The Beheaded

The Beheaded is the main character of Dead Cells. He is a green, gelatinous blob-like creature with a single glowing eye that can possess beheaded corpses. He arrives at Dracula's Castle in the Return to Castlevania expansion of the game.
==Background==
In Dead Cells, the Beheaded is a character of mysterious origin. He first arrives from a pipe in the ceiling of the Prisoners' Quarters of said game's castle and central in-game world, and then possesses a headless corpse's body, gaining some sort of superhuman strength (such as of being able to swing a broadsword with only one hand) and start controlling the corpse while making the blob act as its head.
==History in Return to Castlevania==
While he doesn't directly appear in any Castlevania game, the Beheaded visits Dracula's Castle by following a mysterious staircase that appears out of nothing in the Prisoners' Quarters. If the player first arrives to this staircase, they will find Richter Belmont, who warns the Beheaded that the evil is coming and he needs his help. After this, Richter will not appear in the staircase on any run started after the cutscene.
Following the staircase and the subsequent passage to the Castle's Outskirts, he finds a room with a coffin in it, where Alucard is found sleeping. The Beheaded then "accidentally" wakes up Alucard from his slumber, asking the Beheaded why he woke him up in the first place. He then tells the Beheaded that Dracula is about to come back to life and they should stop the ritual. He asks the Beheaded to meet him in Dracula's Castle, making him take an elevator right outside the room to reach the entrance passage. In that same room, there is a secret crawlspace that leads to a small room containing blueprints for Alucard's Shield.
He also finds a cat, who drops a key when caught. This key leads to a small bedroom-like cell where Maria Renard is imprisoned. She tells how she was trapped and Richter was going to free her, but he didn't came at all. She then says that she didn't even need Richter to save her. As a way of saying thanks, she lets the Beheaded take her cat to an adventure, and thus unlocking Maria's Cat as a skill.
The Beheaded then enters Dracula's Castle, and goes to find the passage to the Master's Keep, while defeating enemies such as Axe Knights, Buers and Harpies, and also meeting the Master Librarian, who simply replaces merchant NPCs.
After reaching the passage to the Master's Keep, the Beheaded is mysteriously pulled down into the Defiled Necropolis by dark chains that wrap his body. He then ventures forward and meets Death, who is there to stop the Beheaded from interrupting the ritual. Soon after, the Beheaded defeats Death and progresses onward to the next passage but returns to his world's castle, leaving fate temporarily uncertain.
If the Beheaded dies, he gets brought back into the Prisoners' Quarters as usual. But this time Alucard appears and tells the Beheaded to enter Dracula's Castle from his castle's Clock Tower, so Death can't hold them back. Doing so allows the player to enter a harder version of Dracula's Castle, which now houses Medusa as a miniboss and has harder enemies. Dracula himself also can intervene in some unexpected moments, making the journey slightly harder by cursing food, attacking the Beheaded directly, flipping the screen, or even killing the Master Librarian so the Beheaded can't purchase helpful food or new gear.
In this warped version of Dracula's Castle, the Beheaded finds Richter imprisoned in a cage in an upside-down room of the castle. Richter tells the Beheaded how after his previous fight with Dracula, he lost to the Dark Lord and was left imprisoned in a cage. The Beheaded then frees Richter, and Richter goes off to fight him again. Doing this will unlock Richter Mode for any future runs.
The Beheaded later finds himself in the Master's Keep, and climbs the staircase up to Dracula's throne. He finds Alucard and Richter standing on the throne room's entrance. Alucard encourages the Beheaded to fight Dracula, as he doesn't want to fight him again because of past issues. Richter further encourages the Beheaded by saying he was left weakened by his last battle, and he needs the Beheaded to defeat Dracula for him. The Beheaded finally confronts Dracula face to face, shouting why he appeared out of nowhere with his castle. Dracula replies by saying that it was the Beheaded who invaded his castle without permission, and thus will have to pay the consequences. Annoyed by the Beheaded's words, Dracula goes off to fight him the same way he did with Richter.
After defeating Dracula, the castle's keep starts to crumble down. Dracula then transforms into Dracula - Final Form and fights the Beheaded on the castle's falling debris, to put an end to the fight once and for all. The Beheaded soon triumphs over Dracula and is seen climbing a cliff where he watches the castle crumble down alongside Richter and Alucard, akin to Symphony of the Night's ending cutscene.
==Personality==
Despite being canonically unable to speak (as every NPC in Dead Cells has a "voice" that plays when the NPC displays a dialogue box), the Beheaded has quite the personality. The Beheaded likes to make sarcastic remarks and jokes about the situations it finds itself in. It also has quite the mean streak, tending to kick bodies around as well as pestering people. However, this does not mean it is completely empty of remorse and empathy. The Beheaded seems upset by the sight of the cruel orders from his castle's King, grins at the sight of a guard killed by the effects of the Malaise, is seen telling a dead prisoner to "rest in peace", and lacking any kind of humor when finding a hanged woman.
==See also==
*Dead Cells
==External links==
*The Beheaded at the Dead Cells Wiki
Category:Dead Cells Characters