Other Names and Titles[]
"Matthew" is merely a pseudonym; a name he made up. He rarely uses his living name and sticks to the pseudonym.
Actual Name: Willy/William
Character Type[]
Main character, Final Boss-grade (varies with the situation)
Status[]
Technically undead
Appearance[]
Appears to be an average pikmin night-shade with large ears, indicating he was yellow originally. Completely black and made of the purest darkness with glowing, red eyes. His leaf looks spiny like a thisle-leaf. He's borrowing Red's spear (in sword-form). When rampaging, his eyes glow brighter; his actions aside, he doesn't look any different in that state.
Suppressed State: a yellow with a fairly unique birthmark on each shoulder. As is usual for a nightshade, his eyes are entirely black (pupils AND "whites") with red irises.
Powers/Abilities[]
Endowed with all typical shade-abilities and more. He has an unusually high-level of control over darkness and enhanced strength (he could throw a full-grown ripmin with only a little effort) and speed. He can silently teleport via darkness and hide in/meld with any shadow, perfectly mimiking anyone's actions as if he was their shadow. Night-time enhances his power of course, as sunlight (direct or not) bleaches his power; he has the most power during a new moon which is when the night will be darkest obviously and it allows him to shadow-meld anywhere. In any case, he has a massive amount of dark-power that not even he's sure of its limit. He is sure that all this power stems from the light he was once made of in life.
Two abilities he doesn't use on just anyone: He can devour souls if he can get ahold of one (something that comes to him more as a predatory instinct more than anything). He can also possess someone unless they have the proper protection or are highly-affliated with the light-element. He has more abilities besides, however he typically refuses to do these other sorts of things to anyone so he never uses them.
To him when he "goes wild", he simply blacks-out while his primal (shade) nature takes over. A rampage can be triggered generally by witnessing any high-adrenaline, survival-based event such as a fight, someone being chased, etc.. He can fight it off, but the longer he's gone without feeding, the harder it is. He's generally tougher in this state and it varies with the situation what might snap him out of it.
His skill with Red's weapon is average. He's nothing spectacular but he's decent and can (with some force) manipulate Calcifer's fire inside it. He's well aware of the spear's abilities, though that isn't to say he can use those abilities himself.
Weaknesses[]
Like all shades, he's highly vulnerable to light and cannot stand strong, direct sunlight for long (lest he fade into nothing), though he loses this vulnerability to sunlight while possessing someone. Weaker sunlight burns and he'll be considerably weaker in it (though not dying/fading).
When not melding with any shadows, just about any type of attack can harm him (with the exception of darkness of course). While melded with shadows, the two attacks that can hit him are sword- and light-based attacks; if hit by a sword, he can be forced out of the shadow he's in, if it's light though, he is blown back (and knocked out of the shadow) as if he were hit outside of the host's shadow.
If someone kills anyone he's possessing, he'll be forced out in a weakened state as experiencing someone else's death is a bit traumatic, leaving him slightly vulnerable for a little while.
Resistances & Immunities[]
He has several things he is completely or near-immune to (whether it be through his shade abilities, or his own personality): While hiding in shadows, he cannot be harmed by most attacks. His body automatically absorbs dark-energy and uses it to energize him or heal him as needed. He is unaffected by heat and cold (strong fire or ice shards still have normal effects though) and being that he isn't living, poison has no effect on him.
Due to it originally being part of him, the light fluid on Red's weapon has no effect on him and is the only light that is thus.
While the dark energy that composes him erects an intense mental barrier, Matthew has an unusually intense mental will on his own (retained from life) and is impossible to possess or mentally assault (illusions exempted). Also his very essence is lethal to the living, attempting to absorb him, eat him, or anything of the sort will likely kill the attacker.
Though he is unaware of it, his original nature in life makes sure that the dark energy that makes him a shade can never corrode his self-awareness and sanity. The darkness eats away at light, which will be neverending but never strong enough to burst free. This has no effect on his vulnerabilities to light or dark, and does not prevent his shade-nature from invading his mind at times.
Personality[]
Becoming a shade has given the original Willy a sense of sour irony. He does not like the fact that he has become what he has always disliked and he is rather snide in the face of arrogance or high-headedness.
He hates that his clone seems to think its him and how it acts as a result. He wouldn't dream of killing his clone though and in fact, looks out for the clone's welfare.
This aside, Matthew (as he insists upon being called now) can be friendly, though blunt and straight-forward. He has little to no sense of humor left-over from his life and is almost always all-business. This stems from his painful awareness of how his soul is being eaten away at by his own dark energy (it's only trying to though, not that he knows). He's convinced that he will sooner or later lose all sanity and his shade-nature will permanently take over.
Themes[]
Peach's Castle - Mario & Luigi 3: Bowser's Inside Story
Battle: Boss Battle Theme - Final Fantasy IV (DS)
Special Cases:
Vs. Clone: Shadow Queen (Final Phase) - Paper Mario TTYD
Vs. Black Pikmin or Seraph: Vs. Champion Lance or Red - Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver (yes, I realize it's been used already a few times, and not just by me)
"Living" Name Revealed: Reminiscence ~ The Bitter Taste of Truth - Phoenix Wright: Trials & Tribulations
Tropes[]
Chaotic Neutral, Horror Hunger, Living Shadow, Super Strength, Casting a Shadow, Warm Bloodbags are Everywhere, Your Soul is Mine, Energy Being, Dark Secret, My Species Doth Protest Too Much, Cursed with Awesome(?),... The Reveal, Knight in Sour Armor, That Pikmin is Dead
Trivia[]
When I look at Matthew's general lay-out, I see him as operating somewhat like a Hollow from Bleach, somewhat crossed with the general ideas of friendly vampires.