Thanatos

For his appearance in Kid Icarus, see Tanatos

Thanatos

魔神タナトス

Mashin Tanatosu

First Appearance: Kid Icarus: Uprising (2012) Latest Appearance: Kid Icarus: Uprising (2012) Title(s): Gender: Male Race: God/Deity Homeland: Underworld Affiliated Faction: Other Allies: Status: Voiced By: English: Danny Mann (Kid Icarus: Uprising) Japanese: Eiji Itō (Kid Icarus: Uprising)

Thanatos (タナトス Tanatosu) is the God of Death and a major villain in Kid Icarus: Uprising. He is revealed to be the reincarnation of Tanatos from the original Kid Icarus, and now serves as Medusa's second-in-command.

Characteristics

Appearance

Thanatos, the athlete's foot.

Thanatos resembles a large chubby genie with a green and cracking skin tone and fish-like characteristics. He has two red eyes with cross-shaped pupils, as well as a large, smiling mouth with blue lips and two fangs. He also has a short, stubby nose, a red jewel embedded in his belly, and a skull ornament at the tip of his head, which also seems to have a mind of its own. Thanatos seemingly wears silver shoulder armor, a red scarf, and a pair of large, genie-like trousers also decorated with yellow and red stripes. In addition, the armor on his shoulders appears to be covered with various branch-like structures that have jewelry hanging from them, as well as bolts of energy swirling around them. Thanatos is also a shapeshifter and has a multitude transformations that he uses during battle, including a matryoshka doll-like version of himself, a pot with his face in it, and a bat-like creature. He can also change into a cloud of bats to warp around the room he is battled in. In addition, some of his transformations include various items and objects from the game, such as the Atlas Foot and the blade of Magnus.

Personality

Thanatos gets easily offended at any remark.

Thanatos is very flamboyant and eccentric for a god of death and has a very goofy disposition almost all the time. He enjoys witty repartee and likes to make humorous conversations and jokes, even to his enemies. He is also very sensitive, easily getting offended when ignored or told to shut up. Despite him being loyal to Medusa and not wanting to give up the key, he insisted on handling things more civilly at first, wanting Pit and Palutena to hang a while and catch up due to, as he puts it, "Prefers honey to vinegar". It is questioned by Palutena why he, a god of death is not the ruler of the Underworld (the land of the dead) and does not outrank Medusa, he simply claims that he does not like climbing the corporate ladder due to the larger amount of work one has to put in and that it is not the Underworld's style to have a strict hierarchy, Palutena claims this is not a straight answer and he simply just covers up his ears and pretends not to listen while making ridiculous sounds and barks. Because of this, Pit can't tell if Thanatos is just weird or dim. Later events suggest that Thanatos was working for Hades, and actually does outrank Medusa, and that he dodged the question because he didn't want Pit and Palutena to know about Hades.

Appearances

Kid Icarus

Thanatos originally appeared as Tanatos in this game, where he hid in Medusa's hair during the final battle. He was originally though to be a group of enemies rather than a singular character, with the snake form actually being just one of his many transformations.

Kid Icarus: Uprising

"The god of death. Bored with his 9-to-5 guiding the souls of the living to their final resting place, Thanatos turns his work over to the Reapers and leisurely passes his days in a palace deep beneath the ocean."

In Chapter 7: The Seafloor Palace, Palutena sends Pit to the sea, where Thanatos has set up his base in an underwater palace and possesses a key to the Underworld, which they need to fight Medusa. Upon arriving to the palace, Thanatos gives Pit and Palutena a warm welcome telling them how lonely its been getting without any fun and begins to go into a long chat but Pit soon quiets him, much to his irritation. As Pit goes through the palace, Thanatos keeps speaking with the two, trying to start idle chatter or make witty repartee, despite how irritating the two find him. Eventually Pit reaches his quarters to find Thanatos awakening, having gotten sleepy for having waited so long, and prepares to battle him. Thanatos undergoes multiple unique transformations during the battle, the first being a giant matryoshka doll which keeps multiplying into smaller dolls, but Pit manages to find the real (miniaturized) Thanatos in the last one. He then transforms into a giant green-colored Atlas Foot which spreads poisonous powder on Pit but that forms is easily taken down. Next up he transforms into a giant bat while trying to mimic a bat cry (rather poorly), and can split himself up into smaller bats. He then transforms into a giant near-invulnerable vase which shoots numerous skulls at Pit, the only way to attack him being to hit the skulls back at him. He then re-assumes his true form but is quickly defeated, leaving behind the key to the Underworld.

He later reappears during Lightning Battle, having apparently been revived by Hades due to good health insurance. Thanatos takes on the form of a glow dragon (unlike his other forms, this is not a transformation, but a dragon-shaped aura. Thanatos' true form is visible inside the head of the dragon), but he proves to be no match for Phosphora, one of Viridi's commanders, and is defeated once again fairly early in the chapter.

Kid Icarus Anime

Thanatos is the central villain of a trio of Kid Icarus Anime shorts, collectively known as Thanatos Uprising. During the shorts, he attacks a human army and takes control of one of its vessels, which resembles a Trojan Horse Walker. Pit eventually chases Thanatos into the heart of the machine, and causes it to collapse on him. Despite this, the death god reappears at the very end comically yelling "RAGE QUIT" before flying away.

Trivia

• Thanatos has the same origins as the Tanatos enemy from the original Kid Icarus, although the latter was likely a mistranslation of the original name.
  • The mistranslated name was referenced in the chapter The Seafloor Palace. Thanatos corrects Palutena for referring to him as Tanatos, stating that he changed his name to Thanatos saying the added "H" stood for "hamazing".
• Although Thanatos and his Tanatos form look very different physically, they both share certain qualities such as a green skin tone and blue lips.