Headhunter

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The Headhunter is a boss in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. This demon collects the severed heads of his victims.The Headhunter's in-game "Enemy Data" entry refers to this enemy character as a male.
==Origins==
The Headhunter is based on Princess Langwidere from L. Frank Baum's book Ozma of Oz, the third book in the Oz series. She is the Princess of Ev and is extremely vain. Instead of changing clothes, she prefers to change her head with one of the thirty she keeps in her large boudoir.
When Dorothy and friends arrive, the princess decides she wants her head for her personal collection and imprisons them until she agrees to her demands. Later, when Princess Ozma comes on a mission to free the Queen of Ev and her children, Langwidere agrees to release Dorothy to her.
Another inspiration for the Headhunter could be the cursed human thief Jacqueline Montarri from the Dungeons & Dragons game setting Ravenloft. Jacqueline was a thief looking for eternal youth and she murdered a Vistani (gypsy) elder to get the secret. It led her to the castle of Strahd von Zarovich, who caught her in his library and had her beheaded for her crime. The Vistani took her body and placed a curse upon her: she did get eternal life as she wanted, but woke up with the head of the murdered Vistani elder attached to her body instead of her own. She soon realized she could replace the head with others, and since the heads she wore aged fast, she collected hundreds of them over the last 200 years. Much like the Headhunter, she can use whatever skill the head's original user possessed, so if she wears a wizard's head, she can cast spells, if a fighter's, she has better melee skills, and so on.Jacqueline Montarri in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (2nd Edition): Monstrous Manual. (archived: February 17, 2019)
==Description==
The Headhunter is one of the most bizarre bosses Soma encounters in the game. This demon first appears as a noblewoman who wants nothing more than to welcome him into her parlor... so she can chop his head off. She wields a dagger and performs short lunges with it in an attempt to stab him.
Once she has sustained enough damage, her head suddenly falls off from her body and is immediately replaced by another of an old, white bearded magician, allowing the Headhunter to fly about the room and cast fire and lightning spells. Once Soma lops that head off too, the Headhunter comes back with one final surprise in the form of a reptilian head.
With the reptilian head on, the rest of the Headhunter's body changes entirely to match it, becoming a humanoid lizard monster. The boss can now scutter about the parlor's walls and ceiling, lashing out its lethal tongue toward Soma and sometimes spraying poison out of its mouth. Once this third and final head has been chopped off, the Headhunter will die in a burst of flames while the entire head collection in the background will spontaneously combust as well.
==Enemy Data==
==Item Data==
==Notes==
*It's possible to skip the Headhunter without using any glitches, since the other entrance to the Inner Quarters can be reached by performing a double jump with the Flying Armor's soul equipped.
==Gallery==
AoS 107.png|Headhunter enemy list entry from Aria of Sorrow.
==Trivia==
*According to Shūtarō Īda, programmer of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, one of the heads in the Headhunter's collection is his own head.@CurryHermit at X (December 4, 2021)
*In the Kabuchi no Tsuisoukyoku novel, it is mentioned that Count Olrox knew the Headhunter, although he never came to understand his bizarre pastime of collecting heads.
==References==
==External links==
*Castlevania Realm
Category:Demons
Category:Fire Bosses
Category:Flying Bosses
Category:Literary Monsters
Category:Poison Bosses
Category:Tabletop Role-Playing Game Based Monsters
Category:Thunder Bosses
Category:Aria of Sorrow Bosses
Category:Mentioned Characters