Butterfly Matriarch

* 8-Bit
* 16-Bit

> "*I am the Butterfly Matriarch, the embodiment of beauty. Come closer, I have a gift for you...*"
> ― *Butterfly Matriarch*
>
>

    The **Butterfly Matriarch**, also known as the **Bat Matriarch**, is a boss in The Messenger. She is the boss fought at the end of Rivière Turquoise.

## Profile

### Appearance

As the Butterfly Matriarch, she resembles a giant colorful moth. Her wings are mostly yellow, the edges of her wings have thin patterns of brown, orange, and black, and the far sides of her wings have blue horizontal oval-ish spots in the yellow sections. Closer to her body are patterns of dark brown, brown, and orange.

Her white head and brown body are fluffy, and her eyebrows are also fluffy. Her black eyes are large and round, but they gain many circles of brown when she becomes angry. On her head are two thick yellow antennae sticking up from behind her eyebrows, curving downward to the sides. On the bottom of her body are six black butterfly legs. Two small black mandibles cover her mouth.

As the Bat Matriarch, she resembles a giant brown bat. The middle-bottom section of her left wing is torn.

### Personality

While brainwashed, the Butterfly Matriarch attempts to lull Ninja into a false sense of security, pretending to be kind. But when the deception is revealed, the Butterfly Matriarch becomes irate, chasing off one of her own Magic Fireflies and threatening Ninja with death.

Once brought back to her senses, the Butterfly Matriarch returns to her kind nature. She admits her mistake and thanks Ninja for ridding her of her rotten core. To show her gratefulness, she allows one of her Magic Fireflies to accompany Ninja on his journey.

## Boss Fight

The fight starts off in 8-bit. In her bat form, the Butterfly Matriarch flies left and right at the top of the arena, slowly following Ninja so she's always above him. She intersperses between two different attacks: releasing either a sonar beam or two tiny bats from her mouth that fly downward. She randomly switches between two attack pattern types.

* Attack Pattern #1: Sonar Beam x2 → Pause → Two Tiny Bats x2 → Pause → Pattern #1 or Pattern #2
* Attack Pattern #2: Sonar Beam x2 → Pause → Two Tiny Bats x1 → Sonar Beam x1 → Pause → Pattern #1 or Pattern #2

The Butterfly Matriarch's body is intangible (but damageable) and does no damage to Ninja.

The Butterfly Matriarch is extremely high up in the air where Ninja cannot reach her. Ninja must wait for a Magic Firefly to appear on the screen and then attack it, changing the arena from 8-bit to 16-bit. In her butterfly form, the Butterfly Matriarch releases a shower of tiny white dust particles that reveals invisible platforms, and then the arena flashes in 8-bit a few times before completely returning to 8-bit. Ninja must utilize the invisible platforms to reach the top of the arena to attack the Butterfly Matriarch. The dust dissipates after about 15 seconds, so the Magic Firefly will reappear if needed. The amount of time it takes for the Magic Firefly to arrive depends on the arena, taking longer in the later arenas, and it spawns on the side of the room opposite of the invisible platforms.

After Ninja deals enough damage to the Butterfly Matriarch, the arena becomes 16-bit, and the Butterfly Matriarch flies upward and leaves the arena. A Magic Firefly soon flies to the middle section of the ground platform and turns into a blue cannon plant. Ninja must enter the blue cannon plant to get launched to the next arena, where the Butterfly Matriarch reappears. Again, the room again flashes 8-bit a few times before completely turning into 8-bit. There are three arenas total, with each arena reducing the amount of ground coverage, making it more likely Ninja will fall to his death if he's not careful.

The invisible platforms always exist, so the player can navigate Ninja onto the invisible platforms before they are even revealed by the Butterfly Matriarch's dust. Each arena has the invisible platforms in different locations.

### Phases

Note: Magic Firefly arrival times are based on when the arena is stabilized as 8-bit.

#### Phase 1

* HP: 22-30
* Magic Firefly: 11 seconds

#### Phase 2

* HP: 12-21
* Magic Firefly: 18 seconds

#### Phase 3

* HP: 1-11
* Magic Firefly: 21 seconds

### Attacks

#### Sonar Beam

A non-damaging confusion attack, the sonar beam is large and wide, making it difficult to avoid. If Ninja is hit by the sonar, he becomes dizzy for 5 seconds (doesn't stack but does renew), and the directional inputs of left and right become reversed for the player until the dizziness wears off.

Even though the sonar beam doesn't do damage, Ninja experiences knockback as if it was an actual attack. Ninja needs the "Second wind" shop upgrade to use a recovery jump to negate the knockback.

#### Two Tiny Bats

Two tiny bats fly left and right as they move downward, their movements mirrors of each other. With each sweeping movement, the gap between the two bats grows wider and wider. They continue flying downward until they disappear off-screen. These bats deal 1 damage.

## Main Story

After traveling through the entirety of Rivière Turquoise, Ninja reaches the Butterfly Matriarch's room. The Matriarch warmly greets Ninja and introduces herself. She bids him to come closer for a gift, but an off-screen Magic Firefly warns Ninja that it's a trap, and that the Butterfly Matriarch is not what she seems. The Magic Firefly appears on-screen and shines brightly to reveal the the 8-bit era in a small circle around herself. She flies around different sections of the Butterfly Matriarch to expose the Butterfly Matriarch's bat form. The Magic Firefly explains that the Butterfly Matriarch is plagued by an ugly monster and that Ninja must rid the Butterfly Matriarch of this evil. Angered, the Butterfly Matriarch chases off the Magic Firefly. She discards her kind persona and again bids Ninja to come closer, this time exclaiming for him to die. She lets out a screech, and the room flashes 8-bit several times before changing into and remaining 8-bit. The Butterfly Matriarch then flies to the top of the room.

Ninja fights the Butterfly Matriarch, utilizing Magic Fireflies and invisible platforms during the fight in order to defeat the Butterfly Matriarch. The arena switches back and forth between 8-bit and 16-bit as he fights the Matriarch.

Ninja lands the final blow upon the Matriarch, and a bright flash of white light fills up the screen. The light fades, and the room is 16-bit once again. The Butterfly Matriarch is freed from her curse, and she admits that she made a mistake a long time ago, thinking that beauty would fix it all. She thanks Ninja for freeing her of her rotten core. Ninja asks if this was a lesson about judging a book by its cover, and the Butterfly Matriarch replies that it is. She makes an analogy that Ninja took the words right out of her mouth, but before she finishes her thought, she questions if butterflies even have mouths. The Butterfly Matriarch thanks Ninja once again for his help and gifts him with a Magic Firefly to accompany him on his journey.

The Butterfly Matriarch recollects on how she was once saved by a Monk, wondering what became of her. The Matriarch then takes her leave.

## Trivia

* If the Butterfly Matriarch is killed while changing the arena from 16-bit to 8-bit, her face will be permanently angry for her final cutscene.
* Prior to the Version 2.0.2 update, the Butterfly Matriarch's sonar beam used to deal damage in New Game +.
* Rainbowdragoneyes, the game's music composer, created all of the sound effects in the game. His ex-girlfriend, Mithrin Design, provided a scream that, after much processing, became the Butterfly Matriarch's scream.

## Gallery

Bat Matriarch's spritesheet.Butterfly Matriarch's spritesheet.Key art #2, which depicts the Bat Matriarch to the bottom-left and the Butterfly Matriarch in the upper-right.Concept art for an unused dryad boss, who became the Butterfly Matriarch instead.
## References

> "*Be careful! The Matriarch is not what she seems!*"
> ― *Magic Firefly*
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2. ↑ File:Citation Mithrin Design.png