythology, Medusa was once a beautiful woman, and sister to Euryale and Stheno. Though she was once a priestess of Athena (the inspiration for Palutena in theKid Icarus series), the goddess changed her into a monster once she found out that Medusa andPoseidon had been making love in her temple. Medusa's monstrous form was so hideous that any one gazing upon her countenance would instantly be petrified. She was later beheaded by Perseus, wielding aMirror Shield.
• Medusa's title as "Queen of the Underworld" is also likely inspired byPersephone, who was the goddess-queen of the Underworld and Hades's wife in Greek mythology.
• Medusa's newest design was likely inspired by the prominent goth subculture, having ghostly white skin, dark eye shadow, and a tattoo around her left eye. One of the serpents that makes up her hair is even colored bright red to resemble a chunking highlight, which is popular in gothic fashion.
• InUprising, Medusa appears to be left-handed.
• Medusa is one of the few major characters inUprising to not have a weapon named and inspired after her. Instead she has an item called theMedusa Head.

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