Striker

Striker is a hitman and a major supporting antagonist in Helluva Boss who made his debut in "The Harvest Moon Festival".
Introduced as a farmhand at Rough n' Tumbleweed Ranch, Striker was actually secretly hired by Stella to assassinate Stolas. Later, during his second assassination attempt on Stolas, the hit was called off on Stella's orders as having Stolas alive would have more benefits than having him dead, much to Striker's own chagrin.
In "Oops", Striker had been hired by Crimson as his mafia needed someone for a big score, in which he captured and held Fizzarolli hostage for ransom until his escape alongside Blitzo.
==Appearance==
Striker is a tall, slim and pale red-skinned imp with a serpentine-like face, and a stature that rivals Blitzo. His eyes have bright yellow sclera, dark green rings around the slit pupils, and black eyelids. He also has a small black mustache, and a mouth full of sharp light yellow teeth inside, with one dull gold fang sticking out.
He has short-cut, ivory-colored hair in a slightly messy style. His horns are ivory-colored and point upwards, however unlike most imps, the stripe pattern is more jagged-styled. He also sports a long tail with four black stripes at the base, and a single black stripe on his tail-fork. He also has eight red and black spikes on the base of his tail.
Striker's attire resembles a southern cowboy, which features a large stereotypical-looking gray hat with his horns protruding, and a red bandana around his neck.
He wears a light gray jacket with slight darker-colored lapels, small yellow cuff links on each of the sleeves' dark gray cuffs, and dark gray trimming in which black tassels can be seen hanging from them. His jacket is usually worn over a black turtleneck which itself is worn under a dark gray vest that is held together by two small yellow buttons. He also wears black fingerless gloves, ivory-colored jeans that are ripped at the thighs, and knee-high, dark gray cowboy boots with red cuffs and toes.
In his debut, Striker was commonly seen holding a straw of wheat in his mouth.
==Personality==
Striker is an arrogant, prideful, violent, ruthless, and sadistic individual. He views himself as superior to most of his own kind, having no hesitation to mock and belittle those he views as being beneath him, both physically and mentally, as shown by his constant humiliation and torture of Moxxie. 
He holds a deep hatred of the nobility of Hell, deriding them as bluebloods who treat Imps as a lesser class. Because of this, Striker gleefully takes the opportunity to assassinate demons of a higher social standing to prove himself as superior, such as accepting the job to murder Stolas, and mocking him while conversing with Blitzo.
His violent nature belies his sadism. When confronted by Moxxie after his discovery of Striker's blessing-tipped rifle, he chose to corner and attempt to slowly strangle Moxxie to death rather than dispatching him in a faster or less cruel manner. He is also not above random acts of violence against innocents, such as assaulting a by standing Imp for simply getting too close to him. 
However, Striker is a cunning, socially smart, manipulative, and fearless person who is willing to show respect towards those he views as acting decisively, even with the odds stacked against them. As demonstrated when he admired that Blitzo was able to start a assassination business in spite of his assertions that Imps rarely succeed in operating businesses in Hell. His manipulative manner is evidenced when he was able to make Blitzo lower his guard by psychologically manipulating him; stating that he was working for lower classes that couldn't care less about him and wasting his great potential by limiting himself to be Stolas' sexual plaything when he could do much better than that, to subsequently suggest that they should work together. 
He is able to maintain an aura of fearlessness such as being able to keep a cool head when Blitzo stopped him trying to assassinate Stolas, even cornering the latter against a wall in spite of being held at gunpoint.
He has also been shown to be a highly ambitious individual as he has aspirations above being an assassin and seeks to use his job and connections to gather powerful weapons, with a stated desire to be able to murder powerful hellish entities such as Overlords and demonic nobility. Although he hypocritically has to rub shoulders with "bluebloods" such as Stella to accomplish this goal, which he has shown to be respectful and reserved when conversing with. In "Western Energy", Striker shows hatred for demon royalty as he expresses not only eagerness to kill Stolas, but also a personal vendetta against royals, believing all they do is they only talk over lesser demons and take away everything they have.
Unlike the majority of demons, whom are mostly sex-positive, if not outright indecent, even in public, Striker is noticeably much more prudent. Sexual innuendo legitimately irritates him and displays of arousal (especially of the masochistic variety as demonstrated by Moxxie and Stolas) have been shown to shatter his cool-headed facade, if only for a moment. Despite his status as a prude, Striker owns a statue with a large erection in his lair. Also worth noting is that he seems to be able to put his distaste for sexuality aside for the sake of manipulation tactics, demonstrated in the aforementioned scene where he lowered Blitzo's guard.
==Abilities==
*Animalistic noises - Striker has a tendency to produce hissing sounds similar to that of a snake or crocodile. His tail can make a rattling sound, moving a certain way similar to that of a rattlesnake.
*Ocular illumination - Like many Imps, Striker's eyes emit a light glow in dark areas.
*Charisma - Given his skills, strength, charm and good looks, Striker can win the good graces of those around him.
*Enhanced endurance - Striker has a great pain tolerance, as he was able to take multiple stabs from Millie from behind and still being able to overpower her while appearing to be unfazed by the wounds. Another example is when Blitzo elbowed his face for almost shooting Moxxie and was able to briefly knock him down later, even being able to quickly escape from the scene despite having received a brutal beating from him, who showed to be strong enough to break a wall with a single punch. In "Oops", he is shown to experience horrible pain by being burned, but still had enough strength to scurry away as he put the fire on himself out.
*Enhanced strength - Despite his slim physique, Striker has shown an impressive amount of physical strength. During "The Harvest Moon Festival", Striker was capable of immobilizing and pinning Moxxie, breaking Millie's arm and throwing both of them with ease. He was also able to make Blitzo fall with a single punch during his fight near the end of the episode. In "Western Energy", it also showed he was able to break Stolas' leg by just stomping on it and toss down a large stalactite with his lasso.
* Prehensile tail - Striker is shown to be able to use his tail to wield certain weaponry proficiently, such as when he uses Millie's zweihander to attack and defend in the fight against Moxxie and Millie in "Western Energy".
===Skillset===
*Hand-to-hand combat - Striker is shown to be surprisingly proficient in hand-to-hand combat, being able to defend himself from the I.M.P staff. He also uses his tail for unarmed combat as well.
*Weapon mastery - He's shown to be skilled with handling various types of weapons especially weapons to kill demons with high status, such as the Carmine-Crafted Blessing-Tipped Rifle. He is also seen being able to use his rope to grab and throw stalactites at Moxxie and Millie.
*Rope mastery - Striker is extremely skilled at using ropes with various methods such as capturing and using it as a melee weapon.
*Horse-riding - Striker is shown to be talented at horse riding, as shown when he is riding his horse Bombproof at the beginning of their debut episode. 
*Musical talent - Striker is shown to have a talent for singing, as shown when he sang his victory tune after he was one of the winners of the Harvest Moon Pain Games.
**Guitar-playing - As well as singing, Striker has been shown as being a very good guitar player.
===Weaponry===
Blitzo being held at knife point.png|Striker's first knife
Blitzo, Fizzarolli, and Striker.png|Striker's second knife
Striker holding the blessed knife.png|Blessed Knife
Carmine blessed rifle.png|Carmine-Crafted Blessing-Tipped Rifle
Strikers revolver.png|Regular revolver
Striker with two blessing-tipped pistols.png|Blessed Revolvers
Striker lassoing.png|Striker's rope
Striker lassoing Stolas.png|Blessed Rope
* Angelic Weapons - Striker has acquired angelic weapons so he can assassinate demon royalty and overlords. He has at his disposal several Blessed Revolvers, as well as a Blessed Knife he uses for torture, and Blessed Rope that he restrains powerful demons with.
* Knives - Striker has demonic-looking knives he uses on multiple occasions.
* Revolvers - When both his blessed revolvers were destroyed in "Western Energy", Striker had a regular revolver as a backup.
* Lasso - He has a regular rope he uses on multiple occasions.
==Gallery==
*Striker/Gallery
==Trivia==
*Striker seems to possess snake-like traits, such as his tail making a rattling sound when moved a certain way, similar to that of a rattlesnake's, and possessing a snakes snout-like facial features that as an imp appear unique to him and opposing to regular imps.
**He has a tendency to produce hissing sounds similar to that of a snake or crocodile, a trait that Blitzo once displayed in "Seeing Stars".
**He also has a circular pattern accompanying the pupils of his eyes, similar to the hypnosis eyes of Kaa from The Jungle Book, furthering his snake-like theme. This trait is shown to be shared only with the race of shark-like demons.
**In a stream, it was confirmed that Striker is actually an imp hybrid, although, whether or not he is a half imp or only part imp was not disclosed.
*It is shown in "Western Energy" that there are wanted posters of Striker in the Pride and Wrath rings that say "WANTED PREFERABLY DEAD PLEASE", signifying that he is a wanted man throughout at least some of the Rings of Hell.
*According to Fizzarolli in "Oops", Striker has terrible breath.
===Development===
*Striker's appearance went through several drafts and phases in development. His preliminary design was a rough combination of Blitzo and Moxxie's, with later passes shifting to a reptilian/snake-like direction.Tweet by Carolina Páez about Striker's first design noteTweet by Carolina Páez about Striker's reptile-ish features
*Inspiration for Striker's design came from Rattlesnake Jake from , Snidely Whiplash from , Angel Eyes from , and the 1970 Mexican film, .Tweet by Carolina Páez about Striker's inspiration references
==References==
es:Striker
fr:Striker
ru:Страйкер
pl:Striker
Category:Helluva Boss characters
Category:Demons
Category:Antagonists
Category:Villains
Category:Male
Category:Imps