Calypso (Twisted Metal)
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Calypso is a character in the Twisted Metal video game series. He is a playable character in Twisted Metal 4, but other than that, he appears only in the games opening and ending cutscenes.
[edit] Background
Little is known about Calypso. He runs the "Twisted Metal" car combat contest of the game's title. In it, the constestants have to battle one another to the death in land vehicles (mostly cars) modified to accommodate weaponry such as missiles.
It is revealed that one of the characters, Krista Sparks (driver of the vehicle Grasshopper in the contest), is his daughter. In Minion's Twisted Metal 2 ending, it is mentioned that his little sister is apparently in Hell. Along with this Minion says that Calypso stole his "birthright" from him (he stole them after Minion won the first Twisted Metal contest through some trickery. This would explain Calypso's wish granting abilities.)
When someone wins his contest, the winner gets one wish. These comprise the game's ending sequences. It should be noted, that while Calypso seems to stick to the phrasing of a wish, he will gladly violate its spirit, which usually causes the wisher harm in the end, though in Head On he granted a few of the character's wishes directly, such as helping Mortimer return to his eternal rest despite the fact Mortimer had tried to kill him in TM2. The scope of his powers seem to have extraordinary bounds, including conjuring up Mr. Grimm to rip a soul from him. Even with this though, there are limits as to just what he can grant.
Calypso is to some extent seemingly a prisoner of the Twisted Metal contest himself: he can't, for example, restore his daughter to 'life' unless she wishes for it (in fact, she is still alive, trapped in a comatose state, meaning that she would have to wish to wake up). He knows that Marcus Kane is Needles Kane's, aka Sweet Tooth, split personality, and hints that it's actually Marcus controlling the tournaments ("Twisted Metal is as real as you want it to be.") and not him.
In TM's timeline he's amassed a great deal of power, including female companions and personal guards. He also has access to personal helicopters that monitor the matches, and a full-blown blimp. Even with all this though, he still seems stuck with his hand's bound by the contest's rules, unable to deny Sweet Tooth's wish to swap places with him in, or Cousin Eddie forcing him to grant a wish after 'winning the tournament' despite never actually being a contestant in it. Before Twisted Metal and the crash that apparently almost killed him (and might have been the spawning ground for the entire Twisted Metal competitions), his daughter points out that he wasn't always the way he is now, and her own memories show him a loving father. Even in his current state he is such, as shown in both Grasshopper's TM2 and Head On endings (the first of which he holds his daughter despite knowing she'll explode. On all appearances he seems to have survived this event bringing into question if it did indeed occur in the canon if he can be killed or not).
He is only playable in Twisted Metal 4, in which he drives a large red truck with a nuclear bomb.
[edit] Calypso's Character Design
Calypso's character design is inconsistent. It is different in many Twisted Metal game throughout the series (alá Yoshimitsu from Tekken). In terms of appearance, the most notable change is his hair which varies from thick and long to complete baldness.
In Twisted Metal 1, he is portrayed by an uncredited actor in live-action cutscenes. Here he is depicted as man with a totally burnt face.
In Twisted Metal 2: World Tour, he was a smartly dressed man with long flowing hair, heavy facial burn scars, and a greatly exaggerated evil grin. In the game, the opening sequence and the various endings were narrated entirely by him in first person giving the other characters little dialogue of their own. He also had the memorable line "I am Calypso, and I thank you for playing Twisted Metal." which he would ironically say at the end of each character's endings (apart from a few, including one where the LAPD thanks you for putting an end to the contest) while giving the same trademark grin.
In Twisted Metal Black (which is set in an alternate universe to the other games in the series), his left eye is literally sunken into his head, and accurately depicts the sadism within. In this game, the narrative is reversed from World Tour. In Black's endings, Calypso no longer has any spoken dialogue of his own. The cutscenes are now narrated by the chosen playable character in first person.
In Twisted Metal: Head On he is more similar to his World Tour appearance with similar dialogue. In this game he is only balding and keeps the sunken eye from Black. There is no narrative in Head On's endings, only dialogue between the different characters (including Calypso himself).
In Twisted Metal III and 4, he is portrayed the same as 2, curly hair, an evil grin, and black robes. However, as stated neither game is considered canonical and thus these appearances do not count.
