The Bowman

> "*As you look like the most capable around here, I have a task of the utmost importance for you. Take this scroll, and carry it across the island.*"
> ― *The Bowman*
>
>

    **The Bowman**, also known as **The Western Hero**, is a character in The Messenger. He wields a bow and rescues Ninja Village from the demon army in the beginning of the story.

## Profile

### Appearance

The Bowman wears yellow traditional East Asian armor. He has a short brown cone-shaped hat with yellow ear flaps, a yellow mouth balaclava, brown shoulder pads, brown gloves, and brown and yellow mountain boots, all trimmed with beige fur. He has brown pants. On his back is a brown quiver filled with arrows with orange fletchings. He wields a simple yellow bow with a beige string.

### Personality

The Bowman does not have many lines of dialogue interaction, but from the few lines provided, he seems very straightforward and wise.

## Main Story

In the middle of the Demon King's assault on Ninja Village, The Bowman appears from the west, riding on an orange phoenix. He jumps off of the phoenix and shoots a barrage of glowing magic blue arrows at the demon army, which kills two Ranged Kappa and pushes back the Demon King. The demons leave, and Ninja approaches The Bowman, inquiring if The Bowman is the Western Hero of legend. The Bowman confirms he is indeed the Western Hero and tasks Ninja with the role of The Messenger. He hands the scroll to Ninja and directs him to climb to the top of Glacial Peak, where three sages would be waiting for him. The Bowman bids him good luck and teleports away in a flash of blue light.

A statue of The Bowman can be seen in the Tower of Time, above the first shop. The statue's plaque translates to "THE BOWMAN."

## Trivia

* The Bowman is referred to as "PAST\_MESSENGER" in the dialogue files and "PastMessenger" in the picture files.
* "The Messenger - E3 2018 Extended Gameplay" video depicts a beta talk portrait icon for The Bowman. The beta talk portrait icon was a highly-detailed close-up of the upper half of the overworld sprite, while the final talk portrait icon is a highly-detailed close-up of The Bowman's face.
* "The Messenger - Gameplay Trailer" video depicts another beta talk portrait icon for The Bowman. This beta talk portrait is similar to the talk portrait in the final game but with noticeably different eyes.
* The Bowman's overworld sprites are pink in the picture files. The reason for this is because the whole level is palette swapped via lookup tables during the cutscene that occurs while exiting Ninja Village that changes the background from daylight to nighttime, so in order for The Bowman to look yellow and brown, his game files need to be pink. This process was explained in the "Sabotage end of year (Q&A 2018)" video.
* In early beta versions of The Messenger, The Bowman in the intro cutscene was replaced by an unnamed orange ninja character.
* In the "Sabobo Direct - March 2019" video, some new details about The Bowman were revealed.
	+ The Bowman wasn't actually the Messenger right before Ninja but was rather tasked with grabbing the scroll and quickly taking it to Ninja. This may be related to another Messenger who became a Fallen.
	+ The Bowman's main villain was Barma'thazël.
* Thierry Boulanger, the main writer and director of The Messenger, confirmed that The Bowman was the one to shoot an arrow to take out Barma'thazël's eye.
* The Bowman's phoenix is seen briefly in The Shopkeeper's scrying orb in the live-action short film, "Shinobi No Kikan."

## Gallery

### Sprites

The Bowman's talk portrait icon without the scroll.Color-corrected spritesheet of The Bowman.Color-corrected spritesheet of The Bowman's arrows.Color-corrected spritesheet of The Bowman teleporting.Color-corrected spritesheet of The Bowman riding his phoenix.Phoenix's spritesheet.The Tower of Time statue, "THE BOWMAN."
### Datamined Sprites

The Bowman's spritesheet.The Bowman's arrows' spritesheet.The Bowman's teleportation spritesheet.The Bowman and phoenix's spritesheet.
### Screenshots

Intro cutscene depicting The Bowman arriving from the west on a phoenix.Intro cutscene depicting Ninja noticing The Bowman's approach.Intro cutscene depicting The Bowman instructing Ninja to deliver the scroll to the top of Glacial Peak.The Bowman riding a phoenix towards Ninja Village.The Bowman statue in the Tower of Time, just above The Shop.
### Beta Screenshots

The beta version of the intro cutscene, depicting a character with a sword arriving from the west on a phoenix.The beta version of the intro cutscene, depicting Ninja noticing the Western Hero's approach.
### Official Artwork

Official T-shirt design for PAX East 2018, which depicts The Bowman on the left.
## References

1. ↑ File:Citation The Bowman.png
2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rCkohaTX54&t=133
3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vaYsgOHTlI&t=9
4. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRx6sx2sQcM&t=315s
5. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GhRospmGv0&t=55
6. ↑ https://www.twitch.tv/videos/504123242?t=1h23m48s
7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7VhIMBt7Yw