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| “ | Ahh... free... at last. O Gabriel... now dawns thy reckoning, and thy gore shall glisten before the temples of man! Creature... of steel... my gratitude upon thee for my freedom, but the crimes thy kind have committed against humanity are not forgotten! And thy punishment... is death! | „ |
| ~ Minos Prime upon his freedom to V1 and his most famous qoute. |
| “ | Judgement! | „ |
| ~ Minos before using his infamous dropkick attack. |
King Minos, known in his Prime Soul form as Minos Prime, is a major posthumous antagonist in the video game ULTRAKILL. The ruler of the Lust layer and Judge of Hell, Minos thought that eternal damnation for people whose only crime was loving another was unfair and thus, reformed the layer into a peaceful utopia during the Chaos. This would attract the ire of the newly formed Heavenly Council who would dispatch Gabriel to slay Minos. Defeated, Minos's soul was contained in the Flesh Prison while his parasitised corpse would ravage the perfect society he had created, building up his hatred for Gabriel.
Many years later, Minos is freed by V1. While thankful for his freedom, Minos is determined to punish V1 for its kind's role in humanity's extinction and thus fights it. However, even the mighty king finds himself defeated by the machine, ending his life once and for all.
He is voiced by Stephan Weyte, who also voiced Caleb in Blood and Captain Claw in Claw (1997).
Appearance[]
As a Prime Soul, Minos is a pale blue, muscular and translucent humanoid with a gaping hole in place of his face. His circulatory system is visible and he wears a crown made of rectangular components on his head, with two snakes coiled around his arms. Minos's heart is also rather oversized. At below half health he gains a fiery blue aura.
As a human/humanoid husk, Minos wore a crown similar to the one he wears as a Prime Soul. He had fair skin, long white hair and a beard as well as golden thorns covering his eyes thanks to being blind. The size of his husk is a result of his influence during his life.
Personality[]
In his lifetime, King Minos was a gentle and kind soul who cared deeply for humanity and wished for nothing more than to protect and guide them. As such, despite his position as Judge of Hell, he would begin building up the region of Hell he ruled over into a utopia against the wishes of his masters: the angels of Heaven. Even when his life was threatened, Minos was shown to be peaceful as he tried to reason with Gabriel but to no avail.
When freed from his imprisonment many years later, Minos shows a more vengeful and rage-filled side of himself, furious at Gabriel for the fall of his utopia and the current suffering of Lust's sinners. Minos still does keep a relatively calm composure however as he thanks V1 for freeing him but still attacks it for its crimes. He also shows more restraint than Gabriel despite his obvious anger, showing that he likely respects V1 as an opponent or doesn’t wish to unleash his full rage on the machine. He also doesn’t seem to bear a personal grudge against V1 for its crimes but for machinekind in general for making humanity suffer. Furthermore, it's noted that Minos's remarks of "WEAK" and "USELESS" are not insults towards V1, but towards himself as he berates himself for not being able to save his people, displaying an aspect of rage directed towards himself and not the machine. Thus it's shown that despite everything, all Minos cared about was protecting humanity, which is reflected in his last words.
Biography[]
Background[]
While a rather sinful soul in life just like his mythological counterpart, Minos's wisdom was admired by all and thus he was assigned to be Judge of Hell, which meant he decided which layer of Hell each sinner went to. Despite such a job, Minos would pity the inhabitants of Lust as he believed the crime of loving another didn't deserve eternal punishment and during God's disappearance, Minos would take advantage of the disarray in Heaven to reform the Lust layer into a sprawling, lively city complete with electricity and clean water. This kindness would extend past the Lust layer as revealed in the revamp of ULTRAKILL, where plaques in the Lust layer reveal that Minos ordered operations to rescue sinners from Wrath that managed to escape the Ocean Styx.
At some point in time, an unknown individual (presumed to be hell itself) would create the Minotaur demon as a gift for Minos in hopes of forming an alliance. However, Minos would be horrified by this grotesque reminder of his wicked deeds and thus disposed of it into the Violence layer.
Unfortunately, the creation of Lust's utopia would spur the ire of the newly formed Heavenly Council thanks to Minos postponing the punishment of sinners in Lust, as well as attempting to rescue other sinners who resided in the Ocean Stix and managed to escape through Lust's power plant below. Gabriel was sent down to deal with Minos and while the king attempted to negotiate peace, he was struck down and killed before his people, with Gabriel proclaiming his execution as justice. Minos was trapped within the Flesh Prison in his own corpse while Gabriel, after eliminating King Sisyphus, was posted as the new Judge of Hell. Watching as his parasitised corpse destroyed the paradise he worked so hard to create and sent sinners into perpetual suffering, Minos would be filled with anger and spite for Gabriel and thus vowed to kill the angel as revenge for the people's torment.
Ultrakill[]
The Flesh Prison containing Minos Prime is found by V1 in the Gluttony layer. V1 defeats the Prison and in doing so, releases Minos Prime. Minos relishes in his freedom, proclaiming that Gabriel will be punished for his role in humanity's suffering. Minos thanks V1 for his release but, noting that the machines were responsible for humanity's extinction, he reveals that he will punish V1 for its crimes and thus engages in battle.
Despite his efforts, Minos finds himself bested by V1. As he dies, Minos apologises to his subjects for failing to give them salvation in this cruel world and with one final cry, explodes into a burst of blue light, ending him once and for all.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Due to having to be broken out of the Flesh Prison and being much smaller than another Prime Soul, Sisyphus Prime, it's likely that Minos Prime is an underdeveloped Prime Soul and should he have been trapped longer, he would've fully developed and broken out by himself eventually.
- One reason that Minos took longer to develop than Sisyphus could be that while Sisyphus was an ambitious and blood-thirsty king, Minos was much more gentle and kind. Thus, as it's stated that Prime Souls are formed from their sheer willpower, Sisyphus's soul developed faster than Minos's due to his hatred and will to fight being greater than Minos's.
- Minos Prime is a notoriously difficult boss in Ultrakill due to his high damage and fast attacks, with some people joking that his voice lines "Die!" and "Thy end is now!" are references to the player's impending demise.
- Along with Sisyphus Prime and the Mysterious Druid Knight and Owl, Minos Prime is one of the three bosses that acknowledge restarts of their fights.
- Thanks to the lighting of the Lust layer being the same colors as the bisexual flag, a common joke in the Ultrakill fandom is that the real reason King Minos was killed was for overspending the layer’s budget on said lighting. This joke was also partially popularised by Youtuber Max0R's An Incorrect Summary of Ultrakill: Act 2, in which that version of Minos Prime claims he maxed out his credit card's perks on said lighting.
- The snakes Minos Prime wields in his boss fight are another reference to the Divine Comedy, in which King Minos uses his snake-like tail to throw sinners into their respective layers of Hell after judging their sins.
- It is believed that multiple aspects of Minos Prime reflect aspects of his character:
- The cityscape-like crown that Minos wears is a reflection of how he was a servant king to humanity and thus held his people in higher regard than himself.
- Minos's lack of a face reflects that he was humble and didn't rule to be remembered.
- Minos's oversized heart shows that he was very compassionate and gentle to others.
- Minos's muscular build is similar to that of a weightlifter, paralleling how he lifted up his people from their suffering into some brief respite and peace.
- Finally, Minos's translucent body could reflect his pure intentions to help humanity and how he was honest and just.
- Minos's kindly and gentle composure in Ultrakill contrasts his mythological counterpart who, while intelligent and charismatic like his game counterpart, was also crafty, unpopular and at times cold-blooded. As Sisyphus Prime's personality closely resembles his mythological counterpart's, this could mean that Minos behaved similarly in life but after seeing the error of his ways, decided to change for the better and rule for the people, not himself.
- The inclusion of the Minotaur enemy in Act 3 all but confirms this as it's stated that the demon disgusted Minos as it reminded him of his past sins, thus he cast it into the Violence layer to be rid of it.
- The inclusion of a leitmotif from the Lust layer's theme, "Requiem" in Minos Prime's own theme "Order" reflects once again how much Minos cared for his people and that they were the most important things to him.
- Interestingly, it's noted that Minos was the only inhabitant of Hell who possessed a full set of eyes, which he loses as a Prime Soul.
- Despite his Prime Soul form being two times smaller than Sisyphus, King Minos’s husk was apparently the largest one ever recorded in Hell’s history.