Alexander Weavell, before and after

This drawing took freaking forever to get done. Not because it’s some kind of over-thought, masterfully designed piece of art, but because… well, just because. I don’t tend to get blocked once I start working, but I started this before I’d published my Sylux redesign (March 25), and it took me 4 months to finish it.

It’s like this: given the already mentioned redesign left me quite satisfied, both in the drawing and writing department, I decided to expand the original idea and make my redesigned versions of all the main characters of MP: Hunters, as well as developing some more of their background, trying to remain somewhat faithful to the little info we’ve got about them.

This time, we’ve got Weavel on the spotlight, displaying how he looked like “before and after” being blown to little pieces by Samus Aran. And while I’m quite sure not everyone’s gonna like to find a human brain inside that badass alien armor, I guess I can’t help it. The name Weavel sounds too “human” for me, it feels like some kind of English surname (maybe because I’m a history nerd and it reminds me of WWII British Field Marshall Archibald Percival Wavell). I can even accept a purple dragon named Ridley, because we could assume that’s a codename created by the Federation to refer to him (just like the NATO had codenames for Soviet aircraft), but Weavel? No way.

On the other side, I don’t see why a Human couldn’t be a “Space Pirate”: even if we take the always-switching Metroid Canon to its maximum rigidity (that is, Space Pirates are ONE single race, rather than a collective of races, which leads to the weird conclusion that crab people, giant wasps, reptilian humanoids, purple dragons and spike-launching godzillas are all blood brothers), we’ve still got Metroid Prime 3 Data Logs that indicate that there are spies acting within the Federation and answering directly to the Pirates.

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-Name: Alexander Weavell (Note: first name it’s a play on Harold Alexander, yet another British Field Marshall from WWII).

-Species: Cybernetically enhanced Human.

-Homeworld: Earth.

-Gender: Male.

-Height: 2, 50 m (in Powered Armor).

-Weight: 210 kg (in Powered Armor)

-Afilliation: Space Pirates.

-Current Base of Operations: Variable.

-Profile: Once the Supreme Commander of the Galactic Federation’s Army, Alexander Weavell turned against his own people when he intentionally sent the bulk of the Federal Army to certain death on the initial stages of the First Battle of Zebes, while pledging his loyalty to the Space Pirate’s High Command, convinced that the Federation and its weak leaders were soon to be steamrolled by the might of the Pirates.

Nearly killed by Samus Aran in Chozodia in the aftermath of the First Battle of Zebes, his brain and spinal cord survived somehow and were salvaged by one of the Space Pirates’ surgeons, as High Command had realized the potential of such an individual, capable of understanding the Human tactics and mentality to perfection. They ordered his remains to be implanted on an experimental nuclear-powered armor, turning him into an almost unstoppable force, and assigning him as Commander of one of their Special Units, under close supervision of Ridley himself. His current duties include coordination of the Space Pirate’s espionage network within the Federation, command of the renegade Human forces controlled by the Pirates, and, if need be, direct battlefield intervention.

An admirer of the Human empires of old, especially the totalitarian regimes of the XX century, Weavell is a power-hungry warlord, plotting to eventually unify all Humans under his rule and, together with the Space Pirates, bring them back to the old days of the XXII century early planetary conquest, when Humanity was a relentless predator annihilating anything on its path.

-Combat Analysis: as a Galactic Federation General, Alexander Weavell always gave preeminence to superior firepower and armor over other more subtle tactics. With his new cybernetic body, Weavell was able to finally apply such doctrine in the flesh (metal?). His powered armor is literally filled to the top with an arsenal of traditional but deadly weapons, all of them of human design, and based on those employed in the early years of the XXII century Expansion Wars by the dictatorial Human Directorate (the precedent of the more liberal and open-minded Galactic Federation): sharp energized wrist blades for close combat, fast-firing Devastator swarm missiles, high caliber autocannons, flamethrowers and the crown jewel of infantry weapons: a Davy Crockett “Battlehammer” M-1388 tac-nuke recoilless gun.

Weavell’s also well able of taking lots of punishment and remain battle capable, as the heavily reinforced materials that compose his cyber-body can easily withstand all but the most powerful of the Federation’s weaponry. In fact, the only really vulnerable point of Weavell is his brain/spinal cord, encased deep within his artificial body. As long as it remains intact, Weavell may endure the most terrible attacks and stay alive and battle worthy.

Alt-Form: Half Turret

Weavell’s cyber-body has a completely modular design. When it was first created, the purpose of such system was to speed up the process of replacing damaged components of the unit. Weavell’s tactical genius, however, took such concept to the next step, as he’s know to detach his body into several smaller independent parts in order to better distribute its firepower between multiple targets. His favorite tactic is to split his upper torso from its waists and legs, deploying them alongside his Battlehammer to form an improvised sentry turret, while his torso can roam freely in a much faster and stealthy way, employing his wristblades to finish off an unwary opponent.

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Well, what do you think? My opinion is that this Weavel version could be an interesting plot element: if he was the one responsible of the failure of the Federations’ attack on Zebes, who knows what other backstabbing he’d done before? Maybe, giving away Zebes’ defense layout so it could be captured by the Pirates? Sabotaging the Lusitania’s drive unit in order to get rid of Adam Malcovich and, as such, being the one responsible of Ian’s death? Possibilities are many.

Comments are appreciated.