Thanatos: Difference between revisions

In the original NES game, the god of death had a simple appearance of a large green snake with thick, blue lips. The dragon-like form seen in ''Uprising'' is somewhat similar to this form.  

In ''Uprising'', 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]].

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. Because of this, Pit can't tell if Thanatos is just weird or dim. It is later implied that Thanatos was working with [[Hades]] at the time, and does outrank Medusa, and was just covering for Hades. In ''[[Thanatos Rising]]'', the God of Death shows a more sadistic side by eagerly attempting to destroy a human town and lamenting when his attempt was stopped by Pit, calling it his "lovely carnage", showing that he may not be as foolish as he seems.

Despite his eccentric and flamboyant demeanor, Thanatos proves to be a very capable fighter. Thanatos's main power is his ability to shape-shift, allowing the God of Death to assume whatever form he desires. During his boss fight in Chapter 7, Thanatos is capable of transforming into a bat, a foot, a martyoshka doll, a sword with several spears, and an urn. Thanatos is very adept with his shapeshifting powers, able to morph even the smallest parts of his body as shown in the Thanatos Rising anime short where he transforms his hand into a large mace to attack Pit.

As noted by Hades, Thanatos's status as the God of Death prevents him from being truly killed and allows him to be resurrected indefinitely, as Hades was able to resurrect him three times.

In this game, Tanatos hid in Medusa's hair during the final battle. He was originally thought to be a group of enemies rather than a singular character, with the snake form actually being just one of his many transformations. During fight, he launches out of goddess' giant effigy and will sometimes change direction mid-flight. Despite the fearsome description in the manual, Tanatos usually just become a casualty of Pit's [[Arrow of Light|arrows]]; he's not even strong by [[Overworld]] standards.

In Chapter 7: ''[[The Seafloor Palace (chapter)|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. Whether he survived his defeat is unknown.