Lord Raptor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lord Raptor (Zabel Zarockマスターズ)
Lord Raptor
Birthplace	Australia
Birthdate	Unknown
Height	180cm / 5'11"
Weight	39kg / 86 lbs.

Lord Raptor (Zabel Zarock in Japan) is a video game character in the Darkstalkers series. He is a zombie who hails from Australia. He is voiced by Yuji Ueda.

1 Appearance
2 Story
3 Portrayal in other media
4 Albums
5 Trivia
6 External links

[edit] Appearance

Lord Raptor is a zombie (referred to as a ghoul in the first game) with blue skin and dark blue hair, as well as a mouth for a stomach. He wears torn purple pants that have the Union Jack on one leg. Additionally, he has what appears to be a red double crescent insignia on his chest.

While Raptor is only playable in his zombie form, he has been seen in a more humanoid form as a win pose, in the majority of his cameo in the OVA, and in art which appears in the game strategy guides. The human form differs from the zombie form primarily in that he is completely undecayed (albeit blue-skinned) and has long hair, whereas in the zombie form his hair appears to be in liberty spikes.

[edit] Story

Raptor was a charismatic young rock star who was an expert guitarist and was known as the "God of metal". He was unknown before the release of his first album, "Oral Dead". Though not a success initially, enough interest was cultivated until his second album was released. It sold 200,000 copies in a month, and reached one million in three months, becoming the next sensation in the metal scene. He instantly became famous throughout Australia.

Raptor killed himself and over a hundred fans in what would be his final live performance.

Because of his notoriety as a power-hungry criminal, he was noticed by the Emperor Ozomu, who baptised Raptor's soul in darkness and thus resurrected him as a zombie. Ozomu then used Raptor's bloodlust to his advantage, enlisting him into his services with the promise of more power. Although Raptor agreed, his true plans were to kill Ozomu himself and rule as Emperor. But when the Emperor and his castle disappeared, Raptor was puzzled. When he arrived at the location where Ozomu's castle used to stand, he found the entrance to the Majigen. This time, he intended to kill the creator of the Majigen and take his role.

A few days after Raptor's death, a strange leather-covered book was found in his house. The book was called "A Chapter of Tolagido" and was written in what seemed to be ancient Hebrew. The book explained the existence of another world called "Makai". The words in the book resembled the lyrics to his hit songs, and in a topic titled "A curse to give sacrifices to the king of Makai", the lyrics to Raptor's song "Sacrifice" were found. This song was the last played during the concert where Raptor and his crowd died.

With further research, it was discovered that the preparation for the curse took a long time. Since the first album was released, Zabel had already started to brainwash his potential victims. His apparent aim was to start the curse with his music and obtain sacrifices.

[edit] Portrayal in other media

In the Night Warriors anime, Lord Raptor is a zombie rock star who has returned once more to tour. His first comeback concert, however, is interrupted by armed monks who wish to kill him. But he manages to kill the monks first and then feeds on their souls. In the anime, he takes on a more human appearance initially (though retains his blue skin), but becomes the zombie when sufficiently provoked, the human form seems to be a second skin he can simply shed. He is voiced by Scott McNeil in the English dub.

In the DiC cartoon, a more muscular Raptor is a lackey for Pyron and Demitri Maximoff, although he attempts to betray them at one point. He eventually quits the forces of evil and becomes a professional stunt-double. Although this version of Lord Raptor is also voiced by Scott McNeil, he tends to talk in song lyrics a good deal of the time.

In the crossover strategy game Namco x Capcom, Raptor appears as a recurring minor boss. He is infatuated with Hsien-Ko, who wants nothing to do with him.

In the Capcom roleplaying game Breath of Fire III, the Zombie enemy (and its variants) bears a very strong resemblance to Raptor, in both appearance and attack animation.

[edit] Albums

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of

Fighting Game Moves/Capcom/Lord_Raptor

According to official Capcom source books, Lord Raptor's original albums releases are as follows:

Oral Dead - His first album which includes his hit song, "Oral Dead".
Punishment - His second album. A million seller album that was sold by word of mouth.
Noise of Heaven - The third album, which was more religious and ceremonial. It contained the song "Soul Beats". It's theme is the rebirth of souls. It also contains the song "Black Justice".
Tripper - His first memorial live album which took place in the Southern Cross Hall and gathered 60,000 people. 400 people went unconscious, and 18 people had heart attacks (two of which died). After this had occurred, entering the live shows became harder and the police began to monitor his life.
Fangorra - His compilation album which contains un-released songs. There was a rumour that the album contained a track zero, so the record companies called back the CD. Before the first track, there were 16 seconds of silence. Many people claimed that a devil's curse would play during that time, although there was no music actually recorded during this silence. After the CDs were called back, the first press became premium items.
Devil - His final album which was released after his death. Contains the song "Sacrifice", which was played when Raptor committed murder-suicide.

[edit] Trivia

A running gag in the game is Raptor's love for Hsien-Ko. This often causes his attacks against her to yield humorous scenes. This is, however, purely for visual effects, as the damage dealt is still the same.

In the game Plasma Sword (Star Gladiator II) the character Shaker has somewhat of a resemblance to Raptor.

Raptor seems to have been heavily inspired in the worldwide famous heavy metal band Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddie the Head. Though CAPCOM probably will never admit it, it seems obvious enough at view. And, even discarding the physical appearance, the United Kingdom flag, one of Eddie's and Iron Maiden's lead singer, Bruce Dickinson's trademark, mainly seen in the single cover and video for The Trooper song, is seen in Raptor's pants.

L. Raptor is known as Zabel Zabrock in Japan. The name is most likely based off Ozzie Osbourne and it is possible that Zabel himself is based off the real life musician.