Rasputin

*Unknown*

Rasputin (ラスプーチン, Rasupūchin, Распутин) is a character in the World Heroes series of fighting games. Dr. Sugar Brown recruited him from the year 1914 AD.

## Story

A mysterious magician with great knowledge and a enormous magical power, Rasputin is good at fighting different people. A bit eccentric, its difficult for people to understand him and his attacks. He claims that the source of his strength is the love he carries without withering. Rasputin defends the idea that against a cold world, all mankind should have only love.

Rasputin became a philosopher of 13th century Russia, as well as the the leader of a pansexual love cult with his own secret "Garden of Love". He keeps pleading that loving one another is important and won't give into people who don't listen to his constant persuasion. Rasputin also has a granddaughter named Raspuchiko, who is an mischief mage apprentice with a small but quite early progress in magic. She doesn't seem to understand the love Rasputin preaches about, but he hopes to change that.

He enters the World Heroes tournament to spread his message of unconditional love, no matter how evil someone is, and demonstrate the futility and emptiness of fighting. When Geegus interrupts the tournament, Rasputin sees him as a fallen angel.

When the tournament ends and evil seems to be purged from Earth, he uses Dr. Sugar Brown's time machine to go back to his time period, but ends up in the prehistoric era after the machine malfunctions. Now chased by dinosaurs, Rasputin runs for his life. He comes back for the second World Heroes tournament, and continues to appeal the importance of love and gather more followers through his wins. When he realizes they don't listen to his repeated persuasions, Rasputin wonders if he can use his magical power to convey his feelings to people. During the tournament he develops a strong rivalry with Mudman due to his popularity, whom he believes to have dark evil masters disguised as a god, while the later contests the love that Rasputin holds. Rasputin ends up opening the Church of Love and Humanity, but people ignore him, unprepared for his teachings.

Rasputin also participates in the third World Heroes tournament, still defending his views on peace and love. He finally seems to get followers, but his ending implies they are actually taking part in a play as curtains seen to close on them. He also calls his believers "fans".

## Personality

Rasputin loves everything and everyone. He preaches that mankind should banish the hatred in their lives. He enjoys taunting defeated enemies for their lack of discipline with a childish "Nyah-nyah!"

One of his victory poses is an effeminate curtsy.

## Powers

* **Sorcery** - As a sorcerer, Rasputin has access to several types of elementally based magic.
	+ **Magical Limbs** - Rasputin can create giant magical hands and feet where his normal hands and feet are located.
	+ **Fire Ball** - Rasputin can release fire balls from his hands.
	+ **Stone Body** - Rasputin can turn his own body to stone.
	+ **Translocate** - Rasputin can translocate himself.
	+ **Thunder** - Rasputin can summon a thunder from the sky.
	+ **Electric Projectile** - By summoning a thunder to his hands and absorbing electricity, Rasputin can release an electric projectile.
	+ **Ice Ball** - Rasputin can create and throw balls of ice capable of freezing opponents.

## Fighting Style

Rasputin fights with his magical powers, especially his Magical Limbs power.

## Cultural References

* Loosely based on Grigori Rasputin, the Russian mystic that believed that to purge temptation, one had to be in contact with it (that includes sex). Grigori Rasputin was at the time a healer, mystic, self-proclaimed holy man. His most notorious claim to fame was how difficult he was to kill, having been shot, stabbed, emasculated and poisoned before finally perishing in the cold waters of Russia. One of his win quotes is "All will be saved with the power of my love. Except for Nicholas II, of course". The real life Grigori Rasputin was a trusted friend of the family of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia.
* Rasputin's personality is a references to Marilyn Monroe, particularly when he re-enact her famous scene from the movie "The Seven Year Itch" which was made 40 years before the release of World Heroes Perfect, where Monroe’s skirt is blown up by a draft from a sidewalk grate. In one of his win poses, Rasputin's long tunic blows up in the wind, which makes him try to lean down to catch it similar to her.

## Music

* **Love of a Heretical Gentlemen** - World Heroes
* **Tricky, Time Slider** - World Heroes
* **Russian Speculator** - World Heroes 2
* **Oh! Vanity Moon** - World Heroes 2

## Game Appearances

* World Heroes - Playable

* World Heroes 2 - Playable

* World Heroes Perfect - Playable

## Trivia

* According to Jack the Ripper's winning quote, Rasputin's blood has a strange taste, so he spits it out. Jack does the same to Mudman, Brocken and Neo-Dio. Coincidentally, his character designer is the same person who was in charge of Rasputin and Mudman' designs.
* Rasputin's Desperation Move (DM), "The Secret Garden", in World Heroes Perfect is infamous for depicting Rasputin seemingly assaulting his opponent (sexually). Just before Rasputin disrobes himself, he grabs and throws them into his "Garden of Love", where he then proceeds to follow them behind and presumably have his way with them, as cartoon hearts burst out, and the fighter is seen struggling to get away. The game ADK World says that Rasputin created this technique because Mudman was starting to overshadow him.
* Rasputin's granddaughter Raspuchiko only appears in the extra comic books present in the Sega Saturn and NeoGeo CD versions of "World Heroes Perfect". She is mentioned in Rasputin's bio in the game ADK World.
* Two of his attack moves (Fireball and Lightning) has similar movement to Sailor Moon's characters attacks (notably Mar's Fire Soul and Jupiter's Sparkling Wide Pressure).

## Gallery

### World Heroes

Rasputin in the Prehistoric EraRasputin's endingRasputin using the Time MachinePortraitArtworkChibi artRasputin's SNES endingRasputin's SNES endingMagazine adNeo Geo Cover artJapanese SNES CoverCover art
### World Heroes 2 / World Heroes 2 Jet

PortraitEndingEndingWH2 ArtworkWH2 Jet ArtworkIntroBustWH2 Jet Game Boy CoverWH2 Cover PC Engine versionWH2 Marquee HeaderWH2 Famicom version coverArtwork from WH2 Jet OST